F**k The Best!- The Best Best Pictures in History

No! I did not watch the Oscars last night! Maybe I was scared of what I would do if Glenn Close lost the Best Actress contest. Maybe I was scared I'd have nightmares of David Korin's wig-shaped set. Maybe I'm a lonely old movie queen who got drunk, watched Spike Jonze's her (2013) and cried into his MacBook.

Whatever the case, it wasn't until this morning that I learned the winners and losers of the coveted statuette. One winner in particular stood out. Whether it's comparisons to the old-fashioned Driving Miss Daisy (1989), the Shirley Family's disgust with Nick Vallelonga's version of the story about their relative, or Seth Meyer's pretty-spot-on parody of white-written black rights narratives, Green Book (2018) is the most maligned Best Picture winner since Crash (2004).

What struck me is the idea that whether or not Green Book is the Best Picture of the class of '18 or not, the mantle of Best Picture often carries with it the idea that the winner will be a superlative example of film for many years. I don't think that happens as often as the Academy would like.





So whether it's a sense of firsts, unmistakable artistry that is constantly copied or remade,  or a movie that's worked it's way into our popular zeitgeist, here's my list of Best Picture winners that have that special something that I think will stand the test of time:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Rebecca (1940)
Casablanca (1943)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
All About Eve (1950)
On the Waterfront (1954)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Ben Hur (1959)

The Apartment (1960)
West Side Story (1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Rocky (1976)
Annie Hall (1977)

Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Silence of the Lambs (1993)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Titanic (1997)






That's my list. You think I left something off? Feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, let's see whether Olivia Colman finds a rabbit boiling on her stove...

Imagine This- Son of Rambow

I love coming across little film gems, and this week thanks to the Netflix DVD service (yes, I still use it- and they will pull those red envelopes out of my cold, dead hands) I stumbled onto delightful British indie, Son of Rambow (2007).

I'm not particularly drawn to most childhood best friends flicks (unless there's a body ala Stand by Me (1986)), but this tale of two misfits really made me misty. Rambow is like Wes Anderson set Rushmore (1998) in an English school without his trademark aestheticism. Young Will Proudfoot (gangly Bill Milner) has a very active artist's imagination- which isn't that big a deal- until you realize he is being raised in one of those religious cults that doesn't allow contact with modern technology.

So while the other kids get to watch a video in class, Will sits in the hall doodling fantastical cartoons in his bible. That's where he meets school ne'er-do-well Lee Carter (the fiendishly deviant Will Poulter) who immediately recognizes a good mark when he sees one. Lee cons and guilts Will into starring as the "stuntman" in the film he's making for a young person's film contest- but once Will gets a gander at Lee's bootleg video of First Blood, an obsession is born.

Will's imagination takes flight (along with a dog statue attached to a kite) and the two never-belongs use a video camera to expand their worlds and their friendship. Visiting French foreign language student Didier Revol (appropriately gender indistinct Jules Sitruk) inserts his cool self into the film and the boys experience their version of art vs. popularity.

The film never dips too deeply into ooey gooey friendship- just enough to make us feel the loneliness that these two boys desperately wish to fill. Director and writer Garth Jennings keeps it light with wry Eighties nostalgia and imaginative blendings of illustration and VHS recording. The underground new wave club where kids don eyeliner, drink Coke with Pop Rocks, and dance to Siouxsie and the Banshees is a magical place that I wish had existed for me.

And kids smoke. Awesome.

The Big Screen in the Sky: RIP Albert Finney

A sad start to this Friday with the news that actor Albert Finney has passed. He seemed tailor-made to play a rebellious Brit at a time when youth culture exploded. But that sparkling deviltry never left his roles even as he aged in a film career that spanned almost sixty years. Finney earned five Oscar noms (never won- Geesh!) and a knighthood that he summarily rejected- a very Tom Jones thing to do. Finney was 82.






Lance's Werthwhile Finney Picks:

Tom Jones (1963)- This is the movie that shot Finney to international stardom and his first Oscar nomination. And why not? He's hot as hell in it- in a naughty British sort of way. I once dated a guy who looked like a young Albert Finney. I have very good taste in men.

Two for the Road (1967)- Finney and Hepburn make the perfect imperfect couple in this swingin' Stanley Donan dram-com.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)- In a cast crowded with stars like Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave et al., Finney's Poirot takes a backseat to none of them and earns another Oscar nom.

Under the Volcano (1984)- This character piece earned Finney his fourth Oscar nom as a drunk bureaucrat who is headed for the end- but doing it his way.

Erin Brockovich (2000)- While Julia Roberts (and her rack) may have been the focus of this popular little woman vs. the big guy flick, Finney is a wonderfully gruff counterbalance to the Roberts charm. It was the last time he would be announced as an Oscar nominee.

Big Fish (2003)- As the inveterate storyteller in Tim Burton's father-son masterwork, Finney's charm puts over every one of his tall tales, even the most un-swallowable of them.

Skyfall (2012)- He's an old groundskeeper with a shotgun who helped raised James Bond. What more could you want?