The 1993 Oscars: Part 3
The Rest of the Nominees
Cliffhanger
Renny Harlin, 1993
Rating: BB.5
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner, Rex Linn, Caroline Goodall, Leon Robinson, Craig Fairbrass, Gregory Scott Cummins, Denis Forest, Michelle Joyner, Paul Winfield, Ralph Waite, Max Perlich, Trey Brownell, Vyto Ruginis, John Finn, Bruce McGill, Zach Grenier, Jeff McCarthy, Wolfgang Güllich
Sylvester Stallone plays a jaded helicopter rescue pilot who is unable to return to work after losing a friend on the job. Another rescue has been phoned in from a mountain top, a group of skiiers who have gotten stranded in the mountains, but what he and his team are unaware of is that the victims are actually cold-blooded killers who have just pulled off a huge robbery. Their loot is hidden somewhere in the peaks of the Rockies and they need guides to help locate it (and of course they will kill them all afterwards). Does Super Sly take it lying down? Never! The exciting adventures of mountain climbers are rendered lifeless by Harlin’s airheaded direction, and there are far too many points where you are required to suspend your disbelief beyond even the most ridiculous Hollywood film.
Nominations: Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Visual Effects
Sleepless In Seattle
Nora Ephron, 1993
Rating: BBBB.5
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, Rob Reiner, Rosie O’Donnell, Gaby Hoffmann, Victor Garber, Rita Wilson, Barbara Garrick, Carey Lowell, David Hyde Pierce, Dana Ivey, Brian McConnachie, Kevin O’Morrison, Michael Badalucco, Caroline Aaron, Frances Conroy, Calvin Trillin, Le Clanché du Rand
You could hardly do better in the romantic comedy department than this wonderfully original and witty film. Meg Ryan hears a recently widowed man (Tom Hanks) talking to a late night radio talk show host about the loss of his wife and his subsequent loneliness. Obsessed with this story that has touched her so, she becomes one of the millions of women around the country who write to him in hopes of making a connection, despite her fiance (Bill Pullman) being something of a bit of a hitch in the plan. On his end of it, Hanks has enough to cope with trying to raise his son (Ross Malinger) all by himself, not to mention the recent addition of girlfriend Barbara Garrick. The story of star-crossed lovers couldn’t be more delightful, but it’s the little things in between that Ephron brilliantly includes that make the whole thing so magical. The film rests on its two excellent stars, but also couldn’t do without the marvelous support by Rosie O’Donnell, Rita Wilson and Victor Garber and the wonderful subplot that pays tribute to An Affair To Remember.
Nominations: Best Music (Original Song) (”A Wink And A Smile”), Best Writing (Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen)
Orlando
Sally Potter, 1992
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Billy Zane, Lothaire Bluteau, John Wood, Charlotte Valandrey, Heathcote Williams, Quentin Crisp, Peter Eyre, Thom Hoffman, Kathryn Hunter, Ned Sherrin, Jimmy Somerville, Dudley Sutton, John Bott, Elaine Banham, Anna Farnworth, Sara Mair-Thomas, Anna Healy, Simon Russell Beale, Matthew Sim, Toby Stephens, Oleg Pogudin, Toby Jones, Sarah Crowden, Roger Hammond
Deliciously adapting Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking fantasy novel, Potter’s feature debut is a feast for all senses, and Tilda Swinton, previously known mainly as Derek Jarman’s muse, deservedly broke into the international spotlight with her performance as the title character. Orlando is a sixteenth-century boy who spends his days lounging around and writing lovelorn poetry, becoming a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and respecting her wish that he never grow old and wither away. He takes her instructions so close to heart that he literally stays the same age for four hundred years, and somewhere in the middle he turns into a woman and makes discoveries about life from this alternate point of view. Swinton is brilliant as both sexes, a man who thinks his life is so difficult but is really just feckless, then a woman who has to make the best of things while dealing with the limitations that are put upon her life. The costumes and sets are plush (especially considering the tiny budget that Potter had to work with), and Woolf’s best prose is brought to the screen with exceptional zeal.
Nominations: Best Art Direction; Best Costume Design
Farewell My Concubine
Chen Kaige, 1993
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: Leslie Cheung, Yin Zhi, Ma Mingwei, Zhang Fengyi, Zhao Hailong, Fei Yang, Gong Li, Ge You, Lü Qi, Ying Da, Yidi, Zhi Yitong, Lei Han, Li Chun, Li Dan, Yang Yongchao, Jiang Wenli, Wu Dai-wai
A desperate mother wants to find somewhere to place her boy where he will get an education and have a future, but his hand containing an extra finger makes him unwanted wherever she goes. Dispatching of this irregularity in a gruesome manner, she takes Douzi to the doorstop of a training school for Peking Opera where he undergoes grueling lessons that eventually result in his becoming one of the top stars in the artform (and is played by Leslie Cheung). Douzi has also grown up with a best friend and protector Shitou (Zhang Fengyi), who plays the male roles opposite Douzi’s enacting female leads, but when Shitou begins a relationship with an aggressively confident sex worker named Juxian (Gong Li) and settles down with her, Douzi’s idea that they were more than just co-stars is shattered. While enduring this painful love triangle, however, these three must also survive the cultural changes in China’s twentieth-century history that see their means of making a living becoming the enemy of the Cultural Revolution, and Douzi’s increasingly self-destructive attitude towards work and love is of no help to him as the world around him conspires to make him disappear. A stunningly beautiful film that has recently been restored (a theatrical screening of it inspired myself and Gregory Rosebrugh to start our podcast Riviera Rats), this film was originally released with half an hour missing (thanks to Harvey Weinstein) which has now been replaced and results in a three-course meal of politics, passion and melodrama that works on all levels.
Nominations: Best Cinematography; Best Foreign-Language Film (Hong Kong)
Addams Family Values
Barry Sonnenfeld, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Christopher Hart, Carel Struycken, Jimmy Workman, Carol Kane, John Franklin, Joan Cusack, Dana Ivey, David Krumholtz, Kaitlyn and Kristen Hooper, Peter MacNicol, Christine Baranski, Mercedes McNab
In this superior sequel to the 1991 comedy, the kooky, creepy Addams family find themselves welcoming a new addition to their family: a baby boy! The two older children, Wednesday (Christina Ricci) and Pugsley (Jimmy Workman) are thrown in a jealous tizzy, while the baby’s new nanny (Joan Cusack) captures the fancy of their lonely bachelor uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd). Sonnenfeld returns once again to direct and is aided by a darkly humorous script by Paul Rudnick (Jeffrey, In and Out). Costumes and sets are beautiful, and the performances all delightful, though Anjelica Huston’s brilliant portrayal of Morticia Addams takes a backseat in the plot and isn’t featured as much as it should be. Cusack brings a touch of genius to her part, and Ricci shines in a much more developed role as the family’s budding teenager (imagine angst on an apocalyptic level).
Nomination: Best Art Direction
Searching For Bobby Fischer
Steven Zaillian, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Max Pomeranc, Ben Kingsley, Joe Mantegna, Laurence Fishburne, Joan Allen, Robert Stephens, David Paymer, William H. Macy, Austin Pendleton, Tony Shalhoub, Josh Mostel, Dan Hedaya, Laura Linney, Anthony Heald, Michael Nirenberg, Hal Scardino, Vasek Simek
Young Josh Waitzin (Max Pomeranc) feels only passably amused by the activities and sports he enjoys with his friends, until one day in the park with his mother he discovers something captivating: chess. When his parents Fred and Bonnie (Joe Mantegna and Joan Allen) realize he’s something of a prodigy, they immediately get him lessons with world-renowned teacher Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley), who was once the teacher of the notoriously famous chess champion Bobby Fischer. Josh excels under his leadership and wins many tournament trophies, but eventually the pressures of trying to be good enough for his driven father get to be too much and he starts to wander off his game. Based on Fred Waitzkin’s nonfiction book, this beautifully photographed, richly enjoyable film benefits from top-notch direction and writing by newcomer Steven Zaillian, who casts every part with notable genius. Allen is fantastic as the mother who won’t let her son’s goodness be degraded by the focus on a competitive spirit that surrounds him, and Laurence Fishburne is terrific as a Washington Square junkie who plays speed chess for cash. Also look for early appearances by Laura Linney as Josh’s teacher, and William H. Macy as another tournament competitor’s father.
Nomination: Best Cinematography
Short Cuts
Robert Altman, 1993
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, Julianne Moore, Matthew Modine, Anne Archer, Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Penn, Lili Taylor, Robert Downey Jr., Madeleine Stowe, Tim Robbins, Lily Tomlin, Tom Waits, Frances McDormand, Peter Gallagher, Annie Ross, Lori Singer, Jack Lemmon, Lyle Lovett, Buck Henry, uey Lewis, Charles Rocket, Michael Beach
This three-hour masterpiece adapts a number of Raymond Carver stories and blends them into one seamless epic. The stories concern a group of individuals living in California and the many challenges that they face in their lives. Julianne Moore stands out as a painter living with a sexually repressed husband (Matthew Modine), whose sister (an excellent Madeleine Stowe) is having marital troubles with her cop husband (Tim Robbins), who is himself having an affair with Frances McDormand. Other players include Lili Taylor and Robert Downey Jr. as a couple, Annie Ross and Lori Singer as an estranged mother and daughter, and a brilliant Andie MacDowell as an apple-pie housewife to Bruce Davison whose life is ruined by tragedy. All the characters have connections and overlaps throughout the entire piece, brilliantly forming one great whole under Altman’s careful eye.
Nomination: Best Directing (Robert Altman)
The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter
David Paperny, 1993
Rating: BBB
After Peter Jepson-Young, a Canadian doctor, discovered he was terminally ill with AIDS, he began a weekly program on the CBC where he spoke to viewers about the progression of his illness and how it was affecting his life. For many, this was their first major exposure to someone with the disease, and also their first major encounter with a gay man or woman in the media as well. This documentary, simple in execution, anything but in emotional effect, is an editing together of the moments from Dr. Peter’s broadcasts that were most instrumental in allowing the viewer to get to know who he was. The end result is the story of an individual who was an inspirition to all, and a powerful document of this terrible tragedy of the twentieth century.
Nomination: Best Documentary (Feature)
The War Room
Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, 1993
Rating: BBBB.5
Scintillating documentary that depicts the Clinton election team as it works to get a Democrat into the Oval Office. Centering on the hard work of James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, the film reveals the goings-on backstage in the grand political show, their savvy personalities and intense campaign strategies working overtime to prove why Bill is the best for the job. Not even a sex scandal can deter this team as it takes on a very tough challenge in unseating George Bush from sitting a second term as President of the United States. Both Carville and Stephanopoulos are fascinating characters worthy of a West Wing episode, and the filmmakers are wise in choosing them as the film’s subject over their employer, whose personality is by now common knowledge. D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus’s exemplary film is sometimes a bit too soft on its subject, probably in light of it being edited and released following his electoral victory, but there’s still lots of juicy information to be learned.
Nomination: Best Documentary (Feature)
Hedd Wyn
Paul Turner, 1992
Rating: BBBB
A famous Welsh poet lies wounded on the battlefield at Passchendaele and contemplates his life, remembering his days as a farmer in his peaceful village where he first dreamed of pursuing his art. A national prize for writing is what he aspires to, something he works towards until Britain calls him up to join the army and fight in the Great War. This period epic, a biography of the famous author of the title (Ellis Humphrey Evans was his given name), is elegant and refined, featuring strong direction and a marvelous performance by Huw Garmon in the lead role.
Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film
The Scent of Green Papaya
Mùi đu đủ xanh
Tran Anh Hung, 1993
Rating: BBB.5
Cast: Tran Nu Yên-Khê, Man San Lu, Thi Loc Truong, Anh Hoa Nguyen, Hoa Hoi Vuong, Ngoc Trung Tran, Vantha Talisman, Keo Souvannavong, Van Oanh Nguyen, Gerard Neth, Nhat Do, Thi Hai Vo, Thi Thanh Tra Nguyen, Lam Huy Bui, Xuan Thu Nguyen, Xuan Loi Phan, Xuan Dung Phan, Van Chung Le, Tho Phuong, Long Chau, Thi Van Khanh Truong, Hông Hanh Luguern, Ba Hung Phan
The first and, at press time, only film from Vietnam to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign-Language film. A young girl grows up working in the kitchen of a famous composer, and eventually adds lover to her list of duties around the house. Most of the film is spent in the kitchen as she and the rest of the staff come up with deliciously exotic meals that even just watching on screen you would swear you could actually smell. It’s a slow, methodical film with very little plot that mostly overcomes you with its strong imagery, and a terrific precursor to Hung’s later masterpiece The Taste of Things. The reactions of your senses will remain for a long time.
Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film
The Wedding Banquet
Xi yan
Ang Lee, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Winston Chao, May Chin, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Gua Ah-leh, Lung Sihung, Vanessa Yang, Dion Birney, Neal Huff, Jeanne Kuo Chang, Hsu Yung-Teh, Eddie Johns, Michael Gaston, Mason Lee, Ang Lee
Lee’s first international hit is this sweet update of La Cage Aux Folles. New York-based landlord Wai-Tung (Winston Chao) decides to help struggling tenant Wei-Wei by marrying her so she can get her green card. He figures that telling his parents about his impending nuptials will also get them to stop trying to set him up with mail-order brides from Taiwan; things get dicey when they announce that they themselves are coming from Taipei to visit and throw the couple a proper wedding. This sounds like it shouldn’t be too difficult except that Wai-Tung is living with and happily in love with Simon (Mitchell Lichtenstein) and his parents have no idea that he is gay. This is an Ang Lee film, so what follows is not a collection of silly antics involving mishaps and slamming doors, but a thought-provoking and delightful investigation of the meaning of love and family. Chao, a former flight attendant who had never acted before, has an appeal too strong to be undone by his obvious lack of experience, and even the film’s corniest moments cannot be ruined by the delightful personalities on display. Gua Ah-leh is outstanding as the protagonist’s mother, vital and vibrant in moments both exhilarating and tragic, while the central sequence involving their wedding feast is brimming over with vitality and humour.
Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film
Poetic Justice
John Singleton, 1993
Rating: BB
Cast: Janet Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Regina King, Joe Torry, Tyra Ferrell, Rose Weaver, Billy Zane, Lori Petty, Khandi Alexander, John Cothran Jr., Maya Angelou, Norma Donaldson, Jenifer Lewis, Maia Campbell, René Elizondo Jr., Clifton Collins Jr., Tone Loc, Q-Tip, Keith Washington, Roger Guenveur Smith, Michael Colyar, Baha Jackson, The Last Poets
Singleton made history by becoming, at the tender young age of 24, the youngest nominee for the Best Director Oscar for his 1991 debut feature Boyz N The Hood, and the first African-American to be recognized in that category (he remained the only one until Lee Daniels scored a nomination for Precious in 2010). The success of that film surely meant that whatever he followed it up with would be met with incredible scrutiny, the kind of attention that would almost guarantee disappointment simply by the weight of expectation placed upon it, but even with that said it’s a shame that this film isn’t better. Janet Jackson plays a young woman who, as a teenager, witnessed the murder of her boyfriend in a parking lot, and some years later finds herself still feeling the after-effects of the shock. She has abandoned all thoughts of college, opting instead to work as a hairdresser, while on the side writing poetry that we hear as narration. Now that the amorous advances of an earnest mail carrier (Tupac Shakur) have entered her life, she chooses to ignore the possibilities of love as well. Jackson is awkward in her first major acting role, sharing very little chemistry with her co-star, while Singleton’s smooth ability to combine societal criticism with riveting drama that served him so well his first time behind the camera has here been replaced with hackneyed proselytizing and contrived dramatic situations. Look for a welcome appearance by the always wonderful Regina King.
Nomination: Best Music (Original Song) (”Again”)
Beethoven’s 2nd
Rod Daniel, 1983
Rating: BBB
Cast: Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah Rose Karr, Debi Mazar, Chris Penn, Ashley Hamilton, Danny Masterson, Maury Chaykin, Catherine Reitman, Heather McComb, Scott Waara, Jeff Corey, Virginia Capers, Jordan Bond, Pat Jankiewicz, Kevin Dunn
Now fully entrenched in the Newton household as one of the family, the beloved Saint Bernard is enjoying the best that life has to offer except for one very important thing: he’s lonely and needs to find love. The problem is solved when he spots a beauty across the park sporting a gaudy pink bow on her head named Missy, but upon closer inspection discovers that she comes with unfortunate baggage. Missy is the pawn in a divorce battle between Kevin Dunn and his vengeful ex-wife (a deliciously mean Debi Mazar), who is holding the dog hostage until he gives her the hefty settlement that she desires. Beethoven manages to spend some quality time with his new lady friend in secret and it isn’t long before the kids from his own house discover the couple in possession of some very cute Saint Bernard puppies (the timeline on which is confusing but kids won’t mind). Mazar discovers the little ones and is ready to throw them out until she realizes that they could fetch a high price, forcing the kids to take the babies into hiding even though it means separating them from their mother at a dangerously young age. Trying to sell their father (Charles Grodin) on the idea of four more dogs in the house turns into another battle, until the whole family takes a vacation at a friend’s cottage and all the screenplay’s knots are untied through some ridiculous (but, in a family film, not entirely unwelcome) coincidences. Sprier in its plotting than the first film, this one continues the weird mix of unforced moments of adorable puppydom with some pretty nonsensical stunts, but improves on the original in its having a conflict that is much easier to swallow. Mazar has no end of fun playing a modern Cruella De Vil, though it’s a shame that the film doesn’t utilize her more than just having her scare the cast in the beginning and then return at the end, as she would make for better viewing than most of the film’s excuses to keep Grodin and Bonnie Hunt (still great as his wife) front and centre. Mazar’s evil would also have provided a nice contrast with the coming-of-age subplot that focuses on daughter Ryce (Nicholle Tom); her disillusionment with a popular boy at school provides for the film’s biggest set piece, a fun bit of destruction that, somehow, the main characters don’t get into any trouble for.
Nomination: Best Music (Original Song) (”The Day I Fall In Love”)
Geronimo: An American Legend
Walter Hill, 1993
Rating: BBB
Cast: Wes Studi, Jason Patric, Robert Duvall, Gene Hackman, Matt Damon, Pato Hoffmann, Rodney A. Grant, Kevin Tighe, Steve Reevis, Carlos Palomino, Mark Boone Junior, Victor Aaron, Stuart Proud Eagle Grant, Scott Wilson, Stephen McHattie, John Finn, Lee de Broux, Rino Thunder
It’s the late eighteenth century and the American government is putting into practice the reservation system that would come to to define the destruction of the country’s indigenous population. Members of the Apache tribe are cornered into an agreement to be resettled from their free and open land to a reservation where they will become corn farmers, but not all members take to farming very well. In particular, the warrior Geronimo (Wes Studi) finds that the sedentary life is not for him, and after a confrontation with cavalry soldiers leads to slaughter, he takes half the population of his reservation and goes back out into the wild. The story, centering as it does on the Apache wars leading up to Geronimo’s eventual surrender, is told from the point of view of a green young military recruit (Matt Damon) who admires his superior officer Jason Patric’s ability to connect with Geronimo in his attempt to find a peaceful reconciliation between him and the authorities. The American government, represented in particular by a respectful but not entirely honest Gene Hackman, only intends to make promises, never to keep them, getting away with its duplicitous tactics by coming back at its foes with more force every time. Tragic and intelligently rendered, this thoughtful and pensive western didn’t work for most audiences at the time because of its being a passionless story that lacks adventure and sex and doesn’t compensate for that with any kind of sharp drama between its characters. Today it is further diminished by our harsher criticism of white perspectives, but in this case the magic and mystery of the Noble Savage stereotype is kept to a bare minimum by Studi, who always gives the character as much detail as his powerful performance is permitted. The story meanders and is too determined to be reasonable, it never manages any emotional bump in its rhythm, but it does have gorgeous cinematography and isn’t difficult to sit through.
Nomination: Best Sound
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Henry Selick, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens, Ken Page, Ed Ivory, Joe Ranft
Awe-inspiring animation is the highlight of this excellent musical that teams Disney up with the brilliantly whacky mind of Tim Burton. The story is of Jack Skellington, a skeleton with a pumpkin head who reigns as King of Hallowe’en Town (the place where Hallowe’en comes from, of course). Jack is tired of the mundaneness of his life and seeks to branch out a little more. When he accidentally ends up in Christmas Town, he sees a brilliant idea before him: kidnap Santa Claus and take care of Christmas himself! Lots of timely messages, plus a beautiful score by Danny Elfman, abound, and the characters are delightful.
Nomination: Best Visual Effects
Dave
Ivan Reitman, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Frank Langella, Kevin Dunn, Ving Rhames, Ben Kingsley, Charles Grodin, Faith Prince, Laura Linney, Tom Dugan, Stephen Root, Ralph Manza, Bonnie Hunt, Anna Deavere Smith, Charles Hallahan, Stefan Gierasch
Delightful political comedy, featuring a brilliant screenplay by Gary Ross and intelligent direction. When the President of the United States (Kevin Kline) is taken gravely ill during sex with his mistress, his staff members immediately hire a dead-on lookalike (also Kline) to take on the job and pretend to be him in order to avoid a crisis in the government. Even the First Lady (Sigourney Weaver) is uninformed of this particular maneuver, and pretty soon she’s noticing a rejuvenation in her husband’s personality that she never saw before.
Nomination: Best Writing (Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen)
Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann
Nomination: Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Chicks In White Satin
Nomination: Best Documentary (Short Subject)
Blindscape
Nomination: Best Short Film (Animated)
The Mighty River
Nomination: Best Short Film (Animated)
Small Talk
Nomination: Best Short Film (Animated)
The Village
Nomination: Best Short Film (Animated)
Down on the Waterfront
Nomination: Best Short Film (Live-Action)
The Dutch Master
Nomination: Best Short Film (Live-Action)
Partners
Nomination: Best Short Film (Live-Action)
The Screw (La Vis)
Nomination: Best Short Film (Live-Action)
Children of Fate
Nomination: Best Documentary (Feature)
For Better Or For Worse
Nomination: Best Documentary (Feature)