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2009 | 2008

3 articles from 2009

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Shall we gather at the river?

11 June 2009 1:11 PM, PDT | blogs.suntimes.com/ebert | See recent Roger Ebert's Blog news »

The first time I saw him, he was striding toward me out of the burning Georgia sun, as helicopters landed behind him. His face was tanned a deep brown. He was wearing a combat helmet, an ammo belt, carrying a rifle, had a canteen on his hip, stood six feet four inches. He stuck out his hand and said, "John Wayne." That was not necessary.

John Wayne died 30 years ago on June 11. Stomach cancer. "The Big C," he called it. He had lived for quite a while on one lung, and then the Big C came back. He was near death and he knew it when he walked out on stage at the 1979 Academy Awards to present Best Picture to "The Deer Hunter," a film he wouldn't have made. He looked frail, but he planted himself there and sounded like John Wayne.

John Wayne. When I was a kid, we »

- Roger Ebert

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Playing it Straight

7 April 2009 6:31 PM, PDT | AfterElton.com | See recent AfterElton.com news »

While Sean Penn’s recent Best Actor Oscar win for Milk helped bring Harvey Milk’s message to a wide audience — both from the increased visibility of the film and from Penn’s moving acceptance speech — the occasion marked another instance of a Hollywood tradition: a gay character played by a heterosexual actor.

Penn, like Tom Hanks (Philadelphia [1993]) and William Hurt (Kiss of the Spider Woman [1985]) before him, was praised for his “bravery” for taking on the role and even — eek! — kissing another man.

Gay actors, on the other hand, get no such credit for playing gay roles; let’s not forget the year that Rupert Everett’s hilarious supporting turn in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) was ignored by the Academy, with the implication that queer thespians need merely show up to play queer characters, with no actual acting involved. (To add insult to injury, that same year saw »

- dennis

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Oscar's Biggest Blunders

7 February 2009 3:26 PM, PST | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

As we creep closer to the 2009 Academy Awards, prognosticators look back as much as forward to try and determine who the favorites will be. By looking back, I mean to suggest that past Academy choices perhaps unfairly paint them in a certain light, and support the group's predictability and oft-whispered bias. For instance, feel good films generally trump depressors. Oscar loves a comeback story almost as much as they love to reward seasoned veterans with lead acting awards and fresh faces in the supporting roles (particularly supporting actress). And despite a requisite surprise or two every year, they mostly play it safe. Usually painfully boringly safe. That, and the fact they get it wrong more often than they get it right. So I present a glance at the ten most egregiously shortsighted Oscars ever given.

I'm focusing solely on the big one: Best Picture. If I included anything and everything, »

- Matt Medlock

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2009 | 2008

3 articles from 2009

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