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ed he had struck gold with her performance and couldn t cut away clarice s first interview with lecter is one of the greatest scenes ever written she s been given a series of rules about interacting with lecter only to realize she must break them one by one in order to win his co operation closer clarice the number one rule she s been given is tell him nothing personal believe me you don t want hannibal lecter inside your head only by breaking that rule can she win the day though she does wind up empowering lecter enough for him to eventually escape and she wonders if it was all worth it ah 1991 an ad as gorgeous as it was provocative posted by matt bird at 8 00 am no comments labels what should ve won tuesday august 04 2026 what should ve won that could ve won 1990 the year 1990 what the nominees were awakenings dances with wolves ghost the godfather part iii goodfellas other movies that should have been considered whit stillman s metropolitan is one of my favorites in china zhang yimou had ju dou and in poland agnieszka holland had europa europa both of which deserved oscar nominations certainly over the godfather part iii what did win dances with wolves how it s aged it now seems overlong and self important with ill considered white savior tropes well intentioned and beautifully shot but ultimately an empty vanity project for kevin costner what should ve won goodfellas how hard was the decision easy this is another widely acknowledged injustice europa europa was the only other one i would have considered but it didn t have a reasonable chance director martin scorsese writers nicholas pileggi and scorsese from pileggi s non fiction book wiseguy stars robert de niro ray liotta joe pesci lorraine bracco paul sorvino the story teenager henry hill joins the mafia and over the course of many years tries to become a made man alongside his friends jimmy and tommy instead he ends up becoming a rat and testifying against everyone any nominations or wins it just won supporting actor for joe pesci it lost picture director supporting actress adapted screenplay and editing why it didn t win the win for dances with wolves was perceived as a chance to heal a historical injustice hollywood s treatment of native americans whether it achieved that is dubious but the academy s heart was in the right place goodfellas though clearly the superior picture was in the wrong place at the wrong time why it should have won ray liotta falls into the category of actors who must have been difficult offscreen because onscreen his work was always flawless and yet he never found another showcase as good as this one why did scorsese work with deniro and pesci over and over but liotta only once when liotta absolutely kills it in this movie particularly when he s coke addled a mystery i ve never solved that said it s no secret that pesci steals the movie as the pint sized hothead tommy until tommy gets shockingly and brutally killed off you would think that pesci s unexpected oscar for this movie must have earned him the right to a starring role in his even better acting showcase my cousin vinny but that movie was actually already in the middle of production when he won his oscar pesci famously wrote his own funny how scene based on a razzing he d really gotten from a mobster when he was a waiter scorsese could tell it was gold and didn t tell the other actors what was going to happen in the unscripted scene so that their shocked and nervous reactions would be genuine many of the weakness of scorsese s later pictures are already here in abundance there s tons of voice over popular music needle drops and frenetic cutting but at this earlier stage these tropes were still working wonderfully before he began to overly rely on them possibly in a fruitless attempt to recreate the artistic peak of this movie usually classic rock radio stations cut out the coda of the derek and the domino s song layla when it plays in this movie s greatest montage it s just familiar enough to hit that nostalgic feeling but unfamiliar enough that it s far from over exposed as the co conspirators of the lufthansa heist meet their fates the plaintive piano and guitar riffs elevate the tragedy of it all this is another movie that benefitted from being highlighted in the great cinematography documentary visions of light which pointed out the brilliant use of a zoom in dolly out shot aka the vertigo shot when henry is having a conversation with jimmy in a diner and realizes he s going to get whacked the framing remains the same but the background perspective subtly shifts to become an abyss non film students don t notice what s going on but they feel that something is somehow very wrong other mob movies such as the godfather films had used the mob as a metaphor for america in a way that elevated the nobility of the participants but scorsese is interested in exposing the reality of the institution in all its ignoble ugliness the description of a how a bust out works is as educational as it is entertaining and was later edited into a vicious video paralleling hill s activities and those of mitt romney in his vulture capital days ah 1990 eventually those surgeon general warnings would become a lot more graphic posted by matt bird at 8 00 am no comments labels what should ve won thursday july 30 2026 what should ve won that could ve won 1989 the year 1989 what the nominees were born on the fourth of july dead poets society driving miss daisy field of dreams my left foot other movies that should have been considered do the right thing sex lies and videotape what did win driving miss daisy how it s aged it s artless and treacly compared to our winner it feels like a very benighted portrayal of what it means to be beneficent to black employees what should ve won do the right thing how hard was the decision not at all this is widely acknowledged as one of the great oscar injustices born on the fourth of july and sex lies and videotape are both excellent movies but not as great as do the right thing writer and director spike lee stars spike lee danny aiello ossie davis ruby dee richard edson giancarlo esposito the story a conflicted black pizza delivery man working for the only white business on his block must decide what to do when a race riot breaks out any nominations or wins just supporting actor for aiello and original screenplay losing both why it didn t win hollywood was terrified of this movie before it came out there were articles about how it would cause rioting in the streets and then when the riots failed to materialize articles saying that we d dodged a bullet driving miss daisy was a far more comforting movie to give the award to why it should have won cinematographer ernest dickerson has said his number one influence was jack cardiff who shot michael powell s movies such as black narcissus and the red shoes and he successfully recreates the eye popping use of impressionistic and vibrant color he painted the wall behind the cornermen bright red just to be more vivid at film school would be cinematographers were still being told that black skin was too hard to light so it was best to just not try dickerson didn t listen lee s first two films are great but with this third one released just a year after his second he exploded in importance and has remained one of the top directors ever since eventually he would stop acting in his movies but he s fantastic here as mookie it s hard for screenwriters to create sympathy for characters who try to avoid conflict but lee makes mookie s simmering sublimated tensions utterly compelling the dialogue in this movie is packed with character if mike tyson dreams about whupping my ass he d better wake up and apologize and it has monologues of blistering racism but it s even better when it captures the tiny dog whistles that even the nicest characters let slip into their speech such as when sal asks a black customer you paying now or on layway after you see the movie a few times you must read the book of the same name where spike captures in real time every step of the process of creating it from snatches of idea to its chaotic release you can t help but wonder if the movie would have been strengthened or weakened if deniro had agreed to star as sal in the book you ll discover all the ways in which the cast rewrote the movie while they were shooting the ultimate example of this is roger guenveur smith s character smiley who isn t in the script at all but lee allowed smith to create himself a nearly silent part who became a bigger and bigger element of the story as they went on then finally explore the criterion dvd there s a great moment where lee is rehearsing the first boycott scene with actors aiello and esposito lee notices that instead of saying only italian americans on the wall aiello has changed it to only american italians on the wall spike instantly sees that this is better and points out to esposito that his mocking response should also change to mirror aiello well i don t see any american italians eating here as esposito is making the change in his script aiello explains that that s the way he says it because he visited italy and decided that he was more proud of being american than italian at this point esposito gingerly points out that he himself is in fact unlike aiello italian born aiello is of course totally embarrassed but esposito chuckles and says it s no big deal this exemplifies a piece of advice from my writing books always let your characters re label themselves ah 1989 found in weekly world news i was basically straight edge so i didn t need it but most of my friends would have been very interested if only they read that publication posted by matt bird at 8 00 am 1 comment labels what should ve won tuesday july 28 2026 what should ve won that could ve won 1988 the year 1988 what the nominees were the accidental tourist dangerous liaisons mississippi burning rain man working girl other movies that should have been considered martin donavan s apartment zero is a brilliant film die hard is fantastic of course what did win rain man how it s aged a film the autism community is not a big fan of certainly tom cruise is an underrated actor and dustin hoffman is always great but ultimately this movie s version of idiot savants has not aged well what should ve won die hard how hard was the decision look do you think i wanted to do die hard i didn t want to do die hard but what else is there i rewatched dangerous liaisons thinking that was going to be my pick but it has not aged well what is supposed to seem delightfully wicked now just seems disgustingly lousy mississippi burning is well made but i couldn t endorse its portrayal of hoover s fbi as being heroes in the civil rights movement that left apartment zero which is one of my favorite movies but was so obscure at the time that it seemed far less likely to win an oscar than die hard so die hard it is director john mctiernan writers jeb stuart and steven e de souza based on the novel nothing lasts forever by roderick thorp stars bruce willis alan rickman bonnie bedelia the story new york cop john mcclane flies to l a to win his wife and kids back but ends up in a high rise office tower that s been taken over by thieves pretending to be terrorists any nominations or wins nominations for best film editing best visual effects best sound effects editing and best sound but no wins why it didn t win the academy did recognize its technical prowess with some nominations but it wasn t a contender for the big prize as action movies weren t considered serious awards fodder it s only as time has gone by that this titan has come to loom over the other movies of 1988 many of those have not aged well whereas this christmas classic has aged like fine wine why it should have won the script was famously first offered to schwarzenegger then stallone and i love them both but they would have ruined this willis is wonderfully vulnerable as the hapless barefoot cop who spends most of the movie just trying to call the police this is one of those bryan cranston in breaking bad situations where absolutely no one thought this comedic actor had this part in him except one maverick casting director with a dream this movie has a great collection of 80s assholes including william atherton paul gleeson and an actor who should have become a huge star in 1988 due to his masterful performance in apartment zero hart bochner that part showed he had leading man qualities but no one saw it so bochner would spend his whole career killing it as minor sleazebags john mctiernan directed a holy trinity of action blockbusters predator this and hunt for red october but never got material that good again and actually ended up going to jail for a few years for lying to the fbi about wiretapping no matter how much trouble he s had they can never take those three movies away from us it s funny how many filmmakers on this list have cited the french new wave as inspiration the brilliant cinematographer jan de bont and the editors frank j urioste and john f link drew from godard the idea of cutting between moving shots instead of waiting until the camera had stopped moving later movies would emulate this and be terrible but this movie proved that results could be wonderfully propulsive alan rickman won rave reviews on broadway in dangerous liaisons only to be replaced in the movie by john malkovich rickman triumphed in the end however because only his movie was chosen for matt bird s what should ve won the could ve won rickman does so many things beautifully here but the one i love is when his character suddenly has to fake an american accent and he gets it almost perfect but not quite it s good enough that we believe john has fallen for it then we also believe when it turns out he saw right through it and he had probably seen hans s face from atop the elevator in the novel the hero is older and fails to save his drug addicted grown daughter from falling to death with the lead terrorist at the end mctiernan was having none of that he said he wanted to bring joy back to action thrillers which had gotten too grisly and indeed he plays beethoven s ode to joy diagetically and non diagetically and even has rickman humming it the results are thrilling john isn t having a lot of fun but hans is and so are we ah 1988 got ten hours and want to hate your friends posted by matt bird at 8 00 am 3 comments labels what should ve won thursday july 23 2026 what should ve won that could ve won 1987 the year 1987 what the nominees were broadcast news fatal attraction hope and glory the last emperor moonstruck other movies that should have been considered that s a good list but i d add raising arizona and spielberg s empire of the sun what did win the last emperor how it s aged it s beautiful but ultimately fairly forgettable bernardo bertolucci is a great filmmaker but this is not his best work what should ve won raising arizona how hard wa...