Teresa Wright, The Pride of the Yankees

as ELEANOR TWITCHELL

There’s a scene a little over halfway through The Pride of the Yankees where Gary Cooper’s Lou Gehrig has just one-upped Babe Ruth by promising a sick, hospitalized little boy named Billy who can’t walk (vomit) that he’ll hit not one but two home runs just for him during the World Series game (okay, whatever), because you can do anything if you work hard enough (vomit again). After hitting one home run, we all wait on the edge of our seats to see if he’ll actually be able to hit the second and fulfill his promise. Throughout all this, we see Teresa Wright’s Eleanor listening to the game on the radio, clutching a doll in one arm (WTF) with one half-clenched fist pressed against her cheek. Once Gehrig does the unthinkable and hits that second home run, everyone goes crazy, Eleanor hops up and down with her doll yelling “YAY WHOOPEE!!!” (vomit) and we cut to Gehrig’s family and friends who’ve assembled a conga line and are dancing and singing “LOU, LOU, LOU, GEHRIG, GEHRIG, GEHRIG, GEHRIG, GEHRIG.”(vomit vomit vomit) I am not fucking kidding that this scene is a real thing, and I chose to write about it in this upfront because I feel it perfectly encapsulates the essence The Pride of the Yankees as well as Wright’s performance.

Gary Cooper, The Pride of the Yankees

as LOU GEHRIG

In 1942, Gary Cooper solidified his place as the poster child for Americana by following up his Oscar-winning performance in the awfully corny, trite, Pro-Murica biopic of a lovable WWI war hero with an even cornier, triter, Pro-Murica biopic of a lovable baseball icon. As much as I inherently dislike Cooper's pandering to American heartstrings, in a manner so blatant that it's practically insulting (what could possibly be more American than the one-two punch of guns, God, and Baseball?), I surprisingly didn't hate him in this film as much as I hate the actual film as a whole. This is my second time watching The Pride of the Yankees, which is two times too many, and if I'm lucky I'll never have to watch it ever again. But at least this time around Cooper is able to demonstrate some acting chops that weren't really required in Sergeant York.

Agnes Moorehead, The Magnificent Ambersons

as FANNY

Won: New York Film Critics Circle - Best Actress

A Post-Nominations Oscargasm

Congratulations to the Oscar Class of 2014!

As per tradition, every year I crankily wake up in the early morn to listen to a couple of people tell me who's nominated for Oscars. And every year, I find that in a short span of a few minutes I can fluctuate anywhere between surprised, shocked, annoyed, disappointed, overwhelmingly angry, or overwhelmingly happy. Then I come here and barf out all my thoughts. So here they are!

Final Predictions: 2014

So! Tomorrow morning's the big day! Oddly enough, 2014 has been one of the least interesting years in recent history for me. I've fallen behind on many of the films, I haven't paid much attention to the race, and I actually have no interest to watch many of these flicks, but looks like I'll have to get around to watching them soon enough. Here're my final (shoddy) nomination predix, in all their terrible glory!

BEST PICTURE

Boyhood

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Theory of Everything

The Imitation Game
American Sniper
Nightcrawler
Foxcatcher
Gone Girl
Selma

New Year | New Beginnings

It's officially January: the month in which we welcome another brand new year, in which we strive to wipe our slates clean and start anew, in which we make resolutions that we likely won't be able to keep, and most importantly...awards. The Globes! The SAGs! The Oscar nominations! Oh, and also the premieres of the newest seasons of RuPaul's Drag Race, Girls, Looking, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Archer. Bring it on, bring them all on!!

And happily enough, this January marks a major milestone in my life...employment! I landed my very first post-grad job, and it's in San Francisco to boot, so there's an ass ton of anxiety and excitement to be had. So on top of relocating and adjusting to work and a different city far away from home, I can't say with confidence that I'll be able to stick to my routine of movie watching/screencapping/blogging at the same, consistent, breakneck speed as I did before. Admittedly, I've had 1942's flicks on hand for a while now and have been putting off watching them because I just can't generate the excitement to watch them...but bear with me. I'll be whipping out posts soon enough--they'll just be done at a slower pace. Happy New Year! Let's hope that this new phase of my life doesn't effect me in the same way that Jasmine's did to her.