Unrecognized Genius & the Academy Awards X
1994: Best Picture
Nominees: FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, FORREST GUMP, PULP FICTION, QUIZ SHOW, THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
These are all excellent films. Three of them are expertly crafted period pieces while the remaining pair are bold experiments that push their genres forwards. Honestly, any one of these five could have been named the Best Picture of 1994 and not too many people would have batted an eye.
But there were other worthy selections…
BULLETS OVER BROADWAY
Working with co-writer Douglas McGrath, Woody Allen manages to put a fresh spin on the gangster comedy. Bullets Over Broadway’s cup runneth over with memorable, ineffable characters enlivened by memorable, ineffable actors, especially Chazz Palminteri’s literate thug Cheech, Jennifer Tilly’s vapid actress Olive, and Dianne Wiest’s over-the-top grande dame Helen Sinclair (although, to mix metaphors, consider too the back bench this film has at its disposal: Tracy Ullman, Jack Warden, Jim Broadbent, Harvey Fierstein, Edie Falco, Debi Mazar). Allen would never again make a film as wall-to-wall brilliant as Bullets Over Broadway, but who has?
THE CROW
Australian filmmaker Alex Proyas is a master visualist, and his eye for grandiose mise-en-scene lends The Crow an operatic look befitting its mythical subject matter. Nothing is small here or accidental, from the quieter moments like Eric’s rebirth to the ultraviolent set pieces later on the film. Through it all, Proyas is aided by his leading man, Brandon Lee, whose subtle performance provides the perfect counterpoint to the sturm-and-drang around him. And speaking of music, what a soundtrack this film has! The Matrix would later borrow a lot from The Crow, and this certainly includes its use of hard rock to underscore an action scene.
ED WOOD
Because content dictates form, Tim Burton’s Ed Wood is a deliberate mess. The acting is arch, the set design is expressionistic, and the choice to film it all in black-and-white gives everything a surreal aspect. Aiding in this tonal delight is a warm and loving script by Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski. The standard take on Ed Wood, Jr. fixates on his failures, but here again, the film swerves; in fact, Ed Wood may be one of the most optimistic films of the 1990s.
HEAVENLY CREATURES
Another off-kilter biopic, Heavenly Creatures cycles through drama and fantasy and romance until all these genres pile up into horror. Fran Walsh & Peter Jackson, in their Oscar-nominated screenplay, lend voluminous imagination to the Parker-Hulme murder; in its most memorable sequences, when the world of the two girls comes to life, we are plunged into a fairyland unlike any we’ve seen before. Contrast this with the drabness that Jackson and his DP Alun Bollinger use to indicate the real world. Now add the brilliant (debut!) performances by leading ladies Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet and you’ve got a modern classic.
THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
Quirky is easy. Plenty of filmmakers can do quirky. But to underpin a variety of quirks with substance, to measure out stylistic flourishes with their requisite humanity…that is the genius of the Coen Brothers, and their best work thrills and dazzles in a way that no one else really can. Joel & Ethan Coen often wear their inspirations on their sleeve and their debts here to Preston Sturges, Howard Hawkes, and Harold Lloyd are readily apparent, but the brothers, as always, take the original material and, well, make it original. This bygone tale of rags-to-riches is a labor of love, lovingly acted, and, typical of the Coens, impeccable in its verisimilitude.
LEON: THE PROFESSIONAL
Thrillers, like comedies, don’t usually get nominated for Best Picture, but there are exceptions; in fact, 1994 saw two of them in Pulp Fiction and Four Weddings and a Funeral, respectively. Just as thrilling as Pulp Fiction, though, is Leon: The Professional, Luc Besson’s semi-sequel to his 1990 film Nikita. While the former was a character study of a neophyte assassin, the latter is a character study of a veteran, the terse title character, and his paternal relationship with a neighbor (played with courageous abandon by Natalie Portman). That Leon contains some outstanding action sequences is, for the writer-director, a given; that it contains an equal amount of genuine heart elevates it to the pantheon. Bonus points too for Gary Oldman’s epic performance as drug-addled dirty cop.
MRS. PARKER AND THE VICIOUS CIRCLE
By concentrating on the most ascendant period of Dorothy Parker’s career, Alan Rudolph and co-writer Randy Sue Coburn expose the dichotomy at the poet’s core: even when she was at her best, she was at her worst. Triumphs from her life are buttressed by clips of an inimitable Jennifer Jason Leigh reading some of Parker’s bitter, caustic verse. All this and the indomitable wit of those who sat alongside her at the Algonquin Hotel and who orbited her star, brought to life here by a starry cast which includes Matthew Broderick, Sam Robards, Lili Taylor, David Thornton, Tom McGowen, and especially Campbell Scott in a deeply affecting portrayal of comic Robert Benchley.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS
Quentin Tarantino wrote and sold Natural Born Killers (for $10,000) but Oliver Stone, upon attaching himself to the project, rewrote most of it to fit his aesthetic. He had become disenchanted with the rise of violence in media and society and saw Natural Born Killers as his chance to make a grand statement on the subject (which really is the only kind of statement that Oliver Stone makes). As such, Natural Born Killers is loaded with the same visual tics that disoriented his J.F.K. but overlain with a cartoonishness that both criticizes and satirizing the on-screen content. This is by design: why else cast Rodney Dangerfield as an abusive father? Natural Born Killers is ultimately a self-indulgence in conflict with itself, but so was Apocalypse Now; as the years pass, these two mighty acts of creativity seem to converge.
Other notable film of 1994: Ace Ventura: Pet Detective; The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Amateur; Backbeat; Blink; Blue Sky; The Chase; Clear and Present Danger; The Client; Crooklyn; Death and the Maiden; Disclosure; Dumb and Dumber; Exotica; Greedy; Guarding Tess; Immortal Beloved; Interview with the Vampire; The Last Seduction; The Lion King; Little Women; The Madness of King George; Maverick; Miracle on 34th Street; Muriel’s Wedding; Nobody’s Fool; Once Were Warriors; PCU; Priest; Reality Bites; The River Wild; Serial Mom; Speed; Star Trek Generations; Swimming with Sharks; Three Colors: White; Three Colors: Red; Timecop; True Lies; Vanya on 42nd Street; Wes Craven’s New Nightmare; When a Man Loves a Woman; With Honors; Wolf; Wyatt Earp
Next: 1995