Corpse Bride (2005)

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride [Blu-ray]

Academy Awards, USA 2006

Nominated Oscar

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year Tim Burton Mike Johnson

Warner Bros.
Directed by Tim Burton
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

Victorian-era story of an arranged marriage between a shy young man and a timid young girl. They fall in love at first sight, but while practicing the wedding vows he accidentally ends up married to a personable and outgoing girl, who happens to be dead. She takes him to the "land of the dead" where everyone appears to be enjoying themselves. He concocts a plan to get her back to the land of the living to reunite with his fiance, but when she discovers his treachery she whisks back to the dead and he reluctantly agrees to marry her. However, at the wedding she realizes he still loves his fiance and lets him return to her, getting some revenge along the way. This stop-motion animated film takes an otherwise predictable love story and turns it into a Dickensian black comedy that could have been directed by Rankin-Bass. Briskly paced with just the right amount of musical accompaniment, I sometimes wonder if this isn't better than Burton's better known predecessor The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Escape Me Never (1935)

Academy Awards, USA 1936

Nominated Oscar

Best Actress in a Leading Role Elisabeth Bergner

United Artists
Directed by Paul Czinner
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(YouTube)

Elisabeth Bergner is a homeless waif with a newborn child who befriends a down and out composer in Venice. They decide to set out together with his brother as traveling minstrels, eventually ending up in London. She romances both brothers, leading to the inevitable melodramatic complications. Bergner's over-the-top performance earned her an Oscar nomination, but most viewers will tire of her theatrics rather quickly, leaving no one to root for in this overwrought adaptation of Margaret Kennedy's play.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

There Will Be Blood (2007) (BD) [Blu-ray]

Academy Awards, USA 2008

Won Oscar	Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role Daniel Day-Lewis
	Best Achievement in Cinematography Robert Elswit
Nominated Oscar	Best Motion Picture of the Year JoAnne Sellar Paul Thomas Anderson Daniel Lupi
	Best Achievement in Directing Paul Thomas Anderson
	Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Paul Thomas Anderson
	Best Achievement in Film Editing Dylan Tichenor
	Best Achievement in Art Direction Jack Fisk (art director) Jim Erickson (set decorator)
	Best Achievement in Sound Editing Matthew Wood Christopher Scarabosio

Paramount Vantage
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Paramount) 

Prospector Daniel Day-Lewis gets a tip about an oil field on a remote California ranch. He travels there to buy the ranch and as much surrounding land as possible before the big oil company. He builds a derrick and hires men to operate it. His plans to build a pipeline to the ocean are thwarted by a holdout who refused to sell his land. He also clashes with a local young preacher, leading to a deadly confrontation. Epic story demonstrating how greed, in all of its forms, leads to amoral and ultimately self-destructive behavior. A vivid characterization by Day-Lewis, set to an intense, foreboding soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood. However, the gloomy atmosphere and unlikable characters begins to wear after a couple of hours, and an overwrought ending does not help.

James and the Giant Peach (1996)

James and the Giant Peach (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray]

Academy Awards, USA 1997

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Original Musical or Comedy Score Randy Newman

Buena Vista Pictures
Directed by Henry Selick
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Disney)

An orphaned boy lives with his two cruel aunts in a ramshackle house by the sea. He escapes by using magic "crocodile tongues" which cause a giant peach to grow outside the house. He climbs inside and befriends its inhabitants of talking bugs and insects. Together they cross the ocean in the giant peach, overcoming various obstacles, eventually ending up in NYC. The aunts try to reclaim him, but when their abusive behavior is revealed he prevails. Combination of live action and stop motion animation is a hit and miss affair. The songs are unmemorable, James is annoying and the bugs are broad stereotypes.

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas - 20th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray / DVD Combo Pack)

Academy Awards, USA 1994

Nominated Oscar

Best Effects, Visual Effects Pete Kozachik Eric Leighton Ariel Velasco-Shaw Gordon Baker

Buena Vista International
Directed by Henry Selick
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Disney) 

Animated musical fantasy set in "Halloween Town", whose inhabitants are dedicated to the annual holiday. Their leader, Jack Skellington the "Pumpkin King", becomes bored with the whole thing, but while walking in the woods one day falls through a door which leads to the similar "Christmas Town". Unable to fully comprehend those traditions, he instead decides to take it over. He sends three trick-or-treaters to kidnap Santa and lock him up with a creature who tortures and threatens to kill him. Meanwhile, Jack adapts the persona of Santa and sets out on Christmas Eve to deliver presents, only with cruel Halloween twists. Vivid production design brings these fantastical worlds to life through stop motion animation. Danny Elfman's music, however, is not aging well. It too often overwhelms the story, the lyrics are simple and the melodies repetitive. A subplot involving a rag doll woman who falls in love with Jack is underdeveloped and unconvincing. Still, it's a lot of fun around Halloween or Christmas, or both, providing a good antidote to the traditional stop-motion animation specials from Rankin-Bass.

Our Town (1940)

Our Town DVD

Academy Awards, USA 1941

Nominated Oscar	Best Picture
	Best Actress in a Leading Role Martha Scott
	Best Art Direction, Black-and-White Lewis J. Rachmil
	Best Sound, Recording Thomas T. Moulton (Samuel Goldwyn SSD)
	Best Music, Score Aaron Copland
	Best Music, Original Score Aaron Copland

United Artists
Directed by Sam Wood
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(DVD, Focusfilm)

An omniscient narrator guides us on a tour of a small New England town at the turn of the century, introducing various characters. Eventually the drama focuses on a typical family, with a middle-aged couple and their children of various ages. Their high school daughter, Martha Scott in her film debut, is innocently courted by next door neighbor William Holden. After much trepidation, they marry after high school and settle on a farm to raise their own family. The narrative shifts ahead several years, where Scott appears as one of many ghosts in the town cemetery. She recounts her earlier life and later death, but, it all turns out to be a dream, a rather unsatisfactory deviation from Thornton Wilder's original play (but made by the playwright himself in his adaption). This third acts detracts from an otherwise pleasant, character-driven story, albeit one with hardly any dramatic tension.

Charade (1963)

Charade - 50th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray + Digital Copy + UltraViolet)

Academy Awards, USA 1964

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Original Song Henry Mancini (music) Johnny Mercer (lyrics) For the song "Charade"

Universal Pictures
Directed by Stanley Donen
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Universal)

Audrey Hepburn's husband is murdered while she is on vacation. Upon returning to Paris, she finds their apartment empty, other than a few of his personal items returned to her by the police. She soon finds herself terrorized by several thugs who demand that she give them a large sum of cash supposedly stolen by her husband, of which she has no knowledge. She finds a friend and protector in Cary Grant, whom she befriended on vacation, and aggressively pursues romantically. He feigns interest, but when his identity is revealed to be false she becomes suspicious of his motives. It turns out hardly anyone is who they seem in this convoluted, talky drama in the style of Hitchcock, only without the master's touch, or gritty edge.

The House on Chelouche Street (1973)

Academy Awards, USA 1974

Nominated Oscar

Best Foreign Language Film Israel.

Paragon Films
Directed by Moshé Mizrahi
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(YouTube)

Jewish immigrants from Egypt struggle to settle into the cultural melting pot of Tel Aviv. The youngest son takes a job as an apprentice in a local metal shop, but soon clashes with his abrasive boss. The shop goes on strike, so he starts hanging out with a much older girl he met at a book store.  Meanwhile, his mother looks to get married again to a Russian immigrant, but that is delayed when he is drafted. The ever-present British soldiers threaten to disrupt their entire lives with constant harassment, or worse. Location shooting and sheer unfamiliarity with the culture make this interesting, but too much running time is devoted to romantic melodrama.

The Color Purple (1985)

The Color Purple [Blu-ray]

Academy Awards, USA 1986

Nominated Oscar	Best Picture Steven Spielberg Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Quincy Jones
	Best Actress in a Leading Role Whoopi Goldberg
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Margaret Avery
	Best Actress in a Supporting Role Oprah Winfrey
	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Menno Meyjes
	Best Cinematography Allen Daviau
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration J. Michael Riva Bo Welch Linda DeScenna
	Best Costume Design Aggie Guerard Rodgers
	Best Music, Original Song Quincy Jones (music/lyrics) Rod Temperton (music/lyrics) Lionel Richie (lyrics) For the song "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)".
	Best Music, Original Score Quincy Jones Jeremy Lubbock Rod Temperton Caiphus Semenya Andraé Crouch Chris Boardman Jorge Calandrelli Joel Rosenbaum Fred Steiner Jack Hayes Jerry Hey Randy Kerber
	Best Makeup Ken Chase

Warner Bros.
Directed by Steven Spielberg
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

A young teenage girl endures a never-ending series of hardships in picturesque rural Georgia. Her children (the result of incest) are taken away from her. She is then forced into marriage and repeatedly raped and beaten by her brutal husband. Her sister barely avoids being raped by him as well, so he forcibly separates them and hides her letters for most of their adult lives. She is subject to the usual racism from white neighbors, who violently take out their frustrations on her friend and then lock her up in prison. She briefly finds solace in a lesbian relationship with her husband's lover. All of this dire melodrama takes place in fields overflowing with flowers, a honky tonk bursting with upbeat musical numbers and comedy relief from various characters who come and go when needed. Spielberg's attempt at drama is a near-total failure, his overblown production techniques, more suitable for a blockbuster, are a complete mismatch for this material.

The Fight for Life (1940)

Academy Awards, USA 1941

Nominated Oscar

Best Music, Original Score Louis Gruenberg

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Pare Lorentz
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(YouTube)

A disillusioned doctor, who recently lost a patient after child birth, decides to start working in a maternity ward serving the poorest parts of Chicago. He is trained how to recognize signs of danger from the resident doctors and nurses who spend their time running from house to house at all hours. Odd mixture of drama and documentary, it can't seem to settle on which approach to take, with a bombastic score inexplicably nominated for an Oscar. Look fast for Woody Guthrie!