It's always fun to start a new year. A whole new batch of films to watch, especially as I keep going back in time. I haven't seen any of these and enjoy when everything is new and unknown. Let's get to it.
1972 Best Supporting Actress
Eileen Heckart - Butterflies Are Free
There is always that wonder when watching an Oscar winner that you don't really know by name or face if they won it because the performance is deserving or for some other myriad of reasons. We all know by now that the Academy has it's favorite or likes to reward veterans or campaigning persuades people to vote a certain way. So it's always kind of fun to watch these winners and see what exactly is going on. That's more of a general statement and doesn't necessarily apply to Heckart here. I didn't find anything to say that she won for any of the other reasons mentioned. Heckart plays the mother of a blind man who lives on his own in San Francisco. She is the overbearing, authoritative, worrywart of a mother. I was initially worried that would be all the performance is but she actually had a bit of a character arc and showed out as being more of a well rounded character in the story. Her blind son lives next door to the flighty, flirty, carefree Goldie Hawn and the two hit it off immediately. But when Heckart drops in unexpectedly, it pisses her son off and we think she is just an interfering mother who wants to control her son. We see eventually that all her prodding and worrying and asking him to come home comes from a place of love and from seeing him get hurt before. She's a protective mother who knows her son better than anyone else and we see that when Goldie brings some other guy late to a dinner with the blind son and then moves out to live with that other guy. Instead of the I told you so grandstanding, Heckart immediately recognizes her son is hurt and comforts him and convinces him to stay in the apartment and be independent. It's a nice little almost redemption from how awful she seemed at first. Heckart, with her husky voice, really kind of is the glue that keeps this film together. It's not really that good and I'm not a fan of Goldie in it, so she was the redemption for the film itself for me. I feel like she won on the performance unless someone alerts me otherwise that she campaigned hard or something. Nevertheless, Heckart does a nice job with her role in a forgettable film and won in a category without any obvious heavy hitting performance. I'll have to see if that holds true at the end of this one.
Jeannie Berlin - The Heartbreak Kid
When searching for this film, don't make the mistake of watching the Ben Stiller remake from a few years ago, you'll thank me later. If you aren't familiar with this film (who is these days?), it's a Neil Simon film and I have been hit or miss with his films throughout this project. This one is a big hit. It's pretty hilarious at times. Charles Grodin plays the lead actor and he reminds me of like a Ray Romano/Jerry Seinfeld (or Ryan Reynolds?) mix and it's fun to watch his awkwardness. He marries Berlin, who is super Jewish in the New York way (not religious, just nasally and annoying). Immediately after the wedding he realizes she ain't for him and he really only just wanted to bang her. He takes a liking to the young, blonde, pretty Cybill Shepherd while honeymooning in Miami. Berlin gets a gnarly sunburn on the first day and is cooped up in the hotel while Grodin goes and meets with Cybill. I have to say that I really like Berlin's character's demeanor. She's playful and devoted and honest and caring. She's also really attractive to me for some reason. That may cloud my judgment a little but I think she really nails the role of the needy, newlywed wife who suspects her new husband is not into her. She's just a young woman who thinks she's going to be forever happy in life, but Grodin is annoyed at every little thing she says and does. You really feel for her character because of his actions but thankfully this is a comedy and we can laugh at the whole situation. Berlin has a lot of funny moments and lines and is easy to like. She does a good job with a rather limited role and left me wanting to see more. Probably not something that will win, but definitely will compete with this lackluster group.
Geraldine Page - Pete 'n' Tillie
Ah, Geraldine Page. She of the 8 Oscar nominations (with a win for her final one) that so far have made me wonder just what in the heck made her such an Academy darling. This is my 4th nomination of hers that I've seen, and while I recognize that she is a good actress, none have really blown me away. Even her win for The Trip to Bountiful was only good, not great. This one just feels like them trying to get her a win for whatever reason. This film is a really interesting, but strange, story. It stars Walter Matthau and Carol Burnett, so you think this is going to be a hilarious joke a minute thing, but boy is it not! The two meet on a blind date and he's this wisecracking, inappropriate man who says whatever he wants and she's a shy, cynical, conservative woman who isn't really into him. Naturally they eventually keep dating and get married and have a kid and all that. What makes the story weird is how very dry and even dark the humor is. This is more like a real life version of how a relationship goes with all the dark, depressing parts. This is almost like the predecessor of films like Kramer v. Kramer and Ordinary People, though more subtly humorous with a negative tinge. It really doesn't feel like a 70s film and is just really fascinating in how almost charmingly unpleasant it can be. You have to watch to see what I mean. As for Page, well she has a brief scene in the beginning as Burnett's friend who sets up the blind date and then disappears for most of the film. She pops back up at the end when she legit fights Burnett for trying to trick her into giving her age, which she doesn't want to tell anyone. It's a weird scene and that's all Page contributes. Definitely not worth an Oscar or even a nomination. Really not sure why or how she got nominated but at least it got me to see an intriguing yet peculiar film.
Susan Tyrrell - Fat City
I didn't know much about this film going in and I was surprisingly pleased that it ended up being a John Huston directed film starring a young Jeff Bridges and a great Stacy Keach as boxers trying to start their career or rekindle it, respectively. A short film at an hour and a half, but one that was really interesting to watch. Keach gives a terrific performance and Tyrrell is the bar floozie he meets and ends up living with for a bit of time. Tyrrell gives what you can consider of a very naked and vulnerable performance. No, she's not nude, but she plays an alcoholic who is never not without a drink and cigarette in her hands and we first meet her in a bar, trashed, running the gamut of drunk emotions. She's loud and angry and apologetic and flirty and mean and sweet and all of that at once. Tyrrell does a good job of making a role that is easily over the top into something a bit more respectable. I think that's the main part where Tyrrell succeeds because she plays her drunk character who moves from man to man and is never actually doing anything other than laying in bed or sitting around drinking, in an honest way. She gets into a fight with Keach because he wants her to eat food he made and she doesn't need him to cook for her so she doesn't want it so he says fine and goes to trash it and then she jumps up ready to eat and knocks some food to the floor and they argue about it some more. It feels very true to life for an alcoholic person to have these crazy mood swings and confrontations over the smallest things. And that's how Tyrrell plays it the entire time. She's never not drunk or out of it. She always has attitude followed by instant placating moments and you see how awful it can be to witness that behavior. Tyrrell does a terrific job of displaying that existence and how pathetic it is. It's a really good performance that does feel over the top at first but once you see what she is doing with the character, you get it. I'm just glad I got to watch this film even though it needed to be fleshed out a lot more.
Shelley Winters - The Poseidon Adventure
One of the films that helped kick off the disaster movie craze. Take a bunch of famous people (this film has 5 Oscar winners and another nominee, plus a bunch of recognizable faces/names), stick them on a ship or in a building or on a plane and make them have to survive while melding in personal drama. The beats are all familiar and you can almost set your watch to how things will progress in the story, but it's still usually entertaining to watch if you don't take it all too seriously. In this one, a big passenger ship is hit by a tidal wave right after midnight on NYE and capsized and everyone has to try and survive. Winters plays a fat lady where her weight becomes part of the drama of trying to escape. I guess Winters put on 35 pounds for the role and then bemoaned late how she could never really work it off after that. She was also a two-time Oscar winner previously which is probably why she was singled out for this film as the lone representative. I would say her big Oscar scene is where she has to dive underwater to go find Gene Hackman and she saves him (she was a champion swimmer in high school as we are told a bunch of times) but then succumbs right after. Winters is fine in the role as the nice old, fat lady who is worried about herself making it through as well as everyone else. She has a very maternalistic presence in the film and is like watching your grandma. The performance isn't all that amazing, however. The whole film is full of overacting and we are here more for the special effects and spectacle and tension rather than the acting. I am more interested in seeing Winters' actual wins to see just what kind of actress she really is because this nomination doesn't say a whole lot other than the Academy really liked her.
Definitely not the best group ever. Really underwhelming overall without any performance blowing me away or strong enough to win outright. Obviously, someone had to win, but this is a really weak group. I think Heckart won because she has the most to work with and gives a real performance. Page is easily out because she's barely in her film and doesn't do much of anything. Briefly funny, her big scene just doesn't quite make sense. The Academy was just trying to get her a win for whatever reason. Winters already had two Oscar wins. You can't give her a third for a role like that. She was mostly the representation from the film itself. Berlin was good in a limited role and I wanted to see more from her. I thought she was very good but mostly plays the aggrieved wife and doesn't really get to shine. I did like Tyrrell, as playing drunk can be hard and she makes it seem pretty realistic. But that's all she plays in the role and if she wasn't so one note, she'd probably be my winner. Heckart is the most well rounded of all the performances and I think that is partially why she won. If you gotta pick someone, might as well be her. That's not a very good endorsement for this year but at least they made me watch some interesting films.
Oscar Winner: Eileen Heckart - Butterflies Are Free
My Winner: Eileen Heckart - Butterflies Are Free
Susan Tyrrell
Jeannie Berlin
Shelley Winters
Geraldine Page
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