Tom Hanks, Posterized

Tom Hanks was often likened to a 'new Jimmy Stewart' during his peak years. I never thought the tag quite fit because, though Hanks is a likeable "everyman" lead, he doesn't have the same range. Hanks, unlike Stewart, rarely tests the darkness at the edges and when he did in Road to Perdition it was one of his flattest portraits. In comparison, can anyone watch Vertigo and not come away fully aware of how comfortable Jimmy Stewart was burrowing into the skin of rather squirm-inducing psyches? The following lineup only includes lead or huge supporting roles and no voice work. (I'm not sure how one would categorize The Polar Express. How would one?)

So... sorry, Woody. You'll make it up at the box office this weekend with Toy Story 3 [my review] playing everywhere. Rest assured that you're still one of his most iconic roles.

Because the posters have to be divisable by three for this particular series, I had to choose one non lead role to leave out so I opted for That Thing You Do! (96) instead of A League of Their Own (92) because I love the latter, though That Thing is way more of a Tom Hanks movie since he also directed it. I've also left out his very first movie, the slasher flick He Knows You're Alone (80) --any horror fans know if he gets killed grotesquely in that one? -- which preceded Hanks's breakthrough on TV's Bosom Buddies. After that sitcom, he was an immediate lead player in the cinema with the breakout smash known as Splash.

Splash (84) | Bachelor Party (84) | The Man With One Red Shoe (85)

Volunteers (85) | The Money Pit (86) | Nothing in Common (86)

Every Time We Say Goodbye (86)| Dragnet (87) | Big (88)

Punch Line (88) | The 'Burbs (89) | Turner & Hooch (89)

Joe vs. the Volcano (90) | Bonfire... (90) | A League of Their Own (92)

INTERMISSION
Volcano and Bonfire were both seen as flops which was not something Hanks had been accustomed to. Thankfully the reception of Volcano didn't turn anyone off to the idea of a Meg Ryan rematch (while it's popular to hate on her now, they really played wonderfully off of each other and unlike most modern screen pairs with terrific chemistry, who throw that rare gift away, they actually made use of it in multiple films.) But first Hanks blazed back while supporting Geena Davis during her brief cinematic reign in a women's baseball flick. It became a big hit. Mega Stardom and back-to-back Oscars followed for Hanks. But for me, this mini comeback (he wasn't really over... just had a slow couple of years) was the peak. A League of Their Own is my favorite of his comic turns. "There's no crying in baseball!"

Sleepless in Seattle (93) | Philadelphia (93) | Forrest Gump (94)

Apollo 13 (95) | That Thing You Do! *not pictured* (96) |
Saving Private Ryan (97) | You've Got Mail (98)

The Green Mile (99) | Cast Away (00) | Road to Perdition (02)

Catch Me If You Can (02) | The Ladykillers (04) | The Terminal (04)

Da Vinci Code (06) | Charlie Wilson's War (07) | Angels & Demons (09)

His three best performances according to me: Big (88), A League of Their Own (92), Cast Away (00). My three favorites from his filmography: Splash (84), A League of Their Own (92) and Sleepless in Seattle (93)... give or take Apollo 13 (95) in both categories.

Speaking of Apollo 13... we often equate Tom Hanks with the Oscars, but he's only appeared in 4 Best Picture nominees. That's nothing to scoff at and very difficult to achieve (or at least it was when there were only 5 nominees) but the record holder is probably someone you've never heard of. I hadn't. Her name is Bess Flowers and she was a bit player. She appeared in 22 Best Picture nominees the last of which was Judgment at Nuremberg (61) where she played "concert attendee". Ha! To put it in context, her record is twice that of Jack Nicholson's (!) the movie star with the best Best Picture track record (11 nominees/ 3 winners). Hmmm, I sense a follow up post coming on. Any takers?

The Hanks filmography has earned 3.5 billion thus far with more to come. He's been tweeting from the set of his next film Larry Crowne (2010) and maybe another hit awaits? His films got more serious over the years to match his mammoth stardom but if you ask me, he lost quite a bit of his sparkle when he ditched comedy for Serious Acting. So, it was egood to see hear him as Woody again.

How many have you seen? Which do you love best?
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25th Anniversary: Prizzi's Honor(s) and the 1985 Best Picture Race

Every once in a while (i.e. constantly) I'll pick up the classic Inside Oscar to double check an awards factoid. Sometimes I like to hold actual books in my hands rather than play search engines like a piano. So retro! I was looking at 1985 recently -- any '85 babies reading? Happy quarter-century mark -- for Kurosawa's section of that foreign film article. The Best Picture nominees for 85 were The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Out of Africa, Prizzi's Honor and Witness.

"What the hell, Charley, the calendar takes care of everything"

I'd venture to say that from that particular vintage John Huston's Prizzi's Honor is the least discussed now, so I thought I'd give it a spin to celebrate its anniversary on this very day.

Given the overall 1985 nomination field (the Picture nominees hogged 42 nominations all told) it's tough to imagine that any film came close to breaking up that party o' five. But it's always fun to conjecture about 6th place. Perhaps it was actually Kurosawa's Ran (four nominations, though foreign films rarely make that top competition) but maybe it was the surprise Oscar favorite Runaway Train (which showed up in three key categories). It certainly wasn't the critical pet of the year Brazil (too weird for AMPAS) or Woody Allen's miniature masterpiece The Purple Rose of Cairo, shamefully recognized only in Screenplay. It's possible that neither of those classics would have even made a ten wide Best Picture field though perhaps Back to the Future would've, since it was a big enough hit to break into the screenplay field despite being much sillier than Oscar allows.

But I digress.

Aside from the gay arthouse smash Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor is the most atypical of the nominees. To start with it's a comedy, which automatically makes you the odd man out in any lineup.

"Do I ice her? Do I marry her? Which one of these?"

The film follows the confusion and misadventures of hitman Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson, winning his 8th nomination) and the troubles that erupt from his dim trust in untrustworthy women: the thieving hitwoman Irene Walker (Kathleen Turner, the preeminent Shady 80s Lady) and his former girl Maerose (Anjelica Huston, Nicholson's real life partner at the time) who both have complicated histories with the Prizzi family that Charley serves. Since it's a comedy and quite eccentric at that, it's tough to imagine Oscar responding had it not come from such a legendary auteur (Huston was 80 by the time the ceremony rolled around and this would be his fourth Best Picture nominee).

I mean it's a strange movie, at once both expansive (multiple characters, multiple cities, and plentiful plot turns) and intimate (most of its spark comes from the nuances of its romances, both sexual and familial) and nearly always arrhythmic. Though the screenplay is whip smart and packed with clever flourishes and exchanges, it's also strangely dull and the pacing is just bizarre. Sometimes there are long passages where nothing is happening (the opening sequence at a mafia wedding goes on for quite some time offering up much less plot and characterization than the time would allow for) and then there'll be too much information all at once in short snappy scenes: Wait, who iced who? who's on whose payroll? What's a pieceman? Who stole whose money and they're hiding it how exactly? So the strangest among its plentiful Oscar nominations might actually be Directing and Editing.

That said, my single favorite beat in the movie is expertly timed, with the direction and editing (and star performers of course) coming together in quite a satisfying manner: I love the abrupt dissolve from the seemingly eternal static shot of Irene & Charley's foolhardy declarations of love (on their first date, mind) to the athletic perpetual motion shot of a marathon f*** in progress, scored with comic bombast. If you're thinking "but dissolves aren't abrupt," well, the beauty is that this one is.

Jack feigns stupidity with comic panache throughout the film and one recurring joke about his sexual shyness works superbly. Kathleen exudes confidence and sex (what else is new) but neither are 'best in show'. The movie is owned by the scandalous Prizzi daughter (Anjelica Huston) and her grandfather, the don (William Hickey) both of whom received Oscar nominations. Anjelica won giving her father the unique distinction of having directed both his father (Walter Huston, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre) and daughter to Oscar wins in his lifetime. Hickey and Huston are both doing heightened, funny, weirdly unnerving turns that mix well with the movie's ambitious comic tone. Still, in keeping with the slippery oddness of the whole enterprise, their one scene together doesn't really pop the way it probably ought to.

Prizzi's Weirdness.

"My gift to you is not only the pictures, but also what they mean."

Despite any reservations one may have about its honored place in the annals of 80s Oscar history, it's maddening that it got such a shabby DVD transfer. This is part of the filmography of one of cinema's most enduring directors. Show a little respect, studios. I'm wondering if there's a good DVD release that did the film justice and I just got the weak one? Anyone know?

Also: Have you seen all of the 1985 Best Picture nominees? Which one gets your vote?
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