PB & Julie + Julie C. Trivia

• On this day in 2010, at the 82nd Academy Awards, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win a Best Director Oscar, for 2009’s The Hurt Locker. I’ll never forget Barbra Streisand’s glee as she announced, “The time has come.” Now, eleven years later, let’s say “The time has come” for a woman of color. Chloe Zhao won this year’s Golden Globe, for Nomadland; Regina King is also a top contender for a nomination, for One Night in Miami. The Oscar nominations will be announced on Monday, March 15.

• Today would have been John Heard’s 75th birthday. An actor that I adored, Heard is most well known for playing Kevin McAllister’s dad in the Home Alone franchise, but he was a reliably great (and ridiculously handsome) character actor in both dramas and comedies, appearing in films like The Pelican Brief, Big, Beaches and a personal favorite of mine, Heaven Help Us. Heard died in 2017 of a heart attack.

• 

• 

• 

• Happy Birthday, Bryan Cranston! One of the most versatile actors around, he is the winner of two Tony Awards, four Emmys, a Golden Globe and five SAG Awards. Adept at both comedy and drama, Cranston is, quite simply, one of our greatest living actors. I’m particularly fond of his turn as Hammond Druthers on How I Met Your Mother and his portrayal of Buzz Aldrin in HBO’s magnificent mini-series From the Earth to the Moon.

• 

• 

• Yesterday I learned a fun fact about Don McLean’s song “American Pie” – apparently The Levee was a bar in New Rochelle, NY, where Don and his friends would drink. When the bar closed, they would go across the river to Rye and look for places to continue the party. This gives new meaning to the lyrics “Drove my Chevy to the levee/But the levee was dry”.

• March is Women’s History Month, so all month long I’ll be talking about the glorious women of pop culture, past and present. Stay tuned!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Part 1 in a series.

Gen-X. Slackers. The MTV generation. Latchkey kids. Thirteeners? Apparently, generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss suggested the latter name for the thirteenth generation born since the American Revolution; thankfully, it never caught on.

The term Generation X was coined by writer Douglas Coupland, in his 1991 book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. Gen-X generally refers to people born to baby boomers, and is typically defined as people born between 1965 and 1980. I am decidedly, proudly a Gen-Xer.

Due to an increase in divorce rates and more women in the workforce, Gen X-ers were unsupervised a lot more than previous generations. I was certainly a latchkey kid, especially once I was in 7th grade and both of my older sisters had moved out of the house. Both my parents worked full-time, and I was responsible for myself a decent amount of the time. I never felt like this defined me as a person; it was just the way things were. What did define me, as you might guess, was pop culture.

What does Gen-X pop culture look like? We’ll explore that in a series of posts, and we’ll start with perhaps the single most consequential one – MTV, or Music Television. As Steve Jones, professor at the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in an article titled “MTV: The Medium was the Message”, wrote, the development of MTV “had an immediate impact on popular music, visual style, and culture”.

Because my house was on a street with only two other houses, we did not get cable until the late 80s, but music videos were a huge part of my existence nonetheless. I recall watching Friday Night Videos, an NBC show that began airing in 1983. I would record the show (which aired at 12:30 am, so I guess technically it was Saturday Morning Videos?) on our VCR and play it back, savoring every moment. And of course, when I visited friends that had cable, we watched MTV as often as possible.

If you weren’t alive at the time, you might not realize how revolutionary MTV was. It wasn’t just the videos; music videos had actually been around for decades. Prior to the 80s, they were primarily promotional clips and merchandising tie-ins. In 1975, Queen employed Bruce Gowers to direct a promotional clip for their new single “Bohemian Rhapsody”, to be played on BBC’s Top of the Pops. The resulting video is widely considered the first to be central to the marketing strategy for a single. Queen was always ahead of their time.

Obviously, the videos were a big part of the picture, but MTV changed the way we dressed and how products were advertised and what graphics looked like. It changed the way movies and commercials looked – more quick cuts, montages set to pop music. It helped popularize formerly niche musical genres such as alternative rock, hip-hop and heavy metal. But at the end of the day, the thing it changed most was how musical artists promoted themselves.

MTV launched on August 1, 1981 at 12:01 am. The first video MTV played was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star”, a sublime slice of cheese directed by the legendary Russell Mulcahy. Hardly anyone saw it, though; MTV wasn’t even available in Manhattan for its first year, so network employees gathered at a bar in New Jersey to watch the debut.

Since the network needed to air videos that had already been produced, the pickings were slim initially, and videos were often repeated throughout the day. But once the format caught on, music videos became de rigueur, and artists capitalized on the medium. Many artists of the time period had videos to thank – at least in large part – for their success. Video budgets grew and clips became slicker, with elaborate storylines, multiple costume changes and dance sequences. It also helped if you were ridiculously attractive.

Since I don’t have the space in a blog to cover every major artist of the MTV era, I’ve picked three artists who helped make MTV a monster – and MTV returned the favor by making them superstars.

One of the most popular artists of the time period – and a personal favorite of mine – typifies the way music videos defined the era: Duran Duran. The band was at the forefront of what is referred to as the second British invasion. Their good looks, New Romantic style and glam-synth music made them the perfect band at the perfect time. Their first video, for 1981’s “Planet Earth”, was directed by the aforementioned Russell Mulcahy, who would go on to direct many of the band’s clips. The video isn’t as polished as some of their later clips, but it established the template for what was to come – the frilly New Romantic fashion, the dancing, the close-ups of the group’s beautiful faces.

Duran Duran would make several more clips from their self-titled debut album, but wouldn’t really make a splash in the US until their second album, 1982’s Rio. And splash they did. Rio was a monster, with hit after hit, and the videos were a huge part of the equation.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Rio was so successful, Capitol Records re-released Duran Duran in the US in 1983, with the addition of a new song, “Is There Something I Should Know?” The video accompanying the song was their most polished yet, with bright colors, eye-popping visuals and yes, more close-ups of those gorgeous faces.

That same year, Duran Duran released their most highly anticipated album yet, Seven and the Ragged Tiger. I recall wanting my parents to take me to buy the album, but they wanted to be certain it was available before they drove me to the mall, so my little 14 year old self called the record store. I remember them answering the phone with a blurb about having the new Duran Duran album, so apparently I wasn’t the only 14 year old girl calling to ask. Anyway, you know the story – more videos, more gorgeousness.

• 

• 

• 

In 1984, Duran Duran released a live album, Arena, with highlights from their “Sing Blue SIlver” tour (I saw them in concert for the first – and only – time on this tour, at Cobo Arena in Detroit. It was basically my dad and 12,000 screaming teenage girls. The date was 2/25/84, according to the band’s Fandom wiki). Arena contained one new studio track, “The Wild Boys”, and the clip for that single was made for a whopping $1 million, making it the most expensive video to date.

In 1985, Duran Duran was tapped to record the title song from the new James Bond movie, A View to a Kill. The video integrates clips of the movie and makes it appear that the band is part of the action. There’s a Walkman that’s actually a detonator, a telescope that’s actually a gun, and a cheeky reference to Bond’s signature catchphrase by lead singer Simon LeBon. It is gloriously, delightfully silly.

The second artist is another favorite of mine, and she and MTV loved each other from the start. One of the most successful female pop stars of all-time, Madonna saw her greatest success in the 80s, but continues to make music and tour to this day – in her fucking 60’s. The woman is an unstoppable force.

Madonna’s self-titled debut came out in 1983, and though it was not her first single, “Holiday” was her first hit. The single peaked at #16, but the simple video – just Madonna, her brother and her friend, performing a choreographed dance routine in a studio – failed to make an impression on MTV. Her next two videos, “Lucky Star” and “Borderline”, fared better. “Lucky Star” was essentially “Holiday 2.0” – Madonna, her brother and her friend, performing a choreographed dance routine, but on a set and with lighting! “Borderline” intercut a standard relationship storyline with black & white scenes of Madonna dancing, lip-syncing and generally being cool as shit.

• 

• 

• 

When the title track from her 1984 album Like a Virgin was released, demand was high, and Madonna delivered. The single went to #1, the video was a smash and Madonna’s performance of the song at that year’s Video Music Awards was both legendary and controversial. Madonna never was one to leave much to the imagination, and I love her for it. Madonna’s next single, “Material Girl”, was her most elaborate to date, and featured a recreation of the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” scene from the Marilyn Monroe movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. We couldn’t get enough.

• 

• 

• 

Madonna’s next album, 1986’s True Blue, was her most popular yet, and it yielded three #1 hits – “Live to Tell”, “Papa Don’t Preach” and “Open Your Heart”. The videos were iconic, and solidified Madonna’s status as the Queen of MTV. That same year, Madonna was the recipient of the MTV Video Vanguard Award.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Madonna’s fourth album, Like a Prayer, dropped in 1989, and was her most accomplished record to date. The title track was also the first single and video – and the video caused quite a stir. The clip features, among other things, Madonna kissing a black saint, religious imagery like stigmata, and burning crosses. The video was condemned by the Vatican and family groups protested its broadcast. It was, of course, a massive hit, and the single reached #1 on the Billboard chart.

Madonna’s next video, “Express Yourself”, was also her first collaboration with David Fincher (my future favorite director) and it was the most expensive video to date at $5 million (that record would be broken by our third artist and his sister). Inspired by the movie Metropolis, the video features shots of machinery and half naked men, some BDSM and Madonna looking drop-dead gorgeous in a variety of outfits (the chartreuse gown and the pinstripe suit are my personal favorites). Was it worth $5 million? You be the judge.

Madonna welcomed the 90s with a bang – the single “Vogue”, from the soundtrack for Dick Tracy (Madonna played Breathless Mahoney in the film) was another smash. The video was shot by Fincher in breathtaking black and white. Her performance of the song at that year’s VMAs was another showstopper, with the singer and her backup dancers performing in Dangerous Liasons-style costumes.

• 

• 

Our third artist, unlike our first two, was already a star when MTV first started airing. But he and MTV made each other superstars. The MTV Video Vanguard award is named for him. His contributions to the art of music video are legendary. He is the undisputed King of Pop.

When MTV first started airing, it featured predominantly white artists, particularly during the daytime. Black artists were relegated to the overnight hours, or not played at all. This fact didn’t go unnoticed; watch David Bowie, in a 1983 interview, make VJ Mark Goodman squirm as he inquires why he doesn’t see enough black artists on the network.

In November, 1982, Michael Jackson released Thriller, an absolutely colossal record. The album sold 33 million copies in the US alone, spent 37 weeks at #1 and featured seven – SEVEN – top-10 hits. And almost overnight, MTV was assuaged of their fear of playing black artists.

The videos from Thriller were top of the line, generally featuring Jackson performing his signature dance moves. The video for the title track, however, was something altogether different. Conceived as a short film, shot by renowned film director John Landis, “Thriller” was an homage to horror films. Jackson chose Landis based on Landis’s most recent film at the time, An American Werewolf in London. With a budget of almost $1 million – a record at the time – and impeccably high production standards, including makeup by Rick Baker, “Thriller” wasn’t a video – it was an event. It premiered on MTV on December 2, 1983 to ten times the network’s typical ratings. A superstar and a supernetwork were born.

• 

• 

Bad, Jackson’s follow up to Thriller, was released in 1987, and while it wasn’t quite the monster that its predecessor was, it still sold 10 million copies and featured five #1 singles – “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, the title track, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana” – and one more top ten hit (and my personal favorite), “Smooth Criminal”.

The video for “Bad” was another short film, this time written by Richard Price and directed by Martin Scorsese. “Man in the Mirror” was notable because Jackson didn’t even make an appearance in the video, aside from a brief clip toward the end of him donning his signature red jacket. “Smooth Criminal” features some truly badass choreography, including the impossible leaning effect that was accomplished using a hitching mechanism that Jackson co-patented.

Jackson’s next album, 1991’s Dangerous, featured only one #1 single, but it was a doozy, and the video featured what was then cutting-edge technology. “Black or White” reunited Jackson with John Landis, and it’s pretty silly, but watch the last minute for the morphing technology that had previously only been used in movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It’s pretty fucking cool, even thirty years later.

By the mid-90s, MTV was shifting its programming to reality and scripted shows like The Real World and Beavis and Butt-head, but Michael Jackson had one more trick up his sleeve. “Scream”, the lead single from Jackson’s 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, is a duet with his sister Janet, and the video, made for an astronomical $7 million, remains the most expensive video of all time. It features playful dancing and some pretty cool special effects; the two of them look fantastic.

By the 2000s, MTV essentially stopped showing videos altogether, and eventually dropped the “Music Television” from its moniker. But during that golden age, these three artists helped create a template for other musical artists to follow, creating not just videos, but musical pieces of art, and in the process, defining pop culture for a generation.

• Congratulations to all the Golden Globes winners, but especially Anya Taylor-Joy, who is so brilliant in The Queen’s Gambit that I’ll never be over it.

• 

• 

• 

• Today would have been David Niven’s 111th birthday. I know he was an Oscar-winning actor (1959’s Separate Tables) and a writer and served in the British army in WWII, but when I think of David Niven, I will always think of this.

• Happy birthday, Harry Belafonte! In his honor, my favorite uses of his music, from one of my favorite movies, Beetlejuice.

• They had never seen it, so last night I treated my parents to the delightful Catch Me If You Can. According to Wikipedia, several other directors were considered before Steven Spielberg decided to do it himself; one of those directors was David Fincher, and hoo boy, I can’t help wondering how that would have turned out. As it stands, it’s an entertaining-as-hell movie, with winning performances and an iconic score from John Williams. It only received two Oscar nominations – Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken) and Best Original Score – but it is still one of my favorite films of 2002.

• 

• 

• 

• And finally, happy 78th birthday to The Who’s Roger Daltrey!!

• 

• 

• 

• On this day in 2011, The Social Network took home three awards at the 83rd Oscars – Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Original Score. It should have won more – it was absolutely the best film of 2010, and the fact that David FIncher hasn’t won a Best Director Oscar yet is criminal (of course, Hitchcock, Kurosawa and Kubrick never won competitive Oscars either). But these three awards were certainly well deserved. Aaron Sorkin’s brilliantly structured screenplay, full of snappy, Sorkin-y dialogue, jumps seamlessly between the two timelines (the creation of Facebook and the deposition for the lawsuit). Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall’s taut editing establishes the tone of the film immediately – the five-minute opening scene apparently took three weeks to edit. And that music! Forget Jesse Eisenberg – he’s great, don’t get me wrong, but the real stars of the film are Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Their score accompanies more than sixty percent of the film, and creates a humming, electric tension throughout the film. The music is a character in itself, rather than background noise. I never could have imagined such tension could be procured from scenes of characters sitting around computers. Absolute fucking genius. The Social Network remains Reznor/Ross’s only Oscar nomination; the Golden Globes have been more generous, nominating them for 2012’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and 2014’s Gone Girl. They are up for two more Globes tomorrow night – for Mank (their fourth collaboration with Fincher) and Pixar’s Soul, co-written with Jon Batiste.

• 

• 

• 

• Happy 91st birthday to Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman’s better half, philanthropist and Emmy, Golden Globe and Oscar winning actress. With Olivia de Havilland’s death last July, Woodward is now the oldest living recipient of the Best Actress Academy Award.

• 

• 

• 

• On this day in 1990, Wilson Phillips released “Hold On”, a lovely pop confection that would go on to become the #1 single on the Billboard charts that year. Producer Glen Ballard presented the track to the group, but it needed lyrics. Chynna Phillips, struggling with substance abuse and a bad relationship, wrote the lyrics, basing them on the tenets of AA, specifically the notion of taking things one day at a time. The group added their trademark gorgeous harmonies, and the rest is history.

• On this day in 1989, Jerome Robbins’ Broadway opened at the Imperial Theater. Jason Alexander is a god damn delight as the narrator – and rightfully won the Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical (the show won 5 other Tonys, including Best Musical). You can listen to the Original Broadway Cast Recording on Spotify. Be prepared to sing along!

• In 2017, at the 89th Academy Awards, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were accidentally given the wrong card for the announcement of Moonlight as Best Picture, and the entire crew of La La Land gathered on the stage before they realized what had happened, leading to one of the craziest moments in Oscar history.

• On this day in 1983, Michael Jackson’s Thriller went to #1 on the Billboard album chart – and stayed there for a whopping 37 weeks. The album has sold 33 million copies in the United States alone and currently holds the record for second-best-selling album in the US, behind Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975). Thriller won a whopping eight Grammys, including Album of the Year (beating another masterpiece, The Police’s Synchronicity). If you weren’t alive in 1983, it’s difficult to describe how dominant Thriller was – the singles, the videos, the live performances. This clip is from the television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, and it was the first time Jackson did the moonwalk live.

• Actor JT Walsh died on this day in 1998, at the age of 54. One of my favorite character actors of all time, Walsh often played the bad guy in films such as Good Morning, Vietnam and TV series such as The X–Files (season 3 episode “The List”). He had a small but pivotal role in one of my favorite movies, A Few Good Men. In his last film to be released before his death, Breakdown, he terrorizes Kurt Russell and kidnaps his wife (Kathleen Quinlan). It is a doozy of a thriller and I highly recommend it. You can stream Breakdown on CBS All Access.

• 

• 

• 

• 

February is Black History Month, and like every other segment of our society, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has a long history of racism that it has only recently attempted to remedy. The recent pressure on the Academy to diversify has resulted in very little improvement; in 2020, the distribution of Academy voters by race was 84% white and 16% minority. Yes, you read that right – 16%. In 20fucking20.

From its inception, Hollywood was a racist institution. The motion picture industry was founded by white men, and with few exceptions, white men told the stories; men and women of color (and women more generally – we’ll dig into Hollywood’s complicated and deplorable treatment of women another time), simply did not get a seat at the table. Black stories were not told, or they were told by white people and through the lens of white supremacy – slaves were happy, black women were servants or prostitutes, black men were dim-witted or criminals, white folks were their saviors.

One need look no later than 1915, when motion pictures were still in their infancy, to see the ultimate in movie racism – The Birth of a Nation. Although lauded for its innovative techniques (it pioneered close-ups and fade-outs, and was the first film to use an orchestral score), it is rightfully criticized for its use of blackface, its depiction of black men as sexual predators and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. The NAACP unsuccessfully attempted to ban the film; in retaliation, director D.W. Griffith titled his next film Intolerance, a message to those who would censor him. Ah, cancel culture.

• 

• 

• 

The Birth of a Nation‘s white supremacy message was so powerful, it literally spawned the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. Oh, and Woodrow Wilson screened it at the White House. Wilson reportedly said of the film, “It is like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.”

The Academy wouldn’t exist for another twelve or so years, but if Oscars had been given out that year, The Birth of a Nation almost certainly would have won Best Picture. It would have been the first in a long line of “white savior” movies being celebrated while black men and women were prevented from telling their own stories.

At the 12th annual Academy Awards, held in 1940, the most celebrated movie was Gone with the Wind; it earned thirteen nominations and won eight competitive and two honorary Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress for Vivien Leigh. Hattie McDaniel became the first black actor to receive an Oscar, for her role as Mammy in the film. McDaniel was forced to sit at a segregated table because the Ambassador Hotel, where the awards ceremony was held, had a strict whites-only policy.

Gone with the Wind is, of course, racist as hell. It portrays the confederacy in a sympathetic light and plantation owners as heroes, and McDaniel’s Mammy is such a stereotype of a sassy but dutiful servant that the character’s name came to be shorthand for that role (a more recent example, The Help‘s Minny Jackson, also won its portrayer a Best Supporting Actress Oscar). But the film is also considered one of the all-time greats, and still holds the record for the highest box office gross adjusted for inflation.

The next black actor to be nominated for an Oscar was Dorothy Dandridge, for 1954’s Carmen Jones. She lost to Grace Kelly. A black actor wouldn’t win a Best Actress Oscar until 2001, when Halle Berry took home the prize for Monster’s Ball. In her acceptance speech, an emotional Berry dedicated her statue to Dandridge, among others. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Five more black women have been nominated for Best Actress Oscars since then, but Berry remains the only black winner in the category in the Academy’s 92 year history.

The first black man to win an acting Oscar was Sidney Poitier, for 1963’s Lilies of the Field (he’d also been nominated for 1958’s The Defiant Ones). One of the most notable things about the role of Homer Smith is that he could have been played by an actor of any color; Homer’s race is never even mentioned in the film. Poitier earned his Oscar not by playing a black man, but by playing a man, and his success would pave the way for more contemporary black actors to play roles where their race isn’t a plot point – among others, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Will Smith.

• 

• 

The 1970’s saw only five black actors nominated in any category; none won. In the 1980’s, two black actors won, both in the Best Supporting Actor category. At the 55th Academy Awards, Louis Gossett Jr. took home the prize for his portrayal of Gunnery Sgt. Emil Foley in An Officer and a Gentleman. It was another role where race was not a factor; in fact, R. Lee Ermey was originally cast for the part. Seven years later, at the 62nd Oscars, Denzel Washington took home his first statue, for his portrayal of Pvt. Silas Trip in Glory.

• 

• 

1989 was an interesting year for race in film, and that year’s Oscars highlight Hollywood’s problem with racial issues. The best film of 1989, Spike Lee’s incendiary Do the Right Thing, wasn’t even nominated, and Lee was overlooked in the Best Director category as well (Lee would have been the first black Best Director nominee; that honor would go to John Singleton two years later). Lee did receive a nomination for Best Original Screenplay; he lost to Tom Schulman for Dead Poets Society. The winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1989? Driving Miss Daisy.

Driving Miss Daisy is well-intentioned, and it isn’t a bad movie. It’s anchored by two great performances; Morgan Freeman (reprising his role from the original off-Broadway production) is particularly wonderful, imbuing Hoke Colburn with a wisdom and dignity deserving of his own story. But the story isn’t Hoke’s – it’s Daisy’s (it’s right there in the title). We see the world through her eyes, and in her eyes, Hoke is a servant. Yes, the Jewish Daisy faces discrimination of her own, but a subplot with the potential to humanize her Jewishness – the bombing of a synagogue – inexplicably occurs off-screen. The film seems to long for a time before the civil rights movement, when black people still “knew their place”. and it seems to imply that if you endure enough verbal abuse and prejudice, you too can become friends with an old Southern white woman. Freeman has since disavowed his participation in the film, stating that it led him to being typecast as the “noble, wise, dignified” black man.

• 

• 

The 1990’s saw only two black acting Oscar winners: Whoopi Goldberg took home the Best Supporting Actress prize for her riotous turn as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost, and Cuba Gooding Jr. won Best Supporting Actor for 1996’s Jerry Maguire. For those of you keeping track, that’s six Oscar winning performances by black actors in the 20th century. Six – out of 1440 nominations.

• 

• 

The 21st century started off well – at the 74th Academy Awards, two black actors took home Oscars: the aforementioned Halle Berry – still the only black person to win Best Actress – and Denzel Washington, who won Best Actor for Training Day. Obviously, Washington should have won nine years earlier for his blistering portrayal of Malcolm X in Spike Lee’s 1992 biopic, but the Academy loves to hand out “lifetime achievement” awards (that’s the reason he lost in ’92 to Al Pacino). Three years later, at the 77th Oscars, two more black actors took home prizes – Jamie Foxx won Best Actor for Ray and Morgan Freeman finally won his first award, for Best Supporting Actor in Million Dollar Baby.

• 

• 

As the 2000’s continued, we saw a smattering of black actors in the race, and a handful won – Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, and several black women won Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls, Mo’Nique for Precious, Octavia Spencer for The Help, Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave, Viola Davis for Fences and Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk (it’s notable that the Academy seems to prefer black women in supporting roles). And Mahershala Ali took home two Best Supporting Actor prizes in three years, for Moonlight and Green Book.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

In addition to Best Supporting Actor, Green Book won two other Oscars – Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen). Green Book is the sort of problematic film about race relations that Hollywood continues to make in the 21st century. The title comes from the guidebook used by African-American motorists in the Jim Crow era to locate black-owned businesses and avoid so-called “sundown towns”. One would naturally assume, given the title, that the story would center the black man; instead, Ali’s Don Shirley is relegated to the supporting role, with Mortensen’s Frank “Tony Lip” Vallelonga taking the lead. The film is the stereotypical “white savior” film that centers a bigot’s redemption. As New York Times writer Wesley Morris put it, Green Book is a “racial reconciliation fantasy”. A big part of the problem, of course, is that the film was written and directed by a white man, Peter Farrelly. One wonders what the movie could have been had a person of color told the story, with Don Shirley at the center of it.

Farrelly wasn’t even nominated for Best Director (but he did receive an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay) and a person of color (Roma‘s Alfonso Cuarón) did win the Best Director prize that year. Spike Lee, having finally gotten his long-overdue first Best DIrector nod, for BlacKkKlansman, had to settle for winning Best Adapted Screenplay. In an alternate universe, Lee also wrote and directed Green Book, with Ali as the star and a killer jazz score by Terence Blanchard.

Last year’s 93rd Academy Awards saw only one black acting nominee – Cynthia Erivo for her turn as Harriet Tubman in Harriet. One, out of twenty nominees.

We’ve mainly discussed acting awards and nominations, but it’s important to note that the number of Oscars and nominations for black people in other categories are even worse. Best Cinematography – two nominees total, no winners. Best Film Editing – two nominees total, no winners. Best Costume Design – five nominations between two women (the legendary Ruth E. Carter took home the prize two years ago for Black Panther). Best Director – no winners and a total of six nominations for black men (no black women have been nominated thus far, though that could change this year – Regina King has already been nominated for the Best Director Golden Globe for One Night in Miami).

2020 was a year in which the struggle for civil rights reached an apex. Massive protests erupted all across the country over the summer, brought on by the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis PD. Black people still need to fight to exist – in their homes, in their cars, at their jobs – free of persecution and discrimination. The rise of the white supremacy movement during Trump’s presidency has made this fight even more difficult. Hollywood, as a microcosm of our larger society, still has a long way to go as well. Parity is needed both in front of and behind the camera.

Several years ago, when #OscarsSoWhite was created to address the lack of diversity in Hollywood, my husband sincerely asked me to explain it to him. His thought was “whoever is most deserving should get nominated”. Seems simple enough, right? Setting aside the fact that the Oscars don’t always nominate those most deserving, the problem, of course, is that if creative, talented people of color don’t get the same opportunities as white people, they’ll never have the chance to be rewarded. And it starts with allowing black people to tell their own stories – stories that make white people uncomfortable – stories where they are their own saviors.

• 

• 

• The Muppet Show is now on Disney+ and you’d better believe I’m watching it. The first episode’s guest star was the incomparable Rita Moreno.

• The Go-Go’s have finally – FINALLY – been nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, after fifteen years of eligibility. The most successful all-female rock band ever, they still look and sound fantastic. My sister shared this amazing video with me yesterday – enjoy! I’m off to listen to Beauty and the Beat.

• It Happened One Night, directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, opened on this day in 1934. It would go on to win the top five Academy Awards, the first of only three films to do so.

• 

• 

• Marni Nixon was born on this day in 1929. Nixon was the ghost singer who provided the vocals for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady. She also played Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music. Nixon died in 2016 at the age of 86.

• Genesis released their first single “Silent Sun” on this day in 1968, and it is bizarre in its conventionality. Unlike future recordings, which delved into prog and art rock, “Silent Sun” is pure pop confection. The song was written by Peter Gabriel and Tony Banks in an effort to secure the approval of record producer Jonathan King, who would go on to produce their debut album From Genesis to Revelation. Knowing King was a Bee Gees fan, Gabriel and Banks attempted to replicate the Bee Gees sound with this piano-driven romantic ballad. Did they succeed? Listen and decide for yourself.

On February 20th, 1998, the US box office hit $1 billion for the year, the quickest that’s ever happened. Those are big numbers. Huge. Titanic, you might say.

It’s impossible to overstate how much Titanic dominated popular culture in late 1997 and early 1998. The film smashed one box office record after the next – highest domestic total (it currently ranks 6th), most weeks at number one (it still holds that record), most tickets sold (it still holds that one too), the first film to surpass $1 billion. But it’s easy to forget that Titanic was not a slam dunk; it lacked a bankable star and many insiders believed the film would sink on arrival, toppled by the weight of production delays, budget overruns and James Cameron’s ego.

Originally slated for a July 4th weekend release, Titanic began filming in July of 1996 with a budget of $100 million, which seems positively quaint in this era of box-office smashing superheroes, but was a record at the time. Production delays and Cameron’s perfectionism caused the budget to balloon to $200 million, or approximately $1 million for each minute of the film’s run time. 20th Century Fox, rightfully concerned about their investment, asked Paramount Pictures to foot $65 million of the bill in exchange for North American distribution rights. Titanic‘s release was postponed to December. The Los Angeles Times began a daily column called “Titanic Watch”, which chronicled the film’s production woes, from on-set injuries and illnesses resulting from cast and crew members spending so much time in ice-cold water, to a pissed-off crew member spiking a pot of chowder with PCP (more than fifty people were hospitalized, including Bill Paxton).

Ultimately, though, the film’s production issues made little impression on moviegoers and Titanic became the top grosser of all time. It would hold that record until 2009, when it would be surpassed by Cameron’s own Avatar (the crown is currently worn by Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens). Audiences fell for the film’s spectacular special effects, its sumptuous costumes, its….oh, who are we kidding, we fell for Kate and Leo.

• 

• 

• 

At its heart, Titanic is a love story. The film’s box office success came down to audiences buying into this love story, and did they ever. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio had crackling chemistry, and Cameron himself has described the film as “Romeo and Juliet on a boat”. Pre-teen and teenaged girls flocked to Titanic in droves, making a matinee idol out of Leonardo DiCaprio (a role he never wanted, and ultimately transcended); he and Kate Winslet became superstars overnight. As the film’s critical success made it an awards-season favorite, the two attended events together and held each other close, weathering the insanity together; they remain good friends.

• 

• 

Titanic would go on to earn 14 Academy Award nominations (tying All About Eve for the record) and win 11 Oscars (tying Ben-Hur), including Best Picture and Best Director, losing only Best Actress (Helen Hunt swept the awards circuit that year for As Good as It Gets), Best Supporting Actress (ditto Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential) and Best Makeup (it lost to, and I am not making this up, Men in Black – the legendary Rick Baker has rarely been beaten). Leo wasn’t even nominated for Best Actor, much to the dismay of his fan base.

• 

• 

Was Titanic the best movie of 1997? I’d argue not, but it all comes down to how you measure “best”. The film is a stunning technical achievement, no question. But it also suffered for Cameron’s insistence on overseeing every aspect of its production. His screenplay is clunky, and riddled with anachronisms. And 1997 was a FANTASTIC year for motion pictures – Boogie Nights, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Wag the Dog, The Game, Good WIll Hunting and The Sweet Hereafter all came out that year (for the record, Boogie Nights is my favorite of the bunch). But Titanic is epic and opulent, the kind of movie Oscar voters – and audiences – adore.

And oh, those costumes…

• 

• 

• 

Today is Millie Bobby Brown’s 17th birthday, which gives me the perfect excuse to talk about one of the most astonishing and authentic performances by a child actor that I’ve ever seen. Brown’s rendering of Eleven on Stranger Things is so mind-bogglingly good, it’s easy to forget that she only utters 246 words in the entire first season.

Just eleven years old (ELEVEN!) at the time of filming Stranger Things 1, Brown was selected from a field of about 300 girls. Eleven (“Elle”, as she is lovingly nicknamed by friend and future suitor Mike Wheeler) was a key role in the series, and, since the character says so few words, the actress who played her needed to be able to communicate a variety of intense emotions using primarily her body language and facial expressions. Casting director Carmen Cuba (who deservedly won an Emmy for Outstanding Casting of a Drama Series) hit the jackpot with Brown.

• 

• 

• 

Seriously – she. is. just. so. fucking. good.

• 

• 

• 

Of course, the rest of the cast is amazing as well, including the four boys whose friendship forms the heart of the series. The performances by all the kids are impressive; for my money, you’d have to go back to Stand By Me and E.T. to find performances this good by a group of child actors. Too often, child actors put on airs, masquerading as tiny adults without conveying authentic emotions. But these kids are REAL.

The comparisons to Stand By Me and E.T. are apt, because the Duffer brothers conceived Stranger Things as “What if Steven Spielberg directed a Stephen King movie?” Like those films, the series’ success hinges on the collective performances of the youngsters. The comparison to Stand By Me is especially appropriate, because like that movie, the series is about friendship and the sacrifices we make for it.

• 

• 

Bottom line, we must believe these kids have been friends for years, and we do. Of course, in the case of Eleven, she is brand new to the group, and though that initially causes some friction among the boys (particularly between Mike and Lucas, who is skeptical of Elle’s motives and views her as an interloper), eventually she is accepted into the group unconditionally.

• 

• 

• 

Through it all, Elle learns about love and friendship, things she never knew, having spent her first twelve years as a laboratory subject. Brown conveys these new emotions with awe and wonder. But she really shines when communicating Elle’s rage – rage at her former captors, who continue to hunt her down, determined to imprison her at Hawkins lab once again; rage at the bullies who torment her new – and only – friends; rage at the demogorgon, whom she brought back from the Upside Down. By the climax of the season finale, that rage boils over, and she faces down the demogorgon, channeling all of her raw emotion, sending it – and herself – back to the Upside Down.

• 

• 

Eleven’s character arc was supposed to end with season 1, but Brown was so preternaturally good, the Duffers wisely chose to extend it. And while the storylines may have suffered a bit in subsequent seasons, Brown’s performance has been a consistent highlight throughout, especially in her scenes with David Harbour as police chief/adoptive father Hopper. At the end of season 3, she believes Hopper dead, and as she reads the letter Hopper had written to her earlier in the season, Elle’s grief is palpable, and Brown breaks our hearts all over again.

• 

• 

•