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22 thoughts on “In Brief”

  1. Yesterday after Jeff pondered the possibility of a Tom Hooper win, I went to Wiki to research all the best directors in history, trying to find the last time someone with that little “name” recognition as a heavy-hitter won the prize or was nominated. Mind, I like TKS and think he does a swell job, actually very very solid… but when you throw around the great names of cinema, where does “Tom Hooper” reside?

    Anyway, I know (nominees not winners) Paul Haggis and Stephen Daldry have some detractors, and a couple actors have won who haven’t gone on to be constantly evolving filmmakers (Costner in particular, since Gibson is certainly a maniac auteur in his own right)… But who is the most workmanlike, obscure nominee in recent memory?

    I offer up Peter Cattaneo Best Director nominee for “The Full Monty.” Honestly, who WAS that? Do you even remember that name?

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  5. Good comment, Lex. I’m a little disappointed this thread didn’t take off a little bit on that diversion, but I suppose that’s kinda the story of your life, eh?

    I’d say it’s pretty much a tie between Chris Noonan and Peter Cattaneo. Split vote from me because if I were on a movie trivia game show, Cattaneo is the name I would NEVER be able to come up with (I actually knew the director of Babe without looking, but that’s only because I had an embarrassing mix-up when I was young and mistook him for TOM NOONAN; now I’ll never forget), but the latter definitely had the homelier, “this guy actually DIRECTS for a living?!” look to him (kinda like a cross between a cancer-stricken Steve Jobs and a struggling Australian farmer). Both of their IMDb filmographies are well beyond uninspiring — not to mention largely empty — outside of their one “hit.”

    As for the recent-recent noms, Lee Daniels needs to be on some kind of watch list. Don’t get me wrong — he seems like a pretty cool dude, and I readily admit I’ve never even seen Precious (probably never will), and I’m aware that he’s in the Oscar history books for breaking at least one important racial barrier (1st African-American to direct a BP nominee). I think modern Internet exposure has helped him become more “known” (I think I streamed a director’s roundtable with him last year), but the subject matter of his flicks seem to me like they could be deemed a bit too “nichey”/”fringey” to have more than a cameo (WORD UP!) in the mainstream film scene.

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  6. lex – skipping Tony Gilroy, okay, maybe I can see that, but Bennett Miller? I’d even throw Rob Marshall in; the only reason you think he’s more than a Tom Hooper is that now he’s directed a Best Picture winner.

    Daldry has to get a pass just because he’s been nominated three times out of three, so he’s not just some passing fancy nobody. He clearly knows how to do exactly the sort of directing the Academy directors like to nominate.

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  8. Following up Lex and Kaned’s comments: Michael Radford. Made “Il Postino” and disappeared (although B.MONKEY, a barely released 1998 movie with Asia Argento is a guilty pleasure).

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