Katherine Hepburn was right!

Katherine Hepburn was the ultimate badass--when asked by Barbara Walters in an interview whether or not she owned a skirt, she replied "I do own just one, and I'll wear it to your funeral."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

K. Hepburn giving such good face!

Hepburn, who won 4 Best Actress Oscars during her career (the most any one actor has ever won--take that DDL and Streep!) also famously said: "the right actors win Oscars, but for the wrong roles."

I couldn't agree more with her, and reading my brother's post (scroll down to see it below) on his favourite performances that didn't win Oscars, I've been thinking about how this is the biggest source of rage I have about the Academy Awards, and really how it creates bad domino effects that affect other wins in other years.

Let's look at some examples...

Sandra Bullock's performance in Gravity (regardless of whether you liked the film or not), in terms of difficulty is hands down the best of the year. If you've read anything about the way the movie was filmed, or seen any interviews with her or Alfonso Cuaron, you know that what she had to do to is just remarkable. How hard would it be to have to imagine all of those things happening to you, while making it look like you were in a zero gravity situation and attached to wires and flipping around etc. UNREAL. In terms of the performances in the Best Actress category this year, I absolutely think her's was the best.

 

(If you want to learn more about how they filmed Gravity watch the video below-it's amazing)

Is Sandra Bullock going to win tomorrow? No. In fact she won't even be the runner-up, or even third (not that we will be privilege to that info). She won't win b/c Sandy already has an Oscar, for a terrible, melodramatic shitty movie that no one saw (The Blind Side, *shutter*) let alone that will ever be remembered.

So Cate Blanchett will win. Both Judi Dench and Meryl Streep have won before (and from what I've gathered from all the Osage: August Country reviews, Streep shouldn't have even been nominated, but the Academy would literally nominate both her an Dench for reading the phone book). I'm not totally sure why Amy Adams never got more momentum in the race--I do think her performance in American Hustle is the best thing about that movie, but the movie isn't very good. In fact the longer I think about that movie, the more I dislike it...

Anyway, Cate Blanchett is a lock. Do I think Cate deserves to win a Best Actress Oscar at some point in her career (she's won a Best Supporting for playing interestingly enough Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator)? Yes, I do. Do I think she should win for Blue Jasmine, in which she plays a neurotic privileged woman? No, I don't. In terms of acting, I don't really think that role was that difficult for a great actress like Blanchett. And don't get me wrong, I love her and think she's fantastic, but winning this year doesn't feel right to me.

Another good example:

Sean Penn. Great actor (although loathsome human being. Also, I can't believe him and Charlize Theron are in love--weird that they won their Oscars the same year too!). Definitely deserves an Oscar. Definitely deserved an Oscar for Dead Man Walking. Incredible performance and movie. Lost to Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Ridiculous. The ramifications? Sean Penn winning an Oscar for Mystic River, not a remarkable film or performance, thus bumping out Bill Murray for Lost in Translation.

Oh, and Al Pacino
Should have won for the Godfather Part II. Lost to Art Carney (who I've never heard of) for a movie called Harry and Tonto (which I've never heard of) which led to the Academy awarding Pacino for A Scent of a (god damned!) Woman-an absolutely horrendous movie also starring Chris O'Donnell-which pumped off Denzel Washington for Malcolm X!

I mean, I could go on--Humphrey Bogart losing for Casablanca (and then winning for The African Queen) caused Marlon Brando to lose for a Streetcar Named Desire! There are tons of examples.