Uncomfortable Reads
In tenth grade, I set out on a quest to finish this book. The title comes from the beasts that the main disturbed character slaughters on the daily while working in a meat factory. Though I'd heard dozens of people call it 'the most disturbing novel ever penned', all I felt in the end was disgust and annoyance for it's frequent shock value, lack of fulfilling characters, and obsessive use of sexual and regular violence. Types of these animals; Hereford, Braford, Shorthorn, and Brangus.
What is/are cows?
In the line up for Best Picture of 1995, the most acclaimed today is most certainly The Shawshank Redemption. However, the academy decided to award the win to this film instead. Tom Hanks, who put on an Alabaman accent for the titular character, won Best Actor, making it two years in a row.
"I'm Bright, Harry Bright", is not just a line, but actually an intentional reference to this iconic character, played for 4 movies by Pierce Brosnan, who plays Sam in Mamma Mia.
Who is James Bond?
Now seen as a respected animation studio, this company has definitely made it's bad flicks, which is what earned it it's reputation for a few years. Flicks include Shark Tale, The Bee Movie, and The Boss Baby.
What is Dreamworks?
Actors featured in this film: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Diane Keaton.
What is The Godfather?
Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel Maus, tells the story of his father, a Jewish man, and his survival during the holocaust. As you can likely gauge by the title, Jewish people are depicted as mice...but fittingly, Nazis are depicted as this type of animal, often depicted as predators of mice in other media.
What are cats?
He was nominated next to Colin Firth for Best Actor in 2010. Firth won the BAFTA that year, but ultimately, this actor won every other major award, including the Oscar. The ironic thing? He was nominated the very next year, for his take on Rooster Cogburn, though this time, Firth ultimately came out on top.
Who is Jeff Bridges?
Originally cast as this corduroy wearing, marmalade eating, furry icon, it was quickly realized that Firth was not right for the role. According to Paul King, the director of the film (named after this titular character), "It slowly just became clear that (the character) does not have the voice of a very handsome older man, who has the most beautiful voice on the planet." Ultimately, Ben Whishaw stepped in as a last minute replacement, to my joy and certainly many others.
Who is Paddington?
Ernest & Celestine, a 2012 Academy Award nominated animated feature from France, follows a hungry, grumpy bear and a small mouse, the latter of which must collect this type of body part...you should have 32 of them!
What are teeth?
Ironically, though he's my favorite actor, the three best picture winners Colin Firth stars in, I believe, should never have come even close to the category, let alone winning it. We've watched two of them, but the third film, based on a Booker Prize winner by Michael Ondaatje, tells the story of a unrecognizable man, burned beyond belief, who is presumed to hail from this country due to his accent.
What is England?
This brilliant, but frequently and unjustly romanticized novel, penned by Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, tells the story of Humbert Humbert and his obsession, and later abuse, of a twelve year old girl named Dolores, whom he gives this nickname. You don't have to be a literary scholar to have heard the name before either. Epstein named his airplane after it.
What is Lolita?
Rami Malek won Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody the same year Willem Dafoe was nominated for Eternity's Gate, an unconventional biopic about this revered, yet tortured artist, who died believing he was a complete failure, but has thankfully been reevaluated and recognized today.
Who is Van Gogh?
What is Italian?
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya tells the story of a girl who is found inside one of these plants, which grows in shoots, by a simple man and his wife.
What is Bamboo?
The other nominees that year; American Fiction, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, Poor Things, and most directly tied to this Best Picture winner...Barbie.
What is Oppenheimer?
One of the most important history books ever published, Iris Chang's 'The Rape of Nanking', in excruciating, devastating detail, goes over the events of the titular massacre, which resulted in the deaths of at least 300,000 thousand people of this nationality.
What is Chinese?
Though Braveheart won Best Picture, I've always considered Babe to be the superior film. It tells the story of a kind, well-mannered young farm animal who opts herd sheep, despite him being...well, this type of animal.
What is a pig?
While filming A Single Man, during the scene where he receives the news of Jim's tragic accident, before the cameras rolled, Firth had actually found out this American Presidential candidate conceded defeat to Barack Obama, something he said "Was not conducive to tragedy in that moment for me."
Who is John McCain?
Felidae, an R-Rated animated film hails from Germany. Released in 1994, it bombed at the box office, but has gained a cult following in recent years, so much so that in 2024 it received a 4k Bluray release. The main character, Francis, is a cat of this variety, named after a certain type of fine male attire...something you'd wear to a dinner party, gala, or a wedding.
What is a tuxedo cat?
I've talked endlessly about Crash, a film I despise so much that I wrote a 15 page essay on how much I loathe it. The salt in the wound? It won Best Picture over a film I and many others consider to be the far superior picture. This romantic drama film takes place in Wyoming and Texas, and was subject to controversy at the time, which may have cost it the big prize.
What is Brokeback Mountain?
This Japanese horror novel starts off extremely normal before diving into grizzly horror. A man, urged to get back into dating 7 years after his wife's passing, decides to hold this...something more fitting to be done for roles like Hamlet, Dorothy, King Lear, and Elphaba, rather than for the role of his future wife.
What is Audition/What is an Audition?
Incredibly, Ennio Morricone, my favorite composer of all time, only received one competitive Oscar in his entire long career, for Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. This is shocking, when looking at all his fabled pieces including Once Upon A Time In The West, Love, and Gabriel's Oboe, the latter being voted the best composition made for film by a group of 40 of the top film composers in the industry. But perhaps his most famous piece is 'The Ecstasy of Gold', used in this 1966 film, the final entry in 'the man with no name' trilogy.
What is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly?
In 'Where the Truth Lies', Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth play a world-famous comedic duo who split up after the mysterious death of a woman in their hotel room. Though their names and the plot itself are fictionalized in the film, the two figures are based on a real-life comedic duo, Jerry Lewis, and this actor and singer.
Who is Dean Martin?
The Breadwinner, a movie created by Cartoon Saloon, the same studio who made other fantastic films like Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers, tells the story of a girl living in this country, which is being ruled over by the Taliban, and her choice to disguise herself as a boy to provide for her family after their father is taken away.
What is Afghanistan?
The recently departed Robert Redford has a long connection to the Oscars. He was nominated for Best Actor only once for The Sting, but his directorial debut, Ordinary People, won Best Picture, and Quiz Show, another self-directed film, was nominated. However, another famous connection is due to his starring in All the President's Men, a best picture nominated film revolving around The Watergate Scandal, and this Newspaper's investigation into it.
What is The Washington Post?