Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#1Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 1:04am
Soooooo...someone recently made a comment in one of the Oscar threads that Cate Blanchett deserved her Oscar nod this year for the ELIZABETH sequel because she did masterful work in an awful movie. I don't agree, but this got me wondering. Who, in your opinion, has done the best work in a hopeless case--i.e., given a great (or at least a partially redeeming) performance in an otherwise horrible film?
My candidates:
Diana Rigg and Lesley-Anne Down in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC.
Minnie Driver in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
Barbra Streisand in HELLO, DOLLY (I know some think she ruined the movie, but watch it today--she's the only interesting thing in that dated, stiff, overproduced piece of fluff.)
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#2re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 1:30am
This year, that prize goes to Jodie Foster in THE BRAVE ONE, she is the one who should have gotten the nomination if they were going for someone who was brilliant in a disastrous movie.
In previous years, Natalie Wood in GYPSY comes to mind.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#2re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 3:34am
Bea Arthur in "Mame"
Tim Curry in "rocky Horror"
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis
DG
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
Muhlethaler
Featured Actor Joined: 10/13/06
#5re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 7:52amCatherine O'Hara in "For Your Consideration"
I killed the boss, you don't think they're gonna fire me over a thing like that!!!!
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#6re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 7:46pm
These are great, keep it up!
Oh, I know--Robert De Niro in ANGEL HEART.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
Trekkie2
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/7/06
#7re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/25/08 at 10:57pmJoe Anderson as Max in Across The Universe
"I think of avant-garde as downtown shows where you rub waffles and chocolate on yourself."- Hunter Bell
#8re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 12:55amAs far as Broadway goes, Orfeh in Legally Blonde wins.
I know you.
I know you.
I know you.
#9re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 2:00amKristin Chenoweth in every movie she's ever made.
One time, Patti LuPone punched me in the face...
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
WiCkEDrOcKS
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/13/04
#10re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 1:06pm
This year:
Cate Blanchett, ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Jodie Foster, THE BRAVE ONE
Tea Leoni, YOU KILL ME
Hilary Swank, FREEDOM WRITERS
Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant, MUSIC & LYRICS
John Cusack, 1408 and GRACE IS GONE (I hated both but his performances were some of the best of the year...deserves an Oscar for GRACE IS GONE.)
Vera Farmiga, JOSHUA
Shia LeBeouf, TRANSFORMERS
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#11re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 1:25pmI know, I know--Freddie Highmore in the CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY remake and in AUGUST RUSH.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#12re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 3:34pmI forgot about Laura Linney, Donna Murphy, and Julie White in THE NANNY DIARIES.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
#13re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 5:04pm
I agree on Tim Curry, but I'm not sure I'd consider the film a hopeless case, 33 years later and still going! 
<-----I'M TOTES ROLLING MY EYES
#14re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 5:09pm
Jesse L. Martin - RENT
John Voight - NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#15re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 5:09pm
I know, I know--Freddie Highmore in the CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY remake and in AUGUST RUSH.
I actually agree with that.
One time, Patti LuPone punched me in the face...
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
It was awesome. - theaterkid1015
#16re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 5:16pm
In addition to the ones listed above:
Lindsay Lohan, Georgia Rule.
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#17re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/26/08 at 7:54pm
Carol Burnett in ANNIE.
Plus some sort of group award for the cast of RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, especially Jill Clayburgh...all of them performed valiantly, but WHAT a mess they ended up with!
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#18re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/27/08 at 5:07am
Oh Jill Clayburgh was fantastic in RUNNING WITH SCISSORS, it is probably one of the worst movies I have seen at the theatre, but she certainly gave one of those beautiful performances that show what the film could have been like.
I would say Bernadette Peters and Tim Curry in the ANNIE movie.
I disagree with Meryl Streep in SHE-DEVIL, I love that movie, but I can recognize its shortcomings, even so, I think Ed Begley Jr. and Linda Hunt (Oscar-winning actress, why hasn't she done more films recently?) gave some funny/cute performances too. Streep of course steals the movie right from under Roseanne, but it's Streep, she can't help it.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#19re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/27/08 at 8:13am
Julianne Moore in MAGNOLIA, a great actress who managed to shine in a dreadful repetitious disaster of a film, she was able to find about a million different ways to choke back tears, because P. T. Anderson couldn't think of anything else to give the magnificent actress to do.
And Julianne Moore in BOOGIE NIGHTS, giving a magnificent performance in a really dreadful and stupid film.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
roquat
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/25/05
#20re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/27/08 at 1:53pm
...And Julianne Moore in SHORT CUTS, in which she delivers a monologue while naked from the waist down (for no real reason) without a trace of self-consciousness.
And Julianne Moore in...oh, ANYTHING.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
#21re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/27/08 at 2:12pmNot a PTA fan I'm assuming, Roscoe?
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#22re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/27/08 at 9:43pm
I'm a fan of THERE WILL BE BLOOD, but not of Anderson's other films. BOOGIE NIGHTS and MAGNOLIA are pretty dreadful movies, on the whole.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
Updated On: 1/27/08 at 09:43 PM
#23re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/28/08 at 6:01amI forgot so many- love the Glenn Close choice for "Stepford Wives"- her last monologue was fab!!! Also, I agree with all the Julianne Moore picks. I can't believe that I didn't include "Running With Scissors." Annette Benning and Jill Clayburgh....wow!!! Gwenyth killed that movie for me....
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.- Bette Davis
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#24re: Oscar for Best Work in a Lost Cause
Posted: 1/28/08 at 7:23amSusan Sarandon in THE CLIENT. Even Joel Schumacher couldn't demolish this woman's brilliance.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
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