Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Widows" (2018)

Scene from Widows

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

"The Shape of Water" and the Three Forms of Loneliness

Scene from The Shape of Water

*Note: Spoilers for The Shape of Water

It is a moment that comes between two phases of Eliza (Sally Hawkins) and Amphibian Man's (Doug Jones) relationship. They have escaped the lab and are in their last passionate moments together before Amphibian Man returns to the sea, possibly without the requited love of Eliza. She is mute, only ever able to communicate through a mix of sign language, eggs, and Benny Goodman records. Yet it's in a fantasy moment that she gets her only spoken lines of the film. As the scene trades a dumpy apartment with a leaky room for a black-and-white set out of a musical set, she sings "You'll never know how much I love you." It's a moment where repression breaks through, and moves the subtle themes of the film to the forefront. The Shape of Water is more than a film about loving someone different, it's about understanding loneliness when you don't have love readily available. It's may be a story that's been trivialized as the "woman who loves a fish" story, but it's so much more. It's a look at how loneliness can be used for good as well as bad. 

A Look at the Oldest Oscar Winners That Are Still With Us

Olivia De Havilland in Gone With the Wind

Today marks a very special occasion. It's actress Olivia De Havilland's 100th birthday. Unlike her peers who in recent years we've celebrated centennials (Frank Sinatra, Ingrid Bergman), she has the distinct honor of being the oldest living Oscar winner, having won twice for The Heiress and more imporant as Melanie in the box office sensation Gone With the Wind. While she leaves behind an impressive career, one of her most recent achievements is being the oldest Oscar winner to still be alive. So, who else is getting up there in age? The following is the 10 actors and actresses who come close, but no cigar.