By Rob Gonsalves, Special to the Neighb News
Welcome to a new semi-regular column, What’s the Hoopla? If you have a library card through the Millicent Library, you can avail yourself of the selection of e-books, music, and movies at hoopladigital. com. Hoopla is a streaming service that allows access to thousands of titles for free. We’ll be focusing on the available movies (or TV). This time, in honor of the forthcoming Oscar ceremony on February 9, we’ll be looking at Oscar winners or nominees you can watch on Hoopla.
First of all, there are eight Best Picture winners there! If your goal is to watch all the victors in that category, that’s a good start. All Quiet on the Western Front, Midnight Cowboy, The Sting, Terms of Endearment, Rain Man, The English Patient, American Beauty, and No Country for Old Men are waiting for you to catch up with them.
Now, I’d like to weigh in on a few Oscar winners/nominees on Hoopla that I’d personally recommend:
• Across the Universe (Best Costume Design nominee): This eye-popping, Beatles-worshipping labor of love deserves reciprocation. Watch it as a double feature with an Oscar winner on Hoopla — Frida (as in Frida Kahlo), which took awards for Makeup and Score. Both films were made by the visionary director Julie Taymor, whose new Gloria Steinem biopic The Glorias just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Gods and Monsters (Best Adapted Screenplay winner): A witty and heartfelt tribute to the aging director James Whale. Ian McKellen (as Whale) and Lynn Redgrave got well-deserved acting nominations, but don’t overlook Brendan Fraser as the humble glue of the piece.
• Monster (Best Actress winner): Charlize Theron forever changed her image from cover girl to serious actress with her Oscar-winning work as serial killer Aileen Wuornos. The director, Patty Jenkins, later made a little movie you might’ve heard of called Wonder Woman (and its upcoming sequel).
• The Red Balloon (Best Screenplay) – It’s a short film about a boy and the red balloon that accompanies him. It’s a French film, but it has no dialogue, so anyone can follow it. It’s a small, simple thing of beauty, and if you somehow missed it in school you can check it out now.
• I Am Not Your Negro (Best Documentary nominee): James Baldwin owned one of the sharpest intellects this country has yet seen, and this documentary captures it, as well as the often sad life that went with it. Other nominated documentaries viewable on Hoopla include Abacus, Last Men in Aleppo, Life Animated, The Invisible War, and The Act of Killing.
• The Last Temptation of Christ (Best Director nominee): Did this even play around here? I remember General Cinemas (now AMC) refused it, but I wonder if Cinema 140 ever got it. Anyway, this undeservedly controversial masterwork was a passion project of director Martin Scorsese, whose Raging Bull (Best Actor winner) and The Last Waltz are also up on Hoopla, as well as the Scorsese-produced The Grifters, a four-time Oscar nominee.
• A Fish Called Wanda (Best Supporting Actor winner): “Oscar nominee John Cleese.” I like the sound of that. (The only other Python so honored is Terry Gilliam, for co-writing Brazil. Neither man won.) Kevin Kline took a richly merited Oscar for his side-splitting performance as the intellectually challenged Otto. This remains one of the great modern comedies.
• Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (Best Supporting Actor nominee): This amiable Clint Eastwood vehicle — the directorial debut of future Oscar winner Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) — snagged an acting nomination for Jeff Bridges. It was his second such nod, though he ended up having to wait 35 years until he finally scored with Crazy Heart.
Well, that should give you more than enough to start with on Hoopla, enough to spice up any pre-Oscar party. And remember, if you can’t stream these movies, they’re also available on DVD at the Millicent Library (or through interlibrary loan). If you don’t have a library card, why not get one today?
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