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Speaking of talk show audiences, that substantial demographic didn’t help the fortunes of the reigning queen of daytime TV, Oprah Winfrey. Despite her clout, and a massive publicity campaign, her Beloved, which she produced and starred in, proved the year’s biggest embarrassment at the box office. Despite respectful reviews, the downbeat melodrama about the after effects of slavery was unloved at the box office. An adaptation of the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning novel by Toni Morrison, directed by Oscar-winning Jonathan Demme, Beloved was merely symptomatic of the poor showing of artistically serious and independently minded films in 1998.
Though respectably reviewed, Winfrey’s cinematic endeavors were anything but Beloved by theatergoers.
John Waters’ Pecker
Indeed, the year was a disaster for films with aspirations beyond the generic; perhaps it was the impact of 1997’s Titanic. So much for 1996, when every Academy Award for Best Film nominee was more-or-less an independent production. Or maybe it’s because people don’t know how to make art films anymore. Despite, or because of, its earnestness, Beloved was wrongheaded from the start, from the village idiot acting of Thandie Newton —who made Winfrey’s perfunctory performance seem nuanced— to Demme’s flourishes of Sam Raimi-like special effects (Raimi, paradoxically, later made the solid Demme-ish thriller A Simple Plan).
Demme wasn’t the only auteur to disappoint. John Sayles, who graced 1996 with the stellar Lone Star, shot blanks with Men With Guns. Richard Linklater tried to splice his slacker act onto a period Western with The Newton Boys; nobody gave a fig. Todd Haynes failed to hit paydirt with Velvet Goldmine. Gus Van Sant got lost in his own private Idaho with the compulsive remake of Psycho, though it did make a killing at the box office. Even the granddaddy of transgressive cinema, John Waters, came up with a limp Pecker.
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There’s Something About Carrey
- There’s Something About Carrey
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
TrendingHere are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.
Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
The Twelve Dancing Princesses
Current Events This Week: January 2023
African Americans by the Numbers
Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
- Did Birds Evolve from Dinosaurs?
- The Twelve Dancing Princesses
- Current Events This Week: January 2023
- African Americans by the Numbers
- Andersen’s Fairy Tales: Contents
- The Celtic Twilight: A Teller of Tales
