I’ve been doing this website long enough that I remember the Almost Famous year. The movie got so close to getting a Best Picture nomination yet didn’t make it in the end. So many critics and film writers loved it — Roger Ebert famously said he wanted to hug himself after seeing it. The most prominent Oscar-y thing that happened that year was that it made Kate Hudson a star and an almost-Oscar winner. Cameron Crowe won the Oscar for the script, but the film only received four Oscar nominations. Frances McDormand and Kate Hudson both got supporting nods and of the two, McDormand’s performance was the better (“Don’t take drugs”) but Hudson got the acclaim. Crowe didn’t get a Best Directing nomination, and the film was shut out of the Best Picture race. Guess what they ran instead:
Gladiator, the winner (can’t really argue with that, I suppose)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (no problem there)
Chocolat
Erin Brockovich
Traffic
Now, Traffic deserved it; Erin Brockovich did not. Chocolat? One of the best films of that year? Really? Smoking whose crack pipe? No one remembers it – it was Academy manipulation like nobody’s business – and nobody can play them like Harvey can. Nobody. That’s why he’s the Oscar whisperer. But history will always remember Almost Famous and Chocolat? Not so much.