One, Two, Three (1961)

ONE, TWO, THREE  (1961)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Billy Wilder
    James Cagney, Arlene Francis, Horst Buchholz,
    Pamela Tiffin, Lilo Pulver, Howard St. John
A maniacally paced Cold War comedy with Cagney as a dictatorial Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin. A topical time capsule from the early 1960s, dated now but still very funny, with lots of references to old movies, some of them Cagney's. (There's even a grapefruit scene.) Cagney's so energized, you wonder whether he really did put benzedrine in his coffee. He's practically bouncing off the walls.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

CLOUD ATLAS  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
    Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent,
    Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Hugo Weaving,
    Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon,
    Keith David, James D'Arcy, David Gyasi
It might sound crazy, but the movie "Cloud Atlas" probably comes the closest to for scope, ambition and multitrack storytelling is D.W. Griffith's 1916 silent epic "Intolerance". Griffith's film told four parallel stories in four different time frames simultaneously, cutting between them. "Cloud Atlas" tops that, telling six stories in six different time frames, with some familiar actors turning up in multiple roles. (Sometimes you'll recognize them, and sometimes - believe me - you won't.) A recurring theme is how everything's connected, and how the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer found the financing to do something so high-risk and offbeat is anybody's guess. It's like this intricate puzzle where the pieces are pieces of time, some just a few seconds long and some a few minutes, and every time you turn a piece over, new pieces appear. It'll take time and multiple viewings to try to unravel it all. Good luck with that. And have fun.

Previous Scobie Award Winners: Career Achievement

          1988: John Carradine
          1989: Don Siegel
          1990: Burgess Meredith
          1991: Richard Fleischer
          1992: Woody Strode
          1993: Richard Widmark
          1994: Dennis Hopper
          1995: John Frankenheimer
          1996: Stella Stevens
          1997: James Coburn
          1998: Max von Sydow
          1999: Geraldine Chaplin
          2000: Christopher Lee
          2001: Henry Silva
          2002: Donald Sutherland
          2003: Bruce Dern
          2004: Charlotte Rampling
          2005: Jeff Bridges
          2006: L.Q. Jones
          2007: Genevieve Bujold
          2008: Nick Nolte
          2009: Walter Hill
          2010: Scott Glenn
          2011: Lily Tomlin
          2012: Alan Rudolph
          2013: Harry Dean Stanton
          2014: Tom Courtenay
          2015: Kevin Brownlow
          2016: Werner Herzog
          2017: Leslie Caron
          2018: Ed Harris

          2019: Judy Davis

          2020: Tom Skerritt

          2021: Terence Stamp

          2022: Bill Murray

          2023: Peter Coyote

          2024: Karen Allen

          2025: John Waters

The 2012 Scobie Awards

Picture: "Cloud Atlas"
Actor: John Hawkes, "The Sessions"
Actress: AnnaLynne McCord, "Excision"
Supporting Actor: Christopher Walken, "Seven
                                 Psychopaths" and "A Late Quartet"
Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"
Cameo: Bruce Dern, "Django Unchained"
Ensemble: "Carnage"
Director: Colin Tevorrow, "Safety Not Guaranteed"
Cinematography: Roger Deakins, "Skyfall"
Editing: Alexander Berner, "Cloud Atlas"
Musical Score: Raymond Enoksen and 
                           Geirmund Simonsen, "Thale"
Foreign Language Film: "Barbara"
B Movie: "Haywire"
Documentary: "The Dust Bowl"
Revival: "The Sting"
Title Sequence: "Searching For Sugar Man"
Trailer: "Les Miserables"
Print Ad: "Nobody Else But You"
Career Achievement Award: Alan Rudolph

Fillmore (1972)

FILLMORE  (1972)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Richard T. Heffron
As far as I know, Bill Graham never played or sang a recorded note. But he might've had a more significant impact on rock & roll in the late 1960s than most of the people who did. As the tireless impresario behind the Fillmore ballrooms in New York and San Francisco, Graham gave the heads and hippies the music they wanted to hear and a place they could comfortably hang out and hear it in. He made it affordable and he made money, and in the process, he gave the psychedelic era its Mecca, its musical home. Graham was no hippie. As a kid, he got out of Europe ahead of the Holocaust. By the 1960s, he was the West Coast office manager for Allis Chalmers, a job he quit to manage the San Francisco Mime Troupe and then book musical events, eventually setting up shop at the Fillmore West. He was a canny and ruthless promoter, sometimes revered and sometimes reviled, and by 1971, he was burned out and ready to take a break. This documentary shows Graham at work, wheedling, needling, cursing, coaxing, massaging egos and throwing tantrums as he lines up the entertainment for a final series of concerts before the lights go out for good. It's not real deep or insightful, but it does put Graham front and center, the brass-balls showman who made those marathon Grateful Dead shows possible. Hot Tuna, Quicksilver Messenger Service, New Riders of the Purple Sage and Santana all show up to play. Highlight: a young, beaming Jerry Garcia gliding through the Dead's "Casey Jones".

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)

STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES  (2002)  ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: George Lucas
    Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christiansen,
    Christopher Lee, Samuel L. Jackson, Frank Oz,
    Pernilla August, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker
"Star Wars 5", in case you're keeping score. Like the middle episode in the first trilogy (which is technically the second trilogy), this one catches up with our heroes at a time when things look bad for the Republic. Well, not completely bad. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) has become an accomplished Jedi knight, learning the Force and honing his skills for the time later on (in the earlier films) when he'll look like Alec Guinness. Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) isn't a queen anymore, but she still gets to model lots of neat costumes, most memorably a form-fitting white commando outfit that stays glued to her through the climactic battle scene. But Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christiansen) is edging closer to the Dark Side, and in serious need of some anger management work. (Why Master Yoda doesn't pick up on this is one of the script's many unsolved mysteries.) And evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) is creating a cloned army, with an eye toward bringing the Republic's cherished democratic institutions to a screeching halt. Under the circumstances, Lee, McGregor and Samuel L. Jackson (as Jedi Mace Windu) acquit themselves admirably, knowing they're going to be upstaged by the special effects crew at every turn. Portman and Christiansen aren't as lucky, getting stuck with the romantic load, as well as some of the lamest dialogue this side of Naboo. Portman at least stays focused. Christiansen just seems lost. What's fun is what's going on in the background and around the edges: the political references, the strange-looking creatures, the Bond-worthy puns. Along the way, Lucas pulls out bits from westerns, hot-rod flicks, gladiator epics, Saturday afternoon serials and Leni Riefenstahl. But what this is mostly is a coming-of-age story set in outer space. Not a very good one, either.

Pork Chop Hill (1959)

PORK CHOP HILL  (1959)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Lewis Milestone
    Gregory Peck, George Shibata, Harry Guardino,
    George Peppard, Rip Torn, Woody Strode,
    Robert Blake, Martin Landau, Norman Fell,
    Bob Steele, Bert Remson, Gavin MacLeod
As peace talks to end the Korean War drag on at Panmunjom, an Army lieutenant played by Gregory Peck leads a company of G.I.s in a bloody assault on a hill that appears to be defended by at least a million Chinese. A good, tough, straightforward combat movie, with a few momentary pauses for Peck and fellow officer George Shibata to question the wisdom of investing such a staggering casualty count in such a worthless piece of real estate. Look for unbilled Harry Dean Stanton in an early bit part as one of Peck's men.