Uncle Orson Looks at American Culture 1996 - Acting Awards
Acting Awards
Best Onscreen Couple and Actors of the Year
Gary Sinise and Lili Taylor in Ransom. (Their supporting performances drove the most effective thriller of the year and made it amount to a genuine depiction of temptation and trust, decency and evil.)
Other Noteworthy Onscreen Pairs
Mel Gibson and Rene Russo in Ransom.
George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer in One Fine Day.
Renee Zellweger and Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire.
Other Noteworthy Performances
Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking (and not a false step by anyone in the cast)
Ed Harris and Michael Biehn in The Rock
Will Patton and the actress who played his wife [sorry, didn't catch her name] in Spitfire Grill
Tom Everett Scott and Denzel Washington in The Preacher's Wife
Emma Thomson and Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility
Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt, chewing scenery most brilliantly in Twelve Monkeys
Frances McDormand in Fargo (with a remarkable supporting cast)
Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub in The Big Night
Rosie O'Donnell in Harriet the Spy (with a nod to her good work in Beautiful Girls)
Worst Acting by a Male
Whoever that awful boy was who narrated House Arrest. If the director couldn't get that smirk off his face, he should have been replaced after the first day's rushes.
Worst Acting by a Female
Andie MacDowell in Michael and Multiplicity. It was agonizing watching both Michael Keaton and William Hurt struggle to create a human relationship with this painted stick of an actress.
Great Moments in 1996 Films
The sexy floating head of the Borg in First Contact.
The gunshot over the phone in Ransom.
The dinner in The Big Night, especially the opening of the baked pasta.
The twisters in Twister.
Sarah Jessica Parker and a puppy switch heads in Mars Attacks.
Emma Thomson finally breaks down and weeps in Sense and Sensibility.
The wood chipper scene in Fargo.
http://www.hatrack.com/osc/reviews/reviews96/movies_acting.shtml
