In Contention

Category: Daily

  • 2/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Meryl Streep in Doubt• Inside the secret history of Oscar speeches. [Esquire]

    • Sasha Stone surveys the damage of the Oscar season. [Awards Daily]

    • How “Slumdog Millionaire” fits into the recession. [Associated Press]

    • Jeff Sneider, formerly of Variety, joins Jeff Wells as one of only two brave souls predicting both Mickey Rourke and Meryl Streep for come-from-behind victories. [The InSneider]

    • Michael Cieply notes the USC marching band will play a part in the opening Oscar number. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Jeff Wells makes his final calls. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Kim Voynar uses Guitar Hero to predict the Spirits and the Oscars. [Movie City News]

  • Holocaust victims 4, Nazis 0

    This interactive Oscar trivia chart at the Guardian is great fun, even if I can’t vouch for its accuracy across the board. (At a glance, I can tell that there are numerous names missing from their “most nominated without wins” page, while there have been more than three R-rated Best Picture nominees this year, let alone this decade.)

    Quibbles aside, however, it’s a handy confirmation of several well-known Academy trends (yes, the most surefire route to an Oscar is playing someone with mental health problems, with 23 winners to prove the fact), as well as some less familiar ones. Who knew that Jon Voight remains the only man to win Best Actor for playing a long-haired character? If we count the early stages of “Milk,” does that mean that this much-neglected demographic will get a certain boost on Sunday night?

    My favourite, however, was this particular nugget: four thesps have won for playing Holocaust victims. But Nazis? None. You’ve been warned, Ms. Winslet.

  • Revisiting the waterfront

    As Sunday’s Oscars bear down upon us with a measure of both inevitability and indifference, I can’t be the only one fed up of watching, talking or even thinking about certain 2008 nominees — even some of the ones I liked. The sooner we can begin putting some much-needed distance between ourselves and these films, the better, I say.

    So it was with great pleasure this evening that I plunged into the refreshing waters of both classic Oscar history and a different medium altogether — by going to see Steven Berkoff’s quite stunning reconceptualisation of Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” on the West End stage.

    The source, of course, needs no introduction: Kazan’s searing 1954 study of corruption and violence amid the longshoremen of Hoboken boasts any number of immediately quotable lines, arguably Marlon Brando’s signature performance and, of course, eight Academy Awards. It remains, for me, one the Best Picture category’s finest hours.

    Turning such a flavourfully urban example of realist cinema into a heightened physical theatre exercise may seem a foolhardy task, but Berkoff’s interpretation is equal parts devoted tribute (Budd Schulberg’s original screenplay is transferred largely intact, while thumping jazz cues speak to Leonard Bernstein’s iconic score) and wildly stylised reinvention.

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  • Last call…finalize your picks in our Oscar pool

    Deadline for finalizing your Oscar picks is apparently Sunday at 7:59 e.s.t. (talk about right down to the wire).  Be sure to get all your guesses in by that cut-off, and if you haven’t signed up already, come join us!

    Sasha Stone also has an Awards Daily pool going.

  • Plans for Sunday

    Just a heads up, I’ve decided against blogging during the Oscar ceremony this year.  I’m sure you’ll be able to find some activity at other outlets, but I don’t have the endurance this year.  Last year I helped IC friend John Campea at The Movie Blog with podcasts during the commercials.  It was fun but nerve-racking.  (We’ll be doing pre- and post-show podcasts over there, however, so you’ll still get to hear my lovely voice.)  And I’ve certainly done the live blogging thing.

    But this year, I feel like I owe it to Bill Condon and Larry Mark, Roger Goodman and Hugh Jackman to really sit and watch this thing happen, because I have a feeling it’s going to be a hell of a show.  Plus, it’s been a long time since I stayed the hell away from a computer during the show, so maybe I owe it to myself, too.

    Never fear, of course.  I’ll put up an open thread in case you want to come and chat amongst yourselves, dish the threads, complain (or exclaim) about the winners, etc.  But if the server starts to buckle, forgive us.

  • Hugh practices for the big night

    (Thanks to Jack.)

  • Contributors’ picks

    OscarsWell, this is it.  The big show is Sunday night and we’re pretty much out of things to discuss at this stage, no?  But I’ve gone ahead and wrangled up all of our contributors’ predictions in each category.  Trust who you must, but really, pray for a surprise.  Right?

    In the realm of “ballsy” calls, I guess you can look no further than Guy’s prediction that “The Class” will upset “Waltz with Bashir” in the foreign language film category, which I discussed at length earlier this morning.  He’s also stuck his neck out for a “Slumdog Millionaire” sweep, much like Nathaniel Rogers did a week ago. I really wanted to go there. I really, really did, but the sound categories.  The friggin’ sound categories.

    As we’ve mentioned, people tend to forget that the Academy at large doesn’t exactly know from good sound mixing and sound editing, so “WALL-E” is perhaps a bit vulnerable in those fields, while “The Dark Knight” might be too safe a choice. I’ve talked to a number of people who seem to think “Slumdog” will be checked off down the line, though, so perhaps Guy and Nat are onto something there.

    Me, I don’t have too many surprise predictions, as I’m sure you’ve already read.  I’m sticking with “Man on Wire” in the doc feature category, despite my spit-balling otherwise.  And even though I have a strong sense that “Departures” is waiting to surprise “Waltz,” I don’t feel like sticking my neck out.  (UPDATE: Spoke too soon.)

    I am, however, going with my gut on Mickey Rourke in the much-anticipated lead actor race, and it looks like I’m joined by Guy, Brian and Blake on that here.

    John seems to be expecting a big night for “The Dark Knight,” predicting wins in both sound categories as well as Best Film Editing, which would be the same hat trick “The Bourne Ultimatum” pulled off last year.  But he’s also banking on a win in the cinematography category, which would certainly make this writer a happy camper.

    Blake is banking on the Bat’s victory in the art direction and makeup fields, where the rest of us expect “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” to prevail, while Brian is predicting a clean sweep for “WALL-E,” including the original screenplay category, which looks to be another one of the night’s most exciting races.  He’s joined by Guy on that, while John, Blake, Gerard and I are taking the safe route and placing our chips on Dustin Lance Black’s work on “Milk.”

    Despite those minority calls, we all seem to be in agreement on Best Picture (“Slumdog”), Best Director (Danny Boyle), Best Actress (Kate Winslet), Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actress (Penelope Cruz), Best Adapted Screenplay (“Slumdog”), Best Visual Effects (“Button”) and Best Animated Feature Film (“WALL-E”).  Everything else represents something of a menagerie.

    Take a look at our individual picks after the jump.

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  • Could ‘Departures’ upset ‘Waltz with Bashir’ in the foreign language film category?

    DeparturesNow that I’ve finally seen Japanese foreign film contender “Departures,” the last of the year’s nominees that had yet to cross my path, I thought it a good idea to go ahead and toss up a final look at the foreign language film category.  Over the last few weeks I’ve dived into the short film nominees, the doc shorts and the doc features.  This is the last of those categories, which require voters to see all of the nominees before being permitted to vote.

    I spent the last two days with all of the foreign contenders, re-watching “The Baader Meinhof Complex,” “The Class” and presumed frontrunner “Waltz with Bashir” and finally taking in the bleak “Revanche,” as well as “Departures.”  The question I’m left with, much as I was in the documentary feature category a few days back (in a piece that was largely taken out of context across the net) is this: have we succumbed to the group think yet again?  Because I have a feeling “Departures” is waiting to spoil.

    It’s a beautiful film in a lot of ways, certainly not a more artistic achievement than “Waltz” but the kind of soft, safe, solid work that tends to take out the frontrunner in this category time and again.  It deals with death in a really affecting way, at once eerie, humorous and, ultimately, moving.  When it threatens to pass into trite territory, it finds a way to stay fresh and alive, very human and absolutely satisfying.

    When you look back over the history of this category, you see a certain bias against non-traditional filmmaking.  The fantasy of frontrunner “Pan’s Labyrinth” fell to the straight-forward “The Lives of Others,” a moment relatively few of us saw coming but seemed totally rational for many in hindsight.  The epic “Hero” and the artfully renderd “The Man Without a Past” both lost out to the classic stylings of “Nowhere in Africa” while the whimsy of “Amélie” fell to “No Man’s Land.”  It happens.

    So why, exactly, is it a foregone conclusion that an animated documentary hybrid film will walk away with the Oscar?  Certainly the excuse isn’t: “Because it’s the best of the nominees,” right?  It’s a sentiment I happen to agree with, but that argument never holds water.  What’s more, the film is a mere 90 minutes, while every other nominee stretches past the two hour mark.  You might think a shorter entry would be a respite to voters, but only three times in the last 10 years has the shortest film won.  And each of those was more than 90 minutes long.

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  • Oscar underdog ‘The Garden’

    I was just listening to this NPR piece on documentary feature nominee “The Garden,” an affecting film with a gut-wrenching conclusion that I’ve already said could be in the thick of the hunt for an upset with literally all the other contenders.  But what really caught my eye was this comment on the NPR page:

    Dear Carrie, I listened to this segment today and I was blown away. What’s more, I was surprised the story blew me away. I’m not much into the Oscars, but learning about the plight of these immigrant farmers in SoCal really opened my eyes. You are a skilled and talented story teller. I will listen more intently for your segments in the future. Thank you!

    And it made me remember just how much of an important and, keyword, LOCAL story this really is.  The doc has some celebrity appearances, since it was such an activist issue, so maybe there’s some industry support for the film lying in wait.  Just keep an eye on that category, that’s all I’m saying.  At least one person seems to be taking a dive for “Trouble the Water,” so who knows…

  • Who deserves it? Poll results!

    The readership of In Contention has spoken.  Here’s who you all think deserves to win across the 24 Oscar categories we polled you on.  A couple of these races were very close but we didn’t have time to revisit the couple of categories that were decided by less than 10 votes.  Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any parallels Sunday night, but here’s what you had to say:

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “WALL-E”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music (Original Score): “WALL-E”
    Best Music (Original Song): “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Editing: “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Mixing: “WALL-E”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Thanks to everyone for voting.  Enjoy the show!

  • 2/20 Oscarweb Round-up

    Amy Adams in Doubt• Meeting The Oscar 11. [USA Today]

    • Jeff Wells begins spit-balling next year’s season. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Dave Karger wonders whether Amy Adams has enough fuel in the tank to pull off an upset. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Anne Thompson annotates Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 25 best working directors. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • For late night buffs, an interesting conversation doesn’t make the final cut. [Peter Bart]

    • David Carr stretches his predictions post across three pages, gets mad hits. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Sasha Stone begins building a chart of tech category predictions, a nice crash course. [Awards Daily]

    • Some bad “Wrestler” press finally hits, just in time to not matter.  But boy would this have been a bigger story (sadly) a month ago. [Associated Press]

  • A soupçon of ‘Broken Embraces’

    Thanks to Nat Rogers for pointing out this new teaser for Pedro Almodovar’s upcoming Penelope Cruz-starrer “Broken Embraces.” I do mean “teaser,” by the way — it’s under 30 seconds long, with no betrayal of dialogue or plot — but if, like me, this is your most anticipated film of 2009, you take what you can get.

    This much we can tell: it’s lush. If “Volver” was a joyful, humanist showcase for the tinderbox screen charisma of its leading lady, this appears to be its (and Cruz’s) nastier, noir-ier bookend, furthering Almodovar’s ambition to construct her as this generation’s premier Euro screen goddess. I. Can’t. Wait.

  • Curiouser and curiouser

    I have to say, it’s a stroke of luck that the most predictable Oscar race in some years at least happens to conicide with the most unpredictable Oscar ceremony. It’s as if Bill Condon and Laurence Mark knew that they had to pull out all the stops in reconfiguring the show to make up for a slate of nominees that could not have been more cautious. The few hints that have been dropped so far (including a radically altered stage design) suggest that, whether it sinks or soars, something very different is in store.

    Pete Hammond has written an interesting piece in which he considers the information we have so far, and wonders what bearing this year’s ceremony might have on the Oscarcast’s long-term future. He acknowledges the canniness of Condon and Mark’s semi-veiled strategy thus far (suggesting, I suspect  accurately, that the “leaked” news of Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron as presenters was in fact calculated to lure in younger viewers), and drops this tantalising bit of gossip:

    Oscar director Roger Goodman has worked with the new producers the past few weeks. A friend who sat with him the other night at the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony said Goodman was characterizing Condon as a certified genius.

    OK, maybe this is a lot of hype. But … Oscar-nominated producer, Bruce Cohen said he had heard the same kind of talk.  He mentioned that Condon and Mark had presented their plans for the show to the academy’s board of governors two weeks ago and the board was blown away. If you can wow this crowd, you must be on to something.

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  • Burn!

    The Bagger can’t trade his Simms tuxedo for sackcloth just now, because he’s in the middle of things. But he’s always thought of his part-time Oscar gig as a way to crack wise and go all smarty pants without constantly making all those ugly phone calls that real reporting entails. Sort of like working at Slate.

    David Carr’s recent bitch slap to Slate’s Timothy Noah and a piece dedicated to calling for the Bagger’s (and his Oscar coverage’s) head.

  • Last minute jitters

    Waltz with BashirI’ll have a post up later today running a comb through my final predictions.  Tomorrow we’ll showcase all contributor picks (as well as the “Who deserves it?” poll results), but for now, I thought I’d share my pain with the readership.

    By pain, I mean last minute jitters, those creepy, crawling, gut-twisting thoughts that leave you in a haze over what to pick in this category or that, even if a frontrunner is staring you in the face.  There are a number of categories doing this to me this year.

    First and foremost, I’ve been on the precipice of picking a “Slumdog” sweep for nearly two weeks now.  Nathaniel Rogers has been bold enough to go there, but I haven’t allowed myself (yet) to think the Academy will vote for the film in the Best Sound Editing field.  However, as a multi-nominated sound mixer friend told me, members generally just vote for their favorite film throughout the crafts categories (much to his own chagrin many times over).

    I also found out last night that the only films that reached the Cinema Audio Society in screener form were “Quantum of Solace” and…”Slumdog Millionaire,” which makes their vote a bit difficult to chalk up as comprehensive.  Maybe “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” are still very much in the mixing race and the Best Picture frontrunner will lose both statues.  But this is just one example of the insanity that flows through my mind this time of year.

    Another thought is all the bad “Reader” press lately and how that may or may not affect Kate Winslet’s chances of a win in the lead actress category.  Many have chalked Meryl Streep up as the competition, but there have been murmurs for some time that Melissa Leo is a prized commodity in this field.  Sasha Stone is spit-balling the possibility today as well.  She’s got people like Dustin Hoffman out there singing her praises.  And her film is a welcome point of variety in a slate of expected nominees (both here and in the original screenplay category).

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  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST PICTURE

    And we come to the last category…have your say in the sidebar poll.

  • 10 years later

    Gene Siskel

    Gene died ten years ago on February 20, 1999. He is in my mind almost every day. I don’t want to rehearse the old stories about how we had a love/hate relationship, and how we dealt with television, and how we were both so scared the first time we went on Johnny Carson that, backstage, we couldn’t think of the name of a single movie, although that story is absolutely true. Those stories have been told. I want to write about our friendship. The public image was that we were in a state of permanent feud, but nothing we felt had anything to do with image. We both knew the buttons to push on the other one, and we both made little effort to hide our feelings, warm or cold. In 1977 we were on a talk show with Buddy Rogers, once Mary Pickford’s husband, and he said, “You guys have a sibling rivalry, but you both think you’re the older brother.”

    From Roger Ebert’s recent appreciation of Gene Siskel, who died 10 years ago tomorrow.

  • 2/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler• I’m just now stumbling onto this site, but if you weren’t keen to the controversy surrounding Jerry Lewis receiving the Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, here’s a hub with everything laid out for you. [TheTroubleWithJerry.net]

    • With Kate Winslet and Marisa Tomei in mind, Rachel Abramowitz wonders if nudity = Oscar glory. [The Envelope]

    • Patrick Goldstein on the bleak Oscar advertising picture. [The Big Picture]

    • Rex Reed blasts the stage designs of the 81st Annual Oscar telecast. [New York Observer]

    • David Poland captures a few frames of Loki Rourke’s recent existence. [The Hot Blog]

    • Steve Pond reports that Matilda Ledger will receive daddy Heath’s Oscar…if he wins, that is. [Associated Press]

    • LOL. [Oscars Leaked]