In Contention

Category: Daily

  • ‘A little blingier’

    Admittedly, it’s a little difficult to feel any sympathy for Oscar nominees when they discuss their frantic awards-season schedules. Oh poor you, it must be such a pain in the ass having to attend fittings for your free designer gown, or to attend yet another dinner held for the sole purpose of celebrating your wonderfulness.

    But if anyone can make such trials seem relatable, it’s Taraji P. Henson, who could just be the year’s most loveable nominee. Here, she shares her own schedule from the past week, and she’s clearly loving every minute. I love the girlish enthusiasm she expresses here about the red-carpet rigmarole:

    “She knows how to work it,” (stylist Mary) Norton says. “She won’t give herself that credit, but it’s why designers want to work with her. She doesn’t just walk a red carpet, she owns it.” Henson giggles at the very thought of it. “Well, I think it’s that ham that comes along with being an actress! I still to this day play dress-up. My son will come in my room and will be like, ‘Where are you going?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m playing. Get out!’ I’ve been playing dress-up all my life,” she says, stopping to laugh again. “But it’s on a whole ‘nother level now. It’s gotten a little blingier!”

    How can you not be happy for her? Work it, Taraji.

  • It’s all about the actors

    Over at USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna has come to the conclusion that, in a fairly weak year for film with a less-than-competitive Best Picture slate to show for it, the performance categories are where it’s at this year:

    The real action this year is in the acting. Sets were chewed with delicious relish and scenes were snatched with delectable finesse, even if the films themselves have underwhelmed.

    “I look at my ballot and see all these amazing actors,” says an overwhelmed Donna Gigliotti, a producer on The Reader and a trophy winner for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. “It’s just staggering. That role was a game changer for Anne Hathaway, nothing that anyone expected from her. And Melissa Leo in Frozen River? What is she, 48? Her nomination just made me want to stand up and cheer. Richard Jenkins is such a fabulous actor. And Taraji P. Henson is the soul of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.“

    I’m inclined to agree. Though I still think the Academy dropped the ball in some areas (Best Actress, in particular, could have been a far richer and more diverse race had the likes of Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas been invited), it’s true that, while 2008 hasn’t been as rewarding for auteur works as some previous years, we’ve seen a lot of films either wholly constructed around their performances (“The Wrestler” being a prime example) or saved by them (for my money, Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt are the most focused elements of “Rachel Getting Married”).

    The result is, I think, that people seem a lot more invested in this year’s acting races than the ones for Picture or Director — and it’s not just because the latter two are foregone conclusions. (Let’s face it, there’s not much more suspense in some of the acting categories, and I think you know what I’m referring to.) It seems to me that the performances of 2008 have been more complete, complex and adventurous than the films — in some cases, the very films in which they appear.

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  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST ACTOR

    And this, my friends, is the race to watch.  Tell us in the sidebar poll.

  • 2/17 Oscarweb Round-up

    WALL-E• Patrick Goldstein joins a massive chorus pondering this year’s lack of an “Oscar bump” at the box office. [The Big Picture]

    • David Poland responds…at length. [The Hot Blog]

    • The Gurus o’ Gold crank out the odds. [Movie City News]

    • Anne Thompson wonders if all the bad press for “The Reader” last week could affect its Oscar chances at the last minute. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The week after our own Guy Lodge dived into the matter, John Horn tackles the Oscar nominated “WALL-E” screnplay. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Tim Shipment, meanwhile, calls said bad press an “orchestrated attack.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • New Yorkers head west to help bring the Oscars to life. [New York Daily News]

  • Uh…

    So this is the apparent pay-off for all the cloak and dagger mystery surrounding this year’s Oscar presenters? So that, as we wait with bated breath, the curtain can rise on the heartstoppingly awe-inspiring likes of — golly, gosh, wow, gee, etc — Robert Pattinson?

    Okay, I’m not a pre-teen girl, so forgive me if I didn’t just wet my pants in anticipation. But I hope Bill Condon and Laurence Mark have some more interesting aces up their sleeves than the stars of “Twilight.” Otherwise, y’know, why all the secrecy?

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST ACTRESS

    Moving into the top tier categories, have your say in the sidebar poll.  This one should be interesting.

  • Stephen Colbert predicts the Oscars

    He went 5/5 last year, and hey, we have a new Mickey supporter!

  • Coldplay’s Chris Martin has a say on wife Gwyneth Paltrow’s ballot

    And according to a radio station in Manchester, via The Times, he voted for Mickey Rourke:

    The Coldplay singer found a nominations form lying around — understandable perhaps when you are married to a former Best Actress winner in Gwyneth Paltrow. But Martin just couldn’t resist. “I read the instructions, which is like you’ve got to put your top five in order and if the number one that you’ve chosen isn’t really doing very well, then they move on to your number two and include that with the one that is doing well, if you see what I mean,” he told Key 103 Radio in Manchester.

    “I did get a say on that form. I got to put a vote in. I voted for Mickey Rourke. Isn’t he great in that film (The Westler)?”

    This of course raises the bigger question: what the hell are Academy members doing allowing other folks to vote?  I know plenty of people who allow their sons and daughteres to vote for them, and in one instance, an editor who allows his assistant to do it.

    Sheesh…

  • 2/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jerry Lewis• David Carr asks for your input if you ran the Academy. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom O’Neil talks to Best Supporting Actress contender Penelope Cruz. [Gold Derby]

    • Speaking of supporting, Betsy Sharkey writes up an appreciation of the lot. [The Envelope]

    • Michelle Phillips wonders which Jerry Lewis will show up at the Oscars next weekend. [Chicago Tribune]

    • Peter Bradshaw on the weirdest Oscar acceptance speeches. [The Guardian]

    • Patrick Goldstein remembers the Oscar impact of “Patton.” [The Big Picture]

    • Cosmo Landesman talks to Amy Adams across the pond. [The Times]

    • Nathaniel Rogers gets around to the shorts and docs. [The Film Experience]

    • Patricia Leigh Brown talks to Oscarcast designer David Rockwell. [New York Times]

  • Can ‘Slumdog’ really make a clean sweep?

    As we all know, this was a(nother) exceptionally good weekend for “Slumdog Millionaire,” as it nabbed a quartet of technical guild trophies, from the cinematographers, editors, art directors and even, in an especially unlikely coup, the sound mixers. With just the costume designers left to weigh in, this means that Danny Boyle’s film has not come up empty at a single guild ceremony all season — it is an unprecedented hot streak.

    With voters seemingly incapable, on any given ballot, of not checking the box alongside the word “Slumdog,” the film suddenly poses a very real threat of nabbing 9 awards, sweeping every category in which it is nominated at the Oscars. Nathaniel Rogers, for one, is predicting such an outcome, and thinks that the key to everything lies in the usually unheralded sound categories:

    It might sound odd to say but I believe these are the key categories of the night. If they announce them early and they both go to Slumdog Millionaire we have a sweeper on our hands and you’ll watch it win all 9 of its categories. If it loses both it will likely be a more traditional night when several film get a couple of statues each. But these two categories are clearly where Slumdog is most vulnerable to defeat. Voters could also opt to improve WALL•E or The Dark Knight‘s statue total … (But) the biggest problem for both the robot and the batman is, I fear, each other. Which might have also been the case in the best picture nomination battle.

    I completely agree. The two sound categories are among the races causing me the most head-scratching as I finalise my predictions. As a technical feat of sound design, “WALL-E” would appear to be the connoisseur’s choice, but the fact that it was passed over by the guild raises a questionmark. “The Dark Knight” fits the same “acclaimed action movie” profile that netted “The Bourne Ultimatum” a brace of wins here last year. But aren’t the Academy members who don’t know much about the craft, but do love “Slumdog,” simply going to check off the film’s name twice more?

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  • Berlin jury avoids the mainstream

    Perhaps it’s an indication of an unusually low-key festival, or perhaps (more likely) I’ve been too distracted by the steamrolling Oscar season, but either way, I’m a little disturbed that the Berlin Film Festival wrapped up this weekend and I am barely familiar with most of the prizewinning films.

    I had heard some positive things about “London River,” a culture-clash drama from “Day of Glory” helmer Rachid Bouchareb, set around the 2005 London bombings, that gathered some buzz for Brenda Blethyn’s performance — but ended up taking Best Actor for Sotigui Kouyate.

    And I was aware that “Sweet Rush,” which shared the Alfred Bauer Prize (which rewards “new perspectives,” apparently), is the latest from Andrzej Wajda (though word is it’s not one of his best), while I remember the Best Screenplay winner, Iraq-themed US indie “The Messenger,” gathered some notice at Sundance.

    But I must admit that the winner of the Golden Bear, “The Milk of Sorrow,” skipped my radar entirely. The sophomore film from female Peruvian director Claudia Llosa, it’s a solemn-sounding effort about the lifelong trauma inflicted on a child of rape — or, if you want the more sensationalist pitch, a woman with a potato in her nether regions. It seems to have attracted mixed notices — Variety’s review admires from a distance, but Screen International finds it “mannered” and “contrived.”

    Of course, one would expect a jury headed by avante-garde arthouse queen Tilda Swinton to favour the international and the eccentric, so none of this is really a surprise — especially given that they’d made clear their intent to reward politically charged work.

    In any case, the Golden Bear truly hasn’t been any indicator of international success of late — the last few winners include “U-Carmen eKhayelitsha” (which really deserved a higher profile), “Grbavica,” “Tuya’s Marriage” and “Elite Squad.” I have a feeling Llosa’s film isn’t going to have much more luck crossing over, but we’ll see.

    Full list of winners after the cut.

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  • ‘Slumdog,’ ‘WALL-E,’ ‘Wire’ win big at the Eddies

    ACE Eddie AwardUPDATED: Alright, back from the show and it seems “Slumdog” also predictably won the ASC award, which brings me to a possibility that has come up in a number of conversations recently: could the film sweep all its Oscar categories in one week’s time?  It is the film of the year and truthfully, there seems to be a ripple through the industry hinting at a nine Oscar outcome (since it can’t exactly win two Oscars in the Original Song category — but wouldn’t a tie just be hilarious?).

    Anyway, this was my second time reporting from the ACE Eddie Awards ceremony and it’s generally a good time, for those who can keep up with the inside baseball, of course.  Note to self: maybe not bring the girlfriend next time.

    Beyond the quick dash of kudos-dishing there were a trio of special awards handed out tonight.  For starters, the Career Achievement Eddies went to Arthur Schmidt and Sidney Katz (father of ACE member Virginia Katz).  Watching Schmidt’s reel play before Robert Zemeckis handed him his honor was a treat, of course, considering the nearly three decades of movie magic the man has been partially responsible for: “Back to the Future,” “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Forrest Gump,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” “The Birdcage,” etc.  He seems to have taken a break the last four years.

    Mel Gibson, meanwhile, joined Stuart Baird in presenting Richard Donner with the Golden Eddie Award (which last year went to Norman Jewison).  Donner’s speech was a highlight, despite the rambling (which was done with trademark Donner endearment).  He put a bow on the thing with a trio of political points, the first being an anti-fur declaration (to go along with an anti-fur button pinned to his lapel).  Then he encouraged us all to adopt puppies rather than buy, and whether you voted for Barack Obama or not, he said, “we’re going through a lot of shit and he needs all of your support now.”  Each of them were met with big applause in a West L.A. ballroom, but of course.

    But again, the highlight reel = movie magic: “Superman,” “The Omen,” “Lethal Weapon,” “The Goonies” — GREAT call by ACE this year, I have to say.  But the one thing that stuck in my mind was Gibson’s weird cavalier facial hair…thing.  An evil Robin Hood, that’s what he looked like up there.  Or a “V for Vendetta” mask.

    Anyway, the big awards went to “Slumdog” and “WALL-E,” of course (as well as “Man on Wire”), the newsy news of which you can find after the jump.  I think the Pixar win is a bit of a surprise and in a way, a refreshing one.  It’s nice to see this guild really break down the barrier for animated films in this way, since no other toon has taken the Eddie in the past despite numerous nominations in the comedy category.  The former, however, and Chris Dickens (looking quite Moby-esque, I have to say), seems to be on an unstoppable Oscar trajectory.

    Much to the chagrin of some, the enthusiasm of others.  Such is the season…

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  • ‘Man on Wire’ wins Doc Eddie

    The year’s most talked about documentary just beat out “Chicago 10” and “Bush’s War” here at The Beverly Hilton’s Crystal Ballroom in the second award of the evening. Sadly, editor Jinx Godfrey wasn’t here to accept the trophy, but she sent along her assistant to handle things.

    More to come…

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

    I think we all know how this will turn out, so a Sunday is as good a day as any.  Let us know in the sidebar poll.

  • ‘Slumdog’ tonight, too?

    In addition to the ADG award “Slumdog Millionaire” took yesterday, the Cinema Audio Society also bestowed it with their award in something of a surprise (I’d say).  I usually go to that ceremony, but with it being Valentine’s Day, other duties beckoned.

    I will, however, be at tonight’s ACE Eddies ceremony, so look for a from-the-floor posting when the winner is announced.  Are we expecting anything other than “Slumdog” here?  And for comedy, I don’t know.  “Tropic Thunder” maybe?  Personally, I’d give it to “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    Pretty quiet for the most part otherwise, but let us all wish Guy a happy birthday.  I expect he’s face deep in his 10th pint across the pond by now.  Better be, anyway.

  • ‘Button,’ ‘Knight,’ ‘Slumdog’ take ADG Awards

    The Art Directors Guild didn’t really veer from the expected last night, handing their awards to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in the period category, “The Dark Knight” in fantasy and “Slumdog Millionaire” in contemporary.

    And on we go. This pretty much affirms “Button’s” grip on this category for the Oscars. The real question, however, remains: how on earth does Nathan Crowley’s work in “The Dark Knight” qualify as “fantasy” design?

  • Writing the silences

    Hard as it may be to believe, it seems there are a lot of people in and around the industry who don’t fully understand what a screenplay is — who think that ‘writing’ equals ‘dialogue.’ This makes it all the more laudable that the Academy’s writing branch recognised “WALL-E,” a film that hinges, of course, on extended stretches of dialogue-free storytelling.

    As I’ve written before, it’s a significant challenge to build empathetic characters, credible relationships and narrative immediacy with a minimum of on-screen words. And yet, one still hears occasional murmurings questioning the validity of the film as a feat of screenwriting. (Presumably they imagine the animators made up the story as they drew, or that all silent cinema was entirely improvised.)

    So I was pleased to read Andrew Stanton thoroughly address this issue in a chat with Pete Hammond, wherein he states that of all “WALL-E”‘s 6 nominations, he takes the most pride in the screenplay nod:

    “I am prouder to be in writing more than anything else. At Pixar we say ‘story, story, story.’ It’s the root of everything,” he says. “It’s the biggest pat on the back I can think of. We put ourselves fully into every aspect but it’s all in service of the story.”

    It could be a tough sell to the overall academy (every branch votes on the final screenplay award) as a lot of members just don’t understand how a virtually silent movie, in which the main characters speak their own language, could possibly have been “written.”  But Stanton says it’s no different than the process any other writer would go through.

    “How you tell a story is just as important as what the story is. In my mind these characters were gonna speak. They just weren’t gonna speak in a language you and I knew. When they spoke and why they spoke was just as important as if you could understand their language,” he says.

    Well said. Got it, voters?

  • Taking it in his stride

    With the Best Actor race narrowing to a heated finish between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn, it’s easy to forget that Clint Eastwood was once very much part of the conversation. Of course, any such possibilities were sunk as “Gran Torino” became the first Eastwood in six years to come up empty on nomination morning. In a substantial interview in today’s Guardian, however, Eastwood doesn’t seem particularly fazed by missing out this time:

    “I have had three films nominated out of the last five I’ve made. I just make the film the best I can. The rest is political stuff and posturing. I’m not terribly good at that. I think our message was as good as any message out there this year. There we are.”

    I imagine it’s easier to be philosophical about such things when you have four Oscars on your mantlepiece already, and the film in question is still raking in the millions. However, as I read the piece, I got the distinct impression that “Torino” is very much a film Eastwood made for himself, rather than with designs on awards and critical kudos. (As it happens, interviewer Emma Brockes is refreshingly unfawning on her subject — though she likes the film as a whole, she isn’t too awed to point out its flaws, including the star’s own occasional “snarling and overacting.”)

    Of course, a more cynical take would be that he isn’t bothered by his poor showing in this year’s awards race because he has an ominously baity project in the pipeline — his thus-far vaguely defined Nelson Mandela picture — that could well feed the Academy’s known penchant for ennobling true-life stories. As a South African, I must admit that the project has me nervous for all kinds of reasons, but amid the earnestness, Eastwood isn’t above poking a bit of fun at himself:

    When I ask who will play (Mandela), he looks devilish and says, “I’m going to play him. I’m going to show you my versatility.” (It will actually be Morgan Freeman. “Perfect casting for Mandela.”)

    We will no doubt be talking further about this project when Kris offers his year-in-advance speculation on the 2009 Oscars later this month, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, read the rest of the interview here.