In Contention

Tag: Angelina Jolie

  • Best Actress: a tough call

    Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting MarriedRarely does the lead actress category provide more suspense than leading gentlemen and rarely is it as packed with fine performances as it is this year.  I can remember years when it was a struggle to come up with five nominees for best actress, 1975 and 1992 springing to mind.  It might have less to do with quality female performances than it does the amount of quality female roles Hollywood provides.

    But the Academy won’t have any trouble this year.  There are going to be excellent performances left off the list of nominees this year due to uncharacteristically heated competition, that is a sad fact, and there is not a thing anyone can do about it except continue to love and support the performances snubbed. In fact it is not even that they will be snubbed, it’s just that there is only room for five ladies, and this year, selecting those final five must be proving an enormously difficult task for the Academy.

    With her two Golden Globe wins, Kate Winslet seems to be a shoo-in for her superb performance in “Revolutionary Road,” a truly heartbreaking piece of acting that is sadly underseen at the moment.  Meryl Streep, meanwhile, will be nominated for the 15th time for her tyrannical nun in “Doubt” and Anne Hathaway will get a welcome to the big show for “Rachel Getting Married,” in which her caustic turn as Kym has altered the course of her career and announces her as a serious actress in the industry.

    And then it becomes tricky — those final two spots.

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  • Pre-PGA housekeeping

    I hadn’t realized I’d let my predictions linger, unattended, since November — I revised them in my head and guess I thought that would somehow magically appear on the site. Anyway, I thought it best to do some cobweb-clearing before the PGA announcement later today (for the record, I’m going with “Button,” “Knight” “Milk,” “Slumdog” and “WALL-E”) sends the guessing game into a new dimension. You can find my revised nomination predictions here.

    I’m still playing with some quirky, no doubt foolhardy, notions, but I like to keep things fun before the Guilds force us to get serious. Many categories still look like a complete crap-shoot to me: in the confounding Best Actress race, for example, I’m experimenting with a Kate Winslet snub, while dipping (reluctantly) into the Angelina Jolie pool for the first time. It doesn’t feel good.

    In the top race, I’m still banking on “WALL-E” leapfrogging “The Dark Knight” as the populist choice, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see both in there. I’m happy with four of my Best Picture runners, but couldn’t settle on a fifth: “Revolutionary Road” is freezing over, “Frost/Nixon” has ticked all the boxes but doesn’t seem to be anyone’s favourite, and the other most-mentioned contenders are a pretty passionless bunch too. Instead of flipping a coin between them, I decided to go a little crazy and try “Happy-Go-Lucky” on for size.

    Below the cut, for the hell of it, some winner picks to accompany Kris’s last week. In the top race, I’ve moved on from my earlier prediction of a “Milk” victory (seeing the film helps sometimes), but something still doesn’t feel right about “Slumdog Millionaire” to me — it seems like the kind of film that would benefit from going into the Oscar race as an underdog rather than the favourite. I honestly have no idea, so I’ll take that as an excuse to go mental again until I get a clearer sign.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Memo to the Academy

    The Academy Awards–MEMO–

    TO: Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
    FROM: Kristopher Tapley

    RE: The ballot you recently received

    Ladies and gentleman,

    As you sit to ponder the year’s best in your various fields of professional expertise, you might find yourself strong-armed into the consensus view 2008’s film product has been whittled down to over the last 30 days.  You might even find yourself at a loss, cramming as much as you can after a year of constantly working with nary a moment to spare a trip to the cinema.  Such last minute jitters can yield an unconsidered and, certainly, lackadaisical approach to your annual responsibilities as AMPAS members.  But I implore you to take your time with this, be measured, and above all, take pen to paper with a level of seriousness.

    While I would never presume to tell you how to go about filling in your respective ballots, I hope you don’t find it too bold of me to offer a few closing words of encouragement and suggestion as we close the book on 2008.  The glut of film awards season fades into a numbing hum you’d perhaps rather ignore until the holidays have run their course, so come back to these words at a later date if you must.  They merely represent the humble opinion of one passionate film lover who believes in the potential of your organization and the ideals it stands for.

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  • Globe cheers, jeers and predictions

    As ever, this morning’s Golden Globe announcement provided a mixed bag of talking points, with some pleasantly zany curveballs at one end of the scale, and a couple of yawnsome autopilot nominees at the other. Like most awards bodies, they’re never going to get it completely right: for every inspired inclusion or omission there’s an equally perplexing one. (Ralph Fiennes for “The Duchess,” anyone?)

    But looking at the nominees from a bargaining perspective — tempering, for example, my disappointment that Richard Jenkins didn’t make the Best Actor cut with the knowledge that Clint Eastwood didn’t either — I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m happier with them than I expected to be.

    With that in mind, I offer below a couple of my own personal highlights and low points of the nominee list (though, given that I haven’t seen “Milk” yet, I’m leaving off that heated topic), followed by some way-too-early, subject-to-change predictions. Feel free to supply your own.

    THE GOOD

    Comedy rules: The comedy/musical categories are usually a dumping ground for filler nominees in less-than-memorable mainstream products, and previously expressed fear that this year, given the lack of high-profile contenders, they could make some really desperate stretches this year. Happily, the HFPA showed genuine resourcefulness by dipping into indie waters to celebrate the oddball wonders of “Happy-Go-Lucky” and “In Bruges,” while singling out the superb, less-discussed likes of Rebecca Hall and Brendan Gleeson for recognition. With classy, intimate works like “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Last Chance Harvey” joining the mix, the resulting set of nominees is, dare I say it, considerably fresher than their dramatic counterparts. How often can you say that?

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  • INTERVIEW: ‘Changeling’ screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski

    J. Michael Straczynski“In the feature film world, we television writers barely exist,” explains J. Michael Straczynski screenwriter of Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling,” starring Angelina Jolie.  “So for this to all happen so fast is really a fairy tale year for me. I am elated with how this has all gone down and changed the course of my life.”

    Straczynski was making a fine living on the small screen, writing episodes of “Murder She Wrote” and “Jake and the Fatman” before moving on to  Showtime’s series “Jeremiah” and “Babylon 5,” two of his most well-known credits.  He had worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and upon discovering the story of Christine Collins, he put it on the back burner for a few years until he found the time to do it right.

    He describes his research and fact-finding like “putting a jigsaw puzzle together” for the simple reason that facts and articles had been lost, and they simply did not have the technology then to store everything he required. Taking a year off writing television, he researched the Collins case and put a script together, which his agent sent off to Imagine Entertainment and Ron Howard.  The script was bought as is and Howard wanted to direct the film, but when his schedule became impossible, “Frost/ Nixon” looming on the horizon, he sent the screenplay to Clint Eastwood.  The grizzled vet read the work on a plane back to the States and committed to direct after the first reading.

    Yes.  This was a FIRST DRAFT that went before the cameras within a year of being sold, something rather unheard of in Hollywood unless you’re Woody Allen.

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  • 11/17 Oscarweb Round-up

    Nicole Kidman in Australia• Jeffrey Wells has kind words for “Bigger, Stronger, Faster” and spends some time with director Chris Bell. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Nathaniel Rogers talks with “Happy-Go-Lucky” star Sally Hawkins. [The Film Experience]

    • David Poland talks to the “Slumdog” crew. [The Hot Blog]

    • Ben Lynfield goes deep on “Waltz with Bashir” across the pond. [The Independent]

    • Eastwood calls Jolie “a fine actress hampered by beauty.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • Might the gyrations on Wall Street affect what we want to see in the cineplex? [MSNBC]

    • Danny Boyle talks his Mumbai undertaking with the Gray Lady. [New York Times]

    • Here’s a random list: the top 10 most accessible foreign films of the last decade. [Spout Blog]

    • Donna Freydkin spends some quality time with Nicole Kidman. [USA Today]

    • Guillermo Del Toro’s five favorite films. [Rotten Tomatoes]

  • Downey, Jenkins among EW’s Entertainers of the Year

    It’s interesting to note that, in addition to citations for the respective casts of “The Dark Knight” and “Sex and the City: The Movie,” only five film actors made EW’s recently unveiled list of the 25 Entertainers of the Year. (Six if you count their #2 pick, Tina Fey — which I don’t.)

    Perhaps it chimes in with the widespread feeling that 2008 isn’t a vintage year for cinema, perhaps the worlds of TV and music simply had more to offer, or perhaps I’m simply over-analysing. It’s curious to see arguably the year’s two most overexposed stars, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, absent from the list — make of that what you will.

    Nevertheless, the list was topped by a movie star: Robert Downey, Jr. Even with the bumping of “The Soloist” from the 2008 slate, it’s difficult to deny what a great year he’s had — between “Iron Man” and “Tropic Thunder,” he really found his popular touch, and even the most elitist critic had a kind word for him. Whether or not that unlikely Oscar campaign for the latter film takes flight, he has, as EW aptly puts it, “pulled off one of the smartest second acts in showbiz history.”

    Other names present on the list include Meryl Streep, James Franco and Elizabeth Banks — but the most surprising and delightful inclusion is Richard Jenkins. I can’t imagine that the humble 61 year-old character actor ever thought he’d appear on a list alongside the likes of Leona Lewis and The Jonas Brothers, but good for him. It’s an appropriate recognition for a year that saw him supplement a career performance in “The Visitor” with cunning appearances in two mainstream crowdpleasers. Here’s EW’s take:

    Richard Jenkins has had a colorful career, but he never seemed like an actor who’d get interrupted during dinner. After growing up in De Kalb, Ill., he became one of those ubiquitous character actors whom only a few know by name: the gay federal agent in Flirting With Disaster, the psychiatrist in There’s Something About Mary, the deceased patriarch in HBO’s Six Feet Under, and on and on. This year, Jenkins played Will Ferrell’s stepdad in Step Brothers and a gym manager in Burn After Reading. Though Jenkins has worked with just about every big-name filmmaker and actor in Hollywood, The Visitor writer-director Tom McCarthy was still considered brave for elevating him to leading man. ”There was never a question about whether he could do this,” he says. ”Richard has proven himself.’

    Indeed he has. That Best Actor nomination for “The Visitor” looks more and more likely to me.

  • Calling out the Oscar quote whores

    Almost all critics and bloggers are guilty of it at some time or another — when one is suitably impressed by a particular film or performance, they often express their approval in Oscar-related terms. “So-and-so is Oscar-worthy,” “Start the Oscar buzz now for such-and-such,” and so on. It’s a lazy and fate-tempting practice, and I confess I fall into the trap occasionally myself.

    Now over at eFilmCritic, Erik Childress has posted an interesting and rather cheeky piece on the subject, in which he rounds up the worst offenders, and can’t resist taking the odd gleeful dig at certain misguided endorsements. This one particularly amused me:

    (2003) Angelina Jolie is brilliant. She gives another Oscar-worthy performance. (“Beyond Borders”) – Paul Clinton

    When you’ve stopped laughing, try these for size:

    (2006) Another powerful Penn performance. Oscar-worthy in every way. (“All the King’s Men”) – Clay Smith

    (2003) This film has more heart than any 100 films released this year. Earns its place in film history within the first hour. A masterpiece of nuance filmmaking. The first Oscar contender of the season. (“Matchstick Men”) – Mike Sargent

    (2004) One of the first serious Oscar contenders of the year. (“The Village”) – Jim O’Brien

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  • 11/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    Ben Stiller• David Chen junkets Danny Boyle on the director’s inspirations. [/Film]

    • David Poland is being pissy about when Paramount wants to screen their Oscar contender this year. [The Hot Blog]

    • Lou Lumenick rounds up the infinitely boring denials and foreplay coming from the “Australia” camp.  Can we just get to the movie already and stop with the lame “news” bytes? [Lumeick on Film]

    • Noah Forrest is kind of over James Bond. [Movie City News]

    • Steven Zeitchik gives “Slumdog Millionaire” another look and still loves what he sees. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Logan Hill, meanwhile, talks to the film’s standout Dev Patel. [Vulture]

    • Sasha Stone pegs the season as the year of the showcase perf. [Awards Daily]

    • Chris Lee corners “Changeling” star Angelina Jolie about life and stuff. [The Envelope]

    • As the Buzzmeter rumbles to life, slowly, a few more pundits chime in with Tom O’Neil. [Gold Derby]

    • “Gomorrah” producer Domenico Procacci and IFC Films won’t be content with a mere Best Foreign Language Film mention. [Variety]

    • Museum of the Moving Image honoree Ben Stiller talks his feting to Daniel Frankel. [Variety]

    • Dave Karger puts Frank Langella’s likely Oscar clip out there for all to see. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • 11/1 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky• Mark Olsen goes deep with Soderbergh on “Che.” [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil chats it up with “Happy-Go-Lucky” star Sally Hawkins. [Gold Derby]

    • Jeffrey Wells susses through conflicting running time numbers for “Australia,” which, by the way, 25 days out from release, where the hell is this movie? [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Anne Thompson spends some quality time with Danny Boyle. [Variety]

    • Yeah, wait until you see Newton as Condi — if you can stand it. [The Guardian]

    • Anthony Breznican reports on the twisting and turning Oscar season of 2008. [USA Today]

    • Boy…Karina Longworth really doesn’t like Angelina Jolie’s work in “Changeling.”  [Spout Blog]

  • 10/27 Oscarweb Round-up

    Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man• Nathaniel Rogers kick-starts an Oscar revamp, starting with the fellas. [The Film Experience]

    • Jeffrey Wells is nervous about Josh Brolin’s Oscar hopes in “W.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • I stopped when he didn’t clue into why it’s called what it’s called.  Welcome to the Rex Reed Members Only lounge. [Peter Bart]

    • Lou Lumenick gives good ink to the Oscar hopes of Angelina Jolie and Kristin Scott Thomas. [Lumenick on Film]

    • “The French Connection” and “Serpico” top a readers’ poll of the best cop films. [New York Daily News]

    • Peter Debruge looks at the year’s issue-focused Oscar hopefuls through the lens of precendence. [Variety]

    • Adam Dawtrey, meanwhile, zeroes in on the obvious: this year’s Oscar product seems to have skipped the festival route. [Variety]

    • And Justin Chang stands up for the performances of fanboy cinema. [Variety]

  • 10/26 Oscarweb Round-up

    Luke and Brie are on a First Date• Tom O’Neil ponders Angelina Jolie’s Oscar hopes yet again… [Gold Derby]

    • …and rather pointlessly takes a shot at Sean Penn. [Gold Derby]

    • Peter Bart is charmed by Clint Eastwood’s development through the years. [Peter Bart]

    • Eastwood, meanwhile, offers up 12 key influences on his life in movies. [Entertaiment Weekly]

    • Peter Sciretta takes a look back at Paul Thomas Anderson’s short film “The Legend of Dirk Diggler.” [/Film]

    • Condon and Mark tap Roger Goodman to helm the 81st annual Oscar telecast. [The Hollywood Reporter]

    • Gaynor Flynn spends some time with Debra Winger, assumed by some to be a shoo-in nominee for the worst five minutes of “Rachel Getting Married.” [The Independent]

    • Howard Feinstein talks “Synecdoche, New York” with the haunted and brilliant Charlie Kaufman. [indieWIRE]

    • Ditto Rachel Abramowitz. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Harrison Ford is crowned best movie President for his performance in “Air Force One.” [Reuters]

    • Mark Blankenship digs into the differences between “Billy Elliot” on stage and screen. [New York Times]

    • Karina Longworth has some nice remarks about our old friend Chad Hartigan and his feature debut “Luke and Brie are on a First Date,” currently playing the Hamptons Film Festival. [Spout Blog]

  • EW Oscar chatter

    Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz of Entertainment Weekly have “formally” launched their Oscar Watch video show.  The duo will be looking at the Oscar race as it unfolds, digging into the contenders as they present themselves.  This week, it’s a look at Angelina Jolie and “Changeling,” Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and the cop drama “Pride and Glory.”  Check out the conversation here.

    Dave Karger

  • ‘Gomorrah’ and ‘Changeling’: two that work

    Angelina Jolie in ChangelingIt’s been a while since I’ve committed to a long-form review, and for that, I have to apologize.  Short Takes here and there don’t exactly cut it, but we’ve certainly stayed afloat in this light with Guy’s wonderful work across the pond.  I don’t get a chance to sit down and hammer out some thoughts very often, and I’m hoping that will change in the coming weeks.

    Two films that jumped out this week, however, demanded some attention.  The first is Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah,” which I saw recently in preparation for the AFI Fest.  The film was well-received at Cannes and has become Italy’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race.

    I have to say, I’m in agreement with Guy’s assessment for the most part.  Garrone’s patch-work narrative might seem trite and even trendy at first mention, but the menagerie works because it isn’t pretentious.  There is no sense of contrivance or expressed intent to make these five separate narratives comment toward one another or intersect in a nifty manner.

    The assemblage is borderline slap-dash and is more impactful as a result.  In a sense, Garrone has cooked up five tense, detailed short films and simply sifted them together.  All roads lead to nowhere, and a list of sobering Camorra facts at the end of the film really sticks with the viewer — especially that last doosey.

    (More on “Gomorrah,” plus thoughts on “Changeling” after the jump.)

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  • Memo: Uh, the Best Actress race is VERY heated

    Kate Beckinsale in Nothing But the TruthAs a few commenters have been discussing elsewhere, it seems that some supposedly attentive Oscar bloggers figure 2008 to be a weak year for the lead actress race.  We’ve been calling it the most competitive derby in years around these parts for quite a while now, so the notion that anyone would find it to be thin is perplexing to say the least.

    Well, I’m happy today to see that Pete Hammond is on our bandwagon, writing the following at his Notes on a Season blog:

    This year, however, it is already clear that the race, for all intents and purposes, is backloaded with the most imposing and competitive list of genuine best actress possibilities in many years.

    A tsunami is coming, and [Melissa] Leo and [Penélope] Cruz are getting out of the way by taking their best shot now, hoping it’s enough to stay alive when the big storm of contenders hits shore.

    He then launches into a laundry list of contenders, all of them thoroughly covered before.

    We’re currently banking on Kristin Scott Thomas, Angelina Jolie, Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep around these parts.  Those are four slots that seem secure.  After that, it’s a toss-up between Anne Hathaway, Melissa Leo, Penélope Cruz, Michelle Williams and Sally Hawkins in the indie sector.  If it’s not an indie performance the AMPAS wants to recognize, they’ll have high-budget fare to choose from in Cate Blanchett and Nicole Kidman.

    I’m sticking with Kidman for now.  Makes as much sense as any other contender.

    Have your say. Who are you predicting for Best Actress right now?

  • Bloggers dish ‘Changeling,’ O’Neil surprised by Sheen’s lead push

    Michael Sheen in Frost/NixonGold Derby’s Tom O’Neil corralled a bunch of Oscar bloggers over the weekend to discuss his topic of choice: Angelina Jolie’s Oscar chances for “Changeling” after an AMPAS funk for the last few years. I decided to abstain, since I won’t be seeing the film until next week and would prefer not to spin my wheels with the rest, but it’s a nice back and forth. Give it a look here.

    O’Neil is also somehow surprised that Michael Sheen is being pushed as a lead for Universal’s “Frost/Nixon,” a fact we’ve been peddling around here for months.  Here’s his reasoning against the move:

    Yes, sure, they both really are leads, with Sheen actually having more face time and lines of dialogue to speak as British talk-show host David Frost compared to Langella as the disgraced U.S. president he infamously interviewed on TV in 1977: Richard Nixon.

    That means nothing at the Oscars. Denzel Washington had less screen time and dialogue than “Training Day” costar Ethan Hawke, but won in lead while Hawke had to settle for a losing nomination in supporting. Forest Whitaker won best actor over “The Last King of Scotland” costar James McAvoy, who had more screen time and dialogue too, but was placed in the supporting slot where he wasn’t even nominated.

    Welcome to four months ago.  But all kidding aside, I don’t think “Frost/Nixon” is in the same vein as these films.  Sure, Langella dominated on the stage, but I’m hearing that the film is more about Frost than Peter Morgan’s play.  Our own John Foote wrote a few weeks back that it is “one of those “Amadeus” situations where one performance cannot exist without the other,” and I agree with that assessment.

    Additionally, people close to the film have been thumping the lead drum for Sheen since the early summer, so they certainly think they have a shot.  I have refused to move Sheen from our chart of 10 lead actor contenders because I could honestly see both men finding room, despite the crowded field.

    What do you guys think?  Is it crazy for Universal to ignore the supporting field for Sheen or can you just not put these things in neat little boxes?

  • ‘Changeling’ provokes dissent in the blogosphere

    Uh-oh. Since its premiere at Cannes, “Changeling” has provoked both breathless raves and withering putdowns, but after its NYFF screening, a number of prominent bloggers are falling into the latter camp, expressing disappointment over both the film and Angelina Jolie’s much-hyped performance.

    The most articulate view expressed so far is by the ever-readable Nathaniel Rogers, who, despite high hopes for the film, thinks it is “overlong, overwrought” and suffers from an identity crisis:

    Somewhere buried in “Changeling” is an interesting story about a woman finding her strength against significant odds … Unfortunately the movie as directed and scripted works against this potentially thrilling internal drama. The plotting and direction can’t decide which kind of movie this is: melodrama, courtroom, serial killer picture, procedural, period epic?

    “Changeling“‘s title accurately reflects its early creepy child switch and its relentlessly mediocre shift from melodrama to true crime story. A better more disciplined film would have earned that title in a more ambitious way. It’s a shame that there’s so little real fluidity, few emotional surprises and no transformative character arcs within the sprawling story.

    As for Jolie, Rogers doesn’t doubt her Oscar chances, but he finds her fatally miscast:

    Angelina Jolie’s screen presence is, as everyone knowns, competent and forceful which is usually a good thing. Unfortunately her largeness somewhat robs Mrs. Collins of the journey from socially conditioned feminine weakness to lioness strength that we need to watch her stumble through. Jolie is technically proficient enough in these “womanly confusion” scenes but they don’t feel organic to the actress and there’s no surprise or reveal once she starts fighting back.

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  • 10/4 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe• Dave Karger “rounds up” the best bets for Oscars hitting cinemas this week. [Oscar Watch]

    • Off the cuff with Mike Leigh across the pond. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Tom O’Neil wonders whether Kristin Scott Thomas can grab an Oscar and a Tony in the same year… [Gold Derby]

    • …and thinks Clint Eastwood might be able to pull Angelina Jolie out of her Oscar funk. [Gold Derby]

    • On the heels of Rotten Tomatoes’ list of 50, John Campea runs down the 10 best animated films of all time amid a spiffy new layout for his site. [The Movie Blog]

    • Errol Morris to screen “Standard Operating Procedure” at 27 medical schools around the country.  Talk about grass roots. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • Scott Bowles kicks off a DiCaprio/Crowe interview piece with one hell of an interesting lede. [USA Today]