• Steve Pond chats with “Casino Jack” star Kevin Spacey. [The Odds]
• Rebecca Keegan writes up the hairy task of creating Rapunzel in “Tangled.” [24 Frames]
• Marc Lee thinks it’s looking up for Britain at the Oscars this year. [Daily Telegraph]
Tag: Best Actress
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11/26 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: The hairy task of ‘Tangled,’ Britain’s Oscar potential, Julianne Moore a best bet?
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11/24 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Kunis on her ‘Machinist’ impression, Hammer talks twinning, bad boy celebrity
(Ended up unexpectedly taking the day off yesterday. Not that I’m complaining.)• Anne Thompson talks to “Secretariat” star Diane Lane. [Thompson on Hollywood]
• Mila Kunis on dropping to a bony 95 pounds for “Black Swan.” [E! Online]
• Dave Karger, meanwhile, wonders if the actress can score an Oscar nod alongside co-star Natalie Portman. [Inside Movies]
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Portman on ‘Black Swan’ eroticism: “Extreme, not raunchy”
When it comes to Oscar campaigning, sex can be something of a double-edged sword. We all know that the Academy has often responded well to attractive young actresses baring flesh for their art: Kate Winslet was the most recent beneficiary, but Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Holly Hunter and Jane Fonda are among the other actresses who spun open onscreen sexuality into Oscar gold.That said, while raw sex scenes don’t necessarily offend the Academy’s delicate sensibilities, voters can nonetheless shy away from performances that delight in their own kinkiness: recent snubs for the likes of Naomi Watts in “Mulholland Drive” and Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Secretary” suggest that Oscar favors solemnly tasteful kitchen-sink eroticism over more heightened depictions of sexual pleasure. (After all, it wasn’t Diane Lane’s hot love scenes that earned her that unlikely Best Actress nod for “Unfaithful”; it was that guilt-ridden reaction shot on the train ride home.)
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11/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Oscar’s shortest perf, gauging 16 animated submissions, Menken and Moore on ‘Tangled’
• John Lopez talks to “The Way Back” star and Best Supporting Actor hopeful Ed Harris. [Little Gold Men]• From last year, Stinkylulu writes up the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar: Herminone Baddeley’s 2 minutes and 26 seconds in 1959’s “Room at the Top.” [Stinkylulu]
• Scott Feinberg smartly tracks down the HBO doc “High on Crack Street,” featuring prominently in “The Fighter.” [ScottFeinberg.com]
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 39 — ‘Megamind,’ ‘The Way Back,’ Oscar’s actress contenders and more
Welcome to Oscar Talk.In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.
As we move into November, AFI Fest is heating up, campaigns are in full swing (talent being pitched left and right) and pretty soon I’ll be eating turkey and watching “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Crazy. We had a slightly shorter window this week, but let’s see what’s on the docket today…
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11/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Boyle on ‘127 Hours’ faintings, best in animated villainy, lead actresses must suffer
• Steve Pond gets Danny Boyle’s thoughts on this rash of faintings at screenings of “127 Hours.” [The Odds]• Sasha Stone calls 2010 (so far) one of the best years for film in recent history. [Awards Daily]
• “Megamind” gets Josh Wigler thinking about the best animated villains of all time. [MTV Movies Blog]
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10/28 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Youngest Best Actresses, seeking Oscar journos, Cameron readies ‘Avatar’ sequels
• AMPAS and mtvU launch the third annual “Oscars Correspondent Contest” for college journalists. [Oscars.org]• Across the pond, Stuart Heritage counts down the ways “Rabbit Hole” could be an Oscar bet for Nicole Kidman. [The Guardian]
• The Durst family predictably threatens to sue over “All Good Things.” [Deadline]
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10/26 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Ferrell talks ‘Megamind,’ SAG to simulcast kudocast, Coppola shoots with Kilmer
• Drew McWeeney talks to “Megamind” star Will Ferrell. [Motion/Captured]• This year’s SAG Awards will be simulcast to all time zones at 5pm PST. [Variety]
• Francis Ford Coppola has “quietly” begun shooting his next film, a thriller with Val Kilmer. [Deadline]
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Emma Stone for Best Actress: making it look ‘Easy’
Jeff Wells, high on Anne Hathaway’s work in “Love and Other Drugs,” recently wrote a piece bemoaning the lack of awards consideration usually granted to romantic comedy performances: “[There is a] belief,” he complains, “that to qualify for an acting award you have to solemnly suffer and pour your heart out in a somewhat doleful and non-pizazzy way.”Of course, this is a casual generalization. In the past decade, several women have broken through in the Best Actress for broad comedy (romantic and otherwise) vehicles, including Ellen Page, Diane Keaton, Judi Dench and Meryl Streep — twice. (Or more, depending on your take on “Doubt.”) Should “Love and Other Drugs,” with its big-name pedigree and dramatic overtones, take off with the smart adult audiences it’s being pitched to, a nomination for Hathaway is perfectly feasible.
Unadulterated comic fluff, however, is another matter. While veterans like Streep and Keaton are given passes for lightweight fare, you have to go back to Renée Zellweger (“Bridget Jones Diary,” 2001) to find an example of a younger actress earning a nod for a purely comic film without Best Picture clout. In 2007, Amy Adams rode a wave of early buzz for “Enchanted,” but fell victim to the Academy’s faulty sense of humor. Still, she got further than, say, Reese Witherspoon in “Legally Blonde” or Jennifer Garner in “13 Going on 30” — both performances worthy of consideration that never got off the starting blocks due to their flighty commercial vehicles.
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Did Halle Berry just enter the Best Actress race?
I feel like I’ve been hearing about Geoffrey Sax’s “Frankie & Alice” for over a year now. The film was on our early charts last year as one of a million possibilities, but it never nailed down distribution. This year I just kind of forgot about it, but here’s a press release landing this afternoon making sure we’re aware that Freestyle Releasing will be opening the film on December 17 for an Academy qualifying run.Now, this might mean there is awards potential for Halle Berry’s performance in the true story of Frankie Murdoch, a woman suffering with multiple personality disorder in early 1970s Los Angeles (the release tells me). Or it might mean, simply, being in that discussion is worth a few more dollars at the box office, which would be seen as a win for an indie. I can’t say. I haven’t seen the film. And this is a fiercely competitive lead actress line-up as it is. But hey, there’s always room for one more…as long as you’ve got the goods. (Of course, I wrote something similarly titled about Michelle Monaghan last year, so you never know.)
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10/21 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Praise for ‘Love & Other Drugs,’ sussing out Best Actress, quotable ‘Social Network’
• Jeffrey Wells calls “Love & Other Drugs” Edward Zwick’s best film yet. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• Peter Knegt assesses the Gotham Award nominations. [indieWIRE]
• Nathaniel Rogers hearts Sam Rockwell in “Conviction.” [Tribeca Film]
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10/12 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Obama with the ‘Superman’ kids, handicapping the docs, ‘Debt’ delayed
• President Obama met with children featured in the film “Waiting for Superman” yesterday. [Associated Press]• Handicapping this year’s documentary feature Oscar race. [Vulture]
• Dave Karger explains his Gurus choices, calls “Love & Other Drugs” (one of his predicted Best Picture nominees) one of the sexiest films he’s seen in years. [Oscar Watch]
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10/6 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Making the case for dual ‘Kids’ nods, FX nabs ‘Social’ rights, Stone up for Stacey
• On the hunt for “Catfish”‘s Angela Wesselman-Pierce. [Los Angeles Times]• Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes write up the beginnings of the season (with a little quotage from yours truly). [New York Times]
• Scott Feinberg makes the case for both Annette Bening and Julianne Moore getting nominated for “The Kids Are All Right.” [ScottFeinberg.com]
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Leigh and Manville on their 30-year collaboration
As you probably know, I’m rooting hard for seasoned character actress Lesley Manville to get her first Oscar nod this year for Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” — and the quality of her piercing tragicomic performance isn’t the only reason.For a director renowned for his close relationship with a regular, rotating crew of actors, the Academy’s response to his films thus far hasn’t really reflected that loyalty. Only three thesps (all women) have been Oscar-nominated for their work in a Leigh film — a number far smaller than it should be — and all of them, oddly enough, were tapped for their first collaboration with the director. (Moreover, only one of them has since returned to Leigh: that’d be “Vera Drake” lead Imelda Staunton, who has a striking cameo in his latest.)
Should Lesley Manville manage a nomination, then, she’ll be the first of Leigh’s regular posse to be thus rewarded. Indeed, Manville is Leigh’s longest-serving ally. She first collaborated with the director on a 1979 radio play before going on to star in six of his feature films, climaxing with a stunning lead turn in 2002’s “All or Nothing” that was shamefully ignored by awards bodies on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s sweet to see the middle-aged actress finally having her moment in the sun with “Another Year” — she’s earned it.
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As reported, Moore will go lead in ‘Kids’
Due respect to Dave Karger (better at and a longer player in this game than me, I assure you), but the line on Julianne Moore’s Oscar campaign for “The Kids Are All Right” has been lead alongside co-star Annette Bening since day one (as reported repeatedly in this space). Plenty of people have raised consistent doubts over this throughout the summer, so if my word hasn’t been good enough, maybe his will be.
In any case, I’m long on the record as thinking Moore is the more deserving actress of the two. I believed her work much more and it just settled into a more authentic groove, but at the end of the day, we’re probably still looking at a nomination for Bening alone. Maybe Focus can turn a “Thelma & Louise” corner, but I’m doubtful, given how competitive the field is.
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Some predictions for a Sunday
Okay, so it’s been almost two months since I last offered up some Oscar nomination predictions, so now that the big triple-header of autumn festivals is over, I thought it time for an update. (Remember, you can always access my predictions page at the tail of the right-hand sidebar.) With the season slowly beginning to swing — my first Long Shot column will land on Wednesday — you can expect more frequent revisions.I’ve marked which contenders have been subbed in and out, though the changes aren’t as numerous as I might have expected — I had a summertime hunch about “Made in Dagenham” that I’m sticking to after its warm Toronto reception, and what reason have we been given yet to doubt the likes of “Toy Story 3,” “Another Year” and “The Social Network?”
As usual, I operate on gut feel, which is a hit-and-miss system: my misgivings about “The King’s Speech” as a major player were obviously unfounded, but until precursors show me otherwise, I’m still not buying “Inception.” As usual, look to Kris for level-headed predictions, but I enjoy trying to spot the snubs. (Last year, my dogged refusal to include “Invictus” in my Best Picture projections all season eventually paid off. Stopped clock, and all that. )
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WEEKLY WRAP: Venice winners, Toronto bites, ‘Network’ raves
• Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” surprised many by taking top honors at the Venice Film Festival; we took a closer look at the Lido winners.• Meanwhile, we were considerably less than wowed by the festival closer, Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest.”
• This week’s Off the Carpet column reflected on the unusual depth of this year’s Best Actress race.
• A race that subsequently got even deeper as Lionsgate made the biggest acquisition thus far of this year’s Toronto fest: Nicole Kidman’s comeback effort “Rabbit Hole.”
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Underdog ‘Dagenham’ may have the AMPAS touch
In Friday’s Oscar Talk, Anne and I pondered the Oscar potential of Sony Pictures Classics’ typically robust stable of contenders. So far the best bet to have already hit theaters is Aaron Schneider’s “Get Low,” which could be a below-the-line play as well as a Best Actor possibility for Robert Duvall.Films from Rodrigo Garcia, Atom Egoyan and Jean-Pierre Jeunet all came and went, while Woody Allen’s didn’t inspire much at Cannes. And that’s fine, by the way. The business isn’t all about awards, obviously, and Sony Classics knows how to make money. (There’s a reason the dependent is still standing tall.)
If we properly assume “The Illusionist” will have its day in the animated feature category, while “Inside Job” will be relegated to the documentary field, that leaves three possibilities for Oscar success: Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” the recently acquired “Barney’s Version” and Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham.” The latter is perhaps the one to watch out for.
This isn’t a revelation, of course. Guy’s first stab at predicting this year’s Oscar set noted that “the Academy frequently likes its Britpics chirpy and digestible” and that Cole’s film was “getting ‘next Full Monty’ buzz on its way to a prominent launch at Toronto.” Having seen the film last week, I have to say, I see his point.