In Contention

Tag: Jeff Bridges

  • Nut up or shut up: final predictions

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerAs I look over my final predictions for tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony, I notice that I’ve made only one change — in the Best Live Action Short category — since taking my initial stab the day of the nominations.  And I haven’t made a single change since I started the Oscar Guide series.

    Am I that confidant in my picks?  Not really.  It’s a very unpredictable year all of a sudden (the AP chimes in on that here), even if conventional wisdom would have us believe much of this is a foregone conclusion.  But nothing has really moved the needle during the bulk of phase two and the one controversy that popped up may not be as detrimental as some suspect.  Regardless, I’m frankly bracing myself for having an off year.

    And it kinda sucks because I set a pretty high bar for myself last year, a personal best, as I nailed down a web-leading 21 of the 24 categories (23 of 24 if you count alternates).  That included a call for “Departures” that left me exposed to plenty of “You’re just trying to be different” heckling.  Ahem.

    If I even approach those numbers this time around, I’ll certainly be surprised.  I frankly don’t expect to hit 21 ever again, but who knows?  Many areas of this race are coming right down to the wire.

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  • Emotions run high at the Indie Spirits

    Lee Daniels at the 25th annual Independent Spirit AwardsLast night’s Independent Spirit Awards ceremony was quite the touching affair, I have to say.  Early in the evening, tears were shed by Scott Cooper and Geoffrey Fletcher on stage as they accepted awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay respectively.  As Cooper and Fletcher are two of the gentlemen I’ve gotten to know more than most this season, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t get a bit choked up as well.

    Cooper was convinced before the show that Tom Ford was going to take home the prize.  He’s also lining up some interesting assignments (as one would expect).  His “Crazy Heart” train came to an end last night, but the show goes on Sunday as Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, T Bone Burnett and Ryan Bingham go on to represent the film at the Oscars.

    I chatted with Bingham for a bit as well, conveying my sentiments regarding the original song contenders getting the axe by Oscarcast producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman.  But I was frankly more livid at Bingham not getting his global audience moment than he was.  The guy couldn’t possibly take everything more in stride.

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  • Interviews with the nominees

    Jeff BridgesAs we head into the big weekend of this year’s hotly anticipated Academy Awards telecast, I thought I’d toss this list up once more, broken down by film. We’ve added to it a bit since the nominees were announced.

    And if you’d like to re-live the season so far, you can see how things have panned out at The Circuit.

    “Avatar”
    James Horner (Best Original Score)

    “Bright Star”
    Janet Patterson (Best Costume Design)

    “Coraline”
    Henry Selick (Best Animated Feature)

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  • The Dude on The Dude

    (from left) Jeff Bridges and Jeff DowdPatrick Goldstein got Jeff Dowd on the record last week, vis a vis Jeff Bridges, and the result is a wonderful dedication to a guy who is frequently considered an American treasure.  Bridges, of course, took on the role of Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski in the Coen brother’s 1998 comedy “The Big Lebowski,” the character largely based on the colorful Dowd.

    There are some lofty turns of phrase throughout, but it’s a beautiful ode, I have to say.  Here is a taste:

    For movie-goers, who have been cinematically blessed watching Jeff Bridges for nearly four decades in 65 movies, “I used to be somebody, now I’m somebody else” is a reminder of how Jeff Bridges has fully inhabited such a wide array of characters and authentically captured their essence with a full palette of shades from light to dark. Bridges has taken us through a mosaic of perspectives of the uniquely American experience.

    Check out the rest at The Big Picture.

  • 2/26 Oscarweb Round-up

    Cover of Detective Comics #27• Maria Puente on the wide array of villains represented by the year’s Oscar nominations. [USA Today]

    • Bill Mechanic tells Sharon Waxman that the Oscarcast will be “emotional.” [The Wrap]

    • Not movie related, but FYI, Batman’s is still bigger. [Hero Complex]

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  • 2/24 Oscarweb Round-up

    Ryan Bingham• Elysa Gardner catches up with Ryan Bingham in New York. [USA Today]

    • John Ratzenberger talks Pixar across the pond. [The Independent]

    • Steve Pond chats with “An Education” star Carey Mulligan, who seems to be hitting the pavement a bit late in the game. [The Odds]

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  • BAFTA predictions

    Carey Mulligan in An EducationEnjoying a curious position this year as the only televised awards ceremony between the Academy Award nominations announcement and Oscar night itself, the BAFTAs will no doubt be relishing their precursor status even more than usual.

    Since they made the move to precede the Oscars nine years ago, BAFTA hasn’t slavishly anticipated the bigger awards (they’ve matched the Academy’s Best Picture pick only three times), but they have sometimes been at the crest of new waves in voting: late surges of momentum for the likes of Marion Cotillard, Tilda Swinton and Alan Arkin all made their first appearance on BAFTA night.

    This year, however, I’m suspecting that the Brits will voluntarily isolate themselves from the Oscar-influencing game. Never ones to shy away from patriotic voting, BAFTA has handed its top prize to a homegrown production for three years running – it’s highly likely that Oscar longshot “An Education,” which leads the nomination count with two U.S. productions, will make it four.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Top shots, Berlin coverage and more

    Paranormal Activity• You asked for it, you eventually got it: our annual list of the Top 10 shots of the year, part one and part two.

    • In our ongoing Oscar Guide series, we dug into the supporting actor, foreign language film, art direction, makeup and sound editing races.

    • Guy’s Berlinale coverage continued, with “The Illusionist,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone” among the highlights.

    • We interviewed “The Cove” director Louie Psihoyos, as well as the creative minds behind “Coraline,” Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick.

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  • 2/19 Oscarweb Round-up

    Logorama• Steve Pond talks to Ludovic Houplain, director of animated short nominee “Logorama,” which is looking more and more likely to pull an upset over Nick Park and Aardman. [The Odds]

    • The 15 best Oscarcast moments. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Melena Ryzik reports from the New York celebration of “Food Inc.” [The Carpetbagger]

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  • And now a word from President Jackson Evans

    Plenty of Dude talk lately combined with today being President’s Day inspired an idle YouTube search this morning.  So with that:

  • SANTA BARBARA: Send off with Santa Barbara’s own

    Cover of the Santa Barbara IndependentThe final day of activities at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival was an all-day tribute to local Jeff Bridges, screenings of his past work and a packed Lobero Theatre screening of “Crazy Heart” later in the day, as well as a post-screening Q&A moderated by yours truly.  The theater seats roughly 750 people and 300 were turned away at the door.  Suffice it to say, the town was ready for this one.

    The Q&A was a standard, breezy affair.  Bridges makes it easy, frankly.  It was Valentine’s Day, of course, so I couldn’t resist the sure-fire applause query: “How many Valentine’s Days have you and your wife (who was in the audience) celebrated?”  The answer, of course, is 35, and I think that, in many ways, is the greatest of accomplishments for the prolific actor.

    We talked about how Bridges came to the project, how his father instilled a passion for the business in him at an early age, what working with co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal (whose nomination was heartening to Bridges after he sat back and watched her be ignored through the season) was like, etc.  Most of what you might have read in my interview with him back in November, but the crowd ate it up.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festival coverage, celebrating The Dude and more

    Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski• This week’s installments of the Oscar Guide covered the animated feature, sound mixing, lead actor, live action short and film editing categories.

    • Kris toasted the career of Jeff bridges with his list of the actor’s top 10 performances (off-site).

    • We caught up with “Red Riding: 1974” director Julian Jarrold as well as “A Prophet” helmer Jacques Audiard.

    • Elsewhere, we spotlighted the crafts of “Bright Star” in our weekly Tech Support Interview series.

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  • SANTA BARBARA: Bridges, Firth, Stone and producers

    Colin Firth at the 25th annual Santa Barbara International Film FestivalThings are winding down in Santa Barbara.  Today is the last day of the fest, an all-day celebration of Jeff Bridges’s work.  Screenings of “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot,” “Starman,” “The Contender” and “Crazy Heart” are lined up.  I’ll be moderating a Q&A with the actor following the “Crazy Heart” screening at the Lobero Theatre.

    Yesterday it was the producers panel early in the afternoon, Patrick Goldstein moderating an enlightening discussion with Lawrence Bender, Mark Boal, Jon Landau, Lori McCreary, Ivan Reitman and Jonas Rivera.  It was a good cross-section of perspectives on the work of a film producer, and certain a diverse mixture of budgets, economics and creative philosophy.

    There was a moment when Landau proposed that it was a filmmaker’s responsibility to tackle gravitas and Bender took umbrage with that, positing that the real responsibility is to entertain.  Obviously it depends on the circumstance and no filmmaker should be beholden to either ideology (as Boal, always the diplomat, shrewdly noted).  But it was still funny watching Bender once again defending the frivolity of “Inglourious Basterds” in the face of loftier examinations from Landau, McCreary, etc.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Actor

    Morgan Freeman in InvictusThe Best Actor category solidified pretty early on this year. I imagine the eventual line-up had slid into place as early as November, and after the Screen Actors Guild made things more official, the predictable race unfolded from there. What we have now is a typical mixture of seasoned veterans, solid industry players and newcomers to the awards season.

    But things weren’t always so clear. Before a last-minute decision to release what, from afar, always appeared to be a potential awards vehicle for a respected star, things could have gone a number of ways. Sometimes jumping in late can be a boost, and sometimes it just seems like the obvious play.

    The nominees are:

    Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
    Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
    Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
    Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”

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  • All about Bridges

    Jeff Bridges in StarmanI was happy to contribute this top 10 list of Jeff Bridges performances to Fandango’s Awards Watch section.  Those who follow me on Twitter may have noticed many a Tweet aboutt his Bridges film or that over the last few weeks, and that’s because I’ve been burying myself in his work once more while preparing for the piece.

    My number one will never budge, but my number two and three are at times interchangeable.  But they’re all great, pitch-perfect performances.  Along the way, I realized what I kind of always knew.  You can always count on him to deliver, whatever the material might be.

    Also, across the pond, The Times of London catches up with the actor (actually, they caught up with him in Santa Monica, but you get the picture).  It’s a great observation of the man and opens with a humorous account of a “celebrity-etiquette Mexican standoff” regarding an undelivered birthday party invite.  Good stuff.

    More on Bridges and his fellow lead actor nominees in Wednesday’s edition of the Oscar Guide.  Meanwhile, spinning off my Fandango list, feel free to chime in with your list of favorite Bridges performances.

  • February winner predictions

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartThese appeared at Movie City News’s Gurus o’ Gold page this morning, so you probably already saw them.  Here they are in any case, since, you know, I guess it’s about that time:

    Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
    Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
    Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Up in the Air”
    Best Original Screenplay: “The Hurt Locker”

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  • The nominees react

    Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy HeartThroughout the morning and early afternoon we took statements from or hopped on the phone with 44 of today’s Oscar nominees.  Their reactions…

    Maggie Gyllenhaal, supporting actress, “Crazy Heart”:

    The thing is, you know, I’m so proud of the movie and I always have been, more proud of it than any of the work I’ve done so far.  But because I wasn’t getting nominated for anything, I wasn’t expecting it.  My phone was ringing so early and I thought, “Wait, maybe!”   I was staying at my brother’s in LA.  He said to me, “Your phone is going to be ringing all day.”  He made me a cup of coffee and then we watched the sun rise.  It was pretty mellow.  But this wouldn’t be happening for Jeff [Bridges] or me if it wasn’t for Scott [Cooper].

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  • Actors’ beef with ‘Avatar’

    Thanks to Scott Feinberg for pointing us to this Newsweek actors roundtable discussion of “Avatar,” which is certainly illuminating. Morgan Freeman says performance capture is “basically cartoons,” while a more diplomatic Bridges says, “What we do [as actors] is the ultimate special effect.”