In Contention

Tag: Jeff Bridges

  • Reaching the populace with ‘Crazy Heart’

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartWith “Crazy Heart” expanding more throughout the country and expecting, no doubt, a bit of an exposure bump after Tuesday’s Oscar nominations announcement, Fox Searchlight is stepping up its game and doing a nice job of getting the music out there.

    I stumbled across TheWearyKind.com last week, a nifty bit of social networking that allows musicians (of any level of talent, believe me) to upload their cover of Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett’s theme from the film.  The first video on the grid is Bingham performing it at the Los Angeles press day, but the second one I hadn’t seen.  It’s Jeff Bridges performing it in front of Peter Travers (I think).  The rest are user entries.

    Meanwhile, RecordStoreDay.com is offering up a contest whose winner I’d be incredibly jealous of.  The prize: an Epiphone AJ-200S acoustic guitar autographed by Bridges, Burnett and Bingham (suddenly I’m aware of the alliteration on this project).

    We’ll see tomorrow if the film can manage surprise nominations for Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and/or Best Picture, but for now, the road is pretty well paved for Bridges (who showed up at last night’s Grammys to introduce a performance tribute to Les Paul).

  • Grammys for Giacchino

    UpAs the music world celebrated the general awesomeness that is Taylor Swift last night, Oscar-minded Hollywood couldn’t resist infringing on the proceedings slightly. When Jeff Bridges even crops up at the Grammy Awards (to introduce a Les Paul tribute), you just know that he’s this year’s chosen one.

    Bridges at least acquitted himself with dignity, something that sadly couldn’t be said for another Oscar hopeful, Quentin Tarantino, who came dressed (to steal blatantly from Joe Reid) as “Retired in Miami Elvis” and pimped his movie in a hopped-up intro to a Lil’ Wayne performance. To be fair, however, he was present as a nominee, though “Inglourious Basterds” lost the Best Compilation Soundtrack award to “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    Yes, last year’s Oscar champ isn’t done winning awards yet, as “Jai Ho” also beat Bruce Springsteen and Karen O to the Best Film/TV Song award.

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  • 1/28 Oscarweb Round-up

    Colin Firth• Steve Pond on how Jeff Bridges being the voice of Hyundai could cause problems for the long-time Oscarcast advertiser this year. [The Odds]

    • Melena Ryzik on the Sundance-Oscar connection. [The Carpetbagger]

    • David Poland talks to “A Single Man” star Colin Firth. [The Hot Blog]

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  • January winner predictions

    Guy Pearce in The Hurt LockerIt’s time for me to go to the well one more time before next week’s big announcement.  That’s right, six days and the mystery of the 10 will finally be answered.  But first, some blind (since there are no nominations yet) guesses.  Just trying to find the right balance here:

    Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    Best Actress: Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
    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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  • All together now: Awwwwww

    (from left) Jeff Bridges and Susan Geston at the Los Angeles premiere of Crazy HeartI’ve been neck-deep in a Jeff Bridges retrospective of sorts lately as I’m writing a piece on his best performances for Fandango. Currently I’m watching “Rancho Deluxe,” and as I surfed around the net for news and notes on the film, I stumbled across this gem that was so sweet, I just had to pass it along.

    You may have noticed Bridges is always quick to first thank his wife of 33 years, Susan Geston, every time he accepts an award this season.  The two have a rather unmistakable bond.  And to survive this long in this industry, that’s absolutely an accomplishment.  I knew the two met on the set of “Rancho Deluxe.” Geston was a nearby ranch hand.  But I didn’t know about a little keepsake Bridges says he received a some time after:

    About 15 years later, I got a letter from the make-up guy on the movie. He’d taken a picture of me as I am asking out that girl…The picture was in the letter. That is my most precious possession. I carry it with me wherever I go.

  • SAG wins for ‘Basterds,’ Bullock, Bridges

    Sandra Bullock at the 16th annual Screen Actors Guild AwardsGotta love all those B’s, right? Overall, no real surprises — we knew Best Actress was going to be a close-fought contest between Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock, and it’s entirely likely that Streep’s win last year tipped it towards Hollywood’s new golden girl.

    While the widely anticipated ensemble win for “Inglourious Basterds” makes no real difference to the Best Picture race, I think it’s safe to say three of the acting Oscars can practically be engraved already.

    This was George Clooney’s last opportunity to stake his claim in the Best Actor race, but the perfect-storm combination of Jeff Bridges’s shaggy likeability, overdue status and (lest we forget) a damn fine performance in “Crazy Heart” was too much to overcome.

    Best Actress, as I said earlier today, will remain a mystery right up until the envelope is opened on March 7. The season’s one remaining acting precursor, the BAFTA, won’t reveal anything, given Bullock’s ineligibility there.

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  • Last-minute SAG predictions

    Christoph Waltz in Inglourious BasterdsFunny, I could have sworn the SAG Awards were taking place on Sunday. Goes to show how on top of things I am, I guess. Or, perhaps, the level of excitement I feel over at least three cut-and-dried acting races this year.

    Nevertheless, tonight’s ceremony will be helpful in addressing at least one of this season’s larger question marks: does Sandra Bullock really have a shot at the Best Actress Oscar? If, as I suspect will happen, Meryl Streep takes home her second consecutive statuette tonight, this race is all over bar the shouting. If Bullock (or even Gabourey Sidibe) snatches it, we really won’t have a clue until the envelope is opened on March 7.

    Unlike Kris, I think four decades of sterling, unrewarded work in Hollywood will send the SAG Award Jeff Bridges’s way, even if “Crazy Heart” hasn’t been as widely seen as “Up in the Air.” Bridges is the kind of consummate actors’ actor these awards were invented for. As for the supporting categories, well … is any discussion necessary?

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  • SAG on the way

    Meryl Streep at the 2009 Screen Actors Guild AwardsSaturday night the Screen Actors Guild Awards will go down, televised on TNT, and I can’t really believe the race is THIS sewn up.  Right down the line, most are calling it for Bridges, Streep, Waltz and Mo’Nique.  There are some differences of opinion on the ensemble performance category, but for the most part, those four Oscar favorites are the expected victors with the guild.

    The last time SAG went four-for-four with the Academy’s ultimate winners was 2004.  The last time before that was 1997, which actually featured a tie between Gloria Stewart and Kim Basinger, so it’s a bit less definitive.  And in point of fact, those are the only times things have matched up.

    The reason for this is fairly simple.  The Screen Actors Guild (a 90,000-member body of people) votes for the winners at large, while the nominees are decided upon by a roughly 2,000-member nominating committee, 1,200 of them based in Los Angeles.  The nominating committee obviously sees more of the contenders than the vast membership.  For that reason, generally speaking, you can expect the unexpected.

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  • Things I learned from the Globes

    Sandra Bullock at the 2009 Golden Globe AwardsLast January, I wrote an especially effusive review of the previous night’s Golden Globe awards, commending the usually much-derided HFPA for looking beyond star power and box-office grosses. Instead, they assembled an international and rather indie-minded winners slate that included such titles as “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “The Wrestler,” “In Bruges,” “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and eventual Oscar-sweeper “Slumdog Millionaire.”

    What a difference a year makes.

    Whether stung by matters of ratings and economics, or simply wowed by a very different school of cinema this year, the Foreign Press voters were back to the big-name pandering for which they are famous.

    Everyone present, meanwhile, seemed quite aware of the fact, some — including host Ricky Gervais and, in the night’s best speech, Robert Downey, Jr. — openly teasing them for it. “One thing you can’t buy is a Golden Globe,” the reliably droll Gervais observed, beer in hand. “Officially.”

    So, what did I learn from last night’s proceedings?

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  • Bridges performs on Conan

    Jeff Bridges stopped by The Tonight Show yesterday to promote “Crazy Heart” and even stood up to belt out a little of “I Don’t Know,” one of the original tracks from the film.  Take a look (the performance is in part three, after the jump):

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  • An evening at the CCMAs

    Kathryn Bigelow at the 15th annual Critics' Choice Movie AwardsAlright, now that the booze and the hangover have worn off, let’s talk last night’s Critics’ Choice Movie Awards.

    It was a decently produced evening, the venue having shifted from the Santa Monica Civic Center to the Hollywood Palladium, right in the middle of Tinseltown.  The scheme of having 10 tables rounding the stage representing the 10 films nominated for Best Picture was a nice touch.  I was fortunate enough to be at the “Up in the Air” table with Jason Reitman, Vera Farmiga (who I was meeting for the first time) and Anna Kendrick.

    George Clooney was a no-show (working on his upcoming Haiti telethon), though at least that didn’t make for an awkward moment later when Jeff Bridges won the lead actor prize, the first on his way to an eventual Oscar win.

    Anyway, a few notes (since Guy has already given you a thorough rundown of last night’s implications)…

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  • ‘Hurt Locker’ takes top honors at Critics’ Choice Awards

    Best Actress winners Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock at the Critics' Choice AwardsThe BFCA are rarely ones to take an individual stand on the awards trail, and such was the case last night, as they mostly stuck with Oscar frontrunners down the line. In the numbers stakes,  “Avatar” (with six awards) and “Inglourious Basterds” (with three) came out on top.

    But it was “The Hurt Locker” that emerged as the night’s real winner, maintaining its tight season-long grip on the Best Picture and Best Director prizes, even with this more mainstream-oriented group. (It should be stressed that, despite the name, this is not a critics’ award.)

    Is this another “Sideways” — which also managed to parlay critical momentum into a top win here — or is something bigger afoot for the film? I’m starting to suspect the latter.

    Kris can obviously offer more first-hand perspective at a later stage. Still, the sense I get from this is that, for all the claims of it being a level three-horse race, “Up in the Air” is actually trailing “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” — if any major precursor was going to swing the way of Jason Reitman’s film, I’d have expected it to be the sometimes safe-playing BFCA.

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  • T Bone, Bridges and Bingham on Nashville radio

    Fox Searchlight tweeted a link to this interview earlier today. The usual talking points but with the film expanding a bit more this weekend I thought I’d pass it along:

  • Iowa critics spring for ‘Up in the Air,’ ‘Crazy Heart’

    Best Picture
    “Up in the Air”

    Best Director
    Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”

    Best Actor
    Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”

    Best Actress
    Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”

    Check out the rest at The Circuit.

  • THE LONG SHOT: Hollywood fights back

    Sharlto Copley in District 9I may be looking out at my snow-caked garden as I write this, but it was in the spirit of spring-cleaning that I revised my nomination predictions this morning, ridding myself of most of the clinging personal hopes and hunches that lingered when I last updated them a month ago.

    It wasn’t the most drastic of revisions (rather to my surprise, I found I’d already predicted a robust haul for “District 9” before the Guilds made it such a strong bet), but it was my most detached one to date, anticipating a race that looks set to be rather passionless on my part.

    Rarely have so many of the leading players in the Best Picture race left me so cold – as “Avatar,” “Invictus,” “Precious,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up in the Air,” “Star Trek” and even “Up” all failed to arouse any particularly warm feelings in me, I began to wonder if I should just retreat to bed until March 8.

    (Unfortunately, for those of you wishing I’d do just that, a healthy precursor run for “The Hurt Locker,” one contender I love without reservation, is keeping me invested.)

    Still, my individual response to the films in question isn’t the only reason I’m feeling a little distanced from this year’s competition. As it currently stands, Hollywood looks set to enjoy its most homegrown Oscar race in some time.

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  • 1/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sam Rockwell in Moon• Geoff Boucher sits down with “Crazy Heart” star Jeff Bridges (with an awkward accompanying photo to boot). [Los Angeles Times]

    • Speaking of Boucher, congrats to him, Anthony Breznican, Susan King, Scott Mantz and Sharon Waxman on their ICG nominations. [Hollywood Reporter]

    • Some desperately needed practical perspective on the “Moon” screener matter. [The Hot Blog]

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  • 1/5 Oscarweb Round-up

    Pedro Almodovar• Pedro Almodovar tells Pete Hammond that he isn’t down with Spain’s process for deciding its annual Oscar contender.  Ya think? [Notes on a Season]

    • “The Hurt Locker” tops Stephen King’s otherwise singular (and bizarre) top 10 list. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Steve Pond runs down eligibility numbers per category. [The Odds]

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  • December winner predictions, part 2: Yours and mine

    Melanie Laurent in Inglourious BasterdsAs I like to do when Kris boldly throws out a set of winner predictions, I thought I’d follow up with an indication of which way our readers are leaning — as well as an update of my own previous guesses.

    The conclusion: well, what a difference seven weeks makes. Of course, it’s inevitable that things would go topsy-turvy in this of all months, when multiple question marks have been answered — some becoming unexpectedly insistent exclamation marks in the process.

    Still, I’m surprised by how dramatically my own picks have shifted, largely due to my overestimation of “Precious”‘s pop-culture sway, and my misplaced hunch that “Avatar” would disappoint. (Well, it disappointed me, but that’s hardly the deal-breaker I’d like it to be.) Today, I’m not even predicting a nomination for the man I (rather rashly) backed to win Best Director last month … such is the fickle nature of the game.

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