In Contention

Tag: Jennifer Lawrence

  • Bardem on his role in González Iñárritu’s “masterpiece”

    Following Mexico’s submission of “Biutiful” to the Academy yesterday, I wrote that I’m sceptical about the film’s chances of nabbing a Best Foreign Language Film nod — but if Roadside Attractions really put some welly into their campaign, a Best Actor nomination for Javier Bardem is looking quite conceivable.

    As a contender, the performance comes with some obvious handicaps. The actors’ branch can be resistant to foreign-language work at the best of times — not least in the Best Actor category, where no non-English performance has been nominated since Roberto Benigni’s 1998 win — and the grim, oblique film won’t be to the taste of many voters.

    (It’s interesting that Roadside face a similar challenge, minus the language barrier, to secure a nod for their Best Actress hopeful Jennifer Lawrence. They certainly haven’t picked the cuddliest of ponies.)

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  • OFF THE CARPET: The year of the woman, take two?

    It wasn’t by coincidence that the three photos decorating the season’s introductory installment of this column two weeks ago represented lead actress contenders in the 2010 Oscar race. After all the talk of 2009 being “the year of the woman,” owing much to the number of female directors who found themselves in the mix (and inevitably leading to Kathryn Bigelow’s history-making moment at the Kodak), I’m sensing an even better argument for 2010 as a singular season for the fairer sex.

    Let’s start with the performances. By my count, there are already eight nominatable offerings from lead actresses this year (which contrasts drastically with a dearth of supporting hopefuls).  This is just going by what I’ve seen, mind you.

    For starters, Natalie Portman has dazzled the early festival season with her work in “Black Swan.” Lesley Manville, meanwhile (should she remain a lead focus), sets a high bar in “Another Year.” Despite my feelings on the film, Carey Mulligan really settles into a next-level groove in “Never Let Me Go,” and Jennifer Lawrence, of course (like Mulligan last year), has already become the year’s star-in-the-making story in “Winter’s Bone.”

    Dovetailing with the performances themselves, there are also films that seem to reflect the theme in narrative. In “Secretariat,” for instance, Diane Lane capably (if a bit histrionically) portrays headstrong Penny Chenery, a woman of virtue in an era when she was expected to keep her head down and clean house. Similarly, Sally Hawkins absolutely kills as the Norma Rae-ish Rita O’Grady in “Made in Dagenham,” fighting for equal pay in a similar time (and she’s likely to be joined in the hunt by co-star Miranda Richardson for a fiery supporting turn). And we can’t forget the palpable feminism apparent in summer indie “The Kids Are All Right,” where Annette Bening and Julianne Moore both bring their “A” game.

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  • 9/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    • Joe Morgenstern writes a love letter to Carey Mulligan.  It’s still all happening. [Wall Street Journal]

    • Jennifer Lawrence’s buzz wave makes its way across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • The foreign film submissions are already off to the races, and now the Netherlands (“Tirza”) declares. [Variety]

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  • UK poster for ‘Winter’s Bone’

    The British quad for “Winter’s Bone,” which finally bows in the UK on September 17, isn’t an especially distinguished bit of design — it’s certainly cruder than the American one-sheet and the tagline, though a pithy line in the film, doesn’t sit quite right. More interesting, however, is that it seems to have conceived as a veritable For Your Consideration ad for star Jennifer Lawrence: her lovely (and scrubbed-clean) face pushed to the foreground, with a critic’s quote that directly invokes Oscar recognition while emphasizing her impressive youth. It’s almost as if the marketers know how much BAFTA voters depend on Oscar buzz to guide them these days. Check out the poster (courtesy of Empire) after the cut.

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  • Not just Lawrence

    With indie darling “Winter’s Bone” beginning to sidle out of American theaters, the most important gain it leaves with — besides its not-inconsiderable $4 million gross — is a healthy head of Best Actress buzz for breakout star Jennifer Lawrence.

    Sure, recognition for the screenplay may be on the cards too; even a filler Best Picture nod isn’t inconceivable, should critics rally for the film in December the way they did for “Frozen River” two years ago. But its awards hopes begin with its 19 year-old lead: she’s the story, the bright young thing whose achievement even the film’s detractors can agree on.

    But should she be getting all the glory? Not so fast, says Nathaniel Rogers. In this week’s instalment of Best in Show, a self-explanatory weekly column for Tribeca Film, Rogers argues that Lawrence, fine as she is, may not even be the film’s most valued player. That position, he says, is held jointly by older character actors John Hawkes and Dale Dickey.

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  • Lawrence at your disposal

    I meant to make mention of this earlier, but actress Jennifer Lawrence will be participating in a post-screening Q&A this evening after the 7:40pm screening of “Winter’s Bone” at the Arclight in Hollywood.  She did the very same thing yesterday after a screening at the Landmark in West LA.

    If you’re a local and you’d like to hear a smart young actress talk about her brilliant work in the film, I’m sure it would be worth your while.

  • “She’d definitely call me a sissy.”

    I have to say, I’m so willing to put my issues with Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” aside it’s not even funny.  Why?  Because Jennifer Lawrence is the real deal, and it’s exciting.  She’s only 19, which means we’ll have years of surely stellar performances ahead.  And sue me, every time I see a pic, my heart skips a beat.

    I shot an email off to “The Burning Plain” writer/director Guillermo Arriaga yesterday to mention all the Lawrence buzz that’s accompanying the limited release of Granik’s film, and to note that he could take some measure of credit for giving her that first opportunity to shine.  “She has a light of her own, big and bright,” he replied.  “I was fortunate to be close to her.  I bet she will be nominated several times in her life.  You will see.”

    Hard to argue.  But this is that delicate time where you cross your fingers and hope she and her representation make all the right moves.  I really don’t want to see Jennifer Lawrence glossed over as eye-candy in a comic book love interest role, okay?  No matter what the payday might be.  So, fingers crossed.

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  • Jennifer Lawrence would like to remind you she’s hot

    Assuming (and I am assuming) that the film remains in the conversation, Kris and I will be at loggerheads all season over “Winter’s Bone” — I am a fan, he is emphatically not. What we do agree on, however, is that the film’s 19-year-old star, Jennifer Lawrence, is the real deal.

    Actually, we agreed on this point a year ago, when Lawrence emerged as the standout of a strong ensemble in Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain.” The film went largely unseen, but those who did get round to it were consequently less surprised than everyone else by the actress’s remarkable, film-carrying turn in this year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize champ.

    Back in February, in a published conversation with The Film Experience’s Nathaniel Rogers, I unwisely put my neck on the block by predicting a 2010 Best Actress Oscar nomination for Lawrence — and while the market for female Oscar contenders in bleak indies is already getting crowded, what with Lesley Manville and Michelle Williams in the mix, I’m sticking by that still-premature call. As I wrote to Nathaniel then: “[I]t’s such a mammoth performance, plus she’s young and hot.”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Taking the temperature

    Now that we’re on the other side of Cannes, I felt it was a good time to put a finger to the wind, stare into the tea leaves, shake the magic 8-ball and basically just take stock of where we’re at roughly three months away from the start of the 2010-2011 film awards season.

    The festival, covered diligently by Guy Lodge around these parts (we thank him), brought little to write home about where Oscar potential is concerned.  The truth is, it rarely does.  But as the year takes shape, things start to linger.  A film like “Inglourious Basterds” can transform muted if appreciative response on the Croisette into a foaming-at-the-mouth bid for a surprise upset in just a few months’ time.

    The big narrative stand-outs for most were Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” and Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” Perhaps the latter has an easier Oscar path ahead, given that it was more unanimously accepted and could ultimately be a soft lob for Academy types.  Sony Pictures Classics swooped in and nailed down domestic distribution, so I think we’re looking at a bona fide Best Picture nominee to go along with likely bids for Best Actress (Lesley Manville) and the usual expected tip of the hat from Leigh’s fellow screenwriters.  Maybe even a Best Director nod, too.  And yet the film didn’t win a single festival prize.  See how this works?

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ trailer and poster

    I caught Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” just after Sundance and have little to say about it, really.  In some ways it’s distilled backwoods platitude, but no one can argue against Jennifer Lawrence’s considerable talent (a bandwagon I’ve been on since Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain”).  Still, as I Tweeted recently, I’ll be confused when those who dismissed “Precious” as cliché rally around this as profound.

    Anyway, a lovely new poster has been released.  Check it out below, along with the new trailer after the jump.

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  • BERLIN: ‘Winter’s Bone,’ ‘Greenberg,’ ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’

    Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's BoneYesterday’s viewing roster just about had me double-checking whether I was at the right festival, as I was treated to a pair of Sundance hits, in addition to a brand-new Amerindie feature from a Sundance alumnus. The copious snow still smothering the sidewalks of Berlin only aided the comparison.

    Perhaps it was Valentine’s Day spirit making me more benign – apparently against the current of critical opinion, in the case of Noah Baumbach’s “Greenberg” – but all three films, moreover, afforded me pleasures of varying degrees. (And definitions: “pleasure” is not the most appropriate term for a film as severe as “Winter’s Bone.”)

    “WINTER’S BONE” (***1/2)

    In 2004, NYU film grad Debra Granik spun a student short into a ragged but confident debut feature, “Down to the Bone,” that landed her a Sundance award and kick-started the career of a sensational actress named Vera Farmiga. Perhaps you’ve heard of her.

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  • ‘Winter’s Bone’ takes Sundance gold

    Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's BoneTalk about a good day for female filmmakers. Hours before Kathryn Bigelow’s history-making triumph at the DGA Awards, Debra Granik took the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance (in the U.S. Dramatic strand) for her critically lauded sophomore feature “Winter’s Bone.” Granik and co-writer Anne Rosselini also took screenwriting honors for the film.

    The film is one I had highlighted last month as a title to watch, so I’m glad to see it living up to expectations. I’m an admirer of Granik’s 2004 debut “Down to the Bone,” which put Vera Farmiga on the map — hopefully, “Winter’s Bone” can similarly boost the fortunes of young Jennifer Lawrence, who so excelled in “The Burning Plain” earlier this year.

    Granik’s film stars Lawrence as a resilient teenager searching for her missing father in the Ozark Mountains. Comparisons have already been made to Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River,” which took the same award at Sundance two years ago.

    The corresponding Grand Jury Prize winner in the documentary category was Sebastien Junger and Tim Hetherington’s debut effort “Restrepo,” a chronicle of one year in the lives of the Second Platoon in Afghanistan’s deadly Korengal Valley.

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  • ‘Basterds,’ ‘Nine’ lead the pack with BFCA

    Eli Roth in Inglourious BasterdsFor better or worse, the Broadcast Film Critics Association has, of late, been frequently cited for its Oscar prognosticative prowess. Of course, it’s a pointless tidbit in the grand scheme and no one should be looking at organizations like this to see how accurate they might be on that front (even if this one in particular, of which I am a member, makes it a point every year to remind you).

    Having said that, I don’t think anyone would be shocked in the slightest if the BFCA’s list of 10 Best Picture nominees (see below) matches the Academy’s 10-for-10 this year. There is just one film on the list that ever felt truly questionable to me at some point along the way, and even that seems more and more locked in as latter-year hopefuls fail to catch expected fire.

    “Inglourious Basterds” and “Nine” led the way with 10 nominations each, a new record.  However, given the addition of below the line categories this year, it’s worth noting that their tallies wouldn’t have been so robust in the past. Quentin Tarantino’s film would have landed five nominations if it was business as usual. “Nine” would have landed three.  And “Up in the Air” would have led the field.

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  • ‘Burning Plain’ is Arriaga at his best

    Charlize Theron in The Burning PlainLast night I caught Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain,” and like Guy, I’m having trouble settling my thoughts on the piece.  I suppose our combined ponderings will have to serve as the film’s review here at In Contention, but unlike Guy’s relatively reserved recommendation, I have to say I wholeheartedly endorse it as perhaps Arriaga’s most focused and, therefore, effective work yet.

    As a screenwriter in tandem with filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu (a partnership which crumbled around the production of 2006’s “Babel”), Arriaga has proved adept at twisting his narratives with potent themes and powerful, evocative structures.  But “The Burning Plain” represents a brave move inward rather than forward.

    I agree with Guy’s notion that the debuting director may have been “looking to safely downshift gears by making a tasteful, intelligent mainstream melodrama,” but more than that, I believe the film to be Arriaga’s most successful character study to date.

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  • The see-sawing ‘Burning Plain’

    Charlize Theron in The Burning PlainThanks to the reader (modestly unnamed) who sent me a reminder of the recently released U.S. trailer for Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain,” a film that has endured a wildly uneven buzz trajectory since debuting at Venice nearly a year ago.

    Hailed out the gate as a strong 2008 Oscar vehicle for Charlize Theron, despite mixed notices for the film itself, it then dropped from view entirely, languishing in distributor-less purgatory for months on end. Its UK release came and went in March with zero fanfare and tepid reviews, and its U.S. prospects looked little better.

    I offered some thoughts on the film then, deeming it worthy as performance showcase (young Jennifer Lawrence, in particular, is a revelation) but dramatically thin and structurally obvious as storytelling.

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  • Thoughts on ‘The Burning Plain’

    Charlize Theron in The Burning PlainI’ve been meaning to review Guillermo Arriaga’s directorial debut ever since I saw it two weeks ago, but for some reason, my thoughts on the film just won’t settle into place.

    It’s not a case of the film being particularly challenging or impenetrable — it’s Arriaga’s most structurally simple work to date, and arguably his most middlebrow too. I am, however, having trouble gauging precisely what the renowned screenwriter’s aspirations for the project were.

    If his intention was to make a searching character study for an arthouse audience, one that examines the occasionally mirroring intricacies of mother-daughter relationships from opposite ends of a slow-burning narrative candle, I’d have to deem the film an ambitious misfire, one that is too transparent in structure and thin in characterisation to bear the weight of its literary tropes.

    It is possible, however, that for his first outing in the director’s chair, the creator of such opaque, thematically dense narratives as “Amores Perros” and “21 Grams” was looking to safely downshift gears by making a tasteful, intelligent mainstream melodrama, one that operates more as an actors’ showcase than a writer’s (or filmmaker’s) platform. If so, the “The Burning Plain” — a generally compelling, well-crafted piece graced with a focused, charismatic trio of female performances — largely fulfils such a brief.

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