From a fairly old Vanity Fair feature that you’ve all probably read by now. I’m just now stumbling across it.
Tag: Kate Winslet
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A film that sticks — why ‘Revolutionary Road’ is a masterwork
GENTLE SPOILERS WITHIN — READ WITH CAUTIONFear of change, fear of risk.
“If you don’t try anything, you can’t fail,” she tells him, striking at the heart of what has him so afraid of uprooting their family to Paris in the hopes of a better way of life. Frank Wheeler is terrified of change, but his wife April longs for it. She needs change to survive as a person, as a wife, believing, wrongly perhaps (perhaps not), that change will help her marriage and better define her place in it.
The characters in “Revolutionary Road” are in agonizing pain as they go about their daily lives, each trying to keep their marriage intact while also trying to live out their dreams. Deep down, they must know their dreams have to be sacrificed to a degree. Way down in their gut, they must know their dreams may never come true, and it is quietly destroying them.
Is “Revolutionary Road” a classic American film destined to be remembered for decades to come? Or is it merely an over-praised, depressing work that will be forgotten once it hits DVD, a bizarre blip on the careers of the creators? I tend to believe the former. It is a sublime work of art and a demanding piece of cinema that takes audiences on a difficult journey through a rocky relationship that, for me, resembles the young years of George and Martha in Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
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After finishing off the Joker, Batman may have to fend off a Nazi and a biggot on the way to Oscar
A week ago with the announcement of the Directors Guild Awards (DGA), it seemed Christopher Nolan and “The Dark Knight” were headed for Oscar night, with nominations for Best Picture and Best Director highly likely. But like a full balloon with a slow leak, the air is slowly hissing out as “Gran Torino” and “The Reader” seem to be gaining momentum.I loved “The Dark Knight.” It was, for me, the best film of the year and highly deserving of top tier nominations. Regardless of its comic roots, Nolan’s accomplishment in giving the film a heart and soul on a grand scale is even greater, and I hope the Academy sees it that way.
“Gran Torino” has gained enormous momentum since being released wide, racking up more than $30 million at the domestic box office. Audiences are coming in droves to see Clint back on screen. He surrounded himself with largely or complete unknowns, amplifying is screen presence. Very shrewd. Audiences are going to see him, possibly for the last time, as he portrays the sort of character they love to see.
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‘Slumdog,’ ‘Button’ lead BAFTA pack with 11 nods each
Each year, the BAFTAs never fail to find new and frustrating ways to surprise me.It wasn’t hard to guess that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Slumdog Millionaire” would come out on top here — though even as a fan of the latter film, I do wonder whether nominations for Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actress are pushing it a little. (Sure, Freida Pinto is gorgeous, but… )
But look closer and the oddities come thick and fast. Who would have guessed, come nomination morning, that “Changeling” would land 8 nominations (including mentions for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), while “Happy-Go-Lucky” gets zilch? I was aware that Mike Leigh’s delightful film has played better with critics Stateside than it did over here in the spring, but failing to even nominate Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins is a blatant — and in my opinion, unforgivable — slap in the face.
As I predicted, despite the film’s mixed reception, BAFTA voters responded well to “The Reader,” which lands in the Best Film derby alongside four of the Oscar favourites in the category. While I thought “Milk” might miss with the Brits, it was actually “The Dark Knight” that came up short — and while I’m not entirely surprised that it proved too genre-oriented for their top category, their failure to nominate Brit helmer Christopher Nolan is pretty stunning.
Bar the Hawkins snub, the acting categories name most of the usual suspects, though there’s still room for typically BAFTA-esque eccentricities. Brendan Gleeson is an pleasant surprise in the Best Supporting Actor category, and while I anticipated Brad Pitt’s appearance in that field for “Burn After Reading,” Tilda Swinton’s Supporting Actress nod for the same film is the kind of out-of-nowhere hometown favoritism that only BAFTA can come up with. The real headscratcher in that category, however, is Amy Adams’ inclusion at the expense of Viola Davis — one has to wonder whether voters actually watched “Doubt,” or voted on name recognition alone.
(More thoughts, and the full list of nominees, below the cut.)
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BAFTA predictions
The BAFTA nominations drop tomorrow, and while I hardly covered myself in glory with my foreign film Oscar forecast yesterday, I’m going to wade into the murky waters of prediction once more.On the one hand, it’s a fool’s errand trying to predict the BAFTA nods, as they can frequently be the most perverse and contrarian awards voters of the lot. On the other, they make the task a little easier for us pundits by releasing 15-strong longlists in each category ahead of the voting.
As I wrote back in November, the BAFTAs can be inconsistently parochial in their voting, frequently handing multiple nods to middlebrow homegrown product, while simultaneously sidelining the most acclaimed British films of the year. A look at this year’s longlists confirms that trend, as relatively mediocre Brit flicks like “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,” “Mamma Mia!” and “The Duchess” all received multiple mentions, while critical darlings “Hunger” and “Happy-Go-Lucky” landed in a paltry three categories each — Best Film not among them.
The BAFTA voters’ provincialism is most shamefully evident in the Best Supporting Actress longlist, which features such bizarre inclusions as Judi Dench for “Quantum of Solace” and Rebecca Hall for her arm-candy role in “Frost/Nixon.” As for the Best Adapted Screenplay citation for “Mamma Mia!,” well, the less said the better. Of course, it’s a mistake to read too much into these lists. The idle frequency with which certain titles pop up — “Frost/Nixon” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” lead with 14 mentions each, but more surprisingly, a lightweight contender like “Burn After Reading” managed a staggering 11 — suggests the voters weren’t thinking too hard either.
Which films will fare best tomorrow is another matter — it’s not uncommon for a film to feature strongly in the longlists only to go MIA on nomination morning. Below the cut are my best guesses, together with some thoughts on the top categories.
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Bagger: Rourke passes the PR test
Given the newly compressed awards calendar of recent years, with a gap this year of only one day between the Golden Globe awards and the deadline for Oscar nomination ballots, the former has little impact on the latter anymore. However, that’s not to say that what happens on Globe night has no effect on the winners’ Oscar campaigns.For actors in particular, the Globes are the most visible Oscar-night audition a contender can ask for. A memorable Globe moment can play into Phase II of Academy voting: Jamie Foxx’s canny Golden Globe acceptance speech in 2005 pretty much sealed his Oscar win there and then, while Eddie Murphy’s indifferent one two years later hardly galvanized Academy members into voting for him.
So, trivial as it may sound, it’s worth taking into account the press and public reaction to Sunday night’s victors. Kate Winslet’s manic gushing may be earning her no end of criticism in the British press, but I suspect her evident gratitude at winning could go over well with Academy members. Meanwhile, Sally Hawkins’ emotion-drenched near-breakdown on stage can only raise her profile if she garners an Oscar nod.
However, the Carpetbagger seems to feel (and I’m inclined to agree) that the real PR champ on Sunday was surprise Best Actor winner Mickey Rourke — whose eccentric acceptance speech, complete with tributes to canines past and present, was as memorable as it was oddly touching. (I don’t mind admitting I teared up, but then I did lose a dog myself last year. Cut me some slack.) While the Bagger confesses he was hoping for some trademark Rourke controversy, he was thoroughly won over by the star’s openness — and crucially, thinks his peers were too:
But there is another part of the Bagger that watched hopefully, wishing that Mr. Rourke would keep it between the lines. His candidacy for best actor took a huge step the other night and the audience of his peers at the Beverly Hilton nearly jumped in his lap. “Everyone in that room has had their ups and downs,” said Aaron Eckhart, who was at a party held last night for Mr. Rourke hosted by LA Confidential. “We all felt good about what happened on that stage.”
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1/13 Oscarweb Round-up
• Tom O’Neil chats with Pete Hammond and Anthony Breznican about possible repeat victors from Sunday night’s Globe ceremony. [Gold Derby]• Sasha Stone reminds that Kate Winslet is much more due in 2009 than Sigourney Weaver was in 1988. [Awards Daily]
• David Carr catches up with Danny Boyle at the Fox Searchlight Golden Globes afterparty. [The Carpetbagger]
• John Wayne and Heath Ledger make Steve Mason’s list of the best final performances ever. [/Film]
• Anita Singh reports the Oscar odds in Kate Winslet’s favor. [Daily Telegraph]
• Danny Boyle says he’ll never be a “proper director.” [The Guardian]
• Rebecca Ascher-Walsh gives a quick preview of the 2009 film year. [Los Angeles Times]
• Christopher Campbell goes with Sam Mendes for the lone director spot. Hmm… [Spout Blog]
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Golden Globes: Feeling the love
As I curled on the couch in the wee small hours of the morning, watching last night’s Golden Globes telecast with only a hot toddy and a handful of chatty IC commenters for company, it occurred to me that I was hearing an awful lot of one word as the evening unfolded. And that word was ‘love.’Of course, it’s a ubiquitous word in any awards show, weepily applied as it is to innumerable family members, lovers and colleagues as winners rattle names off thank-you lists longer than most films’ scripts. But this struck me as slightly different: the love here was being directed towards film and art itself.
Sally Hawkins, the night’s most endearing (and overwhelmed) winner, set the tone, describing her film, “Happy-Go-Lucky,” as being about love both on and off the screen. Surprise (to some) winner Colin Farrell followed her lead, celebrating cinematic adventurousness with the elegant soundbite: “Curiosity is love.”
Meanwhile, Danny Boyle picked up above all on the affection his awards-sweeping film has garnered within the industry, while Kate Winslet paid tribute to a long-standing love cultivated with her co-star, refracted very differently in two films, eleven years apart.
It struck me as an appropriate motif for an awards ceremony that seemed less calculated and more sincere than usual. Perhaps a year away the Globes has made me –- or them –- soft, but for an institution that takes sustained criticism for being overly susceptible to campaigning muscle and star power, it seemed to me that, in almost every category, the HFPA members had voted with their collective hearts, singling out the performers and films that they themselves loved.
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OFF THE CARPET: From the horse’s mouth
The last two weeks have been a leaf blower to the debris an awards season can accumulate. Individuals with some real say in the ultimate Oscar picture have finally gone on the record, painting a rather clear picture of the industry’s favorite films of 2008.But before diving into the realities of the various guild announcements, it is probably worth touching upon the gleeful diversions of the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards.
These are the two culminating critics soirees, capping off the annual critical kudos sprint through December and early January. Both proudly declare themselves Oscar harbingers but only one seems to find itself decided from a critical mindset (even if that mindset is still warped by pegging a zeitgeist). The other is, as always, a drunken time amongst industry friends that goes its own way.
But dare I say it, this year the HFPA may have actually raised the bar for the Academy. After years of embarrassing nominations announcements and sometimes bewildering winner choices, the group awarded a slate of contenders last night that stuck out as noble and, shockingly, novel.
Can the Academy’s membership reach out to Mickey Rourke and meet him half way like he has clearly done this season to an industry that has shunned him for so many years? Can they find a way to spread the kudos love while an inevitable “Slumdog” sweep pushes through the evening of February 22?
Moreover, can AMPAS have the balls to follow in the HFPA’s footsteps with a double win for Kate Winslet, arguably deserving this year and a move that would be inarguable as a hell of an apology for years of Oscar losses? The actress joined Sigourney Weaver last night as one of only two actresses to win a pair of Golden Globe awards for film performances in one evening. Your move, Oscar.
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1/12 Oscarweb Round-up
• Jeffrey Wells responds to last night’s Golden Globe Awards. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• David Carr gets some choice quotes from twofer victor Kate Winslet in the press room. [The Carpetbagger]
• Guy Adams, meanwhile, comments on the actress’s “downbeat” role choices. [The Independent]
• Karina Longworth’s eight Globe moments that transcended cynicism. [Spout Blog]
• Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond yak about the evening’s surprises. [Gold Derby]
• Moving away from the circular Globes talk, Gene Seymour takes stock of today’s African-American filmmaking talent. [New York Times]
• Philip Seymour Hoffman calls his trade “tortuous.” [The Guardian]
• Welcome to the new indieWIRE. [indieWIRE]
• Speculation on the fate of Two-Face in “The Dark Knight,” reported plenty in this space, turns up elsewhere. [/Film]
• Continuing on the geek beat, Geoff Boucher talks “Watchmen”‘s Rorschach with actor Jackie Earle Haley and director Zack Snyder. [Los Angeles Times]
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A night at the Critics’ Choice Awards
It’s an event that keeps on getting better and better, a little awards show that’s escalated into one of the hallmarks of the film awards season, whether the “we’re one of the best Oscar predictors” stuff is annoying or not (which it is).The night had a number of surprises, but in a sense, one of those surprises became a foregone conclusion half-way through the show. The whole room could tell — “Slumdog Millionaire” was going to walk away with the first clean BFCA sweep since “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001. Nothing for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Nothing for “Frost/Nixon.” Nothing but the usual for the slowly-becoming-silver-medal-bound “The Dark Knight.”
Two big wins for “Milk” were nice. Sean Penn’s victory as Best Actor might have been inevitable, even though Mickey Rourke’s portrayal was probably the year’s most critically acclaimed of the year. I couldn’t help keeping an eye trained on Mickey two tables over, one of the wandering cameras crammed in his face as Penn delivered his acceptance. Clearly the “Wrestler” gang was a bit disheartened, nabbing only one win — for Bruce Springsteen’s title track. But Fox Searchlight was beaming nonetheless with it’s five “Slumdog” trophies.
I did as much mingling as the two minute commercial intervals would allow, but I did manage to finally meet the lovely Kate Beckinsale, nominated tonight for her criminally underseen performance in “Nothing But the Truth.” She’s a real sweetheart, happy for the few pockets of support she’s been able to find for the film, which was essentially avalanched by the Yari bankruptcy last month. There’s still Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks.
I have to say, being in the middle of Heath Ledger’s standing ovation was somewhat emotional. The win wasn’t surprising in hindsight, but as Laura Dern was opening the envelope, I couldn’t help but think the idea of major awards was suddenly a pipe dream for this performance. But it all went away quickly and Christopher Nolan gave a touching, spot-on acceptance speech on behalf of the actor.
(More, plus the full list of winners, after the jump.)
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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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December winner predictions
Before we get to the end of the month here I thought I’d go ahead and toss up another set of winner predictions. This’ll be the last pre-nom set. I’ll go back to them next month, probably the day of the nominations announcement. But for now, it’s really all blind guessing, as always.For last month’s set, click here.
Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Clint Eastwood, “Gran Torino”
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Original Screenplay: “Milk”
Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Cinematography: “Defiance”
Best Costume Design: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Music – Original Score: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button””
Best Music – Original Song: “The Wrestler”
Best Sound Editing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Sound Mixing: “The Dark Knight”
Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
Best Documentary Feature: “Man on Wire”
Best Foreign Language Film: “Waltz with Bashir” -
‘Revolutionary Road’ — snubbed today, sure to be remembered forever
One of the biggest surprises of the awards season for me is the fact that “Revolutionary Road” is being all but forgotten by many critics groups and has certainly slipped off the Oscar radar as a result. Is the film deserving? Absolutley. I think it is one of the best films of the year and among the finest I have seen this decade, but for whatever reason — and who can explain these things — it has not gotten a great deal of press.This is a major accomplishment, a work of art superbly directed by Sam Mendes who in eight years has become one of the most exciting directors in modern cinema. Though I count myself among those who though his breakthrough film “American Beauty” was very good but also radically over-praised, his follow-up, “Road to Perdition,” was superb and should have been among the nominees for Best Picture and Best Director in 2002, vastly superior to “Chicago.”
His third film, “Jarhead,” was darkly beautiful to look at but didn’t quite work with audiences who are still not interested in films about Afghanistan or Iraq (whichever installment). Mendes possesses a gift with actors, one of those directors like Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and more recently, Paul Thomas Anderson. He’s able to bring out their best work. It seems no surprise he married an actress.
He is also patient with a narrative, allowing it to unfold with the knowledge the audience connects with the actors. With “Revolutionary Road,” he has cranked out a crowning achievement in a career just getting started, and yet like so many other masterworks, it may slip through the cracks, barely noticed.
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Detroit critics go for ‘Slumdog,’ Tomei neck-and-neck with Cruz with sixth win
(Updated to amend tally error on my part.)
I know I declared a moratorium on these until the dust settles, but I stumbled onto the list of winners for the Detroit Film Critics Society while compiling the master list and didn’t see them reported elsehwere yet, so here you go. This list is significant to me, though, because Marisa Tomei has officially pulled up right along side of Penelope Cruz, winning her sixth critical kudo. SAG sure is looking silly for that slight.
The winners, via the DFCS website (nominees were announced Tuesday):
Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road”
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
Best Supporting Actress: Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
Best Ensemble: “Frost/Nixon”
Best Newcomer: Martin McDonough, writer/director, “In Bruges” -
12/19 Oscarweb Round-up
(This is your “don’t fly Continental — EVER” edition of the In Contention Oscarweb Round-up, brought to you live from Houston’s George Bush International Airport, a.k.a. Satan’s womb.)• Jeff Wells actually thinks there were “stunners” in yesterday’s SAG announcement. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• David Poland talks with a chin-up Baz Luhrmann. [The Hot Blog]
• Dave Karger and Tom O’Neil dish the season as it stands. [Gold Derby]
• Rebecca Cathcart gets into the “Who would accept for Heath?” question. [The Carpetbagger]
• Daniel Day-Lewis tops a UK list of the year’s greatest lines. [Daily Telegraph]
• Peter Knegt sits down with the newly SAGed Richard Jenkins. [indieWIRE]
• Kira Cochran talks to Kate Winslet about her 2008 one-two punch. [The Guardian]
• Patrick Goldstein kicks “Revolutionary Road” while it’s down, but let’s face it — he’s right. [The Big Picture]
• Anne Thompson on the weird Jeremy Piven news, which, I’m shamed to say, first came across my bow last night on Inside Edition as I sat in a poor excuse for a comped hotel room. [Thompson on Hollywood]
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‘Slumdog,’ ‘Hunger,’ ‘Happy’ rule London crix nods
Sorry for following up on this so long after Kris’ teaser… what can I say? It’s Christmas party central round these parts.Anyway, the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards are a bit of an odd duck in the kudos calendar, but not an uninteresting one. They tend to try to have their cake and eat it — honouring both British and international achievements in categories that seem segregated at first glance, but actually aren’t. So this year, you’ll see Danny Boyle crop up in both the Director of the Year and British Director of the Year fields. The same goes for Kate Winslet in the actress races. (They also hedge their bets there, nominating her jointly for “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader.”)
Meanwhile, only one screenwriting category exists, while only British actors are singled out for supporting honours. Which is why non-British supporting players like Heath Ledger and Penelope Cruz are competing in the Actor and Actress of the Year categories, respectively — so don’t get too excited about that. (Meanwhile, the Brit supporting categories are a real stretch… I mean, Toby Jones?)
If you’re confused, I don’t blame you. It’s a haphazard system, but nonetheless, when you dig through the nominations there’s some real gold to be found. The nod for Tilda Swinton’s extraordinary work in Eric Zoncka’s “Julia” is truly inspired, while one has to applaud the anti-herd mentality that leads to such inclusions as Josh Brolin for “W.” or Terence Davies in the British Director category. Compared to the dull-as-dishwater SAG nominees foisted upon us this morning, at least there’s a little initiative at play here.
More commentary, and a full list of nominees, after the cut.
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‘Doubt’ leads with five SAG noms
(Apologies for the delay getting these up this morning. I had technical difficulties signing in and had to scoot shortly after the announcement. Here are the belated nominees with commentary.)The Screen Actors Guild didn’t have much up its sleeve this morning for its heavily anticipated nominations announcement. No left-field zingers, no “3:10 to Yuma” or “Station Agent” surprises, just a slick rundown of the season’s favorites so far.
Looking deeper into the categories, we can point to a number of things. The fact that “Doubt” leads the way is no surprise, since all four principles from the cast were nominated and, therefore, the film landed a nod for Best Ensemble. But praise for the acting, even if that represents the biggest branch of the Academy, isn’t necessarily enough. Will the other branches be on board for this as a “film,” or will they simply see it for what it is: a photographed play with no creative bridge to the screen?
Dev Patel’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor is the boost he needed for Oscar, though it should be noted that the SAG likes to nominate younger actors. Dakota Fanning, Jamie Bell, etc. Also, it’s worth noting that Taraji P. Henson received three nominations this morning, two for her performance in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (supporting actress and ensemble) and one as part of the “Boston Legal” ensemble on the TV side of things. Congratulations to one sweetheart of a girl.
The absence of Sally Hawkins is a bit distressing, however. Especially when you consider the fact that the actress categories tend to go five-for-five with the Academy. That could of course change this year as both fields are more competitive than usual, but seemingly a sure-thing after her critics awards bonanza, it seems the lovely Hawkins is back on the bubble.
“Revolutionary Road” is, sad to say, officially on life-support, if the night nurse hasn’t already tripped on the chord and yanked it from the wall entirely. One nomination for Kate Winslet, nothing for Leonardo DiCaprio, nothing for the brilliant Michael Shannon. The industry doesn’t seem to be responding to this film. So I think the likely five have finally slid into place, and “Doubt” remains the spoiler.
The nominees after the jump.