In Contention

Tag: Leonardo DiCaprio

  • PAGE TO SCREEN: “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane

    Shutter Island by Dennis LehaneDeep into Dennis Lehane’s 2003 novel noir “Shutter Island,” there’s a wonderfully telling exchange between the two central characters. Reflecting on the gothic heights to which their situation has spiralled, one observes, “It’s all a bit Grand Guignol, don’t you think?” His partner’s reply: “I don’t know what the fuck that means.”

    Ostensibly a nod to class difference within the narrative, it’s also arguably a tongue-in-cheek dig at the novel’s self-reflexive straddling of high and low culture. “Shutter Island,” of course, is Grand Guignol of the highest order, but with an acute awareness of the term: steeped in references to throwaway pulp fiction and lurid 1950s B-movies, but written with the literary discipline and deference of a serious novelist.

    Needless to say, Boston-ish setting aside (and even then, “Shutter Island” goes to significant dramatic lengths to distance itself from the city), the novel is a very different beast from the two Lehane titles successfully given the screen treatment in recent years. For all their whodunnit trappings, “Gone Baby Gone” and “Mystic River” traded largely in earnest authenticity; “Shutter Island,” by contrast, hinges on artifice.

    Lehane has apparently stated his admiration for Graham Greene’s alternation between “novels” and “entertainments”: this, carefully wrought and quotation mark-enclosed as it is, is plainly his idea of a pure entertainment, a funhouse, a ride.

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  • New to DVD, ‘Revolutionary Road’ may yet be discovered for the masterpiece it is

    (from left) Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary RoadWhen “The Wizard of Oz” was released in 1939, neither audiences or critics were particularly fond of the film and it died a rather quick death at the box office. When “Citizen Kane” was first released in theatres in 1941, audiences did not warm to it, and despite winning the New York Film Critics Circle award for best film, and nine Academy Award nominations, it too died a fast death.

    In 1956, John Ford’s magnificent western “The Searchers” was not nominated for a single Academy Award, and though well liked at the time, no one seemed to think it was the work of art it is considered to be today. Even Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” did not find an audience when first released, and though the film had many strong reviews, no one thought iof it on the level they do today.

    It happens all the time.  Great films get ignored by both audiences and film critics. And though it would be an obvious stretch to consider Sam Mendes’s “Revolutionary Road” in the above company, it is nevertheless a perfect recent example.

    True enough, some critics (myself included) admired “Revolutionary Road” when it was released, but there were simply not enough of us to get the word out. Not even the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winlet could help the film pull in audiences. Incredibly, the Hollywood Foriegn Press Association (their choices sometimes dubious at best) nominated the film for several awards and Kate Winslet rightfully won Best Actress in a Drama for her performance in the film. A couple of weeks later, collective jaws hit the floor when she was nominated for a leading actress Oscar, but for “The Reader,” a lesser performance and film.

    Earlier this week I received my DVD of the film, which hits shelves on June 2, and so I sat down at once to watch it again.  I made my way through the features, wanting to learn more and more about this astonishing film.  And it is my sincere hope that “Revolutionary Road” will some day come to be recognized for the sublime work of art it truly is.

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  • In praise of Kate’s … feet?

    I’m not sure where I stand on David Thomson these days. He is surely one of the greatest film writers still at work today; few of his rivals manage such a fine balance of personal appreciation and critical insight, particularly in the area of performance. (As a prose stylist, Thomson at his best leaves Ebert for dust, in my opinion.) His “Biographical Dictionary of Film” is as essential as it is idiosyncratic, while last year’s “Have You Seen … ?” is a bedside-book delight, ideal for dipping in and out of at leisure.

    But in recent years, his work has grown increasingly sloppy and, in some cases, frankly unhinged. His further “Biographical Dictionary” entries for the Guardian have been spotty and back-handed of late, but the clincher was his factually malnourished and unavoidably creepy 2006 “biography” of his long-time cinematic crush, Nicole Kidman, which paid stomach-churning tribute to the Australian’s “commas of breast” and “gingery pubic hair.” An embarrassment for all concerned, it truly has to be read to be believed.

    It’s difficult to say, then, whether it’s good or bad news for Kate Winslet that Thomson appears to have set his sights on her instead, writing an extraordinarily generous tribute to her in today’s Guardian, calling the actress “the finest performer of her generation,” and waxing lyrical about her performance in “The Reader” (“easily the best and most disturbing film of the year”). It is, in fairness, a civil and intelligent appreciation for the most part, after an eccentric opening that focuses on her, er, feet:

    Near the end of The Reader there is a large close-up of two bare feet … The feet are less than lovely – mottled, calloused, the toenails out of shape, everything well-worn. My wife opined, “They can’t be Kate Winslet’s feet – must be a stand-in, a foot-in. Perhaps they are Sam Mendes’s feet, and he did the shot so she could have a lie-in.”

    Not to disparage the consideration and fondness between Mendes and Winslet, husband and wife, director and actor, I preferred to think that Winslet is too much the perfectionist to let false feet into her picture. “She’d have been up at four in the morning,” I said, “getting the make-up people to give her the opposite of a pedicure” … I assume that Winslet would take any trouble, from the tips of her broken toes to the proper split ends in her elderly German hair. “Would Meryl Streep entertain anyone else’s feet?” I asked my wife. She agreed not. And that is the standard here: Kate Winslet is the heir to Meryl Streep.

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  • 1/16 Oscarweb Round-up

    Roddy Piper in They Live• A brilliant roundtable: wrestlers discussing “The Wrestler.”  It’s just nice that Luger has his faculties about him now. [Fox Searchlight]

    • While we’re on the subject, the top 10 wrestlers in movies.  I’m big on #10 and #3.  Not so much on #1. [The Times]

    • Making the SAG award statuette. [The Envelope]

    • Kate Dailey reports from a SoHo Q&A with “Gran Torino” director and star Clint Eastwood. [Vulture]

    • A nice Leonardo DiCaprio appreciation. [The Guardian]

    • Feel-good films for a global recession. [The Independent]

    • Patrick Goldstein picks up on TV producer Chuck Lorre’s recent post-“Big Bang Theory” vanity card, bemoaning the negativity of this year’s Oscar contenders. [The Big Picture]

  • A film that sticks — why ‘Revolutionary Road’ is a masterwork

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary RoadGENTLE SPOILERS WITHIN — READ WITH CAUTION

    Fear 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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  • If nominated, will Clint win Best Actor? I think so…

    Clint Eastwood in Gran TorinoThough it ain’t over till it’s over, I think the five nominees for best actor have all but been decided.  Come nomination morning, I expect to hear the names of Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, Frank Langella, Mickey Rourke and Richard Jenkins.

    Of course I have no way of knowing if this is how things will end up, but I have a pretty good feeling (which means nothing). Left off the list will be Brad Pitt in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which will garner the most nominations of any film, and Leonardo DiCaprio for “Revolutionary Road,” a brilliant, dark and troubling masterpiece, destined to be re-discovered in years to come as perhaps the best film of the year and certainly DiCaprio’s best work to date.

    Eastwood is in partly because he is Eastwood and partly because he does fine work. The role is tailor made for him in the manner Rooster Cogburn was written for John Wayne in “True Grit,” which won The Duke his only Oscar back in 1969. Eastwood gets to growl, cuss and throw out all sorts of racist comments in portraying a nasty old son of a bitch who turns out to have a heart. For anyone who has ever met or spoken to Eastwood, they will realize this character is light years away from the man, making it a startling performance.

    I am so tired of reading that he is playing himself. Sure he is portraying an extension of himself.  All actors do that (and always have), but Eastwood is also portraying a variation on the sort of role that made him famous. Could Walt be “Dirty Harry” after retirement? Damned straight he could and perhaps this is why the film has been greeted so warmly in some quarters, because the reviewer sees Eastwood’s character as an older version of Harry, a much loved character from years gone by, and a reimagination of his screen iconography.  It is sort of like seeing an old friend again.

    Well…sort of.

    If nominated, Eastwood will be a major threat to win the award. In fact, no, I’ll just say what Kris has been saying for a few months, now that I’ve gone back to the film a third and fourth time: if nominated, Clint WILL win.

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  • INTERVIEW: Michael Shannon

    Michael Shannon in Revolutionary RoadIf you’ve seen James Marsh’s “Man on Wire,” then you know of Philippe Petit’s dazzling tight-rope walk between the towers of New York’s World Trade Center on the morning of August 7, 1974.  What you probably don’t know is that while Petit was criss-crossing back and forth between the towers for roughly 45 minutes, Michael Shannon was coming into the world down in Lexington, Kentucky’s Good Samaritan Hospital.

    “I don’t think it means anything,” Shannon says.  But it’s certainly an interesting aside to the Oscar season, drawing a connection, however meaningless, between these two contenders, one of them a thoroughbred frontrunner, the other deserving of that consideration but strangely under the radar this year.

    I get a call from Shannon to kick off the morning.  It seems he’s somewhat stranded at the hotel and will be late meeting me over at Hugo’s on Santa Monica Blvd.  I later find out he was industrious enough to grab a cab rather than wait on a studio-provided car, probably the east-coaster in him.  “Don’t worry,” he says.  “I’m going to make sure we get a full hour.”

    When Shannon walks into a room, his striking height seems to command at least a glance in his direction.  A couple of brunching patrons stare for a bit, sure that they’ve seen him in SOMETHING before.  And for a number of years, Shannon has been that kind of actor — the hard-working sort that AMPTP has certainly disavowed as SAG tries to find some sort of plan for sustaining the acting middle-class throughout the industry.

    You’ve seen him in “Pearl Harbor,” “Bad Boys II,” “World Trade Center,” “Bug” and any number of bit roles that call for the unusual image he cuts.  But you’ve never seen him like he is in “Revolutionary Road,” a two-scene wonder of a performance that cuts the the very core of a narrative already concerned with getting at the hardest of truths.

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  • ‘Revolutionary Road’ — snubbed today, sure to be remembered forever

    Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in Revolutionary RoadOne 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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  • 12/23 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jim Carrey• Julian Sancton samples and gives some commentary on his top 11 film scores of the year. [Vanity Fair]

    • David Poland spends 30 minutes with “Nerakhoon” director Ellen Kuras. [The Hot Blog]

    • Tom O’Neil and Dave Karger fight over the Best Actress frontrunners. [Gold Derby]

    • Karger, meanwhile, spends some more time with the cast of “Doubt.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • David Carr’s “Marley and Me” mea culpa. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Kim Voynar goes deep this holiday season with a look at sex with teenagers on the big screen, and she has a hell of a point. [Movie City News]

    • Patrick Goldstein spotlight’s the year’s worst. [The Big Picture]

    • A trio of films go into production depicting the epic Battle of Hastings. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Paralleling the careers of big screen heartthrobs Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio. [MSNBC]

    • Michael Cieply digs into the clash of movie moneymakers Jom Carrey and Will Smith this weekend. [New York Times]

    • Brad Brevet lists the top 10 assassination movies with an inspired #1 and a #6 that has no business on any top 10 list. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Speaking of lists, how about the top 10 balliest singing performances? [Premiere]

    • Andrew O’Hehir on how indie film thrived in 2008. [Beyond the Multiplex]

  • ‘Doubt’ leads with five SAG noms

    Amy Adams in Doubt(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.

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  • Golden Globes: the nominees react

    Leonardo DiCaprioThe Hollywood Foreign Press Association tipped its collective hat to a number of the season’s hopeful contenders this morning, so it’s time to hear some reactions. Generally, a piece such as this is bound to consist of a bunch of gushing, perhaps even boilerplate gratitude from the nominees. And one certainly couldn’t fault them for it. But I always enjoy hearing reactions from people whose lives are being changed this time of year, and certainly, those who can’t help but feel humbled by the recognition.

    What can I say? I’m not a grouch all the time.

    Matteo Garrone was first to call this morning. His epic crime saga “Gomorrah” was predictably short-listed in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

    “The movie is going so well and everything is such a surprise,” he said. “We wanted to give the audience the instrument, the information to understand better how the Camorra organization works on the inside, without any glamorizing, but to try to show the real atmosphere, the real location. We wanted to make a movie that was universal, and this result, I think it proves that we achieved that.”

    When I interviewed author Roberto Saviano last month, who penned the original book “Gomorrah” is adapted from, he had similar sentiments to offer. The film is one of the year’s best, a triumphant piece of work that frankly should be getting more recognition than simple relegation to the foreign film fields, but any notice is fortunate, as Garrone is quick to point out.

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  • Getting around to the BFCAs

    Kate Beckinsale in Nothing But the TruthA late night premiere and after party kept me in bed most of the morning.  It happens.  So I’m just now coming around to today’s BFCA announcement.  First, some reactions (full disclosure, I am a member of the organization).

    First and foremost, the group subtracted one category (Best Family Film) and added another (Best Action Film).  I think we all know where the latter is headed.  Speaking of which, “The Dark Knight” actually had a hell of a showing, popping up in the expected areas but also grabbing a nomination for director Christopher Nolan and composers James Newton Howard and Hans Zimmer (who find themselves back in the Oscar hunt as of yesterday).

    The group also combined the Best Young Actor and Best Young Actress categories to reflect both sexes in the same arena.  A good call, since I’m sure I’m not the only one who has felt like I was grasping at straws to list six names some years.

    The startling omission: “Revolutionary Road.”  I’m sure there are more than a few broken hearts at Paramount Vantage this morning, but chin up.  “Into the Wild” landed the most nominations with the BFCA last year and only managed two Oscar nominations.  So it all goes to show you these things aren’t set in stone.  That having been said, the BFCA is simply the best Oscar predictor around and I’m thinking it will prove itself a nice tip sheet going into January 22.

    A few quasi-surprises were in store.  I’m sure not too many people were expecting Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga’s names to pop up for Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth.”  Lurie, it should be said, is a founding member of the BFCA, though in fairness, that was 15 years ago and he was in the group for two years.  He has friends in the organization, sure, but they represent a fraction of the 200-strong membership.  Regardless, I truthfully think both actresses deserve a spot at the table so it’s nice they could push their way through.

    But getting back to “Revolutionary Road,” this is an out-and-out shut-out, and that really hurts the film’s buzz potential.  It’s one thing to miss this category or that, but nothing for Leo (with six shots at it), nothing for Kate (ditto), not even a nod for Michael Shannon, who damn well deserves a mention.  I’m truthfully surprised.  I think our Best Picture line-up will be taken from the top 10 list, and like I said, it can’t be happy times for that hard-working crew.  Scott Rudin is still sitting pretty, though, as his “Doubt” popped up in a number of areas.  But “Button,” “Dark Knight,” “Frost,” “Milk,” “Slumdog” — you might as well take it to the bank.

    Oh, and one final note.  I’m actually quite happy to see Clint Eastwood’s name pop up in the composer category for “Changeling.”  I think the jazzy soundtrack is his best work as a film musician to date and, if the Academy’s music branch ever saw past their bias, would make a fine Oscar nominee.  Nice to see him show up here.

    The top 10 list, with a full list of nominations after the jump:

    Best Picture
    “Changeling”
    “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    “The Dark Knight”
    “Doubt”
    “Frost/Nixon”
    “Milk”
    “The Reader”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”
    “The Wrestler”

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  • Early winner predictions, part 2: Yours and mine

    Well, Kris was brave enough to stick his neck out and venture some winner predictions, so I thought I’d follow up on that — with the strict caveat that, while nobody knows anything, I frequently know even less.

    So my own predictions are after the cut. I don’t think them informed enough to place on a main page, but in the interests of diversity (and maximum egg-on-face potential), there they are. I was interested to see that, judging from the impressive response to Kris’ initial post, you readers and I are of a like mind in several areas. I specifically waited until after I’d drawn up my own foolhardy picks before looking at yours, and was surprised by some of the parallels that emerged.

    So let’s take a look at how you voted, shall we? I see some enterprising commenter on Kris’ post has already collated the data and drawn up percentages, and short of drawings up bar graphs and pie charts, I wouldn’t want to compete with that kind of specificity. (Seriously, I wouldn’t.) But even without getting mathematical, some trends are clear.

    In the top category, I expected to be in a significant minority picking “Milk,” but you have it breathing hotly down “Benjamin Button’s” neck as the frontrunner, with 11 and 13 votes respectively. A mere two of you side with Kris in picking “Slumdog Millionaire,” which, obtuse creature that I am, makes it the smarter choice in my mind. And yet, thrilled as I would be to see Team Boyle onstage come Oscar night, I can’t quite go there. Right now, “Milk” ticks too many boxes: dazzling reviews, emotionally charged, politically relevant, a more accessible effort from a long-revered filmmaker. It makes almost too much sense to me.

    Things are less tight in Best Director, where David Fincher enjoys over half your votes, with Danny Boyle and Gus van Sant (my choice) neck-and-neck for second place.

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  • Variety weighs in on ‘Revolutionary Road’

    UPDATE: We’re not out of the woods yet. The Hollywood Reporter gives it the thumbs-down, something I didn’t notice earlier, as the review was buried in their impossible website. (Seriously, guys, work on it.) Anyway, Kirk Honeycutt calls it “didactic” and “emotionally overblown,” and has nothing to say about the performances.

    On the other hand, Honeycutt makes no secret of his disdain for the source material (“it fails to escape the novel’s misogyny and contempt for anything suburban”), so make of that what you will.

    EARLIER: And it’s good news, even if they have some reservations. Unlike Kris, I haven’t had the privilege of seeing this yet, but it sure as hell sounds like an across-the-board contender to me:

    “Revolutionary Road” is a very good bigscreen adaptation of an outstanding American novel — faithful, intelligent, admirably acted, superbly shot. It also offers a near-perfect case study of the ways in which film is incapable of capturing certain crucial literary qualities, in this case the very things that elevate the book from being a merely insightful study of a deteriorating marriage into a remarkable one.

    DiCaprio often achieves the kind of double register the film as a whole less consistently captures, as he indicates Frank’s thought process in the split second before he decides what to say. At certain moments, the conjoined cerebral and emotional aspects of his characterization summon the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s breakthrough performances around the time of “Five Easy Pieces.”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Getting to know you

    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Revolutionary RoadThis is the first season I can think of, at least since I’ve been covering this crazy beat on the west coast, that studios have become so terrified by the media that guild screenings are preempting press screenings with such consistency.

    Some have whined about “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” screening for SAG 10 days before the media at large gets a look (with the usual brand of entitlement that turns the stomach).  Others actually snuck into the screening, surely freaking out a few publicists desperate to unfold the film at their own pace (and the pace dictated by the meticulous David Fincher).  I’m just waiting.

    Plenty have taken the altered ending story behind “Australia,” not to mention the film being held from the press until two weeks before it opens, as a sign that the movie is in trouble.  I’m just waiting.

    Lots of anticipation has suddenly been blown into “The Reader”‘s previously deflated balloon.  I’m just waiting.

    But I have to say, seeing a couple of the year’s contenders last week with big industry audiences proved to be just the breath of fresh air this incredibly stifling season needed.

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  • ‘Revolutionary’ screening

    I’m not allowed to get into my thoughts on “Revolutionary Road” in any real detail yet, but we’ve got a real Best Picture contender on our hands, one driven to that status by a dynamic blend of powerhouse performances that won’t likely be forgotten any time soon.

    Leonardo DiCaprio, joined on stage right now with director Sam Mendes and the cast for a post-screening Q&A (in front of a massive SAG audience that appears to have enjoyed the film), just described his response to the material as like being “a fly on the wall…I felt embarrassed.” I think that comment sums up both the power of Richard Yates’s incredibly truthful novel and the apparent success with which it has (finally) been brought to the screen.

    More next week.

  • 11/6 Oscarweb Round-up

    Leonardo DiCaprio• David Poland sees the passage of Proposition 8 in California as a marketing opportunity for Focus Features and “Milk”… [The Hot Blog]

    • …before running down the “short race” that is the Oscar season of 2008. [Movie City News]

    • Tom O’Neil and Pete Hammond keep on digging at Dave Karger’s predictions. [Gold Derby]

    • Ari Folman talks “Waltz with Bashir.” [The Guardian]

    • Kevin Days reports on the vintage autos used in Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling.” [Los Angeles Times]

    • More chatter about the Best Picture potential of “The Dark Knight.” [Test Pattern]

    • Martyn Palmer talks “Titanic” with Leonardo DiCaprio and the star’s desire to purge himself of the image the 1997 blockbuster molded for him. [The Times]

  • Rousing Best Actor race shaping up

    Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonIn a year I maintain to be disappointing, I must confess that the sprint to the finish is looking more and more exciting all the time, with an exceptional crop of actors vying for Best Actor nominations. This could very well be the year that Clint Eastwood wins an acting Oscar, or that the previously washed-up Mickey Rourke wins for “The Wrestler.”

    At this writing I have 12 actors who could potentially land in the field of play, though in fairness, four of the films have not been widely seen and I am going on the buzz and speculation within the industry right now.

    There seems to be a lot of belief that Richard Jenkins, a wonderful character actor who has been around forever, could land a nomination for “The Visitor.”  He came back into the public eye as the dead father in HBO’s critically acclaimed “Six Feet Under” and has been working consistently ever since.  This year he did a nice job as the heart and soul of the Coen brothers’ “Burn After Reading.”  If the studio can mount a decent campaign and keep him in the minds of the voters, he may nab a nomination.

    But he could easily be left out. Remember Michael Douglas in “Wonder Boys”? After the film’s November re-release for awards consideration helped him win the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Actor, everyone was stunned when he failed to land a nomination with the Academy.

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