In Contention

Tag: Melanie Laurent

  • ‘Beginners’: Plummer’s late Oscar vehicle?

    We may be almost halfway through the 2011 release schedule, and as usual, there’s been little in the theaters to trouble the Oscar-minded obsessives among us. That’s not to say the last six months have wanted for deserving work — in a perfect world, one where all good films are created equal, “Certified Copy” star Juliette Binoche would be tough to beat for Best Actress, while “Meek’s Cutoff” would be a slam-dunk Best Picture nominee, but we hardly need to go into the dully pragmatic reasons why those are mere pipe dreams.

    Only two immediate post-Cannes releases, “The Tree of Life” and “Midnight in Paris,” have prompted some awards discussion with their critical provocation and surprising box office, respectively — but beyond a near-certain cinematography nod for the former and a possible writing nod for the latter, further prospects depend largely on the performance of autumn’s big-name prestige draws, as well as a few hot festival purchases from Cannes, Sundance and even Berlin.

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  • Just say no

    Last week, Tom O’Neil reported on a horrifying unacceptable interesting potential development in this year’s Oscar race, and as much as I’ve tried to push it to the recesses of my mind, the thought won’t leave me alone — not least because it provides a depressingly neat answer to one of the question marks I had over the predictions I made last week.

    As I struggled to cobble together a list of 10 plausible Best Picture nominees, I kept searching for the annual middlebrow specialty wild card that is neither too populist nor too outré for the bluehair voting contingent — the film that will make voters feel artistically discriminating, without making them want to slit their wrists. A film for those voters who, to filch a quote from Nick Davis, “like the arthouse best when there’s no real art in it.”

    “The Kids Are All Right” kind of fits the bill, though it’s actually good, and its fun factor is a little too high. “Winter’s Bone” is suitably low on fun, but it’s also as chilly as its title. “The King’s Speech?” Well, it has corsets and cut-glass British accents a go-go, as well as Harvey Weinstein — a man who, as “The Reader” reminded us only 18 months ago, knows this voting contingent inside out. But it’s also a small-scale story of one man overcoming a stutter: mightn’t that prove a little slight for voters who like their awards bait capital-I Important?

    According to O’Neil, it seems this thought might have crossed Weinstein’s mind, and he’s already forming a back-up plan. Ladies and gentlemen, enter “The Concert.”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Doc shortlist, honorary Oscars and more

    Lauren Bacall at the 2009 Governors' Awards• The shortlist of contenders for the documentary Oscar was announced, surprising many — we dug into it a little.

    • The season’s first Oscars were handed out, as Lauren Bacall, Gordon Willis, Roger Corman and John Calley were celebrated at the Governors’ Awards.

    • This week’s Off the Carpet column broke down the wide-open Best Original Screenplay race.

    • The Long Shot lived up to its name, spotlighting a few of the season’s most deserving outsiders.

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  • Someone who actually gets this year’s lead actress field

    Charlize Theron in The Burning PlainLeave it to a woman to understand the virtues of leading ladies on screen this year.

    Yesterday we linked to Steven Zeitchik’s join-the-misguided-masses piece on the “thin” Best Actress race.  I just got into this debate Monday night with another proponent of the theory (who has been similarly rebuffed here in the past).

    The point I keep coming to is that, yeah, if everything is seen through the prism of what makes an Oscar contender (which is, frankly, such a manipulative pursuit it shouldn’t be the gauge), then yeah, maybe a case can be made for a “weak” year for lead actresses.  But that does not necessarily translate to a dearth of quality work that isn’t destined to be recognized during the awards season.

    Of course I’ve made this point emphatically and in black and white before.  But it’s oh so nice to read Women & Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein catching the point as well.

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  • Weinsteins promote Mélanie Laurent to lead

    Melanie Laurent in Inglourious BasterdsSome of you have already mentioned this in another thread, but The Weinstein Company, in their apparent wisdom, have decided to campaign “Inglourious Basterds” star Mélanie Laurent for Best Actress.

    Far be it from me to question the judgment of one of the greatest strategists in Oscar history, but … what?

    Laurent was, admittedly, a very dark horse in the supporting category, but as far as I can see, promoting her to lead reduces her nomination chances to nil — unless voters take the category decision into their own hands, as they did with Kate Winslet this year.

    Perhaps Weinstein is simply buying into the popular myth that Best Actress is a weakly contested category this year. But with only one slot seemingly up for grabs, and her compatriot (and fellow Weinstein Company property) Marion Cotillard muscling in on the race, the odds are firmly stacked against Laurent getting it.

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  • David Poland’s Oscar underdogs … where are the ladies?

    Tilda Swinton in JuliaFor those of you bored of reading the same ever-narrowing list of names in the assorted Oscar-speculation pieces across the web, David Poland’s latest column is a slight breath of fresh air.

    Decrying the fact that many pundits are making ludicrous long-shot calls like “This Is It” for Best Picture, while ignoring more deserving contenders who could use the attention, Poland provides a list of less-hyped contenders in the top categories that he feels merit consideration.

    His definition of the term “underdog” ranges from genuinely fanciful contenders (Catherine O’Hara and James Gandolfini for “Where the Wild Things Are,” “In the Loop” for Best Picture) to names still very much in the race who  have lately lost a bit of steam (Matt Damon, Jeremy Renner and Viggo Mortensen, all in the Best Actor category).

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Looking at the supporting ladies

    Vera Farmiga in Up in the AirA few weeks ago in this space I took a dedicated look at the lead actress category.  With little in the way of actual development (this season is curiously divided on the timeline as we’ve got maybe another month before more major titles begin screening), I figured it would be a good idea to keep things going on that front and take a look at the supporting actress race.

    It’s a little difficult to ignore the fact that Mo’Nique stands way out ahead of the pack in this race for her work in “Precious.” Unless her reported behind-the-scenes drama-queen tactics somehow poison the cause, she should be holding a statue in four months’ time.  She is fierce and focused in a monstrous role and when viewers get over the initial “she had this in her?” shock, they’ll also see it for the expert piece of acting that it is.

    Mo’Nique is joined in her film, however, by what I’d call an awards-worthy turn from Mariah Carey.  The singer-turned-actress has been lurking in Mo’Nique’s shadow throughout the film’s publicity and festival tour this year, and she also lost something of a diva battle with Mary J. Blige to have a featured track in the film.  The poor girl can’t catch a break here, but I think she deserves a look from voters and, perhaps, even prognosticators.

    A few weeks ago I mentioned in an episode of Oscar Talk that “Up in the Air” star Vera Farmiga would be pushed as a lead actress.  Some things have changed.

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  • Mixed early reviews for ‘Basterds’

    Inglourious Basterds

    UPDATE: Variety’s Todd McCarthy bucks the trend with a decidedly enthusiastic review. He cites some problems, including first-half tonal inconsistencies, but otherwise finds himself swept up in Tarantino’s self-reflexive games:

    By turns surprising, nutty, windy, audacious and a bit caught up in its own cleverness, the picture is a completely distinctive piece of American pop art with a strong Euro flavor that’s new for the director.

    The best characters are non-Yanks, all of whom speak their own languages and one or two others to boot. But this commendable gesture toward linguistic accuracy is virtually the only realistic aspect of the picture, which otherwise soars on its flights of fancy and deliberate anachronisms — the use of David Bowie’s “Putting Out the Fire” at a crucial point is particularly inispired — and flattens out only when Tarantino gets too carried away with over-elaborated dialogue scenes, a problem that could easily be addressed with some slight trimming between now and the skedded August opening … (It’s) never less than enjoyable and more than that in the second half.

    EARLIER: Blogger reactions to “Inglourious Basterds” may be scattered, but the first two trade reviews (we’re still waiting for  Variety to chip in) read fairly similarly, and not very positively at that.

    The critics agree that there are tasty morsels in the stew — rapid consensus seems to be emerging that Austrian star Christoph Waltz spectacularly outshines the rest of the ensemble — but accusations of overlength, indulgence and narrative inconsistency are to be found.

    Are we talking another “Death Proof,” a specialized item that will have its critical and public champions but doesn’t return its maker to the world-beating crossover status of this earlier work? It’s early days in terms of gauging critical response, but with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw crucifying the film (a “colossal armour-plated turkey from hell”), and the Telegraph indifferent (“not so much inglorious as undistinguished”), it seems the detractors will be plentiful.

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