In Contention

Tag: Melissa Leo

  • On the costumes of ‘The Fighter’

    When the Costume Designers’ Guild announce their nominees next week, I have no doubt that Mark Bridges’ work on “The Fighter” will show up in their contemporary category — not really the right classification for a film whose lurid early-1990s threads are as meticulously era-specific as any of 2010’s more lavish period spectacles. (If you didn’t cringe and/or chuckle at the first sight of Christian Bale’s balloon pants, chances are you weren’t alive in 1991.)

    Either way, it remains perhaps my favorite costuming of the year, even if the Academy is unlikely to agree. That said, they’ve been warming to more modern work in recent years — with nods for the high-gloss couture of “The Devil Wears Prada” and the cheap 70s duds of “Milk” — even if corsets and hoop skirts invariably eke out the win.

    This year’s Costume Design field, however, is lean enough that a contemporary nominee or two could squeeze in.

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  • 1/12 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Toy Story’ wins Golden Tomato, inside the NSFC vote, Firth loses his voice

    • “Toy Story 3” edges past “How to Train Your Dragon” and “The Social Network” to take this year’s Golden Tomato Award. [Rotten Tomatoes]

    • Louis Virtel, meanwhile, wants to know why “Oscar zealots” aren’t fighting for the film’s Best Picture chances.  Uh, hello? [Movieline]

    • Sex and ballet slippers: the themes of “Black Swan.” [Film School Rejects]

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  • 12/7 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Bridges’s terms for ‘Legacy,’ Coppola on ‘Somewhere,’ Gurus take another stab

    • Jeff Bridges to “TRON Legacy” producers early on: “Tell me the things you are going to do that no one’s ever done before.” [The Wrap]

    • Sofia Coppola talks “Somewhere” across the pond. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Jesse Eisenberg on awards season, narcissism and his feelings about an Oscar nomination. [Movieline]

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  • ‘Social Network’ wins with D.C. critics

    The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association will officially announce its winners tomorrow (after releasing a list of nominees yesterday), but we’ve got them for you in advance at The Circuit.

    David Fincher’s “The Social Network” took the Film/Director/Screenplay trifecta, while Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” was the big winner over all, taking four awards including Best Original Screenplay.

    Also notable was Melissa Leo and Christian Bale’s wins in the supporting categories, a one-two punch for “The Fighter” that could well be reflected by the Academy in a couple of months.  Meanwhile, “The Town” has taken its second ensemble award (along with last week’s National Board of Review honor).  Could this all be prelude to a SAG ensemble nod and, eventually, a Best Picture nomination?  I’m thinking yes.

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  • AFI FEST: ‘The Fighter’ crashes the party

    I decided to come home and give “The Fighter,” which saw its world premiere at a “secret screening” at AFI Fest tonight, some real thought rather than rushing back to review.  How novel.

    Given the amount of press on hand, one imagines Paramount publicity was besieged with ticket requests following the last minute announcement of the screening yesterday morning, but the film played well to a largely public audience. And by “well” I mean they were kind of swinging from the rafters, as David O. Russell’s film is a mainstream crowd-pleaser through and through.

    There is much to admire about the film. For starters, there’s a unique energy that’s palpable throughout, owed largely to the camera work of DP Hoyte Van Hoytema and, especially, film editing from Pamela Martin. The fights were filmed in a retro early-90s video vein, duplicating the original HBO telecasts of “Irish” Micky Ward’s matches, and they have an energy that crackles. There is the sense of sterile choreography here and there, but for the most part, these scenes are quite uplifting and stand out against the usual boxing sequences we’ve seen over the years.

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  • 10/20 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Complete Metropolis’ coming to TCM, buzz for Leo, Cameron on the usual talking points

    • Jeffrey Wells reminds of the forthcoming TCM airing of the restored “Metropolis” and one hour documentary “Metropolis Refound.”  I’ll…be…there. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Steve Pond conveys positive word on Christian Bale and (as reported for months here) Melissa Leo’s performances in “The Fighter” from ShoEast. [The Odds]

    • Naomi Watts on “Fair Game,” Valerie Plame and politics in Hollywood. [HitFix]

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Can the ladies get some support?

    A number of people wanted Anne and I to discuss the seemingly thin Best Supporting Actress category on the podcast Friday, but we didn’t get to it. So it seemed an opportune time to dedicate this space to the discussion.

    One should keep in mind that the race is still in its early days. This time last year we didn’t even know “Crazy Heart” would be in the mix, and any number of things can change. But while I have been saying for a while now that the supporting actress field is week, it does seem to be taking shape as of late.

    There is no hard and fast frontrunner in the field right now. If Lesley Manville’s “Another Year” campaign were to switch gears, that would be a different story, but the only contender that feels right at the moment is Miranda Richardson as the fiery Barbara Castle in the Brit comedy “Made in Dagenham.”

    On the next tier, I feel pretty good about Dianne Wiest’s chances in “Rabbit Hole,” where the three-time nominee (and two-time winner) stars as a concerned but affable mother to Nicole Kidman’s grief-stricken housewife. Meanwhile, Helena Bonham Carter could well ride the coattails of “The King’s Speech” to a nomination for the comic relief and emotional support she maintains throughout the film.

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  • ‘Welcome to the Rileys’ poster

    I haven’t seen “Welcome to the Rileys,” which opened at Sundance earlier this year and was a part of the downward spiraling Apparition stable before being shifted over to Samuel Goldwyn Films.  Starring James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart, as well as Melissa Leo (quite busy this year), the film may or may not have an impact this season.  How’s that for insight?  It hits theaters October 29.  Have a look at the new poster, courtesy of Movieline, after the jump.

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  • Wahlberg talks up ‘The Fighter’

    When I remarked in a post yesterday that the upcoming awards season looks a little short on the high-profile biopic contenders so beloved of Academy voters, I had a feeling I was forgetting something obvious. And so I was: “The Fighter,” David O. Russell’s biopic of against-the-odds boxing champ “Irish” Micky Ward, starring Mark Wahlberg in the title role.

    In Friday’s episode of Oscar Talk, Kris expressed his high hopes for the film, singling out Christian Bale (as Ward’s half-brother and trainer Dicky Eklund) as a rumored standout. His faith is reflected in the updated predictions to your right, including potential bids in the two top races, as well as three acting categories. (Melissa Leo is currently tapped for Best Supporting Actress, but Amy Adams could be in the mix too.)

    Anne Thompson responded somewhat skeptically to Kris’s enthusiasm, suggesting that Russell’s film (should it turn out well, of course) is in a position to take some in the industry by surprise — always a good place to be from an awards-campaign standpoint. Meanwhile, it would appear that the film’s minders are opting not to build up buzz via the fall festival track: in this Collider interview, Wahlberg explains that they’ll likely skip Toronto and the rest, choosing instead to “go out and go big” with a December release.

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  • Apparition adopts Sundance pic ‘Rileys’

    Kristen Stewart in Welcome to the RileysFresh off their first Oscar win (Best Costume Design for “The Young Victoria”), fledgling distributor Apparition has picked up a well-regarded Sundance indie that could end up buttressing their 2010 awards campaign for Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.”

    “Welcome to the Rileys,” a domestic drama starring James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo as bereaved parents and Kristen Stewart as the teenage prostitute who comes between them, marks the sophomore directorial outing for Jake Scott, son of Sir Ridley. (His sister Jordan, by the way, made a respectable debut last year with “Cracks.” Busy family.)

    Variety reports that Apparition and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group have finalized a seven-figure deal on the film, with a view to an autumn release.

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  • 7/8 Web Round-up

    Woodstock• AMPAS elects its governors. Among those returning to the board: Tom Hanks, James L. Brooks and eternal Oscar bridesmaid Kevin O’Connell. [Variety]

    • Nat Rogers reflects on his favorite thesps of the decade’s first half… and how they’ve fared since. [The Film Experience]

    • Martin Scorsese looks back on Woodstock. A good read, this. [Times of London]

    • Ebert has some choice words for the “Transformers” defenders. [Roger Ebert’s Journal]

    • Noah Forrest boards the “Hurt Locker” train. [Movie City News]

    • Ahead of “Frozen River”‘s long-delayed UK release, Melissa Leo talks about how an Oscar nod has changed her career. [Times of London]

    • Celebrating the delights of the movie-mangling “Cinemash” web series. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Why Nicolas Cage should still be in the conversation for Superman. Uh, right. [The Guardian]

  • ‘The Wrestler’ wins big at the Indie Spirits

    Mickey RourkeDarren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” walked away three trophies at today’s Independent Spirit Awards, including top honors for Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) and Best Feature.

    In his greatest acceptance speech of the season, Rourke seemed fully uninhibited, almost as if he said, “Screw it, ballots are in,” and he cut loose.  The tough guy thing poked through here and there as well as a lot of humorous forgetfulness. (He thanked Searchlight honcho Peter Rice and Rice’s “boss, Jim Jimanopoulos, or something like that.”  Of course he meant Fox studio chief Jim Gianopoulos).  But mostly, it was expletive-laden (like the Spirits like), raunchy and overall, still strangely endearing.

    Rourke briefly dedicated the award to recently deceased pet chihuahua Loki, of course, in a choked-up moment that seemed to beautifully contrast with the rest of the rant.  He held the mic like a rock star might, pushing it away during the applause moments and bringing it back to his lips to finish his thoughts.  He also dedicated a solid 60 seconds to his friend Eric Roberts.  “Whatever he did 15, 20 years ago should be forgiven,” Rourke said.  “Eric Roberts is the fucking man and he deserves a second chance.  I wish there’d be one God damned filmmaker in this room that’d let him fly because the man is something else.”

    Melissa Leo’s speech in acceptance of the lead actress award — not so much.  She rambled, she seemed self-involved, overly dramatic, pompous…let’s just say it’s probably a good thing she hasn’t accepted too many awards publicly this year because I think it would have damaged her Oscar chances.  That’s just me, but it’s a hell of a performance and justly rewarded tonight.

    “Milk” won two trophies early on, James Franco taking down a win in the Best Supporting Actor category and Dustin Lance Black’s first screenplay award.  “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” also secured a pair: Best Screenplay for Woody Allen and Best Supporting Actress for Penelope Cruz.

    Tom McCarthy won the Best Director prize despite his film “The Visitor” not showing up in the Best Feature category, while Charlie Kaufman took home the Best First Feature prize for the exceptional “Synecdoche, New York,” which also won the pre-announced Robert Altman Award.

    (More, plus the full list of winners after the jump.)

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  • You were right, I was wrong: Guy’s final predictions

    (Expanded thoughts and reasonings on yesterday’s list of predictions.)

    It’s years like 2008 when I throw my hands up and admit (albeit with great reluctance) that my family and friends have been right for the last two decades. Carla, Tom, Kim, Auntie Mavis: I give up. I am insane to care as much as I do about the Oscars. They are stupid. They don’t matter, and I really should find something more important and rewarding to care about, like, oh, needlepoint classes or professional darts championships.

    But who am I kidding? I will always care about the Oscars, even in years like this when the race is so dry, and its significance so questionable, that I take great care in not caring. In a year when so few of my personal favourites have cracked the contenders list, it has at least been interesting to sit back and watch the furore unfold over the Academy voters’ spectacularly self-sabotaging antics this year.

    I’ve been wrong about a lot of things this year (Kris scoffed at my naive suggestion back in July that “Happy-Go-Lucky” could be a Best Picture nominee, and he was right to), and right about … well … “Milk’s” nomination for Best Costume Design. (Hey, let me salvage some glory from this year’s meagre spoils.) I don’t expect to be a hell of a lot more successful with the following predictions, but you never know. It’s still been a lot of fun riding out the season with you this year – here’s to a better slate of contenders (and a lot less grousing from me) in 12 months’ time.

    BEST PICTURE
    Apart from the fact that it is the most imaginative and entertaining of this year’s feeble clutch of nominees, the reason “Slumdog Millionaire” has a stranglehold on this category is because it’s the only one of the five that has any discernible relationship to contemporary cinema. The other four all feel to varying degrees like the finely-tooled Best Picture winners of decades past, but the younger, more curious Academy members have been moving away from such self-consciously packaged ‘prestige product’ in the past few years – even if they need a lot of pointing towards what to reward in its stead.

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  • Not so very shocking

    Dave Karger has posted a list of ten potential “shockers” that he thinks could (however faintly) foreseeably shake things up on Oscar night.

    Many of them have been raised before, and are suitably fanciful. Though I’ve said before that there is a logical case to be made for Melissa Leo leapfrogging both Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep to the Best Actress award, it’s safe to say that the odds are firmly stacked against that happening. Meanwhile, while the “‘Benjamin Button’ goes 0-for-13” theory has been floated around before, it’s difficult to see how it could lose all three of the technical awards in which it is deemed a lock. So those outcomes would certainly count as shocking in some measure.

    Some of Karger’s ideas would definitely be upsets, but not necessarily “shockers.” As I’ve written before, I’m joining him on the same limb in predicting a Best Foreign Language Film win for “The Class” — but that category is so prone to upsets, it’s almost more of a surprise when things go according to plan. And I know I’m not the only one seriously considering Viola Davis in the frequently topsy-turvy Best Supporting Actress category — she’s not the favourite, sure, but it wouldn’t be a jaw-dropper of Marcia Gay Harden proportions.

    Some of Karger’s supposed “shockers,” however, wouldn’t even count as upsets to me. He lists both the possibility of “Slumdog Millionaire” making a clean sweep of nine awards, and “The Dark Knight” getting only one statuette — which are really co-dependent on each other, since the sound awards, as far as I can see, represent “TDK’s” only other shots at victory. (Cinematography, I think, sailed with the ASC.) And since “Slumdog” just nabbed the CAS award, would that be so very unexpected?

    The one on Karger’s list that really surprised me, however, was a Best Actor win for Mickey Rourke. It’s well-known by now that this is a neck-and-neck battle to the finish between two beloved performances that have evenly split the major Oscar precursors. In the latest Gurus of Gold chart, Penn leads Rourke by a single vote. I think we can honestly say by now that either result would not be a surprise at all. Now Frank Langella … that would be a shocker.

  • It’s all about the actors

    Over at USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna has come to the conclusion that, in a fairly weak year for film with a less-than-competitive Best Picture slate to show for it, the performance categories are where it’s at this year:

    The real action this year is in the acting. Sets were chewed with delicious relish and scenes were snatched with delectable finesse, even if the films themselves have underwhelmed.

    “I look at my ballot and see all these amazing actors,” says an overwhelmed Donna Gigliotti, a producer on The Reader and a trophy winner for 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. “It’s just staggering. That role was a game changer for Anne Hathaway, nothing that anyone expected from her. And Melissa Leo in Frozen River? What is she, 48? Her nomination just made me want to stand up and cheer. Richard Jenkins is such a fabulous actor. And Taraji P. Henson is the soul of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.“

    I’m inclined to agree. Though I still think the Academy dropped the ball in some areas (Best Actress, in particular, could have been a far richer and more diverse race had the likes of Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas been invited), it’s true that, while 2008 hasn’t been as rewarding for auteur works as some previous years, we’ve seen a lot of films either wholly constructed around their performances (“The Wrestler” being a prime example) or saved by them (for my money, Anne Hathaway and Rosemarie DeWitt are the most focused elements of “Rachel Getting Married”).

    The result is, I think, that people seem a lot more invested in this year’s acting races than the ones for Picture or Director — and it’s not just because the latter two are foregone conclusions. (Let’s face it, there’s not much more suspense in some of the acting categories, and I think you know what I’m referring to.) It seems to me that the performances of 2008 have been more complete, complex and adventurous than the films — in some cases, the very films in which they appear.

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  • Does ‘Frozen River’ have one more trick up its sleeve?

    (from left) Misty Upham and Melissa Leo in Frozen RiverOn Monday’s edition of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” reporter Nate DiMeo spotlights the “Cinderella story” of Courtney Hunt’s “Frozen River,” which turned up a rather surprising original screenplay nomination two-and-a-half weeks ago.

    Originating out of Sundance in early 2008, the film is one of a handful that can be “very high quality, but not very obvious to sell or to market,” says Sony Pictures Classics honcho Michael Barker in the piece.  But, as DiMeo points out, “Frozen River” is “the type of film that Barker and his team have honed awards season after awards season.”

    Interestingly enough, I’ve begun to hear a lot of chatter in favor of Hunt’s film turning up one more surprise: on Oscar night.  While most of us are debating whether Best Picture nominee “Milk” or animated critics favorite “WALL-E” will win in the original screenplay category, there are those who think Hunt could eek out a victory, a show of support for independent filmmaking to be sure.  There is also talk of Kate Winslet’s “assured” victory in the lead actress category not being all that assured at all, and that Melissa Leo has become a difficult choice to argue against.

    Barker “had a plan and an instinct on this,” Hunt says in the DiMeo piece.  “I thought once I got into Sundance and sold the movie, I was a big shot.  Well, it turns out I wasn’t as much of a big shot as I thought I was.”

    Barker notes that “for the longest time, we were the only film that the Academy members had in their hands to watch.”  Screeners of the film went out at the beginning of September, DiMeo reminds, “before it could be buried under a pile of ‘Benjamin Button’ and ‘Dark Knight’ screeners.  Sony Pictures Classics had scheduled the DVD release for right around now to take advantage of a potential nomination.  And now orders are up.”

    The studio’s goal is “for the film to have the longest life possible,” Barker says, “and ‘Frozen River’ is probably a textbook example.”

    Might it also be a textbook example of catching the Oscar frontrunners off guard?  It’s quite possible.

    Also check out Sasha Stone’s interview with Hunt from earlier in the week if you missed it, as well as Liane Hansen’s chat with Leo from November, right around the time of the film’s release.

  • CONTEST: Win a Blu-ray copy of ‘Frozen River’

    We haven’t had a contest in a while but with Melissa Leo and Courtney Hunt nabbing nominations for “Frozen River” two weeks ago, and with the Blu-ray/DVD release set for tomorrow, it seems a good time to give a copy to one savvy trivia hound.

    Yeah, a trivia question.  I know.  I’m running out of creativity these days.

    Anyway, here’s the query: Melissa Leo is anything but the calculated, subdued character she plays in Hunt’s film.  She’s quite the bubbly type, full of life.  In order to taper some of that for the performance, Hunt suggested that Leo watch the work of what iconic actor in order to tap into something more subtle, but with every bit the pent-up emotion the character needed to exhibit?

    First to answer correctly wins.

    Cover of Frozen River Blu-ray

  • What about Melissa Leo?

    Yesterday, Kris pondered whether Kate Winslet’s Best Actress Oscar is quite the sure thing it appears to be on paper, or whether Meryl Streep can surf in on a tide of veteran goodwill and spoil the Brit’s party yet again.

    I’ve been saying since nomination day that I can’t imagine Winslet losing yet again, least of all for a performance in a Best Picture nominee (the first time she’s had that luxury since her non-starter nomination for “Titanic” in 1997). If she wins the BAFTA on Sunday, as almost everyone suspects she will, her campaign stays comfortably on course; if, however, Streep manages to pull off an upset, I may well change my mind.

    But allow me to play devil’s advocate for a minute. Why has the competition been reduced to two performances that are by no means necessarily the strongest in the lineup? Let’s perform a process of elimination. Streep’s performance has been polarising from the get-go, with the reverberations of Variety’s notably harsh review still being felt in the critical community. (As “Doubt” opens today in the UK, a number of critics find themselves bewildered, with the Guardian describing her work as “beyond absurdity.”)

    Of the competition, Angelina Jolie has drawn even less critical consensus than Streep, so it’s safe to say she’s out of the running. Anne Hathaway looked to be a frontrunner at one point, and barely anyone has a bad word to say about her performance, but judging from the tepid Academy reaction to her divisive film, I can’t help feeling that her ship has sailed. Kate Winslet’s performance has also been widely praised, and it’s clear that a large faction of the Academy appreciates “The Reader” — but it’s still a film with some notable detractors, and not everyone likes the way Harvey Weinstein muscled it into the race.

    And so we arrive at Melissa Leo. In many ways the odd woman out in this year’s star-heavy Best Actress race, she is arguably the one nominee whose performance — and film — have attracted the least criticism from any quarter. Critics have showered superlatives upon Leo’s raw, career-defining performance, with the venerable Roger Ebert singling her out as his favourite of the nominees.

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