In Contention

Tag: Meryl Streep

  • The Streep question

    Meryl Streep in DoubtWill she be nominated for a performance Todd McCarthy and even our own Kris Tapley found underwhelming? Of course she will, because all due respect to both, they are wrong.

    I finally saw “Doubt” this week, and as other critics are making clear, Streep does some of her best work in the film. Whether or not she will win is another question, and the chances of that are becoming less each day as we hear more and more about Kate Winslet, who will become the Streep-esque actress of her generation, if she already is not.

    Watching Streep at work in “Doubt” I was amazed at her choices and how correct they always were. She chooses to portray this nun as an Old Testament type, no spoil the rod for her, hell, whack the kid in the head when he slouches, punish them when necessary, and always believe you are acting in their best interests. She is never wrong in the film, at least her character never believes she is wrong, and that sense of righteousness is what makes her character so terrifying. Stalking the halls looking for trouble, wanting to find it, she brings to the part a ferocity that is alarming in its intensity, wholly right for the role. And of course it’s a different take than Cherry Jones gave us on stage.

    Has any actor portrayed Hamlet the same? Or Romeo? Or Richard III? Or let’s go modern and ask about Brando’s Kowalski compared to Treat Williams on TV or Alec Baldwin on stage?  Streep chose a different interpretation, a quieter one that works for the cinema because unlike the stage, the camera misses nothing…NOTHING!

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  • Sigh

    Screen Daily delivers the bewildering news:

    Day one sales of “Mamma Mia! – The Movie” have beaten “Titanic”‘s record, to become the fastest selling DVD of all time in the UK. Sales reached 1.669 million units, following its launch on November 24.

    The previous record for day one DVD sales was held for 10 years by James Cameron’s Titanic. It sold 1.1 million units on its first day of release in 1998 in the UK.

    This is just the latest milestone in a truly staggering journey for the film that has already seen it become the second-highest grosser of all time in the UK, again breathing down the neck of “Titanic.” Meanwhile, with a worldwide cume of other $560 million, it is handily the highest-grossing musical of all time. Words fail me.

    I sense at this point that BAFTA will be unable to ignore the homegrown phenomenon. (Hell, people are making similar demands on AMPAS regarding “The Dark Knight.” Better film, but try telling that to the 1.6 million Brits who rushed out to the DVD store this week.)

    So I’m officially predicting right here that “Mamma Mia!” will be nominated for Best British Film come January. I’m also banking on a Best Actress nom for Meryl Streep, whether in place of or alongside “Doubt.” (BAFTA permits actors to be nominated twice in a category.) Julie Walters, as I mentioned earlier, looks like an inevitable Best Supporting Actress candidate.

    Finally, I’d count on a scattering of craft nods — sound, costume design and music. (Again, BAFTA’s curious rules make it eligible in this category — “Chicago,” “Walk the Line” and “Dreamgirls” all made it.) And hell, why not throw Amanda Seyfried into the mix for their Rising Star Award?

    So, that makes seven BAFTA nominations. I’m just saying. Forewarned is forearmed.

  • 11/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky• Lisa Rosen talks to Sally Hawkins about “Happy-Go-Lucky.” [The Envelope]

    • Tom O’Neil wonders whether Hugh Jackman’s title as “sexiest man alive” in People mag will be costly.  I think the film did him in before the honor, but that’s me. [Gold Derby]

    • Jeffrey Wells is on board for “Revolutionary Road.” [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Anne Thompson comments on the woes of digitally projected films this season.  The lesson?  Just get a print ready and to hell with those of us in the press that might seem impatient. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • New York Mag keeps us up to date on the “ups” and “downs,” wonders if Kate Winslet is moving in on Meryl Streep.  She is. [Vulture]

    • Carrie Bell reports from a star-studded screening of “Doubt,” gets reactions to the film’s Oscar buzz. [Entertainment Weekly]

  • Ebert sidles up to ‘Deep Vote’

    UPDATE: I was in a bit of a rush earlier, but reading it again in more detail, I suspect these are not the thoughts of an AMPAS member, but Ebert’s own predictions in playfully disguised form. Still an interesting read, but several pinches of salt perhaps required.

    EARLIER: Heath Ledger will win the Oscar next February. It’s a done deal. The other four nominees may as well not show up.

    That’s not my opinion there. It’s that (albeit in paraphrased form) of the so-called “Deep Vote,” an Academy insider who recently shared his perspective on the race with Roger Ebert. In an amusing post on his website, Ebert has written up the conversation he had with his mole, and runs through Deep Vote’s other picks — some of which are a little more surprising than the one divulged above.

    I always take such perspectives with a grain of salt — just because someone is a member of the Academy, after all, doesn’t mean they can read the minds of 6,000-odd other voters. But it does provide some interesting insight into which names are in play and generating heat, even if I find it hard to square with certain proclamations.

    For example, I’m sceptical that Jonathan Demme is a “lock” for a Best Director nomination, as is claimed here. It does suggest, however, that there might be more support for him than I expected. I was also interested to see that he has “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” in his “maybe” pile for a Best Picture nod, behind the likes of “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Doubt” and “The Reader.” And I liked this tidbit, which suggests he’s a bit more sophisticated than the average AMPAS voter:

    ‘Synecdoche, New York’ is easily good enough, but they’re embarrassed you had to explain it to them.”

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  • Is Viola Davis stealing Meryl Streep’s Oscar thunder for ‘Doubt?’

    Amid the conflicting reviews that have emerged so far for John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt,” the one common denominator between them appears to be unanimous praise for the supporting performance of Viola Davis. You may remember Kris describing her work as “gut-wrenching,” amid an otherwise tepid review.

    Davis’ role may be small — she has a mere two scenes — but as the Academy has demonstrated in rewarding Beatrice Straight in 1976 (or in nominating Ruby Dee earlier this year), brevity is no obstacle when they are sufficiently moved by a performance.

    Knowing the role, I’ve thought for a while that Davis could wind up the film’s strongest contender for gold, despite many supposing the film would be The Meryl Streep Show. Streep, however, has suffered notices as mixed as the film’s, with heady praise balanced out by detractors (including a much-quoted Variety review) who find her performance a tad on the melodramatic side.

    Now Nathaniel Rogers at the Film Experience, whose deeply considered views on the female acting races are always worth reading, has seen the film, and he is also climbing off the Streep bandwagon. Venturing that Streep may have to wait a while longer for that elusive third Oscar, he writes:

    Sister Aloysius is a sticky role but it’s not the slam dunk “erase memories of Cherry Jones’s powerhouse stage creation”‘ it needed to be for Streep to reach Nicholson’s three statue tally. Best Actress fanatics take note: the way is clear for Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road / The Reader) if she delivers –it’s getting harder and harder to imagine anyone else winning.

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  • Looking for comedy in the awards world

    Over at his OscarWatch column, Dave Karger recently asked a question that has been bothering me for some time regarding this year’s awards race.

    Namely, how the hell are the Golden Globes going to fill out the ballot in the Comedy/Musical races?

    Best Actress looks solid enough. So far, we have two clear-cut frontrunners — Sally Hawkins and Anne Hathaway — in the Actress category, though I wonder if they will wind up placing Hathaway in the drama field, where I think she belongs. Meryl Streep will inevitably get cited for “Mamma Mia!” and I feel confident that Emma Thompson will grab a deserved nomination for “Last Chance Harvey.”

    Karger thinks Sarah Jessica Parker could round out the list, though I might look at Beyonce Knowles in “Cadillac Records” (much as the thought of her playing Etta James upsets me) or Rachel Weisz in “The Brothers Bloom” as alternative filler nominees. (The Globes don’t mind elevating supporting roles when there’s a paucity of contenders, though Weisz is a legitimate lead, in my opinion.)

    It’s the Best Actor category that’s really problematic. From what I can see, Dustin Hoffman has this in the bag for his endearing autumnal turn in “Last Chance Harvey” — not just because it’s a lovely performance, but because I can barely think of any competition for him. With the news that Josh Brolin has (rightly, I think) been denied comedic classification for “W.,” Karger thinks the other nominees might pan out like so:

    I’d also make the case for Paul Rudd, who anchors the current hit Role Models with his signature deadpan delivery, and Ghost Town‘s Ricky Gervais, who was brilliant in a sophisticated comedy that nobody saw. The HFPA could go the more obvious route with Get Smart‘s Steve Carell or Hancock‘s Will Smith, but here’s hoping they’ll think out of the box and recognize another understated humorist: Michael Cera from Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. We can dream, right?

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  • Downey, Jenkins among EW’s Entertainers of the Year

    It’s interesting to note that, in addition to citations for the respective casts of “The Dark Knight” and “Sex and the City: The Movie,” only five film actors made EW’s recently unveiled list of the 25 Entertainers of the Year. (Six if you count their #2 pick, Tina Fey — which I don’t.)

    Perhaps it chimes in with the widespread feeling that 2008 isn’t a vintage year for cinema, perhaps the worlds of TV and music simply had more to offer, or perhaps I’m simply over-analysing. It’s curious to see arguably the year’s two most overexposed stars, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, absent from the list — make of that what you will.

    Nevertheless, the list was topped by a movie star: Robert Downey, Jr. Even with the bumping of “The Soloist” from the 2008 slate, it’s difficult to deny what a great year he’s had — between “Iron Man” and “Tropic Thunder,” he really found his popular touch, and even the most elitist critic had a kind word for him. Whether or not that unlikely Oscar campaign for the latter film takes flight, he has, as EW aptly puts it, “pulled off one of the smartest second acts in showbiz history.”

    Other names present on the list include Meryl Streep, James Franco and Elizabeth Banks — but the most surprising and delightful inclusion is Richard Jenkins. I can’t imagine that the humble 61 year-old character actor ever thought he’d appear on a list alongside the likes of Leona Lewis and The Jonas Brothers, but good for him. It’s an appropriate recognition for a year that saw him supplement a career performance in “The Visitor” with cunning appearances in two mainstream crowdpleasers. Here’s EW’s take:

    Richard Jenkins has had a colorful career, but he never seemed like an actor who’d get interrupted during dinner. After growing up in De Kalb, Ill., he became one of those ubiquitous character actors whom only a few know by name: the gay federal agent in Flirting With Disaster, the psychiatrist in There’s Something About Mary, the deceased patriarch in HBO’s Six Feet Under, and on and on. This year, Jenkins played Will Ferrell’s stepdad in Step Brothers and a gym manager in Burn After Reading. Though Jenkins has worked with just about every big-name filmmaker and actor in Hollywood, The Visitor writer-director Tom McCarthy was still considered brave for elevating him to leading man. ”There was never a question about whether he could do this,” he says. ”Richard has proven himself.’

    Indeed he has. That Best Actor nomination for “The Visitor” looks more and more likely to me.

  • 11/9 Oscarweb Round-up

    Warner Bros. Pictures' Watchmen• Steve Weintraub has a sweet four-video series on Ben Burtt’s process for creating the sounds of “WALL-E” and the “Star Wars” films.  Worth a look if you’re into the tech arena like we are. [Collider]

    • Bad news for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  A forced happy ending. [News.com.au]

    • Cherry Jones gives her approval of Meryl Streep’s turn in “Doubt.” [Gold Derby]

    • But elsewhere, the odds are being stacked against the film. [Vulture]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz discuss the season’s most unknown commodities: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.” [Oscar Watch]

    • Brad Brevet finds some striking similarities between the new “Watchmen” poster and an old “Dark Knight” international one-sheet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • In the midst of AFI Fest, John Horn gets some quality time with “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Meanwhile, Anne Thompson responds to a second “Slumdog” screening. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The new gadgetry of Bond. [New York Daily News]

    • Amy Raphael profiles Kelly Macdonald as “Choke” lands across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Also in the U.K., Toby Jones continues to stir the waters with below-the-radar portrayals. [The Times]

    • Deborah Solomon cranks out a Q&A with “Frost/Nixon” director Ron Howard. [New York Times]

    • Jeffrey Wells defends the violence of Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” against the potential ignorance of the foreign film committee. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

  • “I have doubts!”

    Meryl Streep in DoubtTo bring it back to Oscar talk for a moment, the first curiosity is that people are still talking about the film when asked to refrain from doing so until an actual print is shown, but that aside, Dave Karger presents the case again (to back up his top 3 assertion in the recent issue of Entertainment Weekly) that John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” is heading for a Best Picture nomination.  He remarks:

    It’s looking fairly likely that four of the film’s actors—Streep, Hoffman, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis—will earn acting nominations for their work in the movie. Since the Academy Awards began, 22 films have received four or more acting nominations. All 22 of them also made it into the Best Picture race. So for now, Doubt‘s got Oscar history on its side. But if one member of its acting quartet begins to lose momentum (Adams is probably the shakiest of the four, since her role is the least showy), then I could very easily end up being dead wrong.

    I won’t go into my thoughts on the film yet, no matter how much the chatter makes me want to (especially since I’m beginning to suspect I have a minority opinion — at least among those who’ve seen it so far).  But suffice it to say, I think all this rationalizing might be a touch off base.  One, probably two of the actors are secure.  Of the others, one needs publicity to keep an eye on the ball (brief but powerful, as expected), while one needs the coattails of major awards attention.  We’ll see.

  • ‘Doubt’ lands at AFI

    Meryl Streep in DoubtMiramax honcho Daniel Battsek and actresses Meryl Streep and Amy Adams joined director John Patrick Shanley tonight in introducing the world premiere of “Doubt” as the AFI Fest’s opening gala presentation.  The film, adapted from Shanley’s stage play, has quickly become the lead Oscar pony for a studio that dominated the awards circuit last season.

    The film was projected digitally, as prints haven’t yet been made, and it was deemed “wet behind the ears” at the top by Battsek; Shanley hadn’t even seen the cut in full himself yet.  We’re talking right off the AVID, but it was complete and seemed to capture the respect of the crowd in attendance.

    Watching the film, I was suddenly reminded of one of the year’s developing themes for American cinema: accountability.  It’s front and center in “Frost/Nixon,” a journalist-as-hero yarn about Richard Nixon’s overdue apology to the American people.  It’s certainly lurking beneath the surface of “W,” a character study first but an attempt at explanation on other levels.  “WALL-E” warns of a lack of accounting for our actions, while “The Dark Knight” presents a hero who understands the accountability he owes to himself.  “Gran Torino” will be working on similar levels.

    Anyway, I’ve gone into all of that before, but it stuck out to me again tonight.  Meryl Streep steps in for Cherry Jones as a nun hunting a troubling confession for much of the film’s two hour running time.  The zeitgeist can’t help but insinuate itself into the symbolism and it just reminds, yet again, that 2008 is an amazingly internal year for filmmaking in this country.  Nothing stands out as groundbreaking.  Nothing approaches classic status.  But everything lurks on a sustained, subdued level of reflexivity.  It’s kind of fascinating.

    But the AFI Fest has taken flight.  There are a lot of films showing over the next week that I’m going to try my best to cover.  It seems I’m pulled 10 different ways these days, and I have to tip my hat to Guy for the gusto to really dive into London for us this year.

    I’m eager to finally check out entries like Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” and Ji-woon Kim’s “The Good, the Bad and the Weird.”  I’m really looking forward to the Heath Ledger tribute screening of “Ned Kelly” on Tuesday, as well as the Danny Boyle event at the end of the week.  And, of course, the full monty: “Che” at the Chinese tomorrow night.

    It should be a whirlwind, all roads leading to Edward Zwick’s “Defiance” in the closing night gala.  Tis the season…

  • The evolution of the actress, part two

    Jessica Lange in King KongThis is the second of a two-part study of legendary screen actresses through the years.  Click here for part one.

    Diane Keaton and Sally Field emerged at the end of the 1970s with strong performances that defined them as actresses of the future. Keaton won an Oscar for her kooky “Annie Hall” and became a regular performer  for Woody Allen. But she was also taking risks with other filmmakers, giving a darkly brilliant performance, for instance, in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” as a promiscuous young teacher.

    Keaton gave a sublime performance in “Shoot the Moon,” a critically acclaimed box office failure, and was excellent in “Crimes of the Heart,” “The Little Drummer Girl,” “Marvin’s Room” and most recently, “Something’s Gotta Give.” Equally at home in comedy or drama, Keaton never ceases to amaze.

    Sally Field’s career is a bit more bizarre.  A two-time Oscar winner for genuinely brilliant performances, she truly arrived with “Norma Rae,” claiming all major lead actress awards.  Five years later she won again for a wonderful performance in “Places in the Heart,” which yielded the infamous “you like me” speech.  In the years since, she should have been nominated for “Forrest Gump,” but was not, and now she’s an Emmy Award winner on television. Easily miscast, though, Field can come across as too earnest in some roles, as she was in “Murphy’s Romance.”  But in the right material, she is terrific.

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  • Kate Winslet: the greatest actress of her generation?

    Kate WinsletAt nearly 33 years old (eight days and counting) and with five Academy Award nominations under her belt, Kate Winslet may just be the greatest actress of her generation. Her work has not yet revealed any limitations.  Like Meryl Streep, she offers an authenticity in her work, even the lesser films.  She seems incapable of uttering a false line.  She defines authenticity at every turn.

    Her work in “Titanic” transcended the material, a shoddy screenplay that saw her running about the doomed boat making decisions about what to do next, and I’ll be damned if Winslet did not make it work. In the hands of a lesser actress, the performance, and perhaps the role, would have come across as silly, but she made a character out of Rose we dared to care about.

    There was heat between Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio on the screen.  We believed the love, we believed the devotion, and she did this at a very young age. Earlier still she had gone toe-to-toe with Emma Thomson and Alan Rickman in “Sense & Sensibility,” earning an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actress. Further back, you’ll witness chilling work in Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures” and one sees a major actress developing before our very eyes.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Looking for quality in the festival world

    Guy Pearce in The Hurt LockerThis year’s Toronto International Film Festival just didn’t cut it for some people.  The talk of Oscar taking a break from the annual September showcase had become tired before films even began screening, and certainly before every major news outlet had chosen the angle as the only story worth telling.

    For 10 days, the excitement for what was on hand seemed terribly muted.  But for my part, I could not have been more enthralled.

    We’ve been gifted with frontrunners in the two lead acting categories (Mickey Rourke and Kristin Scott Thomas), performances that should maintain their bee-lines for nominations at the very least, despite what the next three months have in store.  A studio that looked primed for a much-deserved year off the Oscar circuit two weeks ago has emerged as a formidable contender yet again with two acquisitions that are already winning awards (Fox Searchlight).

    What’s more, true independent cinema was given a stage on which to perform without being obscured by big studio product seeking a pre-Oscar campaign boost.  As a result, at least two well-received sleepers have insinuated themselves into the film awards spotlight (“The Hurt Locker,” “Lovely, Still”).

    What’s not exciting?

    I started out this season thinking 2008 would be a weak year for cinema, perhaps on the level of 2005’s shoddy output.  The idea has been echoed in numerous corners, as well as by fellow contributors, but I feel the need to re-frame my philosophy on the situation.  2008 seems to be proving itself a much more measured year, perhaps with less “rah-rah” exhibitions of undeniable filmmaking talent than solid and penetrating works that are out there for the interested (and patient) viewer.

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  • ‘Doubt’ trailer hits the net

    Check it out in Quicktime here.

    Streep looks intense, of course.  She probably remains the film’s strongest shot at Oscar glory.  We can’t be sure whether Viola Davis’s role was expanded enough from the brief stage presence to grab a supporting nomination, while Philip Seymour Hoffman seems a little out of place to me.  But it could be a stellar performance edited awkwardly for the trailer and result in some major notices at the end of the day.

    Your thoughts?

  • Let’s hear it for the ladies!

    Meryl Streep in DoubtWow, what a damn fine year for lead actress performances.  When was the last time you heard anyone say that?

    I caught some flack recently when I took Meryl Streep off my predicted five nominees in the category.  “How can the Goddess miss?”  Well, she can, and she has, but regardless, the point is that there is some really stiff competition this year for the leading ladies, and man, that’s exciting (and unique)!

    Sally Hawkins (“Happy-Go-Lucky”), Charlize Theron (“The Burning Plain”), Kristin Scott-Thomas (“I’ve Loved You So Long”), Angelina Jolie (“Changeling”), Penélope Cruz (“Elegy”), Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”) and Michelle Williams (“Wendy and Lucy”) represent the seen and raved performances.  Anne Hathaway’s work has also been viewed, but we’ll get to that at the end of the week.  Rest assured, she’ll have her fans as well.

    On the horizon we’ll have Nicole Kidman (“Australia”) and the aforementioned Streep (“Doubt) in big Oscar hopefuls, not to mention Kate Winslet’s double dip in “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road” (which ought to make home life interesting for the five-time nominee around campaign time).

    There are still fringe possibilities for Keira Knightley in “The Duchess” or Emily Blunt in “The Young Victoria,” while Laura Linney could add an Oscar nod to her Emmy success if “The Other Man” finds a distributor in Toronto.

    There’s always Julianne Moore lurking with her work in “Blindness” should the mixed reaction from Cannes prove to be a different story in Toronto, and Kate Beckinsale, by the way, is fantastic in Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth,” so who knows?

    So let’s not get our panties in a twist over shifting and sliding in this category over the next few months.  I don’t need consistent emails asking “Why did you take so and so out of your Best Actress chart,” because the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of horses in this particular race.

    Which is what we want, right?

  • Walking away with it

    Tom Cruise in MagnoliaI remember slipping into a small theater in 1987 to see something called “Street Smart,” the new Christopher Reeve film that I had no particular interest in, to be quite honest. Two hours later I emerged knowing two things: Morgan Freeman was a brilliant actor, and he would be nominated for an Academy Award.

    In a rather lacking movie, Freeman was terrifying as Fast Black, a vicious pimp who sees in a young reporter the chance to get off of a murder rap. At one point in the film he holds a pair of scissors to the eye of one of his hookers and invites her to choose which eye she is going to lose. It was an astounding performance that launched the actor’s career, earning him awards from the Los Angeles critics, New York critics and National Society of Film Critics…as well as that Oscar nod I predicted.

    Supporting performances can often be the heart and soul of a film, anchoring the picture and actually elevating the work of the lead actor. Can you imagine what “The Wizard of Oz” would be without the perfection of the cast surrounding Judy Garland, or “The Godfather” without the magnificence supporting Marlon Brando and Al Pacino? Nor can I, and in fact, through the years, supporting performances have become more and more important, certainly earning more press, with lead actors once unwilling to be promoted for an Oscar in these “lesser” categories now only to be happy to do so.

    Tom Cruise, arguably the biggest actor on the planet in 1999, gave his finest performance in a supporting role in “Magnolia” and somehow — SOMEHOW — lost the Oscar to Michael Caine. Jack Nicholson has gone the supporting route many times, winning an Oscar for his work in “Terms of Endearment” and earning nods for “Easy Rider,” “Reds” and “A Few Good Men,” though he was criminally snubbed for “The Departed.”

    Meryl Streep has become no stranger to supporting roles, earning an Oscar nod for “Adaptation” in 2002 (she too should have won) and certainly turning heads for a should’ve-been-nominated turn in “The Manchurian Candidate.”

    Sometimes an actor in a supporting role can dominate the film, as we saw this summer with Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight.” In “Apocalypse Now” the film actually peaks with Robert Duvall’s napalm-loving surfer, not Brando’s deranged Colonel. Like Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men,” Duvall so dominated the screen when he was on it. In just a few scant scenes…we could never forget him.

    The work of the supporting actor, the “job,” so to speak, may seem to be support of the lead actors, secondary figures in the canvas of other artists. But what we see more often than not is their support of the story, and in many cases, their rise to infamy as a result.

    Have your say. What are some of the most sensational supporting performances in film history?

  • ‘Mamma Mia!’ “sharp” and “hilarious” says The Times

    In the first review of the musical adaptation “Mamma Mia!” (a claim they make loud and clear in the headline), The Times of London has tossed out a glowing assessment of what frankly looked to be one of the eye-sores of 2008, from this end.

    There’s plenty of praise for Meryl Streep, who is likely on the way to a Golden Globe nomination for her work.  Hugo Rifkind has this to say:

    Streep is the real star here, and she does serious acting, too, investing a cliff-top rendition of The Winner Takes It All with far more teary gravitas than should be possible for a song that contains the line: “I figured it made sense/ building me a fence”.

    I also liked this blurb:

    Streep slams wonky, wooden shutters and leads her mob of bridesmaids, ageing sluts and lumpy Greek peasant women on a rampage through that sleepy village like a sun-kissed, middle-aged parody of Cyndi Lauper.

    Check out the rest.

    There is also this interview with “Mamma Mia!” creator Judy Craymer charting the journey of the musical from stage to screen.  Here’s a look:

    Hollywood came calling years ago, but Craymer, [Phyllida] Lloyd and the writer, Catherine Johnson, refused to sell the rights. If Mamma Mia! was going to become a film, they were going to do it when they wanted and on their terms. Hollywood invariably wants Hollywood directors and producers but, miraculously, they managed to keep hold of the film themselves. The feat becomes even more unlikely when you consider that none of them had ever done anything remotely on the scale of a Hollywood movie before. But faced with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, Universal decided they wanted the film enough to take it.

    The rest.

  • Sydney Pollack (1934-2008)

    Trained as an actor at Sanford Meisner’s famed Neighborhood Playhouse — the stomping grounds of Robert Duvall — Sydney Pollack connected to actors because he was one of them…and a damned fine one at that.

    In fact, his comedy “Tootsie” is not only the greatest American comedy ever made, it is also the greatest study of the art and craft of acting I’ve ever seen. The director, writers and star explored the depths to which an actor will go to get the role right, to find that all-important and essential truth. Without truth in a performance, there is nothing but failure.

    There is a moment in the film when Michael Dorsey, the actor who has become actress Dorothy Michaels to find work, is no longer Michael at all. Dorothy has become a living, breathing character in his life. Hoffman’s astounding performance is the finest work of his career, a jaw-dropping feat of art that is often overlooked (criminally) when the great film performances of all time are discussed. And of course holding the film together, the glue, the guiding hand, was Mr. Pollack, one of the great directors of the 1970s, 1980s and beyond.

    Though he lacked the box office breakthroughs of Francis Ford Coppola or Steven Spielberg, or the nasty edginess of Martin Scorsese, Pollack nonetheless was an artist, one of the few directors able to walk the line between making succesful mainstream films that worked on levels of commerce and artistry.His death at the age of 73 is one of the film world’s great losses, though he leaves behind a legacy that will be remembered for years after many of us have gone to that great screening room in the sky.

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