In Contention

Tag: Sandra Bullock

  • First look at Tom Hanks, Thomas Horn in ‘Extremely Loud’

    I’ve heard young Thomas Horn is a little heart-breaker in Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” And Sandra Bullock seems to me someone to watch for in the supporting actress race, given the narrative of the book on which Eric Roth’s screenplay is based. But Tom Hanks is featured front and center in the first official image from the film (courtesy of Awards Campaign). Warner Bros. has set the film for a late December release. Scott Rudin is producing. Awards hunting is in the cards. Etc. Etc.

  • An open letter to James Franco

    Dear James,

    So you don’t think much of the Academy. That’s okay. A lot of us don’t. And after the outcome of last night’s awards — in which capping an inevitable Best Picture Oscar for the safe, stolid stylings of “The King’s Speech” with that extraneous Best Director win for a worried-looking Tom Hooper was roughly akin to dipping Wonderbread in milk for maximum squishiness — I suspect even a lot of movie buffs who don’t make a year-round sport of henpecking the Academy’s choices are on your side.

    Your antipathy towards the Academy may be rooted in different disappointments than those of the blogging majority. We know for starters that you don’t much rate “The Social Network,” the 2010 title most clearly destined to fill the blank in many a “How did _______ lose?” whine-fest between awards geeks in years hence.

    But Lord knows your own pony was even more cruelly treated by voters: when the film’s artsy death-rattle of a theme song couldn’t even beat a rushed Randy Newman Xerox of a Pixar jingle that everybody forgot he already won for in 2001, it was clear the once-so-buzzy “127 Hours” had been reduced to a phantom presence in this year’s race.

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  • Until Oscar do us part

    A few days ago, a reader responded to a trivia note by Steve Pond, about the number of Best Actor nominees whose Christian names begin with the same letter, with the question, “Is this the point at which we are officially over-saturated with Oscar stats?”.

    Well, if we weren’t there then, we might be now.

    Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran an interview with an academic who has invested far too much time looking into the so-called “Oscar Curse” — the unfortunate trend that has seen many a star headed for divorce court shortly after winning the Best Actress Oscar. Recent examples include Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank and Halle Berry, but a University of Toronto research project (!) suggests the curse goes further back than that.

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  • First Oscar presenters announced

    With the big night still over two months away, it’s rather early for us to be thinking of Oscar telecast details, but you can bet the show’s frantic producers aren’t feeling quite so calm about it all. As we speak, Rolodexes and little black books are being frantically rifled through as the list of presenters is drawn up, and today, we were given our first taste of what manner of star power will be joining hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco (still doesn’t sound right, does it?) on stage.

    No surprise that reigning Oscar champs Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges will be on hand, presumably to present the lead acting awards — the question is whether the producers will stick to the awkward “Logan’s Run”-style five-way presenting scheme they’ve used, to sharply diminishing effect, the last two years running. In the 2008 ceremony, they had the previous winners present their own category: Bridges’ likely repeat nomination this year should prevent that, though it’d be fun to watch him eulogize himself.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: When you wish upon a star

    “Mila Kunis is so winning Best Supporting Actress this year,” remarked an independent filmmaker to me over drinks today, referring, of course, to the 27 year-old’s sly breakout turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” This was no idle fan statement. The man knew his Oscar onions – his theory was built upon established Academy affection for hot ingénues in sashaying support roles, as well as the current absence of any obvious frontrunners in the category.

    Still, even as he explained this, my eyebrows must have shot up somewhere past my hairline. As the writer who caught hell from many readers for daring not to predict Natalie Portman among my Best Actress nominees last month, the prospect of Kunis even getting nominated for subtly smoking work in an outré arthouse thriller hadn’t crossed my mind. I told him as much while emphasizing, as an admirer of the performance, how much I’d like to be wrong.

    “That’s what everyone says to me,” he replied. “‘Oh, she’s a revelation, I’d love to see her nominated, but she won’t be.’ Whenever I start hearing that kind of talk about a person or a film, that’s when I go to the bookies and put money on them. If everyone’s seeing the same thing in them, who’s to say the voters aren’t?”

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  • Can we ‘Eat’ yet?

    For a major star vehicle, directed by the current ruler of prime-time television, that is only four days away from release, shouldn’t the profile of “Eat Pray Love” be a little higher right now? I admit I’m on the wrong side of the Atlantic; perhaps American streets, magazines and airwaves are flooded with promotional material for Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of  Elizabeth Gilbert’s chick-lit smash. But the film’s online presence seems decidedly muted, while reviews of any sort have yet to appear. What gives?

    Usually, when critics are kept from seeing or writing about a film until this late in the game, it’s because the product smells decidedly iffy. But that’s hardly the case with “Eat Pray Love”: the source material has a devoted following, the talent involved is top-flight, and the trailer was attractive and thoroughly ingratiating.

    As I made clear in a Page to Screen column recently, I detested Gilbert’s fussy, solipsistic memoir, yet the trailer’s promise of airy romance, luscious scenery and Julia Roberts at her most personable had me pegging the film as one of this summer’s most inviting; if it could win me round, the book’s legions of fans should practically be queuing at the theaters already.

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  • Bullock calls for real comedy

    Sandra Bullock in All About SteveIt’s not like one needed a further reason to hop on the “We Love Sandra Bullock” train in this of all weeks, but the actress obligingly provides one anyway in this highly enjoyable Guardian interview with John Patterson. Speaking of the genre that has become her bread and butter over the years, she offers these rather forthright words:

    Usually comedy is only available to us ladies in the romantic comedy. That’s why I hate romantic comedies. I want to make comedic-comedies – let’s get back to being funny!

    There are so many things to like about this statement, only one of them being that it’s absolutely true. She may have predictably made her Oscar breakthrough by crossing over to “respectable” middlebrow drama, but Bullock is one of our most gifted screen comediennes, possessed of wit, timing and physical performance ability surplus to the requirements of the lame comedic vehicles she is usully given.

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  • The gift, not the wrapping

    Kathryn Bigelow in The Hurt LockerLike a Tiffany engagement ring presented in a Happy Meal box, sometimes the most beautiful gifts come in really cruddy wrapping. And such was the case with last night’s Academy Awards ceremony.

    On the one hand, the show managed to delight (if not surprise) me with one of the unlikeliest sweeps in Oscar history, making history in more ways than one — and for a film that just happened to be my favorite U.S. release of the year. I can’t say that about every (or any) Oscar show I’ve watched in my lifetime. On the other hand, this remarkable turn of events was merely the silver lining to a confounding debacle of a ceremony, one of the most lazily conceived, sloppily staged and lumpenly paced efforts I’ve witnessed in two decades of Oscar-watching.

    I’d dearly love to bring a sunnier perspective on the matter than that of Kris, but just as we were in near-complete agreement on our predictions (save for, ahem, Best Animated Short), I can only echo every gripe he expressed in last night’s wrap-up. Unlike many others, I wasn’t the greatest fan of Bill Condon and Laurence Mark’s streamlined, revue-style reboot of the Oscars last year, but it had a tonal consistency and moved at a clip that last night’s show could only dream of.

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  • Sandra Bullock accepts her Razzie Award for Worst Actress

    Well, she said she would. (Video footage of her terrific acceptance speech after the cut.)

    Sandra Bullock Sandra Bullock

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  • Guy’s final Oscar predictions

    Christoph Waltz in Inglourious BasterdsAnd so it comes to this: more months than I care to count of watching, thinking, sweating, fretting, writing, deleting and occasionally not caring boil down to single predictions in 24 categories. There’s a lot to get through here, and I’m not going to delay things with an introduction.

    Well, except for this one caveat — apology, even — of sorts. As you wade through my list, you may notice that my predictions look quite similar to those of one Mr. Kris Tapley. Remarkably similar, in fact. Unhealthily similar, even.

    What can I say? Short categories aside (which were subject to further research), the following predictions haven’t wavered in my mind since nomination day, over a month ago — and I see no compelling reason to go out on a limb this year. Sometimes great minds think alike. Frequently wrong, but alike nonetheless.

    With that, my predictions, preferences and rationales continue, category by category, after the cut.

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  • Nut up or shut up: final predictions

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerAs I look over my final predictions for tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony, I notice that I’ve made only one change — in the Best Live Action Short category — since taking my initial stab the day of the nominations.  And I haven’t made a single change since I started the Oscar Guide series.

    Am I that confidant in my picks?  Not really.  It’s a very unpredictable year all of a sudden (the AP chimes in on that here), even if conventional wisdom would have us believe much of this is a foregone conclusion.  But nothing has really moved the needle during the bulk of phase two and the one controversy that popped up may not be as detrimental as some suspect.  Regardless, I’m frankly bracing myself for having an off year.

    And it kinda sucks because I set a pretty high bar for myself last year, a personal best, as I nailed down a web-leading 21 of the 24 categories (23 of 24 if you count alternates).  That included a call for “Departures” that left me exposed to plenty of “You’re just trying to be different” heckling.  Ahem.

    If I even approach those numbers this time around, I’ll certainly be surprised.  I frankly don’t expect to hit 21 ever again, but who knows?  Many areas of this race are coming right down to the wire.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Happy Oscar (War Is Over)

    Jeremy Renner and Evangeline Lilly in The Hurt LockerSo this is Oscar. And what have you done?

    Speaking for myself, lately, not a hell of a lot. In the three weeks that this column has been on hiatus – apologies to the handful of you who missed it – it’s remarkable how little the O-word has been on my mind.

    Yes, I’ve been busy: a trip to the Berlinale here, a stretch of scriptwriting there, the occasional interference of an actual personal life in between. But even if I hadn’t been, and even if the estimable Nathaniel Rogers hadn’t borrowed most of my remaining awards-talk energy for his Oscar Symposium, I doubt I would have found much that was fresh or consequential to fill this space.

    I’m not alone. In an awkwardly scheduled season that saw the most crucial precursors announced before Oscar nomination day, and nary a shift in the frontrunners since, Phase Two of the season has amounted to little more than a month of journalistic thumb-twiddling, while most of the nominees wearily float above it all. Remember when the Oscars took place in late March, or even April? Today’s surfeit of Oscar bloggers would have died in wait.

    It’s almost enough to make you admire the brazen transparency with which the L.A. Times attempted to drum up drama in the latter stages of voting, rather like a cranky toddler, bored of behaving himself at the supermarket, throwing a tantrum in the checkout line.

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  • 3/3 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock at the 15th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards• Claude Brodesser-Akner reports that a Sacha Baron Cohen Oscarcast sketch has been nixed to spare James Cameron’s feelings.  It was a dumb idea anyway. [Vulture]

    • Steven Zeitchik on what I’ve been saying until I’m blue in the face: Meryl Streep’s silence has done her no favors during phase two, while Team Bullock continues to steamroll. [The Envelope]

    • Steve Pond tells us what happens to the ballots now that the deadline has come and gone. [The Odds]

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  • Siding with Sandy

    Sandra Bullock at the 2009 SAG AwardsNathaniel Rogers’s annual Oscar Symposium wrapped last night over at the Film Experience, and I must say I had a great time taking part. The final day’s conversation wandered all over the map, taking in the original score race (I’m not alone in my love for “The Hurt Locker” there), the merits of The Ten and visions of Mo’Nique in “Nine.”

    But it had to end with this year’s most discussed Oscar duel: Bullock versus Streep. And between us, support was fairly evenly split. As a taster, here’s Tim Robey’s reluctant case for the “Blind Side” star:

    Don’t we want Meryl to win her third for a truly epochal performance? … (Make no mistake — I’d happily watch Meryl take the garbage out daily, I love her so, but I really want her to win this thing for absolute top-drawer work.) I don’t think Carey Mulligan is ready to be crowned just yet, and I don’t think it would actually do her career any favours if she was. Sandy, on the other hand, has just the one shot at this, and I say why the hell not. I’ve always liked her. I’d have nominated her for The Lake House! (I’m not joking.) And I agree that her Blind Side performance, while entire skyscrapers away from the Brockovich league her spin-meisters would have us believe, is pretty nimble and watchable, and the only thing that got me through that numbskull movie alive.

    Good stuff all round. If you haven’t been keeping up with the Symposium, read the rest here.

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Actress

    Helen Mirren in The Last StationThis year’s Best Actress race is easily the most debated of the major categories. Though one can’t help but wonder why that is, as the writing has seemingly been on the wall for a number of weeks now, stretching back to before the nominations were announced.

    It was also one of the easiest fields to call, pre-nominations, as both lead acting categories had actually coagulated somewhat. The SAG slate was mirrored by the acting branch of the Academy, offering a nice mixture of young starlets and veteran standbys. The winner in the field, however, might be somewhere in the middle of that cross-section.

    The nominees are:

    Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
    Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
    Carey Mulligan, “An Education”
    Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
    Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Are we there yet?

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerIt’s been three weeks since I took note of the season’s course in this space, and really, there has been no need to put our finger to the wind until last week. And frankly, an author making an ass out of himself in public and Harvey Weinstein sooth-saying anyone who would listen (while an array of fluff pieces on Quentin Tarantino buying the New Beverly hit, a year after it happened) made for little more than an opportunity to fill column inches as we all continue to tread water.

    Meanwhile, “The Hurt Locker” has taken the four guilds that truly count, putting it on course for the inevitable. Some are trying to spin the preferential ballot as a non-issue, but that’s just they’re own way of saying they have nothing to write about. And “Avatar” keeps making money.

    I’m frankly more interested in the fact that, as Martin Scorsese’s finest film since “Goodfellas” made its way to screens over the weekend, smart critics all over the country somehow turned off their analytical switch to complain about score volume and heavy-handed stylization, completely failing to realize the inherent necessity of the film’s construction and mise-en-scène in the participatory narrative Scorsese laid out.

    But I’ll save all that for roughly a year hence, when I’ll inevitably be swimming upstream for yet another misunderstood masterstroke from a popular filmmaker many think has received his share of passes. There is an Oscar season still to cover, after all.

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  • Actors pick their favorite performances of the decade

    (Courtesy: New York Times Magazine)

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 21 — The home stretch, Santa Barbara tributes, debating the few debatable categories

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk, a weekly kudocast between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood.

    I’m in Santa Barbara this week while Anne is back in Los Angeles. Here’s what’s on the docket:

    • The Santa Barbara fest is in full swing, including tributes for James Cameron and Sandra Bullock, among others. We discuss.

    • The Sandra Bullock thing leads to yet another Bullock vs. Streep debate. Anne is convinced the older members of the Academy will go for Streep and that the media has assumed the Oscar is Bullock’s at their own peril.

    • Anne was in Santa Barbara last week and discusses the writers panel she moderated.

    • Meanwhile, she was also back in LA for the USC Scripter awards, so she offers her perspective on the evening’s festivities.

    • Finally, we go back and forth on a few of the debatable categories, including Best Original Screenplay, which could see Quentin Tarantino win his second Oscar. Or will it?

    Have a listen below. Forgive me in advance for audio issues on my end. I’m in a hotel room without my handy external. As always, you can subscribe to Oscar Talk via iTunes here.

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