<-- Jude Law with his daughter. Anne Thompson Father's Day Favorites A Socialite's Life "Hollywood's Hottest Dads" By Ken Levine entertainments to avoid on father's day Pop Hangover Dad Awards (television related) In Contention Top 10 Movies I Watched With My Dad previous post What movie reminds you of your Dad? Join in the comment sharing.
And more Jude Law because I'm in the mood. Not that that particular mood is infrequent... quite the contrary. Here's the new character posters for Sherlock Holmes. I realize I've put them in reverse billing order but in my world Jude Law goes before Robert Downey Jr (not a knock on the always entertaining RDJ, just a preference) so it's elementary that Dear Watson goes first.
Billing is often so weird. Did you know, for example that Debra Winger had top billing in Terms of Endearment over Maclaine and Nicholson? (That's on my brain because of the 1982/1983 Oscar rundown).
I'm sure it made sense at the time... * related article: Jude Law #1 Actor of the Aughts 2000-2005. Please note: this list will be revised in January 2010 to reflect the entire decade.
Streep at 60: More movie discussions to follow but today we're discussing Oscar competitive fields again (the winner links take you to their acceptance speech)
The Best Actress races of 1982 and 1983 hold special meaning for me as they were my inaugural Oscar years. On April 11th of 1983 I saw my first Oscar ceremony. My only point of reference for the glitzy tradition was that my parents and my older siblings didn't like it -- something about Star Wars being way better than Woody Allen??? --and even though my parents didn't take me to that many movies, I had somehow seen and liked 3 of the 5 Best Picture nominees (Gandhi and the two blockbusters Tootsie & E.T.) For the first two years of my Oscar watching I saw a total of ZERO Best Actress nominees. My how life has changed.
1982...
Julie Andrews, Victor/Victoria -this is the one I desperately wanted to see, being in love with both Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp. My parents refused to take me, muttering something about Julie Andrews appearing in a porno... I was very confused.
Other '82 female leads for context: Diane Keaton in Shoot the Moon, Teri Garr in One From the Heart, Carol Burnett in Annie, Dolly Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Nathalie Baye in The Return of Martin Guerre and Michelle Pfeiffer in Grease 2
Streep Stats: With this win Meryl became the 4th actress to win an Oscar for a Nazi/Holocaust related drama. It didn't happen again until Winslet won this past February for The Reader. Meryl was not, at 33 then, the youngest actress to win a second Oscar. Luise Rainer still holds that title winning her second Oscar in 1938 when she was only 28. Even Jodie Foster couldn't top that (her Silence of the Lambs win came at 29 years of age).
Other '83 female leads for context: Arielle Dombasle in Pauline at the Beach, Mariel Hemingway in Star 80, Bonnie Bedelia in Heart Like a Wheel, Sigweavy in The Year of Living Dangerously, Susan Sarandon & Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger and Babs in Yentl.
Streep Stats: Despite being only 34 years old when her 5th nomination rolled around, Meryl doesn't hold the record for fastest to get there: Bette Davis held the record for 65 years (accomplishing it by the age of 33) until Kate Winslet took over earning her fifth nomination (Little Children) at 31. I'm guessing that record holds for as long as Bette's did.
Give or take Norma Shearer who is either tied for 3rd place or in 5th place depending on how you count her nominations
What are your ideal Oscar shortlists / wins in 1982 and 1983? If you haven't seen very many early 80s movies, which are you most eager to finally get to?
Wheeeee. Precursor Oscar season. As you may have noticed from all the "B"s in the sidebar I've mostly enjoyed the intended Best Picture hopefuls but haven't been blown away. That is to say I think the eventual Oscar lineup will be solid (there don't seem to be any embarrassments being treated like godsends) but I still really hope Oscar looks back further than December if they feel similarly underwhelmed. I mean let's get real: The Visitor --which I don't even love as much as most people-- is just as good as many of them. It's just not as anointed as Future Oscar Player. It lacks the scale they like. There's also Rachel Getting Married, WALL•E,Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Happy-Go-Lucky which are alsobetter than some of the big ticket entries not to mention that one superhero movie people went crazy for. Why must precursor bodies and the media accept the studio release decisions as proof of worth? But wait. I'm getting way ahead of myself.
I ramble and I worry about the destination but I'm so glad we've begun the journey. Aren't you?
Best FeatureBallast, Frozen River, Rachel Getting Married, Wendy & Lucy and The Wrestler Best First Feature Campos -Afterschool, Jenkins - Medicine for Melancholy, Zalla -Sangre de Mi Sangre, Rivera -Sleep Dealer, Charlie Kauffman -Synechdoche New York Best Director Ramin Barani -Chop Shop, Jonathan Demme -Rachel Getting Married, Courtney Hunt -Frozen River, Thomas McCarthy -The Visitor
This is the second time already (following The Satellites) that Frozen River beat The Visitor to a Best Picture citation while McCarthy was nominated for director. Isn't that quirky? I thought The Visitor would have more awards oomph than Frozen River. Also: I really must see this Ballast movie. It leads the nominations, tied with Rachel Getting Married and Frozen River, all with six nominations each but I expect The Wrestler might win the top prize despite the odd omission of Darren Aronofsky in the director shortlist.
Lead Male Javier Bardem -Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Richard Jenkins -The Visitor, Sean Penn -Milk, Jeremy Renner -Hurt Locker, Mickey Rourke -The Wrestler Supporting Male James Franco -Milk, Anthony Mackie -Hurt Locker, Charlie McDermott -Frozen River, Jim Myron Ross -Ballast, Haaz Sleiman -The Visitor
It's worth noting that Hurt Locker, the long awaited (well, by me) return of director Kathryn Bigelow is not eligible for the Oscars. Indie Spirits have different eligibility requirements. Hurt Locker will be distributed by Summit Entertainment but we don't know quite when. I expect Mickey Rourke wins this without breaking a sweat. The Oscar will be a tougher get.
Lead Female Summer Bishil -Towelhead, Anne Hathaway -Rachel Getting Married, Melissa Leo -Frozen River, Tarra Riggs -Ballast, Michelle Williams -Wendy & Lucy Supporting Female Penélope Cruz -Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Rosemarie DeWitt -Rachel Getting Married, Rosie Perez -The Take, Misty Upham -Frozen River, Debra Winger -Rachel Getting Married
Big big love for Rachel Getting Married with all three of its main ladies up for prizes. Who wants to bet that Debra Winger shows up to the ceremony. Nobody? Yeah, y'all are too smart.
Depending on whether you think AMPAS voters take the Indie Spirits as "reward enough" for smaller films or as a rowdy youthful "suggestion" or just ignore them altogether today's announcements are either bad news, good news, or indifferent news.
Which do you think they are?
P.S. my Oscar prediction pages are being updated (right this second) to reflect precursor citations that have already started rolling in. P.S. 2 For a complete list of the ISA nominations, you can click here.
When I interviewed screenwriter Jenny Lumet sheclaimed ignorance, blissful ignorance, when it came to the movie industry. While it's true that she grew up in a famous household (she calls legendary Lena Horne grandmother and one of Hollywood's most lauded filmmakers, Sidney Lumet, father) she didn't know the fine details of getting script to screen. She apparently didn't stop to question her instincts, didn't stop to worry that screenwriters aren't technically supposed to announce their choice of Oscar winning directors... and get him. Her directorial suggestion of Jonathan Demme (Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs, Something Wild), underlines what one can already hear in Rachel Getting Married's illuminating screenplay: this is a sharp perceptive woman.
Last week I also spoke with "Rachel" herself Rosemarie DeWitt, currently an Oscar hopeful for Best Supporting Actress, on her ascending career. We dish on Mad Men (she jokes that it's hard to make out with Jon Hamm week after week, poor thing), investigate why Cinderella Man was important to her, praise Anne Hathaway, and I geek out about Searching For Debra Winger (which I am prone to do -- I really should write about that documentary) when we come around to DeWitt sharing the screen with the elusive 80s icon.
I'm a day late to this blog event but as a Crawford Fan (capital intended), my actressexual guilt forced me into caboose position here. I had to watch Straight Jacket all the way through and chime in even if I didn't really have the time.
Joan Crawford stars as Lucy Harbin, a woman who axed her philandering husband and his lover to death in a crime of passion. Cut to twenty years later and Lucy is released from the asylum and returns home to live with her now grown daughter (who had witnessed the murders). Is Lucy still insane? Hallucinations, mood swings, high speed knitting, dressing room breakdowns and attempts to seduce her daughter's fiance suggest that she's not exactly a picture of mental health. But is she still... (gasp) an axe murderer? Decapitated bodies start piling up.
Unsurprisingly, despite it's "bad movie we love" status, Crawford is terrific in the picture. But then she was always ahead of her material or, perhaps stated more accurately, ferociously committed to it no matter what it happened to be. It's this same steel and conviction that sometimes read as scary and stiff (and probably encouraged her mass dismissal later on once Mommie Dearest came around to mess with her legacy) It's also a key reason why she was so perfect for the surprise third (fourth?) act in her career in grotesques like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Berserk! and Straight Jacket. She was a crucial force in the decade-long run of the Grand Guignol horror film, a fad that gave plum opportunities to aging actresses if they were willing to let themselves go (emotionally and physically) onscreen.
I'd love to see this genre have a revival wouldn't you? But not with remakes! Why make anotherBaby Jane? for example. Part of the whole fun of this type of thing is seeing how inventively deranged a plot or a part can get. If you know the bloody situation and the feminine psychosis from other movies, where's the sick surprise and the (meat) hook?
10 Actresses Who Should Star in Grand Guignol Films
...minus Glenn Close, who's been playing gargoyles for years even without the excuse of genre. I also limited my selections to anybody 50 or under because you really have to have mileage on you. I'm intrigued by the idea of Jennifer Tilly in one of these type of pictures, with her ability to deliver a serious performance that also has stylized comic beats (see Bound) but she's still too young / young-seeming, even at 50.
10 Lesley Ann Warren (62) The way I see it the Grand Guignol is basically the Quentin Tarantino of curio genres, offering second chances to forgotten or dusty film stars. With the right director and screenplay, Warren --who often played girlish sexual women -- might curdle in interesting ways.
09 Cher (62) Admit it. You want to see her in a movie again. Bonus points if Eric Stoltz, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci appear as her troubled, concerned or abusive brood.
08 Dianne Wiest (60) Because she can do anything superbly.
07 Ronee Blakley (63) Only because her meltdown in Nashville (1975) is one of the most honest, idiosyncratic and riveting implosions I've ever seen onscreen. She hasn't acted in 20 years and if this genre can resurrect people...
06 Kathleen Turner (54) provided she played it straighter than her Serial Mom triumph. Turner is a bawdy and game gal. With the right director...
05 Debra Winger (53) I adore the documentary Searching For Debra Winger in both real and satiric ways. Wouldn't it be a hoot to fictionalize it / horrorize (word!) it and send a troupe of unsuspecting actress sycophants to her creepy self-isolating mansion in wherever. What they find might be shocking. We all know that Winger excels at buried fury (think of all those sexy/angry 80s lead roles) and layered subtext-ridden detachment (Go see Rachel Getting Marriednow)
04 Jane Fonda (71) Her last Oscar nomination, 22 years ago with The Morning After (1986), was born from the mainstream thriller genre. Since then she's barely acted wasting her enormous dramatic gift. Wouldn't it be a thrill to see her dishevelled and masochistic again: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Redux!
03 Sally Kirkland (67) She fought for and won a welcome Oscar nomination way back in 1987 when "campaigning" for awards wasn't as corporatized as it now is. The film was Anna a character study about a despairing actress past her prime. Kirkland is probably in on the red carpet joke that she's been selling/making of herself for years but it's sad that another role as good as "Anna" never materialized. That moment when she watches the celluloid melt remains one of my most vivid memories from my nascent days of cinephilia.
02 Piper Laurie (76) I'm just gonna say it: I thought she was a-w-f-u-l in Dead Girl (2006), whilst basically reprising her Carrie role. Still... 32 years after Carrie her monster mother with blood-curdlingly funny sexual/religious baggage is still an unequalled master class in wacko grand guignol. It begs to be reprised (with a twist) if the genre is ever reborn. I'd give her that second shot at sequelizing herself.
01 Sharon Stone (50) For my number one choice I'm breaking the age rule. Or am I? You just know Sharon started lying about her age when she was 20: Ambitious girls think ahead! Stone is exactly the kind of frozen-in-time movie queen that this genre likes to thaw in order to take an axe an ice pick to what remains. *
Debra Winger is not that old. 53 year-olds do not require walking canes when they hit a movie premiere. Oh?! That's a stand to carry Anne Hathaway's giant poster face, you say? My apologies.
Naked Gold Man: Each Sunday, we discuss the current Oscar race. Sure Oscar gets mentioned with great regularity here. We're obsessed. But the current year's race stays penned up on Sundays until pre-season really gets rolling. That's the plan at least...
By now I suspect you've seen the trailer to Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married (formerly titled Dancing With Shiva --and that earlier title makes sense once you see this). It looks good and I'm feeling vindicated about my very early enthusiasm.
See... long before the other Oscar sites glommed on to it, I was touting the possibility of Dancing With ShivaRachel Getting Married being a return to form for Jonathan Demme. As a dedicated actressexual Demme is a director I'm inordinately fond of. His favorite actress is Michelle Pfeiffer (that makes him so easy for me to love). He's pulled great things out of Pfeiffer, Jodie Foster and Melanie Griffith in past years. I had the feeling that he had another Best Actress nominee in him. Not to blow my own horn --ok ok, I'm blowing! But remember, when Hathaway is walking those carpets: I called this one first.
I have to toot my own horn once in awhile when I see things coming, when I see things like Streisand could see them on a clear day (forever!) ... because the only other way to get attention is to fight. And I'm not really into that scene. It often seems to work for people in raising their profile. Its just something that's on my mind right now because have you seen what's going on between Awards Daily and Gold Derby? Circle round I guess and watch. Remember when Kris Tapley used to diss David Poland on the former Oscar Watch... and then Poland hired him!!? Anyway, fighting works. Just ask politicians.
problem child
But it's not for me. I want to be about the movies. Back on topic...
Love Demme and Anne Hathaway. And I'm hoping that my preproduction enthusiasm is justified by whatever they came up with in filming and in post. Here's to dysfunctional family dramedies! Yes, yes. They're a dime a dozen but the great ones should be savored, don'cha think? Cross your fingers.
P.S. Movie fanatics will be excited about the return of Debra Winger and A-list-Anne... but I also feel compelled to note: Bill Irwin, playing her father, will be less familiar to many of you but he's an a-m-a-z-i-n-g actor. He fully deserved that TONY Award he won for Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf a few years back and he was also riveting in another Edward Albee production, The Goat or Who is Sylvia. I saw the latter twice, once with Mercedes Reuhl and Bill Pullman and the second time with Sally Field and Bill Irwin who were their replacements on Broadway. It'll never be made into a movie but damn if it doesn't completely rock the house. What a play that was. *
<-- Jude Law with his daughter.
