DIVA

You know what song really bugs me? "Diva" by Beyoncé. While Beyoncé is unquestionably a diva, I fail to see how a 'Diva is a female version of a hustlah'... that makes no sense to me. Divas are not about making money (though they usually have it. The riches are assumed entitlements, not bragging rights). VH-1 already distorted the concept of divas enough by bestowing the title to any recording artist with a vagina for years and years of televised concerts. I'm more old school about it. Now truly old school would take you back to divas equalling female opera singers. But I'm talking about the larger implied cultural connotation: those with an excess of presence, theatricality, narcissism... and a memorable voice. A good singular name helps, too. At least those are the ways we interpret it when it comes to cinematic divas.

Anyway... blah blah blah. How I do go on. Divas don't like to be kept waiting. My choices for Best Divas of the Film Year.
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Best Costume Design and More...

It's Eye Candy weekend

Do you have a favorite horse in the Costume Design race? Sandy Powell (The Young Victoria) and Colleen Atwood (Nine) are facing off yet again. They both have 8 nominations and 2 wins behind them. The elaborate rags of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and two movies with self-made fashionistas as protagonists (Coco Before Chanel and Bright Star) are also in the running. I've whipped up a gallery for your edification. So, why don't you take a looksie and then vote in the poll. And if you love this sort of thing (and you should!) you can also see my personal ballot (and medalists).



I'm assuming that The Young Victoria will take the Oscar because, the beauty of its costume aside for a moment, Royalty Porn nearly always triumphs in this category. Royalty Porn is to this category what psycho killers are to Supporting Actor and what longsuffering girlfriend/spouse is to Supporting Actress and what DeGlam is for Best Actress (though not so much this year). In other words, it's their drug of choice.

P.S. An interview with my favorite working costume designer is coming up soon!

P.P.S. New readers choice polls require your attention, too: Director, Original Score, Cinematography. You can see how the collective polls for the major categories are shaping up right here ...and there's only a few days left to vote on all of them.

Oscar Symposium Day 3: Big Finale Remix

Previously on the Symposium: Nathaniel was talking about Tarantino's mastery of 'The Moment' and how it excuses his messy indulgences elsewhere. As a filmmaker he's a perfect match for our DVD chapter-menu culture


Guy Lodge: I think it's a spot-on point, and I'm both intrigued and troubled by the idea of Basterds being a success story of latter-day audience inclination to edit their own movies. My problem is that, while I'm as capable as anyone else of filleting out treasurable moments -- -- "Attendez la crème!" -- from the sheer morass of stuff in the film, my brain can't blithely discard the missteps as you imply others can. For much sorrier reasons, the wincingly awful appearance of Eli Roth burns as brightly in my memory as that exquisitely extended opening sequence, so much so that one can't eclipse the other.

But I think you've latched onto a selectivity that has boosted the fortunes of a number of contenders this year besides Basterds: everyone has cut out and stuck the 'Married Life' sequence of Up into their cinematic scrapbooks, but who really wants the rest? Precious, whatever your take on it, is made for mental re-editing -- Joe Klotz's baffling nomination notwithstanding.

Tim Robey: What we're basically saying here is that a lot of these movies are screener-friendly. They can be browsed. And I have to say this faintly depresses me as an old-fashioned, packed-audience-on-opening-night, communal experience sort of guy. This is where I think the 3D selling point of Avatar is quite a canny ruse -- a trick to get people going back out to the movies rather than waiting for the inevitably diminished experience on their home TV -- and it's a ruse for which I have some respect. Did Cameron send out screeners for Avatar? Did he need to? To lesser extents, Up and District 9 (and to be fair, even The Blind Side) are films that audiences discovered together in their first few weeks of release, whether in a mall in Kentucky or the Odeon Leicester Square (where The Blind Side has yet to be unveiled, actually -- Sandy or no Sandy, UK distributors are understandably never in much of a hurry to release anything to do with American football. We get confused! Don't ask me what a Tight End is.)


Read the rest at Day Three of the Symposium
In which we discuss "the Ten", The Hurt Locker, Where the Wild Things Are, the scores, missing foreign films, screeners vs theatrical and wrap up this three-day party with Meryl Streep vs. Sandra Bullock and Nathaniel's favorite movie game "Re-Casting Couch"

Return and comment. It keeps the conversation going!
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Oscar Symposium Day 1: 'I'm an Oscar Winner, Get Me Outta Here'

Nathaniel: Welcome to the 5th annual Oscar Symposium. Each year I invite a handful of smart movie types into my virtual home to decipher, debate and occassionally defenstrate the choices made by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. This year's illustrious panel unintentionally mimics the general geography of AMPAS (Los Angeles / New York / London) if not, one feels free to assume, their psychology. Please welcome: Peter Knegt, Guy Lodge, Karina Longworth, Tim Robey and Sasha Stone.

But we aren't hear to predict.

Who doesn't know that Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique, Kathryn Bigelow, and Christoph Waltz are taking Oscar to bed on March 7th? The Academy received its Bachelor of Arts And Sciences from The School of Redundancy School.

We're here to gab.

Here's a kick off. Adam Shankman of Hairspray, So You Think You Can Dance and Bringing Down the House fame, who is producing the show this year, has promised to play up the horse race aspect of the show, declaring that the Oscars are really "the best dressed reality show competition on the air". Never mind my distaste for the ubiquity of reality television... if we're really going to play it like that, let's play it like that. Shouldn't they have started filming the potential nominees months before the show, sending cameras to invade their every private moment (er, wait. that's called "paparazzi") and watch the triumph or heartbreak when they do or don't make the finals? A So You Think You Can Act? face/off might be the only way Meryl Streep can ever win a third Oscar, so let's do it. And if we're playing it like this, why can't we vote people off? You're the judging panel... so who are you jettisoning in the first episode, and who gets a "raise your game or go home" stern warning?

Guy Lodge: You break my heart with your talk of sure things, Mr. Rogers. Does this mean that I should withdraw my bet on a Lovely Bones write-in sweep of every category, including a Gordon E. Sawyer Award for the technological achievement of Susan Sarandon’s wig collection? Clearly, I haven’t been keeping up. It’s hard, after all, what with the dearth of film awards reporting on the web. Someone should really create a site for it. I’m sure it’d do quite well.

"how'd I get dragged into this?!?"

Read the rest of DAY ONE
Topics include but are not limited to: nominees we're not comfortable with, the soulless campaign machine, what the Oscars are *about* and potshots at Nine, James Cameron, The Blind Side and Invictus.
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Nine Still Exists. Pe & Marion 'Take It All'.

What must it be like to continually be on the promo circuit for a movie so brutally greeted as Nine? Sure Marion Cotillard and Penélope Cruz won raves that the film, so they can hold their heads up. But it's probably tough going anyway, right? Like writing thank you cards for wedding gifts after an anullment. The movie just opened in Paris and only Marion, Pe and DDL were on hand. They used to get the entire cast for these premieres. They're dropping off.

[photo src]

Nine Things They Might Be Thinking At This Very Moment

Marion: Zees ees mauvais color pour toi.

Penélope: tengo hambre

M: Pairs figure skating. We could totally do it. Check our sparkly accents.

P: Lars von Trier?!? A dios mios. ¿Qué estaba pensando yo?

M: Salope a piqué ma nomination à l'Oscar.

M: This promo tour is endless...

♪ ♫ it's time to leave, if i'm to live,
because I have no more... there's nothing left to give ♫

P: Mmmm, Javier.

M: Mmmm, Javier.

P: March 8th can't come soon enough. Guiiiiido, Ciao!

Year in Review Pt 3: That's So Gay!

<--- "Looking good Barbie!"

Over at Towleroad I flame on to recount the highs and lows of gay(ish) cinema this year. Gay loosely defined of course. It's a speed read from last year's Milk Oscars through Valentino The Last Emperor and Brüno to this year's A Single Man buzz, with pit stops along the way to ogle the Hughs (Dancy and Jackman). Enjoy!

P.S. I forgot to mention Nine but that's more about actressexuality anyhow. And Guido Contini is definitely an actressexual.

What Did You See Over Christmas?

Spent the weekend with food, friends and a stack of DVDs. At the movie theater I tried to see Avatar a second time but failed (I'm holding out for the IMAX experience but it's eternally sold out... at least for people like me who don't plan things weeks in advance). We went to Sherlock Holmes since you have to see a movie with friends and family on Christmas day. It's tradition. And judging on the box office results (biggest Christmas weekend ever) I assume that's tradition for just about everyone.

1. Avatar $75 (for a $212 total)
   It's already earned over $600 million worldwide so it looks like they won't lose their shirts, even with that unthinkably monstrous budget. The world's most important question [cough] right now is this: Will James Cameron make us wait 12 more years for his 9th film? And will it be a sequel to this one? He does like the number 2s. If I were him I'd be figuring out a way to speed up. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. How about mixing it up with one for the fans and one for yourself? His gap between films used to be only three years. Unsolicited advice for Cameron: Have dinner with Soderbergh, Allen and Eastwood and ask for tips on how to start filming your next movie before you've finished post on your current one while also writing the next next one.
   
2. Sherlock Holmes $65.3
   I had a gay old time. But something was missing... just can't quite figure out what. It wasn't the chemistry between Jude & RDJ which was very much present. The score was also top notch, the best from Hans Zimmer in quite some time, yes?


3. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel $50.2


4. It's Complicated $22.1
   People aren't talking about this since the top two are hogging the attention but this is Meryl Streep's third best headliner opening ever. (After Mamma Mia and The Devil Wears Prada, her two biggest hits if you don't adjust for inflation). There's just no stopping her.
   
   
   I have this theory that you can tell how well a star is loved by how little they're defaced in the subways. Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Aniston, Julia Roberts etcetera... their faces never last long without "cosmetic adjustments" from sharpie carrying haters. Meryl Streep on the other hand often goes untouched. Respect! I was surprised to see this billboard scribbled on but the jokesters are just dissing Alec Baldwin and making reference to his various wife/daughter troubles over the years. Doesn't it seem like a million years ago when people hated Alec Baldwin for being a jerk? 30 Rock sure changed public perceptions. The charming lived charmed lives, don't you think?
   
5. Up in the Air $11.7 (for a $24.5 total)
   
6. The Blind Side $11.7 (for a $184.3 total)
   My god. This film lost over 600 screens and it was still up 17% in its sixth week. Sandra is totally going to take this past $200 million. Unbelievable. Why on earth is this such a sensation?
   
7. The Princess and the Frog $8.6 (for a $63.3 total)


8. Nine $5.5 (for a $5.9 total)
   This film cost $80 million to make. I fear for the musical genre. Hollywood forgives action flops and flops from big male stars all the time. But I'm not sure they'll forgive this any more than they forgive flops from female stars. They like to draw immediate unpleasant and untrue conclusions in those instances so I imagine we'll hear a round of "no one likes musicals! we're not making any more musicals!" panic. I still adamantly believe that this would have made more money opening for Thanksgiving as originally intended when the competition wasn't so insane and the buzz was still fresh. But it's also a "problem" musical in terms of the difficulty of transferring it from stage to screen.
   
9. Did You Hear About the Morgans? $5 (for a $15.5 total)
   
10. Invictus $4.3 (for a $23.3 total)
    More on this one tomorrow.

What did you see?

Nine (my review)? Avatar (previous posts)? Morgan Freeman giving good speech in Invictus? Meryl getting high in It's Complicated? Or Jude & Robert flirtatiously bickering in Sherlock Holmes? If you saw the thing with the chipmunks instead of any of these, just lie about it in the comments. No one will ever now... it's the internet!
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Prediction Surprises?

Before the holiday break I thought I'd quickly try and update some Oscar pages. While most of the races appear to be settled down to 5 contenders for 5 spots (give or take a spoilerish 6th) I always like to delude myself into believing that nomination morning will provide one shock in each category but how about two in supporting actress?


I always like to imagine that Oscar voters aren't slaves to the whims of Globe, SAG and BFCA voters but they generally prove me wrong. Still, even if it goes down as expected I imagine 10 women are sharing the bulk of all votes. That 5th slot and maybe even that 4th and 5th are a touch unstable if you ask me. I believe that precious Mo'Nique and the Up in the Air girls are the only three contenders here that are truly locked and loaded.

But "Cruz!" you say. "She's been nominated for everything." Yes, yes, good point. Except... will Marion Cotillard really stay out of her perfectly toussled hair in the Nine balloting showdown?

Revised Oscar Pages: Picture, Director Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor and Prediction Index
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Nine Thoughts I Had On... Nine

In lieu of a traditional review of Rob Marshall's Nine, which opens Friday in limited release and then expands a week later for the Christmas box office rush, I've opted for random thoughts, nine of them, strung together. This is a survival tactic. I've spent so long obsessing on the movie prior to its release (prior to even its casting given my enthusiasm for the mid-Aughts Broadway revival) that a review proper couldn't contain me. It would kill me. I got no choreography, I'll just have to spit out my words however they come out. Picture them flying from the blog like sand from Fergie's fingers

Beeeeeeeeee Italian. Beee Italian....

Story. The plot of Nine, as you may know, is about a film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) suffering an artistic crisis: His production team is ready to shoot, his costume designer (Judi Dench) is ready to stitch, his muse (Nicole Kidman) is ready to act but there's no script (!), no story even (!!!). I haven't read even one of the supposedly many negative reviews of Nine but surely some of them will gripe that the same is true of this movie. This is what's known as "missing the point". Nine is based on the stage musical Nine which is itself based on Federico Fellini's masterful 8½ and none of them have anything resembling a traditionally satisfying plot. Not the point. The original movie, the stage musical, and the new movie musical share a premise rather than a plot, which is the director's crisis. That's it. The concept is the plot. The rest is all flourish and curlicues of self awareness. It's the cinema as memoir or character study (only without the character... sort of. We'll get to that). Guido spends the movie running away from this crisis but the crisis follows him. You can't escape yourself.

"Guido... Ciao!" Guido, despite the character details embedded within his womanizing, his fame and general obsessiveness is not a fully fleshed-out character. I don't even think he was in original form in 8½ when he was played by Marcello Mastroianni though my memo

ry on this point might be faulty. It's been years since I've seen it. Guido is the stand-in for the offscreen author, around which everything swirls. This is why I think Daniel Day-Lewis is miscast. Here is an actor who is great at filling in details and what the role needs is someone upon whom the movie can project its issues. Day-Lewis is good at mapping out Guido's evasiveness and his oddly symbiotic self-regard and self-doubt but he's not good at being a blank slate for the man behind the curtain. Guido's most elaborately fleshed out incarnation was when he was called Joe Gideon in All That Jazz but that's another masterpiece altogether.

Or is it?

No Man Behind the Curtain In some ways though, Day-Lewis's detailing helps. For Nine doesn't come across as a self-portrait unless Rob Marshall is having a post Memoirs of a Geisha crisis. As well he should! All That Jazz is a far better musical interpretation of 8½ than Nine has ever been really, because it's also a self-portrait by a narcissistic but brilliant director. Nine the musical doesn't have and has never had that potent force of personality. But it does have...

Music. Which is delicious. I've heard a lot of griping from fellow critics that the songs aren't catchy but, right or wrong, I always view this particular gripe as a complaint of the unwashed masses, he said fully aware of his own musical snobbery. It's the same complaint you'll sometimes hear from tourists about Stephen Sondheim musicals. And Sondheim is a genius. The songs are just a little more challenging than those insant sing-a-longs that people who don't really love musicals want when they attend a musical. But even when you don't love a song, and I've listened to the original cast recording of Broadway's Nine revival hundreds of times and never found anything to love within "My Husband Makes Movies", one singer/actress's interpretation can change everything.

The Mrs. Marion Cotillard plays Luisa Contini and I call her a singer/actress because that's what she is. Her international breakthrough came while playing a singer (Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose) but she wasn't actually singing in that film. Who knew? She sings so well that she's able to act through her vocals without the dread talk-singing that many actors opt for [*cough* Daniel Day-Lewis and Johnny Depp] when they're trying to sing. She's doing both simultaneously and organically and it's exceptionally pleasing to the eyes and ears. You can tell that Rob Marshall knows it, too. It's the one moment in the film where he seems to just slow down (Nine is very ADD in its editing, as is the habit of most movies, particularly action films and musicals) and watch and it's mesmerizing. It's so mesmerizing that one of my least favorite songs in the show suddenly reveals itself as the key song, the film's highlight.

My husband makes movies.
To make them he lives a kind of dream
In which his actions aren't always what they seem.
He may be on to some unique romantic theme.
Some men catch fish, some men tie flies, some earn their living baking bread.
My husband, he goes a little crazy...
Making movies instead.

The Cast. Not everyone fares as well. Kate Hudson can dance but she's saddled with an extraneous character and the worst number, a horrid if catchy song "Cinema Italiano" that was written for the film (for what purpose, I do not know. Perhaps to educate young audiences about mainstream America's fascination with foreign auteurs in the 50s and 60s?). I hate this song but suspect we'll be hearing it on the Oscar broadcast. Whatever my feelings about Kate Hudson, I hope she agrees to perform it. It sucks when movie stars are replaced by other people when the Oscar performance of their song rolls around.

The Song Score. I've tried but I can't let it go. I have no idea why Marshall thought it wise to remove "Nine" which is a far better number for Sophia Loren (playing Guido's Mamma) than the new lullaby she's given. And the film's title makes little sense without the number. Marshall has also removed "Simple" which is one of the best songs in the whole score, and which might have been a terrific way of pulling all the female supporting characters together. Nine in its new form has a distressing tendency to separate all its players on their own soundstages as if they're all figments of Guido's imagination. Even if that's a valid read of the story, it seems to me that they should start colliding once Guido's compartmentalized world starts crumbling. "Simple" was the number to do that. That said, the new number "Take It All" is a great addition, again focusing on Marion Cotillard's soulful performance and vocal prowess. She's so good in the film, she nearly justifies the restructured if rather more generic emphasis on Failed Marriage that this new Nine leans so heavily on. At the expense of...

The Muse & The Mistress. Claudia (Nicole Kidman) and Carla (Penélope Cruz) aren't quite as prominent here as they have been in past incarnations but both movie stars send jolts of electricity through the film with their diva entrances. Kidman is the first woman to enter the film, blissfully appropriately bathed in spotlight in the film's opening swirl of cast introductions. Claudia must have been the hardest role to cast, since the character isn't in much of the film but must convey something you can't act: global fame, untouchable star persona. I can't think of many actresses outside of Kidman who could have sold this role... possibly Angelina Jolie? So Kidman's vocal limitations -- she has a pleasant enough voice but it's not musically specific enough to match the depth of her normal acting -- aren't as much of a problem as they would be in another role. Cruz, has a different problem. She's terrific in the film but for her big scene, the musicals best number, which she undersells. She's sensationally sexy in "A Call From the Vatican", don't get me wrong. But her adroit skill with comedy is partially lost in the musical performance (the lyrics to "Vatican" are hilarious and it's tough to hear them in Cruz's rendition). She's far far better in her non-singing scenes where she totally nails both the drama of Carla's desperation and the comedy of her guileless desire "I'll be waiting right here. With my legs open."

Marshall. If it sounds like I'm hopelessly contradictory about the quality of Nine, I am. The source material (both on stage and previously on film) is strong and Marshall's wise decisions are frustratingly intermingled with his poor ones (and the latter will make some people justifiably cuh-razy). Chief among the triumphs is his choice of cinematographer. Dion Beebe does phenomenal work and its a marked improvement on his similarly premised work on Chicago. Marshall also stages the musical numbers well (unobscured by eager film editing, I'm guessing they'd be great on stage). "Be Italian", while arguably too similar to Chicago's "Cell Block Tango", is still thrilling to watch and ferociously performed by Fergie.

Even while I was enjoying the numbers I found myself still resenting Marshall's status as THE go to man for film musicals, especially since he doesn't seem to fully trust the form. He employs, again, the overly literal notion/gimmick that musical numbers must take place in the imagination because people don't sing in real life. Note to everyone: If people don't like to watch people burst into song, they probably aren't going to go to musicals. People who go to musicals WANT to see people burst into song. It's not a realist film genre.

The only huge disappointment in terms of a "number" is Judi Dench's "Folies Bergeres". It's so busy visually that it runs into the same problem as Chicago's "Razzle Dazzle" number: so many bright competing colors combined with too much movement and it all becomes a muddy mess. And it goes on forever.

But again for every couple of failures, a triumph: the finale is perfect. And don't you have to end well? Marshall closes the movie with an inspired, beautifully simple fusion of stage trope and literal movie-making. The finale is both a curtain call and a new beginning and I left the movie theater humming Nine's 'lalalalalas'.

You should always leave a musical humming.

Grade: B

If you must know it's like... Marion: A, Penélope: A (but for "A Call From the Vatican" which is a B), The original score: A-, the two new big songs: B+ and D, Nicole: B+, Judi: B+ (but for "Folies Bergeres" a C), Fergie: B (but please note: this is not an acting role), Daniel Day-Lewis: B-, Sophia Loren: exempt from grading. She's only there because they have to do something authentic for Italia!. Kate Hudson: C , Rob Marshall: C+

Golden Globe Nominees

Just start discussing. I know you lack the, what's it called... "patience"? I'm also unfamiliar with that word or concept. What could it possibly mean? The word I mean. We know what the Globes mean: buzz buzz buzz.

MOTION PICTURE DRAMA
Avatar The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire Up in the Air

• I nearly called this category in my predictions which is very hard to do. That's not bragging but bewilderment. There are so many ways the Globe might go each year so getting 4/5 is a sweet surprise. Especially since I really like all of these movies. Yay.

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side Helen Mirren, The Last Station Carey Mulligan, An Education Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

• The sudden rush of support for Blunt (by both the BFCA and the HFPA) who, as far as I can recall, never received strong consensus reviews for a movie that has very slowly made its way to release is an oddity. I scored 4/5 predictions here... missing Blunt obviously. Usually that type of picture would require critical support, unless the star is as Oscar / red carpet regular as a Blanchett. But awards season is like that. It's full of inexplicable sudden memes. Like deciding it's Bullock's time. Why everyone is ignoring Abbie Cornish is the oddest considering how much she's doing for Bright Star and how well received the movie was critically speaking.

ACTOR IN A DRAMA
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart George Clooney Up in the Air Colin Firth A Single Man Morgan Freeman Invictus Tobey Maguire Brothers

• I didn't actually expect to be correct when I called Tobey for a nomination but there it is. Whaddya know? 5/5 predictions

MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
(500) Days of Summer The Hangover It's Complicated Julie & Julia Nine

• Missed only The Hangover thinking they'd go for A Serious Man instead.
  

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal Marion Cotillard Nine Julia Roberts Duplicity Meryl Streep It's Complicated Meryl Streep Julie & Julia

• Julia is as surprised as you are. A touch more delighted than you are probably. She loves her life. I messed up here going for Deschanel and Pfeiffer which was both sort of possible if not for both at once and far fetched. Aren't you super curious as to who came in sixth though? Especially given Julia's spot. Coulda been anyone I guess.

ACTOR IN A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Matt Damon, The Informant Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine Robert Downey Jr Sherlock Holmes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man

• Only 4/5 predicted here. I'm still surprised that Stuhlbarg made it... particularly because A Serious Man did not score in Screenplay or Motion Picture. Very happy about Gordon-Levitt! And super excited that I have no idea who will win. (I don't think Day-Lewis is an obvious slam dunk in case you're wondering)

ANIMATED FILM
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (Columbia) Coraline (Focus) Fantastic Mr Fox (20th Century Fox) The Princess and the Frog (Disney) Up (Pixar)

FOREIGN FILM
Baaria (Italy) Broken Embraces (Spain) The Maid (Chile) A Prophet (France) The White Ribbon (Germany)

• Scored only 4/5 with animation (thought Ponyo might show up) but i completely forgot to make my call in foreign film. I'm happy for The Maid and still confused that Chile didn't use it as their Oscar submission. Not that it'd be an Oscar darling.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Nine Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air Anna Kendrick Up in the Air Mo'Nique Precious Julianne Moore, A Single Man

• Is this your Oscar lineup? Or will the BFCA's refusal to put Marion Cotillard in lead foresee AMPAS's feelings about her? If so one of these ladies is out. But which? I missed only Farmiga doubting she was a big enough star for the HFPA and thinking they might want to be populist and throw Mariah Carey in.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, Invictus Woody Harrelson, The Messenger Christopher Plummer, The Last Station Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

• 3/5 predicted here. I thought they had ruled that Harrelson was a lead actor. I guess the publicists talked them out of that decision. I'm glad to see that Alec Baldwin's buzz is fading for It's Complicated because I think it would be tacky to have the host of the Oscars as a nominee.

DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker James Cameron, Avatar Clint Eastwood, Invictus Jason Reitman, Up in the Air Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

• A month or two ago we were looking at quite possibly the most diverse lineup of directors ever to compete for the golden boy. But the BFCA and the Globes have both decided they'd like to keep Oscar thinking about the older white men that they always think of. So no Scherfig, no Campion and no Daniels on either list. Thank god Bigelow is still in play. Otherwise it'd be the same old, same old. I scored 4/5 on predictions missing Cameron for Rob Marshall.

SCREENPLAY
District 9 The Hurt Locker Inglourious Basterds It's Complicated Up in the Air

• Whoa. Terrible predictive power here, correctly forseeing only the Tarantino and the Up in the Air movie. This category is pretty surprising actually. No Precious? The HFPA voters really didn't go for An Education did they?

ORIGINAL SCORE MOTION PICTURE
Michael Giacchino, Up Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant! James Horner Avatar Abel Korzeniowski, A Single Man Karen O, Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are

• 3/5 predicted here... but quite a good category don't you think?

ORIGINAL SONG MOTION PICTURE
“CINEMA ITALIANO” Nine “I WANT TO COME HOME” Everybody's Fine “I WILL SEE YOU” — Avatar “THE WEARY KIND" -Crazy Heart “WINTER” Brothers

• I am so grossed out that people like that "Cinema Italiano" song. Maybe I'm too much of a purist for Nine. But it has such good songs and they chucked two of the best and added... this? Ewwww. 2/5 predicted only. Oops. Don't you think it's weird that the Globes try so hard to nominated stars even in the song category (like Paul McCartney and U2 here). It's not like they have musical performances on the show to sell the broadcast with.

complete list including television nominations is here (so happy for GLEE)

Oscar Podcast 2.1, Awards Preamble

Readers: Bring back the Oscar podcasts already!
Nathaniel: okay okay... here you go. Don't say we don't work hard for you.

Joe, Katey and I had a lengthy chat earlier in the week, which we've managed to widdle down to 59:59 and hope you enjoy. The topics are all over the place: Woody Harrelson in The Messenger, Marion Cotillard's Oscar journey (then and now), Up in the Air and the female point of view, the male preferencing of Oscar punditry, what the 10 wide list does to the long tail theory, The Lovely Bones and the 'science' of release dates, Sandra Bullock vs. Abbie Cornish, Jeremy Renner vs. Daniel Day-Lewis, Jason Reitman vs. Lee Daniels; So many topics scattered like kindling as we warm up. Next week, full blown fire as the Golden Globe and BFCA nominations hit (on the same day, natch. That's basically a symbol of how things go this time of year).

You can listen right here but for the sake of my bandwidth expen$e$, if you'd be so kind, please subscribe and download from iTunes for the enhanced podcast. Or if you use a different player, click here. This costs me less money and you can take it with you wherever you go. Why shouldn't you obsess on the Oscar race during your commute or workout?

As per usual, the conversation isn't really complete until we hear from you. Sound off on anything we covered. And that's a lot.

Related: Oscar Prediction Updates
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Nine Posters? Nine Nominations? Nein Review!

The Nine embargo is still in place for "reviews" but lifted as far as any other discussion goes: awards and whatnot. I'm curious how there can exist an embargo on discussing a movie (outside of a review embargo which I totally understand) since people discuss movies freely for years before they come out. Free Speech! I'm joking. It's an awards season curiousity but I play along. After all, the game of waiting for something you desperately want can be fun. Think of how you felt about Christmas as a child. The problem stems from the studios making film fans wait way too long. Christmas should come every weekend, you know. Movies are not like gifts. You can't just unwrap them and move to the next and form a big pile. They take 2 hours just to unwrap in the first place. Spread them out!


You know what else is curious? The new posters. The marketing peoples for Nine made the numerically questionable decision to release 4 posters. I'd say why not 9 except the movie itself doesn't really seem to know why it's called Nine. I enjoyed the movie a lot but when you cut out the Nine song, you do sort of mess with the title... since there's only 8 characters. You have to count Guido twice. But without the song... oh, never mind. I'm still smarting from the dumping of that song. I love that song! And damnit, I wanted to hear Sophia Loren sing it.

The first two posters above are fine but I shan't say anything more about the crammed and ugly poster (third from left) that Jose savaged yesterday. He said it all. But this next one...

Huh ????????? (Nine question marks) Only 3 stars are featured on this poster to your left. I keep blinking and staring at it and yet my girl Nicki never appears. This poster is defective!

Seriously, what is that about? In another 58 years people our ages now won't have a clue who Fergie and Kate Hudson are but the movie freaks will be holding centennial parties for Nicole Kidman. It's so obvious. When will the goddess catch a break? I guess we have to wait until 2010 when Rabbit Hole reminds... Crossing my fingers for that at any rate. You never know. It could be another Fur (an effort but one that doesn't work).

I understand that Fergie is a hitmaker, musically speaking, but is she really more bankable for a m-o-v-i-e than Dame Dench, Kidman, or Daniel Day-Lewis. Bizarre. Not to diss Fergie. Her number "Be Italian" is terrific, the 'Cell Block Tango' of this Chicago sibling. Rob Marshall is the babydaddy again. If you haven't inked him down in your Best Director predictions, you should.

Nominations in order of likelihood

• Cinematography, without question
• Picture, easy-peasy
• Director, ditto
• Costume Design, in Atwood they trust
  
• Art Direction, they keep nominating John Myhre for dressing up theater stages (Chicago, Dreamgirls) so why stop now?
• Editing, Moulin Rouge! and Chicago factored in here. But not Dreamgirls so who knows...
  
• Sound Mixing it being a musical and all. Likely
  
• Original Song, after that debacle with The Wrestler last year and the "Come What May" situation with Moulin Rouge! back in the day I will never again assume that this category can contain locks. But I hope to see Marion Cotillard perform "Take it All" at the Oscars but not Kate Hudson shimmying to "Cinema Italiano".
  
  that's 8 nominations and that's where things get trickier...
  
  
• Supporting Actress This would be a slam dunk for Marion Cotillard except that she's campaigning for lead actress. So there's probably room for Penélope Cruz, unless they object to her garbling the very funny lyrics of "A Call From the Vatican"
  
• Actress More on Marion later. I need to discuss that specifically and all by its lonesome.
  
• Actor The novelty and his reputation might be an irresistable combo. but who knows before the precursors have their say in a race that looks pretty tight for the 4th and 5th spots
  
• Adapted Screenplay If they're feeling nostalgic to honor tAnthony Minghella (RIP)
  
• Supporting Actress Marion Cotillard if AMPAS rejects her Weinsteined categorization
  
• Supporting Actress Judi Dench if they flip their shit for the movie.

More after the holidays. Or maybe during them. You can't get enough of Nine can you? I hope the movie lives up to your dreams.
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Two Ladies

an update: The Nine embargo has officially lifted SORT OF. There be fine print. "Reviews" still have the embargo in place... so back to the drawing board for me. I'll write about the Q&A I attended or something else soon. Stay tuned.
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A Non-Committal Post on Nine

I'm not allowed to talk about it yet. Sorry! Give it a week. I will say I enjoyed (whew) and that I thought Marion Cotillard was best-in-show fantastic ...and with that -- the only note I will share on account of embargo -- I imagine thousands of Cotillard Groupies just went a little slack-jawed given the heated exchanges during Oscar Race '07.

Update: I have also been asked to wait to write about the Q&A as well which featured the entire cast (sans Sophia Loren) -- so that's next week, too. Gazing upon Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis in the same space but especially seeing Nicole Kidman and Penélope Cruz simultaneously (you know how I do) made my head explode.

I am actually typing this with no head. I am headless. The adrenaline in my muscle tissues is moving my fingers and at any moment I cou
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"Who's Not Wearing Any Clothes..."?

That's not just a famous line from "A Call From the Vatican" to be sung by Penélope Cruz in Nine (see snippet below*) but a question we all must ask ourselves as we enter the holiday movie season. As in which film is the emperor without them?



Is it Avatar, Invictus or The Lovely Bones? Those are the three largely unseen giants looming, casting significant shadows on box office and/or Oscar hopes. Even if Avatar is great (which many have doubted ever since the bright blue Na'vi were revealed), it'll be a tough sell for sci-fi averse Oscar voters. Invictus could be a sure Oscar thing even if it's not great (given the pedigree) but The Lovely Bones ... The Lovely Bones. I don't know what to do with it. This one feels like it could go any which way.

Saoirse, Susan and Neyteri nervously glance towards Oscar season.
This is the calm before the storm

Oscar Predictions -- now with revised commentary and Golden Globe predictions -- are up in the Picture, Actor, Actress and Supporting Actress categories. Your hunches and comments are appreciated.

*eek. Penélope sounds a little flat here to me. But I've been listening to the Krakowski version for so many years, I may just need to adjust my expectations. I would've preferred to embed the new Nine commercial, which is beautifully confident with no dialogue... just dance rehearsals and footage and the glorious cast.
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Nine "Also Starring..."

A reader who has seen Nine already, was invited to another preview screening. The luck of some people, I swear! He couldn't make it a second time but he did share the promotional text which read like so

"Nine." Rob Marshall, (Academy Award nominated director of CHICAGO), and an all-star cast including Academy Award winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman and Sophia Loren join forces on the vibrant and provocative feature film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical NINE. This inventive new film tells the story of world famous, genius film Director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion while trying to begin his latest production. On the verge of collapse, he finds inspiration from the numerous women in his life including his loving wife, his sultry mistress, his beautiful film star muse, his faithful confidant and costume designer, a sexy American fashion journalist, the village whore from his youth and the spirit of his mother. The movie also stars Kate Hudson and Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson

He notes that the "also stars" for Kate Hudson seems odd writing "I guess I'm one of the few to praise Hudson on those feedback forms considering she has more screen time than Kidman and Loren combined."

It may seem silly to post this but that's the thing with long awaited purposefully delayed releases. They make people so hungry for information that they're willing to gnaw on crumbs and digest them like they're full course meals. It's not just me, I swear! Since we can only make wild conjectures at this point, do you think ol' Kate's been purposefully demoted in promotional efforts or this is a mere quirk of star billing or copywriting?
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The Oscar Race Begins on November 6th

That's just 5 days away. That's the (un)official start date. I'm declaring it. It used to be the NBR's announcement of their top ten list but with more and more awards groups clamoring to yell "first!", "first!" has lost virtually all its meaning. Or rather, it's meaning has changed. It now means "We're desperate for attention!" ...though maybe it always did. So, Nov. 6th is the day...


...since that's when a lot of folks will get their first look at Precious ["for you consideration..." in virtually every category save Best Actor and Supporting Actor. No, Lenny Kravitz's male nurse doesn't count]. That's when that particularly buzzy contenduh goes from being a movie with deafening hype and buzz (huzz? bype? hypzz?) to being a real thing, a movie audiences can react to in a less abstract, more honest and less controllable-by-campaign-and-hype way. As it should be.

[tangent] I always find it strange when people call me an elitist (I assume because I generally prefer unravelling female protagonists to superpowered men in costumes?) because I'm actually populist at heart. I demand that cinema of all types readily available to the masses! The Oscars are frustrating in this way because the type of films that matter to the Academy -- and to drama nuts like you (I assume if you're reading TFE) -- are ever more skittish about being seen, hiding in tiny little theaters in only the biggest cities, as if too many curious eyeballs would ruin their strenuous beauty.

If it were up to me you'd have to open by Christmas at the absolute latest in the top six to eight markets (something like that -- thus making you an actual release in the year in which you're asking for statues and top ten lists) instead of just Los Angeles by the 31st for a one week run on one screen. (I fail to see how such tiny in-name-only "releases" within a calendar year are any different in practice than festival showings which do not make you eligible). [/tangent]

On a smaller scale November 6th is when Best Actor contender Hal Holbrook emerges with the senior-wants-his-farm-back drama That Evening Sun. This promising debut feature from writer/director Scott Teems has other fine performances (particularly Ray McKinnon as Holbrook's nemesis) but none of the other actors have anything in the way of an Oscar-ready profile. But after the year Carrie Preston has had -- dropping some humanity into the arch Duplicity, reliably entertaining us as Arlene on True Blood and this affecting portrait of a wife who loves her husband but isn't blind to his flaws -- we should all be new fans.

Yes, from November 6th onward each and every weekend brings us new Oscar contenders of one type or another.

• Nov 6th: Precious, That Evening Sun, A Christmas Carol
• Nov 13th: Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Messenger
• Nov 20th: Broken Embraces, The Blind Side (?), The Twilight Sa (oh, I'm kidding)
• Nov 27th: The Road (wide. Holiday appropriate! er....) and a bunch of limited releases: Me and Orson Welles, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The Princess and the Frog. I have to say I think it was a H-U-G-E mistake for Nine to leave November... even more enormous than I had originally thought. You see, not one major Oscar contender is going to be wide for the entire Thanksgiving period. Unless you count The Road. Not even Precious (which will be expanding in November but not wide until sometime in December). It's like the Weinstein Company is just setting fire to money. They'd have had zero competition. Plus, November is actually from the latin word "novem" which means NINE. Hello... can't the Weinsteins respect the Gregorian calendar!?

• Dec 4th: Brothers, Up in the Air, Everybody's Fine (?)
• Dec 11th: A Single Man, Invictus and The Lovely Bones which is only in limited release till January. Like Nine, it's another Oscar hopeful with mainstream appeal. Plus it's from a hugely successful director (Peter Jackson). It seems like they're just putting money in the trash compactor. Why don't they want those holiday dollars? Are they worried about the movie's bankability?
  
• Dec 18th: Avatar (wide), Nine, The Young Victoria
• Christmas: Sherlock Holmes, It's Complicated (wide releases... Globe contenders?), Police Adjective (Romania's foreign film contender). Nine and Up in the Air, two presumed Oscar giants, also quit hiding and open wide.
  
• Dec 30th: The White Ribbon (More than most filmmakers, Michael Haneke pieces require time to shift and settle and unsettle again in the mind of the viewer. So why they keep sticking him with these maddeningly busy release dates -- Christmas or New Years -- is beyond me. Seems like such a missed opportunity for what his films always need: discussions with room to breathe. Caché in particular was gaining steam -- his films build the further you get away from them -- so had it been released even just a few weeks earlier (sigh) maybe it would have won a Screenplay or Director nod? Or at least more precursor honors. Instead it t'was crushed in the glut. We'll see the same thing happen again this time.
  

So longwinded today.

My point is simply this: Here we go! (Are you excited yet?)
This was all a lengthy awkward way of saying that Oscar Predictions in All Categories are all up to date and I'm more than ready for these movies. Discuss.
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Where We're At: Best Actress

At the beginning of the year when the buzz for Precious had just begun, Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe seemed like no more than a long shot. Mo'Nique's tour de force as her monster mom hogged the buzz and Sidibe had several disadvantages: fat, unknown, minority. The Best Actress category, more than any other acting category, is obsessed with beauty, stardom and whiteness*. [Tangent: the DeGlam phenomenon is also connected to the beauty preference. In a perverse way it's still all about the beauty that the voters are aware the famous actress is hiding].

<--- Two weeks before the film's opening, Sidibe's star is rising with coverage in major gets like The New York Times Magazine.

Now that I've seen Precious (see previous post) I can safely say that the Academy won't pass over Sidibe come nomination morning (February 2nd, 2010). It helps tremendously that in real life the first time actress is very different than her character.



When Sidibe is interviewed you quickly realize that the only thing she shares with her character is that plus sized body. She's articulate, educated and appears to have a far more lighthearted soul. This immediately dispells the dismissive (though not always incorrect judgment) that can sometimes attach itself to performances by non-traditional/unknown actors. I'm talking about the "they're just playing themselves!" reaction. Sidibe isn't. So she's in. It seems strange for a major category to be 60% wrapped up before November and any precursorage has taken place but it's tough to argue with the lock-up probability of the Streep/Mulligan/Sidibe trifecta.

Which means the battle for those final two spots will be the main place of speculative Actressy drama for the next three months. What's more, the precursor awards might not help us. It seems easy to imagine a precursor season that's filled with the aforementioned trio... leaving the last spots volatile until the end.

The other competitors are plentiful though none seem like a sure thing. Hilary Swank has the right type of role (biographical, teary, ennobling) but practically nothing about the movie including her all-surface performance works (my review). Helen Mirren has the pedigree and a scenery chewing role in The Last Station (my initial reaction). If voters like the way she masticates the bedroom, swallows the furniture and spits out the table ware (I see a Spacek-style plate smashing sequence as future overplayed Oscar clip) they'll ignore the fact that she's not carrying the film exactly and that she won very recently. Marion Cotillard, if pushed lead for Nine, will have Mirren's two drawbacks tenfold, since she won even more recently and she's sharing her film-carrying duties not with two famous men but with one famous man and several famous women. Maybe other people know something I don't but surely she'll be defeated by the limited screentime unless they put her back in Supporting where all the Nine women belong. Abbie Cornish's Bright Star role would easily place her in the Best Actress shortlist if she had more of an Oscar-bound career profile. For her I suspect it's all about the campaign.

Finally, two of my favorite actresses of all time could still be contenders if the Academy is feeling either discerning and adventurous (Tilda Swinton in Julia) or 'we're sorry' career sentimental (Michelle Pfeiffer in Chéri). There are many things that are entirely predictable about the Oscar race in any given year. But when and if AMPAS will feel adventurous or sentimental are not among those things. Sometimes they feel it. Sometimes they don't.

*This is statistically true. Only 10 Best Actress nominations have gone to women of color, compared to 20+ supporting actress and actor nominations and 25+ supporting actor nominations (I don't have the exact numbers) though it's not entirely fair to blame the Academy since they can only vote on what's presented to them and actresses of color still don't get big roles as often as actors of color.

My Link Spilleth Over

Funny Pages Posts
Mister Honk Troopin' in the Rain. hee
Goatdog "if they only had texting" old movies reimagined
Go Fug Yourself plays madlibs with Julianne Moore


Clickables
Yahoo watch Penélope Cruz and the girls rehearse for Nine. Sort of (it's more like a trailer which highlights the making of. Though why studios give exclusives like this to sites with "streaming video" I'll never know. It looks cool... but it also looks really ugly given the streaming. Missed opportunity when it shoulda been in Quicktime.
Pop Culture Nerd two kids review Where The Wild Things Are

It’s so random that the monsters have generic names, except for Judith and Ira because I don’t know anyone with those names... Why Alexander played with a cute kitten also doesn’t make sense to me. It’s so random because on that island, you would think there are only monsters and not normal animals.

My New Plaid Pants celebrates Nicholas Hoult, all growed up
Movie City Indie on the Chicago Film Festival Awards.
A Blog Next Door wonders why it took him so long to watch the star-laden Romance and Cigarettes (eep. I still haven't!)
Fin de Cinema remembers The Descent
Noh Way here's another instant Mo'Nique fan, bowled over by Precious


Andy Awesome Check out this super fun circular art (some examples above)! Several genre movie characters appear and you can buy originals by emailing the artist
NPR R Crumb illustrated "The Book of Genesis"?!?

UGH
David Poland wants the Gotham Awards to be better at predicting Oscar. Jesus Christ, Poland! Every time I think my age old battle cry against this stuff is gaining steam (at least Guy Lodge is with me) someone popular goes and says something like this. I must repeat: There is literally no point to ANY awards show other than Oscar existing if they only exist to predict Oscar. Give your awards to whoever you feel is best, the end. Prediction is prediction. Awards are awards. The latter should never strive to be the former -- it's fine if it happens accidentally -- or the awards body in question is a useless corrupt thing. If you want to predict the Oscar, make predictions. Have at it. I myself recommend doing so because it's damn fun. But don't confuse that with the desire to actual honor people for good work. When you're doing that, call it like you see it. Not how you think Oscar will see it. The Oscar race would be an even more fascinating thing if all the other awards bodies followed this decree: Get your own voice or shut the hell up!
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