Best Actress Nominations

We are fast approaching the announcement of the Academy Awards nominations for films from 2009. I'd like to give you my predictions as well as the ones I would nominate if I were in charge.


Predicted nominees:

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

I would nominate:

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Abbie Cornish, Bright Star
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gaboureh Sidibe, Precious
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Although I wasn't crazy about The Blind Side generally, Sandra Bullock was fantastic. Of the two British ingenues with breakout performances this year, I had a slight preference for Abbie Cornish as the devastated soulmate of John Keats. Carey Mulligan didn't tug at my heartstrings, but she gave a polished, convincing performance in An Education. Meryl once again proved that she is our greatest living actor with her layered portrait of Julia Child. And Gaboureh Sidibe brought dignity and spirit to Precious Jones, the year's most challenging role.

Honorable mentions: Catalina Saavedra's weird, wonderful performance in The Maid; Penelope Cruz, shown off to beautiful effect again by Pedro Almodovar in Broken Embraces; and Maya Rudolph, who gave the only interesting performance in the otherwise awful Away We Go.

Oscar Night Preditions

Here are my bold predictions for Sunday night. The star icon denotes my predicted winner; the heart indicates the one I like the most.


Best Actor

• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
  
• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
  
• Sean Penn, The Dark Knight ★ ♥

All great performances here, though I would put Brad Pitt at the bottom of the list. While he did a fine job, the real star of Benjamin Button was the make-up department. Richard Jenkins gave the most natural, relatable performance of the year in the lovely film The Visitor. Although I had trouble with the believability of the script of Frost/Nixon, and the film as a whole seemed lightweight, I loved Frank Langella's striking performance as Richard Nixon. Mickey Rourke put his body through hell in The Wrestler, and he certainly earned the awards that he has already received. But I think the Academy's snob factor will work against him and for Sean Penn, whom they have already anointed as a Great Actor. That's fine with me, as I think Sean Penn gave the best performance of his career, and the best by any actor this year, in Milk.


Best Actress

• Meryl Streep, Doubt ♥
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Kate Winslet, The Reader ★
• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
  
• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

Here is the first acting category in which I expect the Academy to get it wrong. They seem determined to give Kate Winslet the award, partly out of the sense that she has earned one after five previous nominations, partly because voters loved her work in Revolutionary Road (I think that was the better of her two lead performances this year), and partly because Harvey Weinstein is campaigning for her like crazy. While Kate was strong in The Reader, bringing complexity and even warmth to an unlikable character, the movie as a whole left me cold, so I'm not feeling inclined to reward her with the Oscar. If you read my earlier post you know how I feel about Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married (blecchh). Angelina Jolie was gorgeous in Changeling, but I didn't find her convincing in the mother role; in any case the gorgeous art direction and set decoration were the real highlights of Changeling. I was enthralled by Melissa Leo, so heartbreakingly believable as a mother struggling to stay true to her core values in the face of overpowering economic pressures. I hope that more people take the time to check out Frozen River, a fantastic example of great independent filmmaking. Meryl Streep took several chances in her role as a nun in Doubt, choosing a tricky accent and an abrupt conversational style that lacked elegance but certainly benefited the film. Her otherwise-perfect performance was marred by the disappointing final scene, but that is more the writer-director's fault than Meryl's.


Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ♥
• Doubt
• Frost/Nixon
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire ★

Doubt worked incredibly well on the live stage, but I didn't like the changes that John Patrick Shanley made for the movie screenplay. The Reader's screenplay featured several unbearable sequences, particularly all of the scenes in the law school classroom. I'm looking for Slumdog to take this award, but I have a slight preference for the elegant script of Benjamin Button.


Best Animated Feature

• Bolt
  
• Kung Fu Panda
• Wall*E ★ ♥

OK, I admit I didn't make it to Bolt or Panda, but I'm still confident that Wall*E will win. I wasn't crazy about the misanthropic second half of Wall*E, particularly the implied linkage between being overweight and being lazy and stupid, but the first half was so beautiful, so elegant, so poetic, so totally unique that it makes the movie worthy of all the accolades.


Best Animated Short

• La Maison en Petits Cubes
• Lavatory - Lovestory ♥
• Oktapodi
• Presto
• This Way Up ★

I can't resist a lavatory love story....


Best Art Direction

• Changeling ♥
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ★
• The Dark Knight
• The Duchess
  
• Revolutionary Road

I'm guessing that Benjmain Button will take this award in recognition of its three full hours of scenes all around the world. The Duchess featured lovely British mansion interiors and exteriors, but nothing we haven't seen before. I admired the art direction of both The Dark Knight and Revolutionary Road, but my favorite this year was definitely Changeling. In fact the art direction was the best thing about that film, in my opinion.


Best Cinematography

• Changeling
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ♥
• The Dark Knight
• The Reader
  
• Slumdog Millionaire ★

Slumdog should win, thanks to its dramatic camera work in such colorful, beautiful locations. My favorite this year was Benjamin Button, which featured some incredibly beautiful shots--for example, the swimming scene with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett when they "meet in the middle." I hope that The Reader doesn't win here; I thought the camera-work was stodgy, heavy-handed and indulgent on many occasions, though the shots of the young men and women on the dock at the lake were gorgeous.


Best Costume Design

• Australia
  
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Duchess ★
• Milk ♥
• Revolutionary Road
  

Academy voters can't resist the extravagant get-ups that always appear in frothy period pieces like The Duchess. I would rather that they recognized either Milk or Revolutionary Road for thoughtful costuming that lent credibility to the 1970s and 1950s settings, respectively. Benjamin Button has a shot at the prize as well.


Best Director

• Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire★
• David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Gus Van Sant, Milk ♥
• Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
• Stephen Daldry, The Reader
  

Stephen Daldry is a potential upset winner here. This is his third nomination (after Billy Elliot and The Hours), and Harvey Weinstein is on the campaign trail for him. But I think that the Academy will instead recognize first-time nominee Danny Boyle for Slumdog, a wildly inventive and suspenseful movie like none Hollywood has seen before. Prior winner Ron Howard has no chance this year. I think that both David Fincher and Gus Van Sant will receive plenty of votes, as they are both respected veterans with well-regarded films this year. While Van Sant's unique style was not on display in Milk as much as in other recent films like Paranoid Park and Elephant, I still pick him as my favorite because he was the driving force behind the most important and most emotionally resonant film of the year in Milk.


Best Documentary Feature

• The Betrayal
  
• Encounters at the End of the World
  
• The Garden
• Man on Wire ★
• Trouble the Water ♥

Man on Wire received universally glowing reviews and may be the most joyful film of the new century, even as it recounts events from 1974. Encounters, in contrast, offered a dark vision of nature's harshness in its portrait of Antarctica and the few life forms, human and otherwise, that try to survive there. Made by the widely respected Werner Herzog, Encounters has a shot at winning, but I think Man on Wire will take the trophy. I loved both of those films, but my favorite documentary of the year was the heartbreaking Trouble the Water, with its firsthand accounts of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.


Best Documentary Short

• The Conscience of Nhem En
  
• The Final Inch
• Smile Pinki
  
• The Witness -- From the Balcony of Room 306 ★ ♥

Best Film Editing

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• The Dark Knight ♥
• Frost/Nixon
  
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire★

The Best Picture winner usually carries this category, so my star goes to Slumdog.


Best Foreign Language Film

• The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
  
• The Class (France) ★
• Departures (Japan)
• Revanche (Austria)
  
• Waltz with Bashir (Israel) ♥

The two that have been widely released in the U.S., The Class and Waltz with Bashir, are in a tight race for this award. I suspect that the Academy voters will prefer the live-action French film over the creative, devastatingly sad, animated Israeli entry. My favorite foreign language film of the year, the Swedish horror masterpiece Let the Right One In, wasn't even nominated.


Best Live-Action Short

• Auf der Strecke
  
• Manon on the Asphalt
• New Boy
  
• The Pig
• Spielzeugland★ ♥

What a depressing group of films! The subject matter, respectively: Man beaten to death on subway; woman killed in car accident; boy taken from home country after father kidnapped in military coup; man faces terminal cancer; Jewish family boards train to Auschwitz. A good rule of thumb at the Oscars is that the Holocaust drama always wins. That's fine with me this year, as I thought Spielzeugland was the best of a strong group of nominees.


Best Make-Up

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ★ ♥
• The Dark Knight
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army
  

Angelina Jolie's make-up for Changeling was my favorite of the year, but since it wasn't nominated, I'll go with the very impressive backward/forward-aging make-up of Benjamin Button.


Best Original Score

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Defiance
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire ★
• Wall*E ♥

In the past, I've found Thomas Newman's scores to be indulgent and annoying, but his score for Wall*E was fantastic--and essential to the success of the wordless first half of the movie.


Best Original Screenplay

• Frozen River
• Happy-Go-Lucky
• In Bruges
  
• Milk ★ ♥
• Wall*E

The Wall*E script is unique and interesting, but I didn't like the second half. I loved the natural, realistic feel of the story of Frozen River. But Milk wins.


Best Original Song

• "Down to Earth" from Wall*E ♥
• "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire ★
• "O Saya" from Slumdog Millionaire

Where is Bruce Springsteen's theme from The Wrestler?


Best Picture

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk ♥
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire★

The only film with a real chance at upsetting Slumdog for Best Picture is Milk. Most Academy votes live in California and experienced the shocking endorsement of anti-gay discrimination by the state's voters last November; their outrage may drive sentiment to reward the film about the history of the movement for gay equality. I would be pleased as punch if that happened. While The Reader may have a shot in the director category, I don't think it will garner many votes for Best Picture, given that its critical reception was mixed. Frost/Nixon is perhaps too breezy and happy to win, and Benjamin Button is highly respected but not loved.


Best Sound Editing

• The Dark Knight ★
• Iron Man ♥
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall*E
  
• Wanted

Best Sound Mixing

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight ★ ♥
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Wall*E
  
• Wanted

Best Supporting Actor

• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight ★ ♥
• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  
• Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
  
• Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road
  

Of course Heath Ledger will win, as he should, for his fascinating work as The Joker. Philip Seymour Hoffman was very strong as the accused priest in Doubt. Josh Brolin totally nailed the role of Dan White in Milk. I'm less enthused about Michael Shannon's inclusion in this group; his scenes in Revolutionary Road felt out of place, distracting from the core storyline. And while I adore RDJ, I just can't get past the blackface he employed in Tropic Thunder. There are so may other Downey performances that have been more deserving of Oscar nominations -- the troubled musician with mommy issues in Two Girls and a Guy, the unscrupulous TV reporter in Natural Born Killers, the alienated gay brother in Home for the Holidays, to name a few -- so why is the Academy honoring him for the forgettable Thunder?


Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
• Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona ★ ♥
  
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Viola Davis, Doubt

I think it would be hilarious if Marisa Tomei were to win. That would make her a two-time Oscar winner, putting her ahead of legends like Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave and Susan Sarandon. Having said that, I did enjoy her bold performance as an aging stripper in The Wrestler. I also appreciated how Taraji P. Henson brought so much warmth to her role as the emotional anchor of the rambling epic Benjamin Button. While Viola Davis had the flashier role in Doubt, Amy Adams gave the better performance, full of nuance. Adams will certainly take home an Oscar someday, but this time I give the edge to Penelope Cruz as the wildly passionate and unpredictable artist in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.


Best Visual Effects

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ♥
• The Dark Knight ★
• Iron Man
  

Oscar Nominations

Here are my predictions for the upcoming Academy Award nominations, along with a list of the people and films that I would nominate if I were in charge. Caveat: I have not yet seen The Reader or The Wrestler.

Best Supporting Actress

Predicted Nominees

• Kate Winslet, The Reader
• Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
• Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Viola Davis, Doubt

I Would Nominate...

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Debra Winger, Rachel Getting Married
• Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Sophie Okonedo, The Secret Life of Bees
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

In a just world, the subtle, layered performance of Amy Adams in Doubt would be rewarded ahead of the flashier work of Viola Davis in the same film. Debra Winger acted circles around her younger co-stars in the Rachel Getting Married. And Penelope Cruz is unique among contemporary actors: no one else can generate such intensity, simultaneously comic and deadly serious.

Best Supporting Actor

Predicted Nominees

• Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
• Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder

I Would Nominate...

• Danny Glover, Blindness
• Emile Hirsch, Milk
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

I’m hoping that instead of rewarding the likable but inexperienced Dev Patel for his work in Slumdog, the Academy will give an extremely well-deserved nomination to Danny Glover, who was transcendent in Blindness. That he still hasn’t been nominated for an Oscar despite decades of first-rate performances (Places in the Heart, The Color Purple, The Saint of Fort Washington, Beloved) is mystifying.




Best Actor

Predicted Nominees

• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
• Sean Penn, Milk

I Would Nominate...

• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Synecdoche New York
• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
• Sam Rockwell, Choke
• Sean Penn, Milk
  
  This year the Academy has the chance to honor a wonderful performance by Richard Jenkins, who brought so much emotional complexity, warmth and sadness, exhilaration and devastation, to his career-best performance in The Visitor. But instead they will throw yet another bone to Clint Eastwood for playing an ignorant old crabby-crab. Dear Clint: Ethnic stereotyping is not cute! Racist epithets are not endearing!
  
  I was impressed by Frank Langella’s performance in Frost/Nixon, though it wasn’t perfect. The key scene with the late-night drunken phone call didn’t ring true for me. But he still deserves a nomination. However, if anyone other than Sean Penn wins this award I will explode into a billion pieces.

Best Actress

Predicted Nominees

• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
• Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Meryl Streep, Doubt

I Would Nominate...

• Cate Blanchett, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
• Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
• Kristin Scott Thomas, I've Loved You So Long
• Meryl Streep, Doubt

Anne Hathaway’s beautiful smile, cheery demeanor and vocal advocacy for LGBT rights make her one of my favorite celebrities. And I really, really wanted to like her in Rachel Getting Married. Too bad she proved unable to convincingly portray a recovering drug addict from a well-to-do family. But Hollywood loves her, so she’ll likely get a nomination anyway. I will pretend it is really in recognition of her far superior work from a few years ago in Brokeback Mountain.

As for Angelina Jolie, her lips were the best thing in Changeling (well, perhaps after Amy Ryan’s brilliant cameo appearance as an electroshock patient).

By far the most impressive performance of the year for me was by Kristin Scott Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long. That movie should be shown in acting classes. I also loved Frances McDormand’s quietly endearing work in Miss Pettigrew.

Best Director

Predicted Nominees

• Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
• Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
• David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Gus Van Sant, Milk
• Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

I Would Nominate...

• Gus Van Sant, Milk
• Gus Van Sant, Paranoid Park
• Patricia Riggen, Under the Same Moon
• Tomas Alfredson, Let the Right One In
• Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Once again this year there isn’t a single female director with any shot of getting a nomination. Why not Patricia Riggen, who brought such emotional richness to the heartbreaking Under the Same Moon?

Best Picture

Predicted Nominees

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• The Dark Knight
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire

I Would Nominate...

• Let the Right One In
• Milk
• Synecdoche New York
• Under the Same Moon
• The Visitor

The likely nominees for Best Picture are all movies that I appreciated, but (with the clear exception of Milk) they didn’t have that special quality that makes a good movie into a beloved favorite film. I feel that Milk is by far the best movie of the year, but of course I am biased as a gay San Franciscan. Synecdoche New York is imperfect but so totally unique that it must be recognized here. The Visitor and Under the Same Moon each provide insight into the complex debate on immigration policy by showing its effects on individuals and families. And Let the Right One In scared the beJesus out of me.

The nominations will be announced Thursday, January 22 at some ridiculously early hour of the morning.

12 Angry Men

Last night I went to see 12 Angry Men at the Castro Theatre with my friend Shawn. I think I saw it on TV as a kid, but this was my first time seeing it on the big screen. Here's the somewhat campy movie poster from the original 1957 release:

This is a magnificent film. The black & white cinematography is very cool and creative, which is all the more impressive because almost the entire movie takes place in a single room. At the beginning of jury deliberations, we see the characters from a distance, as if the camera were mounted where the wall met the ceiling. But as the movie progresses and as we learn more about the backgrounds, thoughts and prejudices of each juror, the camera gradually moves down to the level of the table and shows the individual actors in close-up.

The acting is uniformly strong, with each of the twelve characters being fairly well-developed. While a few of the references in the script are obviously dated, many of the themes are very much applicable today. I appreciated the focus on the mechanics of jury deliberations. This would be a great training film for citizens selected for jury duty!

Network

Last night I saw "Network" at the Castro Theatre with my friend Jon and his fabulous gay-married buddies Christopher and Paolo. I've seen "Network" several times, and I love it more each time!

The performances are excellent, but the best thing about this 1976 masterpiece is the sizzling-hot, ultra-brainy script written by Paddy Chayefsky. For example, take this soliloquy, delivered rapid-fire by the ravishing Faye Dunaway as morality-free TV producer Diana Christiansen:

I was married for four years, and pretended to be happy; and I had six years of analysis, and pretended to be sane. My husband ran off with his boyfriend, and I had an affair with my analyst, who told me I was the worst lay he'd ever had. I can't tell you how many men have told me what a lousy lay I am. I apparently have a masculine temperament. I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely, and can't wait to get my clothes back on and get out of that bedroom. I seem to be inept at everything except my work. I'm goddamn good at my work and so I confine myself to that. All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

Dunaway richly deserved the Oscar that she received for her performance in "Network," as did Peter Finch, whose newscaster-turned-nutty-prophet Howard Beale is frighteningly believable. This film received ten Oscar nominations in total, winning four: Dunaway and Finch for lead acting, Chayefsky for original screenplay and, oddly, Beatrice Straight for her not-even-six-minutes-long supporting performance. Straight does a fine job in her one main scene, but had I been an Academy voter that year (unlikely since I would have been 4 years old), I would have picked Piper Laurie for "Carrie."

"Network" is available from Netflix, and I don't think it loses much going from the big screen to the small; in fact, TV might be the ideal medium for this movie.

Oscar Night in Review

Highlights:

• Scott Rubin thanking his boyfriend in his Best Picture acceptance speech
  
• That gorgeous royal-blue stage floor
• The Kodak Theatre itself, so grand and glorious
• Jon Stewart giving Marketa Irglova a chance to speak

Most-deserving winners:

• Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
  
• Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
• Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
• Original Song: "Falling Slowly," Once (free download here)
  
• Makeup: La Vie en Rose
  

Best performances on the E! network's red carpet telecast:

• Julie Christie, calling for the closure of Guantanamo
• Laura Linney, rescuing poor Jennifer Garner from Garey Busey

Best-dressed:

• Marion Cotillard (yes, I'm obsessed with her)
• Cate Blanchett (stunning! I loved the color combination)
• Katherine Heigl (I admit this one grudgingly, since she's so obnoxious)
• Javier Bardem and his mom

Honorable mention:

• Anne Hathaway (great color choice)
• Ruby Dee (lovely)
• Jason Bateman (so handsome!)
  
• Ellen Page (appropriately youthful and Goth-tinged)
• Helen Mirren (didn't love it on the red carpet, but it looked amazing on stage)
• Jon McLaughlin, the cutie who sang "So Close" (subtle polka-dot on the jacket was a fun surprise; wish I could find a photo)
  

Worst-dressed:

• Kelly Preston (dressed as a summer squash)
• Jennifer Hudson (white is NOT her color)
• Keri Russell (couldn't fill her boob cups)
• George Clooney's girlfriend (shower curtain)
• Cameron Diaz (bridesmaid at a summer wedding out in the backyard)
• Rebecca Miller (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiaiaiai kill me now!)
  

Oscar Nominees: Live-Action Short Films

Last night I watched all five of the live-action (as opposed to animated) short films that are nominated for the Oscar this year. These are fictional stories; there is a separate category for documentary shorts.

I'll list the five films in order of how much I liked them, from least to most:

* Il Supplente (The Substitute) - Bizarre Italian creation in which teenagers are encouraged to torment each other and pretend to be rabid goats. A head-scratcher.

* Tanghi Argentini - Light-as-a-feather story starring Wallace Shawn's tubby, sagging brother as a Belgian accountant-ish person who sets himself up with an internet blind date, then must furiously study the tango.

* Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets) - Two bumbling petty thieves adopt a deaf-mute 8-year-old who enjoys slithering across the greasy, sticky floors of theaters to raid the purses of unsuspecting moviegoers. A tired premise, perhaps, but all three actors impress with an abundance of charm.

* The Tonto Woman - Scripted by Elmore Leonard. The storyline is predictable and a bit dull, but British actress Charlotte Asprey is unforgettable as an Old West woman dealing with physical and emotional scars.

* Om Natten (At Night) - The longest and most serious of the nominated films, this portrait of three college-aged women with terminal cancer kept me on the verge of tears for most of its 39-minute running time. Danish writer-director Christian E. Christiansen creates an intimate setting in which to explore the terror of facing premature death. The eerie, bluish-white hospital lighting intensifies both the inevitability and the utter wrongness of what is happening to these beautiful, young people.

My prediction for Oscar night: Les Mozart des Pickpockets will steal the prize.