23 Oct
David Poland has a wonderful “Lunch with David” interview up with Lars and the Real Girl director Craig Gillespie and star/sleeper awards contender Ryan Gosling. Check it out.
22 Oct
Stephen Colbert, the popular host of The Colbert Report and the author of the new bestseller I Am America (And So Can You!), announced this week that he is filing papers to become a candidate in both the Democratic and Republican primaries in his home state of South Carolina. While that was funny, this is hilarious: Colbert is currently polling in fifth place among the Democratic candidates with 2.3 percent of the vote. (He is in last place among the Republicans, with whom his character pretends to be affiliated, but in fact mocks.) As for Democrats Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, and Mike Gravel, perhaps it should be a wake-up call that your candidacy is effectively dead when you are polling behind Stephen Colbert.
22 Oct
A few days ago, I wrote about Inside ‘Inside’, the new book by Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton. Last night, Lipton appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien to hawk the book, and dropped a real gem on us from out of his past (it comes with 6:45 remaining in the clip)…
21 Oct
I finally caught up with Lars and the Real Girl (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) last night. What a fun, quirky movie, directed by Craig Gillespie, and highlighted by yet another brave performance by Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), who probably deserves to be back at the Oscars for a second year in a row. Realistically, both the film and Gosling are likely to earn Golden Globe nods in their respective Musical or Comedy categories, but will probably come up short with the more ‘serious’-minded Academy. My bigger concern is that most people will shy away from the film once they hear its basic premise, which means they’ll be missing out on something special. All I can say is don’t judge a book by its cover…
Gosling plays a sweet but troubled 27 year old who has shut himself off from the rest of the world to the greatest degree possible. He goes to work, but comes home (the garage adjacent to the home occupied by his brother and pregnant sister-in-law) and doesn’t want to have anything to do with other people—that is, until a special woman, Bianca, comes into his life and helps him to open up. None of this sounds all that odd until you consider the fact that Bianca is not a real human being, but a life-size doll.
While this may sound somewhat silly, it is never a joke to Gosling or his wonderful co-stars Emily Mortimer (Match Point) and Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James). This is not to say there aren’t a great many laughs for the audience about the absurdity of some of the situations that arise as a result of this atypical relationship—there are—but rather that the actors play their hands beautifully. (Trivia, per IMDB.com: To help Gosling stay in character, Bianca was treated like an actual person even in-between scenes, just as she is in the film—for instance, she was dressed privately in her own trailer, and was only present for scenes that she was in.)
Watching Lars, I was reminded of the wonderful film Harvey (1950), in which Jimmy Stewart gives his greatest performance as a perfectly nice, respectable man whose best friend just happens to be a six-foot tall rabbit named Harvey that nobody else, including his older sister (Josephine Hull) and her daughter (Peggy Dow), can see. From what I understand, there is nothing harder for an actor than having to act opposite nothing, since there is nothing to play off of, emotionally or physically. Bianca was no more of an acting partner than Harvey, so the fact that he pulled it off speaks volumes about Gosling’s abilities. (I was not surprised to learn that Gosling loves Harvey and drew upon Stewart’s perofrmance for his own.)
I must admit I had completely misjudged Gosling as just another disposable pretty boy after the enjoyable but fluffy The Notebook (2004), and then started to really buy into him with Half Nelson (2006), and now I’m totally sold: he is the real deal, a torch-carrier of Brando-esque intensity and naturalism, and deserves to be regarded as one of the best actors of his generation.
20 Oct
James Lipton, the eccentric host of Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio, has written Inside ‘Inside’, a book about his life and work. I love the guy and the show, so I decided to order a copy at Amazon.com, where they are going for under $20. Should be an interesting read. (Incidentally, can you believe Lipton is 81 years old?! He is still sharp as a whip and looks great for his age.)
19 Oct
The following projections are by no means scientific and are arrived at through a variety of means, including advance screenings and insights from trusted industry sources. As always, your comments are welcomed.
▲ (Positive momentum) ▼ (Negative momentum) NEW (New to the category)
BEST PICTURE
Projected Nominees
(1) There Will Be Blood (Paramount)
(2) Juno (Fox Searchlight)
(3) Atonement (Focus Features)
(4) Charlie Wilson’s War (Universal)
(5) American Gangster (Universal)
Major Threats
(6) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Think Film) ▲
(7) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)
(8) No Country for Old Men (Miramax)
(9) Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks)
(10) Gone Baby Gone (Miramax) ▲
In the Mix
(11) In the Valley of Elah (Warner Independent)
(12) Michael Clayton (Warner Brothers) ▲
(13) Once (Fox Searchlight)
(14) Into the Wild (Paramount Vantage)
(15) Lions for Lambs (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
(16) Beowulf (Warner Brothers) ▲
(17) The Kite Runner (DreamWorks) ▼
(18) The Bucket List (Warner Brothers)
(19) I’m Not There (The Weinstein Company)
(20) The Golden Compass (New Line)
(21) The Great Debaters (The Weinstein Company) NEW
On the Outside
(22) Lars and the Real Girl (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
(23) Eastern Promises (Focus Features)
(24) The Savages (Fox Searchlight)
(25) Love in the Time of Cholera (New Line)
(26) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Warner Brothers)
(27) Sicko (The Weinstein Company)
Keep in Mind
(28) 3:10 to Yuma (Lions Gate) ▲
(29) In Bloom (Magnolia)
(30) Cassandra’s Dream (The Weinstein Company)
(31) Away from Her (Lions Gate)
(32) Hairspray (New Line)
(33) Ratatouille (Disney)
(34) A Mighty Heart (Paramount Vantage)
(35) Margot at the Wedding (Paramount Classics)
(36) Lust, Caution (Focus Features)
(37) Youth Without Youth (Sony Pictures Classics) NEW
(38) Things We Lost in the Fire (Paramount) ▼
(39) Reservation Road (Focus Features)
(40) The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight)
(41) Darfur Now (Warner Independent)
(42) Waitress (Fox Searchlight)
(43) Rendition (New Line)
(44) Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (Twentieth Century-Fox)
(45) Dan in Real Life (Buena Vista)
Questionable
(46) Zodiac (Paramount)
(47) August Rush (Warner Brothers)
(48) Rails and Ties (Warner Independent)
(49) The Brave One (Warner Brothers)
(50) The Golden Age (Universal)
(51) The Namesake (Fox Searchlight)
(52) The Kingdom (Universal)
(53) Rescue Dawn (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
(54) Feast of Love (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
(55) Across the Universe (Revolution)
BEST DIRECTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
(2) Jason Reitman (Juno)
(3) Mike Nichols (Charlie Wilson’s War)
(4) Joe Wright (Atonement)
(5) Sidney Lumet (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) ▲
Major Threats
(6) Ridley Scott (American Gangster)
(7) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men)
(8) Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
(9) Tim Burton (Sweeney Todd)
(10) Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) ▲
In the Mix
(11) Paul Haggis (In the Valley of Elah)
(12) Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) ▲
(13) John Carney (Once)
(14) Sean Penn (Into the Wild)
(15) Robert Redford (Lions for Lambs)
(16) Robert Zemeckis (Beowulf) ▲
(17) Marc Forster (The Kite Runner) ▼
(18) Rob Reiner (The Bucket List)
(19) Todd Haynes (I’m Not There)
(20) Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass)
(21) Denzel Washington (The Great Debaters) NEW
On the Outside
(22) Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl)
(23) David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises)
(24) Tamara Jenkins (The Savages)
(25) Mike Newell (Love in the Time of Cholera)
(26) Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
(27) Michael Moore (Sicko)
Keep in Mind
(28) James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) ▲
(29) Vadim Perelman (In Bloom)
(30) Woody Allen (Cassandra’s Dream)
(31) Sarah Polley (Away from Her)
(32) Adam Shankman (Hairspray) NEW
(33) Brad Bird (Ratatouille)
(34) Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart)
(35) Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding)
(36) Ang Lee (Lust, Caution)
(37) Francis Ford Coppola (Youth Without Youth) NEW
(38) Suzanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire) ▼
(39) Terry George (Reservation Road)
(40) Wes Anderson (The Darjeeling Limited)
(41) Ted Braun (Darfur Now)
(42) Adrienne Shelley (Waitress)
(43) Gavin Hood (Rendition)
(44) Zach Helm (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium)
(45) Peter Hedges (Dan in Real Life)
Questionable
(46) David Fincher (Zodiac)
(47) Kirsten Sheridan (August Rush)
(48) Alison Eastwood (Rails and Ties)
(49) Neil Jordan (The Brave One)
(50) Shekhar Kapur (The Golden Age)
(51) Mira Nair (The Namesake)
(52) Peter Berg (The Kingdom)
(53) Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn)
(54) Robert Benton (Feast of Love)
(55) Julie Taymor (Across the Universe)
BEST ACTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
(2) Tom Hanks (Charlie Wilson’s War)
(3) James McAvoy (Atonement)
(4) Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah) ▲
(5) Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Major Threats
(6) George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
(7) Denzel Washington (American Gangster)
(8) Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd)
(9) John Cusack (Grace Is Gone)
(10) Jack Nicholson (The Bucket List) ▲
(11) Benicio Del Toro (Things We Lost in the Fire) ▲
(12) Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) ▲
(13) Ryan Gosling (Lars and the Real Girl)
In the Mix
(14) Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises)
(15) Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild)
(16) Denzel Washington (The Great Debaters) NEW
(17) Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men)
(18) Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Savages)
(19) Philip Seymour Hoffman (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
On the Outside
(20) Russell Crowe (3:10 to Yuma)
(21) Khalid Abdalla (The Kite Runner) ▼
(22) Joaquin Phoenix (Reservation Road)
(23) Javier Bardem (Love in the Time of Cholera)
(24) Robert Redford (Lions for Lambs)
(25) Brad Pitt (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Keep in Mind
(26) Frank Langella (Starting Out in the Evening)
(27) Glen Hansard (Once)
(28) Sam Riley (Control) NEW
(28) Tim Roth (Youth Without Youth) NEW
(29) Mark Ruffalo (Reservation Road)
(30) Kevin Bacon (Rails and Ties)
(31) Michael Cera (Superbad) NEW
Questionable
(32) Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn)
(33) Gordon Pinsett (Away from Her)
(34) Michael Caine (Sleuth) ▼
(35) Seth Rogen (Knocked Up)
(36) Don Cheadle (Talk to Me)
(37) Richard Gere (The Hoax)
(38) Steve Carell (Dan in Real Life)
(39) Tony Leung (Lust, Caution)
(40) Sean Penn (Crossing Over) NEW
(41) Samuel L. Jackson (Resurrecting the Champ) NEW
(42) Woody Harrelson (The Walker) NEW
(43) Chris Cooper (Breach) NEW
(44) Kevin Costner (Mr. Brooks) NEW
(45) Jamie Foxx (The Kingdom)
(46) Clive Owen (The Golden Age)
(47) Jake Gyllenhaal (Rendition)
BEST ACTRESS
Projected Nominees
(1) Ellen Page (Juno)
(2) Keira Knightley (Atonement)
(3) Laura Linney (The Savages)
(4) Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)
(5) Julie Christie (Away from Her) ▲
Major Threats
(6) Amy Adams (Enchanted) ▲
(7) Halle Berry (Things We Lost in the Fire) ▼
(8) Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd)
(9) Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Love in the Time of Cholera)
(10) Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart)
(11) Uma Thurman (In Bloom)
In the Mix
(12) Cate Blanchett (The Golden Age)
(13) Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding)
(14) Charlize Theron (In the Valley of Elah)
(15) Marketa Irglova (Once)
On the Outside
(16) Keri Russell (Waitress)
(17) Jodie Foster (The Brave One)
(18) Marcia Gay Harden (Rails and Ties)
(19) Julia Roberts (Charlie Wilson’s War)
Keep in Mind
(20) Wei Tang (Lust, Caution) NEW
(21) Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray) NEW
(22) Keri Russell (August Rush)
(23) Reese Witherspoon (Rendition)
(24) Juliette Binoche (Dan in Real Life)
(25) Hilary Swank (P.S., I Love You)
Questionable
(26) Katherine Heigl (Knocked Up) NEW
(27) Naomi Watts (Eastern Promises)
(28) Parker Posey (Broken English)
(29) Anne Hathaway (Becoming Jane)
(30) Ashley Judd (Bug) NEW
(31) Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan) NEW
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
(2) Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton) ▲
(3) Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War)
(4) Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood)
(5) Tom Cruise (Lions for Lambs)
Major Threats
(6) Russell Crowe (American Gangster)
(7) John Travolta (Hairspray)
(8) Ed Harris (Gone Baby Gone) ▲
(9) Alan Rickman (Sweeney Todd)
(10) Albert Finney (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead) ▲
(11) Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
In the Mix
(12) Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild)
(13) Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
(14) Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List)
(15) Philip Bosco (The Savages)
On the Outside
(16) Dustin Hoffman (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium)
(17) Ethan Hawke (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
(18) Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises)
(19) Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma)
(20) Sacha Baron Cohen (Sweeney Todd) NEW
(21) Robert Downey, Jr. (Zodiac)
Keep in Mind
(22) Liev Schreiber (Love in the Time of Cholera)
(23) Omar Metwally (Rendition)
(24) Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) ▼
(25) Adrien Brody (The Darjeeling Limited)
(26) Christian Bale (I’m Not There)
Questionable
(27) Michael Cera (Juno)
(28) Jason Bateman (Juno)
(29) Forest Whitaker (The Great Debaters)
(30) Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn)
(31) Peter Sarsgaard (Rendition)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Projected Nominees
(1) Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There)
(2) Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone) ▲
(3) Jennifer Jason Leigh (Margot at the Wedding)
(4) Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement) ▲
(5) Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)
Major Threats
(6) Meryl Streep (Lions for Lambs)
(7) Marisa Tomei (Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead)
(8) Evan Rachel Wood (In Bloom)
(9) Nicole Kidman (The Golden Compass)
(10) Jennifer Garner (Juno)
(11) Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) ▲
In the Mix
(12) Jennifer Connelly (Reservation Road)
(13) Romola Garai (Atonement)
(14) Michelle Pfeiffer (Hairspray)
(15) Kelly MacDonald (No Country for Old Men) ▼
On the Outside
(16) Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl)
(17) Hayley Atwell (Cassandra’s Dream)
(18) Angelina Jolie (Beowulf) NEW
(19) Susan Sarandon (In the Valley of Elah)
(20) Ruby Dee (American Gangster)
Keep in Mind
(21) Olympia Dukakis (Away from Her)
(22) Tabu (The Namesake)
(23) Leslie Mann (Knocked Up) NEW
(24) Catherine Keener (Into the Wild) NEW
(25) Abbie Cornish (The Golden Age)
Questionable
(26) Samantha Morton (Control) NEW
(27) Lauren Bacall (The Walker)
(28) Lili Taylor (Starting Out in the Evening) NEW
(29) Allison Janney (Juno) NEW
(30) Anjelica Huston (The Darjeeling Limited)
(31) Ashley Judd (Crossing Over) NEW
(32) Emily Blunt (The Jane Austen Book Club)
18 Oct
CBS Radio is reporting that Joey Bishop, the last surviving member of ‘The Rat Pack,’ has died at the age of 89. This (along with Deborah Kerr) makes two biggies in a day… there is a weird trend that they tend to drop in threes, so check back again…
18 Oct
One of film’s most famous scenes: Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity (1953)
Deborah Kerr, the classy Scottish redhead and six-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress who starred in several of the most beloved motion pictures of all-time, has died at the age of eighty-six. She had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for the past several years.
Kerr is perhaps most famous for her role in From Here to Eternity (1953), in which she locked lips with Burt Lancaster on the beach as the waves roll past them in a scene rather risque for its time (and her proper image), as well as her charming romantic performances in The King and I (1956, opposite Yul Brynner) and An Affair to Remember (1957, opposite Cary Grant). Some, however, will argue that she did her best work in the United Kingdom for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, who cast her in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) and Black Narcissus (1947), which are both now regarded as classics.
Kerr earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for Edward, My Son (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953), The King and I (1956), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), Separate Tables (1958), and The Sundowners (1960). She never won outright, but received an Honorary Oscar in 1994 recognizing her as “An artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline, and elegance.”
Perhaps she and Cary Grant have finally met up above the Empire State Building, after all.
UPDATE (2:53pm): Per an email I just received from a publicist Turner Classic Movies, TCM will pre-empt its regularly scheduled programming on Sunday evening to pay special tribute to Deborah Kerr with a double-feature of her films. At 8pm, it will air From Here to Eternity (1953), in which she stars as a lonely military wife who seeks happiness through an illicit affair, and at 10:15pm, it will air Separate Tables (1958), in which she plays a spinster completely dominated by her mother while staying at an English seaside resort.
18 Oct
16 Oct
Last night, I attended the Boston premiere of Gone Baby Gone (Miramax, 10/19) and its after-party at Felt, one of Beantown’s nicest lounges. The film, which is a gritty drama about the search for a missing child in Boston, marks the feature directorial debut of Ben Affleck, who cast his younger brother Casey Affleck in the leading role. Michelle Monaghan, Amy Ryan, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, John Ashton, Titus Welliver, and Morgan Freeman also star.
Before I go any further, let me give you the bottom line: anyone who has ever underestimated Ben Affleck should look out—he has turned out a film that is unquestionably one of the very best of the year.
Miramax president Daniel Battsek opened the evening with some general remarks. Ben Affleck then introduced/thanked the large number of cast, crew, friends, and family in attendance—they included Casey Affleck; Amy Ryan; his wife, the actress Jennifer Garner (soon to appear in Juno); his best friend, the actor Matt Damon; author Dennis Lehane, who wrote the novel upon which this film (and Mystic River) was based; and Aaron Stockard, who adapted the novel into a screenplay. Ben also had the awkward job of informing a few people in attendance who expected to see themselves on the big screen that they he was forced to cut them out at the last minute–all seemed to take it in good humor.
I will have more to say about the film soon—things are hectic now and I don’t want to shortchange it by doing a quick write-up. I will, however, say this:
If I was filling out an Oscar ballot today, this film would have my vote for a Best Picture nomination. There are some big questions, however, about how Academy members will read the film:
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