AND THE WINNER IS…

What… a… dumbass. (She doesn’t sound like a Mensa candidate either…)

Chicago’s magnificent “White City,” constructed exclusively for the 1893 World’s Fair

It’s a humbling, eye-opening moment when you first realize that your life on Earth amounts to a blip in time. It’s also something of a liberating experience, because it has the power to awaken your curiosity—to make events in history that may have previously seemed aeons ago suddenly seem not so out of reach, and to make long dead people, forgotten places, and bygone eras suddenly seem very much alive.

This happened to me in my teens when I first realized that my grandmother, with whom I was close, was born in 1915, the same year as the first feature-length motion picture. It occurred to me that if my grandmother was still alive and well, as were people even older than her, then the movies themselves really weren’t as old as I had regarded them, and many of the people who helped to shape them might still be accessible to share their memories. This spurred me to begin interviewing key figures from the movies’ silent era through the present, and is the basis for my ongoing book project and my life’s work: to help others (especially young people) realize that one cannot begin to fully understand movies of the present without excavating, analyzing, dissecting, and appreciating movies of the past. You might call this “reclaiming history.”

I mention all this because I feel particular affection for other projects—regardless of their subject matter—that do this well. One that I strongly recommend is The Devil in the White City (Vintage, 2004), a best-selling book by Erik Larson that keeps you on the edge of your seat like a great novel, even thought it is, in fact, a factual re-telling of the events surrounding the 1893 World’s Fair (or Columbian Exposition) in Chicago. Because of this text, millions of people now know that modern-day America’s infatuation with pop-culture and escapist entertainment came not out of nowhere, but rather out of a concerted national effort to best the previous World’s Fair, the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Consider some of the seeds that were planted in Chicago:

• One of the thousands of carpenters who helped to construct the fairgrounds was Elias Disney, whose descriptions of its palatial structures so captured the imagination of his young son Walt that he grew up to build the similar-looking Disneyland and Disney World
• The fair’s music director was Chicago-based music teacher Florenz Ziegfeld Sr., who dispatched his 24-year-old son to Europe to recruit musical talent, only to see Florenz Jr. return with “The World’s Strongest Man,” the first of many publicity stunts that would be orchestrated by the future Broadway showman
  
• The 38-year-old editor of Youth’s Companion magazine thought it would be a fitting tribute if all of America’s schoolchildren collectively paid tribute to their nation on the morning of the fair’s dedication; Francis J. Bellamy’s recitation, in its original incarnation, began, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands,” and is repeated to this day
• The fair’s opening day’s keynote speaker was President Grover Cleveland, who gave a short speech and then leaned over a small table, turned a gold key, and in so doing unleashed currents of electricity that sent water from a massive fountain one hundred feet into the air and illuminated over 100,000 incandescent lamps across the fairgrounds, astonishing masses of people who had never before seen light from anything but the Sun or a candle, and paving the way for spectacles to come like the Las Vegas strip and the Great White Way
• The fair needed to draw massive numbers of visitors in order to turn a profit, but it lacked a major attraction (like Paris’ Eiffel Tower, which had been erected specifically for the Exposition Universelle) and appeared destined to become a financial failure that would bring shame upon America until organizers received an idea that seemed crazy enough to work; indeed, 34-year-old George Washington Gale Ferris’ massive Ferris Wheel put the fair in the black, and served as the central amusement at Coney Island and other carnival-type settings for decades to come
• Among the millions to pass through the fair’s gates was 37-year-old writer L. Frank Baum, who was so taken with the world-within-a-world he observed that he used it as his model for the title city of his most successful novel, which was published seven years later and titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• And the list goes on, though I will not… read the book!
  

In addition to the World’s Fair of 1893, there were a confluence of other events in the 1890s that helped to shape life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Among them: in 1892, the first automated telephone switchboard was invented; in 1895, movies were projected to audiences for the first time, and the first professional American football game was played; and in 1899, the first magnetic sound recording paved the way for the phonograph, the vinyl record, audio cassette, and VHS. The one that seems most fitting for discussion now, though, occurred in 1896, the first modern Olympic games, which also happens to be subject of the most recent historical reclamation project to impress me. More on that shortly…

Who’d a thunk that our little community of film industry bloggers carried so much weight?! As referenced in the previous post, David “The Carpetbagger“ Carr is getting a lot of national media attention lately following the release of his soon-to-be-best-selling memoir The Night of the Gun—he appeared on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and NPR’s Fresh Air on Tuesday, Charlie Rose on Thursday, and will be on NPR’s On the Media on Saturday and CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday. But he is not alone! Jeff Wells of Hollywood-Elsewhere inflamed the conservative community last week with a post that appeared, to some, to suggest that the vocally-conservative actor Jon Voight should be blacklisted, which earned him an invitation to appear before the altar of Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor…

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates

Congratulations to my friend and fellow awards blogger David Carr (aka “The Carpetbagger“) of the New York Times, whose book The Night of the Gun (Simon & Schuster) debuted this week to widespread acclaim. In the text, Carr revisits and investigates his painful past as a crack-addicted husband and father with not only the smart and witty prose with which regular readers of his work are already familiar, but also with harrowing honesty and candor that has prompted numerous reviewers to hail it as the savior of the memoir literary genre. One of them, New York Observer critic Leon Neyfakh, writes, “After years of abuse, the memoir has found its white knight, galloping in to show how a personal story can be engrossing, shocking, and true.”

Carr decided to research his former life as he would any other story. (“There was That Guy, a dynamo of hilarity and then misery,” he writes, “and then there is This Guy, the one with a family, a house, and a good job as a reporter and columnist for the New York Times. Connecting the two will take a lot more than typing.”) He resolved to discover the full truth—much of which he had misremembered, forgotten, or repressed—no matter how painful or unflattering it might be, and spent the next three years tracking down and conducting on-camera interviews with the people he knew and hurt during those darker days. The product of the research is 400 pages that lays bare his soul, and the product of the journey that it chronicles is a new person… a gravely-voiced, drug-free family man, and a battle-tested, fearless journalist who ranks among the finest of his profession.

Carr was a guest on last night’s installment of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central), which you can watch below:

Lewis Black is one of the funniest guys in America. His “Back in Black” social commentary segments on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) are both hilarious and smart, and his standup routines are as funny as any, as I was lucky enough to witness in-person when he performed at the Mohegan Sun Resort & Casino in Connecticut a few years ago. Lately, he’s been targeting blogs, and though I unashamedly operate one I still think the following remark of his, passed along to me by a friend, is spot-on and hilarious:

“Blogging is like masturbating into a mirror while you videotape yourself so you can watch it later while masturbating.”

Check out this video for more of his commentary on writing/blogging:

Michael Sheen (The Queen) and Frank Langella (Starting Out in the Evening) star
in Ron Howard‘s adaptation of the Broadway hit Frost/Nixon (Universal, 12/5).

PREFACE: Thank you for checking out our first charts, which will be updated frequently, and eventually weekly. I arrive at them by weighing a number of considerations: screenings (some of which I have discussed on the site, others of which I cannot yet); conversations with industry sources (publicists, managers, agents, and even some talent); and good-old-fashioned research (studying source materials, scripts, casts/crews, studio slates, release dates, and more). I also must admit what anyone who is posting projections at this early date should: a lot of it is also pure speculation. Next month’s Toronto Film Festival will afford us the opportunity to not only see several of these films, but also to see how they play before general and industry audiences, which should help us weed out some of the wannabes from the real contenders. Until then, I think this is as good a starting point as any, although I also encourage you to check out the initial thoughts of my distinguished fellow bloggers Poland, Wells, and Tapley for different perspectives. I think we all would emphasize that there will inevitably be some major shifts between our first and final projections—heck, most of us hadn’t even heard of a little movie called Juno at this point last year!—but that we do this anyway because (a) it’s fun and (b) it provides people with a canon of films and performances worthy of their attention. Anyway, I look forward to reading your thoughts in the ‘Comments’ section at the end of the post!

BEST PICTURE
Projected Nominees
(1) Frost/Nixon (Universal, 12/5)
(2) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount, 12/19, trailer)
(3) Australia (Fox, 11/14, trailer)
(4) Revolutionary Road (Paramount Vantage, 12/26)
(5) The Soloist (DreamWorks, 11/21)
Major Threats
(6) Milk (Focus, 12/5)
(7) Doubt (Miramax, 10/10)
(8) Body of Lies (Warner Brothers, 10/10, trailer)
(9) Changeling (Universal, 10/31, clip)
(10) The Road (M-G-M, 11/26)
(11) WALL-E (Disney, 6/27, trailer)
In the Mix
(12) Seven Pounds (Columbia, 12/19)
(13) Miracle at St. Anna (Touchstone, 9/26, trailer)
(14) Defiance (Paramount Vantage, 12/12, trailer)
(15) Happy-Go-Lucky (Miramax, 9/26, trailer)
(16) Gran Torino (Warner Brothers, 12/25)
On the Outside
(17) The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers, 7/18, trailer)
(18) Brothers (M-G-M, 12/4)
(19) The Secret Life of Bees (Fox Searchlight, 10/17, clip)
(20) Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics, TBA, trailer)
(21) The Duchess (Paramount Vantage, 9/19, trailer)
(22) The Other Man (Ealing, 12/25)
(23) Appaloosa (New Line, 9/19, trailer)
(24) Synechdoche, New York (Sony Pictures Classics, 10/TBA, clip)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) The Reader (Weinstein Company, TBA)
(TBA) Che (TBA, TBA, trailer)
(TBA) Nothing But the Truth (TBA, TBA)
(TBA) The Young Victoria (TBA, TBA)

BEST DIRECTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon)
(2) David Fincher (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
(3) Baz Luhrmann (Australia)
(4) Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road)
(5) Joe Wright (The Soloist)
Major Threats
(6) Gus Van Sant (Milk)
(7) Ridley Scott (Body of Lies)
(8) John Patrick Shanley (Doubt)
(9) Clint Eastwood (Changeling)
(10) John Hillcoat (The Road)
(11) Andrew Stanton (WALL-E)
In the Mix
(12) Gabriele Muccino (Seven Pounds)
(13) Spike Lee (Miracle at St. Anna)
(14) Edward Zwick (Defiance)
(15) Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)
(16) Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
On the Outside
(17) Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)
(18) Jim Sheridan (Brothers)
(19) Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Secret Life of Bees)
(20) Jonathan Demme (Rachel Getting Married)
(21) Saul Dibb (The Duchess)
(22) Richard Eyre (The Other Man)
(23) Ed Harris (Appaloosa)
(24) Charlie Kaufman (Synechdoche, New York)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Stephen Daldry (The Reader)
(TBA) Steven Soderbergh (Che)
(TBA) Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth)
(TBA) Jean-Marc Vallee (The Young Victoria)

BEST ACTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
(2) Sean Penn (Milk)
(3) Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
(4) Jamie Foxx (The Soloist)
(5) Hugh Jackman (Australia)
Major Threats
(6) Leonardo DiCapro (Revolutionary Road; also Body of Lies)
(7) Viggo Mortensen (The Road; also Appaloosa)
(8) Will Smith (Seven Pounds)
(9) Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt; also Synechdoche, New York)
(10) Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon)
(11) Richard Jenkins (The Visitor)
In the Mix
(12) Derek Luke (Miracle of St. Anna)
(13) Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino)
(14) Liam Neeson (The Other Man)
On the Outside
(15) Daniel Craig (Defiance)
(16) Jake Gyllenhaal (Brothers)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Benicio Del Toro (Che)
(TBA) Ralph Fiennes (The Reader)

BEST ACTRESS
Projected Nominees
(1) Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)
(2) Meryl Streep (Doubt)
(3) Nicole Kidman (Australia)
(4) Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
(5) Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Major Threats
(6) Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)
(7) Melissa Leo (Frozen River)
(8) Kristin Scott Thomas (I’ve Loved You So Long)
(9) Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
(10) Keira Knightley (The Duchess)
In the Mix
(11) Dakota Fanning (The Secret Life of Bees)
(12) Laura Linney (The Other Man)
On the Outside
(13) Renee Zellweger (Appaloosa)
(14) Sophie Okonedo (Skin)
(15) Ziyi Zhang (Mei Lanfang)
(16) Julianne Moore (Blindness)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Kate Winslet (The Reader)
(TBA) Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria)
(TBA) Kate Beckinsale (Nothing But the Truth)
(TBA) Michelle Monaghan (Trucker)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Projected Nominees
(1) Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
(2) Robert Downey, Jr. (The Soloist)
(3) Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road)
(4) Russell Crowe (Body of Lies)
(5) Brandon Walters (Australia)
Major Threats
(6) Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
(7) Josh Brolin (Milk)
(8) Jason Butler Harner (Changeling)
In the Mix
(9) Robert Duvall (The Road)
(10) Jeremy Irons (Appaloosa)
(11) Liev Schreiber (Brothers; or Defiance)
(12) Jamie Bell (Defiance)
(13) Mark Strong (Body of Lies)
On the Outside
(14) John Malkovich (Changeling)
(15) Woody Harrelson (Seven Pounds)
(16) James Franco (Milk)
(17) Antonio Banderas (The Other Man)
(18) Richard Dreyfuss (W.)
(19) Tobey Maguire (Brothers)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Alan Alda (Nothing But the Truth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Projected Nominees
(1) Catherine Keener (The Soloist)
(2) Kathy Bates (Revolutionary Road)
(3) Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
(4) Carice van Houten (Body of Lies)
(5) Amy Adams (Doubt)
Major Threats
(6) Viola Davis (Doubt)
(7) Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
(8) Queen Latifah (The Secret Life of Bees)
In the Mix
(9) Rosario Dawson (Seven Pounds)
(10) Rosemary DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married)
On the Outside
(11) Rachel Weisz (The Brothers Bloom)
(12) Charlize Theron (The Road)
(13) Charlotte Rampling (The Duchess)
(14) Romola Garai (The Other Man)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Vera Farmiga (Nothing But the Truth)
(TBA) Miranda Richardson (The Young Victoria)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Projected Nominees
(1) Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon)
(2) Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
(3) Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road)
(4) John Michael Shanley (Doubt)
(5) William Monahan (Body of Lies)
Major Threats
(6) Joe Penhall (The Road)
(7) James McBride (Miracle of St. Anna)
(8) Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Secret Life of Bees)
In the Mix
(9) Clayton Frohman, Edward Zwick (Defiance)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) David Hare (The Reader)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Projected Nominees
(1) Susannah Grant (The Soloist)
(2) Dustin Lance Black (Milk)
(3) J. Michael Straczinski (Changeling)
(4) Andrew Stanton (WALL-E)
(5) Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Major Threats
(6) Baz Luhrmann, Stuart Beattie (Australia)
(7) Grant Nieporte (Seven Pounds)
(8) Tom McCarthy (The Visitor)
In the Mix
(9) Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (Burn After Reading)
(10) Charlie Kaufman (Synechdoche, New York)
(11) Courtney Hunt (Frozen River)
Awaiting Further Information
(TBA) Peter Buchman, Steven Soderbergh (Che)
(TBA) Rod Lurie (Nothing But the Truth)

Misty Upham and Melissa Leo, unlikely partners in Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics, 8/1)

After spending Sunday visiting with friends in New York City, I stayed over at a beautiful apartment near Lincoln Center, and then woke up early intending to hit the road back to Connecticut. On my way out the door in the morning, though, I decided to prolong my visit for a few hours after noticing that playing across the street at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas was Frozen River (Sony Pictures Classics, 8/1), the film that won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Drama at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, got picked up there for distribution, and went into limited release last Friday. Thanks to excellent reviews from both coasts (check out the raves from the Los Angeles Times and New York Times) and also to its role in an online controversy (Thelma Adams’ profile of star Melissa Leo touched off an impassioned back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth-and-back between AwardsDaily and GoldDerby, the original two Oscar blogs), the film has been generating quite a lot of media attention lately, so I plopped down $11 and joined a bunch of octogenarians for an 11:15am screening to see for myself what all the fuss is about! I have no regrets.

If one tries to boil down and describe the plot of Frozen River—the first feature film written and directed by Courtney Hunt, who adapted it from a 15-minute short, featuring the same principal cast, that debuted at the New York Film Festival in 2004—it can sound a bit far-fetched. For the sake of brevity, let’s just call it a less glossy, more believable version of television’s popular show Weeds (Showtime, 2005-present)—a very solid character study, with a rare central role that calls for a strong woman, and an unspoken but unmistakable central theme that runs throughout its various storylines: the devolution of the American dream in present-day America. The film takes on a whole retinue of hot-button issues that are currently impacting the everyday lives of many average, hard-working Americans like Leo’s Ray Eddy, who toils in a dead-end job as a cashier at a local dollar store: the challenges of raising children in single-parent families; the inability of working-class people to make ends meet even when they’re doing everything they’re supposed to be doing; the ongoing housing crisis; prohibitive prices at the gas pump; the widespread addiction to gambling that has plagued many who see no other hope of improving their situations; racial and ethnic tensions; and, yes, even illegal immigration, which some blame for many of the aforementioned issues, but without which this country might be unable to function. Whereas most films that take on such an ambitious slate of issues fall victim to partisanship, preachiness, and cliches, this one manages to seamlessly and subtly interweave them in a diplomatic way that provokes thoughts long after the end credits finish rolling.

The film is a long overdue showcase for Leo, as a recent New York Times profile of the veteran character actress duly notes, and as audiences can discern from the very first shot of the film. The camera offers an almost uncomfortably long and revealing close-up of Leo’s face, sans makeup, and it is immediately clear that disappointment is nothing new to Ray Eddy, but also something that never gets old. For people like Ray, one disappointment leads to another, so that after a while it becomes nearly impossible to break out of the cycle. And yet, despite everything that befalls Ray, or that she herself invites, and despite the moments of great sadness that pervade the film, I believe that Frozen River ultimately offers a message of hope for a better future, if not for oneself then for one’s children; it’s the single most elemental aspect of the American dream, and it’s what gets someone like Ray up in the morning, even in the face of humiliation. (She keeps promising her children a double-wide trailer to replace their uninsulated smaller version, but each time it arrives she fails to make payment and it is driven away; she scrapes together enough to give her kids lunch money, but some days can only offer popcorn and Tang for breakfast; she aspires to buy them the presents they desire for Christmas, but has neither the time nor the resources to do so; her boss promised she would be promoted after six months of work, but she’s been on the job for two years without one, and her teenage son bets her that he can earn more money if she’d let him take on a job; and the list goes on.)

One last point: Frozen River looks a lot like Affliction (1997) and A Simple Plan (1998), and Leo’s character is a close relative of Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) and Michelle Monaghan in Trucker (2008), but from the very first shot the actress and film reminded me most of Tommy Lee Jones in last year’s In the Valley of Elah (2007). Initially, this was simply because Leo’s weathered and yet still handsome face struck me as the female equivalent of Tommy Lee Jones’, as best illustrated in Elah, but the similarities continue. Also, like Jones’ Hank Deerfield, Leo’s Ray Eddy is a small-town American who stumbles into something much bigger than she ever intended, and nevertheless faces it fearlessly, defiantly, and selflessly out of love for her child(ren). Finally, Elah impressed most critics (72% approval on Rotten Tomatoes), turned off a few (especially the residual Crash-era haters of director Paul Haggis), and never found much of an audience among the general public (many said this was because all Iraq-related movies were bound to fail, but I think it was more because it was a serious, small movie without a bankable star), each of which I believe is likely to recur with Frozen River. What supporters of the film and of Leo can hold out hope for is that one other thing that happened to Elah will repeat itself: months after buzz about the film had died down, the raw performance of its veteran star still endured in the minds of enough voters to generate a surprise but well-deserved Oscar nomination. Will the ice hold long enough for Leo to pull off the same result? It’s a very real possibility.

Thoughts and prayers with Morgan Freeman, one of the greatest actors of our time and arguably the greatest black actor of all-time, who was seriously injured in a car accident late last night. Details as they come in…

• The accident occurred on Highway 32 near Ruleville, Mississippi last night around 11:30pm
• Freeman was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima registered to his female passenger, DeMaris Meyer; it remains unclear why Freeman was driving the vehicle (no Driving Miss Meyer jokes, please)
• The car veered off the road, went airborne, and flipped several times, according to witnesses
• There are uncomfirmed reports that the accident occurred after the 71-year-old actor fell asleep at the wheel; according to Sgt. Ben Williams of the Mississippi Highway Patrol, “There is no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved”
  
• Both the driver and passenger were wearing seatbelts
• Emergency responders were forced to use Jaws-of-Life to cut Freeman out of the wreckage and then had him airlifted to the Memphis Regional Medical Center, where he is currently being treated
• Freeman was conscious during the rescue effort, “even talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point,” according to Clay McFerrin, the editor of a Charleston, Mississippi newspaper
• According to McFerrin, several bystanders (true scum of the Earth) descended upon the scene of the accident shortly after it occurred and attempted to take photographs of Freeman, to which the actor good-naturedly chided them, “No freebies, no freebies.”
  
• Sources say that Freeman’s injuries are extremely serious—his rep tells TMZ that he broke his arm and shoulder, while another source reports that he appears to have “broken several ribs and injured his knee”—but not life-threatening

Other assorted thoughts/factoids…

• Prior to this summer, Freeman’s most recent film in theaters was The Bucket List (Warner Brothers, 12/25/07), in which he and Jack Nicholson portrayed terminal cancer patients preparing for their death. While doing publicity for the film in February, Freeman was asked by The Independent if he feared death, and responded, “I don’t fear death at all. What I fear is how I die. I don’t want to be embarassed. That’s it.”
• This summer, Freeman appeared in two blockbuster hits, Wanted (Universal, 6/27) and The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers, 7/18), the latter of which is continuing to break box-office records weeks after its release. There is already rampant Internet discussion from both bloggers and legitimate reporters that Freeman’s accident, following in the footsteps of the tragic death of Dark Knight crew member Conway Wickliffe during filming and the death of supporting star Heath Ledger shortly after it ended, as well as the arrest of its star Christian Bale the week after the film’s release, proves a “Dark Knight curse.”
• Freeman has given an astounding number of extraordinary screen performances in important films, including: Street Smart (1987, Best Supporting Actor nomination), Best Picture winner Driving Miss Daisy (1989, Best Actor nomination), Glory (1989), Best Picture winner Unforgiven (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994, Best Actor nomination), Se7en (1995), Amistad (1997), Best Picture winner Million Dollar Baby (2004, Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor), and Gone Baby Gone (2007).
• His trademark/calling card is his deep, barrelly voice, which has helped to narrate and add dignity and weightiness to many films, documentaries, and specials—including The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The War of the Worlds (2005), and March of the Penguins (2005), among others—and earned him the nicknames “The Voice of God” and “Mr. Gravitas.” He actually portrayed God in Bruce Almighty (2003) and its unfortunate sequel Evan Almighty (2007).
• This summer, Freeman appeared on Broadway in a highly-acclaimed incarnation of The Country Girl.
  

The Nick and Nora that I know!

This week saw the release of trailers for two films that will debut at the Toronto Film Festival in September and then hit theaters nationwide on the same day in October: Rachel Getting Married (Sony Pictures Classics, 10/3, trailer), the Jonathan Demme-directed family drama starring Anne Hathaway, and Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Sony, 10/3, trailer), which stars Michael Cera opposite Kat Dennings, who is currently best known for playing Catherine Keener’s daughter in The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005). Both trailers are well done and worth a look.

Just one more thing, in case your mind works at all like mine: when I saw the names Nick and Norah in the second movie’s title, I immediately wondered—and worried—whether or not it had anything to do with the legendary 1930s screen couple Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) Charles of The Thin Man series. I checked it out and here’s the deal: the film itself has nothing to do with the martini-sipping duo… but the choice to pair the two names may well be a wink-wink tribute to them by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, the authors of the script’s source novel. The one hitch in that theory is that Loy was Nora, without an ‘h,’ whereas Dennings is Norah, with an ‘h,’ although that may just be a result of carelessness or merely adopting the more common modern day spelling (think NBC’s Norah O’Donnell or singer Norah Jones). Okay, okay, enough already…

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