Oscars 2008 Pre-game Shenanigans

Right. I said at the time that I wish the whole movie had been about Tilda Swinton's quiet compromises and Sydney Pollack reaction shots. But American films often focus on the wrong characters (I wish The Departed had concentrated on Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen).

Atonement fumbles its meta thing (ie, its reason for being) so badly it does NOT rise to the level of even The English Patient, Out of Africa etc.

Ugh, Michael Clayton is the worst. Stylelessness + idiotic content = tensionless middlebrow appeal

-- Eric H., Wednesday, 20 February 2008 01:32 (13 hours ago) Bookmark Link

What does "middlebrow" mean here? Is stylelessness and idiotic content something known to be particularly appealing to university-educated busy people who aren't that into film?

Stephanie Zancharek has no patience for DDL's mannerisms in There Will Be Blood:

The tragedy of Day-Lewis' performance in "There Will Be Blood" is that it defies the naturalism that made him a great actor -- and I use the word "great" unequivocally -- in the first place, as if he'd decided that naturalism is boring, that it no longer presents a challenge for him. Day-Lewis' Daniel Plainview is of a piece with Bill the Butcher, the character he played in Martin Scorsese's 2002 epic mess "Gangs of New York." Both performances are stuffed with exaggerated mannerisms and gimmickry: Day-Lewis struts through "Gangs" like a circus stilt-walker, as if, by design, he wants to seem larger than life. In both roles, he favors tortured locutions over simple declarativeness -- his "Gangs" accent is a thick, sludgy, semi-invented Noo Yawkese, probably calculated to suggest the savagery, the unvarnished manners, of a thug in old New York.

But do those choices tell us anything specific, anything that would otherwise be unknowable, about the inner lives of these characters? When I think of Daniel Plainvew and Bill the Butcher, I see technique, a set of artful schematics. When I think of the scruffy blond scrubber, Johnny, in "My Beautiful Laundrette" (1985), or the wheelchair-bound artist and writer Christy Brown in "My Left Foot" (1989), or the unjustly imprisoned Gerry Conlan in "In the Name of the Father" (1993), or Danny Flynn, the fighter with an IRA past in "The Boxer" (1997), I see people who live on the screen with so much clarity and vitality that the last thing I'm thinking of are the actorish smoke and mirrors it may have taken to put them there. In those performances -- and in numerous others, like those in "The Age of Innocence" (1993), "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988) and, most recently, "The Ballad of Jack and Rose" (2005), directed by Day-Lewis' wife, Rebecca Miller -- Day-Lewis cuts to the truth of his characters' lives by challenging us. There's no challenge in Daniel Plainview: No moment where we fear, against our better judgment, that we might have some confusing, conflicting emotions for him.

ie, tailormade for gold statues. With some fava beans and a nice chianti.

Middlebrow meaning lack of aspirations to be anything other than tasteful.

I know it's easier to bash films people are talking about than it is to give a shit one way or the other about movies no one cares about these days, but Morbs, have you tried to actually watch Out of Africa lately? What a nothing film that one is. I'd rather was Michael Clayton 10 times in a row.

well, of course I haven't. I wouldn't even try to watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon today.

... and y'know, as Isak Dinesen films go, Babette's Feast > Out of Africa. At least then.

How exactly did Cate Blanchett get restored to favorite in Supp Actress? I assumed her chances tanked with (the entirely foreseeable)mainstream rejection of I'm Not there, but most everyone's picking her ro "repeat." Is she the new Dianne Wiest/Jason Robards?

she'll play Paul Muni in an upcoming biopic.

Chris Orr's picks.

Who ought to win: Joel and Ethan Coen. (If not for the disastrous finale of There Will Be Blood, I might go the other way on this.)

Amy Ryan is on The Wire?

Weird, I thought a lot more people thought the finale to No Country was disastrous than Blood's.

Of course, if we were going strictly by the last minutes of every film, then give the award to Atonement.

Hey, Holbrook fans: didjda read this EW interview? It's cute.

I don't see Blood winning both cinematog & a.d. (or maybe either), but otherwise I think tehse match mine:

http://www.thefilmexperience.net/Awards/2007/tally.html

Yeah, Amy Ryan is in season 2 and back in a few season 4 eps, for sure (can't remember if she showed up in between).

(I'm not watching season 5 yet but it seems like she'd have a pretty big role?)

For the record, I'm still seeing supporting actress as a Dee/Ryan showdown, but grudgingly admit that Clayton prolly has to win something and Swinton's category is the softest.

most yielding

I see Ed is going Swinton... haha, I'm Not There is "possibly more obnoxious than American Gangster," that guy is getting a talking-to when I finally meet him...

I'm pretty sure I remember him saying that movie would've been on his list of "worsts" if they would have done them this year.

YES. Mr. 29 Palms!

I hated that one too.

anyone read EW's usual interviews with anonymous insider voters? Not a single one of the four voted for Christie or Blanchett.

Yeah, and all six voted for Bardem too, so :( for Holbrook.

i'm taking holbrook (mostly because i don't want bardem to win, i haven't even seen into the wild), and blanchett for similarly rah-rah reasons.

well, are these individuals reliable bellwethers? Like, the Baldwin brothers?

Holbrook's nomination is honor enough; before this role he'd become to me exactly what he was when I was 7 years old: Mark Twain (not even Deep Throat).

Can't see the Academy going Cotillard/Cate; do they want bio-melodramas or freewheeling meditations?

I really don't see lack-of-Dylan-fandom being the explanation for ppl who dislike/hate INT; I mostly liked Velvet Goldmine and never really got (retrospectively) the faggy glam thing...

Gad, I'd no idea Holbrook was in "Evening Shade."

(I'm not watching season 5 yet but it seems like she'd have a pretty big role?)

not really, she's just in the background. underutilized (i love her), but the wire has so many good people that everybody ends up underutilized.

help me fill out my pool ballot. sound editing/mixing? should i just assume these are going to no country?

consensus seems to be that Bourne may well win one of those.

(also see Slant & FilmExperience links above)

foreign language? i haven't seen any of these. counterfeiters has some buzz i guess.

don't bet vs Nazis

i guess it helps that it's austrian, so they don't have to give it to two german films in a row.

ok i went ahead and put bardem. sigh. (will be kicking myself if hh pulls it out.) sticking with cate, though, on general principles.

shitload of "best oscars ever" guff in UK press today. will be so glad for it all to be over. wonder if 'semi pro' and 'vantage point' will get a look-in next year. guess not.

A friend insists Cotillard will win, and maybe in another year she might since the role is pure Oscar bait (playing a real person, she cries, screams, lunges across the room).

(It will be Dee and not Swinton I mark on my personal pool ballot, btw.)

Not on uk tv?

apparently not! i think it might be on sky?

I can only seem to find "red carpet coverage" on E, which we don't get.

weird

it is really. guess the beeb was priced out, and to be fair no-one watches it anyway -- snug in that popular 2am on monday morning slot.

You'd think someone would at least pick it up to show Monday night, like itv(?) did w the grammys. I'd watch it.

i searched radiotimes.com for 'oscar' and 'academy' and got jack.

it's on sky premier pay-for-view and sky one tomorrow night. really looking forward to the clips on the jonathan ross show*

isn't it on Sky Movies? It was last year.

uh, xpost.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

mmm chocolate swirl!

Since (soon)this is no longer pre-game, shouldn't there be a show/postmortem thread?

OSCARTOPSY 2008