comment #1

Eloi Wrath says ...

The fact that his head resembles a geriatric testicle in this film will work against him come awards-season.

comment #2

austin111 says ...

The fact that you, Eloi, are a geriatric testicle, kinda works against you.

comment #3

Eloi Wrath says ...

I'm not geriatric. Otherwise you'd be spot on.

comment #4

Colin says ...

I'm sorry but knowing how the Academy is this is not Leo's year. Pitt and Clooney are liked by just about everyone and since Clooney has his acting Oscar already, I can't see it not going to Pitt.

comment #5

BobbyLupo says ...

If they're picking Clooney as the favorite as of right now, then I can tell you one thing -- Clooney definitely won't win. Of course, I'm not particularly convinced Dicaprio will even be nominated.

comment #6

Sams says ...

If Pitt plays it right he should win if his main rival is Clooney. He's more deserving than Bullock was and Moneyball >>> Blind SIde. DiCaprio was at his affected and over-wrought best in the J Edgar trailer and it didn't look like an Oscar-worthy performance.

comment #7

JD says ...

The dark horse for the fifth slot is definitely (the very deserving) Michael Shannon for Take Shelter. Make it happen, Sony Pictures Classics!

comment #8

Gabe@ThePlaylist says ...

I would hope the overfamiliarity of DiCaprio, Clooney, etc. means that the more times we say Shannon's name, the more likely it will come true. Performance of the year.

comment #9

vivianne says ...

The fact that his head resembles a geriatric testicle in this film will work against him come awards-season.

comment #10

kimiko says ...

I'm not particularly convinced Dicaprio will even be nominated.DiCaprio was at his affected and over-wrought best in the J Edgar trailer and it didn't look like an Oscar-worthy performance.

comment #11

Alboone says ...

I don't know about this 'Edgar' flick. That trailer just did not do it for me. As I said before he looks like he's straining to get a performance across. But if Wells is over the moon about it then I'll give it a begrudging shot.

comment #12

mollieanne says ...

So typical to expect this kind of statement from Jeff Wells, he has been on Leo case since Titanic, as Jeff never liked this actor. So I am not surprised. I will see this film, as a long time fan of Dicaprio, he has never failed me as an actor. Its hard to judge on basis of a trailer, yes I am a bit in shock in how he looks but didn't Brad Pitt also have not long ago, an aging process film too and if I recall something Benjamin Button, everyone was praising it. Funny how people like to go on a anti campaign against Leonardo when it comes to Oscar time, and yet he was nominated 3 times in previous years. So many directors want to work with him, and love working with him.

comment #13

Chase Kahn says ...

I don't understand why anybody would be foaming at the mouth to see a damn Clint Eastwood film.

comment #14

DiscoNap says ...

Could we please talk up Brendan Gleeson for now, just while we're in that phase where we create heat by trying to assess it?

comment #15

Los Bostonian says ...

I believe Jeff championed DiCaprio's performance in The Departed and thought he probably would have won The Oscar had he been nominated for that film and not Blood Diamond.

DiCaprio is a very solid actor, but more than anything he is a terrific at creating movie star mystique with incredible taste in scripts.

He is very open to criticism though, he seems to be obsessed in trying to win an Oscar by "acting" up a storm in very earnest, overwrought actorly parts and never takes a role that have any fun or playfulness to it. So he has basically been playing the same note over and over again in everything since The Departed.

He never takes chances with fresh indie directors and always settles on established titans of the industry. He always plays it smart and safe. The unfortunate fact is that most people don't want artists to play it smart and safe when they could try for something so much more. DiCaprio is basically to acting what Spielberg is to directing.

A final note, DiCaprio's bad makeup job is Vinny Chase in Medellin level bad and his old man voiceover sounds like a high school kid trying to play Lear. he deserves criticism for that trailer.

comment #16

Rashad says ...

He never takes chances with fresh indie directors and always settles on established titans of the industry.

Oh boo hoo. Are you serious? Working with the best directors in the game is somehow a negative? There isn't another actor with a better resume the past decade. And most have varied works spanning several genres.

DiCaprio is basically to acting what Spielberg is to directing.

Another really dumb statement.

comment #17

Los Bostonian says ...

Out of all the movies DiCaprio's made since Catch Me If You Can, the only two I like are The Departed and Inception(where he was the weakest link.)

It is absolutely fair to criticize DiCaprio for not working on something outside of his comfort zone and avoiding comedy completely.

I also wouldn't call the current incarnations of Eastwood, Scott, Zwick and Mendes(who may be the biggest joke amidst a so-called great directors list) anywhere near top form at this point in their careers.

While you may not agree with the statement, it is hardly "dumb" to say that DiCaprio and Spielberg are very similar in their pursuits of prestige Oscar bait predictable movies and roles.

comment #18

Rashad says ...

Spielberg doesn't give a shit about Oscars. He's a billionaire and has them already. How was Munich in any way "prestige" or predictable? He drew heat for that from both Palestinians and Zionists. And even with Munich aside, there's nothing similar about AI to Catch Me if You Can to Minority Report to The Terminal. His changes in tone and genre are remarkably varied, more so than most directors working today.

comment #19

raygo says ...

DiCaprio will probably have to wait like Pacino, and then get it for something as terrifically bad as Scent of a Woman.
J Edgar looks like an elegant HBO mini-series, except that the scope of the story seems to cover too lengthy a period for Eastwood to tackle in a 2 hour format. I'm curious just to see the transitions.

comment #20

BobbyLupo says ...

"anywhere near top form at this point in their careers."

Yeah, it's a really valid criticism to say that DiCaprio can't work with high-level directors at the absolute peak of their powers. It's too bad he devoted so much of his money to green energy concerns instead of time travel, so he could go back and work with cokehead Scorsese and comedy Woody Allen and sci-fi Cameron and been in an Eastwood western.

comment #21

raygo says ...

I think people forget that DiCaprio, if memory serves me, almost squandered his career post Titanic with too much drinking and partying, and maybe it was Scorcese who finally kicked his ass during The Gangs of New York shoot. So his current resume of films is pretty damn impressive, considering how easy it would have been to self-destruct.

Just saying.

comment #22

mollieanne says ...

Here we go again, Leo playing it safe? WTF?? You call playing a Rhodesian mercenery safe from Blood Diamond film? Heck just the accent alone is hard enough to do, People who speak the language, said that Leo idd an excellent job. Doing drug addict playing it safe? doing a retarded kid playing it safe? and this latest film playing it safe? This is a very difficult and challenging role to do, to play Hoover, those are huge shoes to fill. I have no idea how good Leonardo will be as Hoover, but I can't judge his acting based on a 2 minute trailer. If anything the trailer is not telling you much. When I see the full film then I can comment. Most of you people don't have a clue about Leonardo Dicaprio nor his films.
That statement comparing Leo and Spielberg as playing it safe is also the dumbness thing I ever read or heared. Please next time do your homework. That was pure stupidity.

comment #23

austin111 says ...

In truth, Wells has decent instincts. It's just that as often as he is right, he can be wrong. Of course, he'll wring his hands here and fume and fuss over what no one but he seems capable of seeing. C'est la vie! I still say a 2 minute trailer which might even present us with stuff we won't even see in the finished film is an iffy proposition to judge anything or anyone on. I've also seen Jeff back down a time or two when he was proven wrong and actually liked a film or performance he thought he wouldn't. He stated up front before the film was even made that DiCaprio was miscast and so have any number who visit here. It's in their interest to feel they've been proven correct, but the real question is.....Have they?

comment #24

BobbyLupo says ...

"Heck just the accent alone is hard enough to do, People who speak the language, said that Leo idd an excellent job."

A friend of mine who had some experience in Africa said to me "That doesn't sound like a Rhodesian accent, but he's doing a great job emulating a Zimbabwe accent."

Now, me, I don't know much about Africa, so I went to Wikipedia. It didn't take me long to find out, and pass along to her, that Zimbabwe was, at the time that his character was raised, called Rhodesia. We had a good laugh over that.

comment #25

austin111 says ...

Funny, BobbyLupo. I actually thought that Leo's performance in Blood Diamond was really, really good and if I didn't know it was him, I'd have thought it was a different actor altogether. In that sense, the accent made the performance for me. Too bad the rest of the film was basically pretty bad.