Here‘s Wednesday night’s Charlie Rose show with the “three Amigos” — Children of Men‘s Alfonso Cuaron, Babel‘s Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu and Pan’s Labyrinth‘s Guillermo del Toro.
A more-than-possible Best Picture scenario: Little Miss Sunshine, the little family comedy-drama that could, wins the Oscar. It wins because (a) it’s the only top-five contender without any nagging negatives, and (b) it’s the only top-five contender that’s really and truly about “us” instead of a film about “them” — a simple but primal insight I’ve just lifted from Oscarwatch‘s Sasha Stone.
The Queen is primarily a story about “them” (the Royal Family, the elites in the Blair government, the British public). Ditto Letters From Iwo Jima (i.e., the doomed, duty-bound Japanese troops of 60 years ago). And The Departed is too impersonal, in a sense, to be about either “them” or “us” — it’s basically about great Scorsese chops suffused with live-wire writing, acting, editing. (This happens to be a very personal thing with me, but that’s another story.)
Dreamgirls seems very much about “them” — Motown culture of the ’60s, black entertainers from the same period, the gents who wrote, directed and produced the Broadway show along with those who produced and made the film. Is there an “us” element in Dreamgirls? I liked a lot of this film, but nothing from my own life seemed woven into it in any way. Am I missing something?
Babel is absolutely about “us” — it’s about kids and parenting and the random nature of interconnected fate that so affects us en masse — and so is Children of Men (which is all about “our” planet and where we seem to be going), The Lives of Others (in one sense about “them” — urban-artist East Germans during the early ’80s — but also about “our” paranoia plus “our” capacity for compassion and growth) and Volver (one of the all-time great family films, but with an “us” focus because it’s so fully about women).
Perhaps the only other film that is as much about “us” as Little Miss Sunshine is United 93, because it shows who we are and what we’re made of. Don’t tell the Academy ostriches about this — it’ll just make them dig their heads all that deeper into the sand.
And yet these five films are all said to have negatives. Babel, I keep hearing from crabby critics, is too much of a stacked deck. The Lives of Others is seen in some quarters as too specifically German (wrong!) and is, of course, German-made and therefore more of a candidate for Best Foreign-Language Film. Volver is Almodovarian and Spanish and looking at the same deal. And a fair-sized portion of the Academy is apparently (I’m hearing) still refusing to see United 93, despite all the Best Picture awards it’s gotten from critics group.s
The films with the two lowest negative factors are Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen — everyone I know either admires or truly loves these two — but Sunshine will take it in the end because it’s more American and more “real” — more about everyone’s day-to-day lives, choices, failings, uncertainties. The Queen, finally, is about how change sometimes comes along out of nowhere and knocks you over, especially if you’re older. But it is also about an exotic culture that is hardly reflects the deep-down American experience.
Which Oscar competitors won and lost over the past 7 days? Helen Mirren and Clint Eastwood fared the best, according to Hollywood Wiretap‘s Pete Hammond, and so did United 93 (despite the stubborn posture of Academy ostriches), Babel (all those Golden Globe and BFCA noms), and Dreamgirls costar Jennifer Hudson (who, let’s face it, basically has the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in the bag).
The losers, says Hammond, are Mirren’s Best Actress competitors, Flags of Our Fathers (because it’s been totally overshadowed by Letters From Iwo Jima), World Trade Center (because “the Dallas/Ft.Worth soothsayers didn√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢t like it”…huh?), Venus star Peter O’Toole (Best Actor contenders Forest Whitaker and Will Smith have stolen all the heat), and the DGA chiefs for flip-flopping on whether or not to send out screeners to org members.
I just searched YouTube unsuccessfully for a tape of last night’s “Charlie Rose” interview with the Three Amigos — Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu (Babel), Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) and Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men). It’ll probably turn up on Rose’s own site sometime tomorrow, but if anyone gets hold of a copy today, please forward.
Here’s something to go along with Tom O’Neil‘s impressions/ lessons about the Golden Globe noms, and one delivered by one of Dreamgirls‘ most ardent journalist fans: the dirty little secret (suspected or otherwise) about the Hollywood Foreign Press is that their racial attitudes or predispositions are not, to put it gently, fully enlightened. This water-table element, the journo believes, is the reason there’s a good chance they may blow off Dreamgirls for the Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) award. The tipoff, he believes, was in the HFPA’s refusal to give Bill Condon a Best Director nom. This showed their true colors…where they’re basically coming from.
It should be recognized that Paramount Pictures had the most Golden Globe nominations of all the distribs — 15 — which is two higher than the studio’s 1999 record of 13 noms (which were largely generated by The Truman Show and Saving Private Ryan). Babel , which tallied 7 nominations, is the first film to come out under Paramount Vantage, the Paramount- funded independent unit being run by John Lesher.
Here’s an upbeat (i.e., not cynical enough) but nonetheless cogent analysis of the Golden Globe nominations by N.Y. Times Oscar guy David Carr (a.k.a. “the Bagger”).
Basic conclusions: (a) Babel is back in the game, although the HFPA’s international constitution was undoubtedly a factor in its susceptibility to Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s “big, complicated movie…[which] some critics felt required too much assembly on the part of the audience”; (b) In Contention‘s Kris Tapley “gets the smartypants award for correctly guessing that the HFPA would not be able to resist the star quotient in Bobby; and (c) “One thing seems perfectly clear — things aren√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢t perfectly clear.”
This last line takes me back to Bill Duke‘s response to Terrence Stamp‘s rambling confessional monologue in Steven Soderbergh and Lem Dobbs‘ The Limey: “There’s one thing I don’t get. The thing I don’t get is, every motherfuckin’ word you’re sayin’.” Okay, it’s not the same thought…but it’s funnier.
HE’s first reaction to the Golden Globes Best Picture nominations in the Drama category: Bobby? Say it again: Bobby? The HFPA didn’t need to persuade anyone that their motives and criteria are suspect from time to time, but they’ve sure as hell done it again. A tip of the hat to Harvey Weinstein for his usual backstage persuasions.
It’s well and good that nominations have also gone to Babel, The Departed, Little Children (the efforts of Russell Schwartz notwithstanding) and The Queen, and no surprise at all that the Hollywood Foreign Press ignored United 93 and the groundbreaking Children of Men…but of course. Likeliest winner(s) at this stage: The Queen, Babel, The Departed (in that order).
Babel, which had been seen as a fader over the last two or three weeks, is now back in the shit with seven GG nominations. That is, if you think that the Golden Globe nominations are in some way influential. Congrats to director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, nominated costars Rinko Kikuchi , Adriana Barraza and Brad Pitt, and of course the Paramount Vantage team.
The Best Picture noms in the Musical or Comedy category are Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Little Miss Sunshine and Thank You for Smoking. Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Dreamgirls, Borat.
Nominating Leonardo DiCaprio for both Blood Diamond and The Departed means, as it does with the BFCA noms, a possible cancel-out factor. The other three contenders in this category — Peter O’Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) — were programmed into the communal consciousness weeks ago. Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: DiCaprio.
It’s good to see that an org has finally gotten behind The Lives of Others, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language film along with Apocalypto, Letters from Iwo Jima, Pan’s Labyrinth and Volver. Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: The Lives of Others.
Clint Eastwood snagged two Best Director noms (for Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima) along with Stephen Frears (The Queen), Inarritu (Babel) and The Departed (Martin Scorsese). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Eastwood or Scorsese.
Best Actor, Musical/Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest….sure thing!), Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking), Will Ferrell (Stranger Than Fiction….forget it!), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Kinky Boots…rounding out the pack). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Cohen.
Best Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada…good call), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi, (Babel). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Hudson.
Best Supporting Actor: Ben Affleck (Hollywoodland, Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls ), Jack Nicholson (
Best Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga (Babel), Todd Field and Tom Perrotta (Little Children), Patrick Marber Notes on a Scandal), William Monahan, (The Departed), Peter Morgan (The Queen). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: A toss-up. Queer Omission: Michael Arndt‘s screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine.
Best Actress, Drama: Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Sherrybaby…good for her), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Kate Winslet (Little Children). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Mirren or Cruz.
Best Actress, Comedy or Musical: Annette Bening (Running with Scissors), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine), Beyonce Knowles (Dreamgirls), Meryl Streep (Devil Wears Prada), Renee Zellweger (Miss Potter…go, Harvey!). Likeliest Winner(s) at This Stage: Streep.
Todd Field‘s Little Children has scored its first Best Picture win of the season from the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, although United 93‘s Paul Greengrass took the Best Director prize. (Definitely a momentum thing happening here, but will Academy members give a hoot? I’d love to see enough of a turnaround by the “too-sooners” to change the odds, but does anyone see this happening?)
Borat‘s Sacha Baron Cohen was anointed Best Actor, Helen Mirren won the Best Actress prize (again) for her performance in The Queen, Little Children‘s Jackie Earle Haley scored a second Best Supporting Actor win after yesterday’s N.Y. Film Critics Circle win, and Babel’s Adriana Barraza was named Best Supporting Actress. Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth was named Best Foreign-Language Film, and Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore‘s “An Inconvenient Truth won for Best Documentary.
I’m late to the party, but the Alliance of Women Journalists has announced the nominees for its 2006 EDA (Excellent Dynamic Activism) Awards, including citations for Best Depiction of Nudity or Sexuality, which presumably means the least exploitative of women and/or the most honest or natural. The five films that made the grade are Babel, Borat, Little Children, The Notorious Bettie Page and Sherrybaby.
The Broadcast Film Critics nominations have covered all the bases — too many, as usual, as far as the ten Best Picture noms are concerned. (Why not twelve? why not fifteen? Spread it around.) But their choices are tasteful and well-considered, for the most part. Seven nominations each for Babel (but no Best Director nom for Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu), The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine and Dreamgirls… plus both a Best Picture and a Best Foreign Film nomination for Letters From Iwo Jima. What, they couldn’t decide? I guess they’re just trying to up the odds of Clint coming away with a prize.
Two Best Actor noms for Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed, Blood Diamond) either means a cancel -out factor (most likely) or that Leo has a shot at actually taking one from The Last King of Scotland‘s Forrest Whitaker.
There is, of course, one bizarre omisssion in the Best Foreign Language Film category: Florian Von Henckel Donnermarck‘s The Lives of Others . I can’t quite say this German-language film is “better” than Pan’s Labyrinth or Volver, my other two favorites in this exceptionally bountiful category, but it unquestionably delivers more, I feel, in the way of a symphonic, rock-your-world dramatic payoff. Either the BFCA nominators didn’t see it (inexcusable) or they’re playing political games for the sake of political gain.
This hypothesis seems not only credible but persuasive in light of the BFCA having included Mel Gibson‘s Apocalypto as one of its Best Foreign Film nominees. What is that…a sop to Disney along with a chance that they can get Gibson to attend the awards ceremony?
Of all the Best Young Actor nominees, Little Miss Sunshine‘s Paul Dano gives the deepest, funniest andmost expressive performance. This guy, for me, is easily as affecting and on-target as Alan Arkin and Steve Carell are in their Sunshine roles.
Nobody knows anything about tomorrow’s Los Angeles Film Critics Association voting, the results of which should be known by 5 pm or so. Nonetheless, I have a couple of hunches. LAFCA’s Best Picture winners are occasionally contrarian in one of two ways — they try and help out the proverbial little guy (i.e., a highly regarded “critics film” that has had trouble at the box-office or received insufficient support from its distributor), or they simply honor the cinematic merits of a film with an almost perverse disregard for the herd mentality, even if the winner has a shortcoming or two.
If this is a contrarian year (and the ingredients are in place in that there’s no one film with a big head of steam), that means they may go political and give it to Todd Field‘s Little Children, which New Line has only marginally supported since it opened, or (my personal hope) Alfonso Cuaron‘s Children of Men, a thrillingly composed tour de force that’s facing tough odds at the box-office, or, even more perversely, Jean-Pierre Melville‘s Army of Shadows, a 1969 film about the French resistance that has gotten several raves from big-gun critics.
If none of these three can build a big-enough consensus and LAFCA still wants to go contrarian, the big prize will go to The Departed. Pound for pound and move for move, no film provided as much sheer revved-up delight. The bizarre Catholic-guilt ending aside, it’s almost a complete 100% popcorn high, albeit in a sophistica- ted, high-end way. Plus it’s the Martin Scorsese film everyone’s been waiting for since Goodfellas. The fact that Scorsese probably has the Best Director prize in the bag may mean LAFCA will go elsewhere for Best Picture…who knows?
I heard from two big-wheel critics yesterday, and one of them wrote:the following: “Frankly, it’s wide open. I’ve been chatting with several members, and there’s no clear front runner or front-runner group. I’ve heard about everything from Army of Shadows to Flags of Our Fathers to Letters From Iwo Jima to Dreamgirls” — say what? — “to The Departed to United 93 to you-name-it. (Not to mention Volver, Babel, The Pursuit of Happyness, Apocalypto, et. al.)
“Anyone claiming on any website regarding any voting org (LAFCA or otherwise) that there’s a front-runner is either lying, has an agenda or is misinformed — or a bit of all three. I like it when it’s wide open since this allows the voting group to get more creative and move away from the dull middlebrow toward something more interesting. I love the stuff I’m hearing about Army of Shadows — that would throw the Hollywood types into a tizzy, and it would be eminently well-deserved.”
I suppose the Best Picture prize could also go to Letters From Iwo Jima. As good as it is — it’s a far better film than Flags of Our Fathers — it doesn’t quite have the startling high-throttle quality that I feel a Best Picture winner ought to possess. But then I’m not a voter. I’m just sitting here in a warm Brooklyn apartment.
- All Hail Tom White, Taciturn Hero of “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Roughly two months ago a very early draft of Eric Roth‘s screenplay for Killers of the Flower Moon (dated 2.20.17,...
More » - Dead-End Insanity of “Nomadland”
Frances McDormand‘s Fern was strong but mule-stubborn and at the end of the day self-destructive, and this stunted psychology led...
More » - Mia Farrow’s Best Performances?
Can’t decide which performance is better, although I’ve always leaned toward Tina Vitale, her cynical New Jersey moll behind the...
More »
- Hedren’s 94th
Two days ago (1.19) a Facebook tribute congratulated Tippi Hedren for having reached her 94th year (blow out the candles!)...
More » - Criminal Protagonists
A friend suggested a list of the Ten Best American Crime Flicks of the ‘70s. By which he meant films...
More » - “‘Moby-Dick’ on Horseback”
I’ve never been able to give myself over to Sam Peckinpah’s Major Dundee, a 1965 Civil War–era western, and I’ve...
More »