Remember Patton Oswalt's Oscar-snubbee Twitter fan fiction -- specifically the part wherein Tilda Swinton and Andy Serkis rocked out together to "Life on Mars"? Well, Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert or someone might want to get on that, if Swinton's priceless reaction is any indication.
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As you may have heard or read, the 2012 Academy Award nominations have stirred strong reactions in certain pockets of the Oscar snubculture. And you just know that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close filmmaker Stephen Daldry -- a first-time non-nominee for Best Director -- is seething somewhere out there: "But at least two of those guys won't even show up!" Fair enough! Or is it?
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This reaction quote just in from Gary Oldman, a deserving first-time Oscar nominee for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: "This afternoon in Berlin I have learned that I was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Actor. You may have heard this before, but it has never been truer than it is for me today, it is extremely humbling, gratifying, and delightful to have your work recognized by the Academy, and to join the celebrated ranks of previous nominees and colleagues. Amazing." Meanwhile, how is viciously smacked-down Oscar snubbee Albert Brooks doing?
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Now that Golden Globe winner Octavia Spencer's sitting pretty with her Best Supporting Actress trophy, the L.A. Times breaks out a choice quote from an October visit to the set of her Sundance 2012 pic Smashed: "You do a movie like [The Help] to get a movie like this," she said of her new film, which sees her go from spitting retorts and baking special pies as The Help's Minny to helping Mary Elizabeth Winstead battle alcoholism. "It’s nice... to play roles when I'm not just a sassy black woman." Hear, hear. Now let's get Spencer the Oscar, already. [LAT]
"Weak." "Lackluster." "Underwhelming." "Less-than-stellar." Such are the general characterizations of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's box-office earnings to date from observers, insiders and pundits around the Web. And now for an equally appropriate one-word response to those perceptions: "Huh?"
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When James Franco took to the blogosphere to pledge his awards season support for Rise of the Planet of the Apes co-star Andy Serkis and his performance-captured turn in the film, Serkis was the one person who probably appreciated the gesture most, precisely because it did what he couldn’t do himself: Provide an argument in favor the art of performance capture as a mode of legitimate acting, from an outsider’s perspective. Serkis rang Movieline to chat and expressed appreciation for Franco’s open letter.
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The New York Times reported Sunday that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' documentary branch is tweaking its qualification rules once again, allowing only theatrical nonfiction feature films that have been reviewed by the NY or LA Times to be considered for Oscar nominations. Furthermore, voting on nominees will be expanded to the entire 166-member Documentary Branch (as opposed to individual committees), and the Academy as a whole can vote for Best Documentary, regardless of how or where members saw the nominated films. The revisions have prompted more than a little hand-wringing around the doc community -- for no especially good reason, alas. Here's why:
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That unsubtle backhand slap you just heard was the sound of Steven Spielberg being whacked off his awards-season pedestal by the Directors Guild of America, which just announced Woody Allen, David Fincher, Michel Hazanavicius, Alexander Payne and Martin Scorsese as its 2012 Best Director nominees. This one has to hurt.
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ABC released a cutesy trailer for the 2012 Academy Awards telecast that speaks loads to the youthful new direction the show's makers were going in when they brought Brett Ratner aboard, before his untimely exit; in a slick parody of globe-trotting Hollywood fare, two heroes are tasked with tracking down wizened Billy Crystal for hosting duties on the Big Night. Those heroes? None other than Transformers castmates Josh Duhamel and Megan Fox, because of course. Nothing says current like the girl who was the hottest thing on earth three years ago! Watch the trailer and see if it entices you with its "Hey kids, check us out!" hip comedy stylings.
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After a few quiet holiday weeks on the #ConsiderUggie front, the awards campaign for The Artist's wonder dog has redoubled its efforts in that far-off land of influence and taste: Great Britain. Not to be outdone, a French awards body has finally thrown Uggie some much-deserved recognition. It's all coming together, folks!
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Phyllida Lloyd and Meryl Streep work a puny bit of flim-flammery in The Iron Lady: They turn Margaret Thatcher into a folk hero, a woman who, poor lamb, had to make sacrifices in her personal life in exchange for political power. This is a watery, artfully evasive picture, anchored by a stupendous feat of mimicry. Some people call that acting.
Last night, during the 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors telecast, Meryl Streep's friends feted the honoree in grand fashion. There were video montages introduced, touching anecdotes told, funny memories recounted, musical numbers performed and splits done in her honor -- by Robert De Niro, Mike Nichols, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Kevin Kline, Anne Hathaway and Tracy Ullman (who co-starred with Streep in Plenty). It was an epic ode to the actress's "superhuman" onscreen ability -- one, that after ten minutes of increasingly heaping praise, began to feel like one of the most elaborate Oscar campaigns to date.
It's hard to be obsessed with the Oscars sometimes because they're often predictable, boring, and tolerant of things like Black Swan, but VINTAGE OSCARS is a whole different story. I could think about the discarded wedding dress Lee Grant wore for her Shampoo victory in '76 for days. And I have. Even better now, the Academy has released a dress code that legendary costumer Edith Head wrote for the 1968 ceremony. It is cold, direct, and bossy. It is awesome.
Spirits were bright Wednesday night in West Hollywood when Fox Searchlight celebrated the season with their annual holiday party -- really, just an excuse to fete Oscar candidates Win Win, Tree of Life, Shame, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and The Descendants like debs at a coming out ball. Movieline caught up with Fox Searchlight's hopefuls at the early awards-season shindig.
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