The Academy Awards are not a contest, the humble nominees might demur, taking the high road through the gory scrum that is awards season. But do you really think, say, Glenn Close wouldn’t cut a bitch for an Oscar? Alas, the odds are against her, literally; online books have her at as much as 100:1 odds to win her first statuette for Albert Nobbs. Take a peek at how the internet’s enterprising bookies have handicapped the 84th Academy Award nominees and adjust your bets accordingly.
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Chances are at least a few of your casual conversations about Bridesmaids have revolved around the scene in which Melissa McCarthy is forced to use a bridal shop sink as a toilet. The true beauty of that scene was Kristen Wiig’s Annie, sweat-drenched, trying to stay composed while she was berated over choosing a restaurant that caused some serious gastrointestinal horrors for the ladies. Not to suggest that McCarthy doesn’t deserve the praise; she’s a terrific actress (Sookie forever!).
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There's good news and bad news to begin this post-nomination, next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-last installment of Oscar Index. The good news? It's kind of almost over! The bad news? Oy. Please don't make me repeat it.
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Smack in the middle of a two-week frame yielding two awards shows and a pair of nomination announcements that will culminate in this year's Oscar nods, the researchers at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics have gained minimal insight into where the Academy may take the 2011-12 awards race in next Tuesday's final nominations. Or maybe they're all just sleeping. It's been that kind of year. Let's check their work in this week's Oscar Index.
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What a week at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics, where the pundits' hustle harmonized with the guilds' bustle to create a heavy-duty wake-up call for some otherwise dormant awards-season underdogs. They also telegraphed danger for a few juggernauts once thought unassailable. What does it all mean as we head into the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards weekend? To the Index!
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Awards! So many awards -- this time around it's the Alliance of Women Film Journalists passing along the EDA Awards, their annual choices for the best, worst, weirdest and otherwise noteworthy films of 2011. Find an old standby at the top of the list, along with a few of the Alliance's customarily female-forward and refreshingly cheeky ("Most Egregious Love Interest Age Difference Award," anyone?) accolades. Congrats to all the winners!
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The first Oscar Index entry of 2012 finds Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics a little hungover from the holidays and lot bored from the protracted inertia of awards season. Not even this week's Producers Guild Award nominations could do much to shake up a contest that appears to be both wide open and solidifying into place at the same time. Let's investigate...
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Well, this should go pretty fast: The holiday week has offered a dearth of new narratives to trace and pulses to take, with only one film demonstrating any significant mobility in the studies coming out Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics. Let's get to it!
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Screw Christmas. Forget Hanukkah. To hell with New Year's. There is only one holiday we celebrate in the dank, windowless labs of Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics, and that is Oscar Night. Thus the latest edition of Oscar Index, offering all the festive year-end joy you can possibly stand. Let's get to it!
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Although Albert Nobbs has made the festival rounds and has long been generating awards-season buzz -- particularly for star and co-writer Glenn Close -- the film only had its Hollywood coming-out party of sorts over the weekend.
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It's week three of the 2011-12 Oscar Index, and the latest measurements, readings and conclusions are in from Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics. And aside from a few startling exceptions, they don't look that different than the ones disseminated here last week. But make no mistake: Like it or not, stuff is happening! Read on for the latest developments.
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A tribute to vibrators and the women who love them, Tanya Wexler's Hysteria is a jaunty little entertainment that's almost plowed under by its early-suffragette arguments for women's equality. But like the little motorized whatsit that is its subject, the movie's charms are ultimately irresistible.
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I keep eyeing the news of Jesse Eisenberg's dual role in Richard Ayoade's next movie The Double, based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novella, with excitement about people who aren't even involved with the project. If The Double, about "a Russian government clerk whose life unravels after what he believes is a literal facsimile of himself -- same appearance, same name, same hometown -- begins working in his office," is a hit, will it popularize the idea of other actors playing dual roles? And who would we want to see act against his/her own mirror image?
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How did Rose Byrne become the most unexpected comedic actress of her generation? After 15 years of acting, the Aussie native broke out of her dramatic shell with a fearless turn as Aldous Snow's pop star ex in Get Him to the Greek, and this week's Bridesmaids continues the streak: Byrne plays Helen, the rich and beautiful new BFF who tries to steal Maya Rudolph away from maid of honor Kristen Wiig. As director Paul Feig insisted to Movieline, "That woman should always be doing comedy."
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