MADness—the Blog

The ghostwriter does not get his name on the cover.  No one knows who he is.  People will buy the book, or not, for its subject.  The author does not matter.  That’s the way it works in the book business, at least when it comes to political biography.

When it comes to movies, and especially the recent movie about a ghostwriter and his subject, a former British prime minister named Adam Lang, it matters greatly who the author—or in this case, director—is.  Especially when his name is Roman Polanski.

The reaction to his new film The Ghost Writer is very divided.  Critics generally have been positive, and some have been especially enthusiastic.  But other reaction I’ve read has been highly negative.  The film is very good, though hardly perfect—yet some of the negative reaction doesn’t seem to me to be in proportion to whatever flaws the film has.  I suspect if the director were anyone other than Roman Polanski we wouldn’t be hearing some of that vitriol.

Pierce Brosnan gives a terrific performance as Adam Lang, a role patterned on Tony Blair in some ways.  Ewan McGregor plays the ghostwriter.  He doesn’t even get a name in the movie—he’s just the writer, or more often “the ghost.” Polanski might want to try that next time out.

Several of the things I’ve been reading this week in one way or another relate to women in Hollywood.  Here are a few links, in case you’re interested.

How Oscar Found Ms. Right
There are times when I think the best writer covering film today is Manohla Dargis at the New York Times.  When I read this article it was one of those times.  Dargis gives the best take I’ve read on the Oscars for Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker and takes on a few other women to make her point.  (Read more about scopophilia here and here.)

Unless they star Meryl Streep, movies about women are routinely dismissed because they’re about women, as the patronizing term “chick flick” affirms every time it’s reflexively deployed. But chick flicks are often the only movies that offer female audiences stories about women and female friendships and a world that, however artificial, offers up female characters who are not standing on the sidelines as the male hero saves the day. It might not be much and usually isn’t, at least in aesthetic terms, but it’s sometimes all there is. Ms. Bigelow doesn’t make those kinds of movies. (Her vampires don’t sparkle, they draw blood.) She generally makes kinetic and thrilling movies about men and codes of masculinity set in worlds of violence. Her technique might be masterly [sic], because she learned from the likes of Sam Peckinpah. But she is very much her own woman, and her own auteur.

Pretty ugly: Can we please stop pretending that beautiful women aren’t beautiful?
I don’t watch TV much.  At some point in my adult life, I came to the conclusion there were better things to do with my time.  But I watched a lot when I was younger, and I remember having very much the same conversation back in a college dorm.  Actresses you see on TV, or on the big screen, for that matter—even the ones you who are supposed to be playing “ugly”—and still quite beautiful by almost any standard, and yes, that distorts even further what society thinks about women and beauty.  (Some things never change.  Bette Davis at times described herself as the ugly ducking.  You wouldn’t know it from looking at the picture here.)

Does a Best Actress Oscar Lead to Divorce?
Something  more than coincidence seens to be going on, I’d say.

It takes three days for the accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers to count all the ballots of Academy voters.  They’ll be done sometime today, at which point exactly two people will know the names of the winners.  The rest of us get the news Sunday night.

In the meantime we can make predictions.  If we didn’t make predictions, we wouldn’t have any surprises.  I hope there might be a few at the big show, but at this time it all looks very predictable.

You can take a look at what I see in my crystal ball, my picks for the Oscars.

Best Picture

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  Oscar gets it right!  All the talk is that it’s a two-picture race.  If so, it really shouldn’t be close.  Avatar is technically stunning and visually imaginative, but it doesn’t compare to The Hurt Locker as a complete film.  With District 9 in the running, sci-fi fans have another place to put their vote.  That should help Kathyrn Bigelow’s film.  I’ve read that the new preference voting procedures also will work against Avatar, but I don’t think anybody really knows which film will benefit from the new process.

Best Actor

• Jeff Bridges Crazy Heart
• George Clooney Up in the Air
• Colin Firth A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman Invictus
• Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker

The winner:  Jeff Bridges
The verdict:  It’s about time!  I can’t seeing anyone else winning, but if there is a longshot winner, it’ll be Colin Firth.

Best Supporting Actor

• Matt Damonin Invictus
• Woody Harrelson The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz Inglourious Basterds

The winner:  Christoph Waltz
The verdict:  A terrific performance and a well-deserved win.  The dark horse is Woody Harrelson.

Best Actress

• Sandra Bullock The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe Precious
• Meryl Streep Julie & Julia

The winner:  Sandra Bullock
The verdict:  Somehow the thinking with Academy voters seems to go like this:  Meryl Streep gave a great performance this year, so let’s give her a nomination—but let’s give the Oscar to someone else.  It’s been 27 years since her last win (she has 16 noms altogether), and there’s no reason to keep her waiting any longer.  Perhaps if they had preference voting for Best Actress (it’s only used for Best Picture, though), Streep would have a third little man for her mantel.  That said, my rooting interest here is for Carey Mulligan.

Best Supporting Actress

• Penélope Cruz Nine
• Vera Farmiga Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique Precious

The winner:  Mo’Nique
The verdict:  No contest.

Best Director

• Avatar James Cameron
• The Hurt Locker Kathryn Bigelow
• Inglourious Basterds Quentin Tarantino
• Precious Lee Daniels
• Up in the Air Jason Reitman

The winner:  Kathryn Bigelow
The verdict:  The headlines will be:  A Woman Wins (Finally).  Bottom line:  Bigelow deserves it.

Foreign Language Film

• Ajami Israel
• The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada) Peru
• A Prophet (Un Prophète) France
• The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) Argentina
• The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) Germany

The winner:  A Prophet
The verdict:  It’s a powerful film, but not the kind of material that often wins the Oscar.  I have not yet seen the South American films so I can’t judge, but the buzz for the Argentine entry is strong, and it has an excellent chance to win.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• District 9 Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• An Education Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• In the Loop Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• Precious Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• Up in the Air Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

The winner:  Up in the Air
The verdict:  A smart screenplay.  Writing is a lot more than dialogue, but the dialogue is what people remember, and the dialogue in Up in the Air is sharp and reminiscent of Hollywood classics of the past.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• The Hurt Locker Written by Mark Boal
• Inglourious Basterds Written by Quentin Tarantino
• The Messenger Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• A Serious Man Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• Up Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  The Hurt Locker by a nose, but don’t count out Tarantino.

Animated Feature Film

• Coraline Henry Selick
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Wes Anderson
• The Princess and the Frog John Musker and Ron Clements
• The Secret of Kells Tomm Moore
• Up Pete Docter

The winner:  Up

Art Direction

• Avatar
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Nine
• Sherlock Holmes
• The Young Victoria

The winner:  Avatar

Cinematography

• Avatar Mauro Fiore
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Bruno Delbonnel
• The Hurt Locker Barry Ackroyd
• Inglourious Basterds Robert Richardson
• The White Ribbon Christian Berger

The winner:  The Hurt Locker
The verdict:  I wouldn’t mind seeing The White Ribbon win, but I’m a sucker for black-and-white.

Costume Design

• Bright Star Janet Patterson
• Coco before Chanel Catherine Leterrier
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Monique Prudhomme
• Nine Colleen Atwood
• The Young Victoria Sandy Powell

The winner:  Coco Before Chanel
The verdict:  Everyone in the know is picking The Young Victoria, but I need to be a contrarian somewhere.

Documentary (Feature)

• Burma VJ Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• The Cove Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
• Food, Inc. Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• Which Way Home Rebecca Cammisa

The winner:  The Cove

Documentary (Short Subject)

• China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• Music by Prudence Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• Rabbit à la Berlin Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

The winner:  Music by Prudence

Film Editing

• Avatar Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• District 9 Julian Clarke
• The Hurt Locker Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• Inglourious Basterds Sally Menke
• Precious Joe Klotz

The winner:  The Hurt Locker

Makeup

• Il Divo
• Star Trek
• The Young Victoria

The winner:  Star Trek
The verdict:  A well-liked sci-fi film (though I was lukewarm) gets its one Oscar.

Music (Original Score)

• Avatar James Horner
• Fantastic Mr. Fox Alexandre Desplat
• The Hurt Locker Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• Sherlock Holmes Hans Zimmer
• Up Michael Giacchino

The winner:  Up
The verdict:  Michael Giacchino’s score was just terrific.

Music (Original Song)

• Almost There (from “The Princess and the Frog,” by Randy Newman)
• Down in New Orleans (from “The Princess and the Frog,” by Randy Newman)
• Loin de Paname (from “Paris 36,” by Reinhardt Wagner, Frank Thomas)
• Take It All (from “Nine,” by Maury Yeston)
• The Weary Kind (Theme from “Crazy Heart”) (by Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett)

The winner:  The Weary Kind
The verdict:  I’m not sure it was the best song in the film, but it’s the best of the nominees.

Short Film (Animated)

• French Roast
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
• The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
• Logorama
• A Matter of Loaf and Death

The winner:  A Matter of Loaf and Death
The verdict:  Never bet against Nick Park.

Short Film (Live Action)

• The Door
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi
• Miracle Fish
• The New Tenants

The winner:  Kavi
The verdict:  Picking winners when you haven’t seen the films is a little like picking racehorses based on their names. 

Sound Editing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Up

The winner:  Avatar

Sound Mixing

• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Star Trek
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

The winner:  Avatar

Visual Effects

• Avatar
• District 9
• Star Trek

The winner:  Avatar

I had seen this item in the L.A. Times this week but didn’t get a chance to look at collector Ira Resnick’s site till tonight.  If you’re a fan of art from classic Hollywood (and how could you not be), it’s certainly worth a look.  The book is Starstruck. I think I know what I want for my birthday.

Dan Callahan at Slant, on Carole Lombard:

At her breathless, frazzled, sexy best, Carole Lombard defined the screwball comedy genre of the 1930s. A hot blonde made for clinging white satin, she was most distinctive when encouraged to be slaphappy and out of control, working up a full head of steam and building comic sequences to crescendos of hysteria. Her basic good nature always shone through her performances, so that even when her work was uneven (which was often), she always managed to get a viewer rooting for her. With her high forehead and penetrating blue eyes, Lombard was obviously intelligent, yet she had a talent for playing none-too-bright, childish women who lived exclusively and triumphantly in their own world.

The Hurt Locker won six BAFTA Awards last night in London.  The acting honors, no surprise (and with no argument), went to two Brits.  Here is a rundown of the major prizes:

Best Film — The Hurt Locker
Best Director — Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Outstanding British Film — Fish Tank, Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer — Duncan Jones (Director), Moon
Best Leading Actor — Colin Firth, A Single Man
Best Leading Actress — Carey Mulligan, An Education
Best Supporting Actor — Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress — Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Original Screenplay — The Hurt Locker, Mark Boal
Best Adapted Screenplay — Up in the Air, Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
Best Animated Film — Up, Pete Docter
Best Film Not in English Language — A Prophet, Pascal Caucheteux, Marco Cherqui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard

Avatar won two awards, for production design and visual effects.

Notable line of the night was from Colin Firth:

Firth drew laughs by thanking “the fridge guy” in his acceptance speech, that being the refrigerator repairman who knocked on his door just as he was about to shoot an e-mail to director Tom Ford declining the role of a bereaved gay professor.

“All I know is, don’t ever press ‘send’ until you have had your fridge repaired,” Firth said.

 A recap of awards handed out earlier in the season is here.

I don’t imagine I’m the first to say this, but if Tom Ford, the first-time director and long-time fashion designer, had taken less interest in making A Single Man look so pretty, he’d have had a better movie.  I sat through a good part of the film feeling it was all very neatly arranged, but beneath the surface I wondered if anyone I was watching had a detectable pulse.

The movie comes alive—suddenly—in a scene midway through.  George and Charley, played by Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, spend an evening at her house, and for the first time I believed these were real people, with real lives and real emotions, not mere models posing for the camera.  The rest of the film is fine, and at times, exquisite.  Which seemed odd, since it took such a long time for the film to engage me at first.

The fault wasn’t in the performances.  In fact, the acting was terrific, especially Firth, who plays the English professor who’s lost his lover and whatever reason he had for living.  The film, however, felt overdirected, underwritten, and out of balance.

Leaving the theater, I heard someone laugh.  Without saying too much, I’ll just say that’s not the reaction the filmmakers would have expected.  I didn’t expect it either.  At that moment, I felt a great compassion for Firth’s character.  I hadn’t been sure what I felt, but then I knew.  So the movie worked for me.  A little less pretty and it may have worked even better.

It’s probably a good time to note that a big screen version of Gunsmoke is in the works.  Someone will have to play the Dodge City marshal, and I think the actor featured on our front page today would be a good fit for the part.  Not only that, it would be a fun promo to see:  “Matt Dillon is Matt Dillon!”

Every Oscar year offers a few oddities.  This is one of them.

Ryan Bingham is the name of the co-writer, with T Bone Burnett, of the Oscar-nominated song “The Weary Kind (Theme from ‘Crazy Heart’).”

Ryan Bingham is the name of the character played by George Clooney for his Best Actor-nominated performance in Up in the Air.

When’s the last time an Oscar-nominated role shared a name with an Oscar nominee of the same year?  I’d guess that would be 2002, when Nic Cage was nominated for playing Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman in Adaptation, a movie scripted by the Oscar-nominated team of Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman.

(There was no Donald Kaufman, really.  It was the first time the Academy nominated someone who wasn’t real.)

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning.  One thing is certain.  Television rules, which is why they make certain people in Hollywood wake in the middle of the night to bring the news to you.

Best Picture nominees number ten this year (another concession to television).  Here are the movies that made the cut:

Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Sci-fi historically does not do well in the non-technical categories, but this year may have been an exception with a certain phenomenon that’s setting records at the box office.  With District 9 in the mix, though, sci-fi fans have an alternative.  That should be good news for The Hurt Locker and director Kathryn Bigelow.  That’s good.

Here are all the nominees.  I’d say Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Christoph Waltz, and Mo’Nique are favorites for the acting categories (the men are virtual locks). 

Sandra Bullock has the rare opportunity to be the best—and worst—actress of the year.  She’s been nominated for a Razzie too.

“Where’d all those songs come from?”
“Life, unfortunately.”

Bad Blake has covered a lot of miles in his 57 years, and it shows.  One look at the guy and you know he’s hit every bump along the road.  He’s got nothing left but a ’78 Suburban taking him from town to town, from bowling alleys to bars, where he plays a few songs from long ago.

Bad Blake is a role that fits Jeff Bridges like an old shirt pulled from the laundry bag.  Comfortable, nothing too fancy.  It may not have been through the wash, but that don’t seem to matter.  Bridges seems as easy-going as any actor working today, without an ounce of vanity.  He’s an everyman, a good-looking, roguish type who’s been around.  You might find him anywhere.  He’s the kind you can kick back, relax, and spend some time with.

Crazy Heart may not be the most ambitious story, but it knows better than to try too hard.  There’s not a false moment through the whole thing.  Bridges is in every scene, and half the time in close-up, playing a has-been singer-songwriter having a hard time on the road.  It’s a soulful performance.  Maggie Gyllenhaal is the mother of a four-year-old son, torn between her desire for the older guy, her loneliness, and her hopes not to make the same mistakes she’s made before with men.  Colin Farrell is rock solid as a country star.

The film’s worth seeing for the music alone.  I tend to tolerate country—it’s hardly my favorite—but if it sounded more like this, I’d be a bigger fan.

I don’t really give a damn about awards (even if sometimes I pretend that I do).  But they do have a show coming up in a few weeks and they’ve gotta give one of those litte statues to somebody for best performance by an actor.  It’d be real nice if this time—at long last—they gave one to Jeff Bridges.