Best Actress

Reza
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Post by Reza »

jack wrote:And thank you for making fun of my over-use of ellipsis...
As a good citizen....my civic duty. LOL
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Post by jack »

Reza wrote:
jack wrote:Brad Pitt did nothing here to justify an Oscar nomination

''Does''...Jack....not ''Did''. Am superstitious...don't want your incorrect word to actually translate into a nomination for Brad Pitt next week.
I apologuise for my incorrect word use. I don't want to see an Oscar nomination for Pitt either.

And thank you for making fun of my over-use of ellipsis...
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Post by Reza »

jack wrote:Brad Pitt did nothing here to justify an Oscar nomination
''Does''...Jack....not ''Did''. Am superstitious...don't want your incorrect word to actually translate into a nomination for Brad Pitt next week.
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Post by jack »

flipp525 wrote:
jack wrote:There was nothing new about Blanchett's performance. The Curious Benjamin Button was not an Actor's film.

I totally disagree. I thought that Blanchett imbued a cipher of a role with a quiet grace that only deepened as the film went on. As the character in the reactive role to Pitt's more passive journey through his condition, she also, arguably, has the more interesting role.

I went to the movie with my sister who was a dancer for fifteen years, on a track for a professional career. An injury prevented her from realizing her dream and she segued into a career on Wall Street. She said that the scene where, as a dance teacher, she attempts to capture a memory of herself dancing and then falters was achingly real.

And, as we've discussed elsewhere, I think Swinton took a fairly recognizable, classic role and brought something new to it as well.
Be all that as it may, The Curious Benjamin Button is still not an Actor's film. It's a Director's film. Brad Pitt did nothing here to justify an Oscar nomination, and though Blanchett was good, I'd be surprised to hear her name mentioned in the Best Actress line-up.

Having said that, I didn't like the film, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me...
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Post by flipp525 »

jack wrote:There was nothing new about Blanchett's performance. The Curious Benjamin Button was not an Actor's film.

I totally disagree. I thought that Blanchett imbued a cipher of a role with a quiet grace that only deepened as the film went on. As the character in the reactive role to Pitt's more passive journey through his condition, she also, arguably, has the more interesting role.

I went to the movie with my sister who was a dancer for fifteen years, on a track for a professional career. An injury prevented her from realizing her dream and she segued into a career on Wall Street. She said that the scene where, as a dance teacher, she attempts to capture a memory of herself dancing and then falters was achingly real.

And, as we've discussed elsewhere, I think Swinton took a fairly recognizable, classic role and brought something new to it as well.




Edited By flipp525 on 1232248043
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

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Post by jack »

There was nothing new about Blanchett's performance. The Curious Benjamin Button was not an Actor's film.
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Post by Reza »

Zahveed wrote:
flipp525 wrote:
Franz Ferdinand wrote:Cate Blanchett's predictably chilly non-performance in The Curious Benjamin Button

This is ridiculous. She gives one of the best female performances of the year.

Especially in her character's elderly years.

Actually I preferred Blanchett in her youthful scenes more than her elderly scenes in bed.

She is quite the vision in the ballet scenes.




Edited By Reza on 1232247084
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Post by Zahveed »

flipp525 wrote:
Franz Ferdinand wrote:Cate Blanchett's predictably chilly non-performance in The Curious Benjamin Button

This is ridiculous. She gives one of the best female performances of the year.
Especially in her character's elderly years.
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Post by The Original BJ »

Has anyone seen Melissa Leo in Frozen River? By which I mean, have any of US seen it? I think it's rather amazing that she got this far to begin with. I remember when Frozen River came out, but I certainly don't remember the film being greeted with the kind of "this is an Oscar candidate" publicity that typically accompanies even the smallest of contenders.

I've been trying to see the film since she began winning awards, but it certainly hasn't been easy. It's not on DVD (unlike The Visitor, which a lot of us saw in that format). It only just reopened in LOS ANGELES this weekend, but it hasn't been around here for months.

I know Oscar (like SAG voters) get screeners, but the film's blink-and-you'll-miss-it release can't help the film at all, and if Leo manages to nab that Oscar nomination it would have to be for one of the least seen films to get a major nod in a long time, right? (I'm not comparing grosses, so I could be off base -- but who's seen this film? Down to the Bone was easier to get to after Vera Farmiga's LAFCA Award a couple years ago!)
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Post by flipp525 »

Franz Ferdinand wrote:Cate Blanchett's predictably chilly non-performance in The Curious Benjamin Button

This is ridiculous. She gives one of the best female performances of the year.




Edited By flipp525 on 1232239293
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."

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Post by Franz Ferdinand »

Oscar Race 2009: Nomination Predictions - Actress
By: Ed Gonzalez On: 01/16/2009 15:06:42

One of the more frustrating aspects of the seemingly year-long awards season is watching pundits and prognosticators remain largely oblivious to their role in shaping the Oscar race. The noise people like Tom O'Neill make throughout the year feels as influential to this rat race as the awards handed out by critics, which makes it frustrating when these pundits refuse to promote films they've seen instead of lavishing free publicity on productions that won't come out for many months. These forecasters buy into the idea that films released during the beginning of the year have no chance at snagging Oscar nominations, and their disinterest in endorsing films such as The Witnesses and The Flight of the Red Balloon rubs off on distributors, when it stands to reason that some of these films might actually connect with Oscar voters if more awards watchers were less interested in snagging better batting averages than their fellow soothsayers.

But is this trend changing? Take, for example, the rather exceptional cases of Richard Jenkins and Melissa Leo. It's unlikely these two fine, older performers would be on any Oscar voter's mind right now if it wasn't for the concerted reportage of people like Awards Daily guru Sasha Stone, one of the few Oscar bloggers out there who seems to recognize that Academy members are among her readers, and who often took a break from conventional prognosticating last year to spotlight films and performances she felt should to be on AMPAS's radar. There's never joy in seeing films like The Visitor and Frozen River (both, curiously, without prime real estate over at Stuff White People Like) lapping up praise, but there's no doubt that Jenkins and Leo survive these risible films with their dignities in tact, or that Stone's coverage of the Oscar race is thoughtful in a way O'Neill's never is.

Without the efforts of persons like Stone, it's impossible to imagine Leo with a SAG nomination, something Sally Hawkins doesn't have—though Hawkins has something Leo doesn't: a Golden Globe and the adoration of the collective critical community, to say nothing of Meryl Streep's approval. If Hawkins, Anne Hathaway, Streep, and Kate Winslet are locks by this point, that leaves Leo to fend off Angelina Jolie for the final spot, assuming you believe Cate Blanchett's predictably chilly non-performance in The Curious Benjamin Button and Kristin Scott Thomas's heralded turn in Me Love You Long Time don't have enough fans. Jolie, who was arguably snubbed last year for A Mighty Heart, received both a SAG and Golden Globe nomination for her work in Changeling, and though she has big-studio muscle behind her, the Clint Eastwood film's tepid critical reception will undoubtably hurt the superstar actress. For sure, just as the buzz around Jolie's performance has continued to dissipate, Leo's has only built since being vetted by people like Stone (was this partly responsible for Sony Pictures Classics beating every other studio out of the gate with Frozen River screeners?) and catching the attention of both SAG and the Independent Spirit Awards.

Will Be Nominated: Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky, Melissa Leo for Frozen River, Meryl Streep for Doubt, and Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road

Should Be Nominated: Juliette Binoche for The Flight of the Red Balloon, Penélope Cruz for Elegy, Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky, and Famke Janssen for Turn the River
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