Marty's Party

Well. That's that. Despite its length, and despite at least an hour’s worth of unnecessary filler that made me long for Debbie Allen’s old dance routines or even Rob Lowe’s jitterbug with Snow White, it was somehow one of the livelier Oscarthons in quite some time.

Even though it began a week ago and even though you could hear a nationwide symphonic clicking of remotes to “mute” when Celine Dion was hauled out in honor of poor Ennio Morricone, the show was a bit more upbeat, stylish, and fun than I can remember it being for several years. When was the last time that the big stars of the evening were a beloved director and former Vice President?

Although The Departed isn’t the year’s best picture, its mini-sweep of editing-screenplay-director made its Best Pic victory a no-brainer by the evening’s end. And all of the movie’s winners - Thelma Schoonmaker, William Monahan, Martin Scorsese and Graham King – seemed so genuinely elated by their wins. The long ovation for Scorsese was especially nice (and certainly deserved).

I still don’t understand why winners are booted off the stage with that annoying “exit music” yet Jerry Seinfeld can yammer on into the night, offering up an endurance test that was almost as challenging as any number of those useless montages and that bizarre salute to the wonders of sound effects.

Can’t Philip Seymour Hoffman afford a haircut?

Am I the only one who felt a little sorry for Peter O’Toole?

In my next life, I want to be Catherine Deneuve.

Poor Guillermo Del Toro. To have your movie pick up three early Oscars and then lose Best Foreign Film, supposedly a slam dunk, must have been hard.

Ellen got off to a good start, but after the monologue she went the way of all hosts before her: unnecessary. It wasn’t her fault. They just never really know what to do with the host once things get rolling. Her schtick with the vacuum cleaner made me laugh, though.

I love Diane Keaton. Always have (even if her L’Oreal commercials are a bit creepy).
Like most of the women on parade tonight, she looked terrific. And how great to end the evening with her and Jack onstage together, especially having just seen them recently, again, in Reds. About Nicholson, have I missed something? What’s with the King of Siam do? He actually looks like Victor Buono when he played King Tut on Batman.

The overblown Dreamgirls songfest was a bit too much and sadly, a little too late. The gals were working hard but, like the orchestra that continued to play as the Titanic went down, it was difficult to enjoy.

Can we please pass some kind of legislation that forbids any future broadcasting of any red carpet repartee? The, um, “hosts” (for lack of a useful moniker) are, every last one of them, useless, fawning, mush-mouthed idiots. Who are these people? Didn’t they spend their childhoods watching and learning from Army Archerd and Rona Barrett?

So there we have it. Another Oscar night has come and gone. No Vanity Fair bash or Governor’s Ball for me. Instead, I think I’ll catch the end of Meet John Doe on TCM.

It All Comes Down to This

In a few hours, it will all be over but the shouting. And something tells me that this year, no matter what the final outcome, there will be a lot of shouting.

First, though, a hearty round of applause for Half Nelson so-stars Ryan Gosling and the brilliant Shareeka Epps for snagging Best Actor and Actress at yesterday’s Independent Spirit Awards. In this last prize party prior to the Oscars, the big winner was, not so surprisingly, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE with several nods, including one for best picture.

A host, a multitude, a nation of Oscar forecasters have emerged this season and all pretty much share the same predictions for acting and director, with the Best Picture race anyone’s guess. And most everyone has declared “who will win and who should win.” On this variation on a theme, I’m offering who I think will win and, if there is an upset, who would make for a fun (and deserving) surprise victory tonight.

Happy Oscars, everyone.

PICTURE
Prediction Little Miss Sunshine
Nice Surprise The Queen

ACTOR
Prediction Forest Whitaker
Nice Surprise Peter O’Toole

ACTRESS
Prediction Helen Mirren
Nice Surprise Penelope Cruz

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Prediction Eddie Murphy or Alan Arkin
Nice Surprise Mark Wahlberg

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Prediction Jennifer Hudson
Nice Surprise Adrianna Barazza

DIRECTOR
Prediction Martin Scorsese
Nice Surprise Paul Greengrass

FOREIGN FILM
Prediction Pan’s Labyrinth
Nice Surprise Water

The End is Near

It finally happened. I reached my limit today. I can’t read about, or think about the Oscars any more. Today, while spending way too much time at the invaluable Oscarwatch and then spinning off to various links, posts, and commentary, I must have read a dozen persuasive arguments for why Babel, The Departed or Little Miss Sunshine will most definitely win Best Picture. As of now, it appears that The Queen and Letters… have lost what little steam they had to start with, thus making them the two contenders for upset winner. Whatever. Let’s just get it over with.

It appears that the real race is still between LMS and Departed. The fact they are so different at least makes this an intriguing race (if there really is a race to the finish between these two). Comparing these two films makes about as much sense as the old apples-and-oranges exercise. How do you do that? One is a smart, heartwarming and economic comedy; the other is an operatic crime saga. Both of them apply, with skill and panache, the mechanics of filmmaking to achieve their purposes.
In the end, they are both very good –but not great—motion pictures. Great movies didn’t get nominated for best picture this year. I think there was some rule or mandate about that. That’s why Volver, Water, Pan’s Labyrinth and United 93 aren’t on the roster. Maybe that’s why I’m so crabby. As of today, my own personal Top Ten of 2006 would go something like this:
Pan’s Labyrinth
Volver
Water
Children of Men
United 93
Casino Royale
The Queen
Little Miss Sunshine
Dreamgirls
Babel

None of my top five makes Oscar’s top five. Now, taking one last look at the various Guild and Critics awards which we have been tallying since December, The Departed takes the lead just ahead of LMS. And, if my calculations are right, Babel follows, next come Letters, and The Queen stumbles and falls. Of course, as a dependable predictor of anything, this data is absolutely useless (he sighs with rather huffy resignation, still smarting from last year’s Brokeback snub.)

My disappointment in The Departed has, admittedly, softened a bit (although the third act still lags and languishes, and I just don’t believe Vera Farmiga’s character for a second). This is, like United 93 and Pan, so much a director’s picture, that even if he had one a couple of Oscars already, Scorsese should still be the frontrunner in that category. In the early part of the movie, there is vigor, an excitement, that takes us right back to Mean Streets. Scorsese has never stopped loving the movies, or moviemaking. So even if The Departed isn’t his greatest opus (and it isn’t), it is the best directed American film of 2006. Give him the award already and let’s now focus on The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.

So this is my last Oscar post until the much-anticipated morning after. (I say that anyway; but I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow.)

Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials...

... Just leave us alone." (Thanks, Mr. Beale. More to follow in a bit)

The Film Editors guild bestowed their Best of 2006 awards this past weekend.
In the musical/comedy category, Dreamgirls took the prize. Surprisingly, there was a tie between The Departed and Babel in the drama category (I had been predicting United 93 but quietly rooting for Casino Royale, which is just another indicator of how wobbly my predictions have been this season). I’m not so sure this award gives either of these movies a better chance at Oscar glory. We’ll see. At least the countdown has begun.

One of the nicest things about TCM’s "31 Days of Oscar" is the chance, while surfing, to check in with many old favorites. Even if you have the title in you own library, there’s something very comforting about dropping in for a few minutes and realizing that, no matter how often we gripe and groan about the winners, Oscar often gets it right, i.e.:
--Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
--Patricia Neal and Melvin Douglas in Hud
--Legends of the Fall and Reds (for cinematography; even cramped onto a TV screen, these are two great-looking movies).

--and, of course, Network. One of my all-time favorites. Maybe Sidney Lumet's finest film. Paddy Chayefsky's too. Anyway, I can't tell you how many times I have seen it but late one night, a week or so ago, TCM had it on. Fifteen minutes, I told myself...I won't even stay with it til Howard's "mad as hell..." just see it get started. Impossible. It's like Casablanca, or Godfather 2, or Psycho or Top Hat .... I'm hooked every time. This is another example of where Oscar got it right: were Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway ever better? (OK, maybe just as good in Sunday Bloody Sunday and Chinatown, respectively). We'll save the Beatrice Straight victory for another post. Still baffles me to this day. (If there was a Best Cameo, then the award was hers for the taking...but..oh well...)

Now, not to quibble, but to qualify for TCM's annual festival, all a movie really needs is a nomination. Even so, the inclusion of The Hawaiians (1971) is a bit of a stretch. This sequel to George Roy Hill’s hugely successful Hawaii, picks up where that one leaves off (and still doesn’t wrap up the Michener novel on which it is based). It had just one nomination for best costume design, which it lost to Cromwell. This is a second-rate potboiler at best, and one of my favorite movies growing up, for all the wrong reasons. The Globes, by the way, gave Tina Chen a nomination which was understandable. She brings a bit of gritty grace to the otherwise over-the-top shenanigans played by Charlton Heston (as Whip Hoxworth, which I think would be a great name for a porn star) and Geraldine Chaplin as his wife, Purity. Yes, that’s right. Anyway, it might be worth a visit, if not for the whole thing, then at least a juicy scene or two.

Women on the Verge of a Nomination

So I was having lunch with my good friend Carol yesterday and our conversation quickly turned, as it always does among likeminded movie fans at this time of year, to the Oscars.

After agreeing to disagree on the merits (or lack thereof) of The Departed and Dreamgirls, we could at least concur on the much-praised performances of Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Hudson. However, this prompted my reinvigorated rant regarding Hudson’s place among supporting actresses. Again, I would wager that she has just as much screen time as most of the Best Actress nominees. Compare this juggernaut performance to Oscar winning turns like Judi Dench’s in Shakespeare in Love, or Beatrice Straight’s peek-a-boo cameo in Network, and you have to agree wiht me. At least a little bit.

Hudson’s much-deserved acclaim and newfound celebrity cannot be disputed. She’s great. It’s just too bad that the other four nominees in her category, who are truly supporting, are being eclipsed. And then this past week, I need to add two more prize-worthy thespians to this group: Shareeka Epps in Half Nelson and the amazing, glorious Carmen Maura in Volver.

Epps, along with star Ryan Gosling and director Ryan Fleck, has garnered various newcomer and breakthrough awards for this film (plus a Best Supporting Actress nod from the Boston critics). As a wise-beyond-her-years inner city kid named Drey, Epps is lovely and tough and even a little heartbreaking. Award-caliber work, without a doubt. Just don't look for her at the Kodak next weekend. What a shame.

And then there is Maura. Where to begin? Let’s just say I came to Almodóvar because of her. It started around 1987 when I saw her in Law of Desire and immediately sought out anything else available on video. This quickly led me to a festival of early 80's comedies, all a little raw and naughty and smart, and all of them directed by Almodóvar. In other words, I ended up discovering one of my favorite directors by way of Carmen Maura.

Anyone who has seen Law of Desire can surely understand my fascination. To even begin to describe her fabulously fascinating character, Tina, one needs to give away about half of the plot turns. Just see it, ok? Maura has won a bounty of awards and nominations from various European film circles, including 4 Goyas. This one should have brought her an Oscar.

And while you’re at it, check out 85’s What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Almodóvar’s last raggedy-looking comedy before his production budgets began to soar. This is the one where Maura plays Gloria, a poor and put-upon cleaning lady who one day knocks off her abusive husband (she whacks him with a ham bone) and sells her randy teenage son to a dentist. And you really can’t blame her. Especially when the money earned on the sale allows her to buy a much-needed curling iron.

Anyway, a couple of years later, around the time of the dazzling Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, I wrote a piece on the Maura-Almodóvar partnership for the Dallas Observer about the time Cinevista video released some of their earlier projects. Searching through the archives this week, I found the article and must admit I pretty much agree with my rather giddy appreciation of Almodóvar’s talents. Focusing on Maura’s performances, I enthused….

Maura is even more mesmerizing in Law of Desire, Almodóvar’s dizzying sex-and-murder farce in which the black and white creepiness of film noir has been colorized with shocking acrylics….anarchy rules with often hilarious results. The film bubbles with betrayal, death, and copulation all fused together in a giddy observation of sex roles and gender confusion. At the middle of this whirlwind is Maura’s Tina, a voluptuous, tarty tornado who plows through life like a one-woman Greek tragedy. Scenery chewing is too often the result of unattractive egomania, but Maura somehow manages to tun it into something resembling an art form, something almost heroic…..like the Griffith-Gish and Bergman-Ullmann collaborations before them, Almodóvar and Maura seem to have found in each other the perfect partnership between director and star. Long may they conspire to delight us.

Alas, they actually went their separate ways after this and I must admit finding the director’s follow-ups much less interesting (especially stuff like The Flower of My Secret and Kika). Then the wonderful Talk to Her, and All About My Mother, and Bad Education came along, making way for the beautiful Volver which, for me, is just about perfect as it sustains the artistry of his recent movies and is enhanced by the return of Maura to his marvelous company of great dames. It’s especially fun to see her sharing a movie again with Chus Lampreave, the Thelma Ritter of Almodóvar’s stock company. They go back more than 20 years to that wacky (and, frankly, not so great) comedy about, well, wacky nuns, Dark Habits. When she first appears, it is a startling and breathtaking moment. It's almost as if her Gloria has returned, only a little older and wiser, and this is a reason to celebrate. From that point on she brings balance and dignity and quiet, heartwarming humor to a great tragicomedy about mothers and daughters. And while we cheer Maura and Lampreave, let's not overlook Penelope Cruz in the best role of her career, as well as Blanca Portillo, Yohanna Cobo and Lola Duenas, all of whom shared the Best Actress honors at Cannes this year.

I'm starting to ramble, I guess. Let's wrap this one up with a big thumbs-up to Sony Classics recent Viva Pedro which brings together eight of the director’s best works. The earliest movies aren’t included and I would certainly make a case for a DVD release of Labyrinth of Passion from 1982. Among its many delights, it introduces two of Almodóvar’s favorite players: the delightful Cecilia Roth (later to star in All About My Mother for which she deserved an Actress of the Decade award, if you ask me) and a 22-year-old Antonio Banderas in his second movie, warming up for his impossibly sexy scene stealing in Matador and Law of Desire a few years hence. It's crazy and a little reckless; its breathless rollercoaster of a plot and dizzying pacing prepare us for many of the great comedies yet to come.

Viva Pedro indeed. And Carmen, too. In my book, this year’s best supporting actress.

Writers and "Letters"

Members of the WGA handed out their trophies this weekend and, not so surprisingly, the screenplay awards went to The Departed (adaptation) and Little Miss Sunshine (original), thus giving both pictures a little more clout in preparation for their big showdown on Oscar night. It’s important to remember that the WGA awards are not the best precursors for the Academy’s best picture. A lot of WGA winners may go on to win gold in the screenplay categories, but fall short in the final Best Picture. Still, this year, from all reports, it is looking like these two are the major contenders.

It really is an odd year. Although the majority of soothsayers are settling on Scorsese, Mirren and Hudson at this point, the major categories still seem to have some mild quibbling over Supporting Actor (Murphy is the favorite but Arkin and Wahlberg are stil in the running) and Actor (despite Whitaker’s incredible sweep of all other awards, several longtime Oscar watchers are suggesting a surprise and sentimental victory for O’Toole). As far as Best Picture goes, it is still anyone’s guess. This is at least keeping things mildly interesting until the big night, now less than two weeks away.

As for yours truly, I cannot claim a solid, unflagging allegiance to any of the BP contenders this year. Personal favorite of the bunch? Little Miss Sunshine, without a doubt. Movie I most admire? Letters From Iwo Jima. Best acted? The Queen. Eventually I’ll need to make my prediction if I hope to win any of the numerous guess-the-Oscar-winner sweepstakes to which I am so easily drawn. I’ll probably go with LMS. And as soon as I do, The Departed will emerge as champ. Just watch. It happens every time.

A lot has been written this past month about Iwo Jima and I will agree with the praise and admiration heaped upon this very fine film. It is one of the best anti-war films ever made and perhaps the crowning achievement in Clint Eastwood’s career. Yet its surprisingly scant number of nominations (four) and the fact that it is in a foreign language hinder, I think, it’s chances of ultimate Oscar glory. Too bad, too, that the Academy failed to recognize with nominations for two of the year’s best performances (Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya) as well as Tom Stern’s cinematography and the fine editing courtesy of Joel Cox and Gary Roach. Cox has edited most of Eastwood’s movies and won a much-deserved Oscar for Unforgiven back in ’92. And Stern just won the 2006 Satellite for his work on the director’s other WW2 epic Flags of Our Fathers.

I’m not saying there isn’t strong competition in these fields already this year (and of those in the running, I’d go for Children of Men in Cinematography and United 93 for Editing,) It’s just too bad there isn’t room for a few more nominations here.

If you haven’t seen this one, do so NOW. It is easily the best of Oscar’s Big Five and demands (and deserves) to be seen on the big screen.

A Funny Thing Happened at the Siege of Mutina

It was a little jarring on Rome last night when Pullo looked up to see Octavian and, lo and behold, he had changed from Max Pirkis to Simon Woods. I suppose that dreary thing called historical accuracy demands that the young Caesar now be a bit more mature and manly than the young Pirkis could deliver. Too bad, he gave one of the best performances in a show that has gone from brilliant to bad in record time. But if we must say toodaloo to Pirkis’ aspiring emperor, I suppose we could do a lot worse than Woods’ grown-up version. He’s certainly dashing, and his scene with Allen Leech as Marcus Agrippa had a kind of softcore Abercrombie & Fitch-ish energy to it (But who was that Clifton Webb clone lounging around the tent whining about poetry?)
Anyway, there is plenty of fuming and fussing over on the HBO bulletin boards today as a result of this switch. Granted, it’s not as shocking as that time on Dynasty when Stephen, played by Al Corley, went in for some facial reconstruction and then turned into Jack Coleman when the bandages came off.

Overall, this second season has been a disappointment. I’m not a prude, but do we really need another torture scene? (More to the point, does poor Lindsay Duncan really need another torture scene?) Will Kevin McKidd ever do anything other than scowl? Why does Polly Draper’s no-longer-amusing Atia get so much screen time? Where are Sian Phillips, Brian Blessed and Derek Jacobi when you need them?

Decline and Fall, indeed.

Mrs. Moore! Mrs. Moore!

It’s that time again: as the last, feverish wallow in all things Oscar really heats up, we have our friends at Turner Classic Movies to remind us why we care. The annual 31 Days of Oscar is underway with wall-to-wall screenings of the Academy’s winners and nominees. Late Saturday night I re-watched part of David Lean’s last great epic, A Passage To India. Doesn’t really hold up like some of his other true masterworks but it’s worth the trip just to see Peggy Ashcroft's wonderful, career-capping performance as Mrs. Moore. In addition to her Oscar, she nabbed a few other Best Supporting Actress honors that year, and the NY Film Critics and NBR went to far as to elevate her to Best Actress. Good for them. And good for Dame Peggy. She deserved it.

Apocalypse Now

In the days leading up to announcing this year’s Oscar nominations, I noticed Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men showing up on several lists, not to mention its recognition by critics groups and guilds, especially for Emmanuel Lubezki’s eye-popping cinematography. This one was, according to its most loyal supporters, a true contender for the Big Prize.

I saw it last night and was most certainly impressed, if not moved, by Cuaron’s horrifying glimpse at doomsday, based on PD James’ novel from the early 1990s. The movie is a perfect example of a talented filmmaker and storyteller working at the peak of his talents. There’s a also a fine, raggedy performance at its center courtesy of Clive Owen (who I thought was the only logical successor for James Bond, that is until Mr. Craig came along…but I’m digressing again…).

Leaving the theater, while mulling on how much I admired this film, I thought about all of the other good movies this year that, like this one, are certainly praiseworthy but so depressing or even nihilistic: Babel, United 93, Flags/Letters, The Departed, An Inconvenient Truth, Little Children, even Notes on a Scandal. Acclaimed works, one and all, but none of them exactly uplifting. Could this be one of the reasons Little Miss Sunshine has captured the collective fancy? Are we drawn to it not because it’s a well-made movie but because, unlike most of its competitors, it makes us happy? Just wondering.

By the way, for a good appreciation of Children of Men, check out Jonathan Romney’s excellent piece in the current Film Comment.

While hanging out over at Oscarwatch, where I spend far too much time these days, I discovered yet another good blog, this one hosted by Edward Copeland. There is lots of good stuff here, including several posts that welcome and encourage response from his loyal readers. I quickly and happily jumped into the mix, in response to a good entry about how journalists continue to get their Oscar facts wrong. Another piece, “When Did Oscar First Betray You?” has a multitude of fun, even feverish replies. Check it out.

It was robbed!!
No matter how often we agree with the results of an Oscarcast, there seem to be more instances when we are enraged, appalled, and swearing to boycott the Awards for the rest of our lives. How often have you agreed with the Best Picture champ? If you ask me, they rarely get it right (exceptions being Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather II, and Schindler’s List which come quickly to mind.) So, let’s take a moment and rewrite history. If you were the High Priest/ess of Oscardom, what would you have anointed as the year’s best? It need not be one of the five nominees. Let’s only go back a decade or this thing could get really complicated. My choices are as follows:

1995 Sense and Sensibility
1996 Secrets & Lies
1997 Boogie Nights
1998 Saving Private Ryan
1999 Topsy-Turvy
2000 Almost Famous
2001 Gosford Park
2002 Far From Heaven*
2003 LOTR: The Return of the King
2004 Sideways
2005 Brokeback Mountain

*This was an unusually great year. In addition to Heaven, we also had The Hours, El Crimen de Padre Amaro, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Talk to Her, Chicago, LOTR: The Two Towers (my favorite of the three), Gangs of New York, Bowling for Columbine, and Frida.

Heavenly, indeed.

At Long Last Love?

After this weekend’s DGA awards, we can all start slouching towards Oscar night with one last round of debates and soothsaying. If Scorsese does emerge victorious, then I think his chances of taking his long-denied Academy Award are pretty strong. Should this happen, it would he his first DGA as well as his first Oscar. People seem to forget, when bemoaning the fact that he’s never been acknowledged with the little golden guy, that the members of the Directors Guild have been equally withholding.

Also, if Bill Condon or Valerie Faris & Jonathan Dayton take the prize, it will be the first time since Ron Howard won for Apollo 13 (1995) that the DGA would have honored a director without an Oscar nomination. And here’s where it gets really tricky: Apollo 13, like LMS, was at least nominated for Best Picture. If the DGA actually crowns Bill Condon, and granted this is unlikely, then he would be the first victor whose film failed to earn a Best Picture nomination from the Academy. That would be fun. Can you just imagine how much havoc that would cause? After all, it’s these little moments –like the surprise BP nomination for Letters - that nourish our love-hate affair with this thing called Oscar.