UPDATED September 1 Oscar predictions

It's about that time again.  In the weeks since my initial, first of the year predictions, not all that much has changed but a few hits and misses have been identified.  In particular, Tate Taylor's racial drama The Help was helped by decent reviews and a surprisingly stellar box office.  Given the Academy's "feel good" nature of late, this is the first certified Best Picture nominee of the year, and with it the one-two performances of Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer (however, the category whereabouts of Miss Davis has yet to be identified, but many are speculating Lead, though this type of role typically lands a win in Supporting).

Others interesting notes, Roman Polanski's Carnage, George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, and David Cronenberg's S&M-laced A Dangerous Method have made an interesting splash at the Venice Film Festival, but none have registered quite the level of enthusiasm granted towards Black Swan last year.  In the meantime, I've personally begun to turn more speculative towards Clint Eastwood's too-good-to-be-true J. Edgar.  Clint hasn't been hitting on all cylinders since he made a surprise splash into the 2006 Best Picture race with Letters from Iwo Jima.  That is one I'll wait for the payoff to predict.  Techs coming soon.

BEST PICTURE

The Artist

*The Descendants

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help

The Ides of March
*J. Edgar

Midnight in Paris

*My Week with Marilyn

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy
War Horse
(* indicates those I'm predicting only in an overflow capacity)

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Hazanavicius, The Artist
David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method

Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Steven Spielberg, War Horse
(Eastwood out, Allen in)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

George Clooney, The Descendants

Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar

Jean DuJardin, The Artist

Michael Fassbender, A Dangerous Method

Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
(Unchanged)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis, The Help

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
(Felicity Jones out, David in)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn

Albert Brooks, Drive

Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Christoph Waltz, Carnage
(Seymour Hoffman out, Waltz in)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Zoe Caldwell, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Marisa Tomei, The Ides of March

Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
(Tomei out, Spencer in; Redgrave new projected winner)

"The Artist" trailer arrives

This monumental hit at Cannes this year has finally been given a trailer.  After the poster landed a few days ago, we've been blessed with moving images from this silent picture.  The Weinstein Company is distributing this film, which means it will likely be a huge player come Oscar season.  I'm currently predicting it for Best Picture, Michel Hazanavicius for Best Director, and Jean Dujardin for Best Actor.  I've never experienced something like this in the Oscar race before, so it'll be interesting to see how a Buzzed-About throwback film fares.  Thoughts?


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Roman Polanski's a god of "Carnage"

Below, we have the trailer for the highly-anticipated and Venice Film Festival opener Carnage.  Based of a ridiculously successful stage play, Roman Polanski's adaptation stars a trio of Oscar-winners and one lone nominee.  Waltz and Winslet in particular look marvelous, with Waltz perfectly capturing the attitude I always imaged when reading the play.  It's still a mystery how this will play in this year's forthcoming Oscar race, but it sure is looking strong.  (Please mind it's enormity, overrunning the posting space).



And the poster, for good measure.

[trailer and poster via Twitch] 

Posters for A Dangerous Method, The Artist, and My Week with Marilyn

Three of my most eagerly-anticipated awards seasons releases have new posters.  One I adore, another I enjoy, and the final leaves something to be desired.  Either way, I'm sure we're looking at the mug of at least 5 future Oscar nominees.

Below, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, staring Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, and Michael Fassbender.

Below, Michel Hazanavicius' ode to silent films, The Artist, staring John Goodman and Jean Dujardin.

Below, Simon Curtis' much-talked-about film about Marilyn Monroe, aptly titled My Week with Marilyn.  Staring Michelle Williams as the title character, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, and Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike.

Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe

The newest picture of Dawson's Creek alum and two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as the famous blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe from her upcoming Oscar-hopeful My Week With Marilyn.  Myself, and many other Oscar pundits are predicting Williams to nab a nomination for her work in this picture.

My Week with Marilyn also stars Tony-winner Eddie Redmayne, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, Julia Ormond as Vivien Leigh, and Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike.

[Photo courtesy of Napier News and The Weinstein Company. ]

July Oscar Predictions

Okay, so I'm new at this official Oscar prediction thing. Before this, I would just haphazardly post my predictions in a forum post and call it a day. But now I'm going to do it monthly like most of my colleagues and sooner to Oscar season, weekly. If not daily.

Check out other notable predictors from my fellow bloggers: Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience, Kris Tapley at InContention, and Julian Stark at Movies and Other Things.

Individual categories clickable in the above tabs.  All listed in alphabetical order.

BEST PICTURE

The Artist

The Descendants

A Dangerous Method

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The Ides of March

The Iron Lady

J. Edgar

Midnight in Paris

My Week with Marilyn

Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy

BEST DIRECTOR

David Cronenberg, A Dangerous Method

Stephen Daldry, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar

Michel Haznavicius, The Artist

Steven Spielberg, War Horse

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

George Clooney, The Descendants

Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar

Jean DuJardin, The Artist

Michael Fassbender, A Dangerous Method

Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Felicity Jones, Like Crazy

Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn

Albert Brooks, Drive

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Ides of March

Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Zoe Caldwell, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Keira Knightley, A Dangerous Method

Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus

Marisa Tomei, The Ides of March

Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

Techs and screenplay races coming soon.

Teaser trailer for Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady

Much Oscar buzz has been floating around Meryl Streep and her upcoming performance as Margret Thatcher in The Iron Lady.  Many think the Oscar phenom is on her way to breaking her own nomination record with her 17th nomination.  Could this finally be her long-awaited third trophy?


Co-staring Jim Broadbent as Thatcher's doting husband, The Iron Lady hits theaters December 16th.  Picture of Meryl and Broadbent below.

[Thanks to Awards Daily for breaking the news]

Trailer for Pixar's Brave

The teaser and poster for Pixar's much-anticipated 2012 release, Brave, just came out recently, seen first by audiences treated to 3D viewings of Cars 2.  Needless to say, this new film should act as a credible rebound from their latest effort.  The film alone seems to be a major departure for the animation studio, which made its success in showing that animated films don't have to be about princesses.  According to IMDb, the synopsis goes a little something like this:

Scottish princess, Merida, defies her parents by persuing an interest in archery, but inadvertently jeopardizes her father's kingdom in the process.

Directed by Oscar-nominee and short film director Mark Andrews (One Man Band) and penned by the film's erstwhile director Brenda Chapman (scribe of Cars and Beauty and the Beast) and Irene Mecchi.  Featuring voice acting by very-Irish Kelly Macdonald as Princess Merida alongside Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Craig Ferguson, and Billy Connolly.  Trailer below.

Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

A few month ago, I formulated a small, crazy theory that, should Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy be good and released, that Gary Oldman would handedly be the man to beat this year in Best Actor at the Oscars.  Then the buzz waned slightly, people like Michael Fassbender, George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, and Leonardo DiCaprio became popular names when predicting, and by and large, Oldman was left off most pre-season predictions.

But I'm still banking on him. A veteran actor who's never been nominated and is beyond overdue and looks utterly remarkable in the trailer...what more could you ask for? I love me a good well-written espionage thriller with a Cold War backdrop. Also featuring a stellar supporting cast of Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch. How do you think it looks? Trailer below.

Trailer for Steven Spielberg's War Horse hits

A few days late, sorry about that.  The master is back to work, after a series of popcorn fair and an ill-received fourquel, he's back in presumably prestigious ground.  This drama, adapted from the Tony-winning stage show, looks to pretty good from what I can tell.  Said adaptation is done so by the Oscar-nominated duo Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), and stars newcomer Jeremy Irvine and vets Emily Watson and David Thewlis. Those few I know who have seen the stage show say it's thrilling, if only a little melodramatic. How do you guys think it looks?  Could this spell Oscar for Spielberg? Trailer below.



It's set for a Christmas release.

Freud, Jung, and sex = A Dangerous Method

See the newly dropped trailer here, at A Dangerous Method's website, since I'm sure the YouTube video below will be removed eventually.

Directed by longtime cult director and often Viggo Mortenson co-worker, David Cronenberg is helming this adaptation of Christopher Hampton's play A Dangerous Method.  Hampton also writes the screenplay.  The film looks more vibrant, positive, and less dark than the typical Cronenberg piece.  Viggo looks remarkable and unrecognizable in his role as Freud, seemingly to be playing the confidant role.  Keira Knightley, slowly but surely easing her way into being important again, looks to be a pure fireball in this film, complete with sex and a very accurate Russian accent.  Recently seen as Magneto, Michael Fassbender looks well on his way to a Best Actor nomination for his role as Carl Jung.

It looks a little too romantic for me, but something tells me the flowery score and trailer editing has something to do with that, since I rest assured Cronenberg wouldn't stoop to a star-crossed lovers/European romance sub-genre.  Right?

OSCARRR!

If I had predictions yet (which I will soon, rest assured!) I'd have this film in just abut every category, based on topic and pedigree.  I expect, coupled with X-Men: First Class for this to be a big year visibility-wise for Fassbender, which is always helpful come awards time.

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REVIEW: X-Men: First Class (B+)

(dir. Matthew Vaughn, 2011)

I've always thought adapting the X-Men mythos was a particularly hard undertaking, as proven in spades in the previous four attempts.  Unlike other superhero or comic books heroes, the X-Men aren't just one character and a bunch of villains, but rather a bunch of heroes and a bunch of villains, all of which need to be fleshed out well.  And that hasn't really been done, despite a whole four films trying to do that with Wolverine.

But nevertheless apt director Matthew Vaughn (of Kick-Ass fame) has managed to do it.  And quite successfully I might add.  Aided by a veritable pantheon of screenwriters (Vaughn himself, Ashley Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman, Sheldon Turner, and Bryan Singer), a rich and complex tale has emerged.  It's slowly becoming a trend to start the movies much the ways the comic themselves have started, with an origin story.  See: Batman Begins, Iron Man, Thor, etc.  And now the marvelous X-Men: First Class.

We first meet Erik Lehnsherr (played as an adult by best-in-show winner Michael Fassbender) in a Nazi concentration camp (the exact way the original franchise began), where when he's separated from his mother, exhibits his mutant ability.  Eventually his mother is murdered and he tortured by Nazi doc Kevin Bacon (who is simply wonderful as the film's primary villain), and thus Erik is turned into a human-hating mutant hellbent on revenge.  But in a nice way.  Just take my word on that.

Around the same time a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) meets a blue shape-shifter (Jennifer Lawrence) in his kitchen, and the two become good friends.  As the film unfolds, the actual plot (mutants are trying to start the Cuban Missile Crisis, causing a nuclear war, where the mutants will take over!) takes a backseat to a very carefully and astutely crafted story about acceptance and love, forgiveness and being true to yourself.  Ultimately some mutants accept who they are, boldly becoming what will known as the evil Brotherhood of Mutants and the others regroup and become the heroic X-Men.  It's so finely crafted that you feel for the supposed-villains by the end of it all, and we have one of the very first comic book films where the ends to justify the means as far as villains so.

For all the things that needs to click in this movie, the action, the acting, the mythos, the checkmarks, shoveling through backstory, etc. Vaughn makes it all smooth and entertaining.  When Professor X becomes the Professor X we know today, it's a shock even though we know just what we're expecting, but the film has so separated itself from the demands of the comics that when it does happen you forget it was supposed to happen.  It should be said, Lawrence was very good as Mystique, and throughout the entire franchise, that character's arch has been the most engrossing.  I'm pleased to see this film has reinvented and continued her path.

All in all, X-Men: First Class smashes all it's objectives: establishing backstory, developing characters, entertaining, and setting up the X-Men we know and love today.  But most importantly, it has laid the ground work for the central theme that was more or less devoid from the other franchise and was forever omnipresent in the comics and TV series: acceptance.  How is society accepting these freaks?  Am I a freak? Is it easy being blue?  There's even the division between those mutant who can hide their ability and those who are stuck with it out in the open.  Themes of race, gender, and sexuality are all applicable to this film and it's handling it just beautiful.  From an X-Men, this film get a mighty bravo.  GRADE: B+


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Warren Beatty Making Heaven Wait

Name that bad pun, readers only!

Okay, so one of Hollywood's most identifiable icons is returning from a quasi- self-imposed retirement.  Warren Beatty, or Mr. Annette Bening, began his career opposite a sexually curious Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass, and, 14 Oscar nominations later his last film was Town & Country.  Beatty is one of a very small group of people to have twice earned four Oscar nominations for the same film.  As Producer, Leading Actor, Director, and screenwriter he was nominated for Heaven Can Wait and Reds, pulling in his only win for directing the latter.  His most famous performances include Dick Tracy, Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, Heaven Can Wait, Bugsy, Bulworth, and notable flops such as Town & Country and Ishtar.

But he's back.  And, staying true to form, Beatty is on board to star, write, produce, and yes, direct the new untitled comedy.  Though I personally have never gone gaga over Beatty, it's nevertheless thrilling to see a legend return to his craft.  Paramount chairman Brad Grey talks it up below:

"Warren's script is quintessential Beatty, elegantly written and wonderfully entertaining," enthused Paramount chairman Brad Grey. "It is our privilege to have one of the great artists in the history of cinema come home to Paramount."

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The Muppets Official Trailer hits

After a fake trailer hit a few weeks ago, I'm glad now we finally get a sense of what the movie is going the be like.  Well, sort of.  We're getting the gang back together and hilarity, tenderness, sentimental speeches, and song and dance ensue.  Can Thanksgiving come any sooner?

I love the pun of The Dark Knight in the first few frames.  As the trailer unfolds, we see more and more reasons to look forward to this movie.  Adams looks in top form, and so does Segal actually (not to mention early Oscar Buzz for Kermit's performance...kidding).


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Oscars tweak Best Picture race...again

Well here we go again.  This quiets the haters, and keeps the quality.  Two years ago, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), extended their decades-old Field of Five nominating system.  In lieu of five nominees, we got ten.  Many people (not yours truly) weren't fans of this system, claiming that many were scrapping the bottom of the barrel to nominate 5 more films and that the prestigious nature and exclusivity of the "Five" was all but gone.  I, however, found nothing but merit from it, and because of it Up, Toy Story 3, An Education, The Kids Are All Right, District 9, Winter's Bone, and A Serious Man are Best Picture nominees, many of which, in my opinion, were far superior than the Assumed Five, or the Five that would have made it in with five nominees.

BUT, those days are behind us.  Not totally, but in a big way.  There's no longer 10 nominees.  Sometimes.  And we're back to 5 nominees.  Sometimes.  Basically, based on the percentage of Number One votes from the nominating ballots, we can be looking at anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees depending on how many films snag the coveted percentage.  Many Oscar followers complained that The Ten made precicting the Best Picture nominees devoid of excitement, and now we don't even know how many nominees there are going to be.

I fear, however, that should this year or even the next year bear 5 or even 6 nominees, that that could persuade the AMPAS to go back to their old Just Five ways.  We'll have to see though.  Time shall tell.

The thrilling press release is after the cut.

REVIEW: Midnight in Paris (A-)

(dir. Woody Allen, 2011)

There are many kinds of Woody Allen movies.  There are the good ones and the bad ones.  There are the tough-nosed Manhattan tales and his whimsical fantasies.  His dramas and his comedies.  For a man with such a specific style, he seems to blur such nuanced genres in line with his signature storytelling.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been doing much of that late.

Midnight in Paris is Woody's third European film, following London and Barcelona-based Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  When Woody experiments with style, sometimes it can be thrilling (Interiors, Manhattan Murder Mystery) and sometimes it can be awful (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda) but this fantasy tale so evoked the purity of the Allen form that it was a homerun from the beginning.

Set, obviously, in Paris, this is the story of a successful beat screenwriter (Owen Wilson) trying to fulfill his true potential as a novelist while vacationing with his snotty fiancee (Rachel McAdams, playing the role so well you hate her) and her equally snotty parents.  While there, Wilson falls head over heels for the City of Lights, finding that the purest pleasure from the city isn't material consumption, but rather just seeing the city.  Over and over he states how much wonderful Paris would have been in the 1920s.  It becomes very clear quickly that what McAdams and Wilson have isn't very meaty, which actually prompts Wilson's quest for fulfillment very believable.  One night, while walking the streets of Paris, the midnight clock rings, a 1920s car pulls up and transports him to the world of Paris in the 1920s where he meets artistic icons and one sultry muse.

It's been said that Wilson is the best Allen stand-in since Allen himself, and I tend to agree with that (after having to suffer the indignation of Josh Brolin and the atrocious Larry David), for Wilson understood and exacted the typical nebbish nature of the character Allen has penned.  Though, oddly, this successful Woody Allen film doesn't exactly have a standout performance.  In his career, Allen has been so prolific with writing great roles for actors and specifically actresses.  But in Midnight in Paris, a few bit characters really steal the show.  It's not the apt Wilson, the painfully truthful McAdams, or the perfect Parisian Marion Cottilard.  But rather, it's Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway, and Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí.

I dare anyone not to sit through Brody's sole scene without splitting a side; his ridiculous commitment to the absurdity of Dalí and his obsession with rhinoceroses is just magnificent.  Pill as the country-bumpkin turned booze maven is a delight, chewing her words and making Zelda just as we'd always imagined her.  Stoll, too, deserves some credit for not exactly having as a comedic a role as the aforementioned two, but still delivering a blisteringly true performance as Hemingway.

Overall, Allen's message in the film is a fine, clear one.  It's nice to see an Allen film not as focused on infidelity or sex as his previous films have been, and he's allowed his truly great story to shine.  It's a small, quiet tale told in fantastic measure, yet with such a profound and grounded conclusion.  I can say without hesitation, that this is Allen's best film in nearly 20 years.  Surely come Oscar time, this film will get at least attention for Allen's superb screenplay.  GRADE: A-

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The Girl with the Nipple Ring

It seems that director David Fincher, MGM, and super-producer Scott Rudin aren't relying on the worldwide and critical popularity of Stieg Larsson's book series or the original Swedish trilogy to sell The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to American audiences.  First, the leaked Red Band trailer (below) was speckled with teasing nudity and blood, and now the first glimpse of the poster (Tweeted this morning by @GuyLodge and seen larger here) has a very deliberate nipple ring to distract you.

I haven't read these books, but I plan to at least get through the first one before Christmas and this film in released.  The trailer looks utterly awesome.  Fincher brings back his entire team from the Oscar-winning The Social Network, including the editing duo of Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth who, judging by the beauty of the trailer, could be a serious contender at the end of the year.  Beyond the technical aspects, which I expect to be happily represented by the respective branches, I'm uncertain as to the Oscar prospects of this film.  Some people are waving the flag of back-to-back nomination for Fincher and even a Lead nomination for Rooney Mara.  Until we get a better sense of the quality (and even if they'll embrace this type of film) I'll remain undecided, but hopeful.

I need to get one my early predictions, too.


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Alec Baldwin and Russel Brand in "Rock of Ages"

What did I see while I was innocently scrolling through my Twitter feed today?  Oh just Rock of Ages and Hairspray director Adam Shankman tweet a hilarious picture of Alec Baldwin and Russel Brand (below) on the set of the film adaptation of the Tony-nominated Broadway rock musical.

I've never seen Rock of Ages live on stage, but I had listened to the soundtrack quite a bit, and from what I can  gather, Baldwin is in a pretty fun role as club owner Dennis Dupree.  Brand plays the comic sidekick of the leading man.  These are both supporting roles, so hopefully the over-the-top nature of Brand's acting and the apparent camp of Baldwin's costume won't be a hindrance.  I love Baldwin and I like Shankman, but I just hope the character doesn't go over the edge.  Can't judge a character too harsh by a cover though.

I liked Shankman's last effort, 2007's Hairspray, because he captured the spirit of the musical in a bottle.  Rock of Ages has a very lively if not heightened spirit, and I have nothing but confidence that Shankman will adapt this musical with as equal panache as he did with the 60s tuner.


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Looking Back: Working Girl

(dir. Mike Nichols, 1988)

I've spent years trying to locate this movie and watch it.  No, I admit that it's not the hardest movie to find, but I could just never get a hold of it on Netflix or the library or whatever.  And finally it appeared on Instant Queue and my long wait was finally over (merely by saying "Honey, Harrison Ford is in it," I convinced my fiancée to sit down and watch it with me).

It's the late 1980s and hotheaded-yet-business-savvy Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) is struggling to be more than just a peace of meat in the fast-paced world of New York business.  After calling her boss (a thin Oliver Platt) a pimp, she's relocated to the office of shrewd, shoulder-pad wearing Katharine Parker (played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver).  Weaver at first seems to be a kind boss, and in fact if I didn't know she was supposed to turn out evil, that slow section of the film would have been devoid of tension.  But it was just waiting for Weaver to do something bad or act like a witch, which she finally does after being betrayed by McGill.  When Katharine breaks her leg skiing, our secretary cum Wall Street virtuoso takes over her office and begins to set in motion a brilliant business acquisition (originally her idea) which Katharine had tried to deflate and secretly steal.  Oh, and along the way she falls in love with Jack Trainer, a sleepwalking Harrison Ford.

You always hear Working Girl references as being very, very 80s in both fashion and design.  After watching the whole thing, I'm less shocked and more flabbergasted that it was so beloved at the 1988 Academy Awards. I hardly find anything to dislike about a film that's nominated for some kind of Oscar; I may not love every film nominated, but I can at least appreciate why some people like it, but about this film, I have nothing good to say.

Well, Weaver was good.  But the buck stops there. Oh, and the song "Let the River Run" by Carly Simon.  There was one particularly good scene at the beginning of the film, where Griffith is set up with a trashy businessman perfectly played by an ageless Kevin Spacey.

"You SLUT!"

How this was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and three acting races is a little beyond me. Griffith seemed like she was lost without a paddle the entire time, and not just because she was a woman in a man's world but because she was put in the precarious potion of having to act.  Maybe it was partially due to Kevin Wade's comically atrocious dialog, but Griffith's emotional range never rose above mildly irked.  Whenever something huge or stressful would happen in the character's life, all Griffith could muster was a banal "Okay" or "Snake" before hanging up the phone or calmly turning around.  I rarely say this, but it really felt as though she was merely...saying lines the whole time, and trying to remember them halfway through saying them.

Joan Cusack and Harrison Ford were both criminally underused and hardly present.  Ford's allotted one good scene, and after that the rest of his character and thereby his performance are nothing short of predictable. Cusack could have had a juicy part, but really is only able to shine in one scene that takes place about halfway into the film; after that, she basically disappears and Griffith's full lingerie set becomes her new sidekick.

The most painful part for me, though, was that no one changed in the film.  No character has an arch, there's very little evolution.  At the beginning, McGill was tough-headed and business-minded, and at the end she still is, but the only difference is people's perception of her.  Ford's character certainly doesn't change, since he's never painted as anything close to the other Wall Street snakes in the film, so when he has a heart of gold at the end there's no big reveal there (he doesn't even sleep with Griffith the night the drunkenly meet and she sleeps over).  Cusack's Cyn isn't carefully imagined enough by the screenwriter to even have a change, so the only thing that evolves on her is the amount of eyeliner and hairspray she uses.  Not even Weaver could manage an arch; witch at the beginning and witch at the end.  This, I think, is why I couldn't care about any character...they were just all so flat and boring.  This movie was about a working girl, but it's a movie that needs a lot of work to get through.  The costumes are the highlights.  GRADE: D-


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Joseph Gordon-Levitt in "50/50"

Try not to love him.  I dare you.  Just try.  Women love him and guys think he's awesome, and I'll always remember him as the best part of 3rd Rock From the Sun.  Is there a person alive who can look as dapper wearing skinny ties and vests.



I'm foreseeing the possibility of this snagging an Original Screenplay nomination for scribe Will Reiser, given the indie dramedy feel from the trailer.  This type of film typically registers well with the writing branch, and if not the Oscars most certainly the WGA.

I loved Levitt's work in (500) Days of Summer, so he's proven he's capable of leading man work.  His character is going down a different journey in 50/50, but this could be a big showcase for this constantly almost-next-big thing actor.  The supporting cast looks fun, with greats thesps like Anjelica Huston, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Philip Baker Hall offering reefer snacks.  The only slight concern I have with the trailer is Seth Rogen and the way-too-obvious-and-too-numerous alone shots of Levitt.  But, this could be a fun movie.

Oh.  And how about that Anna Kendrick?  She looks great in it.


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