OSCARS PREVIEW: HEADLINERS

Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist" – That beauty mark was a nice touch
Jessica Chastain in "The Help" – Is the foil – Worst Nomination Nominee
Melissa McCarthy in "Bridesmaids" – Is hilarious
Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs" – Is British in a weak year – Worst Nomination Nominee
Octavia Spencer in "The Help" – Netflix didn’t buy enough copies.

WILL WIN: Octavia Spencer
SHOULD WIN: Melissa McCarthy
BIGGEST SNUB: Amy Adams – the Muppet movie

To be fair, Bejo and Spencer would be deserving winners. But personally, McCarthy carried most of Bridesmaids between its weaker sections. I think comedy deserves more credit because it’s less scripted. I always prefer someone who made me laugh.

The Meryl Streep Award for Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs" – Damn the British – Worst Nominee Nominee
Viola Davis in "The Help" – Netflix didn’t buy enough copies.
Rooney Mara in "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" – Probably caught too much flack for not being the girl who originated the part. Let no one say she’s not deserving
Meryl Streep in "The Iron Lady" – Made a drama this year
Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn" – Pretended to be Marilyn Monroe – Worst Nomination Nominee

WILL WIN: Viola Davis
SHOULD WIN: Viola Davis
BIGGEST SNUB: Vera Fermiga – Higher Ground

The funny thing is, if there weren’t a TV version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, this might be a different race. Instead, Rooney Mara is forever in Noomi Rapace’s shadow. The Thatcher bio wasn’t beloved enough to win anything. An impression is not acting, especially if it’s not a very good one. That makes this race fairly simple.


Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in "My Week with Marilyn" – We may be renaming this category after him
Jonah Hill in "Moneyball" – Plays a pretty buttoned-down fictional character in a biopic – WORST NOMINATION NOMINEE
Nick Nolte in "Warrior" – Blurs the line between acting and just being himself with someone else writing the lines
Christopher Plummer in "Beginners" – Obligatory gay film nomination
Max von Sydow in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" – Thanks to The Artist, it was a good year to have a lot of screen time and no lines

WILL WIN: Christopher Plummer
SHOULD WIN: Jeremy Irons
BIGGEST SNUB: Jeremy Irons – Margin Call, Jeremy Stoll – Midnight in Paris

Being seemingly English (actually Canadian), old, award-less, and playing a gay guy is what we call “hitting for the cycle.” That said, the truth is that Jeremy Irons helicopters into Margin Call and turns it into a classic. Why our time is being wasted with Jonah Hill instead is anyone’s guess.

DDL Award Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in "A Better Life" – Because this category would be too white otherwise. WORST NOMINEE NOMINEE
George Clooney in "The Descendants" – Continues to soul search in low box office films, and then awkwardly stares into the camera while the credits roll. What a strange signature. At least his ego is in check – a movie about a woman leaving George Clooney for Matthew Lillard. Hmmmmm…ladies, is that as implausible as it seems from a distance?
Jean Dujardin in "The Artist" – Ohhhhhh, that’s why he can’t do talkies
Gary Oldman in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" – Is the best we’ve got when DDL’s cobbling shoes
Brad Pitt in "Moneyball" – Is Billy Beane, giving up my beloved A’s secret to success

WILL WIN: Jean Dujardin
SHOULD WIN: Brad Pitt
BIGGEST SNUB: Brendan Gleeson – The Guard; Joseph Gordon-Levitt – 50/50

Given that my sister was part of the Moneyball revolution and I’ve been a die-hard A’s fan all along, I feel too close to the material to fairly evaluate Moneyball as a movie. But Brad Pitt makes good movies because he’s a good actor. I narrowly give him the nod over Dujardin because he has dialogue and no help.

Directing
"The Artist" Michel Hazanavicius – Rookie opens with loving homage to old cinema
"The Descendants" Alexander Payne – Because George Clooney said so.
"Hugo" Martin Scorsese – Scorsese’s 3D movie is a visual masterpiece, and a loving homage to old cinema
"Midnight in Paris" Woody Allen – Keeps his neurosis in check
"The Tree of Life" Terrence Malick – Lets his neurosis run wild

WILL WIN: Michel Hazanavicius
SHOULD WIN: Martin Scorsese

I would agree with The Artist, except it’s 15 minutes too long in the sad part, and I can’t see how the Director didn’t see that. Hugo is an OK movie, but a masterful directorial accomplishment.

Best Picture

"The Artist" – A silent film about silent films. I'm not too jaded for that. Behind the gimmick, there’s some art and some great scenes

"The Descendants" – I’m not feeling the tonal dissonance in this “trouble in paradise” Clooney vehicle. I’ve come to wonder a) if Clooney enjoys making movies, and b) if so, why does he make so many joyless ones? It’s too bad Heath Ledger’s Joker can’t crash the awful Clooney Batman and ask him, “WHY SO SERIOUS?”

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" – Not a bad stab at a 9/11 movie. The Larry Crowne stink was still on Tom Hanks.

"The Help" – Netflix didn’t buy enough copies. Someone's going to figure out how to streaming me everything I want at some point soon.

"Hugo" – Scorcese’s 3D movie winds its way toward something similar to The Artist’s conclusion. A visual treat, but I admit to being epically bored at times, kept awake only by being mildly curious as to what Sasha Baron Cohen was doing in the movie.

"Midnight in Paris" – I guess we should always celebrate it when Woody Allen makes a watchable movie. In this case, it seems it was so that he could indulge this intellectual conceit about golden age nostalgia. It was good to see Owen Wilson in good spirits, and this was a good Hemingway. I’m more troubled by what might have been – this felt like a Fellini concept put in the wrong hands. There was potential for something greater, with a few better crafted artistic touches, a little more of the adventures in old Paris, and a little less of the successfully tedious Rachel McAdams and the cheap shots at her straw man conservative parents, which will date the movie badly. We need a Hemingway biopic, preferably by Wes Anderson.

"Moneyball" – I’m a life-long never-die A’s fan. This movie ripped open old wounds from the last time we were good, and robbed of a shot at a title by a few bad breaks. That these breaks went in favor of New York in Boston remains a notch against the notion of a just and loving God. It was odd to see them try to shrink a movie about an idea that unfolded over many seasons into just one, to do so while inventing someone else to stand in for Paul DiPodesta, and to tell the story of the Oakland A’s without focusing on any of the best players from that team. Anyhow, I can’t fairly evaluate this film because I keep replaying Jermaine Dye fouling the ball off his leg and Miguel Tejada being interfered with rounding 3rd base. Don’t bring up Eric Byrnes. Don’t do it.

"The Tree of Life" – If you don’t have ADD, Terence Malik movies can cast a spell on you if you’re in the right mood. If you do have ADD, they are boring. Really, really boring. This movie had the feel of being extremely personal. Indeed, some internet research shows that it is fairly autobiographical. I’m uncomfortable staring into peoples lives like that.

"War Horse" – The horse’s name is Joey? That’s the stupidest name for a horse I’ve ever heard. Why not Joey Joe Joe Jr. Shoobadoo? I’ll credit Spielberg for somehow finding a lead actor who both looks like Tom Brady and sparked the girl sitting behind me to giggle for 2 hours and loudly suggest that he had to be a virgin. Not without reason; the kid escapes World War 1 as naïve and rurally virtuous as he started. In so doing, Spielberg botches the whole movie. The concept was there – make a horse movie, use a horse to tell the story of World War 1. Horse movies, first and foremost, are about how beautiful horses are. And there’s plenty of that in the beginning. As the movie proceeds, we get a few Spielberg trademark “tell me don’t show me” lectures, a few great scenes like the No-Man’s Land horse rescue, and the rest seemingly farmed out to the interns. Then, Spielberg ruins the ending to give us schmarmy Hollywood crappolla and return to the same story he’s always told: reunite the family, this time in bucoloic rural England. But that’s not what World War 1 was about. World War 1 was about ripping to shreds rural romanticism. World War 1 was about families and societies gutted and destroyed. It wasn’t about going off to war and coming home to the farm; it was about going off to war and coming home to a different world, if you came home at all. This botch defaces the movie. The irony is that, if we had to nominate Spielberg, we should have nominated him for what he’s good at – the Tin Tin movie. I never read the comics as a kid, I saw this movie when I was beat tired and ready to go to sleep, and I generally hate Spielberg and all he’s come to stand for; in other words, I had no reason to like this movie. I can’t lie – it rocked. It was non-stop fun. That may not win awards, but it’s what Spielberg does well.
WILL WIN: The Artist
SHOULD WIN: 50/50
BIGGEST SNUB: 50/50

BIGGEST SNUB:
- 50/50 – Best Screenplay
- 50/50 – Best Film
- The Interrupters – Best Documentary Feature
- Pixar’s Movie – Best Animated Feature
- Amy Adams – Actress in a Supporting Role – The Muppets
- Vera Farmiga – Actress – Higher Ground (This movie is abysmal. But she’s getting up to Meryl Streep level.)
- Jeremy Irons – Actor in a Supporting Role – Margin Call – The most memorable performance this year
- Jeremy Stoll – Actor in a Supporting Role – Midnight in Paris – We could use a full Hemingway biopic. I think DiCaprio’s available.
- Brendan Gleeson – Actor – The Guard
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt – Actor – 50/50

WINNER: Jeremy Irons

WORST NOMINATION:
- Jessica Chastain in "The Help"
- Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs"
- Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs"
- Jonah Hill in "Moneyball"
- Demián Bichir in "A Better Life"

WINNER: Jonah Hill – Not much of an actor, not much of a role