Busy away with Marion Cotillard, Eddie Redmayne and Robert Pattinson

The last month has been busy but off this blog. Like Tootsie with two personalities. One here. And One at The Film Experience.

I talked about Cate, Nicole & Keira doing stage all over the globe.

Welcomed Emily Watson away from the frumpy mothers she's played recently.

Worried about the release plans of Macbeth. Wondered what auteurs see in Robert Paatinson.

Waxed poetic about Elizabeth Debicki's costumes in U.N.C.L.E. And Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling's in La La Land.


Analyzed the posters and release plans of Beasts of No Nation. The first picture from A Bigger Splash and Eddie Redmayne's big fall Oscar campaign.

I've been busy. Read all of it here.

Updated Oscar Predictions

So much has happened since our last update. Toronto put Julianne Moore at the top of the best actress category. Fury opened and proved it won't compete for Oscar. Gone Girl became a HUGE hit. So let's dive in.

(All predictions in likelyhood of getting nominated).

Best Film

Fury is out, added Into the Woods since the featurette dropped today is to die for. Gone Girl soldified its spot. I'm iffy about Foxcatcher but I'll keep it in for time being.

Boyhood
Birdman
The Imitation Game
Gone Girl
Interstellar
The Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Into the Woods
Selma
Foxcatcher

Alternates:
A Most Violent Year
Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Actress

Pike is rising with the huge box office of Gone Girl. Sight unseen so is Moore based on the HUGE buzz out of Toronto. Witherspoon is quiet till the movie opens in early December where she'll pick up more heat. Blunt is apparently the lead in Into the Woods. My vote - and hope - goes to Cotillard who is again fantastic in Two Days One Night.

Julianne Moore - Still Alice
Rosamund Pike - Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon - Wild
Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything
Jessica Chastain - A Most Violent Year

Alternates:
Marion Cotillard - Two Days One Night  
Amy Adams - Big Eyes

Best Actor

Who's #4 and #5? I can't stand Eastwood and the premise of that movie is so macho and ra-ra Americana that I'm hating sight unseen so I'm not adding. Yes I have biases. I'm certain on my top 3 and despite all pundits saying it's a stacked year I can hardly find 5 to get excited about. Wishing Jake Gylenhaal or the guys from Love is Strange had a chance.

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
Michael Keaton - Birdman
David Oyelowo - Selma
Steve Carrell - Foxcatcher


Alternates:
Channing Tatum - Foxcatcher    
Ralph Fiennes - Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Supporting Actress

Our Grand Lady Meryl is getting nominated. For now I'm keeping her in this category since that's how she'll be campaigned but I think they'll want their favorite in the more prestigous category.

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood
Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep - Into the Woods
Emma Stone  - Birdman
Laura Dern - Wild


Alternates:
Jessica Chastain - Interstellar 
Carmen Ejogo - Selma

Best Supporting Actor

Boring as usual. Who is Miyavi? Maybe getting an answer to that question will make this category interesting. 

J K Simmons - Whiplash
Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher
Ed Norton - Birdman
Ethan Hawke - Boyhood
Josh Brolin - Inherent Vice


Alternates:
Miyavi - Unbroken       
Robert Duvall - The Judge

Best Director

Will we have 2 women in the category for the first time? Not ready to call that yet.

Richard Linklater - Boyhood
Christopher Nolan - Interstellar
David Fincher - Gone Girl
Alejandro G Innaritu - Birdman
Morten Tyldum - The Imitation Game


Alternates: 
Angelina Jolie - Unbroken       
Ava DuVernay - Selma

Review - Les Miserables

Let's just get it out of the way, Anne Hathaway is the main reason to see Les Miserables. More importantly she is the only reason to love the movie. Her performance is emotional, pierces your heart deeply and might well up the tears. She doesn't shy away from going big with the emotion ; it is a musical after all. It's exactly the kind of performance people who love musicals are looking for. She delivers.


Now I wish the rest the movie delivered as well as Hathaway did. It had all the elements : the beloved musical full of big numbers known the world over, an acclaimed director (Tom Hooper) coming off a big Oscar win; fantastic cast led by musical theater vet Hugh Jackman. The movie has a lot of virtues but it is not the fantastic musical it promised to be.

The movie starts strong, bringing chills and flutters as you hear that bombastic store and the camera pans over the huge shipyard and comes to pinpoint Jean Valjean (Jackman) and Javert (Russell Crowe) the hero and antagonist of the piece. Brilliant set up from Hooper, and he carries these panoramic views that open the action to some of the set pieces giving them epic grandeur. Curiously the only songs he shoots this way are Crowe's. All the others are shot in extreme close up. I get that he wanted to differentiate the movie from the play by highlighting the actors emotional work, but it doesn't work for every number. It works with Hathaway's ''I Dreamed A Dream'' since that song is about Fantine being at the end of the rope and feeling hopeless, trapped and alone so the the claustrophobia works. But why shoot Eddie Redmayne's ''Empty Chairs at Empty Tables'' this way when it's a song about Marius looking at where he and his friends used to sit and argue? Literally why not show the empty chairs and empty tables instead of just Redmayne's bee stung lips?

Jackman and Hathaway

Jackman carries this and as he goes so does the movie. He brings a tenderness and fragility to the performance that makes it endearing. However his singing came off flat. He did not accomplish full lift off with the emotion. "Bring Him Home", his big number, particularly suffers from this. I hardly noticed it. His duet with Hathaway in "Finale'' though is amazing and made me wish there was more of the two of them together.

Samantha Barks, the newcomer and only member of the cast to have played her role on stage, sings beautifully. However she does not have much screen presence making Eponine forgettable despite her screen time. Amanda Seyfried does the best she could with the thankless role of Cosette but does not have any chemistry with Redmayne. The fault is not theirs but the plot's since we are supposed to take for granted that they fall deep in love on first sight and that love is supposed to carry the second half of the movie. Redmayne on the other hand was my big revelation from the movie. He has a great voice and gives it his all , faring well particularly in his scenes with his revolutionary comrades. The less said about Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter the better. They stuck out with their very broad characterizations that didn't belong in this movie. Was this what Hooper intended? Bonham Carter is the major offender with her atrocious singing and Tim Burton make up.

Crowe and Jackman

Crowe was another major surprise. That he brings pathos and gravitas to his villain are no surprise. But who knew he could belt out with such gusto making us completely understand his conflicted righteous character. I think the dismissive chatter about his performance is because he does not do well with the sung dialogue, his voice comes out as off tune in those instances. However he completely sold his two big numbers.

If you are a fan of the musical you will love this movie version. However if you are unfamiliar with it, you might go ''huh?"' several times. There are plot gaps as they had to get the movie in under three hours. The rebellion is front and center then forgotten, the jump between the years is sometimes jarring and might confuse some. The never ending close ups might give you vertigo.  However there is enough emotion to carry you through.

Oscar Bits and Pieces - Best Supporting Actor

I've tackled my favorite Oscar category, Best Actress, first. Now it's time to tackle my least favorite acting category, Best Supporting Actor. Sometimes I just don't understand the nominations in this category. A particularly egregious year was 2 years ago when a bland Matt Damon in Invitcus and Stanley Tucci for a hammy villain in The Lovely Bones (same year he was so wonderful in Julie and Julia) were nominated. It is also a category that has managed to snub one of my favorite actors, Peter Sarsgaard 3 times (Shattered Glass, Kinsey and An Education). But it had produced a few excellent winners recently; can't complain about Plummer, Waltz and Ledger.

Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln 

This year more than ever this category is confusing me. There are very few performances that I really like, what's being bandied about as potential nominees doesn't seem substantial or particularly interesting to me. The one I whole heartedly endorse without a doubt is Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln. While he is doing Tommy Lee, he does it so well. He gets a lot of funny grandstanding speeches, gets to make fun of his rivals but above all he is the one character in the movie whose personal emotional connection to the historical events felt vital and real.

In the past I did not particularly like many of Philip Seymour Hoffman's performances. He was so obviously a child molester in Doubt; when we were not supposed to really know. Too over the top in Charlie Wilson's War. However I was pleasantly surprised at how understated he was in The Master. He was my favorite thing in what I thought was an over-wrought pretentious film. Won't be on my ballot but I can see why he will be nominated.

Goodman and Arkin in Argo

Alan Arkin is very funny in Argo. He has a few very funny lines and gets to deliver that movie's catch phrase - Argo fuck yourself. But that's what is considered best of year? It's a tiny role and he wasn't in the movie enough. A tinier role in Argo is John Goodman's. He has another tiny role in Flight. He is very good, funny and liekable in both. Maybe combined they'd make one substantial role. Will he get in or split his votes?

Everyone is over the moon for Robert DeNiro in Silver Linings Playbook. Look the man is a legend and I'm happy he is getting all this acclaim and awards buzz after years of unremarkable movies. What seals the nomination for him is a very emotional moment where makes a connection with his son and even gets to tear up. So obviously an Oscar clip and he nails it and assures his name will be called.

No one knows anything yet about Leo DiCaprio's performance in Django Unchained. But we know that Quentin Tarantino writes delicious villians and has a particularly good history in this category - Sam Jackson, Robert Forrester and Christoph Waltz nominated and Waltz won. Could he produce two nominees from Django? Jackson's in it too.

Eddie Redmayne in Les Miserables

And what about Les Miserables? Early word is that Russell Crowe acquits himself well, Sacha Baron Cohen is funny and Eddie Redmayne is a revelation. Of these I'd give Redmayne the edge because "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is such an emotional song, comes almost the end of the movie so it will be fresh in memories. But then again he's playing the romantic lead and this category usually favors oddballs and villains.

A couple of excellent performances are quickly losing steam. Michael Fassbender was very good in the uneven Prometheus but it seems the summer release has been forgotten. Dwight Henry is excellent in his debut in Beasts of the Southern Wild. He also has an excellent backstory; he was a baker discovered and given this big chance. But he missed on a Spirit Award nomination.

Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike

I haven't seen The Impossible yet but love Ewan McGregor. Could he finally get his first nomination? He has a lot of famous backers; Angelina Jolie hosted a screening in his honor. Also hoping for his first nomination is Matthew McConaughey after a landmark year in which he starred in three critically acclaimed roles in Bernie, Magic Mike and Bernie. Those 3 movies completely changed public perception of him and he could get nominated for Magic Mike.

Jude Law as Karenin

The performance that I truly loved and hope it gets noticed is Jude Law in Anna Karenina.This Joe Wright version really loves Karenin and Jude Law, in a warm quiet and introspective performance, shows the dull pull of duty and the unrelenting dogged pursuit of what's right. It's a great turn and so different than anything he has done before. The film's divisive reviews and so-so box office work against him though and he's unlikely to get mentioned.


For my final predictions I think Jones, Hoffman and DeNiro are definitely in. I'm struggling wit the last 2. I just don't see Goodman or Arkin getting nominated because their roles are tiny. McConaughey is campaigning hard and could benefit from an assured Globe nom. Redmayne is sounding stronger and stronger as people leave Les Miz discovering him. I reserve the right to change my mind as I/m still puzzled by this category.


Predicted Five : Tommy Lee Jones, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Matthew McConaughey and Eddie Redmayne.