2008 Diva Cup Awards: Best Supporting Actor

Josh Brolin
Milk

With a character that could have gone wrong in so many ways in the hands of the wrong actor, Josh Brolin gets nearly everything right (I shudder to think of what Tom Cruise, one of Van Sant's original choices, would have done here). The role has a multitude of different dimensions to it--the fun-loving frat guy, the political "good ole boy," the seemingly secure guy who's not completely comfortable in his skin and, finally, the cold, chilly psychopath--and Brolin seamlessly synthesizes all of these components into one complex character. Brolin's winning performance here is proof that he has the capacity to be one of the most versitile actors working today.

Robert Downey, Jr.
Tropic Thunder

A dude playing a dude disguised as another dude. This description of Robert Downey, Jr.'s performance in Tropic Thunder was, besides Heath Ledger winning, the most consistent thing we saw at this year's awards circuit. It's obvious that the writers of these shows were at a loss for words on how to describe such an out-there nomination as this one and were forced to recycle this same line over and over again. This might have been a problem if this weren't the most perfect way to describe Robert Downey, Jr.'s creation here. The performance is so layered with different types of comedic and acting styles that only an actor with RDJ's varied filmography could have pulled it off nearly as well as this.

Emile Hirsch
Milk

When Emile Hirsch's name rolled around on the opening credits of Milk, I involuntarily sighed in exasperation. For some reason, after Into the Wild, the young actor's almost desperate desire to be taken seriously as an actor had gotten on my nerves. And from what I had heard about the role- a gay rights activist fighting for his basic human rights- it looked like it was going to be more of the same crap. Then, something unexpected happened: Emile opened up and showed us a side of him we've never seen before (or at least I haven't). He was funny, engaging, bitchy, touching, endearing and a whole mess of emotions I've never associated with him before. In fact, any preconceived notion I had of Hirsch was promptly forgotten after this thoughtfully handled performance and now I am actually looking forward to see what he is offering up next.

Bill Irwin
Rachel Getting Married

Bill Irwin's big-hearted father doesn't get as many big, look-at-me moments as his daughters do over the course of Rachel Getting Married, so he is forced to do most of his acting quietly and from the sidelines. This suits Irwin because it allows him to do some of the most vivid supporting work of the year without distracting from the "main attractions." Who can forget the eternally optimistic spin he can put on any moment, his absolutely unbridled joy at Rachel's announcement after the rehearsal dinner or his scrunched up face during his crying jag after Kym's return from the hair salon? He's the adoring father with abundant unconditional love to give out that every body would love to have.

Brad Pitt
Burn After Reading

Brad Pitt, for me anyways, is an actor who's always a pleasing screen presence, but I'd be hard-pressed (Fight Club aside) to think of a performance of his that's truly proved he has much acting talent. At first glance, Burn After Reading appeared to be yet another role that relied more on Pitt's natural movie star charisma than any real talent. Then, he appeared in his first scene and he made me laugh. Second scene, same result. Third time, here we go again. By the time we get to the moment where Pitt's Chad Feldheimer is sitting in the car, just staring at John Malkovich's character with a full minute of idiotic/hilarious facial expressions, I knew this was Brad's shining moment as an actor.

If Only There Were Six: Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Rest of the Top 10: Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight...Gael Garcia Bernal, Blindness...Richard Dreyfuss, W....Ben Foster, Birds of America

And the Diva Cup Goes to: Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder

Rants on W.

Having the misfortune of spending the Bush years in a backwards, hick small town while growing up in a strongly Democratic (or, at least, anti-Republican) household has always put me in an awkward position. For some reason or another, I always thought that young people could tell "right" from "wrong" and knew that Bush, like my parents had taught me, was the devil incarnate. Needless to say, I was shocked the morning after some presidential debate between Kerry and Bush in 2004 when nearly all of my friends loudly voiced their support for Bush (of the two friends who did back me-- we called ourselves "The Democratic Bitches"-- one also lived in a strongly Democratic household and the other's strongest attack on Bush was "He's really short"). The shock continued awhile later in my English class when I was put in the unfortunate position of single-handedly defending the anti-war movement against a plethora of Bible-thumping, ignorant-ass motherfuckers. I just couldn't understand how these people couldn't see just how much George Bush was fucking this country over. Didn't Fahrenheit 9/11 make it completely obvious, or did they just think Michael Moore was making everything up?

With my obvious hatred of everything Bush does and stands for, I was really fascinated to see what W. (Oliver Stone, 2008) was going to do with Bush's life: would Stone savagely rip him apart, turn it into a complete farce or make us feel for the poor man? Stone, somewhat surprisingly, opts to go down the softer road with a couple of amusing moments thrown in. A lot of critics would have preferred for W. to have been a lot harder on Bush and his dumbass administration, but I give Stone credit for not taking the bait. It would have been easy for him to turn Bush's life into a complete mockery, cutting him down to size. Instead, Stone dares us to empathize with the soon-to-be ex-president and I think that's a lot more daring than any political statement he could have made with this film. Open any newspaper, opinion column or blog and we can see that Bush is a complete fucktard; Stone wants to dig a little deeper and figure out why he's such an abysmal president.

I'm not going to deny that the film has problems: the tones change too wildly between overlapping scenes, there is a strange obsession with food that creeps into nearly every scene that's eerily reminiscent of that weird buffet scene in Myra Breckinridge and, towards the end, the film seems to come to a natural climax but then starts up again multiple times. However, the films best scenes easily outweigh the few that don't work. I loved all of the cabinet meeting scenes which delicately walked the fine line between farce and dark comedy. They effectively show how clueless and powerless Bush is without going over board on the easy jokes. At one point, Bush (played magnificently by Josh Brolin) tells Dick Cheney (a wonderfully evil Richard Dreyfuss), "I'm the decider" but we can all see who really runs things in the White House.

The ensemble Stone has gathered for this film is impeccable, one of the best I've seen in a long time. Josh Brolin is simply magnificent as George Junior. He could have easily slipped into cheap parody or sketch comedy characterization, but he makes Junior seem like a real person, flaws, quirks and all. Dreyfuss is the standout among the supporting cast; his line reading of "There is no exit strategy. We stay" when asked about Iraq is one of the most horrifying things I've ever heard. James Cromwell is emotionally effecting as the closed off Bush Senior. Jeffrey Wright, as Colin Powell, the lone voice of reason in Bush's cabinet, really makes you feel his frustration with everyone who can't see what a colossal disaster the Iraq invasion is going to be. Ellen Burstyn really makes the most out of her underwritten role, standing up to her illogical son and never letting a moment pass by in which she doesn't voice her opinion loud and clear. In fact, the only members of the cast who stick out in a negative way are Thandie Newton (she plays Condi Rice in much the same way Bette Midler would have) and Elizabeth Banks (although it's not her fault that the role is simply boring).

Like I mentioned before, Stone really makes you empathize with Bush on his long, complicated road to the White House. Long before he ever became the president, he was considered the fuck-up of the Bush family. He couldn't keep up in college, control his drinking, maintain a job or please his "poppy." The only reason he went into politics, according to the film, was to gain some respect in the eyes of his father. By the end of the film, you're almost ready to forgive him for the shit he's unleashed upon this country. I say "almost" because doing whatever you want and, consequently, screwing up one of largest nations in the world is a big price to pay to prove poppy wrong. Oliver Stone doesn't bring this up explicitly in W., but he knows it's running through the back of our minds and that's ultimately more frightening. B

I'm Seeing Double as Well

After reading this great post at A Blog Next Door, I noticed another peculiarity while at the movies this afternoon. Here's another instance of two very different characters saying the exact same thing:

Liz Lemon, when firing her potential boyfriend's current girlfriend, Liz Lemler, on 30 Rock: "I'm the decider."

George Bush, when admonishing Dick Cheney for having too much presence in the cabinet meetings in W.: "I'm the decider."

Oscar After Party!

What a glorious night last night was! Two upsets with two of my very favorites pulling ahead and snatching the prizes made me very happy to say the least. Although I didn't do very well with my predictions, only getting 13 correct out of 24 categories, I was still so happy at some of my mistakes (Marion & Tilda, Transformers getting shut out). Anyways, here are my thoughts about last night's ceremony, both the positives and the negatives:

Positives
+Jon Stewart hosting: I was initially a little worried about him, because, for me anyways, he's frankly hit or miss and I really don't find him that funny on The Daily Show. But, I have to say that he pulled through and did a really nice job. Not as good as Ellen last year, but still pretty consistently funny.
+Cotillard crying at La Vie en Rose's Best Makeup win: This was so funny to me and my friend Sammi that we made fun of it all night. In case you missed it, her reaction is priceless: she puts her hands over her mouth in shock, like she had just won the damn award and, I think, starts tearing up a little. Lord knows I love Cotillard to death, but she was an easy target for Sammi & I. For example, when the French guy won for Best Short: "Oh my Goodness! A French person just won! I'm so happy!" Or when The Counterfeiters won Best Foreign Film: "Oh my Goodness! They're European! They are so close to France!"
+Josh Brolin & James McAvoy presenting Best Adapted Screenplay: Swoon! Oh my, I couldn't contain myself with these two reading off those classic lines (McAvoy especially, with that beautiful Scotish growl saying "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" I melted right there). Way too many dirty thoughts going on there.
+Jennifer Hudson!: What a beautiful and classy lady. No matter what anyone says about her "undeserved" win, I will always love her.
+Letting Marketa Irglova back on stage: Jon Stewart didn't have to let her finish her speech, but I'm glad he did because I would have felt horrible for her the rest of the night. She delivered such a lovely speech that it was definitely worth the extra couple of minutes it took. Plus, I loved Jon Stewart's joke about them backstage (Glen: "Let's make the Oscar's kiss" Marketa: "But they're two boys" Glen: "Well, this is Hollywood")
+No Country For Old Men's Best Picture win: I did like Atonement a teensy bit better, but No Country For Old Men is definitely not something I can get upset about. After The Departed last year, it seems that Oscar is atoning for Crash two years ago by picking the right films this time.
+Diablo Cody's dress: It was leopard print, nearly see-through and had a slit up to her va-jay-jay...God, I love Diablo Cody.

Negatives
-The Enchanted Performances: Lord knows I love the songs from Enchanted (well, at least "Happy Working Song" and "That's How You Know") so it was just a shame that they were done so shoddily last night. Amy Adams did fine with "Happy Working Song" but she was kind of weak and almost seemed to be overdoing it with her voice. Maybe she's just no suited for live performances, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it could have been so much better. Kristen Chenoweth seemed the perfect choice to sing "That's How You Know" because she seems just as bright and bubbly as Giselle, but her voice, to me, was plain awful last night. She was warbling the whole way through and really tried to change the melody into something more difficult that what it actually was. And, as for that last one, let me just say that they should have gotten James Marsden to sing that because it would have been 1000 times better (and more memorable).
-The Dame Judi Dench Fakeout: When they announced Dame Judi Dench's name to present the next award, I looked over at my friend Sammi and was like "Oh my God, yes!!" I was getting ready to bow down in her presence when suddenly I see Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen coming out to present. What the fuck?! And then to have them argue about who was the Dame Judi Dench? That was ridiculous because I would have been her in two seconds. Poo-poo on you Oscar ceremony.
-The First 30 Minutes With Regis: The epitome of painful: Regis talking loudly, annoying contest winners hogging camera time, no stars I cared about (except for Cotillard) and Regis introducing "Xavier" Bardem. That was f-ing ridiculous.

Before I finish, I just want to mention this conversation Sammi and I had during the ceremony:

Sammi: Who's that sitting next to James McAvoy? Is it Keira Knightley?
Me: It can't be. She didn't come. I think that's his girlfriend or wife, I can't remember which.
Sammi: What?! Looks on IMDB Yeah, that's his wife. She's nine years older than him- I can definitely steal him away.
Me: Right. Just like I'm going to steal James Marsden from his wife.
Sammi: You don't have all the parts he likes- you need a vagina...and boobs.
Me: Whatever. 10 minutes later... Hey! Guess what my name would be if I married James Marsden...James Marsden!