2010 Diva Cup Awards: Best Supporting Actress

 Amy Adams

The Fighter

Ever since her breakthrough in Junebug, Adams has spent the last half decade typecast as wide-eyed innocents confronted by jaded people and situations which require her to rethink her naivety. With The Fighter, the normally perky Adams plays a hardened, seen-it-all bartender who falls for Mark Wahlberg's boxer. Quite a 180, but Adams is talented enough to make it work without raising any eyebrows. Ultimately, she's the supportive girlfriend, the one who urges her man to carry on with his work when he has given up and nearly all hope is lost. Adams resists the easy conventions of the role, playing up the ambiguity of her motivations in helping Wahlberg's Micky. Bale's and Leo's characters are, as the traditional narrative goes, the baddies of this piece, urging Micky to continue fighting for all the wrong reasons (to relive his former glory and to pay her bills). Adams would normally be the unequivocal voice of reason, but after awhile, it appears that she has her own motivations--getting even with Micky's family, for one, and trying to alienate Micky's affections--in motivating Micky. She's not a bad guy by any means, but the dark shadings to her character are a nice change of pace.

Marion Cotillard

Inception

Speaking of stock in trades, Cotillard has recently taken a liking to "woman scorned" roles. I wasn't as taken with her work in Nine as many others were, mainly because the film was an absolute mess. Inception, with its icy coldness and clinical, cerebral approach to its sci-fi narrative, needed an emotional center to make the whole film worthwhile. Cotillard provides that missing heartbeat and then some as Mal, the woman of Cobb's (DiCaprio) nightmares. She starts off as a vague, looming threat to our protagonist's main mission, but over time, Cotillard reveals Mal's motives for haunting Cobb. There are two things about about Cotillard's performance that ultimately fascinate me. First of all, I love the way she uses Mal's sexuality as a threat against anyone who tries to invade her and Cobb's world. When Ellen Page's character makes her way to the lowest level of Cobb's subconscious, against his wishes, Mal is there to fight her off. She saunters over to her in a tight-fighting dress, showing off all her curves and getting right in Page's face. It's a new and interesting way to play a basic scene. Secondly, her final scene, when Cobb finally reveals to her the truth about their past, is an unexpectedly emotional wallop. Cotillard brings clarity to a moment many actresses would have played for simple melodrama. How does she do it? I don't know, but I was considerably more invested in her emotional journey than the actual inception taking place in Inception.

Kimberly Elise

For Colored Girls

By now, Tyler Perry is well known for providing good, meaty roles in films for African-American actresses often ignored by mainstream Hollywood. For Colored Girls is Perry's most epic undertaking in this regard, as he adapted the famous choreopoem by Ntozake Shange with spectacular roles for 10 African-American women. One of these roles, a tired working mother who is balancing a demanding job with a demanding boss, raising her children and keeping her PTSD-effected husband from going off the deep end, went to Kimberly Elise and she absolutely nailed it. Given the above description of her character's life, Elise doesn't make her a victim of her circumstances. She doesn't wallow in self-pity about her tough life. She deals with it, whether that's doing something as ordinary as taking care of her children or putting on a brave, supportive (although she's secretly doubting him) face for her husband when he tells her he wants to change his ways. Elise wears her melancholy as if it's an ill-fitting bra; it annoys her all day, every day but it's something that must be tolerated. I do say, brilliant choices all around.

Mila Kunis

Black Swan

Like Black Swan's constant dualities between dark/light and good/evil, Kunis' persona is built on a struggle between her striking good looks and her varied talents as a comedienne. Her work on That 70's Show and Family Guy makes her look like an odd choice for a major role in a psychosexual ballerina thriller, but her comedic skills are precisely the reason her casting is such a triumph. Kunis' realness and the down-to-earth vibe she exudes are a stark contrast to the rest of the film and, ultimately, become Black Swan's lifeforce. I've seen Black Swan twice now and on the second time, after the initial mystery surrounding the film's "is she or isn't she insane?" narrative became stale and repetitive, Kunis' performance as the enigmatic Lily is the only remaining unresolved mystery. Lily's openness and levity becomes far more offputting than Barbara Hershey's calculated coldness simply because we have no idea where she is coming from. Is she just a friendly girl reaching out to a lonely, confused comrade or is she intent on stealing Nina's role and is only playing nice to get on her good side? We never know the truth and the film is all the better for it. Kunis is smart to not play into Black Swan's above mentioned dualities because by remaining a friendly cypher, she becomes a much darker and more imposing figure.

Thandie Newton

For Colored Girls

Between scores and scores of forgettable films, every half a decade or so, Thandie Newton reminds us why she is one of the most potent, alive and freshest actors around. She plays Tangie, a young woman who sleeps with random men as an outlet for her anger towards her super-religious mother (Whoopi Goldberg). Tangie is loud, angry and aggressive, automatically making her role baity and "look at me" attention grabbing. Sure, Newton does chew an awful lot of scenery, out shouting Phylicia Rashad, Tessa Thompson and Whoopi Goldberg on separate occasions. Underneath the loudness, however, Newton does fine work underscoring the hurt girl underneath. During a highly charged argument with her mother, it becomes clear that Tangie sleeps around as a way of punishing her unforgiving mother. Newton does fine work in this scene because she understands and shows that emotional abuse takes all forms and affects people in different ways. She openly hates her mother and everything she stands for yet she continues to seek her approval. Newton could have let the bigness of the role carry but she does a lot of heavy lifting to give the role more depth.

And the Diva Cup Goes to: Mila Kunis, Black Swan

Kick-Ass Supporting Actressing

Within a span of a couple days a couple weeks ago, I saw three great examples of supporting actressing that completely blew me away. Let's take a gander at these lovely ladies, shall we?

Ann-Margret in Bye Bye Birdie

The strength of Ann-Margret's performance here doesn't so much rely on her ability as a great actress--which, although my scope of her filmography is severely limited, I doubt she ever was--as the fact that she has incredible amounts of screen presence. Director George Sidney saw something in little ole Ann-Margret and it shows that he is working incredibly hard to find out just what he can do to make her stand out a little bit more. But it's not as if Sidney is doing all this work while she remains oblivious; it's evident that Ann-Margret is trying just as hard to use her talents to her advantage. Whether she's singing in that now infamous rendition (thanks to Mad Men) of the title song or dancing her ass off during 'A Lot of Livin' to Do,' Ann-Margret has that certain "it" factor very few film actors have. The fact that she remains nothing less than helplessly watchable during a sequence where she simply struts around in front of a camera is a credit to whatever talents she possessed. Her acting is hardly Shakespeare worthy, but she embodies the youth of the time with a subtle intelligence that proves she knew what she was doing. When she (initially) stands up to her overly possessive performance who insists that she doesn't kiss Conrad Birdie, the famous rockstar she's won a contest to receive a kiss from on national TV, Ann-Margret is a shining example of a new breed of female teenager, one who won't let a man tell her what to do anymore. Any angle you look at her, Ann-Margret is a fascinating creature and her work here is something I can't shake weeks later.

Fay Bainter in The Children's Hour

Bainter's performance as the grandmother who gradually believes the lies her granddaughter is spreading about the two headmistresses of her school is one of the great, non-discussed supporting performances of the 1960s. While the film's headliners, which include Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine and James Garner, are all generally miscast and emotionally aimless, Bainter is precise and on-the-nose everytime she appears on-screen. Her biggest and best scene comes very early in the movie in the famous moment where the granddaughter tells her grandmother what is "going on" at the school. She takes the scene in so many directions with a simple change of expression or intonation and she uses these wisely throughout the extended sequence. Bainter immediately disbelieves all of her granddaughter Mary's idle gossip but the wonderful thing about this early bit is that she's also completely bored and uninterested in what she's saying, as if she's heard all this before and doesn't have the energy to bother investing in it. Gradually, however, Mary's lies become more believable and Bainter has to struggle with whether or not she can actually believe the girl. She tries to cutoff the conversation, but something about the accusations draw her back in. And as she starts to believe Mary, Bainter backs off to the point where Mary appears to have all the power in the situation. She almost towers above her grandmother as the lies start to sink in and make sense. By the time Mary whispers in her ear about the relationship between the two headmistresses too indecent to be said aloud, Bainter is a goner and is believably sucked into Mary's web of deceit. Her work here in The Children's Hour may seem easy, but she is able to get a lot of emotion and intrigue out of a potentially tired "is she or isn't she lying?" plot without so much as breaking a sweat. Bainter is a true pro here in one of Oscar's finest Supporting Actress nominations.

Marion Cotillard in Inception

In a film (and genre) where acting is considered less important than impressive visual effects and action sequences, Marion Cotillard poo-poos that philosophy and decides to bring fire and passion to a project so sorely lacking any human emotion. Long after the "shoot 'em up" scenes are forgotten, I can still recall certain parts of Cotillard's performance that are just as potent and fascinating as the film's central mystery. My favorite scene is the one where Ellen Page has invaded Leonardo DiCaprio's dreams and has taken it upon herself to go down to the lowest level of his subconscious, ending up in a hotel room with broken vases and glasses strewn about the floor. Cotillard saunters over to Page in this strapless evening dress, towering over her with her hands on her hips. She proceeds to bitchily ask why the hell she's intruding, but the fascinating thing about this moment is the fact that she uses her sexuality as a way of intimidating Page's character. Cotillard is sexy as hell in this scene, but she's also on the verge of a violent outburst and the contrast is jarring to say the least. She walks a lot of fine lines in the movie, teetering on the edge of sanity as much as DiCaprio is, if not more. As what happened with the screening room scene in Nine, Cotillard's final scene in Inception provides the only emotional raison d'etre in the movie. Coming to terms with DiCaprio's explanation for what actually happened to her, she packs a real gutpunch in those few, terse minutes. This is, without a doubt, her most complete performance since La Vie en Rose a couple years ago and a sign that we haven't seen everything from Ms. Cotillard yet.

So Many Women, So Little Time: The Sexual Politics of Up in the Air and Nine

Hollywood has always been a man's town. Wait, scratch that. Hollywood has always been a middle-aged, upper-class, heterosexual white man's town. It tries to pretend it is diverse and changing with the times but, like Washington, D.C., it is still run by prehistoric white dudes. Not too surprising, I'm afraid, given the content of 90% of the crap Hollywood releases each year. How else do you explain Couples Retreat, a "realistic" movie where bloated and puffy Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn are somehow married to young, thin and gorgeous Malin Akerman and Kristin Davis, respectively? Something is obviously wrong with this and, yet, nothing ever seems to change. Looking at two of the year's Oscar contenders--Jason Reitman's "zeitgeist" dramedy Up in the Air and Rob Marshall's musical follow-up to Chicago, Nine--what stands out is that even the most progressive-appearing of this year's batch of films are still haunted by this male-dominated conservatism.

The fact that Up in the Air is being marketed as a "zeitgeist" film, the film of our times, is both laughable and alarming at the same time. It is laughable because the film's corporate downsizing/unemployment themes become so unimportant by the end of the movie, you barely realize the film has said anything about the subject. That's probably because Up in the Air doesn't. The widely celebrated "documentary" scenes with "real" unemployed people are hackily tacked on for some semblance of relevance that just does not exist. They offer nothing I didn't already glean from Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story and are so disconnected from the narrative they truly make no sense in the context of the film.


I am alarmed by Up in the Air's status as the film of our times because the film treats its main female characters as bad, if not worse, than TV treated women in the 1950's and 60's. When it is busy not saying anything about the recession, Up in the Air follows Ryan Bingham (George Clooney playing George Clooney), an unattached, isolated bachelor who works for a company that fires people, and his inevitable journey toward self-discovery and settling down. Along the way, he meets two women who help him change his lifestyle for the better. The first is Alex (Vera Farmiga), a fellow business traveler he has a one-night stand with after meeting in a hotel. Their relationship eventually blossoms into something where Ryan seriously considers giving up his jet-setting lifestyle and settling down with her. The other woman is Natalie (Anna Kendrick), Ryan's young co-worker who develops a program that further decreases the inhumanity of Ryan's job and threatens to ground him indefinitely. With these two women so vital to the narrative, you would think the film would treat them with more respect than they are ultimately given. For the most part, Alex and Natalie are portrayed as women who have many characteristics of men. Alex, at one point, rather vividly and bluntly describes herself as a man with a vagina. Natalie's introduction to Up in the Air is a scene where she introduces her video conferencing program that allows the company to fire people from the main office instead of in person. She is wearing a boxy, unfeminine business suit and adopts the cheesy mannerisms of a stereotypical 50 year-old businessman, cracking corny jokes and playfully grabbing the shoulders of her boss (Jason Bateman). To top it all off, in their own ways, both women are emotionally frigid and distant: Alex repeatedly insists that she does not want a complicated relationship with Ryan while Natalie is so focused on saving the company money, she does not see the inhumanity of the technology she has created. Normally, this would not be a problem, but Up in the Air feels the need to punish Alex and Natalie for wanting to act like men, pushing this idea that unless these women act like women, they are not truly women until they do. After a film-changing (and narratively ridiculous) twist toward the end of the movie, Alex becomes the villain of Up in the Air. According to the film, she's an evil harpy standing in the way of Our Hero from reaching self-actualization. I'm actually surprised that at no point does Ryan burn an effigy of her to further the point. Since Alex is so incapable of committing to Ryan, an unwomanly thing to do since women are wedding-crazy and solely focused on getting that ring, she must become the villain of the film. Natalie, on the other hand, gradually loses any male traits she had in the beginning, replacing them with softer, more traditional female traits. She gradually abandons her head-strong, businessman persona and becomes Ryan's conscience, urging him to give a chance on love with Alex. Up in the Air seems to suggest that successful females either have to choose between a career and love because women can not have it all. If you're a middle-aged man taking a chance on love for the first time while decrying the heartlessness of modern technology, however, you're off the hook. Puh-lease.


Even if the women in Up in the Air become muddled by the narrative, at least they occasionally appear to be real people (the scene in the hotel lobby between Clooney, Farmiga and Kendrick is the highlight of the entire movie). The same can't be said with the ladies of Nine who are nothing more than shallow, one-dimensional stereotypes parading around the film's soundstage. For a film all about a director whose entire life has been shaped and guided by women, it is disconcerting to find that none of these women are as complex or even interesting as Guido seems to find them. As Nine unfurls, it becomes increasingly hard to believe that anyone would have as many existential crises as Guido does about his wife Luisa (Marion Cotillard) and his mistress Carla (Penélope Cruz). To save time, I'm surprised no one thought to just name these characters Madonna and Whore to make the point even more clear. Think about it: what exactly do we learn about any of the female characters that we do not already grasp from their opening scene? Luisa is a saint for putting up with Guido's shit (although the film forgives Guido because, by golly, he's a hot-blooded Italian artist and fucking multiple people is a part of "being Italian"). Carla loves sex and loves Guido. That's seriously it. 'A Call to the Vatican' is a visual ode to the beauty of Cruz's body, but does not actually say anything about Carla besides she has a nice ass. Lilli (Dame Judi Dench) acts as Guido's conscience throughout the film but, even with the Dench touch, she still does not come across as anything more than a shallow plot device. Claudia (Nicole Kidman) has nice hair extensions. Loren, Hudson and Fergie are in the movie for so little of the runtime they barely register before they are quickly ushered off for more of Our Hero's insufferable suffering. Rob Marshall is so focused on the problems Our Hero faces juggling the numerous women in his life, the women become nothing more than pawns, or even obstacles in some instances, in Guido's journey toward making his movie. Not exactly a commendable attitude for a movie that has been non-stop in its marketing as a movie about all of these juicy, glorious actresses.

Up in the Air C-
Nine C-

"That movie was two and a half hours?! What happened in it to make it that long?

That quote was courtesy of my friend Megan after leaving Public Enemies about an hour ago. I agree whole-heartedly. For a movie with such a long runtime and with so much going on, it sure felt like nothing happened. Other first impressions: Depp was pretty dull, although I suppose that's because the screenwriters and Michael Mann weren't really concerned with Dillinger as a person. Christian Bale didn't use his Batman voice (thank God!) but it still wasn't exactly what I call high caliber acting. Where is the guy who gave us American Psycho (hell, at this point I'd settle for The Prestige)? Marion Cotillard was pretty and the scene where she taunts the FBI agent who smacked her around after she led them off Dillinger's trail was excellent but it's not the movie called for her to do much more than that. And why oh why would you waste Channing Tatum in a 30 second performance and not even bother to show his face or his chest? C

2007 Diva Cup Awards: Best Actress

Before I get started, let me just say that this was am incredibly hard choice to make in narrowing this down to 5 nominees. If you think Sophie had a hard choice to make, then you have no idea the mental anguish I went through in my elimination process. I don't understand why people keep saying that all the good female parts are gone because I consistently find Best Actress a hell of a lot more interesting than Best Actor (that could also be the actressexual in me). There were 8 genuinely strong, terrific performances that floated around my Top 5 for awhile and I literally had to toss a coin to decide between number 5 and 6.

And the nominees are...

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose
At once, both an outstanding, once-in-a-lifetime performance and an extremely polarizing one which has no doubtedly caused friendships to fail and caused deeply committed actressexuals to divide into heavily debated and vilified camps. For me, Cotillard's performance is one of a true movie star, going for broke with the up and down nature of the role- something Crawford and Davis in the 40's no doubt would have done.
Key Scene: "Marcel! Oh Marcel!"

Jodie Foster as Erica Bain in The Brave One
From my original rant: "[The Brave One] felt less like a vigilante film than one in which all of the security and complicity that Jodie Foster's Erica Bain has known before a brutal attack which killed her fiancee and left her in a coma has suddenly been erased. At first it is fear that replaces the security, but eventually it becomes an unleashing of one hell of a violent streak. She doesn't know where it comes from, but becomes a part of her all too quickly and easily (there is a great voice over that Erica gives while leaving one of the scenes of her crime in which she questions herself as to why she didn't just show them the gun so they would back off instead of shooting them straightaway). As this woman with a mission, Jodie Foster gives a career-best performance."
Key Scene: Discovering the drug smuggler Terrence Howard has been trying to convict for years in the elevator.

Nicole Kidman as Margot in Margot at the Wedding
Kidman's never been known as a "funny" lady (just go see Bewitched and The Stepford Wives for proof), but in Margot at the Wedding the most risk-taking (and possibly finest) actress of this decade finds the bitter and uncomfortable humor in her absolutely awful character.
Key Scene: The speaking engagement at the library

Ellen Page as Juno MacGuff in Juno
Page has the unenviable task of turning Cody's delicious dialogue into something that both sets Juno apart as a character and makes her a real human being. That she pulls it off without so much as breaking a sweat is further proof of the brilliance of this performance.
Key Scene: The abortion clinic

Tang Wei as Wong Chia Chi in Lust, Caution
This is a film debut?! Forgive me if I'm a bit stunned, because in Lust, Caution Wei absolutely shines with a kind of maturity most actresses in their 30's haven't yet achieved. I can't wait to see what she does next.
Key Scene: Easing into her "role" with Mrs. Yee

If Only There Were Six: Julie Christie, Away From Her No, this is not revenge against all the Cotillard-bashers who instead championed Christie. You don't know how much I wanted to include this one. This is, as a matter of fact, the direct result of a coin toss which allowed a certain actress in and Christie out. That doesn't mean I don't like Christie's performance any less- in all of its subtleties, it's one of monumental impact.

Rest of the Top 10: Carice van Houten, Black Book...Amy Adams, Enchanted...Nikki Blonsky, Hairspray...Keira Knightley, Atonement

BRONZE
Jodie Foster, The Brave One

SILVER
Tang Wei, Lust, Caution

GOLD
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Kidman and Dame Judi in Nine? Could This Cast Get Any Better?

You don't need me to tell you how excited I am for the rumors that Nicole Kidman and Dame Judi Dench are in talks to star in the film adaptation of the musical Nine. Two of my beloved divas together with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren, directed by Rob Marshall (Chicago)...I think I just died and went to heaven. I really don't want to overhype this movie in my mind, because then I know I'll be sorely disappointed when it comes out next year, but right now I'm just so excited to see Kidman sing for the first time since Moulin Rouge! and relish in divalicious presence of Dame Judi (who can also sing very well, if you haven't seen before).

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!

MARION!!!! TILDA!!!!

MARION!!!!!

TILDA!!!!!

I am so glad I was wrong with my predictions! These two totally deserved to win! Check back tomorrow with some thoughts on the ceremony and the winners.

Celebrity Photography

During the past week, both Vanity Fair and the New York Times unveiled their celebrity portfolios for the Oscar season and, for some reason, they have inspired polar opposite feelings in me. The Vanity Fair portfolio, released first, used the films of Hitchcock as an inspiration and couldn't be more beautiful. The New York Times portfolio, on the other hand, are pretty in an avant garde sort of way, but as celebrity photographs, they are horrible.

This revelation got me thinking about what the difference between "good" and "bad" celebrity photography is. I don't consider myself an expert or anything in the field, but I believe that photographing celebrity, at the very least, involves using everything you can to make the celebrity as good looking possible. The picture should revolve around them and their persona. For example, you wouldn't see Greta Garbo or Bette Davis back in the day fighting with any object or the background to be the focus of the picture; on the contrary, the photographer often concentrated just on close ups of their face or profile.

To show what I mean, here are my thoughts on various pictures from both portfolios.

Beautiful. Yummy. Tantalizing. As soon as I saw both James McAvoy and Emile Hirsch clean shaven and all gussied up in 50's fashion, I totally wished that this remake of Strangers on a Train would actually happen. I also love McAvoy's leer...so sexy.

And this is the epitome of bad celebrity photographing. What the hell was the photographer thinking with this shot. Paul Dano looks like one of those damn aliens from Signs, he is so fucking creepy. I just wish my eyes had never seen this horrific photo and that it can be erased from my mind Eternal Sunshine style.

This photo could have been all sorts of amazing, but instead of highlighting McAvoy's lovely face the bonehead photographer covers it with a shadow.

Jennifer Jason Leigh looks like such a monster here it's frightening and Keira Knightley is justifiably scared. Great homage to Rebecca.

And this is supposed to be a photograph of whom? You're guess is as good as mine. (Okay, apparently it's Jennifer Jason Leigh but there's no way you can tell through that thicket of woods).

Damn, Marion Cotillard is fine. And she is the perfect Marion Crane in Psycho. That last shot of her dead is absolutely chilling- her eyes are absolutely vacant.

In this one, Marion looks either A) constipated and trying to go or B) like she's just lost her breath from the harsh wind and she has to do an embarrassingly loud gasp to catch her breath.

Who is this distinguished older lady? I would seriously have no idea with all that hair covering her face if they hadn't put a caption underneath reading "Julie Christie."

Oh, excuse me, I didn't realize Seth Rogen had a small role in Rambo.

What a beautiful ensemble photo. Josh Brolin, Casey Affleck and Ben Foster are looking good, Tang Wei is to die for and the ever classy Julie Christie and Eva Marie Saint are as glamorous as always.

This is probably the best of the New York Times photos, but that's really not saying much. Look what they have to work with.

Wow, they somehow managed to make the 80-something year old Hal Holbrook look 20 years older with this photograph. How on earth do you do that?

Again, who the fuck is this? (Sienna Miller, apparently, but I probably wouldn't have been able to tell anyways).

Jodie Foster is one classy broad and I love this take on The Birds. Who knew behind that rough exterior she looked so damn hot (even while being terrorized by random birds).

In Defense of Cotillard

Every year at this time, the film bloggers get out their pitchforks and begin to vilify one of the most beloved performances of the year. Last year, they went after my girl J. Hud in Dreamgirls, claiming she couldn't act and claiming all the hoopla was overblown. She got the last laugh by winning the Oscar, but that still didn't stop the nay-sayers. This year, they seem to be gunning after Marion Cotillard's immaculate work in La Vie en Rose, where she IS Edith Piaf.

So what are people saying about Cotillard, you ask? Here are some of the choice words from a few of my "contemporaries" (I use that word loosely because they are generally better than me):

Nathaniel R. at The Film Experience claims that "'Edith Piaf' has no through line, no modulated character development: she's all big moments without connective performance tissue."

Josh R. at Edward Copeland on Film is the harshest of them all, offering many choice barbs: "really more of an extended drag act with subtitles...the voice is pitched somewhere between The Lord of the Rings' Gollum and the cartoon hag in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs...Cotillard's approach does not suggest anything even remotely resembling that which might be drawn from the recognizable realm of human behavior."

Glenn at Stale Popcorn claims: "Edith Piaf, as played by Marion Cotillard with an assortment of wigs and Amelie impersonations" and he hopes that "the 'omgsheISedithpiaf' campaign will run off the rails."

DL at The Cellar Door simply states: "I unfortunately can't even say the movie's only watchable for Marion Cotillard, because her irksome, overblown performance is half the reason the movie sucks."

While I respect everyone's opinion, all I really have to say "WTF?" to them. Did we really watch the same performance? I understand that the film itself was pretty much a pile of steaming crap, but Cotillard excelled in ways that the film couldn't. The film cuts across between different time periods so often and so confusingly that I really didn't understand Piaf's timeline any better than before the film. But, with Cotillard, I felt like I understood Piaf the woman. I don't know about anyone else, but I was genuinely moved at certain parts of the film and felt for Cotillard/Piaf extraordinarily. I was angry at her selfish mother in the scene in the bar before she's discovered; I was delighted for Piaf at the New Year's party when she was so excited to be around new friends and the promise of the new year; I was distraught during the scene where she runs maniacally through her house screaming for her lover Marcel; and I was about ready to cry tears of joy when the withered, shadow of her former self Piaf finds her last great hit "Non, je ne regrette rien" and is excited for the chance to perform it for everyone. She literally takes us on a rollercoaster throughout the film (one thing everyone can agree on about this performance is that it's never boring), culminating in that spectacular finale where her performance of "Non, je ne regrette rien" collides with her past, present and future. Her lip syncing is so convincing, so in the moment, that it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that Cotillard isn't actually singing.

A lot of people seem to be convinced that Cotillard overacts in the film (and to some, "overacts" is the understatement of the century). While I do see that she's loud, emotional and messy, I find that it's often for very good reasons. The life of Edith Piaf was not quiet, with just a couple of speed bumps along the way; it was extraordinarily painful with many difficult and awful memories to deal with. This woman is alive and Cotillard is simply reacting to what was happening to Piaf. Her performance is straight out of 1940's Hollywood melodrama and I don't believe it's a stretch to say that Goddesses like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford would have opted to play Piaf like Cotillard.

Let it be heard that I am generally not a huge biopic performance fan. I don't automatically go crazy when some actor or actress de-glams to play a "real" person and proclaim them the Second Coming of Christ for adopting an accent or developing facial tics. Sure, Hoffman in Capote, Witherspoon in Walk the Line and Dame Helen Mirren in The Queen all earned Diva Cup nominations from myself and were generally great performances, but did they deserve to win the Oscar? To quote Whitney Houston, "Hell to tha no!" Even among the nominees, there were generally one or two I liked better. Sonce of the year, you have to realize what a big deal it is when I find a biopic performance that I think should not only win the Oscar, but is also the best performance of the year.

So That Pretty Much Sucked

I'm, of course, referring to the Golden Globes "press conference" that just took place. Who the hell does that Billy Bush think he is- Roger Ebert? I don't even know who the hell he is, but I doubt he has any reason to be judging the winners in any of the categories. And what was with that low blow to Cate Blanchett after her win in Best Supporting Actress for I'm Not There? In case you missed it, he praised Amy Ryan to high heavens (which is probably the only decent thing he did all night) and then said something to the affect of "all she did was dress like a man" about Blanchett's win. What a douche.


Want to know what else sucked? My predictions. I got a ridiculously low 6 out of 14. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that I got some wrong (namely, Cotillard in Musical/Comedy and, to some extent, Atonement in Drama), but I wish I could have done better. Oh well. Atonement's big "upset" (I should have seen it coming, especially since Babel won here last year after receiving the same number of nominations and the most out of anyone) should push it into the Top 5 after the DGA/WGA snubs earlier this week. I hope that Cotillard's win closes the gap between herself and Christie in the race for Best Actress and it turns into a real bitchfest---that would be a dream come true. Here are the winners, in case you missed them:

Best Picture (Drama)- Atonement
Best Picture (Musical/Comedy)- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Actor (Drama)- Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Actor (Musical/Comedy)- Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Actress (Drama)- Julie Christie, Away From Her
Best Actress (Musical/Comedy)- Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Best Supporting Actor- Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
Best Supporting Actress- Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Best Director- Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Best Screenplay- Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
Best Score- Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Best Song- "Guaranteed", Into the Wild (m&l: Eddie Vedder)
Best Animated Film- Ratatouille
Best Foreign Language Film- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

So, in the aftermath of the butchered ceremony, I'm watching the new American Gladiators and it's every bit as great as I remembered it when I was a child....but what the hell is with all the water? And, oh shit this final race is very dramatic.

Random Top 10: Things I've Been Doing Instead of Updating

10. Watched a few episodes of Damages
And I'm loving every minute of it. Not only is Glenn Close fan-fucking-tastic (as always) but the show is so addictive I just want to go on a binge and watch the whole season in one sitting. I'm only three episodes in, but it's sucked me in just like Desperate Housewives and Flavor of Love did.

9. Saw both High School Musical and High School Musical 2...again
I am so not proud of myself for this one. I know both of them are complete shit (HSM 2 more so) but they are such perfect movies to sit around with friends and mock for a few hours. Plus, Ashley Tisdale as over-the-top diva Sharpay Evans delivers my new favorite quote in the first HSM: "Evaporate, tall person."

8. Saw Sweeney Todd...and loved it
People aren't lying...it really is Tim Burton's best film since Ed Wood. Johnny Depp was fantastic yet again and Helena Bonham Carter may not have the greatest voice but she understood Mrs. Lovett. And I normally hate kid actors (they're usually so pretentious and annoying that I just want to slap them...Abigail Breslin accepted, of course) but Ed Sanders was a real standout as Toby. Someone sign this kid up for a remake of Oliver!- he would be amazing.

7. Relived the 90's through VH1's Top 100 Songs of the 90's
So I'm only old enough to really remember the music from the last 3 or 4 years of the decade, but it was fun to go back and reminisce on what I could. Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was predictably number one, but I couldn't believe the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" was so high (like number three or something). If they were going to pick one, they should have went with "As Long As You Love Me" (which is still their greatest song). And was it just me or was Destiny's Child's "Say My Name" released in 2000? Maybe that's just when I first heard it or something, but that's what I seem to remember.

6. Mourned because the finales of my reality shows came on
America's Next Top Model. I Love New York 2. A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila. They all ended pretty much on the same week and it was quite a shock to the system. I need to find some new ones for the upcoming semester (praise Allah for American Idol, which starts soon).

5. Celebrated Christmas
I got Seasons 1 and 2 of House, the Criterion Edition of Breathless, some delicious truffles and washcloths and handtowels (which I desperately needed).

4. Worked on Year End Shit
My Diva Cup Awards won't be coming out for a few months (I have to catch up on movies) but my top songs and albums of the year are starting soon and should finish whenever I get done.

3. Noticed that the anti-Cotillard faction is starting full-force
I read this review of La Vie en Rose this morning and realized that the Cotillard-bashers are filled with venomous rage at her miracle of a performance and are making the J. Hud haters look like they didn't really give a shit. I guess I'll have to start preparing my defense of Cotillard like I did with my girl J. Hud.

2. Caught up on some 2007 films
Besides Sweeney Todd, I managed to see Away From Her and A Mighty Heart (in which Christie acts beautifully and Jolie ACTS, respectively), Sicko made me angrier and sadder than I've ever felt in a film, No Country For Old Men was breathtaking, but definitely deserves a second viewing (or three), The Lives of Others wasn't as spectacular as I thought it was going to be but it was still a mighty fine film (with a perfectly touching ending) and Ratatouille let me down in so many ways: for me, it didn't work as an adult film (no sly humor and rather aimless) or as a kids' film (no interesting, kid-friendly characters and the subject matter)

1. Working
Ugh, I spent so much time at work I wanted to hang myself. I don't want to get fired for naming names, but the soul suckers at my place of employment had me working WAY too many hours during my break. But now I'm done and can enjoy my last few days.