FNB Editorial

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2009

Now that we’re as close as we’re able to get to Oscar Eve (since this is our last dispatch before the actual awards and all …) we’ll wrap up our analysis of the whole shebang. As promised, we’ll start with the Best Actor race and then get to some other general thoughts.

We discussed Richard Jenkins in the very first editorial, a week ago, and so there’s really no need to rehash anything, other than to say we love his work. Brad Pitt and Frank Langella each gave wonderful performances (Langella, especially, was amazing), but neither really has a chance here, because it’s pretty much between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke.

Yes, we know we’re stating the obvious, but what else is there to do? Not like we’re going to go out on a huge limb and pick someone else, right?

Okay, so, both were fantastic —brilliant, even— but both have some serious cons working against them. To wit: Sean Penn is not the most beloved person in Hollywood, where even his politics are considered extreme (hanging out with Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, after all, aren’t the most popular moves). Mickey Rourke, meanwhile, has a wonderful comeback story, but there are those who think he was essentially playing himself (which, let’s face it, he was), and he hasn’t exactly done himself a great service with the way he has behaved during awards season.

Has Mickey peaked too soon? Is Sean’s personality going to work too much against him? We loved them both in their respective movies, but we think Sean’s performance was more impressive, so we’re going to go with that and call him the winner.

This, by the way, is the pick in which we have the least confidence. The rest? Might as well carve ‘em in stone. Book it.

Now, on to some fun stuff. We think the show, which tends to run long, will run shorter this time, because the producers have promised it. It won’t go under three hours, like they want, but we’re betting everything’s done well before midnight in the east. Show starts at 8:30, right? We say it ends at 11:34.

We think Mel Gibson is going to show up somewhere. We’re not sure where, but he’s got a movie coming out this year and hasn’t been seen since he declared his anti-Semitism some years back, so we think this will be something of a coming out party for him.

We think Hugh Jackman is going to rock. We’ve seen his talents as a host at the Tony Awards, and love this idea of getting away from a comedian to do the honors. A classic song-and-dance man with a big personality is perfect for this show, and we think he’s going to charm the pants off us.

We think we will miss Peter Gabriel, who will not be present to perform his nominated song from Wall-E.

We think Heath Ledger will get the biggest applause from the list of filmmakers who died in the past year (a tradition, by the way, we find terribly crass and unfortunate, but that’s a whole other editorial).

We think we love watching this show every year, and even though we’re not as excited about it as we have been in the past because of the lack of drama with many of the categories, we’re still looking forward to it.

Enjoy the show. We’ll be back with more editorials soon. 

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2009

Now that we’ve gotten this train rolling with our first editorial on Friday, putting on record our feelings about the Best Actress race, we’re amped up and ready to get our hands dirty with a couple other categories.

It seems to us that, as we mentioned previously, Slumdog Millionaire is probably going to win the Big Prize, and that Danny Boyle will take the Best Director statuette. We still think Milk is the best film of the year, and actually do hold out a small amount of hope that it will pull off something of an upset, but the fact that Slumdog (which we did very much enjoy, by the way) has pretty much swept all the various critics and guild awards (as well as the Golden Globes, not that those really mean anything) leads us to believe there’s not much more to it than that.

Likewise, it appears likely that the late Heath Ledger is something of a shoo-in for Supporting Actor. Let’s just assume that’s the way it’s going to turn out and move on to the main reason we’re here today: Best Supporting Actress.

So, okay. Where do we start? Unlike our previous opinion piece, there’s no over-arcing theme here, since Kate Winslet isn’t actually nominated in this category and all (though she should have been, but we’ve covered that, haven’t we?), so maybe we should just echo Best Picture nominee Benjamin Button and go in reverse, from the actress we think has the least chance to the one with the most. Unfortunately and ironically, that means we begin with Taraji P. Henson. She was great, no question, and some would say she was the best part of the movie, but it’s a pretty low-key role and we tend to think this is the one nomination that falls into the previously mentioned Richard Jenkins-Melissa Leo category of “Nomination Being It’s Own Reward.”

Next up is Amy Adams, who we totally adore, and who went toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep and made us all proud, but whose votes will probably be stolen by her co-star and fellow nominee, Viola Davis.

But let’s not get to Ms. Davis just yet, because first we have to discuss the amazing, fabulous, gorgeous and all-around spectacular Marisa Tomei. First of all, may we all look this good at the age of 44. Let’s just get that out there, so we’re all on the same page. As fantastic and eye-catching as she was though, and as heart-breaking a moment as she has at the end with the movie’s star, Mickey Rourke, right before he goes out to face his ultimate destiny, it’s Mickey’s movie. We’ll get to Mickey and his chances later this week, but we tend to think that Ms. Tomei (who has, remember, won once before, some years back for My Cousin Vinny) will be an unfortunate also-ran here.

And this brings us to the final two members of what we happen to think is going to be a two-horse race: the aforementioned Ms. Davis and Woody Allen’s newest muse, Penelope Cruz.

Let’s break this down like a fraction: Davis is in exactly two scenes for exactly twelve minutes, but is by far the best and most powerful part of what is, by all accounts, a powerful film. She also goes toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep and, astoundingly, comes out on top. Cruz, meanwhile, who often has trouble acting in English (see her in almost anything where she’s speaking her native Spanish, and she’s fantastic, we swear), but she lucked into two things: a fantastic part where her accent works for her, and working with one of our heroes (that would be the aforementioned Mr. Allen, duh), who has a habit of getting his actresses nominations and awards, most especially in the Supporting category (see: Sorvina, Mira; Tilly, Jennier; Davis, Judy; Wiest, Dianne (twice!); and so on …), and is now, in our humble opinion, the slight front-runner to hold the little gold fellow who holds a sword and has no genitalia (and thank you for that, Dustin Hoffman).

We think it’s going to be a close one (not that the Academy would ever tell us), but our small amount of money is on Ms. Cruz, though our hearts are with Ms. Davis.

So, that’s what we got on that. We’ll be back at the end of the week to wrap things up with the Best Actor race, as well as a couple other notable predictions. (Here’s a taste: we’re going to throw an over/under for show length at you that will blow your collective minds. Hugh Jackman stuff, too! Believe it!) 

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2009

As promised, here’s the first of a couple mini-editorials about the upcoming Oscars. Having looked at some of the coverage and the speculations about who will win and who should win and who might win and who doesn’t have a chance (sorry, Richard Jenkins, we loved you in The Visitor, but your nomination is your reward), there are a couple little things stuck in our collective craw here at FNB, so we want to just let loose a little.

First and foremost, Milk was our favorite film of the year, but we’re pretty sure Slumdog Millionaire is going to take the gold. Still, if Dustin Lance Black doesn’t win for Original Screenplay, we’re going to be forced to find a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and beat them soundly about the head and neck. Now, having said that, we want to focus the last bit of our limited space this time around on the Best Actress race (with a look at Best Actor and some of the others coming later).

When the nominations came out last month, we were initially aggravated, though at first we weren’t sure why. After thinking about it, we realized what our issue was: Kate Winslet —whom we adore and would pretty much pay to watch read the phone book— is going to win for a fair performance in a role that wasn’t really the lead in a film we don’t love.

Think about it: Meryl Streep is the greatest actress … well, ever, really, but she hasn’t won since right around when fellow nominee Anne Hathaway was born (1982, to be exact), and there are lots of people who think she chewed the scenery a bit too much for their tastes. Speaking of the lovely Ms. Hathaway, we tend to think that, as brilliant as she was, her performance falls under the Shakespeare in Love category that any young actress could have nailed it. Melissa Leo is great, but no one saw Frozen River and we figure she’s in the same boat as the aforementioned Mr. Jenkins.That leaves Angelina Jolie, and aside from the fact that the movie isn’t exactly beloved, it’s our belief that the members of the Academy would get their collective knickers in a twist if they suddenly realized that Angelina Jolie had two Oscars and Kate Winslet (the new Meryl Streep, after all!) had none.

And this brings us back to the fabulous Ms. Winslet. We were greatly saddened to see Winslet get this nom for what was primarily a supporting role, and the fact that she’s almost certainly going to win —for her career, for the fact that she should have won before, for any number of reasons, really, least of them being it’s the best performance of the year— is a bit galling (she’s been so much better over the years, but then, so was Al Pacino, and he won for Scent of a Woman, didn’t he?), but then again, we’d rather live in a world where Kate Winslet has won an Oscar for something than one in which she has fewer than Jennifer Hudson.

Still, the one thing that would have really made us happy? If the award had any chance of going to the actress who had truly given the year’s best performance. Sally Hawkins, we’ll be raising a glass to you on Oscar night.