Those who don’t follow the Academy Awards®, or who think the entire idea of award giving to be silly or unprofessional, can’t and probably will never understand the obsession that those of us have who do follow this admittedly shallow, yes, but nevertheless entertaining and hypnotizing glamour-fest. Are the Oscars® more often than not a popularity contest? Yes… Are the Oscars® wrong on occasion? Yes… (I still haven’t forgiven the Academy for Crash.) Is it an old boys’ club ruled by archaic principles and mores? Sometimes. But they’re also damn fun to follow, and even more fun to try to predict.
Nearing the end of the summer movie season may not be the best time to seriously look at contenders, for the majority of nominees won’t be released until November and December. But, what the hell, let’s get a jump on it before everyone else, stick our toes in the water, and leave ourselves wide open for public ridicule (not the first time, not the last).
Looking ahead at the release schedule, the prestige films of the year look to include Charlie Wilson’s War, a political drama with a Washington D.C. and Afghanistan backdrop, starring three Oscar winners, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s being directed by Mike Nichols, and the screenplay adaptation is by Aaron Sorkin. The story follows a Texas congressman secretly involved with rebel fighters. Being released just months before the primaries seems an ideal time.
There’s another big-ticket item due in December with an Afghani backdrop: Lions for Lambs, with the pedigree cast of Robert Redford, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep. And, Redford is directing. This involves a U.S. Senator (Cruise), a journalist (Streep) and a college professor (Redford), all affected by two injured soldiers in Afghanistan. Looks like politics will be taking it on the chin this holiday season.
If there’s one film that appears to be a cinch for Oscar® attention, it’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, director Shekhar Kapur’s follow-up to his brilliant 1998 costume epic Elizabeth. Cate Blanchett (who should have won that year as Best Actress) returns as the monarch, and if you’ve seen the trailers for this new film, just give her the Oscar now. Geoffrey Rush also returns as a court advisor, and Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh and Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scots, join the cast.
Positive buzz is already humming for a few films that will see September and October releases, including the Coen brothers’ latest, No Country for Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and, in what is being touted as a breakthrough role, Josh Brolin. It’s the story of a hunter who unwittingly becomes involved with stolen money and drugs. The plot sounds like it may not necessarily enrapture a lot of Academy voters (more Barton Fink than Fargo), but critics should eat this up, and word is that Tommy Lee Jones is a potential Best Actor nominee (this would be the Supporting Actor winner’s first in that lead category).
Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro are getting great notices for Things We Lost in the Fire; Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Best Supporting Actress winners Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino could all see nominations for the weepie Reservation Road, about two married couples dealing with the death of a child. Trailers are just now showing in theaters for Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, with Russell Crowe as a New York City cop and Denzel Washington, who appears to have the meatier role, as a gang lord, and this looks like it’s Oscar®’s particular cup of tea.
Michael Caine goes full circle by playing the Laurence Olivier part in Kenneth Branagh’s remake of Sleuth, with Jude Law cast in the part originally played by Caine in the 1972 classic, for which Olivier and Caine were nominees (let’s hope Law has more luck than the last time he reprised a Caine role, Alfie). Another remake could sit well with voters: 3:10 to Yuma, based on the 1957 semi-classic western with Glenn Ford. It now stars Christian Bale (who’s already showing his Best Actor chops in Rescue Dawn), Russell Crowe, Peter Fonda, and, in a show-stopping turn that will take everyone by surprise and, hear it here first, should earn him a Best Supporting Actor nomination, Ben Foster as a truly villainous sidekick.
Films already released that could be in play include Hairspray, a marvelously entertaining musical romp that could see a nomination for John Travolta’s drag routine; The Bourne Ultimatum, arguably the best movie of the summer, should see a few tech nominations; and La Vie en Rose, if nothing else, should see a Best Actress nom for French actress Marion Cotillard, who is superb as singer Edith Piaf. Another Best Actress nominee could be Julie Christie for her unsentimental portrait of an Alzheimer’s patient in the gripping Away from Her. Michael Moore could see his second Oscar® for the great documentary Sicko.
The best film released this year to date, Zodiac, probably will go unnoticed by Oscar® voters due to its early release, unless Paramount can pull off a great marketing campaign.
And the film that I personally have the highest hopes for arrives at Christmas, so here’s hoping that Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd is a big, glorious present for one and all. Based on what could be considered one of the ten best Broadway musicals ever, this adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece has Johnny Depp stepping into the shoes of the murderous barber Todd, and Helena Bonham Carter reprises the role first made famous by Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett, the meat pie shop proprietress whose secret recipe is the murdered customers whose throats have been slit by her razor-yielding lover Sweeney. And all to music!
Oscar® and Academy Awards® ©A.M.P.A.S.®
Image from No Country for Old Men ©Miramax. Our use of said picture to illustrate its Oscar® viability will undoubtedly jinx the film from being nominated for anything.
© TLA Entertainment Group
