Oscar Nomination Round-up Part 2: Actress and Supporting Actress

Let's (a bit belatedly, but still before the Oscars!) take a look at the movies and performances nominated in the two Actress categories.

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close, ALBERT NOBBS
Viola Davis, THE HELP
Rooney Mara, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
Meryl Streep, THE IRON LADY
Michelle Williams, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN


When we found out that Meryl Streep would be playing Margaret Thatcher, my first reaction was "But of course!"  The first publicity shot of Streep as Thatcher confirmed my hopes: she looks PERFECT.  Unfortunately, THE IRON LADY is an ingenious casting idea in search of a movie.  I shouldn't be too surprised: THE IRON LADY was directed by Phyllida Lloyd, best known for her stage work and for directing Streep in the abysmal movie adaptation of MAMMA MIA.  The direction isn't very sophisticated; but then again neither is the movie.  Streep gets to wear (admittedly terrific) old-lady makeup in the framing device, but the main part of the movie (the flashbacks to Thatcher's rise to power; the war in the Falklands; Thatcher's demise) feels perfunctory, and almost without a point-of-view.  Which is shocking, since there are few figures in western politics in the second half of the 20th century as important and as polarizing as Margaret Thatcher.  And Streep's work is fine, even if it feels like a sketch.  (I was actually far more intrigued by the performance of Alexandra Roach as the younger Thatcher.)

Oscar Nomination Round-up Part 1: Picture and Director

So the first few weeks of 2012 have been a little hectic around here, and I never really had a chance to take a look back at some notable 2011 movies. And now, the Oscar nominations have come out - so this gives me a perfect opportunity to look back at 2011, and to complain about and/or praise certain choices made by the Academy.

Let's start with Best Picture and Best Director, two categories that are most often linked.

THE DESCENDANTS: Heirs to the glimmering world

A few thoughts on THE DESCENDANTS, and ranking Alexander Payne's movies.

Earlier this year, "The Five Album Test" emerged briefly as a meme.  It suggests that one way to determine a musical act's greatness is that they made five great albums in a row.  This was then extended to "The Five Movie Test": which great directors had made five great films in a row?  Personally, I don't think this test is a very good representation of an artist's greatness - a great director, like a great band, introduces a lot of risk in each new project, and risk is a key element of both success and failure.  But now comes THE DESCENDANTS, director Alexander Payne's fifth movie, and he's five for five.

FROM THE SKY DOWN

Some thoughts about Davis Guggenheim's fantastic documentary about U2 and the making of ACHTUNG BABY.



There's a common argument among U2 fans over the last 20 years: which is better, 1987's THE JOSHUA TREE or 1991's ACHTUNG BABY?  Depending on a number of factors (my mood; which album I'd most recently listened to; the phase of the moon; etc), my answer changes.  (Occasionally, it even shifts to ZOOROPA.)  What's interesting is that, although the albums were recorded only four years apart, they could not be more different.  Where THE JOSHUA TREE is anthemic, important, sincere, ACHTUNG BABY is groovy, sexy, ironic.  How did this band get from point A to point B?