Kathryn Bigelow & James Cameron: Oscar's War of the Lenses

The Oscar nominations are out, and while some who had a pretty good shot saw their hopes dashed (Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine for Best Actor; Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria for Best Actress; (500 Days of Summer), Where the Wild Things Are, Invictus, Nine, Julie and Julia and my personal choice of A Single Man for Best Picture; Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds, Julianne Moore in A Single Man and Marion Cotillard in Nine for Best Supporting Actress; Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story for Best Documentary; A Single Man for Art Direction...it was criticized as too pretty, but apparently it still wasn't pretty enough!; "Cinema Italiano" from Nine and "All is Love" from Where the Wild Things Are for Best Original Song), most of the nominees were unsurprising. In fact, with one exception (Kruger losing her spot to Maggie Gyllenhaal), all of the major acting nominees matched the SAG nominees.

Loved how the collected press applauded for the crowd-pleasing Blind Side noms...it's like American Idol where the best frequently don't win, but the favorites do! (Maybe The Blind Side is this year's Ruben Studdard.) 

Kathryn Bigelow becomes only the fourth woman ever nominated for a Best Director Oscar (so deserved), and has an excellent chance to become the first to win. Also, Lee Daniels is only the second black man nominated for Best Director (also so deserved; the first was not Spike Lee, but John Singleton). Also re Daniels, I don't have stats on how many out gay people have been nominated for the award, but Rob Marshall comes to mind.

As for nominating 10 films instead of five, it feels like a marketing gimmick to me, especially when only five directors are nominated—it feels like the five films whose helmers were ignored are just honorary mentions with next to no chance of winning. And I didn't find the extra five to be particularly interesting choices, either—they feel like films that should have been in the running but shouldn't have been in the final cut, or, in the case of The Blind Side, they're concessions to commercial juggernauts. (I guess that is this year's Ghost, except Ghost was able to be nominated when there were only five slots, and The Blind Side probably wouldn't have had a shot.)

But the Oscars are the original marketing gimmick gone good, so more power to the movies that benefit from the looser standards.

 

The full list of nominees follows (and more movie talk is available here), but my guesses right now for the top awards would be: Avatar (but Inglourious Basterds has a real shot and The Hurt Locker is not out of the question), Bigelow, Bridges, Bullock (she's had the momentum, but Streep could still pull it off in the more conservative Oscars), Mo'Nique and Waltz.

Nine's not one; more like a five and a half out of 10. Partly inspired, partly insipid, my take on it, bit by bit:

Daniel Day-Lewis, RATING: 5/10

Just call him "mistercast". One of our greatest actors, Day-Lewis tries hard, but simply doesn't have the charm (nor does he have the chops) as Guido Contini, the director battling a mid-life crisis. Guido is written as being on the verge of being annoying, saved only by his massive charm. Day-Lewis lacks the charm that Antonio Banderas brought to the sensational Broadway revival, mortally wounding the entire film. What a shame this film and his performance are nothing special considering he's made only four movies this decade.

Marion Cotillard, RATING: 9/10

Luminously beautiful and gifted with an actual part (something most of the other women lack), Cotillard is truly memorable as Guido's neglected wife Luisa. Once his beautiful discovery and muse, Luisa's apparently been replaced—again and again—by various other women who've crossed Guido's gaze. Cotillard's singing is surprisingly strong, making her something most of the others are not—a double threat (no one in the film is asked to dance for real, with lots of stomping around enhanced by Marshall's skillful editing).

 

Penélope Cruz, RATING 9/10

As gorgeous as Cotillard in an almost opposite way, Cruz gives a performance as the ditzy yet painfully sincere Carla that's so delicious it's a shame her character—like everyone's character—is not given more time to flower. She may not be able to suspend herself mid-air like Jane Krakowski did onstage, but she sizzles in her big number and touches the heart with her character's pathetic need for a man who's nothing but an appetite himself. 

An ubersexy new clip from A Single Man is just out (see after the jump), just in time for the Screen Actors' Guild nominations (yay, Colin! aw, no Julianne...), which are also after the jump, the only gasp-inducing shocker being the absence of Up in the Air from the ensemble acting category (the equivalent of Best Picture) despite honors for Clooney, Farmiga (who was really great) and Kendrick...

Madonna looked like her old young self at a Paper dinner honoring Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz. Now that she's back in NYC, she is out and about. I heard, but can't confirm, she and Lola were at Kylie's show last night and that she smiled at Kylie's "Vogue" hat tip. 

 

Pedro Almodovar's film noir homage Broken Embraces, which has gotten raves in most quarters except his native Spain, has been left off the short list for Oscar consideration. Spain chose The Dancer and the Thief, Map of the Sounds of Tokyo and Fatties instead, passing over its most famous filmmaker.

In Spanish Vanity Fair (Abril 2009), an exquisite new portfolio of (mostly) Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz, the leading lady in his new film Broken Embraces. I can't wait to see this new flick—I think he is my favorite director after Hitchcock at this point.

Sometimes, I'm so sad that my life could never pass for an Almodovar film. Other times, I'm grateful.

More after the jump...

Penelope Cruz is back, but more importantly...

...so is Rossy de Palma!

Outrate has a slew of images from Pedro Almodovar's newest, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces). Judging from the trailer (after the jump), it's got to be a Hitchcock pastiche or at the very least heavily inspired by Mr. Psycho...

Don't like Miley's dress and Penelope Cruz looks (gasp!) plain.

I was not aware that Lisa Rinna had, apparently, died.

Phoebe Cates is fucking ageless. Looks like she climbed out of that pool and onto the red carpet. Forty-five!

Everyone is buzzing about Mickey Rourke. After seeing The Wrestler, I had a hard time seeing how he'd lose, but Sean seemed to regain momentum, culminating with that SAG Award. But...I don't know. The Oscars have been doing rebound award a lot lately.

Speaking of him: How the heck did Mickey Rourke keep a dog alive for 18 years? He's barely kept himself alive.

I'm scared to see how Madonna is going to look and how her debut with Jesus Luz will go over.

As my buddy Jason said of the Slumdog kids, "Please return your tux before you go back to living in filth."

Brangelina are too far up their own asses at these events. Angelina, you are a mortal woman.

Zac's so cute, but he shouldn't refer to Dev Patel as a "kid." He did say Milk was his favorite movie (but buddy Lucas Grabeel appeared in it, so that might've swung his vote).

Viola Davis looks like she's wearing a Marilyn Monroe gown. I like.

Sophia Loren has more filler than an eighth-grade English essay, but still looks pretty hot. I'm dying to see Nine.

Ben. Lyons. Is. An. Idiot.

Frank Langella loves Nixon after playing him? FUCK THAT.

I totally knew Hugh would lead with an Australia joke.

I LOVE THE STAGE. I LOVE THE FORMER WINNERS PRESENTING. I WAS ABOUT HALF AND HALF ON THE KITSCHY SONG-AND-DANCE, BUT POINTS FOR EFFORT.