Sunday, July 11, 2010

"Stone Cold Fox"

I love Mark Ruffalo...


...and iPhones.

...and Scrabble for that matter.

So, this screen capture from the trailer to The Kids Are All Right is more than all right. It's like a triple scoop of love. yum-yum-yum.

[This post has been brought to you by Nathaniel's ever growing obsession with The Kids Are All Right. You went this weekend right? Or you will as soon as it gets to your town? Word is that it will aggressively expand since the specialty box office is booming. Hurry up! P.S. I'll complete the July Oscar prediction revamps after I see Inception on Tuesday. Stay tuned.]

Further Reading:
Lisa Cholodenko Interview (at Towleroad)
Julianne Moore Interview (Nathaniel meets the goddess)
The Kids Are All Right Review (from Sundance)

22 comments:

badmofo said...

Can't wait to see it next week! Hope this leads to Oscars for Bening and Moore (+ a nod for Ruffalo finally).

Dylan said...

If I could combine those three and play Words With Friends with Mark Ruffalo.....I might explode.

adam k. said...

Nat, stop taunting us!

No, we aren't rushing out to see it, because it's in exactly 7 theaters!!!

I'm guessing all seven of them are clustered into 2 cities (or 3, max... it's probably in the Bay Area somewhere...)

They'd better expand soon. Here in Miami, the South Beach regal multiplex usually gets the specialty gay-ish films pretty quickly.

But anyway, I don't see how AMPAS ignores Ruffalo this time. Unless someone makes the boneheaded decision to get greedy and campaign him in lead. Maybe that'll be their excuse to dismiss him?

Also, really, I don't want Julianne to win a fraudulent oscar. I'm sorry, but I don't. Nat, I'm surprised you've abandoned your principled stand on this issue just cause you love Juli. Especially since you apparently don't even love this performance all that much (shut out of the top 7? already?? and you want it to win an oscar? the WRONG oscar??). It's Jake Gyllenhaal all over again! Except worse (he at least had less screentime and was absent for a good chunk at the end). You didn't want Juli to win for The Hours when it was in the wrong category (and only arguably so). You shouldn't want this to happen either! This supporting nom would be sooooo Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal. Except it might win (though it's usually hard for fraudulent noms to actually win... it's like they totally KNOW it's fraudulent, and they'll only take it so far)

I just don't like how when a leading perf is apparently just not good enough to get a lead nomination, all you have to do is move it to another category, where a nomination makes even less sense. Lame, lame, LAME.

adam k. said...

Dylan, you know, there's an actual iPhone Scrabble app too ; )

adam k. said...

Okay, I was wrong. 5 cities. Only 4 of which are in the U.S. 3 of which I guessed correctly.

Gaaaaah I want to see this movieeeeeeeee

/3rtfu11 said...

I have the biggest crush on him. I saw Shutter Island with my mother and was embarrassed by how exciting I was to see how Mark filled out his wife beater.

/3rtfu11 said...

Also, really, I don't want Julianne to win a fraudulent oscar. I'm sorry, but I don't. Nat, I'm surprised you've abandoned your principled stand on this issue just cause you love Juli. Especially since you apparently don't even love this performance all that much (shut out of the top 7? already?? and you want it to win an oscar? the WRONG oscar??). It's Jake Gyllenhaal all over again! Except worse (he at least had less screentime and was absent for a good chunk at the end). You didn't want Juli to win for The Hours when it was in the wrong category (and only arguably so). You shouldn't want this to happen either! This supporting nom would be sooooo Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal. Except it might win (though it's usually hard for fraudulent noms to actually win... it's like they totally KNOW it's fraudulent, and they'll only take it so far)

I just don't like how when a leading perf is apparently just not good enough to get a lead nomination, all you have to do is move it to another category, where a nomination makes even less sense. Lame, lame, LAME.


The longer Moore goes without a statuette the least likely she is to win one. Does she have to win in the lead category to validate her? Not to me. Pfeiffer, Close, Weaver all without Oscar --- their best bets are in the supporting category for makeup wins --- I’ve said before makeup wins are ugly.

adam k. said...

I'd rather Moore go down honorably with Pfeiffer, Close, Weaver, Ritter, etc. as a never-winning legend.

That's better than having your career forever defined by one good-but-not-great (by all accounts) leading performance that wins a supporting oscar.

Decades from now, those wanting to know more about her will immediately pop in The Kids are Alright and go, "huh? that's not a supporting role at all. she's the lead in this movie. why'd she win that oscar for this? that's lame" and then maybe they'll be less inclined to check out Far From Heaven or Boogie Nights, let alone a truly obscure gem like Safe or Vanya to see her true genius.

And a mainstream comedy, however good, funny and heartwarming, just doesn't make sense at all in terms of representing her career. If Boogie Nights and Far From Heaven oscars were not to be, I'd rather she'd have won for The Hours or A Single Man, since those campaigns/roles were at least...

A) not fraudulent (at least not blatantly so), and
B) quite in line with her overall career and strengths as an actress.

Moreover, word is the campaign plan is LEAD as of now. If they switched it later as a purely strategic, opportunistic move, it would look totally craven and rather lame, and might actually backfire on her nomination chances (and would taint the whole awards push for the film, at least for me). An honest lead campaign basically guarantees her a globe nom (always nice) and further momentum/goodwill, and may yet net her a lead oscar nom if the film really takes off.

It's the best way to go.

/3rtfu11 said...

I'd rather Moore go down honorably with Pfeiffer, Close, Weaver, Ritter, etc. as a never-winning legend.

There’s no reason in the world Moore should join that group. I’m really sick and tired of young starlets winning Oscars (Lead) and in the supporting categories one-hit wonders --- like Mo’Nique acting so non-chalet about the seriousness of winning a statuette.

Jeff said...

I hate that she could win a supporting Oscar! she has given so many amazing LEAD performances! for christ sake stupid academy.

adam k. said...

Well she's given a lot of great supporting performances, too:

Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Cookie's Fortune, The Big Lebowski, A Single Man, anyone?

NATHANIEL R said...

adam k -- i haven't abandoned my principles. I just said it would be fun to see them both win. and besides we all have our weak spots. At this point I'd take an Oscar fro Michelle Pfeiffer for directing an animated short or something, you know? ;)

I DO hope they're both campaigned lead. And i hope that if they are they're both nominated so that we can stop, for once and for all, this stupid idea that two people can't be nominated from the same movie. Which has happened many times in the past.

But Julianne winning in supporting would not be weird at all. Though she's a star, she's quite often a supporting player. She's rather like Cate Blanchett in that way and i see no reason why supporting is "lesser than" for that type of performer.

Meryl Streep winning her third in supporting would be REALLY weird on the other hand since she's almost always a lead.

/3rtfull -- the supporting category does have that one hit wonder problem yes. But Mo'Nique fully deserved hers.

Andrew R. said...

*looks up where it's playing*

Holy shit, some of those 7 theaters are near me! DAMN! I could've seen it! (Saw Predators and Despicable Me instead...)

Now I have to choose between this and Inception next weekend. (No way I'm going to be able to see both.) NOOOOO!

Lara said...

"That's better than having your career forever defined by one good-but-not-great (by all accounts) leading performance that wins a supporting oscar."

From all I've read so far, she seems to be great (haven't seen the movie, hasn't opened here yet). Some might like Ruffalo's or Bening's performance more, but she's still great.

MrJeffery said...

hilarious post. i am obsessed as well.

adam k. said...

Lara, I guess I was going by Nat's estimation of it's being only the 8th best lead actress performance this year even at this early date. And most people do seem to love Bening a lot more. But if she IS that great, then just campaign her in lead, get her the nom she deserves, and be done with it.

What would REALLY be cool is if both Annette and Juli were nommed in lead, and then they tied each other and both won.

Lara said...

Adam, from your lips to God's ears (and since Julianne is God, what could possibly go wrong ;-)).

/3rtfu11 said...

I DO hope they're both campaigned lead. And i hope that if they are they're both nominated so that we can stop, for once and for all, this stupid idea that two people can't be nominated from the same movie. Which has happened many times in the past.

But Julianne winning in supporting would not be weird at all. Though she's a star, she's quite often a supporting player. She's rather like Cate Blanchett in that way and i see no reason why supporting is "lesser than" for that type of performer.

Meryl Streep winning her third in supporting would be REALLY weird on the other hand since she's almost always a lead.


The studios don’t want to waste an opportunity for their actors to appease an unwritten unofficial rule of the Oscar obsessive.

Blanchett is too beautiful, too young, to be reduced to character actor status. Damn you Harvey “I bought Paltrow’s Oscar” Weinstein!

Streep having a Supporting Actress statuette holding her back from a 2nd lead is embarrassingly cruel.

NATHANIEL R said...

/3rtfull -- i think Blanchett's career bears out the claim. It's not just hte Weinsteins. She's often take ensemble work. She and Julianne have very similar careers actually. I don't think Cate's best approaches Julianne's best work (personally) BUT she is more consistent than Julianne at delivering good work in a variety of genres.

Adam -- you're taking the numbering too literally. I think it's a good performance for sure. Some of the ones i mentioend might not get released at all. And it has a way better chance of a nomination than some of them, too (even if she's competing against Annette Bening in lead I'd wager she has a lot better chance at getting nominated than Tilda, Jennifer or Michelle at this points who are all in tiny movies that won't get nearly as much attention.

gabrieloak said...

Doesn't everyone love Mark Ruffalo?

NATHANIEL R said...

gabrieloak -- if they don't, they should.

ak said...

Just saw this movie. LOVE LOVE LOVE. I think it should get noms for both actresses, screenplay, picture, director. One thing for sure, though, is that it sure as hell deserves the SAG ensemble prize.

I'm just happy that Juli has broken out of her rut and is taking interesting roles again. Ideally, they would both be in lead, but I can see the case for putting Juli in supporting. The movie has Annette with the central conflict of feeling like her whole family is leaving her, so it does seem like everyone revolves around her. I guess we could debate what the central conflict is, though...

I thought Juli's performance was done very well. It's not a showy role because her character isn't supposed to speak forcefully, loudly or authoritatively. She's supposed to be indecisive and I think a lot of people are confusing her submissiveness in comparison to Annette with her being less of an actress in comparison to Annette.

The children were also great actors, especially Josh Hutcherson. We were all 15 at some point and I think he captured the awkwardness of the whole experience well. It felt rather authentic and I can see myself behaving the way he did.

From the raves I heard about Mia Wasikowska I was expecting more than I saw. However, I do agree with Nat in that the final close up is stunning. I couldn't help but notice the tiny quivers at the edge of her lips as the car drove away