Today's Must Watch: 14 (Silent) Character Types

Oh to have the New York Times arts budget. They've asked 14 actors to recreate classic character types in 1 minute segments and the results are at turns breathtakingly gorgeous (Natalie Portman), funny (James Franco), exciting (Javier Bardem), questionable (Jesse Eisenberg?) and sometimes plain old garden variety awesome (Tilda Swinton's Falconetti?) Yes please.

Tilda Swinton

Noomi Rapace

Anthony Mackie

But my favorite might be Jennifer Lawrence's screaming victim.

Watch all 14 here (also starring Vincent Cassell, Chloë Moretz, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall and Lesley Manville.)  It'll only take you 14 minutes!

*Live Blog* The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable

Y'all remember when I did this for the ladies so I figure it's twin-time. You have to have both pieces of a matching set. Not that I'm looking forward to this one as much. Impress or surprise me fellas! You're not actresses so you have to work harder to provide Film Experience jollies. (If you have time to watch the full video it's at the bottom of the post.)

1:00 Robert Duvall (Get Low) tells a rambling story about becoming an actor and reveals "my brothers were both professional singers." The Duvall Brothers, eh? I so wanna hear that record. Would it be like the Osmonds except with less smiling?

3:00 The discussion turns to acting as a rewarding profession. Colin Firth (The King's Speech) picks up this Duvall baton.

"You get to play all your life. Most people have to grow out of it. The fantasy thing stays alive which is wonderful. It can be a little hard on the people living with you..."

  He then reveals the dangers in staying a child when you're a grown-up. Those who do get very susceptible to external matters of fame; they become needy about attention and far too giddy if someone pats them on the back.

4:00 The first laugh of the hour comes from Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) who pats Firth on the back. Right then.

Blazing young star and seasoned professional.

 6:03 Firth is still talking three minutes later but the thing that struck me here is realizing how young Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) is. He just turned 30 two weeks ago. I never think about this but seeing him in this context I'm suddenly like 'oh, yes. baby star' Sometimes I forget that though actresses are regularly giant stars in their 20s, the male actors take longer to ascend. 

7:00 This is funny. The reporters try to lead Firth to name projects he hated.

Read more »

Heroics and Dastardly Deeds, Circa 2009

I should be finished wrapping up the unfortunately delayed FiLM BiTCH Awards for 2009 in the next few days. (This past spring roughed me up... ouch. Coming back to life now). But while I knock off the rest of the categories backstage enjoy the finalized nominations for Best Cameos/Limited Roles (with gold medals for Carrie Preston and Robert Duvall) and Best Hero, Best Villain.


Which do-gooder would you call on if you needed rescue and which villains do you most love to hate?

Oscar Prediction Discussables, The Actors!

Immediately after I settled upon my Best Supporting Actor predictions...

• Christian Bale, The Fighter
  
• Ed Harris, The Way Back
• Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
• Brad Pitt, Tree of Life
• Justin Timberlake, The Social Network

I was like 'Nathaniel, MARK RUFFALO!???' Alas, I couldn't quite predict it. Sometimes wishful thinking is okay and other times it feels like jinxing something. I think Ruffalo is fab in The Kids Are All Right, but like most of his work there's something that I think reads too effortless about it for awards bodies. Voting bodies tend to prefer sweaty and effortful (one might say gimmicky and over the top) to easy nuanced naturalism.

The Timberlake thing is a wild card pic. I think the role sounds good and I like to take risks. Shut up. Read all about it. As a non fan of Geoffrey Rush (sorry!), I'm not excited about predicting him but it seems like a totally obvious call. Since he's already achieved showbiz's Triple Crown (if not the EGOT) I'm hoping we see some new blood in there like Ruffalo or Sam Rockwell or Vincent Cassel or Aaron Eckhart (who ostensibly has a leading role in Rabbit Hole but you never know with film versions and campaigns). That is, providing any of them are worthy of a nomination.

I'm sorry to be redundant but it's a point worth underlining. Oscar predictions are never preferences nor can they be. Until we see the films who knows which performances we should root for?

Over in Best Actor, I've ditched almost all the obvious Oscar Bait Names like Bridges, Depp, Clooney and Penn. I can't fully explain why. Maybe I'm thinking this year will be a little less redundant? I feel less confident in this category but sometimes you just type away about your foolish year-in-advance hunches and afterwards you're like "Self. You crazy!"

• Robert Duvall, Get Low
• Colin Farrell, The Way Back
• Colin Firth, The King's Speech
• Mel Gibson, The Beaver
• Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter

Obviously you should click over to the Best Actor Page to see the madness behind the calls.

As for Robert Duvall in Get Low....

I'm seeing the film this week but I've been skeptical despite all the huzzahs over last year's festival season. I think what happened was that when publicists get over enthusiastic it raises too many alarms with me. I remember one press release claiming that not just Duvall but Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek gave "the performance of their careers" and I'm like 'huh, what now? Better than Lost in Translation? Better than Carrie or Badlands or Coal Miner's Daughter or... I mean ' Have you seen how great Sissy Spacek is in several movies? So I immediately became VERY suspicious of the hype surrounding this film. Which is why I think that I've only predicted it for this sole nomination. I hope the film is all they're saying it is because I'm actually seeing it with the ol' gang from the podcast very soon.

Incidentally if you're semi new to following the Oscars (as I know some newish readers are) you should know that Duvall, missing from the Oscar field for a little over a decade now, is one of their all time favorites. In fact, he's just outside their Top Ten Ever. When it comes to male actors it breaks down like so:

Oscar's Favorite Men

1. Jack Nicholson (12 nominations, 3 wins)
2. Sir Laurence Olivier (10 nominations, 1 win)
3. Spencer Tracy (9 nominations, 2 wins)
4. Paul Newman (9 nominations, 1 win)
5. (tie) Marlon Brando and Jack Lemmon (8 nominations, 2 wins)
6. Al Pacino (8 nominations, 1 win)
7. Peter O'Toole (8 nominations, 0 wins)
8. Dustin Hoffman (7 nominations, 2 wins)
9. Richard Burton (7 nominations, 0 wins)
10. (tie) Michael Caine and Robert DeNiro (6 nominations, 2 wins)
11. Robert Duvall (6 nominations, 1 win)
    

Who are you excited about this year in the male acting categories?
And what do you think of this first batch of predictions? [complete prediction list thus far]

We Can't Wait #13 The Road

Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall
Synopsis In a post-apocalyptic world a father and son travel around the wasted country side trying to find food, water, and shelter in the most hostile environment imaginable.
Brought to You By 2929 Productions
Expected Release Date TBA


Whitney: Cormac McCarthy has a way of writing that lends itself to the screen. Coming from the director of The Proposition, the screen captures we've seen so far are looking pretty dead on. This novel reads almost like a vague script, focusing on quick images and horrifying details that leaves a lot to the imagination, and yet leaves a clear nightmare with you long after reading. I actually just received a copy as a wedding present!

Nathaniel: To be given The Road as a wedding present is... is... someone help me out here. What's the word I'm looking for? Were you registered at Survivalists R' Us?

poll by twiigs.com

Fox: Is it gonna be inevitable that audiences will compare The Road adaptation to No Country For Old Men? Is that fair? But that's gotta be in the back of everyone's mind who is involved with this film. Seeing that The Road is a post-apocalyptic tale and that The Proposition kinda felt like a post-apocalyptic Western, the teaming up of John Hillcoat with this story seems fitting, but I wonder what the result will be. I always love watching Viggo, and Robert Duvall is simply one of the most badass men ever!

JA: I think moving The Road to this year from last actually helped it step somewhat out of the shadow of NCFOM; whereas the thought was on my mind when thinking of this film last year, it hadn't occured to me this go-around until you brought it up. NCFOM-mania seems so long ago now, doesn't it?

McCarthy's book wounded me. I tend to always be reading a book - finish one, pick right up the next - but post-Road I couldn't read anything for months. I can't imagine what it did to Oprah's Book Club. If the movie retains even a tenth of the power of the book it'll be an amazing feat, and I really dug The Proposition so I think Hillcoat might be able to wrangle an even higher percentage than that. Hell, if he captures even a smidgen of the essence of the scene in the basement - if you've read the book I think you know of which I speak - this film is gonna leave a mark.

Nathaniel: As the only one of us whose seen the movie already (albeit in work print form) I shall remain mum. Other than to say that I'm so curious to see what they tweaked, what they finessed, what survived...

Which is always an appropriate question for The Road. What survives?

In case you missed any entries they went like so...
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We Can't Wait:
#1 Inglourious Basterds, #2 Where the Wild Things Are, #3 Fantastic Mr. Fox,
#4 Avatar, #5 Bright Star, #6 Shutter Island, #7 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
#8 Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, #9 Nailed, #10 Taking Woodstock,
#11 Watchmen, #12 The Hurt Locker, #13 The Road, #14 The Tree of Life
#15 Away We Go, #16 500 Days of Summer, #17 Drag Me To Hell,
#18 Whatever Works, #19 Broken Embraces, #20 Nine (the musical)
intro (orphans -didn't make group list)
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