Naomi Watts had the busiest month pointwise but Eastern Promises turned out to be entirely Viggo Mortensen's show. Her Oscar prospects are snuffed out. Funny Games, pictured left, another Watts headliner directed by the incomparable Haneke (Caché) was delayed until 2008...points for the past month
+ 5 Naomi Watts Eastern Promises had its premiere at Toronto and won the Audience Award (+ 3) plus the film opened and took in some dollars @ the box office (+2)
+5 Jodie Foster TIFF premiere (+2) opened The Brave One (+1) and received maximum points for box office (+2)
+4 Evan Rachel Wood opened Across the Universe (+1) plus box office (+1) plus Toronto Premiere (+2)
+3 Keira Knightley opened Silk (+1) and it also had its Toronto premiere (+2)
+2 Reese Witherspoon (Rendition), Cate Blanchett (Golden Age), Summer Bishil (Nothing is Private), Sigourney Weaver (Girl in Park) Jennifer Connelly (Reservation Road), Uma Thurman (In Bloom), Helen Hunt (Then She Found Me) points for premieres at Toronto
+1 Jennifer Lopez El Cantante crossed a box office marker
+1 Tang Wei & Joan Chen (Lust, Caution) and Charlize Theron & Susan Sarandon (In the Valley of Elah), Their movies actually opened
[Best Actress Predix -All Oscar charts will be updated 10/14 when the NYFF wraps]
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22 comments:
Eastern Promises is an "entirely Viggo Mortensen's show"? No, I don't think so, as much as "everyone loves Viggo and wants a piece of him" and he's indeed not bad in the film it doesn't belong to him entirely. The hype is over-the-top.
All the other actors are also excellent and they together make this film a success. Naomi Watts' performance in particular is top-notch, subtle, delicated and beautifully played out in a role that is not a showy one. US Weekly calls it "quietly powerful". Rollingstone says "Naomi Watts is extraordinary", and from the Chicago Tribune: "Naomi Watts is excellent". The Daily Telegraph have just short-listed her as one of the 5 hot contenders for this year's Oscar best actress Award.
It won't add more credits to Mortensen by snubbing her, again. The added points for her are well found and deserved.
Hi Nat,
I'm in the lead - something's gotta be wrong there.
Still 3 months to go before I can quietly slip away into the middle of the pack. I mean I've got Mischa Barton - what was I thinking?
Would you consider having a transfer season like in fantasy football? ... I didn't think so.
I do think that Naomi still has a chance though. So far there's no actresses that really seem looked, the pack from the summer is all drifting out of peoples minds and nothing coming over the next few months is completely secure following Toronto. And Naomi has two years of close misses (King King and Painted Veil) going for her.
I'm looking forward to your thoughts over the next few weeks.
Watts is good in Eastern Promises... I'm not claiming otherwise but the character isn't as foregrounded as awards traction requires --no matter how good she is.
the daily telegraph is mad if they think she's getting a nomination.
but again, yes, she was quite good in it as were the other actors. And it's not about "wanting a piece of Viggo" it's about recognizing that he's a f***ing amazing character actor. So submerged in that role. People go all crazy for biopic performances (i just saw Blanchett's Bob Dylan so it's on my mind) but this to me is great acting. Viggo has no template to work from other than the script and his own imagination and he creates a character that's as physically and vocally specific as any biopic performance ever was. I wish more people could get behind the notion that that type of feat is difficult and awards worthy but Viggo will be hard pressed to get in the Oscar race either (it's not just Watts that won't be red carpeting it)
P.S. 1
how awesome is that FUNNY GAMES poster? I know it's been discussed elsewhere but I just want to add my voice to the praise.
P.S. 2
in terms of switcheroos and this contest in more of a fantasy football way where you can trade and whatnot.
Obviously it would be better that way, yes. But I didn't have the technical savvy to do it. I had to enlist a computer geek friend for the already very complicated excel spreadsheet that is keeping track of all this.
But maybe once we see how this pans out next year's contest can be far more interactive.
I hope that's not my Daily Telegraph. Bonkers...
I'm backing Viggo all the way though.
You should start tipping Hal Holbrook big-time for a Best Supporting Actor nod in Into the Wild. I'm getting that whole Richard Farnsworth feeling...
This is the AUSTRALIAN Daily Telegraph the anon is talking about. They are just waving the flag a bit with the Oscar talk.
i agree about holbrook def old timer nod this year.
Tim, any chance of a few weeks work experience on the film desk?? I would gladly trade-in most things dear to me for it.
And that Funny Games poster is incredible. What a gorgeous, crisp shot - and beautifully coloured. Plays with my newfound post-Painted Veil Watts love.
Are you going to wait until January to add points for movies with 85% or higher ratings?
Suggestion: Next time have the due date set on August 1.
Ed Gonzalez's Slant review of Blanchett in The Golden Age was hilarious. I'm surprised any American critic had the guts to call her out her overrrated acting, since Blanchett appears to be such a sacred cow with critics these days. Here the bit from Gonzalez that really cracked me up:
"More interesting to contemplate is Blanchett's intolerable drag act. Because of her dramatic cheekbones and finicky method ticks, the woman is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation, but if that were true, she might have bought some measure of sympathy and knowingness to her simultaneous channeling of Bette Davis and Mike Myer's Dieter throughout the film".
I thought it was weird how a lot of people predicted Reese. I mean before I saw the trailer it seeemd like it was going to be more of an ensemble piece.
Does Ed Gonzalez LIKE anything? I usually disregard his reviews.
I disagree Nat about acting. I've taken acting classes at my University and we all found it much more harder to imitate someone than to make up our own character. I guess it just all depends on the individual. Either way acting is acting, it doesn't matter if you are playing someone in a biopic or an entirely made up character one form isn't better or worse than the other.
"You must admit, you brought this on yourself."
Awesome tagline. It's like Haneke is speaking directly to the shocked mainstream movie-goers soon to be stumbling out of the theatre after realizing this was anything but "Saw 4".
I am doing so bad at the Actress Psychic contest!!!
I'm 13... not that bad, altough I'm starting to think that I will only get one of my predictions right. Keener is going nowhere near Oscar. I don't know if Weaver (GitP) will open for consideration. Watts is out as is the whole Eastern Promises movie (I wish tey wouldn't). And I don;t think Hathaway holds a chance in the race. So my only hope is Berry (and I think is a shaky one).
*cough* that Funny Games poster is pretty great, huh? ahem... moving on... (considering I'm doing terribly in this competition. No Moore and Portman. Although Cotillard, Christie and Blanchett are still right in there)
Damn this game! I'm not bitter, but let's just say, if I had a glass of water in my hand right now, I'd pull a Joan Crawford and throw it up against the wall ...
Is that too dramatic....?
well... people need to stop beating themselves up because they picked one, two, three or even four dogs ;) because it's hard to do. and i bet the winner has no more than 3 right.
i'll figure out a way to make it more interactive and able to make changes if we play again next year
Wow, some of those picks, lol. Not trying to be mean, btw, I'm sure I wouldn't have done better if I'd found this site in time.
elias - i have been equally bad at this...however, I will not throw a glass of water. Moi? How do I deal with my lack of scuess at this?...I am at my dressing table, nervously trying to apply my lipstick....i am becoming so overwrought that I frantically start schmeering the lipstick on my dressing table mirror while crying hysterically.
Lucky for everyone Alba's "Eye" got pushed to February 2008 with two reshoots, no less. Must mean they are bulking up her performance and aiming for the following Oscars!
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