Lately she's selling the romantic cute far more often than the nympho sex kitten. You no longer see her stretched out naked in the grass on magazine covers. She doesn't strip on David Letterman's desk. But, given that she's been famous since she was 6 or 7, she probably feels like one of the grande dames of Hollywood. Even if she's only 33.
Wouldn't you love to see the sex kitten come out again? Take her for one less rampage through the stuffy mainstream media, Drew!Well, I might not be over that incarnation of Drew but the girl herself seems to be and she's the boss of her. She's been making romantic comedies for so many years now that it seems like people have forgotten that for a brief flickering moment in Donnie Darko she gave us a peak at the future mature actress Drew. Little Gertie from E.T. as a high school teacher. My brain was sufficiently blown. We're about to see the "Serious Actress" Drew again in Grey Gardens but first she'll take another spin into romantic comedy with the all star adaptation of He's Just Not That Into You. Other ladies in the ensemble include Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Aniston, Scarjo and Jennifer Connelly. Yes, they're apparently pulling out all the stops for that one.
As I've said in the comments before, I've always believed that as soon as Drew challenged herself in a Oscar friendly role, she'd be nominated. Oscar friendly = dramatic. It's not that Drew isn't skilled at comedy. But that's not what actors win significant acclaim for. Not fair but true. So, why shouldn't one of the most beloved movie stars in the world follow her great aunt (Ethel) and great uncle (Lionel) to Oscar glory?If you've already checked out my Best Actress Oscar predictions, you'll see that she's one of my five choices for next February's shortlist. Yes, it's way too early to be doing these things but I'm pretty confident about seeing her there. In fact, she's one of only two actresses I feel confident about (the other is Meryl Streep. duh x 15)
"Little Edie" and "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale, cousins of Jackie Onassis have stayed in the public consciousness due to the beloved 1975 documentary Grey Gardens. Last June Broadway star Christine Ebersole won the lead TONY Award playing "Little Edie" in a musicalized version of the story. Her win was a slam dunk, so memorable was both role and star turn. While the documentary trained its eye only on the Beales as old women, the musical sliced the story in half to show you the past (Act 1) and then, like the documentary, give you the older women reminiscing in the present (Act 2). The movie Grey Gardens is sans show tunes but I believe they're using a similar approach. After all, early stills of Drew in character have her looking young and glamorous and Jeanne Tripplehorn will appear as Jackie Onassis. Perhaps the second half of the movie will be more like the documentary and we'll see Little Edie middle aged, bizarrely dressed and living with her decrepit mother in squalor.I don't know anything about the 35 year old behind the camera (Michael Sucsy) because this is his directorial debut. It could be special, cross your fingers. I can't wait to see Jessica Lange ("Big Edie") and Drew Barrymore surrounded by cats, continually obsessing on their earlier and more glamorous lifestyles.
Full pointless "Early Bird" Oscar Predictions here
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Yeah, I can't believe I let Barrymore slip out of memory when I did my predictions (back in Feb! I'm even more insane!) considering I'd been thinking she'd be nommed ever since Gardens was announced.
But, then again, the movie could be underwhelming and just kind of be there like so many films seem to do lately.
Um, sorry, but your snub prediction on Kate Winslet reeks of insanity. What's even more insane is that you have both Kate and Leo snubbed, while Bates and Shannon get nominated in the supporting categories. Er... whaaaa---?
For Kate of all people not to be nommed, the film would have to suffer a meltdown of historic proportions. And if that happens, then it won't be getting supporting nods for random people like Michael Shannon.
It WILL be the Kate and Leo show. That's the whole point.
And even if all the above things happened, she'd still probably get nommed in lead for The Reader cause they'd realize that category fraud was no longer required.
And as for RR seeming too reminiscent of earlier work... that didn't stop them from nomming her for Little Children, and that was in an especially strong year. And the people releasing that film practically TRIED to sabotage her chances, with their stupid non-expansion. But they failed.
The fact is, Kate IS actually nominated for every film she does that is oscary and that people like. The closest thing to a snub was Quills but that really wasn't an oscary film, it was very dark and goofy and seemed to bother people, and it didn't do well. Rush just got nommed cause he had a bio role and it was basically pre-ordained.
I'm sorry, I just... I would put SO much money on Kate being nommed for RR this year.
insanity or not... it's very early.
what if the movie is stiff and the only signs of life are on the edges? Plenty of movies have gotten supporting nods and nod lead nods.
i mean come on. it's too early to be LOCKED. unless you're John Williams.
would Kate (with an even more baity role in The Reader) really get 7 nominations by the age of 33...?
i mean at that rate she'd beat STREEP and HEPBURN and be the number one of all time by the time she was, like, 45.
Also Finding Neverland but that doesn't really count cause they did in fact nominate her that year. "Once is enough" is different from "SNUB".
OK I guess I'm overreacting - for the record, I would not put money on her getting 2 nods - but for Hathaway and Portman? Come on.
The scenario you lay out in your predictions is just pretty much the least probable outcome in my mind, in terms of how the film is received. But of course I will bow in reverence if you turn out to be right.
all i'm trying to say is "wait and see" it just doesn't happen that people are nominated for every role. It doesn't happen. Not even to Meryl Streep. And it's not like I predicted her to be snubbed altogether. I just don't think she's getting a double nomination.
Davis, Hepburn, Streep, Bergman, Lange ...all the greats have been passed over in their careers at times. Why would Kate be impervious to something that affects everyone?
The Quills thing was a snub. She was SAG nominated for it.
SAG nominated, yes, but that was about the only recognition she received. It's not like people were calling her "locked." She was one of several possible 5th slot possibilities. Same as with Finding Neverland.
Of course it's possible for Kate to be snubbed. I just don't think it'll be for THIS film. This is about the last film I would expect her to be snubbed for. I think this will overshadow The Reader and that will be that. Or more likely, The Reader will just be delayed.
I realize sometimes it's those projects that are a little too "on the nose" that go down in flames the hardest, but I'm just not feeling it this time.
I really think Kate will win the oscar for this one.
...
*(and maybe I've invested a bit too much emotion into that outcome)*
I love that your predix are always a little off from the group-think. Grey Gardens sounds great. The doco is on cable this month (along with The Women) in Aus and I am so psyched now to (finally) see both of them!
Only thing that made me leave out Barrymore from my predix was my confusion over the distributor situation. But I hadn't heard of the musical, which will help boost the film's profile. And I would love to see Barrymore get her due one day and finally be nommed (and take a break from all those romcoms).
Just a note on the score nominations... (assuming your April Fool remark is not serious!)
- Zimmer doesn't submit his scores for consideration anymore in general, hence no nomination for DAVINCI CODE a few years back (mind you, I'm not a fan!) and probably no nom for FROST/NIXON.
- Thomas Newman could be up for WALL-E, but unless there's 50+ songs involved, I'd say his involvement in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is more baity.
- Much as they like Williams, I just can't see an INDIANA JONES score getting the nominations.
Alberto Iglesias scores Soderbergh's THE ARGENTINE / THE GUERILLA. Given his world music score success with KITE RUNNER and CONSTANT GARDENER, I wouldn't ignore the signs!
Alexandre Desplat scores SEVEN POUNDS, the Gabriele Muccino- Will smith follow-up to PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS. I doubt full frontal nudity will be a problem here.
- The Opinionated Australian
Oh, and watch Dario Marianelli on that new Joe Wright film, and possibly Philip Glass on Steven Daldry's next.
Steven G --thanks. I try. I always catch a lot of flak for it this early but the thing is I do pretty well. Cuz the consensus is never what happens a year later. Which is why it's folly to assume that anything is safe or anything is impossible.
obviously nothing is safe and nothing is impossible. Can you imagine for example how much people would have laughed at anyone who predicted Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean in early 2003 before people had seen the movie?
I didn't --wish i had... but the thing is what we think and what happens. different things ;)
michael where are you getting the info. IMDB does not confirm that and searches asking for Desplat and Seven Pounds don't come up with anything. I'm wondering if there's some good source for this info that I don't know about.
thanks
also John Williams has been nominated for all three Indiana Jones films before this one. So why wouldn't they go for the fourth?
'Why wouldn't they go for the fourth?'
Well, they very well might. I haven't heard it yet, so maybe it will be exceptional. But the membership and drive of the group has changed a bit since 1990, and in the last fifteen years the only sequel score of Williams that was nominated was the third Harry Potter. (Which actually WAS a fairly remarkable score on a musical level for John Williams.) So many of his musical noms have come via connection to a well-intentioned baity film, many of them from Spielberg.
As for the Desplat info, I'd be very interested to find out where it's coming from too. I already knew about LARGO WINCH and AFTERWARDS, but the latest 'Film Score Daily' lists both the Will Smith and the next Nora Ephron movies as going to Desplat. I assume that came from his representation.
Scroll down to number 6:
http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/articles/2008/02_Apr---The_Top_Forty_Composer_Countdown_Part_Four.asp
Also, for future reference, this is a very useful site:
http://upcomingfilmscores.blogspot.com/
You can get new announcements from it as a newsfeed or something.
Also, a complete list of the 'upcoming scores' on the same site:
http://upcomingfilmscores.blogspot.com/2007/12/scoreboard-full-listing-of-upcoming.html
They haven't caught up with the latest Desplat news, but will probably announce it in the next week if there's anything to it.
and by Steven I mean Stephen ....obviously.
I like this respectable Drew Barrymore now, and I'd love to see her Oscar-nominated. She was high as a kite in a lot of that nympho phase of hers back in the day, and I'd never want to see her revert back to that. And any upgrade from romantic comedies wasteland to something more substantive is something to cheer about. I'm afraid that character of Little Edie is going to eat her alive though. Cate Blanchett would have aced that role in her sleep and not blinked an eye at another Oscar nomination. But I'll hope for the best that Drew can pull off the role and not sink it.
Here are my five right now:
Emily Blunt, "The Young Victoria"
Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Angelina Jolie, "The Changeling"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "Revolutionary Road"
I think that Emily Blunt's getting the young ingenue slot over Anne Hathaway (I don't think she's getting in for a long time). Sally Hawkins has Mike Leigh on her side in the comedy slotter. Angelina Jolie has her egregious snub for "A Mighty Heart" + the Clint on her side. Meryl is Meryl in huge Oscar bait. Kate Winslet's doing the big reunion with Leo with many people awaiting her lead actress win. I also think it's folly not to include Kate for "Revolutionary Road" for some of those others. I'm more confident about that nod than "The Reader" in supporting actress. I just think that one's going to be delayed now with Anthony Minghella's death being such a severe blow to everyone involved.
I don't really understand why The Reader would need to be delayed (though I've heard the rumor, too). I mean, they've already finished filming recently and it's due in December.
Do they really 7+ months of post-production?
let's talk about something other than Winslet.
I am 100% in agreement that a nod for Revolutionary Road is very very very possible. I just like to imagine scenarios. This is one of them.
DREW BARRYMORE!
That imagined scenario or whatever you call it is all kinds of meh. But whatever.
I agree with the snub theory, sort of. I see REVOLUTIONARY ROAD being a mild dissapointment, even just Awards-wise. I think Winslet get's her nod for THE READER and Leo gets his for BODY OF LIES.
I agree with the snub theory, sort of. I see REVOLUTIONARY ROAD being a mild dissapointment, even just Awards-wise. I think Winslet get's her nod for THE READER and Leo gets his for BODY OF LIES.
Ooops my apologies.
Also, Nat, your Daniel Craig as Ted Hughes being an Oscar breakthrough in SYLVIA is still my favorite prediction ever, even if it didn't pan out.
"- Thomas Newman could be up for WALL-E, but unless there's 50+ songs involved, I'd say his involvement in REVOLUTIONARY ROAD is more baity."
Wall-E features veeeery little dialogue apparently so you just know Newman's score is gonna be front and center.
On the John Williams thing he hasn't been nommed for a sequel in 15 years because when he's had one he's had another contender (Catch Me If You Can/Attack of the Clones/Chamber of Secrets - The Patriot/Phantom Menace - Amistad/The Lost World), but Indiana Jones is the only movie he has for this year so he seems like a good bet.
If last year was the year of the psychopath, this year seems like the year of the biopic. Milk and the Steven Soderberg films are already up there, but also W.
//let's talk about something other than Winslet.
I am 100% in agreement that a nod for Revolutionary Road is very very very possible. I just like to imagine scenarios. This is one of them.
DREW BARRYMORE!//
Obviously we dont take direction very well, do we?
Ok, Barrymore - I'd love to see her knock it out of the park. I have not seen the doc or the play, nor have I seen Donnie Darko, so I'm probably in no position to say anything (like that's going to stop me?), but Little Edie does seem a bigger-than-life personality from what I have read, dominating mother or no. Jessica lange will no doubt chew the scenery, the furniture, calmly pick the splinters from her teeth and then still look for another snack. I wonder though if Barrymore is up to the challenge. She's too young to play the older Edie, really (yes, I know - old age, makeup, but that's beside the point). But can she give a lived-in performance? Can she get inside the woman's skin? Of course Christine Ebersol aced it onstage - that's a "duh". But Barrymore? Acting is like any other art - you need to practice constantly and consistently to stay in the game - use your muscles so they don't atrophy, if you will. Barrymore has been doing romcoms (and Charlie's Angels) for so long, have her dramatic muscles atrophied?
And what of the director? He's an unknown quantity here, and I should think that for a project like this you would need someone with a clear vision and a firm hand, someone who can challenge the actors and push them to do their very best work.
I'd love to see great things from Drew, honestly. It's more than about darn time she lived up to the Barrymore name and stopped wasting herself. But I suspect that if she really wanted to stretch herself, she could have been doing smaller indie projects all along, a la Linney or Kidman, and she hasn't.
RedSatinDoll
Well said RedSatinDoll. You took the words right out of my mouth... Well, not really, but I agree with everything you said.
:)
I have to say, I think they'll nominate her anyway though. Not because her performance will be so spectacular, but kind of like someone who's out of shape and runs a marathon anyway.
It's the fact that she is very well liked in Hollywood among her peers and the courage it takes to run the race.
You make a good point about Barrymore, but the thing is I don't feel like the Academy has been waiting for the right role for her. I mean, I love her, but it's not like she's some great thespian that they have cruelly ignored all these years, or even snubbed in recent memory like Blunt or Hathaway. The Barrymore thing can only help her, though.
I think it might be an interesting plot twist if there were a scene in which Little Edie engaged in some of those 'thespian' activities Drew sometimes participates in between boyfriends.
Holy sheeot, yo. The pic of Barrymore playing Little Edie shows her hair.
Little Edie always obsessively covered up her head.
I also wanted to say well said RedSatinDoll. I'm a big fan of Drew's. I think that she's cute and adorable, and that she was very strong to survive her childhood and come back on top again.
I just don't think she has it in her to make the dramatic crossover though. Sorry, Nathaniel, but I'm going to bring up Meg Ryan's name here, who is another actress who couldn't make the dramatic crossover successfully even though imo, she's more talented than Barrymore and stretched herself more in dramatic roles than Barrymore has thus far.
I haven't seen Donnie Darko, yet either, but I remember when the buzz was that Riding in Cars with Boys was suppose to be Drew's big Oscar movie, and we all know that turned out. I haven't seen all of that movie either, and while it seems more comedy in the trailer for it than drama, I do remember that the reviews weren't very kind to the movie or to Barrymore when she had to do the more dramatic stuff later on in the film like when her son is older and her resentment comes out in full force. There was just also Lucky You recently, which wasn't exactly pure drama either, but I didn't here any raves about Barrymore at all for that film.
I'm glad that you had the nerve to predict her though instead of going with the usual safe choices. I think that Lange is a good choice, and that if Barrymore does even an okay job with it, they'll nominate her because of her name, for the marathon reason already given, and other reasons.
Is The Road anywhere on the radar? Not that it'll be a repeat of No Country, but maybe this will be a big movie for Viggo.
nat,you said that about blanchett and this year we found out just how much they lover her i ma afraid the will be a double nod unless the r is 09.
drew barrymore will not pull it off!!! anyway though you hated biopic roles.
mrripley --true cate got a double last year but several people have 5 noms. Anything beyond that is truly remarkable and puts you in the top people of all time. It usually dries up for people past 3 nods and Kate and Cate will eventually have dry spells, mark my words.
I love Kate... but there is no way in hell that she won't suffer the dry spell at some point that ALL actresses suffer with Oscar. maybe it won't be this year but she will.
This reminds me back when Renee was winning her Oscar and all the people at all the oscar watch boards were like she'll be nominated several more times!!! yeah, right.
the reality is that only three actresses have ever lived to see double digit nominations. so why does everyone think that every person who the academy likes will be nominated every year?
anon i dislike the biopic general when it's boring and conventional, which it is 90% of the time. But these are oscar predictions and Oscar loves bio performances
Rubi-Kun The Road keeps teetering on the edge of moving to '09. Who knows whether they'll be finished in time. I could see them going for it in writing and directing though if it's any good. John Hillcoat is very well respected in "the industry".
Keep reading about 'Donnie Darko' being the film in which Drew showed a glimmer of real acting chops, but what about 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind'? Her best performance by a country mile, me thinks. Fingers crossed for 'Grey Gardens'!
M
Nathan, why so cold with Julianne?
//The Barrymore thing can only help her, though.//
I'm not so sure about that, anon 12:26. (Names, people, give yourselves names, onscreen monikers, lie to me, but give me something! Work with me here!)
The Academy membership may have longer memories than the American public in general (whose memory tends to last about as long as the next commercial break) but I'm not certain about that. And I know that many Academy members are - ahem - older folks, but given the voting this year (No Country for Old Men, TTWB) I'm not certain that the "old guard" isn't dying off and being replaced by younger members. And we've heard/read Nathaniel complain about how audiences in general tend to be unaware of films and performances that are more than, say, 10 or 25 years old. Why should the name "Barrymore" at this point mean anything after all these decades to most Academy members any more than to the general public?
RedSatinDoll
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