...may drive voters to cast a ballot for Penn (a lock for an Oscar nom) or best picture.
The bold is my addition. So, explain to me again how Sean Penn is a "lock" before the film has screened, opened, been reviewed, encountered box office, or been discussed by the media, audiences and industry voters ... all while there are at least 8 or 9 strong candidates for those 5 Best Actor spots and Penn is only one of three playing famous politicians!
I am splitting hairs here, true. I too believe he'll be nominated. But it's not written in stone. Not with Eastwood trying to win his first acting Oscar, Rourke & Jenkins and who knows who else battling it out for potential critics prizes, Langella & Brolin also appealing to Oscar's love of famous people playing other famous people and three huge celebrities (DiCaprio, Pitt and Jackman) headlining expensive, luscious looking Oscar-Bait.
More MilkSF Gate a streetcar dedicated to Harvey Milk
The Castro's screening calendar
Harvey Milk info and tributes
Emile Hirsch Web is planning to deluge you with photos
The Times of Harvey Milk Put this Oscar winner on your queue. It's one of the most moving documentaries you'll ever see.
Psssst. If you have tickets to tonight's SF premiere and you're a film experience fan, please consider e-mailing me on the other coast with notes or photos from your experience so we can enjoy them right here.
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15 comments:
This is just something that entertainment reporters say to justify their jobs. The belief is:
"yes, I can call someone a 'lock' before anything is known because I report on the industry and I know how these things work"
Also there's no real consequences in the field of entertainment journalism.
Because it's a role that carries a social message with it and the Academy and media love that. I think also b/c Penn has proven himself to them in the past so they feel secure in their predictions. Penn's turn as Harvey Milk will be an easy nomination for the studios to lobby for and the press know it.
But I've long given up believing that the Academy really cares about acting. Not that the eventual nominees aren't talented, but, to me, there are always a bunch of actors that were much much more deserving.
Adrian Brody in Darjeeling was the best performance last year and he didn't even get a sniff. Same for Keri Russell in Waitress and Jill Scott in Why Did I Get Married?
keri in WAITRESS? say it aint so Fox. I failed to understand one jot of what she was trying to do with that character.
interesting feelings about Brody though... who'da thunk it?
any SAN FRAN readers going to this tonight? speak up!
Oh, it so! It very so! She's 100 times better than Cate!
OK, I just threw that last bit in for some desperate provocation.... ;0)
I think the only times that we can call "locks" before a film premieres is when we know where the material is going. Like Jennifer Hudson for Supporting Actress or ROTK for Best Picture. This is not one of those scenarios...though I'd be shocked if he wasn't nominated.
I currently have Milk predicted for best pic on my blog, but that's based on a hunch. It's all hunches at this point. And really, I don't want Sean Penn or Milk to be hurt by talks of being a "lock" this prematurely. And I'm not even comparing it to "Cold Mountain" or "Into the Wild" or other films that actually had a real shot going into the nominations announcement. Does anyone remember when some critic (I don't remember who) declared that Diane Keaton would win best supporting actress for "The Family Stone" back in '05?! Need I say ANY more about the subject of early Oscar proclamations?
i know we shouldn't assume things about movies that haven't even opened yet, but after seeing the trailer for GRAN TORINO, i don't see how clint could possibly be nominated for best actor. his performance in the trailer is groan-inducing and the movie itself seems ridiculous. why doesn't he move his teeth when he speaks? did he get his jaw wired shut?
by comparison, penn is a gauranteed lock. (that trailer for MILK gets me every time) hell, even will smith in HANCOCK looks like a better choice than clint...
abstew -- surely you know of Oscar's love for Clint? ;) I didn't have that negative a reaction against the Gran Torino trailer but they're hardly, shall we say, "measured" in their reaction to his work. It's like me with Michelle Pfeiffer. That's roughly how they are with Clint these days. It's all golden.
And the critics support their habits... lest we forget some "masterpiece" comments about Flags of Our Fathers of all things.
the know nothing... it was actually more than one oscar pundit. It was a certain trifecta that thought diane keaton had it all locked up for family stone. But we've all made bad calls in the past ;)
robert you're right about the no consequences thing. strange but true. What's even more annoying is when the rare consequences happen and it's not even you who said the thing that the person is upset about -- which also happens ...
wait what are we talking about anymore.
BACK TO MILK
I hasten to add that I don't really consider blogging to be "entertainment journalism."
I consider it to be a much more respectable medium.
Anyways, with Oscar prognostication, either you're having fun with it, or you want to be the first person on your block to get it right dammit! Thus you declare things "locks" before they even come out (which I think is silly). Taking it too seriously also leads to other odd phenomena such as developing antipathy towards movies you've not yet seen because they upset your predictions and so on and so forth.
Really all sorts of odd people out there.
I don't remember where I was either. Oh yeah. I do predict Milk/Van Sant/Penn(who I hate but actually looks good in that trailer) and either Brolin or Franco. Personally I expect Milk to be the movie to beat!
i do seem to remember the academy loving EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE. oh, that monkey...
i guess i just want to live in a dream world where the performance in a certain film is nominated and name alone, snubs from years before or personal issues don't come into play. i know, i know, it wouldn't be the oscars without those things.
let's hope MILK is as good as it looks. and that it'll have an unbiased chance at awards before clint comes out with a shotgun and orders it to, "get off my lawn"...
abstew --funny. particularly the monkey bit
Nathaniel-
I know you want to keep the focus on Milk, but can we talk about the rumored 2010 sequel MILF? Apparently Sean Penn is gonna smash conventions and appear as the lead in that one too!
And David Poland just called Milk "brilliant."
I'm thinking no supporting actors will be getting nominated from this film. The obvious choice (Brolin) isn't standing out and the apparent standout is Franco and as we know the Academy tends to not give nominations to these young lads very often. Especially ones like Franco whose career hasn't exactly been the male equivalent of Anne Hathaway (for example).
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