Ocean's 8 (2018)

Film: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Stars: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, Helena Bonham Carter, James Corden
Director: Gary Ross
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

While I don't have the free weekend I was expecting, I do want to get a few reviews that have been sitting around my "To Do" list out in the next few days, so expect a couple of peaks at movies you've probably already discussed, but I still want to put on the record.  The first of these reviews is Ocean's 8, the recent spinoff of the Clooney/Pitt/Damon revival of the Rat Pack pictures (man, originality is dead, ain't it?) which gives the franchise an entirely female remake as Sandra Bullock (playing Debbie Ocean, sister to George Clooney's Danny Ocean) takes over as the heist ringleader, this time attempting to steal a diamond necklace from the Met Gala.

(Spoilers Ahead) There are only a few genres I'd genuinely say that I like pretty much every time, but heist pictures are probably toward the top of the list (for the record, film noir, westerns, and anything where Vincent Price plays a villain would be the rest).  There's something wonderful about seeing the intricacies of a con being perpetrated, and indeed that's the best part of this film.  These are talented actresses, and even the ones that aren't known as great actors (specifically Awkwafina and Rihanna) are compelling enough presences offscreen that they're fascinating to watch, and as a result seeing them sashay around pickpocketing, wearing crazy-awesome couture...it's a dream.  Plus, it helps that everyone here is genuinely funny-the Ocean's pictures are about the comedy, and that was why in my opinion the remakes genuinely were better films than the originals with Sinatra & Martin, a clear case of the original not being that great (it was just cool).

This is to say that I'm usually pretty forgiving with heist pictures, but Ocean's 8 can only stretch that love so far by casting actors I admire and being in a genre I am susceptible to before I have to admit-it's not very good.  I know there was a lot of conversation about this coming from the stars of the film (Mindy Kaling and Cate Blanchett, specifically), decrying male critics for not understanding the audience want for a film like this, and while I am a male critic, I will say that I'm pretty much the target for this as a gay man; I get far more excited seeing Cate Blanchett or Anne Hathaway's name on a call sheet than George Clooney or Matt Damon's.  The problem here isn't the actors, it's that the script is too soggy, routine, and bereft of intimacy to really have us care about any of these characters.

That feels like the only way to really explain how, say, Bullock, who is consistently one of our most charismatic modern movie stars, seems to be on auto pilot most of the film.  Perhaps they should have figured out a way to get Clooney to cameo (I was so sure that'd happen), because she tows the line pretty hard between mourning and revenge, and as a result her Debbie is kind of a downer, and it makes the film heavier than it needs to be.  The comic relief is supposed to come from her motley crew of performers, but they're a mixed bag.  While some are fun (I loved Rihanna's energy as Nine-Ball, even if she's given virtually nothing to do except be Rihanna), Helena Bonham Carter doesn't feel like a person that could exist in reality.  Of all of the characters, her Rose is the one that should be WAY more fun (kooky designer completely out-of-her-element), but in order for her to be this successful, she'd surely have to know how to deal with diva actresses.  That every time she speaks it feels like there's a tick-tick-tick going on in her head, as if HBC herself is wondering whether or not she should be surprised or pretend to be surprised by what is happening, is staggeringly bad, particularly from an actress who is more-than-capable of landing a strange character.  The only supporting player that's truly fun is Anne Hathaway, who is doing a marvelous sendup of the Hatha-hater character people invented around her, and pretty much steals the movie as a spoiled, air-headed actress.

Without more commitment to the characters from the writers or actors, the film falls apart.  It's still fun in doses, and there are some great lines here-and-there, and these stars are too big of STARS for this to be a complete slog, but honestly you leave almost instantly forgetting this existed, and if you remember it all you just recall the lost potential.  Ocean's 8 is a paint-by-numbers heist movie with a world-class cast, which is a damn pity in a summer that has been too generic at the movies.

OVP: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Film: The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Stars: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Adrien Grenier
Director: David Frankel
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Actress-Meryl Streep, Costume Design)
(Not So) Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Do you ever have those Friday nights where you think "surely I have something better I should be doing with my night?"  Where you have a mountain of movies to catch up on, actual work from your office, and a dozen other chores that need tending to, and all you want to do is snuggle up and watch a movie on iTunes?  Well, that was me, and I had a hankering to catch The Devil Wears Prada, a movie that falls between the precipice for me of "movie I should probably own on DVD" and "movie that's not quite there yet for me to own on DVD."  So, well, I rented it, and as I'd never reviewed it on the blog before (and we're not terribly far away from finishing up 2006's Oscar race), I figured I'd give you a bit of a flashback to a movie you surely saw in 2006.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film focuses on Andy (Hathaway), a "serious" journalist who inexplicably gets an interview to be second assistant to the editor-in-chief of one of New York's top fashion magazines, Miranda Priestley (Streep).  Like all good movies, she starts out with most people against her, including the first assistant Emily (Blunt, in her breakout role), but is befriended by one of her coworkers Nigel (Tucci), and slowly begins to take the job seriously, in the process becoming chic and appreciative of what the people at Runway really do.  She ends up earning the begrudging respect of Miranda even though she ultimately abandons her in Paris, and all is right with the world in the end.

The film has relatively predictable plot turns (it's obvious that she'll eventually succumb to the charms of this world, but then escape it with her soul fully intact), but is impossibly charming even with such a staid plot, thanks largely to the charms of the cast.  Hathaway is given a relatively thankless role (Andy is meant to be our window into the world, but it's hard in hindsight to really like her considering her holier-than-thou attitude), and does a serviceable job with the performance, but the other three leads are splendid.  Tucci had a career renaissance after this performance, ending up getting a major hit in Julie & Julia three years later (and a totally undeserved Oscar nomination for The Lovely Bones), and is hilariously bitchy as Nigel.  Blunt got a career out of this work (and should have gotten an Oscar nomination), making what could have been a stock character into a side part you root for, with impeccable timing and line delivery.  Best of all is Streep, arguably giving her best performance of this century as Priestley, instantly iconic from her first moments onscreen.  Streep also got a renaissance after this role (though, admittedly, Meryl is never out-of-style), but despite winning an Oscar (and seven nominations) since then, she's never come close to being as pitch-perfect as Miranda.  There's a subdued nature to her, a way where Streep almost feels like she's proving herself rather than having a cheeky "I know I'm a genius" good-time.  I love Streep always, but occasionally she relies a bit too heavily in recent years on her "legend" status.  You see none of that here, with her instead giving full flavor to her work as Miranda.  It's a triumph, and probably would have won her the correct third Oscar had it not been for such a crazy good year for this category (still deciding on my ultimate victor, but really there were no bad options with Oscar in 2006).

The main problem, in hindsight, is that perhaps in a more understanding or "be yourself" sort of era as 2018 celebrates, it's impossible to look at Andy's personal and love life without rolling your eyes or actively wishing she'd stick with Runway.  Her boyfriend (Grenier) is a jerk, not understanding that this incredible opportunity is keeping her from his birthday party (like he's eleven!), and while the mild infidelity late in the film might seem bad, it was an unsolicited kiss-on-the-cheek.  Worse still are her friends, who desperately want free stuff from her and demand that she always give them attention, but give little sympathy for the fact that she's trying to pay her dues in a job that's a great opportunity.  Honestly, this ages poorly, as does the fact that there are no openly gay characters in the film (Tucci's Nigel or Rich Sommer's Doug are obviously implied to be gay, but never outwardly acknowledge it).  It's proof that you should always be as progressive as possible with the politics of your film, because you'll at the very least look forward-thinking in such a situation.  Still, though, this is a better film that I think I even acknowledged at the time, littered with great performances and a brisk, if anticipated, script.

OVP: Actress (2008)

OVP: Best Actress (2008)

The Nominees Were...

Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader

My Thoughts: 2008 was the Year of the Winslet.  After more than a decade in Hollywood, where she tried pretty much every angle to win an Oscar (Austen, Shakespeare, Hardy, Manic Pixie Dream Girl, famous author, adulteress, dying mother, death row journalist, Nancy Meyers, mistress, maid, and the highest-grossing film of all time), she came out with not one but two major pictures, going both the route of the Holocaust (an Oscar-bait tactic she cheekily parodied years earlier on Extras) and the lonely suburban housewife (another major Oscar-bait tactic).  While most people thought headed into the nominations that she'd end up with a Best Supporting Actress trophy after committing category fraud with The Reader, she was completely overlooked for Revolutionary Road and was cited for Stephen Daldry's film in lead instead.  However, though her win was never in doubt, she did get a pretty solid collection of competitors.  Let's take a look at them, shall we?

Anne Hathaway is in the only film we haven't yet discussed in the OVP writeups, so we'll begin with her.  Honestly, you'd be forgiven a bit if you couldn't recall that Hathaway scored this nomination-so much press has been spilt over her victory for Les Miz and the Hathahate that followed that it's difficult to remember she was actually on her second Oscar nomination in 2012, and her previous one had been in lead, no less.  It's also worth remembering that her Rachel was absolutely splendid-she portrayed an addict not as someone afflicted by her demons, but as someone who is romanced by them.  We see why this woman was able to have such an intoxicating persona, making such a mark on her family.  Hathaway plays Kim like a marvelous, complete creation, never sacrificing the good times to go along with the cold pricklies.  It helps that RoseMarie DeWitt and Debra Winger are great scene partners, but anyone who doubts Hathaway's talents needs to see this movie, where she plays someone too cynical to care but too electric not to still bruise those around her.

Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, could have used some of Hathaway's panache onscreen.  Though my opinion of Changeling has improved slightly with these write-ups, the impact of Jolie's performance hasn't gotten much better.  Jolie's performance in the film is plum, filled with Oscar-tastic moments about a woman who has lost her son, but she never really plays to much more than concerned mother.  There's great shouting and crying, but that's about it-every scene she seems to modulate not just her performance to the mood of that scene, but also her character, to the point where she's just reflecting those around her.  This could be an interesting tactic, except this strategy stops randomly, where suddenly she's in-charge and having none of it for no reason other than it's convenient to the plot.  It's a performance where she goes in so many directions that I just couldn't get into it, and wished that she would have picked a better crescendo or made more consistent character choices.

The same can't quite be said for Meryl Streep.  Her Sister Aloysius is someone who is consistent to the point of potentially devastating consequence.  Streep is an actor of such incredible range and ability that the film feels a little bit odd-there's never a moment of subtlety, and she doesn't have the advantage that she did in Devil Wears Prada where she isn't at the center of the story, instead just glaring from the sidelines.  Here she's constantly in the spotlight, and it does occasionally throw some harsh light on her work as she overplays certain dramatic scenes (particularly the wildly theatrical spars with Hoffman), but she does find moments of great wonder, particularly when acting off Viola Davis.  In those scenes you see not just Sister Aloysius challenged, but also Meryl Streep, watching an actress who came to win and to impress, and Streep plays those scenes like Serena Williams when she's being challenged by a surprisingly good upstart.  Still, it's a weird act where Streep is sometimes mesmerizing and sometimes hammy.

Melissa Leo doesn't have this problem-her work in Frozen River is outstanding, full stop.  The film is just a centerpiece for Leo to deliver her best performance to-date, here as a woman who is at the end of her rope, trying to find a way to survive in the poorest of situations (where she's trying to keep her trailer and force her son into school).  Watching the way that Leo transforms in this film, finding her life was in auto-pilot and then she suddenly finds a reason not only to live, but to think about the world outside of her purview is outstanding.  There's nothing particularly new about what Leo is doing here, and yet she sells the character and her work as if she does.  It takes an actor of fine talent to be able to transform a story we have seen before and engage us and challenge our way of thinking.  Melissa Leo's Ray Eddy does that.

Which brings us back to Kate Winslet.  Years later, I am still a bit swept-up by The Reader, a film that I loved when it came out and was stunned by the fact that it made it into so many Oscars, and then shocked to find out other people hadn't felt the same way about the film.  To me, though, it was a truly well-kept love story, romantic in its passions as well as in its questionable morality.  Winslet's pining for something, a world outside of her own, feels genuine here-I never felt like I was looking at someone creating a part, but instead at someone who was desperate to escape the tragedy of her existence.  Winslet plays her as someone who was not trying to improve her own world, but instead as someone who was desperately trying to understand it but didn't seem to have the grasp to be able to do it.  Her Reader is finely thought-out and fascinating, but Kate also finds a way to bridge her actions with the rest of the movie, which is not an easy feat.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes of course separate between Comedy/Musical and Drama, and they also kept Winslet in supporting so instead she won here for Revolutionary Road, taking out Hathaway, Streep, Jolie, and Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long, while Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky bested Rebecca Hall (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading), Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia!), and Emma Thompson (Last Chance Harvey).  The SAG Awards went with a near carbon-copy of the Oscar lineup, except here Winslet was nominated for Revolutionary Road and Meryl Streep won for Doubt.  The BAFTA's went with Winslet in lead for The Reader (she won here as well), with Melissa Leo being skipped for Kristin Scott Thomas.  In hindsight, while it is hard to tell where Winslet stood (it seems certain that if she had been in supporting for The Reader that she still would have been cited for Revolutionary Road, perhaps even winning two Oscars in the same night), I don't know that it's in sixth place, it's just very hard to tell which was in that position.  Sally Hawkins became the first person ever to miss after winning NYFCC, LAFCA, Boston, and the Globes, but Kristin Scott Thomas was in a drama that was far baitier.  Hawkins makes more sense on-paper, but I kind of think Scott Thomas was closer, and let's not forget that Cate Blanchett was also in the running.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: This is one of those rare years where I would have bucked AMPAS's rules if I was allowed and given two nominations to the same actor-Winslet is so good in both The Reader and Revolutionary Road and both pieces of work would make my Top 5.  Still, I can't help but feel a pang of sadness that Kristin Scott Thomas, who seems to be toying with retirement from film, didn't get a well-deserved second nomination for her mesmerizing work in I've Loved You So Long.

Oscar’s Choice: It was The Year of the Winslet-if she'd taken supporting already Meryl might have finally nabbed her third trophy or perhaps Angelina Jolie would have won the year after she was snubbed for A Mighty Heart, but with only one option the Oscars were claiming Winslet for their own.

My Choice: At the time I agreed with them and gave Winslet my statue, and I still love what Winslet was doing, but I will admit that I hadn't seen the stark winter of Melissa Leo's work, and I feel like that holds up better even if I like The Reader the movie more.  So I'm going to defy my better judgment (I don't know if Winslet will win an OVP after this and she's a favorite of mine, but that's not what the OVP is about) and go with Leo, with Winslet, Hathaway, Streep, and Jolie coming in behind.

Is anyone with me on defying The Year of the Winslet, or are you all about Kate the Great?  This is the lowest I've ranked Meryl Streep so far-do you have a "least favorite" of Meryl's nominated works?  And Kristin, Sally, or Cate-who was in that coveted sixth place position?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2008: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2008

Past Best Actress Contests: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013

OVP: Interstellar (2014)

Film: Interstellar (2014)
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Bill Irwin, Casey Affleck, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, and one more major star that is a huge surprise cameo, so we'll only mention him after the spoilers
Director: Christopher Nolan
Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Best Original Score, Production Design, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Oh Christopher Nolan, he of the fanboy films and the larger-than-life productions.  There's really no other director working today who can rival Nolan in terms of gargantuan scale and divisiveness across the entire internet.  Spielberg makes too many historical epics to be included anymore, Scorsese generally gets too many films like Hugo to interrupt the random and controversial Wolf of Wall Streets, and J.J. Abrams always seems to be a producer, not a director.  Nolan combines incredible budget frequently with something interesting to say, and as a result, we get something truly worthy of our discussion.  And love it or hate it, and I managed to do both, Interstellar is definitely worthy of our discussion.

(Spoilers Ahead-and I'm not kidding here, I go into everything so see the movie beforehand if you're hoping to) The film starts in a similar fashion to where you expected in the trailers.  The movie, taking place in the not-so-distant-future (you get the sense that it's roughly 2050-that John Lithgow is a member of the Millennial generation, and you can do the math from there), shows Earth in the wreckage of a horrifying reaction to climate change.  We live in a world covered in dust, where crops are failing and the countries have largely depleted in size and the military and science no longer exist in a proper form, but instead we just focus on food production and...that's about it.  The first third of the film is pretty amazing in its politics-frequently when we get climate change style films, we see the world destroyed and suddenly everyone is rather wise about what to do with their lives, but here we see the opposite-we continue to focus exclusively on the short-term (surviving as of that day) rather than the long-term (funding more science and medical research so that we can move into the future).

For a society that relies lightly on science, Christopher Nolan relies heavily on it for his script, and we soon learn that a "ghost" is haunting our main character Cooper (McConaughey) and his daughter Murphy (Mackenzie Foy as a child, later Jessica Chastain and finally Ellen Burstyn), and thanks to an odd combination of Morse Code that is not initially questioned fully enough, in this author's humbled opinion, leads them to go to the NASA space station, where all hell is about to break loose.  Cooper meets an old mentor Dr. Brand (Michael Caine, making his requisite appearance, marking this as a Nolan picture), as well as his attractive daughter Amelia (Hathaway), and finds that this is kismet-they are in desperate need of a pilot (random plothole, amongst many of them-what would they have done if Cooper hadn't shown up?), and Cooper fits the bill better than any other options.  Cooper is then persuaded that there is a black hole near Saturn that is passable by human beings, and through which we can venture into another galaxy, where there are three theoretically viable planets for humanity to live in, thus saving the human species.  Cooper must abandon his family to try and save the human race, and of course his children, and so he goes where no man has gone before, along with Amelia, two ancillary astronauts that you know are just there to help the body count, and a wise-cracking robot named TARS (Irwin).

The following sequences are easily the best in the film, and are perhaps the only time in the movie that doesn't seem bogged down by Nolan's insistence to put in convoluted theories and/or emotional moments that ring more and more hollow as the film continues.  This period of the picture gives you some serious unrest, and you wonder what will happen on these planets, and whether or not we'll ever get back to Earth (for the record, we never really do), or whether any of these three planets are actually viable in terms of the human species' survival.  In particular, when they land on the first planet we get some of the most terrifying and spectacular effects of the film.  We land on a planet, seemingly in the middle of a shallow plane of water, with mountains in the distance, and are soon left to assume that this is a wasteland of only water, with all life constantly upheaved by gigantic, skyscraper-style tsunamis (if only this were a tuna expedition, they'd be set!).  The way that Nolan sounds out this period of the movie makes sense-we slowly realize that the idea of transporting an entire species, billions of people, into another part of the galaxy is utterly hopeless, particularly with a ticking clock back on Earth (the final crop, corn, will soon succumb to the blight that has destroyed wheat and okra as viable food sources), and we learn that really, the only option for these astronauts is the obvious-they will be charged with rebuilding civilization in the wilderness, using frozen embryos to continue the species on some distant rock.

However, Nolan insists on going back to the love of a father for his daughter (you have to feel bad for the son, who doesn't actually abandon his father when creating these videos, since he's largely forgotten by his dad), and then we go into a series of ludicrous, Contact-style plots where Cooper in the present communicates with Murphy in his past, protected by future generations of human beings who somehow can bend into the fifth dimension (never mind the serious temporal paradox problems going on there), and honestly, the last half hour is a major snore.  We have Dr. Mann, who has been brought up as the "best amongst us" so many times that you know he's going to be evil and played by a major Hollywood superstar (though even I was surprised that the Matt Damon cameo was kept so far under wraps-bravo to his team and the marketing team for not tipping their hand there), essentially blowing up the crew's principle way to get home, with Cooper floating around a random tesseract without getting torn to bits, and then suddenly finding himself greeting his 95-year-old daughter (now, finally Ellen Burstyn) and having her, after a two-minute reunion, dismissing him to go and save Amelia on her lonely planet.

Honestly, there is so much to like about this film, and we're going to get into that first before I continue to tear the film to shreds.  The movie is beautiful-it's a nice change of pace for Nolan fans to have Hoyte van Hoytema rather than Wally Pfister, so we get an almost dreamlike wonder in the way he plays with different focus levels in the screen, occasionally mimicking the videos of the actual Apollo astronauts more than crystal-clear work that Pfister frequently favors.  The film's visual effects seem to be pretty heavily in the shadow of a film like last year's Gravity (there is never a moment that quite reaches what the Cuaron film does, though the wall of water sure comes close), but really, it's just inside the lines of that film's gargantuan leaps in technology, and I was left breathless multiple times.  And the cast is game, even if many of their parts are left underwritten-McConaughey, Hathaway, and Chastain are such wonderful movie stars that they can sell the big emotional moments, and hold us through when the film is a bit sketchy in its plot (I always chuckle though when three of our most beautiful citizens are the ones who have to save all of humanity-supermodels to the rescue!).

And there's something so sure about Nolan when he's got a particular vision in mind for his film.  The three planets seem distinctly beautiful, just south of hospitable for the first two and just north of hospitable for the third.  He's a very strong director, frequently finding new ways to shock the audience, but always in a popcorn-style way.  Think of the way that he bends Paris in Inception or the collapsing football field in The Dark Knight Rises, or best of all, the tick-tick-tick of the Joker robbing Gotham.  These are great, steady-handed moments from a director who knows how to build suspense, and we get them with Miller's watery planet here and the shifting through Saturn's blackhole-he knows how to create cinema as a director.

Unfortunately, he never manages to do this as a writer, and he is desperately in need of not writing his own scripts.  We saw this in the continued unraveling of the beautifully-shot Inception or the giant, continual plot holes that mar The Dark Knight Rises.  It's actually become a bit of a game when it comes to Nolan's films to discuss plot holes, but this film actually enters an M. Night Shyamalan-style level of absurdity (the Captain and Tennille were right-love is what is keeping us together!).  You feel like realism has slowly been peeled away by the end of the film, with McConaughey floating through a black hole, communicating with his past self.  It's absolutely absurd, and even if you try to make sense of the science, it never really holds water.  Nolan is the sort of writer who puts something spectacular on-screen to distract you (that kaleidoscope image of bookshelves is mesmerizing), but his films completely fall apart the minute you start to think about them.  About the only way that the film makes sense is if you borrow a page from Minority Report or Laura and assume Cooper dies the second he ejects from his ship.  And yet, there's not enough hints as to that this happened like there are in films like Minority Report and Laura (the clear shifts in tone in those films give more credence to the theory, and to be fair, those are two of the best films ever made in this writer's opinion).

There's also the sincere troubles of the character's motives.  It's hard to fathom that Chastain's Murphy in particular would spend a lifetime trying to track down her father, light years away in the cosmos, and that she took until her mid-thirties to actually forgive him despite working on a project related to his life essentially since he left.  The reality is that for a film that focuses on time, we never really get a proper crash course in such a thing-it makes sense for Cooper to still pine after his long-lost children, but Murphy was only ten when her father left-it's likely that her bitterness would have led to a cold, crystalized love for her long lost dad rather than something that consumed her every day.

We also get the problem that every character other than Cooper and Murphy is horribly underwritten.  Anne Hathaway's Amelia is at the top of this list.  Hathaway is an actress that knows how to dominate a screen, and she's very good at what she does here (this was the perfect film role for her to choose following Les Miz and the random Hathahate that followed), but this character is completely ancillary, and it's pretty condescending by the writers of the film that her romantic love for Edmunds is deemed less than the paternal love that Cooper experiences for Murphy.  Her character is entirely there to reflect Cooper's journey, as well (as is Murphy's), and quite frankly both are added to the long list of ways that Christopher Nolan cannot write women.

And we're going to leave it there, though with nearly three hours of cinema there's surely more to tackle in the comments if you're feeling like it.  What were your thoughts on Nolan's latest?  Do you think he'll finally score that Best Director nomination the entire internet is clamoring for him to have?  Do you agree with me that he is in desperate need of a better screenwriter?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Everybody's Linking for the Week

Twas the week before Christmas, and boy do we have a lot of links!

In Entertainment...

Atlantic Wire: This article's a tad bit old, but super relevant as we trek into what looks to be a robust year for American Hustle.  Why is it that we, particularly with actresses, seem to toss them aside the second everyone seems to enjoy them?  This is true not only of Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence, but of almost every actress of note of the past twenty years (Meg Ryan, Jennifer Aniston, and Kristen Stewart spring particularly to mind).  I personally cannot get enough of Jennifer Lawrence (her interview with Jon Stewart was just aces), and am looking forward to another year of her on the awards circuit (whether she deserves to be there or not, well, I'll see American Hustle this weekend and let you know!)

In Contention: Sadly, we've all had to read a lot of eulogies and obits this past week with the deaths of Eleanor Parker, Peter O'Toole, Tom Laughlin, and Joan Fontaine.  Guy Lodge tackled the eight-time Oscar loser here, and looked at his many flirtations with the gold guy.

CBS News: I know at this point Katie Couric has apologized and largely condemned her highly controversial overview of the HPV vaccine "debate," but I thought I'd throw my two cents in for good measure.  As I've stated categorically on this site before, the debate about vaccinations and people's misperceptions about it is deeply upsetting and totally baseless.  Vaccinations save lives, and the increasing use of "gut instinct science," frightens me (and should frighten you).  From climate change to medical treatments to debates on women's reproductive health, people with no scientific or medical background are espousing lies, and for some reason the media thinks that showing both sides of a debate of fact is worth doing.  That this came from Katie Couric, who has been a tireless activist for cancer screenings through her long journalistic career, is stunning as she should know better.

The Globe and Mail: We're talking about literature people-look alive (in an aside that wouldn't make it past an editor so thank god this is a blog-anyone else have a pile of books ready for their Christmas vacation-I for one cannot wait!)!  The Globe and Mail tackles the subject (with less bias than one might expect-it's worth a look) of the internet and how the culture of "too long/didn't read" (a subject I worry about with some of my posts) may cause novels to become shorter.

In Politics....

Time: I actually love these types of articles.  While a lot of people focused on President Obama taking a selfie (ugh-it's a photo people, and when you overreact to everything it makes any legitimate complaints seem that much less compelling), really the focus should have been on Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama sharing a plane.  I remember a while back my friend Tory, when we were discussing the upcoming field of Republican and Democratic presidential contenders making the apt comment (it was at a bar, so I'm paraphrasing a bit due to potential memory impairment), "it's weird that they seem so interchangeable, since one is going to become immortal."  He definitely has a point-presidents become giants in public perception, and when the molders of history (and these three men truly have molded the history of the world for the past 25 years) get together, they indeed make history.  I easily would have given up all of my Christmas presents to have been a fly on the wall during this flight.

Politico: We've actually got a few from Politico this week, but we'll start with this one since Sen. Harry Reid, while the House is enjoying an early Christmas break (anyone remotely think they deserve it?) is trying to rectify this article.  This is an in-depth portrait of the 250 or so people that have been appointed to office by President Obama that have spent months (for some, even years) waiting for a vote in the Senate.  Patricia Millett, Jeh Johnson, and Mel Watt all proved recently that the "Nuclear Option" is actually being put to good use, as all have been appointed to high positions.  By the end of the week this article should be a bit shorter.

Also Politico: Probably the oddest story of the Affordable Care Act launch has to be what has been happening in Kentucky.  Kentucky has enrolled some 69,000 of its citizens into the new healthcare programs, which Rep. John Yarmuth (the only Democrat from the Bluegrass State in Congress) will happily tell anyone who will listen.  The even more unlikely cheerleader, and the subject of this article, though, is Gov. Steve Beshear, a conservative Democrat frequently at odds with his own party.  Once a washed-up political force, he lucked into the governor's mansion in 2007, easily won re-election in 2011, and is probably the most conservative Democratic governor in the country.  As the article points out, the Democrats have been BEGGING for a hero in the healthcare debate-Beshear's about as perfect for people like Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and of course Alison Lundergan Grimes as you can get.

Last One From Politico: I'm telling you-Politico Magazine has been quite excellent this week.  This is a portrait from veteran political reporter Jon Ralston about Harry Reid.  For anyone who cares remotely about the Senate and has an opinion of Reid (we all do), it's something you won't be able to put down.

Just One More...

CNN: Can you believe that Prince Harry, the rascally younger brother of Will, somehow got sexier this week by reaching the South Pole?  Such a stud, that one.

Who's Dying on The Simpsons?

This past week, The Simpsons let out a doozy of a spoiler/teaser: one of the characters will die in either the current or the following season.

This is the sort of spoiler I can get behind, though I hope they don’t pinpoint the exact episode (they will, but a guy can dream, can’t he?).  It’s so open-ended, and it invites fans to speculate.  The only clue we have received was that the actor playing the character won an Emmy for the role.  Though some in the media have mocked this clue, it corners it down somewhat.  Let’s take a look!

Major Simpsons Actors Who Don’t Have Emmys

There are five major actors on The Simpsons who have never won an Emmy for the series.  They are:

Harry Shearer: Shearer’s lack of an Emmy is one of the greatest travesties of the voiceover category.  I’d go so far as to say that he’s probably the best voice actor on the show.  With his characters out of the running, that means that (amongst a myriad of others) Principal Skinner, Kent Brockman, Mr. Burns, Mr. Smithers, Ned Flanders, Dr. Hibbert, Otto, and Reverend Lovejoy shall live to see another day.

Pamela Hayden: Her primary vocal work on the show is voicing Milhouse van Houten, but with her lack of an Emmy Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, and Sarah Wiggum all get a reprieve as well.

Tress MacNeille: MacNeille voices the majority of the female characters on the series.  Agnes Skinner (one of the older characters on the show) is her most utilized, but she also does the voice of Cookie Kwan, Brandine Spuckler, and Dolph.

Maggie Roswell: Roswell was unlikely to experience a death for one of her characters to begin with considering that she had to endure the death of one of her major characters already (Maude Flanders).  Roswell’s living characters include Helen Lovejoy, Luann Van Houten, and Miss Hoover.

Russi Taylor: Probably better known for being the voice of Minnie Mouse for the past 27 years, Taylor also has played several roles on The Simpsons, including Martin Prince and Uter.

The Unlikely (but Still Emmy-Winning) Candidates

Anne Hathaway: Before she was picking up the Oscar for Les Miz, Anne Hathaway was a surprise Emmy winner for her voice work as Penelope on The Simpsons in 2010.  Penelope was a one-time character, though, and this seems like quite a copout considering the fact that they made a big deal of the death to the media.

Yeardley Smith: In 1992, six voice actors on The Simpsons picked up an Emmy, including Smith, who won specifically for playing Lisa Simpson.  Her death seems unlikely for two reasons.  One, I doubt pretty severely that any children or any of the main five characters will pass away, even if the show is headed to an eventual end soon.  And two, Smith does occasional voice work, but has no other major characters, and I doubt that they’ll cut her from the cast all-together.

Marcia Wallace: Wallace was one of the other six actors to win in 1992, and is principally known for her work as Edna Krabappel on the series (the character she won for).  Like Smith, I doubt they’d cut the legendary actress (best known to live-action audiences as Bob Newhart’s receptionist on The Bob Newhart Show), particularly since this would make Ned a widower for the second time.

Jackie Mason: Mason only voices one character on the show and won for that character in 1992, Krusty’s father Rabbi Hyman Krustofski.  Mason has only appeared in three episodes of the series, and like Hathaway, this would be a major copout by the producers.

Nancy Cartwright: The fourth of our 1992 winners, Cartwright won for playing Bart Simpson, and like I said with Smith’s write-up, I’m very skeptical that they would kill off one of the five main characters.

The True (Emmy-Winning) Contenders

Hank Azaria: Azaria is one of only two actors on the show that has A) won more than one Emmy and B) won an Emmy for “various characters.”  This likely means that all of Azaria’s plentiful characters are in the hot seat.  Azaria’s key characters are Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, and Professor Frink.  Of these, Moe is frequently trying to commit suicide, but that seems fairly morbid for this series.  Apu is probably the most likely of the bunch, though that also seems quite morbid considering he has eight children and a wife (though he frequently has stickups at the Kwik-E-Mart, so who knows).

Dan Castellaneta: Castellaneta has won four Emmy Awards (more than any other actor on the show) during The Simpsons run, and though he’s most well-known for voicing Homer Simpson (d’oh!), he also voices Krusty, Barney, and perhaps most pertinent to this discussion Abe Simpson (Mona Simpson has died-could Homer’s father be next?)

Julie Kavner: Kavner is the last of the six winners in 1992, and won for four specific characters: Marge, Patty, Selma, and Jacqueline, their mother.  While Marge is surely out, and Jacqueline is a relatively minor character and a bit of a copout, Patty or Selma both have potential as the one who bites the dust.  I hate to see how Homer reacts at that funeral…

Kelsey Grammer: Honestly, Grammer’s Sideshow Bob is the first character I thought of when it was announced that the character won the actor an Emmy.  Grammer picked up his well-deserved trophy in 2006 for his hilarious work as the “evil” Sideshow Bob, and him going out in a blaze of glory seems like a wonderful way to end that successful story arch.

Those are my thoughts, but how about yours?  Who do you think is the most likely character to die on The Simpsons?  Any super annoying character that you’re hoping for?  Share in the comments!

OVP: Supporting Actress (2012)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2012)

The Nominees Were...

Amy Adams, The Master

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

My Thoughts: My computer is giving me a bit of a headache (actually, scratch that, the internet is being slow-Word is just fine), so my patience in writing this may be up after a while, and I might have to take a break before I pile into writing the lead categories.

But for now, I'll tackle the supporting players, and we'll start out with the supporting player who is the lead in her film, Helen Hunt.  Like Philip Seymour Hoffman in Supporting Actor, which we just discussed (click the Supporting Actor link below to peruse), this puts me in a bit of a quandary when it comes to ranking these performances, as Hunt is quite good in her movie, perhaps the best she's been since Mad About You, and better than her work in As Good As It Gets, but it's a bit unfair to compare her screentime with that of someone like Jacki Weaver, who is fifth lead at best in her movie.

But I digress, and will use Hunt's presence as a lead as a tiebreaker against her if I need to do so.  In the meantime, let's revel in the excellence on display here.  Forget for a second that there was definitely something brave about doing nudity at Hunt's age (or at least that's what the press said-personally if I looked as good as Hunt does, I'd be at the beach all the time, and it would have nothing to do with bravery).  What we have with Hunt is a miracle of filmmaking-an actress that gets to play a sexually-charged character who doesn't have to fall into romantic love or sacrifice a part of herself for a true character arch.  The best acted scene of the film was Hunt's breakdown in the car, with her crying about something she doesn't quite understand, and Hunt letting that abandon fly with little regard for comprehension.  Why this scene works, though, is because Hunt has established this woman as independent, as professional, and as someone who has done her job for many years and will continue to do it for many more.  The majority of films want to completely reinvent a person in a movie, but life doesn't work like that.  Hunt's performance understands this, and shows small shifts but no great leaps, and that makes her work so much richer.

Sally Field, on the flip side, may have wanted a bit more leaps in her character.  There was a lot to admire in Field's consummate work as Mary Todd, driven primarily by the fact that we so consistently underestimate Field as an actress.  She's a strong performer, but because we frequently associate her with Gidget and the Flying Nun and her cheerful, perky demeanor, we forget that she can do great things in front of a camera when she has opportunity, and that's apparent in her many duet scenes with Day-Lewis.  What I didn't like about this character, though, was the way that she tried too hard to rewrite Mary Todd Lincoln.  We are aware that the depictions of the "Mad Mary Todd" may be historically inaccurate, but her melancholy becomes far too ambitious, far too minute for the audience (it also bugged me to no avail that they rewrite Mary Todd but kept Lincoln a saint, though that's something I discussed rather handily in the review of Lincoln, so check that out if you're curious).  It's nice to have Field back in a great film (and to have an actress of a certain age getting cast for a role that could have gone with a much younger actress), but this is fine, not necessarily great.

Anne Hathaway is, in a lot of ways, very similar to Sally Field.  Both actresses had beginnings in wholesome, commercial-but-not-necessarily art fare (Princess Mia, anyone?), and both are far better actresses than their reputations have allowed.  I know that it is all the fashion to diss Anne Hathaway these days, but she's an actress of great talent despite her punching bag status, and her work in Les Miserables is proof of that.

Fantine is a killer part for anyone to play, and likely would have resulted in an Oscar nomination for almost anyone considering the prestige behind this project-she gets to play a prostitute, a destitute mother, gets a killer solo ballad, and gets to die.  That's the stuff that Oscar dreams are made of, and so Hathaway was almost always going to get nominated here.  What sets her apart, and allowed her to stampede over Field and Adams (her nearest competition), was that she sells the work, body-and-soul.  That gut-wrenching performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" finds the pain in the character, and with Marshall so wisely deciding to have her do it live, it allows for little imperfections in the execution and emotional baggage to land in the character.  Fantine is far too saintly for my liking, but Hathaway's performance is not-it gets to the woman behind the saint, and shows us a flesh-and-blood person.

Amy Adams, on the other hand, is not playing a saint, and may in fact be playing the devil, a change of pace for an actress that also has her perky baggage (Princess Giselle, anyone?).  Adams is a bit of a divisive figure amongst Oscar critics (she's been nominated four times in less than a decade), having been so rewarded and everyone has at least one performance they feel didn't deserve to be included of hers (for the record, that performance is never Junebug, still her best work).  I was of the camp that her portrayal of Peggy Dodd deserved inclusion.  Adams character choices are so calculated, but so is her character.  This is a woman who has a backbone of steel and the conscience of a sociopath-she's willing to stamp out all in her way, but you don't realize that until it's too late.  It helps that Anderson cast Adams, an actress whose characters always deserve the benefit of the doubt, to make her late decisions as a character, when Freddie has been used to her advantage and is now going to be tossed aside, all the more sinister.  A brava performance, and one of my favorite pieces of work from her.

The final nomination was our surprise inclusion of the acting races, Jacki Weaver.  Every year one actor gets in despite no precursor buzz, and this year it was Weaver.  The nomination was oddly reminiscent of Alan Alda's in 2004 for The Aviator, where a Best Picture frontrunner manages to scoop along a nomination for one of its lesser performances in a category that was fairly confused about who should be the final nominee.

I did enjoy Weaver's work here, I have to say, but there's nothing remotely special about it that warranted an Oscar nomination.  She plays the feeble side wife, who has dealt with mental illness for years (probably decades) and is used to her routines, and her crabby snacks and homemades.  Weaver is a welcome presence in everything she does (she's intensely watchable as an actress), but aside from her chastising Cooper in the car in the film's opening scenes (the scene that clearly won her the nomination, with a lot of help from Harvey), there's nothing that stands out about this performance.  Hopefully this nomination leads to more people giving Weaver great work (she was spectacular in Animal Kingdom, after all), but it's a nomination that never should have happened.

Other Precursor Contenders: As Jacki Weaver wasn't nominated by any of the precursors, we saw at least one additional name in all of precursor awards.  At the Globes (where Hathaway won), Weaver's place was taken by Nicole Kidman's bawdy work in The Paperboy.  At the BAFTA Awards, the adage "never underestimate Judi Dench" stuck quite nicely, with Dame Judi getting cited for her work in Skyfall (again, Hathaway won).  And at the SAG Awards, where Hathaway was again victorious, both Weaver and Amy Adams were left out, with Kidman and Maggie Smith in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel both making the cut.  Smith, Kidman, and Ann Dowd in Compliance were the frontrunners for Weaver's spot, and considering her upswing career lately, my gut tells me it was Smith who was in sixth place.

Films I Would Have Nominated: The most egregious snub was for Dowd, as she was the only one of the women that was hunting for the nomination that I would have nominated without hesitation.  One could make the argument that she's the lead (a fair argument, to be sure), but either way she deserved inclusion for her naive fast food manager with low self-esteem.  Dowd's lack of a nomination is particularly depressing because we saw what a fifth place Oscar nomination did for Jacki Weaver's career a few years back for equally deserving work in Animal Kingdom.  I also find that Emma Watson is slowly becoming one of the actresses to watch of Gen Y, with her work in Perks of Being a Wallflower being so real and lovely.

Oscar’s Choice: Hathaway walked away with the category so handily it's hard to decide whether it was the obvious contender of Field or one of the other three women who came in second place (since Hathaway likely grabbed 70% of the vote, I would buy the argument that anyone other than Weaver was in second place).

My Choice: I'm sad I don't get to be a contrarian, but I'm going with Hathaway as well-it's too good to ignore.  In second place, I'll break the tie with Adams trumping Hunt's leading work, followed by Field and then Weaver.

We now have just the Big 4 to go!  What did you think about the Supporting Actress Oscar race?  Is anyone still Team Anne, and if you aren't, who were you rooting for (and please don't say "Anyone but Hathaway")?  Is there anyone out there who was cheering for Weaver?  And with a nail-biter sixth place race, who do you think was the closest to taking the final slot?  Share in the comments!

Also in 2012: Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Previously in 2012

Past Best Supporting Actress Contests: 2010, 2011