Brad640--A film fan after my own heart. Mike Leigh rules! And has ruled for decades. Not a lot of people's cup of tea, but if you want a movie that sends you out understanding the real world more than you did when you went in, but still manages to be transcendant, Mike's your guy. For those who've never seen a Mike Leigh film, think a quiet, living room version of "Raging Bull."
Okay, I'll play WILL/SHOULD:
BEST PICTURE
WILL: "Million Dollar Baby"
SHOULD: "The Aviator"
REALLY SHOULD: "Raging Bull" (Okay, so I'm still holding a grudge after 25 years)
Just saw "Raging Bull" rereleased at the gorgeous huge-screen Zeigfeld Theater in NY on 2-16 and a week later saw "Million Dollar Baby." I realize they are very different kinds of films even though they have the subject of boxing in common. [READ NO FURTHER IF YOU LOVED "MILLION DOLLAR BABY" AND DON'T WANT TO READ AN RGIRL RANT.] But having seen "Raging Bull" again so recently, it made "M$B" seem that much worse.
Personally, I found "M$B" to be an absolute embarrassment. What a seriously obsequious piece of sentimental schlock. And that sentence was intended to be as bad as the movie. "M$B" was, IMO, basically a $100 million dollar TV movie-of-the-week. I kept thinking of the scene in "Network" where Catherine Manheim is reading synopses for potential TV shows the network executives like; i.e. "Crusty but lovable [cop, doctor, boxing trainer] who is wrestling with long-held guilt butts heads with tough but lovable underdog..." with every synopsis being the same theme with different subjects.
That's how I felt about "M$B." Eastwood is the crusty but lovable boxing trainer wrestling with long-held guilt butting heads with the tough but lovable underdog, Hilary Swank. Morgan Freeman rounds out the trio as the down-and-out old fighter with a heart of gold, the wisdom of the ages, and to top it off, sleeps in a little room in the gym on a cot--but still gets HBO Premium, lol! Actually, I liked the HBO touch. But the rest of it--let's call it "Requiem for a Lightweight Soap Opera."
As for the performances: Based on Swank's one-note (or should I say "one-punch"?) performance, I wanted to call the movie "Raging Camille" or "Sugar Ray Love Story," "Upper Cuts of Endearment," or "Punched on the Fourth of July." All boos and hisses welcome and deserved.
Eastwood can still get the wit out of a scene with a wink rather than a big elbow in the side, and do a paralysis, amputate, death scene keeping the power in NOT barfing the emotions all over the place. Great actor, some excellent scenes, a lot of good lines, but overall awful material.
Joe, as you noted, ITA that Morgan Freeman is one of the greatest actors in the world. Anybody who can say that insufferable and ridiculous narration with such believability and real heart deserves an Oscar.
Also Joe, since you asked about fashion, here's the Rgirl Fashion Enforcement Agency assessment:
First of all, this was the year of the Barbie chanteuse dress aka the mermaid style,, i.e., strapless, skin-tight bodice, hips, and legs down to a flair of fabric coming out from just below the knees. Some were pure mermaid, some were mermaids with fins, that is, a train. If the star had the bod, this style made her into "Hello, gorgeous!"
This has also been the year of the brunette since fall. Trends are part of Hollywood, but jeez, ladies. When your skin tones, eyes, and everything about you says blonde, screw the brunette trend. Some women had great dresses but bad hair or bad jewelrey, so I'm giving the Rgirl FEA Oscar for (cliche coming) the Total Package. The nominees are:
Renee Zellweger: Gorgeous crimson lipstick red mermaid/fin dress, figure to die for, and nice neat pulled up hair--but Renee succumbed to the brunette trend. I don't think the hair color worked for her. Maybe a darker blonde, but brunette, no.
Virginia Madsen: Midnight ocean blue Versace couture mermaid dress with alternating satin diagonal swirls. Amazing color and the swirls on the bias added texture. Plus Virginia eschewed the brunette trend and kept her blonde locks. Loved the color, but the do was a little casual for the dress and the event. And the earrings were so big that they threw off the balance of the outfit.
Scarlett Johannssen: Man, I DIG this chick!
First of all, she went even blonder rather than going brunette. I loved the curls and upswept do (the texture of her hair is amazing, like spun silk) and especially the diamond brooches in the hair. (I am officially retiring the word "bling" from at least my vernacular unless I'm talking about harps or doorbells.) SJ wore a black Barbie dress and what I especially loved was, when asked, she said she really could not breathe in the dress but as long as you could hold your breath for the whole show, it didn't matter, being the Oscars and all. Scarlett, you da atom.
Halle Berry: Another Barbie dress with a three-tiered look of a diagonal bust and waist on the bias, as well as the gown out to the flair. The problem I had with the dress was the color. On my TV it looked beige. I heard later it was taupe, and later still that it was silver. Whatever the color, I'm hoping it looked better live than it photographed.
Non-Barbie Dresses (EDIT: Oops, after seeing the photos, which showed the entire dress, some of them turned out to be Barbies after all. Guess that's why I'm not Steven Kochakaroo):
Laura Linney: This girl definitely went beige. The bottom of the dress was finished off with an asymmetrical crush of feathered ruffles, which I can't believe I didn't hate. Didn't love 'em, but I think they were small enough and few enough that they didn't make her look like an overly decorated birthday cake. Not great, but not bad.
Charlize Theron: The overly decorated birthday cake look belonged to the incredibly gorgeous Charlize, who must have to work really hard to look not incredibly gorgeous (other than six hours of make-up for "Monster"), which I felt she did tonight in this '50s party-gown dress. Theron did go with the brunette trend and if anybody should stay blonde, it's Charlize. The look is so jarring with her skin tones. It was like when they made Angelina Jolie a platinum blonde for that forgettable film "Life or Something Like It" or something like that--I forget. Still, even in dress and hair I didn't like, it's hard not to call Charlize stunning.
Salma Hayek: Va-va-va-Voom! Number 1 (and 2) decolletage of the night, all glittering Hollywood glamour in sparkling black; Salma being one of the actresses who was born as not only a true brunette but is even a natural blackette with hair like midnight black satin, which she wore in a perfectly upswept do touched off with bangs and just mussed enough to look like she'd been backstage having a very good time with someone.
The pal I watched the Oscars with dubbed Salma the Official Mojo Woman of the Oscars.
Penelope Cruz: Another natural Spanish blackette whose beautiful skin was offset wonderfully by the golden satin yellow strapless gown with just the right length of train and just the right sized bow in the back hanging below the hips. In the opinion of the Rgirl household, she was outshone by Salma, but I would kill to come in second to Salma the way Penelope did.
Cate Blanchett: Stunning, stunning, stunning. This woman is style incarnate. Another asymmetrical one bare shoulder dress, with neckline perfectly calibrated to Cate's bust, if you know what I mean--no fears of having the wrong thing "pop." I LOVED the large tendriled sparkling brooch on the strapped side. The canary yellow in satin was lovely and the chocolate satin waist band with the faux belt detail was a perfect accent. Details like this make Blanchett a natural fashion icon.
Beyonce: If Beyonce wanted to have a last name she should just use Unbelievablybeautiful, since that's what people usually say after Beyonce. Or else just make Beyonce an adjective meaning "gorgeous." Unfortunately, by the time she wore her black with silver sparkles Barbie dress for her duet with Josh Groben, we'd already seen about 50 of them, which made it lose some of its impact. But her first two dresses were unbelievably beyonce.
Though she doesn't win the Rgirl FEA Oscar, the following star does come in second: Kate Winslet. The periwinkle color of her gown (at least it looked periwinkle on my TV) photographed amazingly well, I loved the shirred front over the front of her waist going into the jeweled piece down the center, which echoed the jeweled clasps on the straps. I also love the fact that an actress that is known for being more figure than bone, and who has been very vocal about hating the Hollywood "You can never be too thin or too thin" obsession and will
not go gently into that low-cal diet, looked so knock-out beautiful. Winslet truly is the eternal sunshine in an awfully spotty, and skinny, Hollywood.
THE RGIRL FEA OSCAR FOR BEST OVERALL LOOK GOES TO:
HILARY SWANK
She was perfection. Simple but dramatic. Glamorous without glitter. (Nothing against glitter, just tough to pull off glamour without it at the Oscars.) The dark midnight blue dress was a work of art of shirring. From the front, I was wowed by the cut and form fit of the dress, the small diamond earrings, the hair sleekly pulled back, and the minimal make-up. As much as I love Kate Winslet's curves, I also love Hilary Swank's bone and muscle. And then (drumroll) she turned around. Wow-wow-wow-WOW!!! The back that went down, down,
almost all the way down and the back that was in that back! Jeez, boy howdy, was that training ever worth it! Not to offend anyone, but while she's in this kind of shape, I hope the right artist paints and the right photographer photographs Hilary in the nude. I don't mean PLAYBOY type stuff at all, but IMO her body is a work of art and I'd just love to see it preserved for the ages by someone with an artist's eye. (Would love to see them do Winslet, Berry, Theron, and Johannssen, too, BTW.) Swank was great old time Hollywood glamour at it's best. It was worth hating the movie just to see her win the Oscar in that dress.
BEST DRESSED MEN:
Da Winnah: Leonardo DiCaprio. Both classic and contemporary. Classic with the satin lapels on his tux, contemporary with the straight tie.
Duh Losah: Johnny Depp. Johnny, we hardly had ye. Last year you showed up at the Oscars for the one and hopefully not only time in a real deal tux and looked even more gorgeous than Johnny Depp. But this year it was back to the funky off-the-rack vintage look. Even your 2-and-a-1/2 son hated your shoes. Johnny Depp, your work and the way you live your life bespeaks who you are. It's gagging the Johnny (and the audience) for you to wear offbeat suits and duck-do your hair for the Oscars. Hollywood ain't gonna give you an Oscar (and don't lie, we know in your heart of hearts you want one, if nothing else for Betty Sue) if you keep dressing all silly like that. It can still be a cool unique tux without being plaid. Okay?
Okay, now for the sidebar stuff:
BEST ACTOR
WILL: Jamie Foxx, "Ray"
SHOULD (TIE): Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Aviator"
Don Cheadle, "Hotel Rwanda"
Jamie Foxx will win, IMO, for his body of work this year, a year in which he really broke through, and also as much for playing Ray Charles, who was both beloved his entire performing life and died also died only about two years ago. I thought Foxx did more of an imitation of Charles vs. Blanchett's approach, which was to play the character "Katherine Hepburn." I prefer the latter. But there's no way Foxx will lose unless there's some kind of weird split or, heaven forbid, a return to Hollywood of rampant racism. It's not that I don't think Foxx did a good job, it's just that when I think of the movie and Foxx's performance without the music (which was Charles's voice), there isn't much there, IMO. Also, I was always aware I was watching Jamie Foxx do Ray Charles. I never got lost in the performance. JMRxn.
The reason I think DiCaprio should win is that I
did forget I was watching Leo as he played Howard Hughes. Also, DiCaprio took a person who many of us knew only as an icon of mental and physical illness, i.e., the long hair, living naked in his Vegas suite, finger- and toenails so long they cureled around on themselves. (I saw fingernails like this once on a fashion photography editor at a table next to me; it is absolutely grotesque.) DiCaprio brought us the 21-year-old kid who freakin' owned the world; wielded power like we wield dimes and nickels; bedded the most beautiful and powerful women in the world; engineered with vision and brilliance the aviation industry as we know it today; and yet already was finding himself terrified of the germs on a bathroom door.
DiCaprio also had to gradually slide into the madness of Hughes's obsessive compulsive disorder and who knows what else, which I found heartbreaking. Every time I think of certain scenes of "The Aviator," it hurts my stomach. I didn't have that kind of visceral reaction to Foxx's performance--not that my stomach should have hurt, but Foxx's performance didn't move me. Foxx impressed me, but Leo moved me. That beautiful and frightening ending of Hughes saying, "The way of the future," over and over. I thought it was so incredibly layered, full of both heart and intellect, as well as truth and depth. It gives me goosebumps. It scares me. It dazzles me.
Don Cheadle. He
WAS the movie "Hotel Rwanda."
BEST ACTRESS
WILL: Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar Baby"
SHOULD: Imelda Staunton, "Vera Drake"
Admittedly it's hard when you hate the movie to root for the actress who starred in it. If you care, see my rant on "M$B." Nothing against Swank. I think she's truly gifted and very much like a thoroughbred horse. She's not a Meryl Streep who can do anything. To me, she's the type of actress who will be able to do the kinds of roles virtually no other woman can do.
Imelda Staunton. Another actress who has worked a lot with Mike Leigh and as usual, the performance is impeccable. If you don't know and are interested, Leigh never starts a movie with a script. Ever. The closest he came was "Topsy-Turvy" because he knew it would be about Gilbert and Sullivan and incorporate rehearsals and performances of "The Mikado." But virtually every other time, Leigh gets a group of actors in which he's interested and has them improvise until characters, relationships, and situations start to organically emerge. Combine that approach with the experience and training of a British actress such as Staunton and you've got me weeping in the aisles. Mike Leigh's movies and the performances of his actors stay with me in my bones.
A note about Annette: Poor Annette Bening. In films such as "The Grifters," "Bugsy," "Valmont," and "American Beauty" she gave performances that were all Oscar-worthy. Unfortunately, her "Julia" in "Being Julia" was not one of them. I would have ranked the Best Actress nominees as follows, from first to fifth:
Imelda Staunton, "Vera Drake"
Kate Winslet, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
Catalina Sandino Moreno, "Maria Full of Grace"
Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar Baby"
Annette Bening, "Being Julia"
Let's hope Hollywood doesn't send Bening off to the actress retirement home and that another script comes her way that will allow her to demonstrate her acting chops in a year when Hilary Swank ISN'T nominated.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WILL: Morgan Freeman, "Million Dollar Baby"
SHOULD: Alan Alda, "The Aviator"
Morgan Freeman, as Joe said, and with which I agree, is one of the greatest actors in the world today and he was the best thing in "M$B." He read that terrible narration and gave it both depth and heart. So maybe I should change Freeman to WILL and SHOULD.
But--Alan Alda was cruel, captivating, and yet I came away with empathy for him, even though he was the very embodiment of self-interested and self-absorbed power, using those flipper hands of his as if they were harmless but at the same time could slit his enemies' throats like a razor. A bravura performance--not in the way you mean, though, Joe.
Loved Thomas Haden Church in "Sideways," too, but not enough for an Oscar in this group. Glad he got an Independent Spirit Award, though, and did he win the Golden Globe? Can't recall.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WILL: Cate Blanchett, "The Aviator"
SHOULD: Cate Blanchett, "The Aviator"
Imagine being asked to play Katherine Hepburn a year after she'd died? Cate Blanchett, if nothing else, has brass. Actually, the way she played Hepburn reminds me why I wasn't crazy about Jamie Foxx's "Ray Charles." As I said, I felt Foxx was doing a dead on imitation of Ray Charles whereas Blanchett was playing a character named "Katherine Hepburn." I prefer the latter. JMO. Also, was glad to see Blanchett win an Oscar after she got rooked in 1998 when she didn't win the Best Actress Oscar for "Elizabeth." Nothing against Gwyneth Paltrow, but her work in "Shakespeare in Love" (another weakling film) simply didn't compare to Blanchett's role as Elizabeth I. Cate looked great; she won for a very difficult role in which she did a superb job; and she was very elegant in her acceptance. Cate's great! And Kate H. is, I'm sure, very proud, wherever she is.
BEST DIRECTOR
WILL: Clint Eastwood, "Million Dollar Baby"
SHOULD: Martin Scorsese, "The Aviator"
I was writing this earlier, lost this part of it, so now as I'm rewriting I know Eastwood won. But I didn't change my WILL/SHOULD choices. I love Clint the actor and when he did "Unforgiven," I happily thought he would be a no-nonsense "We all deserve it" director. But since then all he's done is sentimental schlock, even in the seemingly hard-a## movie "Mystic River," which is in fact very sentimental. Hollywood loves sentimentality, Clint's a Hollywood guy, he's paid his dues, most people love "M$B"--Best Director for Clint was a done deal.
But I really, really hate the fact that Clint Eastwood has two Best Director Oscars for two crappy movies while Martin Scorsese has no Best Director Oscars for at least seven worthy films.:banging: However, the Academy honored no less a director than Sidney Lumet, who never won any kind of competitive Oscar either, plus there are many other great directors who never won a BD Oscar, Alfred Hitchcock, to name one off the top of my head, so Marty's in good company. Anyway, I guess that's the way things work in Hollywad, which is why I guess people like Scorese, DeNiro, and others stay in New York. BTW, none of this takes away my love for the equally gifted and equally different Mike Leigh.
In the "How the Hell Did That Happen?!" category, the winner is: Taylor Hackford, "Ray" for "How the hell did Taylor Hackford get nominated for Best Director?" This guy had a three-movie run of "An Officer and a Gentleman," "Against All Odds," and "White Nights." ARRRRRGH!!! :disagree: :disagree: :disagree:
BEST PICTURE
WILL: "Million Dollar Baby"
SHOULD: "The Aviator"
Already did BEST PICTURE, but now that I know the outcome, I recalled this thought after seeing "M$B": "If I hate it, it will win."
You're all lucky that I'm too tired wax Rgirl rhaphsodic about why "The Aviator" is the superior film compared to every other nominated film. So I'll just say this:
1980: Robert Redford's "Ordinary People" wins over Martin Scorsese's "Raging Bull."
2005: Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" wins over Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator."
Rgirl
Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion. - Mark Twain
BTW, ROFL re your comment that Charlize Theron's dress is exactly like your mom's 1964 prom dress. And "Entertainment Tonight" had her as #1 Best Dressed. And that's why I keep my butt in New York.
