Oscar Countown - catching up
I started out with The Valley of Elah where Tommy Lee Jones received the surprise nomination for best actor. It’s a subtle performance that has the usual blase Jones attitude but he is really good in it. The nomination is worthwhile but I think there were probably some better performances this year. Especially by this guy. He’s good, Charlize Theron is good and Susan Sarandon is great in a small role. Oh and Jason Patric is aging quite hotly. The story about a returned soldier from Iraq is compelling and dramatic yet balanced by an emotionally heavy but quiet Jones. Glad I saw it but he won’t win.
Following Elah was the superb Michael Clayton which was everything I hoped it would be. High drama, thrilling suspense, good acting and great writing. I would have no problem if this won all the awards it was nominated for. Clooney kills in his performance as the title character and breaks away from his slick cool usual self. Tilda Swinton is long overdue for Oscar consideration and Tom Wilkinson is consistently reliable, both nominated for supporting performances. The movie is a almost a perfect package recalling days of great 70s filmmaking. However, I think it will have to be content with just its nominations. Other films and actors are too highly favored to win. If the movie has any Oscar chances, it might be with Swinton. The suppporting actress race still seems to be wide open.
But she might lose to Amy Ryan from Gone Baby Gone who knocks it out with her performance has a less than ideal mom whose daughter has been kidnapped. The movie starts out good and continues as such until the end where it just becomes unnecessarily layered in drama. Once it could end with one character it continues and starts to become director Ben Affleck’s masturbatory opus. He’s a good director and could be great but where it could have ended, it didn’t. This is not saying it’s a bad movie. It’s pretty enjoyable and fascinating. Casey Affleck is good as an anti-leading man but I was ready for this to be over. Ryan has a compelling performance that isn’t very likeable but that may be what makes it so good. She’s annoying and vain and almost heartless but damn, Ryan pulls it off with finesse.
Finally, I buckled down for American Gangster with Denzel and Russell Crowe. I had no interest in this movie whatsoever. From its ridiculous title to director Ridley Scott’s attempt for an Oscar to just the subject matter. Nothing about this appealed to me. I didn’t know it was based on a true story but I don’t think that would have changed my mind. And, at an indulgent three hours, all I could think was ‘really?’ And I believe it’s only nomination was for Ruby Dee as Denzel’s mother in about five seconds of the film. Having said all that, the movie turned out to be pretty good. I have no doubt in any of the talents involved but it’s marketing came across as a heavy-handed movie. While it was, it was still compelling and dramatic. Although, I had to take mini-naps during the movie. Denzel and Russell are never great but they are so good they can barely do wrong. I wouldn’t have put either in Tommy Lee Jones’ slot. Ruby Dee could win as a sentimental fave and she did win the SAG award but I can’t imagine she will. Not with the stronger performances by Blanchett and Swinton.
Tonight I finish my catching up with Casey Affleck’s supporting actor nom for the film The Assassination of Jesse James although I think this award is locked up by Javier Bardem who was too good to be slighted in No Country for Old Men. I love me some Phillip Seymour Hoffman but his nomination for Charlie Wilson’s War more or less just rounds out the category than actually figures in. Tom Wilkinson was great but nobody is really holding a candle to Bardem this year.
