Denise doesn’t want us to overlook this film in the race to Oscar. Now I’ll look for it and check it out when I get the screener. Here’s the trailer for a start:
Woody Harrelson climbs the Oscar “Rampart”
Harrelson breaks bad in blue
As I said a month ago while still in Toronto, Harrelson has done it again: “..as Dave Brown, a second generation policeman in the Rampart Division who rides his cop car like a Marlboro man, smoking, drinking, never eating. For him, Downtown LA is the frontier; he even gets out of his car as if he were climbing off a saddle into the muck. His moniker is “Date Rape.” He doesn’t go gentle through the night with perps, a practice that has now put his position on the force in peril. His jaw juts and his shades cover nearly dead eyes. Yes, he could be a character out of a Jim Thompson novel, The Killer Inside Me.”
Now, Sasha Stone chimes in at Awards Daily: “For the first time, I’ve seen a performance that has to be considered one of the strongest contenders to win Best Actor so far this year. George Clooney, Jean DuJardin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Oldman and Brad Pitt all are in contention to win. The other notable performance is Michael Fassbender in Shame. Somewhere in there room might have to be made for Woody Harrelson’s bad cop in Oren Moverman’s exceptional film, Rampart. ”
Bang-bang, you shot me down, bang-bang…
Oscars 2012: Best Picture First Look
the Descendants on the horizon
At this point in the year, the wobble of identifying best picture is that so many of the biggies are yet to be seen. And, still, given that one of the Eastwood- or Spielberg-driven monsters may flounder, here’s my take on the viable top ten.
Of this list, I’ve actually seen six:
- The Descendants
- Warhorse
- J. Edgar
- The Help
- The Artist
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
- Moneyball
- Midnight in Paris
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Naughty, Naughty: Carey Mulligan’s nude in “Shame,” too
Mulligan, bare shoulder
I’m feeling a little bad for Carey. After seeing Shame, all the fuss seemed to be about her co-star Michael Fassbender baring his junk, swinging the thing like a patrolman with a billy club.
But what about Carey? What about her needs? What about her risks?
Mulligan’s character makes her entrance stark naked, in a shower stall, bare-breasted (they’re perky!), bottle-blond hair soaked to reveal dark roots, darkish pubic hair. This is not your BBC Mulligan, nor the mother on the pedestal of Drive. Not only does she dress and sing like Marilyn Monroe, she has that bruised blond Bus Stop attitude, the beauty of the butterfly about to be stomped by the steel-toed boot of male brutishness.
Full-frontal nudity is a rite of passage for actresses. And so Mulligan’s Sissy enters the frame, like brother Brandon, naked as birth, but not nearly so daring.
And, yet, Sissy may as well be clothed for all that is revealed about her character, despite her physical nudity, her painfully slow rendition of “New York, New York,” and what definitely amounts to a genuine and wrenching performance. Again, it’s the Jessica Rabbit problem: “she’s not bad; she’s just drawn that way.”
Mulligan’s abused, possibly incestuous, self-mutilating sister has a character arc that goes from bad to worse. She’s just a plot punching bag. While she shares the screen with Fassbender’s Brandon, it’s her impact on him that commands director Steve McQueen’s full attention, as if he were the parent who only has enough love for one child.
And, stripped bare, what’s Brandon’s takeaway? To quote Babs, “people, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world.”
“Young Adult” Trailer
“Psycho prom queen bitch?” You had me at hello.
