Iannucci’s TV show, The Thick of It, spawned the award-winning movie In the Loop. And the little guy spoiled me for The Ides of March. Blame him, George, but love him, too.
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Iannucci’s TV show, The Thick of It, spawned the award-winning movie In the Loop. And the little guy spoiled me for The Ides of March. Blame him, George, but love him, too.
Thelma: Let me throw out the first pitch on best actor: George Clooney in The Descendants is the frontrunner, but even Clooney admits that’s a position that takes incredible stamina. You’re just asking to be knocked off the block. Still, if any one can campaign for this award like a politician out of The Ides of March, it’s George. And then there’s his old pal Brad Pitt, with the one two punch of Moneyball and The Tree of Life, and he’s a star that every one wants to come to their party. And then there’s the bad boy: Michael Fassbender. I’ve yet to see Shame, and he’s definitely the year’s rising male star, but is that, or his repressed Jung in A Dangerous Method, Oscar-able?
Susan: Clooney in The Descendants is the safest bet for now. And Pitt could easily be in there for Moneyball.
A Dangerous Method is proving to be a divisive film as some dismiss it as a talky bore while others embrace how it reveals the rift between these two fascinating men of the mind as they have a tug of war over a patient who is a key to both their theories. Still, Shame feels like the one that will place Fassbender in the race.
However, the more time goes by, the less The Ides of March feels like a generator of nominations. It’s well made but its script feels like it is five years out of date and its revelations about politicians are few.
So where will the other candidates come from? I wish Paul Giamatti could sneak in with Win Win but that feels like an Independent Spirit Award type situation. More likely is Owen Wilson in Midnight in Paris, if the academy decides to reward Woody Allen‘s return to form — as well as Wilson’s own reawakening as an actor.
Leo in J. Edgar could go either way. I would feel more sure if this were a Scorsese film than an Eastwood. Tom Hanks in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? Daniel Craig in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? Gary Oldman — in the overdue club big time — for Tinker Tailor? All possible but mostly unseen.
And oui to Jean Dujardin for The Artist. He seems more likely than Ryan Gosling at this point.
Sasha: Hanks will be too small a part in Extremely Loud so, if anything, he goes supporting. And trust me, if the movie is as good as the screenplay it will rip your heart out.
The actors I’m thinking of right now are: [Read more…]
OK, we’re just out of Toronto (at least I am). It’s a crap shoot as to who will make the best actor shortlist — but it’s not as much of a crap shoot as it was a week ago. This is going to be one very hot race. So, let’s start off with the shoe-in:
1. George Clooney, The Descendants
2. Brad Pitt, Tree of Life or Moneyball
3. Jean Dujardin, The Artist
4. Woody Harrelson, Rampart
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
And don’t forget:
6. Michael Fassbender, Shame
7. Gerard Butler, Machine Gun Preacher
8. Dominic Cooper, The Devil’s Double
9. Paul Giamatti, Win Win
10. Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
11. Ryan Gosling, Drive or The des of March
12. Tom Hardy, Warrior
By Thelma 2 Comments
For a star with two rival movies at TIFF, George Clooney is not a man at war with himself. While hanging with George at The Soho House in Toronto the other night, he was the picture of grace and generosity, as proud as a parent with two successful children. In this case, the kids happen to be a pair of Oscar-bound multimillion dollar movies: The Ides of March, which he also directed, and Alexander Payne’s The Descendants.
Clooney, a Clark Gable-Cary Grant cocktail, has been down the red carpet before. Only two years ago Up in the Air rose out of Toronto as the Oscar front-runner. It appeared unbeatable. And then, months later, Clooney lost to Jeff Bridges, and The Hurt Locker pulled ahead as best picture. At Soho House, Clooney acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining momentum in the front-runner spot. the danger of what I call “red carpet rash.”
Holding an old-fashioned glass and encircled by admirers, young gorgeous women, and seasoned film journalists, he told me — and Baz Bamigboye of the Daily Mail, Roger Friedman of Showbiz411 and Manhattan salonista Peggy Siegel — that The Descendants had received the warmer reception at Telluride the week before, but the pendulum had appeared to swing in Toronto. Here, March was receiving the better buzz. The mercurail element of audience response bemused him, bringing out the dimples and those crinkly laugh lines by his eyes — and a shrug.
Clooney talked generously about his brilliant director, Alexander Payne, who had hugged well-wishers on his way out of the party nucleus, bound for a quieter floor, plugs conspicuous in his ears. Clearly, not the social animal George is, or as capable of grace under pressure. Clooney praised his young co-star Shailene Woodley, who plays his candid teen daughter. He admired how together and mature Woodley was at nineteen, some thing that came across when I interviewed her recently for an upcoming Marie Claire profile. He praised the actress that played his wife in the film, who spends most of the movie in a coma, which is apparently harder than it looks.
It’s definitely a trip to stand in that golden circle around Clooney, knowing that I’ve arrived at the epicenter of the party, and the epicenter of the film festival social scene at that moment. Not the least of it is that the actor is genuinely charming. He creates a glow of fun and convivial conversation around him. He wants to talk and engage, not parrot, not platitude. He appears completely in the moment, showing no fatigue or anxiety, unencumbered by a Blackberry. He’s also quick with a barb. We shared a laugh about a New York Film Critic Circle colleague who got up his nose two years ago at the NYFCC awards that we both attended. (At the cocktail party that night, Clooney had asked me if it would be OK to rib Rex Reed on stage about a pissy comment the critic had published about the actor; I assured George he wouldn’t lose the sympathy of the room.)
Standing in that inner circle is like being one of the boys in the best boys club around. And, as we paid court, stars sifted forward to pay their respects: Alexander Sarsgaard of TV’s True Blood and the controversial film Melancholia — tall, blonde and handsome — extended his hand for a shake. Even he was a bit awed to have stepped up into the light. After Sarsgaard turns away, Clooney cracks some thing like: does he have to be so tall? It’s a jest that playfully acknowledges a human jealousy. (Or that handsome, I could have added.) Shame director Steve McQueen approaches, introduces himself, and then retreats, with a gravity antithetical to the circle.
Then, it’s time to cede my spot in the George oasis. His beautiful blond handler suggests he migrate up to a new level of the party, another floor that’s currently empty with a pool table, where co-star Ryan Gosling awaits. George says goodbye warmly, taking my hand, and I touch his arm with my other hand and say, “I’ll see you in New York at the critics circle.” I have not belabored the point that his performance in The Descendants, my favorite of his two movies at the festival, touched me deeply. I’m confident it’s put him in the Oscar race and I murmur, “best actor.” He crinkles a smile.
On the way out, I see Keira Knightley in a different frock from the Elie Saab she was wearing when we chatted at the Sony Pictures Classic dinner for A Dangerous Method only a few hours before. (I’ll tell you what we talked about in a later post). Then I floated downstairs, passing Jimmy Kimmel on his way up. I stepped out on Duncan Street, past the bouncers and the crowds of locals restrained by velvet ropes. They were hoping for a celebrity sighting, but got me, a woman in a white dress from Anthropologie and discount shoes, a happy woman, but no celebrity. I leave that to George.