Johnny Simmons

I always like watching the road to the Oscars because it’s always cool seeing the nominees fraternising with each other; a bit like watching animals in their natural habitat or whatnot. Last year, I’d have given anything to see an eventual pair-up between Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan (they always seemed so chummy at events) or Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep. So, I made my own list – using the 20 nominees for the 2010 here are the five duos I’d most love to see.

          

I’ve always wanted to see Mark Ruffalo play an ultimately badass (though it is fun watching him play the ultimate stoner). And, with Renner being in good form throughout The Town playing the aggressive role for all its worth, I’d be much interested in seeing them battle it out as criminals at war. My limited imagination is seeing too much of The Departed playing out, which probably wouldn’t work as well. But, they’re such opposing technical forces it’d be interesting watching them battle it out.

I hate to sound superficial, but Jennifer Lawrence is so pretty I want to see her actually use that beauty (for good or ill) in a movie. And who better to pair her opposite than James Franco? That’s a whole lot of hotness. I don’t know why, though, but I’m now immediately flashing back to Bright Star (I swear, I can’t get that movie out of my head since we started studying Keats this semester). I’m not sure if either has a good British accent, but I wouldn’t be averse to seeing them in a period piece, but – really – I’m not that picky. Their aestheticism may distract me...

        

Perhaps it’s the red hair that I’ve seen them each sport before, but don’t they seem like an obvious duo to play a sister/sister pair. One reason I hate the Oscars’ is because in cheering on our favourites there’s that tendency to end up (ostensibly at least) disliking the competition, but though I’m not backing her I do like Natalie Portman. I find her general nature quite charming, and I’m even fonder of Amy Adams. I can’t see how any casting director could go wrong pairing the two women opposite each other in a nice drama.

          

Both Annette and Geoffrey have a stringent theatrical nature to them that’s often mistaken for histrionics (see Quills, Being Julia) and they’re both actors who work well opposite their respective scene partners. This makes me keenly interested in the idea of seeing them play opposite each other in something decidedly theatrical. Honest truth, the first idea that popped into my head was seeing them play opposite each other in Macbeth, but even something deliberately whimsical or anachronistic like a play within a play (a la Shakespeare in Love, or once again – Being Julia). Just think of the glorious shouting matches the two would have.

                

I have no idea what I’d want them to star in together, but it’s possible that this much brilliance in one film could make me combust. They’re at such opposite sides of the spectrum as actors it would be especially interesting to see what they’d be like in close proximity to each other – Kidman could be a younger stand-in for the Margaret Schlegel type in Howards End, even if I’m not in love with her British accent. But, really, I can’t be the only one who’d like to see them play against each other – they both have underrated (albeit brilliant) comedic performances. Perhaps, frenemies at war?

        

True to form, after the general summer appreciation for The Kids Are All Right passed Mark Ruffalo’s performance has failed to “stick its landing”. After hearing a tetchy commenter accuse him of playing the same hackneyed stoner in all his films I realised just how much of a pipedream it was for me to consider him a contender for the Supporting Actor trophy six months ago. It’s probably a tad supercilious of me because I like the performance, but everything that works for Ruffalo’s Paul depends on keen perusal something that’s not explicitly needed to appreciate the performance of the current frontrunner in the race – Christian Bale’s scenery-chewing brother in The Fighter. Reserving judgement on the veritable worth of either performance, one can appreciate how Bale’s Dicky has an edge. The Fighter is altogether more interested in forwarding Dicky’s agenda than Choledenko and Blumberg are with establishing Paul as any sort of fallen hero. And though Ruffalo, like Bale, is the type of actor yet to earn a nomination but constantly turning in films Bale’s is more peppered with the obvious and easily recognisable (which is not inherently bad). In theory Ruffalo is the only potential nominee I can see winning the statue, but for the fact its low-key nature makes it an unlikely contender.

                                                       

If The King’s Speech were still holding onto its former frontrunner status I’d have entertained the idea of a Rush upset. There’s no one who has seen The King’s Speech that doesn’t seem to appreciate his charismatic turn. But it’s not the sort of fussy supporting turn that demands attention and Rush already has a statue. If The Town were a better film, or if more were smitten with it, Renner could have emerged as another candidate for an upset. He’s fresh off a best picture winner, he’s still at that age where he’s finally getting his dues but still young enough to be considered fresh and he’s easily the best thing in his film. But, even though The Town may be heading to a Picture nomination with a ten-wide field that isn’t that much of an accolade and maybe I’m underestimating the ability but I still don’t see it being indiscriminately embraced by all. Considering the year he had Andrew Garfield seems like someone to keep your eyes on – but I think not. A number have praised him effusively, and he is excellent in The Social Network but that one seems to be all Eisenberg’s show. And I don’t know if it’s mob psychology and all voters do it, but there’s a tendency for supporting actor front runners to be less “supporting” and more of a type of a stealth co-lead. That makes Bale resurface as the obvious one to beat here, and the critics seem to agree. Those five actors seem like a good bet for the eventual nominees, although I have an inkling feeling that there could be an upset nomination here. Perhaps John Hawkes who made an appearace at the SAG – I don’t know. I’m predicting these five, though.

Christian Bale in The Fighter

Andrew Garfield in The Social Network

Jeremy Renner in The Town

Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush in The King’s Speech

                                              

All things considered it doesn’t seem like a particularly bad roundup of nominees – especially considering the clunkers that often get nominated here. But, like with most things this season I’m particularly enthused. I can immediately think of three performances that I’d have loved seeing considered but the entire male ensemble of Animal Kingdom have gotten no love, and the same goes for everyone but Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole – so Miles Teller’s name has gotten no consideration. It's one of the things that you can count on - especially in this category. This is always the category where I'm nonplussed about the decisions that all the usual precursors go running with, but even though there are some contenders I could get behind that are getting no love, I’ll still maintain that the four performances of the lot I’ve seen are worthy of consideration – and Rush is always golden, so I’ll put my faith in that. It's a better batch of potential nominees than years gone by.

                            

Perhaps, as a critic – a pseudo / amateur one, but still – I should take it upon myself to actually do some research about the movie I’m about to see. But, I like the thrill of having no idea about anything. Unwittingly, I saw The Departed one hour before I saw The Town and I ended up (inadvertently) musing over the Bostonian accents. I wasn’t particularly anxious to see The Town, although truth be told I’m not anxious about many films this year. I was already feeling overly cynical the day I watched it, so I think that may have ended up rubbing off on overall view of it. I couldn’t disregard the fact that The Town was obviously a movie - which in the strictest of senses it is, so that doesn’t make for a legitimate criticism. I should probably qualify that statement by saying that it was a movie that was obviously trying (hard) to be profound.

It begins with a bank robbery, it doesn’t go completely awry but it doesn’t go as planned and a hostage is taken. And the story spirals out of control from there. Something that struck me in a roundabout way about The Town was how many actors in it I was apathetic to. From the generally bland Ben Affleck; Jeremy Renner, who I don’t particularly care for; Jon Hamm who’s brilliant as Don Draper but generally bores me; Blake Lively; Rebecca Hall and on and on. The Town is not a character study, at least it doesn’t come off as such though I have a knowing feeling that it might be trying to be. There’s a subtly running theme throughout about Affleck’s Doug’s mother leaving him as a child. While telling Rebecca Hall’s Claire about the incident he tells her (twice) that he was in his underwear when he found out his mother had left. It’s nothing striking in particular, but the overemphasis on detail comes off as a little weird because – like elsewhere in the movie – it doesn’t present us with any any salient information. Whereas, where it’s necessary the information we receive is garbled.

There’s an urgency that pervades the investigation into the bank robbery that’s vaguely ambiguous. I’m never certain why the situation is as chronic as it’s made out to be, especially when we’re made to believe that this sort of occurrence is rote in Charlestown. Affleck seems intent on making The Town a sort of fable on American existence, what with the title cards at the beginning and whatnot; but the story he’s carved doesn’t seem to have any significance beyond the 100 minutes or so it exists on the screen for, the movie’s sort of ephemeral that way; which isn’t to say it’s forgettable. Well, not really...

For this sort of story to work in an allegorical manner – as Affleck seems to intend – it has to work as an ensemble piece, and it doesn’t. Affleck is the only one given the opportunity to do any reflective character work. The supporting players end up becoming obvious vignettes. Jeremy Renner’s entire performance seems to be parts of something bigger, even though he does brilliantly with what he’s given; it doesn’t bode as well for Hamm who seems unsure whether to play his cop as a cold-hearted lawmaker, or an emphatic one. Rebecca Hall should seem more significant, but she ends up seeming like a de facto accessory. She has the most lines (other than Affleck) but we know the least about her; conversely we end up learning much about Blake Lively’s Krista but it doesn’t really seem to have any bearing to the plot – her character ends up feeling extraneous (even though it’s proof she can play more than a bore). The moments I paid keenest attention to were the few moments with Chris Cooper in a jail scene. It’s scene that does little except add more information that we don’t necessarily need but Cooper’s sort of brilliant that way in giving us glimpses at a completely different movie, and one that I’d probably have been more interested in seeing.

                   

But it could have been much worse...