Johnny Simmons

And good lord, Madonna is just phenomenal in that live performance. Talk about iconic. And, though I'll admit as much as any that Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is far from flawless I can't fault Johnny and Helena for their acting at the best of times.

And, now for three of Sondheim's greatest songs...

            

2010: Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole (Oscar Nominated)

2009: Carey Mulligan in An Education (Oscar Nominated)

2008: Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road (SAG Nomination, Golden Globe Win)

2006: Annette Bening in Running With Scissors (Golden Globe Nomination)

2005: Joan Allen in The Upside of Anger

2004: Annette Bening in Being Julia (Oscar Nominated)

2003: Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give (Oscar Nominated)

2002: Nicole Kidman in The Hours (Won Oscar)

2001: Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge (Oscar Nominated)

2000: Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich (Won Oscar)

I am still puzzled when people say Nicole Kidman is a poor actor, for the life of me I can’t imagine why. In addition to being my favourite thrice in the last eleven years she’s been in contention for brilliant work in 2007, 2004, 2003 and 2001. I had a four year streak of picking those that Oscar snubbed (05-08). Incidentally, I consider those four as some of the best work of the last decade – just look at that streak of characters Terry, Deirdre, Marianne, April. Ah, well. Go figure. On to Oscars’ decisions.

2009: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

2008: Kate Winslet in The Reader favourite in Supporting Actress)

2006: Helen Mirren in The Queen (top 10)

2001: Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball (top 10)

(Previous Ruminations on Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor)

Where do you stand with Oscar and their Actresses?

10 minutes into the penultimate episode of Big Love I started wondering why the final episode before the end of the Henrickson clan seemed so sanguine, and then things started bursting at the seams and it all started to be excellent. As always, the division of storylines maintains a consistency that’s impressive. Each of the wives has their moments opposite Bill and with their own emotions and they’re all excellent. Then of course, there are those great scenes where the women come together to do brilliant work, reminding us why this show’s female ensemble is so formidable – even if Emmy keeps on ignoring them. There’ so much goodness happening at the Henrickson home, Ben’s and Lois’ issues both seem somewhat superfluous – although the writing makes it work. Mary Kay Place is wonderfully sinister, she always is such a treat when use her appropriately. With just a single episode left, I can’t help but feel a little cheerless, but the penultimate episode works – not least because it sets up so many issues to be resolved without being an obtrusive cliff-hanger.

Oh, Glee. Last week, I felt that an overstuffed trait made the episode the season’s weakest point – almost unrecognisable from Glee in its earliest form. This week, though, it all seems definitively retro. In an episode written by Ryan Murphy (no less), we head to Regionals; and in the same way that the result of “Sectionals” (in season one) was extraneous – focusing instead on group dynamics and random hilarity “Original Song” turns out to be a lesson in consistency and emerges as my favourite episode of the season. The running hooks of the original songs acts an impetus for an episode worth of jokes – from Santana’s brilliantly paced “Trouty Mouth” to Puck’s cool “Big Ass Heart” to Mercedes excellent “Hell to the No”. All that plays out against Kurt and Blaine’s bonding, a relationship I really have zero interest, but which still manages to be poignant all leading up a well delivered “Regionals” performance and great guest spots from Loretta Devine and Kathy Griffin (and a knockout performance from Jane Lynch – pun intended). I just want to say, Brittney was on fire with the one-liners, and I’m sorry “My Headband” still is my favourite of the original songs. Seriously.

The episode was at its best when Ron turned out to be the one who knew all the things that were going wrong with the festival and proceeded to tell them all while stuck on a Ferris wheel. As crazy as this group is, their group dynamics are logical and that was a lovely moment, as was all else. Watching Donna and Ann bond was great, seeing Leslie and Ben do the same was even better. April and Andy are still great – in short, the episode was everything you could ask for from the best comedy on television.

On the downside, Susan Sarandon’s character was not as great as I’d have hoped – on the upside, everything else was brilliant. Sherri Shepherd works at times, and with no Tracy to annoy me she works brilliantly. Watching Jack work out his issues on “reality” TV was interesting even though it makes me wonder why all shows work so excellently when they have the mockumentary format. Of course, Jane Krakowski takes mugging to a whole new level and delivers her best work of the season. Kudos.

Today is Glenn Close's birthday, I mean to give her a proper writeup since she's wonderful and all - but computer troubles abound - so,  no time. I take a quick look at my five favourite performances of hers - she's so diverse an actress, even if it's often forgotten. I keep hoping she'll get the leading in Sunset Boulevard: The Musical, but I wager that she's definitely too old now. Shame. I can't wait for Damages to return, though, at least I'll be able to see her semi-regularly. She's got so many Emmy's and so many Tony's and yet that damned Oscar keeps eluding her. Ah well.

Having grown up with my mother, from a young age, I harboured a potent hatred for Lifetime Television and their – usually – heinous attempts at made-for-television movies. Occasionally, they would augment their barrage of banal man-hating films with similarly banal man-hating feature films, and I suppose it was in this vein that Stepmom became a staple in their line-up for sometime in the early 00s, playing once a month for some time. Yet, I responded to Stepmom not with my knee-jerk defensive male stance. Despite a deliberately manipulative screenplay from Gigi Levangie, I readily admit to being a legitimate fan of Stepmom.

 True, I’d admit that there’s something vaguely disappointing about getting three fine actors like Ed Harris, Julia Roberts and Ed Harris together and ending up with Stepmom as the result. Considering that each of these actors were at their peak in the late nineties you’d expect something stratospheric - Stepmom, though, thrives on its simplicity. At times it even takes comfort in some of the most mundane of cinematic clichés. There’s only the slightest hint that Julia –an actor who is rarely indicative of physical transformations – must represent the latent materialism of Isabel by her imprecisely blonde hair. And, Sarandon – so comfortable in the role of pervading sensibility – wears her hair in those sensible ponytails, making the juxtaposition between practicality and flamboyance all too obvious, and I’ll admit occasionally humorous.

As fine an actor as Harris is though, he struggles in Stepmom with a character that’s a sounding board for the women and their issues. I find it odd that in an ensemble much more permeated by women (The Hours) he manages to come off so excellently, but it’s probably proof of Stepmom and its insularity, something I don’t particularly fault it for. It’s a film about women’s issues, and at its strongest moments there’s a striking amount of self-awareness – regardless of how garish – that makes for some great moments between Julia and Susan. Susan, usually conveying a much warmer temperate in these maternal roles (Little Women, Lorenzo’s Oil), seems to be at odds with Jackie’s harshness in the first half – especially in those arguments with Isabel, where Julia, so naturally winsome, seems so charming I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t love her. It’s a situation somewhat hampered by Jena Malone, in her youth here, who approaches her troubled teen role with that prototypical, very literal, characterisations of child-actors with this role. She oftentimes turns Anna into such a cliché that Liam Aiken’s Ben is a welcome distraction. He manages to be equally strong opposite Roberts and Sarandon.

Of course, though, it’s all about Julia and Susan, and that scene in the café where they both admit to their greatest fears is always poignant to watch – emotionally manipulative or not. As much as I love Julia, I can’t deny that it’s Susan who takes the reins there. But, the nature of Stepmom is such that by the time the film ends a comparison of the two women is furthest from the viewers’ mind. We realise that each woman buttresses the others performances – both lacking what the other has. Julia’s natural cadence with her physicality is in opposite to Susan who exudes a quiet intensity without movement, and that final shot – so very deliberate – of the two always makes me nostalgic, somewhat. And I think, even though Lifetime continues to be awful when it comes to original films I still like to think of them fondly for showing features like Stepmom. It’s one of those films deprecatingly given the “chick-flick” moniker, but it avoids melodrama (albeit by an inch), and I can’t deny I think of it fondly, then and now.