In the other three categories there are fillers - I will admit that. I have only seen 42 films, so there have been performances that probably should have been put aside for greater achievements. I don't think that is the case for Best Actress, in fact I could have easily done a top ten with tremendous performances.
1. Maria Heiskanen - Maria Larssons Eviga Ogonblick(Everlasting Moments). By far the most moving performance I saw this year was by a little known Swedish actress in a art-house release that I almost missed at the cinemas. Playing an abused wife, who falls in love with another man but does nothing about it, she ripped my heart in two. 
2. Anne Hathaway - Rachel Getting Married. We may have seen Anne's boobs in the past but this was the film where she truly performed as an adult. Playing the destrutive sister of the titular bride, Anne was a torrent of self-pity and rage with an undercurrent of pure guilt. Excellent.
3. Sasha Grey - The Girlfriend Experience. A deeply unsettling and naturalistic performance where all we see are the layers a professional hooker places around herself. Throughout the film we see them falling apart, and the impact that has on the understanding of your own identity.
4. Michelle Pfeiffer - Cheri. The second courtesan of the list, with Pfeiffer playing someone who knows her best days are behind her and enters into her final doomed love affair. No-one does brittle like Michelle, and the look into the mirror at the close of the film tells us everything we need to know about her future.
5. Abbie Cornish - Bright Star. We end with more doomed love affairs - this time separated by society and by death. Abbie's Fanny Brawne is unafraid to announce her passions to the world (and to do some first class sulking) and this confidence is striking in the final performance.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
2009 in Review - Best Actress
Friday, 23 January 2009
Out this Week (23/01/2009)
An embarrasment of riches this week with three films nominated for Academy Awards yesterday, and a Tom Cruise film. Not to mention the highly praised Van Damme film. All the nominated films tie with 8 points, but if I had to choose it would be Rachel Getting Married, as it comes highly recommended by people I actually trust out there.
Better Things
Things are tough for the kids growing up in Middle England. A sort of Kidulthood set in the country. My Dad lives in the Cotswolds, I'm not sure he's safe now.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Frost/Nixon
Intriguing chronicle of the infamous Richard Nixon interviews by David Frost in the late Seventies. Adapted from a play. Received a best picture nom.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
JCVD
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays an alternative version of himself in this meta thriller where not only is he losing all the good roles but he's holed up in a bank robbery but expected to act like a hero.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●○○○○○
Milk
Biopic of the first openly gay man elected to office in the U.S., although I for one have absolutely no idea what a "supervisor" is. One to see with a group of gay friends (I'm going tomorrow).
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Raaz: The Mystery Continues
Bollywood mystery film. Deals with the evils within the human psyche by presenting age old myths in modern settings.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●○○○○○○○○
Rachel Getting Married
Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) is getting married, sister (Anne Hathaway) returns from rehab to spoil everything. Many home truths are said and skeletons slip out of the closets in this fine drama from Jonathon Demme.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●●○○
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
The third installment in the "UNDERWORLD" trilogy is a prequel that traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. Does anyone need to see this?
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●○○○○○○○
Valkyrie
Tom Cruise wants to kill Hitler, with a school of British phesps backing him up. Expect thrills, spills and ACTING.
Runs like a Gay Excitometer: ●●●●●●●○○○
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
Trailers - Rachel Getting Married
Here's another one without a UK release date. Grumble grumble.
Jonathan Demme returns to the (or his) early 80's with a bittersweet comedy about family. It's on at Venice and Toronto and is currently generating some minor oscar buzz from the performances by Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin and Debra Winger.
Enjoy
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Venice Film Festival
The 65th Venice International Film Festival released it's full line up yesterday evening. You can visit their website for the full line-up here. Or gaze at the generic picture of the city to our right.
The Venice film festival is becoming quite important for Oscar watchers, at least in the acting categories. Each year for the past 6 either the best actor or actress from Venice has scored an Oscar nomination, although only Helen Mirren as the Queen hs managed to hold that buzz through to the main prize.
This year isn't quite as star filled as most years, and there are no British films in competition (boo!), but there are still some performances that may be worth looking out for.
The Wrestler
The new Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain) film was due in 2009 but I guess he's already finished it. It stars Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei both of whom got some recent buzz that didn't quite result in an oscar nod (Sin City and Before the Devil knows you're Dead respectively). Maybe some love for this will help them. Personally I'm not sure about this one - after all how exciting can wrestling be?
The Burning Plain
Director Guillermo Arriega is probably better known for his writing (Amores Perros, Babel) but he's rustled up a fine mother daughter relationship drama with Kim Basinger and Charlize Theron.
The Hurt Locker
Another Iraq film - with Ralph Fienes playing "Mercenary Team leader". IMDB is so informative.
Rachel Getting Married
Jonathan Demme is hoping for a return to form with this black comedy. Remember he used to be good at these, see Married to the Mob and Melvin and Howard if you don't believe me. He's brought the stunning Anne Hathaway along for the ride.
Inju, La Bete dans l'Ombre
Or Inju, The Beast of the Shadows. This does not appear to be a horror movie. A title like that for a non-horror shows so much chutzpah how can we not want to see it.
Burn after Reading
Opening the festival, but out of competition this Coen production. I may have mentioned that I'm looking forward to it before. In fact now the Dark Knight's out of the way it's the film I'm most looking forward to in the remainder of 2008.
Here's Brad looking a bit confused:
So, what do you think? Will Venice hit on another good performance or has it's run ended? Will one of the above get a mention - or maybe something I haven't noticed? Is Brad more attractive when doing a hurt puppy impression? Feel free to comment.
