Predictions are always tricky and none are trickier than figuring out who's going home with the golden statue.
Nominations are all over the place, and the picture with the most nominations, Dreamgirls, didn't even get a best picture nod.
Here are my predictions, though slightly ill-informed since I didn't see all of the movies nominated this year.
Some, of course, are easy. Helen Mirren is going to win best actress. Jennifer Hudson is going to win best supporting actress. And hardly anyone would argue that they don't deserve the accolades they've gotten.
I haven't seen The Queen but I have seen Helen Mirren's work in other movies and she is good. She embodies completely every role she takes on, and from I have heard, she does no different in The Queen.
Hudson was great as Effie White in Dreamgirls. She not only tackles that gut-busting anthem "And I Am Telling You," with the same power that Jennifer Holiday had when she sang it more than 20 years ago on Broadway. Hudson brings both a sassiness and vulnerablility to White's downward turn over the course of the movie.
Eddie Murphy will get best supporting actor. I wasn't blown away by his performance but he did bring a pathos to James "Thunder" Early that went beyond a simplistic James Brown impersonation. He dug deep. Let's hope Oscar voters forgive him for the literally bloated Norbit that just came out.
As for best actor, some say Peter O'Toole, giving him the award he should have gotten years ago. But I'll say Forest Whitaker. He captured all the complexities of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Whitaker was able to create a full-drawn character and make him breathe and seem real. Any other actor might have played over the top and turned Amin into a caricature. Whitaker makes him human.
The best picture and best director are harder to call this year. I love The Departed. Gritty with a twisted sense of humor. It was Martin Scorsese at his best and he deserves to win best director.
I'm predicting Babel will win best picture. Sad to say that I haven't seen Babel nor Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. But I'd bet on Babel -- essentially this year's Crash.
And Mr. Dirty Harry, a fine director, has certainly by this time won enough awards, as grand achievement as his two movies about World War II was.
Well, there you go. Love 'em or leave 'em, those are my picks.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Daddy's Little Girls
There's no secret to Tyler Perry's success. His formula is simple, and people who go see his films know what to expect: Broad comedy, gut-wrenching drama and gospel-soaked happy endings.
His latest film, Daddy's Little Girls, is no different.
Idris Elba, best known for his role as Stringer Bell in The Wire, plays Monte, a mechanic struggling to fulfill his dreams and raise his three daughters.
It's not long before his path crosses that of Julia, played by the oh-so fine Gabrielle Union, who is a high-powered, ambitious attorney. She works hard and is frustrated with the fact that she can't seem to find a good man.
Monte becomes her driver, and their relationship, as typical in most romantic comedies, has a really rough beginning. But soon, Julia finds herself pulled into Monte's increasing drama with Jennifer, his children's mother, an unbelievably cruel witch played by Tasha Smith. And before you know, Monte is in family court fighting for custody with Julia as his pro-bono attorney.
Jennifer wants full custody of the children with her drug-dealer boyfriend, Joseph.
In Tyler Perry's world, the good people are really good and the bad people are really, truly evil. But Perry isn't necessarily interested in sophisticated art. He wants to entertain.
And in that, he is a true genius.
Union and Elba have a nice chemistry and bring depth to characters that might have been tired cliches with less-talented actors. Louis Gossett Jr. also elevates often trite material as Willie, the owner of the auto shop where Monte works.
The performances are so good you almost can look past the many script problems the film has. Only after you leave the theater do you start poking the large plot holes in the script. Here's just one example: Julia finds out a secret about Monte's past that proves critical in the custody battle. Yet, if Julia is Monte's attorney, surely, she would have done enough homework on Monte's past that she wouldn't get blindsided in court.
And the happy ending, the one where Monte and Julia are reunited and Monte gets his kids back, just doesn't wash.
Yet, the movie works because it has heart and the message that Perry is trying to send is a good one. It's about taking back one's community; it's about having faith when things seem bleak; it's about changing the negative perceptions of black men.
It's about celebrating parents who do their very best to raise their children.
Perry does what he does best -- he makes you laugh and makes you think at the same time.
His latest film, Daddy's Little Girls, is no different.
Idris Elba, best known for his role as Stringer Bell in The Wire, plays Monte, a mechanic struggling to fulfill his dreams and raise his three daughters.
It's not long before his path crosses that of Julia, played by the oh-so fine Gabrielle Union, who is a high-powered, ambitious attorney. She works hard and is frustrated with the fact that she can't seem to find a good man.
Monte becomes her driver, and their relationship, as typical in most romantic comedies, has a really rough beginning. But soon, Julia finds herself pulled into Monte's increasing drama with Jennifer, his children's mother, an unbelievably cruel witch played by Tasha Smith. And before you know, Monte is in family court fighting for custody with Julia as his pro-bono attorney.
Jennifer wants full custody of the children with her drug-dealer boyfriend, Joseph.
In Tyler Perry's world, the good people are really good and the bad people are really, truly evil. But Perry isn't necessarily interested in sophisticated art. He wants to entertain.
And in that, he is a true genius.
Union and Elba have a nice chemistry and bring depth to characters that might have been tired cliches with less-talented actors. Louis Gossett Jr. also elevates often trite material as Willie, the owner of the auto shop where Monte works.
The performances are so good you almost can look past the many script problems the film has. Only after you leave the theater do you start poking the large plot holes in the script. Here's just one example: Julia finds out a secret about Monte's past that proves critical in the custody battle. Yet, if Julia is Monte's attorney, surely, she would have done enough homework on Monte's past that she wouldn't get blindsided in court.
And the happy ending, the one where Monte and Julia are reunited and Monte gets his kids back, just doesn't wash.
Yet, the movie works because it has heart and the message that Perry is trying to send is a good one. It's about taking back one's community; it's about having faith when things seem bleak; it's about changing the negative perceptions of black men.
It's about celebrating parents who do their very best to raise their children.
Perry does what he does best -- he makes you laugh and makes you think at the same time.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
Notes on a Scandal
Friendship is a tricky thing, especially when one is based on manipulation, deceit and utter desperation. That's the case in Notes on a Scandal.
Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett, a sad, lonely teacher who writes pithy observations in her diary and pines for love and companionship.
Soon, she meets Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett, the new art teacher at the school. At first, Barbara finds her frumpy and snobby but eventually becomes consumed with infatuation.
Sheba is in a passionless marriage, stuck in the routine of taking care of her children, one of whom has down syndrome. She longs for more and she finds it in one of her promising art students, Steven Connelly.
She begins a torrid affair with Steven, and Barbara finds out and uses that information against Sheba.
Barbara discovers the very thing that will keep Sheba close: the promise of friendship tinged with the threat of revealing a secret. It is a tension that drives the movie, as Barbara digs her needy claws into every aspect of Sheba's life, demanding Sheba's attention at even the most inopportune times.
Dench is a masterful actress, a hard-to-ignore presence in every scene, playing Barbara as a woman obsessed only because she feels trapped by her loneliness.
And Blanchett does well in the awfully hard role of a woman who risks her marriage and her career to have sex with a teenager. Yet, Blanchett makes Sheba utterly human, and you see the desperation and sadness she has that her life hasn't turned out quite the way she would have dreamed.
The chemistry between Dench and Blanchett is electric in every scene, and it is that electricity that keeps the audience invested in the movie, even when things go a little over the top at the end.
The word that kept coming to mind to describe this movie is delicious. Yummy. Delectable. The movie isn't all that deep. Instead, it is a sweet, sweet treat, down to the very last taste.
Judi Dench plays Barbara Covett, a sad, lonely teacher who writes pithy observations in her diary and pines for love and companionship.
Soon, she meets Sheba, played by Cate Blanchett, the new art teacher at the school. At first, Barbara finds her frumpy and snobby but eventually becomes consumed with infatuation.
Sheba is in a passionless marriage, stuck in the routine of taking care of her children, one of whom has down syndrome. She longs for more and she finds it in one of her promising art students, Steven Connelly.
She begins a torrid affair with Steven, and Barbara finds out and uses that information against Sheba.
Barbara discovers the very thing that will keep Sheba close: the promise of friendship tinged with the threat of revealing a secret. It is a tension that drives the movie, as Barbara digs her needy claws into every aspect of Sheba's life, demanding Sheba's attention at even the most inopportune times.
Dench is a masterful actress, a hard-to-ignore presence in every scene, playing Barbara as a woman obsessed only because she feels trapped by her loneliness.
And Blanchett does well in the awfully hard role of a woman who risks her marriage and her career to have sex with a teenager. Yet, Blanchett makes Sheba utterly human, and you see the desperation and sadness she has that her life hasn't turned out quite the way she would have dreamed.
The chemistry between Dench and Blanchett is electric in every scene, and it is that electricity that keeps the audience invested in the movie, even when things go a little over the top at the end.
The word that kept coming to mind to describe this movie is delicious. Yummy. Delectable. The movie isn't all that deep. Instead, it is a sweet, sweet treat, down to the very last taste.
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