Best Actor Battles and Hugh Jackman's Oscar Obstacle

Though most of my Oscar prediction chart updates have to wait for today's screening of Zero Dark Thirty (eeeeeeee! Bring it, Bigelow) it was safe to go ahead and revamp the Best Actor chart since Jessica Chastain can't compete there without significant alternate universe alterations. The chart has all new text, new rankings, links to reviews and past articles, and thoughts on locks, dark horse campaign angles. There's also an extensive list of vote siphoners that probably won't factor in but for random ballots from their most ardent admirers. That doesn't mean they aren't worthy of attention. It never does and never will since "Best" will always remain in the eye of the beholder.

HUGH vs. DANIEL
This weekend's debut of Les Misérables sent numerous industry professionals and media types (including myself) into a frenzy. (lots more after the jump)

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Are All Acting Oscar Records Made to Be Broken?

This year's slowly escalating Oscar race (prediction updates real soon) which sped up a little this weekend with major contenders like Silver Linings and Lincoln emerging or expanding, contains a number of big deal possibilities in terms of Oscar statistics. Were all Oscar records made to be broken? 

That's tough to say but this year seems likely to break (or tie) some records given the cotenders that have already emerged.

TRIVIA MADNESS AFTER THE JUMP...

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Review: "Flight"

This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad

Captain Whip

No one can fly a plane like Captain Whip (Denzel Washington). Unfortunately no one can drink like him either. Within the first fifteen or so minutes of Flight, the new drama from Robert Zemeckis, Whip has already downed multiple vodkas, beers, and at least one line of coke. He's high before lift-off; this bender is all on the morning he's piloting 104 souls on a commercial aircraft to Atlanta.

Whip gives drunk driving a whole new vertical meaning.

Captain Whip's flight is, unfortunately, doomed. The unusual crash is very well shot and edited -- a real armrest grabber and apparently it is possible to fly a plane inverted! In the aftermath Whip, his co-workers, multiple lawyers and moneyed executives are engaged in the very tense and very high-stakes legal battle as to the why the plane went down.

"Why?" is an open ended question so let's ask a more specific one...

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Review: Free Pass for "The Sessions"

This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad...

When Madonna's "Sex" book turned twenty last week, a common thread of blog coverage was 'tame by today's standards' and I wondered which new standards other people were living by that I wasn't privy to? I'm not talking about private culture -- people have been seeing strangers naked long before Grindr or easily clickable pornography -- but about mainstream entertainment. Which mainstream female celebrity has been running around aggressively in her birthday suit lately? We've hardly made great strides at accepting female sexuality since then. Proof positive: the current political debates. The male body has, on the other hand, become more commonly objectified two decades on but penis sightings are still as rare as they were in the "Sex" book and people continue to make a big flaccid point of being shocked whenever they're visually reminded of their existence... especially in the movies. Find even one article about Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Eastern Promises or Shame that doesn't mention Jason Jr,  Viggo Jr. or The Fassmember; tough assignment. 

This longwinded preface isn't as off-topic as it sounds for a review of THE SESSIONS. The sexually-minded lightly funny new drama stars Oscar nominee John Hawkes (Winter's Bone) as Mark O'Brien, a paralyzed man who dreams of losing his virginity from the discomfort of his iron lung. 

more...

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An Off-Key Starting Bell for the Best Actor Race

I assume by now that you've read Interview Magazine's much talked about interview with Joaquin Phoenix in which he hates on the utter bullshit of awards season?

A lot of people have already (and might continue to) lost their minds over this but Serious (Male) Thespians are allowed to get away with trashing the prize they're in the running for. See also: Marlon Brando, George C Scott and others throughout entertainment history. It's the actresses and the less Serious Thespians that have to tread carefully and bat their eyelashes at voters, play a smart hand and shake the right ones, and kiss the babies. The only time this other group (i.e. the less acclaimed talents or the actors with vaginas) can refuse to play the game and still be awarded for it is if they've garnered an unassailable legendary reputation (think Katharine Hepburn who, like Woody Allen, couldn't be bothered to attend her Oscar ceremonies) or delivered work so seismic that voters wouldn't have been able to ignore it and still feel even remotely like they've ever once contemplated the word "Best" in any real way (think Mo'Nique in Precious)

The only reason to worry about Phoenix's nomination chances are the depth of the leading actor field, not his personal statements.