You Better Werk... And Link

Yahoo Movies! I talk Best Actress with a bunch of other internet peeps.
FourFour & The Daily "The Tao of Ru" and outtakes from Rich's week (!!!) with RuPaul, the world's most famous drag queen of all time. 
EW Gary Ross gets ahead of himself saying Jennifer Lawrence should be Oscar nominated for Hunger Games. Er... shouldn't we see even one of her competitors first, let alone dozens. It's... February! 
THR on Brad Pitt's Daily Show proposal for a new Oscar competition system "Hands on Oscar." This was fun last night. I ♥ Brad. I don't know if you know that about me. [Yes, I know you know that about me.]

You know what I think they should do? We should just put a trophy on the table, like one of those car contests, we should all just put our hands on it and see who can hold it the longest. And the last man standing takes the trophy! Hands on the Oscar”

Rope of Silicon Russell Crowe wanted for Noah in Darren Aronofsky's Noah's Ark. What's with Crowe being suddenly in demand again? He must have recently expressed interest in getting back to it.
Coming Soon reports that Viola Davis has signed on for two new roles, both book adaptations, Ender's Game and Beautiful Creatures. Strangely the latter is listed as a lead role but given the book description it sounds very much like a small role. Have any of you read the book?

IndieWire speaks up for "7 films you must see this February" 
Playbill You'd think Broadway would eventually get tired of adapting hit films into stage musicals. I mean, many of them flop so it's nothing like a guarantee. But they won't quit. Next up: Back to the Future.
Kenneth in the (212) has an interesting reaction to Madonna's Superbowl interview 
In Contention Kodak taking its name off the Theater O' Oscar? 
Awards Daily reports on the Martin Scorsese tribute at Santa Barbara 
Liz Smith is so right about how the Oscar nominees play the "no, no, I can't" game after their nominations 

"Dream Big, Dream Fierce" This Oscar Season

The SAG Awards are receding in the review mirror, but the afterglow remains. How much power can emotional narratives have within our seasonal awards journey? Viola Davis has been a major actress for a long time within the showbiz community -- this very website first handed her two gold medals way back in early 2003 for her gobsmackingly great single scene in Antwone Fisher and her breakthrough year of smart character work in Far From Heaven and Solaris -- but it's only in the past few years that the mainstream has begun to learn her name and key in to her potent gift.  There's nothing like a 'who's that?' Oscar nomination (Doubt), A List friendship (Streep) and a big fat juicy hit (The Help) to boost your profile.

So I wasn't surprised but was definitely delighted to see her receive a standing ovation when she walked up to accept Best Actress for The Help.

Perhaps the standing ovation is an annual occurence and I've merely forgotten.

In some ways our relationship with the awards circus is a long one with deep pockets of memories, held grudges and fond crushes. In other ways it's as if we're goldfish swimming round the bowl and we're surprised by that little plastic castle every time.

But I think the true indicator that Viola Davis is the likely winner of the Best Actress Oscar is not the win itself with SAG, which has a much wider more diverse voting body than Oscar, but the crowd response. Reducing co-stars to tears is probably no great achievement. They were in the trenches with you so naturally Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and Cicely Tyson were crying their eyes out. But making Zoe Saldana and Angelina Jolie all misty? Boosting Dick Van Dyke's mood when he was already high on life? 

What is going on here? (More after the jump)

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Links: Dujardin Sings, Madonna Votes, Camp Dies

Cats on Film Ridley Scott's Alien (1979) as experience by Jonesy the ginger tom.
New York Observer Good piece on 'the death of camp' and the new Broadway musical TV series "Smash" (which I do mean to write about soon).
Socialite Life teaser for Season 5 of True Blood. Ugh. If it really is about the return of King Russell, I think my love for the show will die. Repetition is so dangerous for good television and the show FINALLY wrestled its way out of the endless Sookie/Bill/Eric loop.
Empire Online has their annual "Done in 60 Seconds" competition. One minute amateur films spoofing on famous movies. Watch some and vote! Film Experience reader Jack made #20 on The King's Speech. Congrats for making the semi-finals, Jack! I haven't had the chance to watch any of this yet but they're 60 seconds long. I can squeeze a few in.

Boy Culture Magic Mike's Matt Bomer and Joseph Mangianello were friends in college (who knew?) and give great advice for male cast bonding.  
Serious Film top 10 overlooked performances of the year
Antagony & Ectasy doles out The Antagonists. I live for personal ballots. They're so much more interesting than consensus nominations. Yeah, yeah. I know I need to finish my awardage.
Vulture Best TV news ever? Shirley Maclaine joining the cast of Downton Abbey!
The WOW Report Channing Tatum signin' autographs and looking good 

24 Frames Madonna's vote for Best Picture (yes, she's an AMPAS member) sounds like it's going to The Tree of Life. Who knew?

I think it’s a spiritual, deeply profound movie. My mouth was hanging open the entire time I was watching it"

Flavorwire Harvey Weinstein's own take on The Artist. You win no points for predicting that he loves it! 
Focus on Women's Filmmakers has a Streep Oscar Chart that plays into all of my biggest pet peeves about awards season including the implict suggestion that it's wrong that she's the only thing ever recognized from her movies (um, what if the movies aren't good?) and including my #1 pet peeve, suggesting that she was the supporting actress in several movies. The modern awards campaign circus has completely destroyed collective understanding of narrative and now if you aren't the movies POV , you suddenly aren't a lead? Soon people will be --- NO, I CAN'T. MUST STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS TOPIC EVERY YEAR. [Breathe, Nathaniel. Breathe]
Guardian Awww, happy face. The original Eponine and Jean Valjean are joining the cast of Les Misérables... albeit not in their starring roles. 

Jean Dujardin sings after the jump!

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Review: "Albert Nobbs"

This review was previously published in my column at Towleroad.

Albert Nobbs is story of a woman living as a man in Ireland in the early 20th century. Albert (Oscar nominated Glenn Close) serves as a waiter at a little upscale hotel. His world is so small that he barely leaves the hotel and hardly ever utters full sentences to anyone but himself. Those private conversations generally involve the counting of shillings. Nobbs' inner life isn't quite as small. The waiter dreams of saving up enough to buy a small tobacco shop and run his own little business. When he meets a painter by the name of Mr. Hubert Page (Oscar nominated Janet McTeer) whose situation is not dissimilar but whose emotional life is obviously richer, his eyes are suddenly opened to new possibilities, including romance... or at least cohabitation.  But dreams aren't easy when a flea in your undergarments can give you away, when your career could be finished with one misstep around a wealthy patron, when a stroke of bad luck could put your employer out of business, or when the woman you set your sights on for companionship (Mia Wasikowska) might not have the purest of motives in returning your affection.

You know what's just as a hard as opening a tobacco shop when you're a woman living as a man in early 20th century Ireland? Getting your dream movie made when you're an actress of a certain age in the early 21st century... [More]

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Virgin Nominees

It took Gary Oldman *forever* to get an Oscar nomination. Do you think he'll return for a second?Five years ago I did a study of Oscar's acting categories and multiple vs. singular honors. I discovered that 64% of Oscar nominees never return for a second nomination.

That year I polled readers who voted Transamerica's Felicity Huffman, Good Night and Good Luck's David Straithairn, Crash's Matt Dillon and (OOPS) Junebug's Amy Adams least likely to return. Readers had the most confidence in return engagements for (OOPS) Cinderella Man's Paul Giamatti... but weird that he hasn't been back, right?, Syriana's Clooney, Capote's Phillip Seymour Hoffman and (OOPS) Hustle & Flow's Terrence Howard! So some of y'all got it pretty right in the polling and also way wrong which just goes to show you that you never know!

The Streeps and Winslets are a true rarity. Even major movie stars across the decades have had to settle for one. And sometimes people just get snubbed forever.

poll by twiigs.com

P.S. Have your say in the comments: why'd you vote the way you voted? 

New Oscar Post - Snubs That Hurt