Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
COMMENTS

 

Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe

Entries in Joseph Gordon-Levitt (27)

Wednesday
Oct122011

Naked Gold Man: The "Breakthrough" Business

This week, let's talk beginnings and breakthroughs.

The annual Hollywood Awards, which announced their awards and nominees on Friday (previously noted), aren't typically considered part of the Oscar race. Unofficially-officially the National Board of Review's early December announcement is still the kick-off though the Gotham Awards (late November) have been rising as an alternative "first stop" in power. Still, the Hollywood Awards are glance at in order to see which publicity teams are working overtime to gather kindling for awards fire. Of particular interest, I think, is the plethora of "breakthrough" awards that they hand out. Breakthrough Awards are nearly always more PR driven than other categories by their very nature regardless of worthiness of whoever is honored. That's not a judgement but a neutral statement.

If breakthrough awards didn't exist, it would be much harder for young talents to be competitive in an awards race. They don't come into any contest with the advantages of pre-sold media interest, critical reputation, or habitual preferencing. The only advantage newbies have each year is nascent; people of all shapes, sizes, and ages (including Oscar voters) like receiving shiny new toys to play with at Christmas. Make of this what you will but this lone advantage is quite potent for actresses and often inconsequential for actors.  

But you made me feel...
Yeah you made me feel shiny and new
Like a virgin 

If you stop to think about it from a publicity perspective, Breakthrough Awards are very much like those old Vanity Fair Hollywood covers. Yes, there were probably teams of editors or creative directors selecting the 9 to 13 cover beauties, but those same beauties were essentially culled from whichever young "up and coming" stars had management teams that were able to bend Conde Nast's ears in the first place.

Vanity Fair's 2010 "Dolls". Five of them are in awards-hopeful films this year: Carey Mulligan (SHAME), Mia Wasikowska (ALBERT NOBBS & JANE EYRE), Emma Stone (THE HELP), Anna Kendrick (50/50) and Evan Rachel Wood (THE IDES OF MARCH)

The Hollywood Awards are but the first organization of many to come to name their favorite shiny new toys of 2011. They offer up not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE (whew) for us to play with. CONSIDER...

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Oct082011

Faces of Future Movies, The Men

In this week's column at Towleroad, I meant to just type up a few words about The Ides of March and continue the possibly tired 2011 motif of drooling all over Ryan Gosling as he completes his ascendance to alpha dog of Hollywood's new pack.

What 's your take on Hollywood's male talent pool (under 35 division)?

Instead I went hundreds of words overboard and it morphed into a substantial but by no means complete summary of the male acting talent under 35. I figured why not since the movies currently in theaters are all about the male stars: Gosling, Gordon-Levitt, Jackman, Clooney, Pitt, etcetera.

In the article you can read about whose work I'm most looking forward to and who may have already peaked (though I hope not). There's also a brief bit about the overvalued that still need to justify Hollywood's faith in them... and my personal pleas for the grossly undervalued.

It's an extension of the conversation we started here a month ago about whether Gos' and Fassy had any competition as "Future of the Movies". (Naturally, this made me want to do a similar longer piece on the actresses but that's so much more expected and will have to wait.)  

Answer me these questions three
1. Who are you rooting for in the next five years of the movies?
2. If you were a casting director which undervalued lesser known player would you go to bat for?
3. Would you dig more Film Experience digging into the depth of the young(er) talent pool?  

Friday
Oct072011

Hollywood Awards 2011. Something For Everyone (& the Fanboys)

The annual pubicity stunt that is the Hollywood Film Festival Awards have been announced. The ceremony will take place on October 24th, 2011. No publicity is bad publicity so this is good news for all of the recipients, especially since in most cases they are blocking some direct competition from picking up the very same free publicity. (Not that publicity is free but... oh never mind.) Just for fun I've included the past two years of recipients in italics below this year's honor so you can gauge their general behavior (which is erratic in terms of titles of awards, number of recipients, and whether it has any reflection of general awards season hoopla).

A professional working actor for the past 23 years and a famous one for the past 16 wins "BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR" (Hee!)

Hollywood Career Achievement Award: GLENN CLOSE - Albert Nobbs
2010 -Sylvester Stallone; 2009 - 
Hollywood Actor Award: no one announced yet
2010 -Robert Duvall -Get Low; 2009: Robert DeNiro -Everybody's Fine
Hollywood Director of the Year: no one announced yet 
2010 Tom Hooper -The King's Speech; 2009 Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Hollywood Actress Award:MICHELLE WILLIAMS - My Week with Marilyn
2010 - Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right; 2009 -Hilary Swank -Amelia 
Hollywood Supporting Actor Award: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER - Beginners
2010- Sam Rockwell, Conviction; 2009 -Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterdss 
Hollywood Supporting Actress Award: CAREY MULLIGAN - Shame
2010- Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech; 2009 -Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award: JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT - 50/50
2010- Andrew Garfield, The Social Network; 2009 - Jeremy Renner The Hurt Locker; 
Hollywood Breakthrough Actress Award: JESSICA CHASTAIN - The Tree of Life; The Help; Take Shelter; Coriolanus
2010 - Mia Wasikowska; 2009-Carey Mulligan
New Hollywood Award: FELICITY JONES -  Like Crazy
*** strange note *** According to the IMDb Felicity Jones won this prize last year, too, for the same film. But there is no "New Hollywood" prize for 2010 listed on the Hollywood Film Festival Site; 2009 Gabby Sidibe, Precious
Hollywood Ensemble Cast Award: "THE HELP" CAST 
2010: "The Social Network" Cast; 2009: n/a
Hollywood Screenwriter Award: DIABLO CODY -Young Adult
2010: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network; 2009 Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber -500 Days of Summer
Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award: MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS - The Artist
2010 -n/a; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Producer Award: LETTY ARONSON - Midnight in Paris
2010: Danny Boyle & Christian Colson 127 Hours, 2009 Ryan Cavanaugh (not sure which movie. he had several) 
Hollywood Cinematographer Award: EMMANUEL LUBEZSKI - The Tree of Life
2010 Wally Pfister -Inception; 2009 Roger Deakins -A Serious Man
Hollywood Film Composer Award: ALBERTO IGLESIAS - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
2010 Hans Zimmer -Inception;
Hollywood Editor Award: STEPHEN MIRRIONE - The Ides of March
2010 Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter -The Social Network; 2009-Dana Glauberman - Up in the Air
Hollywood Production Designer Award: JAMES J. MURAKAMI - J. Edgar
Hollywood Visual Effects Award: "TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON" - Scott Farrar
2010 Iron Man 2; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Animation Award: "RANGO" directed by Gore Verbinski
2010: Toy Story 3; 2009 -n/a
Hollywood Comedy Award: no one announced yet 
2010 Zach Galifianakis; 2009: Bradley Cooper (they're working their way through the entire cast of The Hangover)
Hollywood Spotlight Awards: SHAILENE WOODLEY - The Descendants
2010: Mila Kunis, Milla Jovovich, Leighton Meester, and Noomi Rapace; 2009 Paul Schneider and Melanie Lynskey  


Their "Movie of the Year" prize (won by Inception last year and Star Trek the year before) you can vote on yourself since they do this in conjunction with Yahoo Movies. The nominees are...

  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • Cowboys & Aliens
  • Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part Two
  • The Help
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  • Rango
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  • Super 8
  • Transformers Dark of the Moon
  • X-Men First Class

Movie of the Year is short for Fanboy Film of the Year since, despite the weird anomaly of The Help, they go strictly boy-appeal f/x driven blockbusters. They lean that way so hard that they're willing to toss out a big hit like Bridesmaids in order to include a movie virtually nobody likes to drive the target-audience point home (hi, Cowboys and Aliens!). 

 

Monday
Oct032011

Q&A: Teen Carnage, Kiki's Oscar, and Golden Age Moderns

In the Q&A column Nathaniel answers 9 or 10 questions posed by readers each week. This week young actors seemed to be on your brain for which we must surely blame that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close trailer. Here we go again. 

Spencer: With your great passion for film and your auteur love have you ever thought about MAKING films?
Yes but not in any specific way which is why I never pursued it. I have some skill with editing which I studied briefly in college (or so my friend who is an actual film editor tells me) and I write but in truth, I probably wouldn't be happy unless I was directing (i.e. in control). I was honest with myself early on that I just couldn't see myself having the right temperament for it. Still, like anyone, I've had fleeting fantasy moments about making movies. It usually involves me being lauded as the director who finally brought the musical back for good. Mostly because I keep waiting for that savior to arrive and, as it turns out, Rob Marshall wasn't the answer.

I just recently watched the Martin Scorsese documentary on Fran Lebowitz called Public Speaking (which I recommend) and she put into words something I've always felt.

An audience with a high level of connoisseurship is as important to the culture as artists."

She explains why in more articulate detail in the film but I'm happy to do my small part in continuing the connoisseur tradition.

Basti: "Extremely Loud..." and "Hugo" ahead... What is your favourite performance by a male child actor?
I tend to not like child actors, at least American ones, because they're too precociously aware of the camera. That said I have nostalgic fondness for Mark Lester in Oliver! (1968) because I was obsessed with the movie when I was the age of its singing orphans. Jamie Bell was pretty special in Billy Elliott (2000) and I'm happy his career panned out. I liked Nicholas Gledhill in Careful He Might Hear You (1984) but the movie is a foggy memory. Oh, Haley Joel Osment! You can't even say "it was the direction" with him as you can with many great child performances, since he was deserving of Oscar nominations twice before he was even 13!  (The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence). 

Philip: What does Kirsten Dunst need to do to see an Oscar nomination?
She's doing it right now. I don't mean that Melancholia will snag her her first Oscar nomination -- she has to share film carrying duties there and her cargo is too eerie and depressive for mass appeal -- but that she's making very smart moves at this point in her career as she rebuilds after that weird post Spider-Man 3 spell...

Her current decisions and ace work (All Good Things followed immediately by Melancholia? That's quite a twofer performance-wise.) are bound to pay off in terms of respect and career momentum as she reaches the magic years for female movie stars. Which, if you're wondering, is from about 31 to 35 years of age by my calculations. So many of the truly iconic performances have happened in that age range. Think of the best and most famous performances ever and then look up the age the actress was at the time. It's uncanny. Or maybe it's just when actresses have the best opportunities work-wise. Of course Oscar likes women best at age 29 (as previously discussed) but that's a different topic.

MrW: Chaplin or Keaton?
Keaton and with bells on. Uh, even though there's no sound.

Liz: What would you do to fix the foreign language category at the Oscars, particularly the strange eligibility and release rules? On one hand, it's frustrating that it's virtually impossible for moviegoers to see the movies before the ceremony. But on the other, it's a nice way to get these movies more exposure if they're able to put "Oscar nominated" on their posters. Quandry?
I am much more forgiving of Oscar's foreign film rules than most pundits. I totally understand why they have the one film rule and the percentage rules of language and the "is it Albanian enough?" rulings and all of that. That said, I do think there's one easy fix that wouldn't completely demolish Oscar's diversity-structure but would still better represent what's happening in world cinema  and maybe even prompt more ambitious release strategies. My feeling is the rules should stay exactly as is EXCEPT that if a film receives a regular release during the calendar year it also becomes eligible in this category, at least for write-in votes. Sure this would give France and India, for example, a multiple films edge each year (since several of their films see stateside releases) and other countries an edge in the years in which they have world cinema heat but why shouldn't the Best Foreign Film Category also reflect dominant film cultures? Why shouldn't, for example, Pedro Almodóvar be eligible with every release even if Spain doesn't submit him? It seems like the rules as is don't reflect success stories but only attempt to cause them (unlike every other category). 

Dylan: Cast 4 child/teen actors in a middle school production of "God of Carnage".
What's with all the "young actor" questions this week? This one made me LOL so I had to respond. It's so Bugsy Malone. Tweens and young teens in these purposefully middle age roles is just so wrong. It's as wrong as that classic Onion piece about the grade school production of Equus or Anna Kendrick's age inappropriate rendition of "Here's to the Ladies Who Lunch" in Camp (2003). I'm sure someone with more familiarity with young actors would have more fun doing this. ANYONE WANNA TAKE THIS QUESTION ON? Honestly, I tend to not pay much attention until actors are adults -- I like fully formed or visibly forming star personas way more than embryonic blank slates. The only time I think about the teen actors (who are usually on television which I don't watch as much of) is when they're just so good that I can't ignore them (like Evan Rachel Wood in thirteen. Holy hell but that was a great performance. I want a recount of those Oscar votes that led to the "youngest Best Actress nominee ever"... it was just the wrong one).

One thing I would like to see is Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning at war onscreen so maybe I should cast them both here in the Jodie/MarciaGay  & Kate/Hope roles? Who cares about the guys!

Jorge: From the 'Inception' top supporting players (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy), who do you think will be the next to get an Oscar nomination?

Or you think it will be Page, Cotillard or Caine to get a second one sooner than those two?"
I think Cotillard mostly due to the amount and the type of roles she's offered in prestige projects. JGL's problem is that he's still a bit too young for Oscar (they are so weirdly ageist in opposite ways with men and women) and I think Tom Hardy's problem may be the physicality of his roles. Oscar seems to reacts to attention-grabbing male physiques best if they're in distress (i.e. weight gains, weight losses, disabilities, etcetera) and Hardy's physicality has become such a focus of his work that I think that might be hard to get around for people in terms of people recognizing him for his acting talent alone.

Dean: Which of the following films would you most want to see made, and who stars and directs: Extreme Tinker MarthaLoud Tailor MarcyIncredible Soldier MayClose Spy Marlene?
I have to give you mad points for originality, combining three of this year's wordiest movie titles to make four theoretical but awesome sounding movies. I want to see all four actually but I'm most partial to Loud Tailor Marcy because I picture a, like, sassy comedy about a fashion designer's assistant starring some eccentric beauty with an oversize personality who cannot shut up. I want Ari Graynor for the lead role because she needs a plum vehicle and I want David O. Russell to direct it since I worship his smart and chaotic comedic sensibility. My second choice is Extreme Tinker Martha for which I have to have Ellen Page on the condition that she never has to spout any exposition because that just killed her in Inception. I want to love her again. (To be directed by...?)

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Craig: Which actress (or actresses) from Hollywood's Golden Age could have a career today? Conversely, which of today's acclaimed actresses would have had stardom 70 years ago?
I think the obvious choice is Barbara Stanwyck. She had a certain ease with genre-hopping (how many people are equally good at playing dangerous women in noirs and goofy screwball comedy goddesses?) which I think today's stars have to do more of. Plus, she reads modern. (I'd love to think that Bette Davis would be equally huge in today's Hollywood but the sad truth is there probably wouldn't be so many projects built around her thorny persona and non-traditional beauty.) Drew Barrymore would have been a star in any era, but I think since her persona leans so cheerful and flirtatious without being overtly erotic, I think she would have excelled in the studio system which, at least for mainstream comedies, had way better scripts. Romantic Comedies were once one of the smartest of movie genres. I know I know; impossible to imagine even though it's true.

Stanwyck Vs. Barrymore

I've said before that Charlize Theron would have done much better in the past, where her innate glamour would not have had to be separated from her actual acting skill -- back then they could use both at once which is so much less true today in the obsessive need for naturalism in movies. Using that same formula: Uma Thurman. Two younger options (who have worked together) both of which I absolutely believe qualify for this question: Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt.

I'd love to hear readers take on this one. It's equally interesting to think of the reverse. I don't think, for example, that my two redhead godesses Julianne & Nicole would have fared as well in old Hollywood, despite their very impressive gifts. 

So... YOUR TURN in the comments!

Saturday
Oct012011

50/50

Joining the very slim ranks of Cancer Comedies, 50/50 must surely number among the best of them. The film begins with a long shot of 27 year-old Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) jogging. It's unclear why the film begins this way (we never see him exercise again) but it's telling. Adam is about to embark on a sweaty exhausting journey with no set destination and it takes him awhile to come into focus.

As protagonists go, Adam is a passive blurry character. He lets his loud friend Kyle (Seth Rogen) control their friendship. Even though he's only just given her a dresser drawer, his girlfriend Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard) is calling all the relationship shots - including no blow jobs which infuriates Kyle on Adam's behalf. Adam seems content to sit back and take whatever life does or doesn't offer him. Enter: Cancer...

...read the full review at Towleroad

P.S. Are you visiting JGL in the hospital this weekend or do you have other movie plans?

P.P.S. I didn't spend much time on her in the review but Anjelica Huston is just a marvel in her very brief role (2 ½ scenes?). She's had plenty of (unfortunate) time now to hone her skills at delivering full characterizations in mere moments. She gets two of the biggest laughs in the movie but it doesn't end with comedy. She's fierce and touching, too. Brava.