[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Iy23LVFG1w [/youtube]

It occurs to me that Supporting Actress is still wide open.  With Kate Winslet out in that category, the favorite becomes Penelope Cruz.  And she has the advantage of being hot as well as talented.  She also is in a Woody Allen movie and those voters love them some supporting actresses in Woody movies.  On the other hand, the other four could swoop in and steal it.  The NY Times has posted some clips from Doubt, one of them is the great scene with Viola Davis.  I found it on Youtube but you should see it on the Times’ site because it’s prettier and better that way.

The LA Times’ Charles McNulty on the adaptations of Doubt and Frost/Nixon:

“Frost/Nixon,” adapted by author Peter Morgan and directed by Ron Howard, and “Doubt,” adapted and directed by author John Patrick Shanley, haven’t been radically altered, but changes in thematic emphasis, acting style and dramatic pacing might upset viewers silly enough to want to relive their theatrical experiences at the multiplex. The films will also have to contend with the particular snobbery of moviegoers all set to encounter modern drama at its finest.

That’s a tall order and not one with a glittering record of success. (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” was eons ago, folks.) How do you get a golden goose to lay gilded eggs? Faithful reinvention is the strategy adopted by Howard, whose film is the better of the two largely because he’s the cannier movie craftsman.

Having never seen either play, I only have the film versions to go on and both were, to me, among the best of 2008’s offerings.  Doubt was thrilling to watch from start to finish and Frost/Nixon has grown on me.  I wasn’t immediately captivated but in the subsequent viewings of the film I have come to admire Ron Howard’s directing and especially in Langella’s portrayal of Nixon – probably the best Nixon ever put to screen.  His portrayal is magnificent.  That makes Best Actor a three-way draw between Langella, Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke.  Rourke seems to have the edge to me simply because his is a once-in-a-lifetime turn.  Just last year Langella was turning in a brilliant performance in Starting out in the Evening, and Sean Penn doesn’t seem anywhere near being done being great.  Rourke, though, turned himself inside out with this role and that may give it the slightest edge.

An extended clip from Doubt was released on Apple’s site but there is also a YouTube version available:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKywLr326k[/youtube]

The Carpetbagger asks his readers if they could have one vote for Best Picture, which would they pick?

It looks like most are divided on Milk and Slumdog, with the occasional Dark Knight thrown in for good measure.  It’s a tough decision with so many great films out there.

Slumdog Millionaire - exceptionally good storytelling, beautiful cinematography, characters to care about, great directing – would transform the domestic Oscars into the international Oscars, has crossover appeal.
Milk – timely, moving, well directed and written – would erase the bad taste of the Brokeback snub.
Benjamin Button – epic, transformative, moving – would be in line with traditional Oscar but would welcome Fincher into the club.  Box office would made the difference.
Frost/Nixon - suspenseful, complex, entertaining – again, would be a traditional choice for Best Pic.
The Dark Knight – comic book film but a sweeping epic nonetheless.  One of the most entertaining films of the year – timely, dark, highly entertaining and has made more money than any of these will make combined.
Doubt - riveting, funny, moving – with a brilliant cast – The actors choice.  But is that enough?
Wall-E - one of the best films of the year – has everything a Best Pic needs except live action.

What would be your choice?  Head on over to the Bagger’s site to chime in.

Of the three in Doubt, Viola Davis seems to be capturing the hearts of critics.  NPR’s Bob Mondello says:

The film’s most wrenching performance, in fact, comes from Viola Davis, who plays the boy’s worried mother as a woman who is in no position to raise her voice, even when articulating a startlingly unexpected parental position on what may have transpired between the priest and her son.

The others argue strenuously and occasionally even eloquently, to ever-diminishing effect; Davis speaks plainly and quietly, and leaves not a shadow of a doubt that the moral high ground is a treacherous spot to occupy in the real world.

And the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday writes:

Just when you begin to think you know who the cat and mouse really are, in steps Viola Davis to steal not just her scene but the entire movie from Streep. As the mother of the student in question, Davis presents “Doubt” with its most sobering and finally haunting philosophical quandaries, which give even the implacable Sister Aloysius a glimpse of life beyond her own unassailable ideals.

It is looking less and less likely that there will be any shifts or surprises in the last act of the 2008 Oscar race.  The DGA is really the only group that can turn it around.  Announcing their nominations on the 8th of January, with ballots due the day before, the DGA is still the most reliable predictor of the Best Picture race.

It is the best because even if the directors don’t match five for five (sometimes they don’t) the movies that the DGA helmers represent DO get nominated.  The only reason I can think of for this is the demographic makeup of both groups; the working directors are mostly male.  The Academy members (though they don’t release their demographics) are assumed to be mostly male.  White, upper middle class and male.

The PGA, the WGA and other groups are going to be more diverse in every sense.  This is why, I have always believed, the DGA has the one ring to rule them all.  On the other hand, things are changing within the Academy and thus, the final picture might change.

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A brief waver on the threshold of its premiere has steadied onto more confident footing, and Doubt is suddenly looking like a major player again. Building strength and acclaim over the past few days, it continues to earn strong reviews while collecting a clutch of prestigious critics awards. Not the least of these is yesterday’s grand slam of 4 acting nominations from the Chicago Film Critics Association (with this cast, was there ever any doubt?), so it seems appropriate to kick off a collection of top-rated review links with the dean of Chicago’s — and America’s — movie reviewers.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

After the assassination of Kennedy and the beginnings of Vietnam, doubt had undermined American certainty in general. What could you be sure of? What were the circumstances? The motives? The conflict between Aloysius and Flynn is the conflict between old and new, between status and change, between infallibility and uncertainty. And Shanley leaves us doubting.

James Berardinelli, ReelViews

Doubt is an intellectually and emotionally exhausting and engrossing experience. It is drama of the highest caliber, shaped by words and characters and directed with a simplicity that stands in stark contrast to the complexity of the people and issues on screen.

David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Streep is riveting. She shows that Aloysius, however monolithic her exterior, is alive on the inside. The eyes dart about, and the musings under her breath—sighs, asides, exclamations—suggest an openness to the notion of human imperfectibility. Her interrogations of Hoffman’s Flynn are seesaws of power.

Erik Childress is keeping a nice Eye on things, and currently has the tally this way:

Slumdog Millionaire in the lead, the Gurus of Gold also has the film in the number one spot.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is in second place, followed by Milk, Doubt, Wall-E, Vicky Cristina, The Dark Knight, and on down the line.

So, the Carpetbagger says the films in the race this year are all the same movie.  But he also says:

One of the Bagger’s favorite movies this year is a very serious film aimed at adults involving people coming to terms with their sexuality and identities against a backdrop of profound cultural and political change. That description would cover “Doubt,” “Revolutionary Road,” “The Reader” and “Milk.”

I say it’s either The Reader or Revolutionary Road.

Two pairs of dueling adaptations this go head to head this year. The Pulitzer Prize-Tony Award battle between two esteemed stage adaptations, Doubt and Frost/Nixon. And the literary heavyweight matchup between the ultra-classy adaptations of two renowned novels, The Reader and Revolutionary Road. It’s my growing belief that only two of these four films will end up in the final five. Simple math: I think 3 slots are already occupied. Assuming this is true, will both stage plays make the cut, or both novels, or one of each? A lot will depend on the critics, and the critics are beginning to weigh in.

Is there enough early indication to give us a clue? When we conduct a poll, it’s always interesting to see the leaders and relative rankings emerge within the first few dozen votes. We could ask a hundred readers to list the top 5 movies of the year, and ask a thousand the same question — based on past experience, I guarantee you the results would be nearly identical. This consistency is both a validation of the system, and a tribute to the solid reliability of your taste and good judgment. Naturally a bigger sample size gives us numbers that are more refined, but a smart group of people are smart whether there are 10 of them or 10,000. Maybe the same can be said of critics? (after all, they’re nearly as good at this game as we are.)

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EW’s Lisa Schwarzbaum does the stage-to-screen two-step with Frost/Nixon and Doubt.  The good news is that Frost/Nixon earns an A-.  The bad news?  Doubt gets trashed.

First up, Frost/Nixon:

With the transcript as his guide, Morgan explores psychological terrain: how Frost found the chutzpah to land the interviews; how Nixon played cat and mouse with his interlocutor when asked to admit wrongdoing and apologize; how both men of humble beginnings felt stung by the scorn of those born with more 
privilege; and how both were superb manipulators. But Sheen (who played the very model of a modern British go-getter as Tony Blair in The Queen, also written by Morgan) and Langella (operating at the peak of his powers) are disciplined enough to crop their performances to close-up size. (The sizing echoes the look of the 
 actual interviews.) And Howard is smart 
 to enhance the one-on-ones with journalistic context, weaving archival Watergate-era 
 footage into his fictionalized re-creation.

Doubt sliced and diced after the cut.

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At a recent SAG screening of Doubt, writer/director John Patrick Shanley said the film—based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning play—is about “the pain and experience of being alive, and that you can’t be certain and yet you have to live.” No doubt about it.

The story takes place in 1964 at Catholic school in the Bronx, where a nun grows suspicious that a charismatic priest has developed an inappropriate relationship with a student.

Beyond the plot machinations of his story, Shanley said the setting—which he experienced first-hand during his youth—was about a feeling he had, going back to that time, that the world of that Bronx Catholic school was disappearing. “A real impetus for writing the play was to celebrate and mourn—I had a moment of beautiful pain about this world,” he said.

Those of you who are unfamiliar with the source material should stop reading here if you want to be completely spoiler-free.

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There is a reason why, in 2008, Meryl Streep, after thirty years as a working actor, is doing her best work.  She has allowed herself to evolve as a human being, a woman, deep lines and all, and an actor.   Actresses who prevent themselves from aging naturally do so at their own peril.  Yes, by preserving their youth they will feel as though they’ve beaten back age because, presumably, aging is a bad thing in our society.  There is a billion dollar industry devoted to convincing women that they must fight the signs of time.  And by doing so they erase who they are, what they’ve lived through and all that they’ve seen.  Expressions wear on our faces – sadness, joy, anguish, frustration, anger, serenity – a beautiful face traces this journey.
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Variety reports that the documentary Kassim the Dream won alongside a coming-of-age-drama called Acne.  Defiance closed the fest, Doubt opened it.   Speaking of Doubt, LAist’s Farley Elliot reviews Doubt today:

It cannot be stressed enough how well Doubt does with this level of talent at its fingertips. The abundant and ambitious scenes between Streep and Hoffman fly off the screen, and recall much of the tension and vibrancy the staged version packs in so well. Armed with subtle nuances and small motor movements that are so crucial to the theatrical production, the film is allowed the benefit of external locations, visually stunning shots, and heavy symbolism, without losing the hard-fought needs that keep each character motivated. Perhaps this is what is most compelling about Doubt; it combines the greatest elements of the play with the glossy finish only a film delivers. And just imagine, all this from the same man who brought us Joe Versus The Volcano. Seriously.

Thanks to the readers who sent me the earlier links to Todd McCarthy’s mixed review of Doubt.  McCarthy appears to be punishing Meryl Streep for doing the role differently than Cherry Jones on Broadway, though overall he admires the work:

The considerable integrity and strength of John Patrick Shanley’s play prevail despite a questionable central performance in “Doubt.” Stepping back behind the camera for the first time since his misguided “Joe Versus the Volcano” in 1990, Shanley capably retains the power of his study of unsubstantiated moral convictions gone tragically awry, and the extensive opening up of his four-character, 90-minute 2005 Pulitzer and Tony Award winner adds in social context what it loses in sharply focused intensity. Miramax has plenty here to build this intelligent, absorbing drama into a strong B.O. performer with a discerning public looking for movies that are actually about something.

And so those words hang in the air, “despite a questionable central performance.”  This is going to turn out to be a case where those who saw the stage play will be resistant to any different interpretation of the main characters, which probably explains why McCarthy had unease with Streep.  His point is taken but Streep has never let me down before, even in bad films, so I’ll take this with a grain of salt.

The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt had some unexplained reservations but like Variety, he was similarly blown away:

However one reacts to this reversal of expectations, “Doubt” sets off dramatic fireworks thanks to a cast of antagonists that includes Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams. The Miramax Films release should find receptive adult audiences after it opens December 12, and could get an added boost when award-season honors trickle in. Nevertheless, the film will have its doubters.