‘No, she’s not. Superheroes live in a world of good and evil, and she’s far more complex than a superhero. She’s been compromised. She’s been subjugated. She’s been marginalised. She’s been swept into the gutter and she’s had a part in it. She dresses like trash because she’s someone who has been betraued and hurt so badly, by forces beyond her control, that she’s just decided to be refuse. She can sit anywhere she wants on the bus, because nobody wants to deal with her.” David Fincher on Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for an upcoming interview in Empire Magazine
______
More than anything, though, the film’s not-so-secret weapon is its screenplay, written by the powerhouse team of Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). Moneyball may be a sports movie, but what it really is is one of those happy, gabby, super-smart talkfests that take you back to the pleasures of movies made during the wisecracking days of the Hollywood studio system, when action and F/X and “visuals” hadn’t taken over everything, and talking — whether in snappy screwball comedies, ingeniously ominous film noirs, or teary romantic melodramas — was really all that actors and actresses could do. Moneyball isn’t a movie about swinging a bat and spitting tobacco. It’s a heady, digital-age story of salaries, statistics, front-office politics, and the art of the deal that lurks behind the art of the game. Owen Gleiberman on how audiences have fallen back in love with the screenplay.
______
Gary Oldman, Charlize Theron and David Cronenberg will all be honored at the Gotham Film Awards, November 28.
______
Clint Eastwood will be the voice of Mark Twain for Mark Twain: Words and Music to be released. More information on the CD here.
______
Played a famous person: 14 out of 50 nominees.
Starred in a period piece set more than 15 years before the release of the movie: 24 out of 50 nominees.
Used an accent/changed his voice: 23 out of 50 nominees.
Underwent an impressive physical transformation and/or allowed himself to look like shit: 21 out of 50 nominees.
Miscellaneous showboat factor not quantified above (aged many decades on screen, played multiple roles, played someone with a physical or mental handicap, sang, etc.): 11 out of 50 nominees.
Died on screen: 11 out of 50 nominees. (This one’s an estimate based on memory, because despite my commitment to bringing you the best possible Oscar analysis, life is just too short to rewatch Venus to determine if Peter O’Toole’s character survives to the end. I barely survived to the end.)
–Mark Harris’ stats on why he thinks the odds are against Brad Pitt getting nominated for Moneyball
Has anyone read the Dragon Tattoo books (well, the Millenium Series)? Lisbeth is possibly my favorite heroine ever …. perhaps tied with Clarice from Silence of the Lambs. She’s a character nearly meant for the screen.
I actually really want to see War Horse, gimmicky as the poster really looks. In truth (this is a total tangent) Saving Private Ryan is very gimmicky, or at least very conventional … but man I love it.
Has anyone read the Dragon Tattoo books (well, the Millenium Series)? Lisbeth is possibly my favorite heroine ever …. perhaps tied with Clarice from Silence of the Lambs. She’s a character nearly meant for the screen.
I actually really want to see War Horse, gimmicky as the poster really looks. In truth (this is a total tangent) Saving Private Ryan is very gimmicky, or at least very conventional … but man I love it.
I wonder if any acting performance ever checked off all the boxes in that list?
I wonder if any acting performance ever checked off all the boxes in that list?
SPOILERS
This is what Wikipedia is for: yeah, O’Toole dies at the end
SPOILERS
This is what Wikipedia is for: yeah, O’Toole dies at the end
sasha, loved the hyper bits of info you sneaked into the post.and steve50/Antoinette’s replies had me screaming encore.nice…)
sasha, loved the hyper bits of info you sneaked into the post.and steve50/Antoinette’s replies had me screaming encore.nice…)
surely someone remembers for sure whether O’Toole’s old actor dies at the end, but I’m pretty sure he does/did.
surely someone remembers for sure whether O’Toole’s old actor dies at the end, but I’m pretty sure he does/did.
I think Pitt has a good shot despite the odds on paper. He’s not just a movie star but one who has gone out of his way to expand his range and find unique and even arty projects while not shunning more commercial fare. He’s old enough now for Academy voters to regard a body of work that’s impressive. Taken together, these factors could combine to provide justification for nomination in a year where no clear frontrunner has emerged. Hell, he deserves a nod just for not being tsunamied by Angelina Jolie.
I think Pitt has a good shot despite the odds on paper. He’s not just a movie star but one who has gone out of his way to expand his range and find unique and even arty projects while not shunning more commercial fare. He’s old enough now for Academy voters to regard a body of work that’s impressive. Taken together, these factors could combine to provide justification for nomination in a year where no clear frontrunner has emerged. Hell, he deserves a nod just for not being tsunamied by Angelina Jolie.
What I was saying was never that Brad Pitt had to ugly himself up to win. All I said is that I didn’t see much of a performance and IMO transformations are necessary in order for ME to consider someone worthy of a nomination and especially a win. Often times the academy agrees. (All four acting winners last year had transformations.) I think uglifying is more important for actresses to be honest. But Charlize Theron’s win for Monster, for example, is perfect. Not because she was unglamorous but because she transformed herself into a close proximity of a real life individual who people could watch video of for comparison’s sake. I think that’s much more difficult than creating a role because in a way there is a right and wrong. This is the problem Leonardo DiCaprio is facing without his performance even being seen yet. For the record, I think Charlize’s performance in that film may be the best performance by an actress ever. I didn’t care if she was ugly but I think the Academy might have. See Nicole Kidman’s Oscar winning nose when, if I had my say, she would have won for Satine.
I don’t know how or why you guys watch movies or are fans of entertainment but I know why I go by my standards. I wasn’t trying to say that I completely agree with Mark Harris. But his ideas aren’t new. They’re not mine and they’re not his. They’ve been around forever. Everything we’re all saying has been said before.
The fact is, as I’ve stated previously, I was a huge fan of Brad Pitt at one point. I watched every interview and read every article. I know his mannerisms. We all know what he looks like. We all know the way he speaks. As far as I’m concerned when I sat in the theater and watched Moneyball, I watched the guy I’ve always known. Nothing new. There is one moment in the film when Brad is walking away and he turns back to Jonah, I believe it is, and he gives a left-handed thumbs up. That was so decidedly HIM that it would have taken me out of the movie if I was more into it. You can fight me to death on it, but I know what I mean and I know why I’m saying it. I wouldn’t even be still talking about this if every time I gave my opinion someone didn’t act like I’m just throwing shade for no reason. I’m going to stop talking about Brad Pitt after this post because I’m not going to be accused of having it out for him. But if the Academy want to give it to him? Great. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
But as an example of another actor I have seen this year who I thought gave a great performance, Ryan Gosling in Drive. I am not as familiar with him as I am with he-who-must-not-be-named but that is what I would call a “subtle” performance. It’s a performance for sure. He wasn’t just walking through it, IMO. He created a creepy cool character by being pretty still and maybe even somewhat dim. This is an incredibly good looking guy that I would walk away from because I think that way before we saw the elevator scene you could tell this guy had it in him. There was something not quite right all along. He maintained that awkwardly intense silent hero veneer for the entire film. This was an iconic performance. Doing that deserves some recognition. The win? IDK I haven’t seen everything yet, but I doubt it. Will the academy give it to him? Nope. They’re not all going to watch it because they’re going to hear about the violence and avoid it and again, it’s probably too subtle to be popular.
Without having seen the rest of the films, I believe the Oscar is Gary Oldman’s to lose. No one is as due as he is. And if he outshines the rest of his TTSS cast? Done deal. It’s one thing to do a great one man show but to be “the dude” next to John Hurt and the reigning Best Actor? It’ll be extremely impressive in an already impressive, and unrewarded, career.
What I was saying was never that Brad Pitt had to ugly himself up to win. All I said is that I didn’t see much of a performance and IMO transformations are necessary in order for ME to consider someone worthy of a nomination and especially a win. Often times the academy agrees. (All four acting winners last year had transformations.) I think uglifying is more important for actresses to be honest. But Charlize Theron’s win for Monster, for example, is perfect. Not because she was unglamorous but because she transformed herself into a close proximity of a real life individual who people could watch video of for comparison’s sake. I think that’s much more difficult than creating a role because in a way there is a right and wrong. This is the problem Leonardo DiCaprio is facing without his performance even being seen yet. For the record, I think Charlize’s performance in that film may be the best performance by an actress ever. I didn’t care if she was ugly but I think the Academy might have. See Nicole Kidman’s Oscar winning nose when, if I had my say, she would have won for Satine.
I don’t know how or why you guys watch movies or are fans of entertainment but I know why I go by my standards. I wasn’t trying to say that I completely agree with Mark Harris. But his ideas aren’t new. They’re not mine and they’re not his. They’ve been around forever. Everything we’re all saying has been said before.
The fact is, as I’ve stated previously, I was a huge fan of Brad Pitt at one point. I watched every interview and read every article. I know his mannerisms. We all know what he looks like. We all know the way he speaks. As far as I’m concerned when I sat in the theater and watched Moneyball, I watched the guy I’ve always known. Nothing new. There is one moment in the film when Brad is walking away and he turns back to Jonah, I believe it is, and he gives a left-handed thumbs up. That was so decidedly HIM that it would have taken me out of the movie if I was more into it. You can fight me to death on it, but I know what I mean and I know why I’m saying it. I wouldn’t even be still talking about this if every time I gave my opinion someone didn’t act like I’m just throwing shade for no reason. I’m going to stop talking about Brad Pitt after this post because I’m not going to be accused of having it out for him. But if the Academy want to give it to him? Great. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
But as an example of another actor I have seen this year who I thought gave a great performance, Ryan Gosling in Drive. I am not as familiar with him as I am with he-who-must-not-be-named but that is what I would call a “subtle” performance. It’s a performance for sure. He wasn’t just walking through it, IMO. He created a creepy cool character by being pretty still and maybe even somewhat dim. This is an incredibly good looking guy that I would walk away from because I think that way before we saw the elevator scene you could tell this guy had it in him. There was something not quite right all along. He maintained that awkwardly intense silent hero veneer for the entire film. This was an iconic performance. Doing that deserves some recognition. The win? IDK I haven’t seen everything yet, but I doubt it. Will the academy give it to him? Nope. They’re not all going to watch it because they’re going to hear about the violence and avoid it and again, it’s probably too subtle to be popular.
Without having seen the rest of the films, I believe the Oscar is Gary Oldman’s to lose. No one is as due as he is. And if he outshines the rest of his TTSS cast? Done deal. It’s one thing to do a great one man show but to be “the dude” next to John Hurt and the reigning Best Actor? It’ll be extremely impressive in an already impressive, and unrewarded, career.
Thanks for the bits ‘n bites, Sasha – I was just going to put together some pro/con nomination stats, but yours (Mark’s) are far more entertaining. Maybe it’s my meaness against these two showstoppers, but I LOVE IT that singing and playing a mental handicap are in the same basic category, and agree about seeing Venus more than once, despite the fact that O’Toole is my favourite screen actor.
To ensure a nomination/win, some tips:
Any actor who plays joe/joan average in a story that takes place in the present day and whose primary challenge is considered to be a socially polarizing affliction (druggie, sex addict, antisocial behaviour) actually has little chance of nailing a nomination, let alone winning. Only an established and well-loved veteran movie star who tackles the above (in the final quarter of his/her career) can spin the role into gold. And they certainly won’t expose themselves onscreen and frighten the horses.
The greatest actors performing works by the greatest writer of dialog in history (Wm Shakespeare) have zippity-do-dah chance, which does not bode well for V Redgrave. Has anyone other than Olivier won an oscar in a Shakespearean role? Get thee hither from this kingdom, fool!
If you are or have been orbiting the sex symbol universe, you’d better ugly-up physically and/or mentally if your want that statue. The absolute last thing we want to reward is a two-time world’s sexiest man playing a good-looking winner because the resentment is too deep. I’ll take the fried cripple with a side of martyr sauce, please.
Girls, play famous or play somewhere else. 6 minutes of QE1 in whiteface and rhinestones is fun; 30 minutes of ordinary is not, unless it is played by a giddy old broad with big TICs.
Guys, if you’re over 60, go for SA slot even if you’re onscreen for 70% of the film. And if you’re under 40, you’d better be playing a character with a wooden leg, a plate in your head or drool on your chin if want the rest of us to believe you are “due” for acclaim. Nobody gives a shit about tortured if we can’t see some physical manifestation (“Duh, what’s his problem anyway?”)
Directors – make sure to lead your audience herd by the rings in their noses. Never, ever assume that they will keep up with you. Always have those border collies moving them in the right direction – good score, pretty costumes, loud noises.
I love it when oscar season kicks off, the festival afterglow and cigarette, just before the culling by the critics’ awards, then the dashing of all hope when the mob takes over.
Thanks for the bits ‘n bites, Sasha – I was just going to put together some pro/con nomination stats, but yours (Mark’s) are far more entertaining. Maybe it’s my meaness against these two showstoppers, but I LOVE IT that singing and playing a mental handicap are in the same basic category, and agree about seeing Venus more than once, despite the fact that O’Toole is my favourite screen actor.
To ensure a nomination/win, some tips:
Any actor who plays joe/joan average in a story that takes place in the present day and whose primary challenge is considered to be a socially polarizing affliction (druggie, sex addict, antisocial behaviour) actually has little chance of nailing a nomination, let alone winning. Only an established and well-loved veteran movie star who tackles the above (in the final quarter of his/her career) can spin the role into gold. And they certainly won’t expose themselves onscreen and frighten the horses.
The greatest actors performing works by the greatest writer of dialog in history (Wm Shakespeare) have zippity-do-dah chance, which does not bode well for V Redgrave. Has anyone other than Olivier won an oscar in a Shakespearean role? Get thee hither from this kingdom, fool!
If you are or have been orbiting the sex symbol universe, you’d better ugly-up physically and/or mentally if your want that statue. The absolute last thing we want to reward is a two-time world’s sexiest man playing a good-looking winner because the resentment is too deep. I’ll take the fried cripple with a side of martyr sauce, please.
Girls, play famous or play somewhere else. 6 minutes of QE1 in whiteface and rhinestones is fun; 30 minutes of ordinary is not, unless it is played by a giddy old broad with big TICs.
Guys, if you’re over 60, go for SA slot even if you’re onscreen for 70% of the film. And if you’re under 40, you’d better be playing a character with a wooden leg, a plate in your head or drool on your chin if want the rest of us to believe you are “due” for acclaim. Nobody gives a shit about tortured if we can’t see some physical manifestation (“Duh, what’s his problem anyway?”)
Directors – make sure to lead your audience herd by the rings in their noses. Never, ever assume that they will keep up with you. Always have those border collies moving them in the right direction – good score, pretty costumes, loud noises.
I love it when oscar season kicks off, the festival afterglow and cigarette, just before the culling by the critics’ awards, then the dashing of all hope when the mob takes over.
It’s kind of upsetting how the race has entered that phase where people begin shouting randomness just so at the end they can say “I told you so”. I feel like movies should be so much more than that…but anyways great tidbits =)
It’s kind of upsetting how the race has entered that phase where people begin shouting randomness just so at the end they can say “I told you so”. I feel like movies should be so much more than that…but anyways great tidbits =)
i agree for the most part. but “movie star” performances do get in sometimes, like tom cruise in jerry maguire. then again, a lot of that was due to the movie’s smash success. so i still think a lot rides on how much moneyball ends up making in the end.
It’s certainly possible Oscar will shun Pitt as they have so many pretty boys in the past. This is old news. What I like about Harris’ approach is that he’s not necessarily arguing that — he’s looking at other factors. What I don’t like is how the naysayers stand behind him and say “that’s what I was saying.” Well, no, it wasn’t. Harris’ ideas here are pretty new. But it’s not like there are a whole bunch of more serious performances that will bump him – this is the part people should pay close attention to. It’s not like it’s between Brad Pitt and Daniel Day Lewis. We’re talking about a pretty subtle year for male performances. Gary Oldman’s is restrained and subtle. George Clooney, very good performance but he’s looking kind of similar to Pitt’s. Gosling in Drive…Leonardo in J Edgar, yeah, but who knows right? In a strong year I would agree with Mark and the naysayers. But this year, it feels free and clear for Pitt, as it was for Sandra Bullock last year.
i agree for the most part. but “movie star” performances do get in sometimes, like tom cruise in jerry maguire. then again, a lot of that was due to the movie’s smash success. so i still think a lot rides on how much moneyball ends up making in the end.
It’s certainly possible Oscar will shun Pitt as they have so many pretty boys in the past. This is old news. What I like about Harris’ approach is that he’s not necessarily arguing that — he’s looking at other factors. What I don’t like is how the naysayers stand behind him and say “that’s what I was saying.” Well, no, it wasn’t. Harris’ ideas here are pretty new. But it’s not like there are a whole bunch of more serious performances that will bump him – this is the part people should pay close attention to. It’s not like it’s between Brad Pitt and Daniel Day Lewis. We’re talking about a pretty subtle year for male performances. Gary Oldman’s is restrained and subtle. George Clooney, very good performance but he’s looking kind of similar to Pitt’s. Gosling in Drive…Leonardo in J Edgar, yeah, but who knows right? In a strong year I would agree with Mark and the naysayers. But this year, it feels free and clear for Pitt, as it was for Sandra Bullock last year.
Fincher doesn’t really know too many superheroes I take it.
Fincher doesn’t really know too many superheroes I take it.
Mark Harris gets it. 🙂 I told you guys transformations are important. 😛
Mark Harris gets it.
Worth noting, I argued you and the other naysayer’s side before I saw the film. But once I saw his actual performance I changed my mind. There is more than enough going on there for a nomination. But we’ll have to see. The more skeptical people are, the better chances he he and the film have.
Mark Harris gets it. 🙂 I told you guys transformations are important. 😛
Mark Harris gets it.
Worth noting, I argued you and the other naysayer’s side before I saw the film. But once I saw his actual performance I changed my mind. There is more than enough going on there for a nomination. But we’ll have to see. The more skeptical people are, the better chances he he and the film have.