Presidents get elected and movie people win Academy Awards, but increasingly it seems that, even as the victory cheers are still echoing, the race - the fact of there being a race - goes on. There's probably no changing that. We have 24/7 news now, and it demands 24/7 reality, or at least the will to confect reality. You'll hear about the next Oscar race as early as January or February, when - with the current awards season nearing its grand finale - some scribe or broadcast reviewer announces the first sighting of an "Oscarworthy" performance. Not long after, whether the fever is in mediafolk's blood or a publicist or agent somewhere is planting the virus, we'll begin to get the breathy speculations, the spinning of dream scenarios.
Last year, months before it would actually release "Finding Neverland," Miramax was encouraging that we entertain the question, "Will Johnny [i.e., Depp] finally get his Oscar?" Now, Johnny Depp is a swell actor who appears to choose roles bravely, without regard for what's fashionable or even what's Oscar bait. Does Johnny Depp believe that - or care whether - there's an Academy statuette in his future? Does he feel that, with one - one - previous nomination in his kit bag (only last year, for "Pirates of the Caribbean"), he's been shortchanged, passed over, robbed? The answer is basically irrelevant (though I prefer to think that it's no). The expectation machine will grind away without his taking any part in the process.
The Oscars that people haven't won, haven't even been nominated for, accumulate a horrible, predictive, obligatory weight in Hollywood and its outposts. After the pressure grows intense enough, it becomes virtually inevitable that good people will eventually win "their" Oscar(s) for less-than-Oscarworthy endeavors ("It's his time!"). Hence oft-nominated, never-crowned Al Pacino copped a Best Actor trophy in 1992 for a putrescent slice of green ham, "The Scent of a Woman" - which means he took an award that would have been better deserved by fellow nominees Stephen Rea ("The Crying Game"), Clint Eastwood ("Unforgiven") or Denzel Washington ("Malcolm X"). Which meant, by some hideous logic, that Denzel Washington eventually had, just had, to be handed an Oscar a few years later for an uncharacteristically meretricious actor's-exercise in "Training Day."
The juggernaut for Jamie Foxx's Ray Charles impersonation in "Ray" will probably ensure that Johnny Depp must wait at least one more year to collect "his" Oscar. But the other disprized figure looming over the 2004 Academy Awards - and not just in his own competitive category - is , widely designated "America's greatest living filmmaker" for going-on-a-quarter-century, yet never accorded Best Director honors, and not nominated for them as often as he should have been. Scorsese is up this year for "The Aviator," an ambitious piece of filmmaking that is arguably superior to the last movie that brought him a nomination, "Gangs of New York" in 2002.
"The Aviator" has been nominated in 11 categories, more than any other picture this year - understandably enough, since it's the kind of big event designed to showcase all the production values Hollywood can throw at a movie. (Whereas "Sideways," say, would not be a peak candidate for honors in cinematography, art direction, costume design, etc.) It was ordained "the front runner" before many people had seen it - but do many people, even Academy voters, find it a coherent, satisfying movie? And will they have the courage of their lack of conviction?
Could happen. Reality sometimes gets in the way of "reality." Industryites and critics alike are still marveling at the way a picture that hadn't been part of their calculations at all quietly appeared in screening rooms around the beginning of December and began knocking their socks off. Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is such a good movie - so sure in its craft, so powerful in its impact for viewers of just about any stripe - that it just may succeed in reminding enough voters what "Best Picture" is, after all, supposed to mean.
To the betting parlors, then:
Picture
"Million Dollar Baby" isn't just the best film of the year; it's the best for the past five or six years. "Sideways," a critics'-favorite since its unveiling in the Toronto and New York film festivals, deserves a crack at the prize for its originality, uncategorizability and pitch-perfect acting and direction. The other three nominees simply don't. If one of them had to win, I'd prefer "Ray" for not only Jamie Foxx's powerhouse title performance but a dozen or 15 others, and the most detoxified treatment of racial coexistence we're likely to see. Numbers four and five are classic Emperor's-new-clothes cases, "The Aviator" and "Finding Neverland." Gut instinct on likelihood: "Million Dollar Baby" (with fingers crossed), "The Aviator," "Ray," "Sideways," "Finding Neverland" (no director nomination).
Director
No contest in terms of achievement, and Eastwood's winning of the Directors Guild Award is a very strong sign. Scorsese really should win an Oscar someday for a movie that merits it, not as atonement for past oversight. Alexander Payne obviously must have done many things right on "Sideways" - starting with letting his four leading players bond in that golden hilltop picnic scene - but I'm guessing Taylor Hackford stands a better chance, not only for making a much better Taylor Hackford picture than usual but because "Ray" has the chemistry for a dark-horse sweep. Surprise nominee Mike Leigh, for "Vera Drake," deserves a slot in this category, but that's where it stops. If justice is done: Clint Eastwood, "Million Dollar Baby."
Actor
Jamie Foxx, "Ray." It's hard to see anyone upsetting Foxx's applecart (though personally I have a problem with lionizing portraits of characters who are media lions in their own right). My own favorite in this category, Jeff Bridges in "Door in the Floor," wasn't nominated; neither, much more unexpectedly, was Paul Giamatti for stepping into leading-man class so spectacularly, if, appropriately, sideways. Don Cheadle is wonderful in "Hotel Rwanda," a movie that would be a conventional cable-movie project without him. Surprise nominee Clint "Trifecta" Eastwood would get my vote here if I had one. The other two: Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Aviator," and J. Depp, "Finding Neverland."
Actress
The Academy is guilty of embarrassing omissions, and so am I: I haven't seen Annette Bening's reportedly delightful turn in "Being Julia" (speaking of omissions, is there a "Malkovich" missing from that title?). The irresistible showbiz story this year is Bening and Hilary Swank repeating their 1999 faceoff, when Swank spoiled "American Beauty"'s top-five sweep by winning Best Actress for "Boys Don't Cry." I stand second only to Warren Beatty in loving Annette Bening, but I hope it happens again: Hilary Swank, "Million Dollar Baby." Critics'-fave Imelda Staunton, "Vera Drake," is superb but probably weak on vote-pulling. Catalina Sandino Moreno's crystal-clear performance in "Maria Full of Grace" marks a big step up from last year's nomination of the 13-year-old with one great expression in "Whale Rider," but she's outpunched in this weight class. Kate Winslet fully merits her inclusion for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a film that ought to be in the running in more top categories. Most heartbreaking oversight: Julie Delpy, "Before Sunset."
There are also, by definition, oversights in the supporting-performance races - these categories are always oversupplied with excellent candidates - but everyone who did score a nomination belongs there.
Supporting Actor
For uncannily taking us to a zone we never dreamed existed, Thomas Haden Church, "Sideways." I'm going to allow myself a tie here, because Morgan Freeman, "Million Dollar Baby," made music of his narrator role as well as his onscreen role. Jamie Foxx's presence in this category is purely a matter of Oscar-season politics; a revelation in "Collateral," he's every bit the costar of Tom Cruise (may even have more screen time) and really rates two slots in the Best Actor race. Alan Alda, "The Aviator," has a real shot at the career-sentiment vote, but I have a sneaky feeling the Academy will echo the Golden Globes and go with the arrival momentum of Clive Owen, "Closer."
Supporting Actress
Same goes for his fellow "Closer" cast member Natalie Portman, but what a field: Laura Linney as Mrs. "Kinsey," Cate Blanchett as Kate Hepburn in "The Aviator," Sophie Okonedo in "Hotel Rwanda" - and the winner of almost every critics award going, Virginia Madsen, "Sideways," who redeems a long-neglected talent and makes every man in the audience yearn to be an oenophile.
Original Screenplay
Screenplay categories are where the Academy often makes it up to movies they aren't about to honor for Picture and Direction. In that light alone, let us award extra points to John Logan for "The Aviator." But you wanna talk Original, what can you put up against Charlie Kaufman, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"? Also nominated: "Hotel Rwanda," "The Incredibles," "Vera Drake."
Screenplay-Adaptation
Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, "Sideways" - especially since their great "About Schmidt" went unnominated in 2002. A close second for me is Paul Haggis' "Million Dollar Baby," which he originally adapted for himself to direct (dodged a bullet there, Paul!). Special mention for "Before Sunset," a collaboration of director Richard Linklater and cast-of-two Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke revisiting the enchanted trajectory of their 1995 film "Before Sunrise." Also nominated: "Finding Neverland" and "The Motorcycle Diaries."
I'm not going to touch Foreign-Language Film because, although Spain's much-applauded "The Sea Inside" would seem to be a strong front runner, too many of the nominees remain titles only and, even more importantly, the Academy's voting rules for this category are so peculiar that literally anything can happen. Ditto Documentary - although, as long as we're in that subject area, isn't it a shame that Hollywood forgot that 2004 was All About Him and failed to nominate Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" for Best Picture?
Cinematography is a botched category this year. Go ahead and give it to Robert Richardson, "The Aviator," for neat-o coups such as making the color palette of the "Hell's Angel"-vintage scenes resemble the two-strip Technicolor of that era - and because Richardson should have been nominated, this year and last, for "Kill Bill." But Xiaoding Zhao, "The House of Flying Daggers," would be a better choice. Also nominated: "The Passion of the Christ," the ludicrous "Phantom of the Opera" and the CGI-ridden "A Very Long Engagement."
The envelopes will be opened Feb. 27.
Seasoned film critic Richard T. Jameson may be contacted using editor@capitolhilltimes.com[[In-content Ad]]
