SAG Awards

(Film winners Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, Eddie Murphy, and Jennifer Hudson, plus female acting nominees Adriana Barraza, Cate Blanchett, Abigail Breslin, Jennifer Hudson, Rinko Kikuchi, and Helen Mirren. Ladies only because men's fashion is boring.)

More of the same from the Screen Actors' Guild: Globe winners Whitaker, Mirren, Murphy, and Hudson all repeated. This is actually the first time ever that all four SAG winners also won the Globe. I knew Mirren and Hudson had theirs in the bag, but I thought the SAG might mix things up a bit with legendary favorites O'Toole and Arkin. Instead, we have a four-way steam-roller in the acting categories, and the Oscars may well be a foregone conclusion, acting-wise.

I can't believe it's been a whole year since the last time I fumed over the A.P. writers and other entertainment journalists who are stupid enough to think that the SAG award for ensemble cast is the "equivalent" of Best Picture. IT IS NOT. STOP SAYING THAT, YOU ARE GROSSLY WRONG. Here is a listing of the SAG ensemble winners versus the Oscar winner for Best Picture:

1995: Apollo 13, Braveheart
1996: The Birdcage, The English Patient
1997: The Full Monty, Titanic
1998: Shakespeare in Love (both)
1999: American Beauty (both)
2000: Traffic, Gladiator
2001: Gosford Park, A Beautiful Mind
2002: Chicago (both)
2003: Lord of the Rings (both)
2004: Sideways, Million Dollar Baby
2005: Crash (both)

These two awards have only matched up when the Best Picture winner had a genuine ensemble cast. Crash, Lord of the Rings, Chicago, American Beauty and Shakespeare in Love each had quite a stable of actors. Compare that to the overwhelming focus on two characters in Million Dollar Baby and A Beautiful Mind; Did anyone really think Sideways or Gosford Park might beat those two films just because they won ensemble cast? Absolutely not. It's also worth noting that The Birdcage won the SAG award without even being nominated for Best Picture. Now, Little Miss Sunshine is a genuine threat to win Best Picture, not because it predictably won Best Ensemble, but because in a year with no clear favorite, the scrappy little crowd-pleaser can steal. (It's like this year's Full Monty, but there is a distinct lack of a Titanic-like contender in the running.) So listen up, would-be Oscar pundits: Less than half of the Ensemble Cast winners went on to take Best Picture, so when you call this award a "Best Picture" equivalent, you are only proving yourselves to be ill-informed. Damnit.

Here is a shout-out to the ladies who were nice enough to bring some color to the red carpet:




















(Joy Bryant, America Ferrera, Rebecca Gayheart, Katherine Heigl, Mindy Kaling (OFFICE!), Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Perkins, Jada Pinkett, Sara Ramirez, Kate Walsh, Vanessa Williams.)

Highlights of the telecast included:

• Vanessa Williams screws up her segment of the show-opener by violating the gender-neutral rule and ending her bit with "I am an actress."


• Ashton Kutcher makes fun of the telepromter drivel. Always welcome. Wait a minute, why is Ashton Kutcher allowed to present an award?


• Forest Whitaker gets way, way too flirty with America Ferrera at the podium.


• Jeremy Irons is sooo drunk.


• THE OFFICE WINS BEST COMEDY SERIES ENSEMBLE!!! HELL, YES!!!


• The Mary Poppins reunion, with Dick Van Dyke giving the lifetime achievement award to Julie Andrews. Jolly Olliday indeed.


• Chandra Wilson thanks the Guild for voting for her with "this skin, this nose, these arms."


• Steve Carell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus make cheery digs at each other's shows.


• Greg Kinnear announces he has played hopstoch with one of the supporting actress nominees. But Jennifer Hudson wins anyway.


• Jeremy Irons pretends there is an ounce of suspense in the Best Actress envelope. He is less drunk.


• Steve Carell wins his second Ensemble Cast award of the evening. Step aside Helen Mirren, Steve won a pair of lumpy androgynous statues, too.

And by the way, where was everybody? Helen Mirren was the only Best Actress nominee in attendance, and Reese Witherspoon was the only winner from last year to present. I mean, this show is way cooler than the Globes. See below.

Oscar Nominations: My reactions

Best Picture
Babel, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen

How I did: 4/5 (Dreamgirls instead of Letters)

I can't believe they snubbed Dreamgirls. Not because I think it's one of the year's five best, but because that's the Academy's bread and butter. Dreamgirls got 8 nominations, the most for any film this year, but was shut out of Picture, Director, and Screenplay. I'll have to sift through my Oscar books to see if that is indeed the most nominations a film has ever received without a Best Picture nod. And Letters From Iwo Jima in its place? Come on, Academy -- why don't you just line up in an orderly fashion for your chance to make out with Clint Eastwood and get it over with.

Best Director
Babel, The Departed, Letters From Iwo Jima, The Queen, United 93

How I did: 4/5 (Dreamgirls instead of United)

Again, what a kick in the gut for Bill Condon. Happy to see Paul Greengrass sneak in. Yeah, yeah, Eastwood. Go Marty!

Best Original Screenplay
Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen

How I Did: 3/5 (United and Volver instead of Letters and Pan.)

Again, why is Letters an original screenplay if it was based on a book? The Academy nominated not just Iris Yamashita, but Paul Haggis, who co-wrote the story. This is Haggis's third consecutive writing nomination. Enough.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal

How I Did: 2/5 (Devil, Dreamgirls, and Thank instead of Borat, Children, and Notes.)

I'm pissed that I only got two right. First of all, Borat is such a crock, and second of all, Children of Men has five nominated screenwriters. That's a crowd.

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Peter O'Toole, Will Smith, Forest Whitaker

How I Did: 4/5 (DiCaprio for Departed instead of Blood Diamond)

DiCaprio got it for Blood Diamond? Weird.

Best Actress
Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet

How I Did: 5/5

I'd be proud of myself, except that every Oscar prognosticator in the country had these same five women. Too easy.

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Jackie Earle Haley, Djimon Hounsou, Eddie Murphy, Mark Wahlberg

How I Did: 3/5 (Nicholson and Pitt instead of Haley and Wahlberg)

Good for Mark Wahlberg! Nicholson doesn't need another damn nomination, while Wahlberg's career could use such a shot in the arm. (It's official: You can't call him Marky Mark anymore.)

Best Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza, Cate Blanchett, Abigail Breslin, Jennifer Hudson, Rinko Kikuchi

How I Did: 5/5

No surprises here. Abigail Breslin, born in 1996, is the youngest acting nominee ever, from a chronological standpoint. She is actually the second nominee born in the 1990's, after Keisha Castle-Hughes.

Miscellaneous
Dreamgirls picked up three Best Song nominations. This poses the horrifying question, could this be the second time in three years that Beyonce sings three times at the Oscars? Hopefully, Beyonce will only sing her character's song "Listen", and the Academy will ask Jennifer Hudson to sing her song, "Love You I Do" and ask Anika Noni Rose and Eddie Murphy to sing "Patience." Only twice has a film nabbed this many song nominations: the others were Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

The Academy has gotten some flack over the years for lack of racial diversity in the acting nominations. This year breaks a new record for African and African-American nominees, with Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Hudson, Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, and Forest Whitaker. Add Mexican actress Adriana Barraza and Japanese actress Rinko Kikuchi, and you have the most non-white crop of actors in Oscar history.

Martin Scorsese has directed the most Oscar nominated performances of any living director. William Wyler has 35, Elia Kazan has 24, George Cukor has 21, and now Scorsese is tied with Fred Zinneman with 20 performances each. The nominated Scorsese alumni are Ellen Burstyn, Diane Ladd, Robert DeNiro (thrice), Jodie Foster, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci (twice), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Paul Newman, Lorraine Bracco, Juliette Lewis, Winona Ryder, Sharon Stone, Daniel Day-Lewis, Alan Alda, Cate Blanchett, Leonardo DiCaprio, and now Mark Wahlberg.

Alan Arkin is now part of an unusual bit of Oscar trivia. His last nomination was 38 years ago, for The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. 38 years is the longest stretch on record between acting nominations; this was also achieved by Helen Hayes (with The Sin of Madelon Claudet in 1932 followed by Airport in 1970) and Jack Palance (with Shane in 1953 followed by City Slickers in 1991.)

Well, it's about time I went to work.

Best Picture

This feels too easy. Babel is the multi-plotted semi-epic, The Departed is the critics’ baby with the Best Director favorite, Dreamgirls is the irresistible musical, The Queen is the respectable biopic, and Little Miss Sunshine is the scrappy indie that could. It can’t be that easy, can it? Watch for upsets from United 93 or Letters From Iwo Jima, or if the Academy is feeling especially adventurous, Little Children, Pan’s Labyrinth, or Children of Men. Go nuts, Academy; just don’t pick Borat.

Best Director

You may be asking yourself, “Gee, did any women direct movies this year?” Why, thank you for asking! Here is an incomplete list:

Joey Lauren Adams, Come Early Morning
Sofia Coppola, Marie Antoinette
Laurie Collyer, SherryBaby
Catherine Hardwicke, The Nativity Story
Mary Harron, The Notorious Bettie Page
Agnieszka Holland, Copying Beethoven
Nicole Holofcener, Friends With Money
Karen Moncrieff, The Dead Girl

Anyway, on to the boys’ club. The Red Sox and the White Sox finally won the World Series in recent years, and another decades-long curse is almost definitely coming to an end. Kids, cross your fingers, do your chores, and don’t talk back to your moms, because if you’re good, we could really, seriously, I mean it this time, see Martin Scorsese win the damn Oscar already. The American filmmaker most absurdly overdue for his props has returned to the gangster genre with The Departed, and the praises have been joyously sung. It’s a modern curiosity that year after year, Hollywood shakes its collective head in wondering how their beloved Marty didn’t win, and with all the outcry upon his loss, who exactly were the people who voted for Robert Redford/Barry Levinson/Kevin Costner/Roman Polanski/Clint Eastwood instead? For now, you can write Marty’s name in your most permanent marker as a stone-cold guaranteed nominee. (And please, be good.) Next up is Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of past nominees 21 Grams and Amores Perros, for helming the cross-continental Babel. About even for third and fourth place are Stephen Frears and Bill Condon, for their extremely opposite work: Frears’s stiff-upper-lipped The Queen and Condon’s glittery extravaganza Dreamgirls. These four men picked up the all-important DGA nominations, and the fifth nominee was…the directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Whoa, Valerie? As in, a female? Yes, this is a husband and wife team, directors of the late, great Mr. Show, and Ms. Faris is only the sixth woman ever to be nominated by the Directors’ Guild for a feature film. (The others, thank you for asking, were Oscar nominees Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, and Sofia Coppola, plus Randa Haines and Barbra Streisand.) Directing teams are unusual, and only twice has a Best Director nomination gone to a pair of filmmakers (for West Side Story and Heaven Can Wait), the unspoken sentiment being that a director’s job is to provide a singular vision, and having two visions makes the whole thing a little iffy. The fifth nomination could go to Spain with Pedro Almodovar, or to Mexico with Guillermo Del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth) or Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men). (With Del Toro, Cuaron, and Gonzalez Inarritu, it’s a banner year for Mexican filmmakers.) Closest to the finish line are Paul Greengrass and Clint Eastwood: Greengrass portrays the Americans who fought back in the hijacking of United 93, while Eastwood depicts the Japanese soldiers who fought at Iwo Jima. Patriotism could tip the scales toward Greengrass, but Oscar’s recent infatuation with Clint Eastwood should translate into his inclusion (and definitely for Letters rather than Flags.) Scorsese and Eastwood? Oh, crap, not again…

Best Original Screenplay

Steven Soderbergh got all the press for making Erin Brockovich and Traffic the same year, which took two of the four acting trophies for 2000. But dig this: Forest Whitaker and Helen Mirren are both sweeping the Actor and Actress awards in roles penned by the same screenwriter. Peter Morgan’s supposition on what went on in the mind of The Queen following Princess Diana’s death is the leader of the pack; he is a lock here, and might get a nod in the adaptation category for Last King of Scotland, too. Morgan’s only loss among major award groups was to Michael Arndt’s decidedly un-regal Little Miss Sunshine, the strongest consensus of the year between audiences and critics. The final sure-thing is Babel, penned by Guillermo Arriaga, author of previous Oscar nominees 21 Grams and Amores Perros. Guessing the last two nods is pretty much splitting hairs. I think United 93 could muscle its way ahead, if voters find it too un-cinematic for Best Picture and Director, but still want to honor Paul Greengrass’s noble effort. (United’s script used many elements of adaptation, because it was pieced together from the cockpit tapes and reported cell phone conversations between the passengers and their families. However, as a work of conjecture drawn from unpublished source material, it qualifies as an original screenplay.) Iris Yamashita’s Letters From Iwo Jima has popped up in this category, which doesn’t make sense because it was based on the book Picture Letters From Commander in Chief by Tadamichi Kuribayashi. Half Nelson was a beloved personal-vision picture of 2006, but the script hasn’t picked up many citations. The Mexican/Spanish fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth is widely acclaimed, but nominations are more likely for its visual grandeur than for its words. The race probably narrows down to Stranger Than Fiction versus Volver. Stranger earned mixed reviews, with some complaining it was wannabe-Charlie Kaufman. The Academy has been enamored with Pedro Almodovar, giving him Best Foreign Language Film for Todo Sobre Mi Madre and Original Screeplay for Hable Con Ella, which makes me optimistic that the lovely Volver will be Pedro’s return to the Oscar festivities.

Best Adapted Screenplay

First out of the gate is not a literary adaptation, but an American remake of a Hong Kong film. William Monahan took the Mandarin Chinese script for Wu Jian Dao, set it in Boston, and fashioned the crackling wiseguy script for The Departed. Tom Perrotta’s name first appeared in the adapted screenplay race when his novel Election was adapted by the Payne and Taylor team; this year he teamed with former adaptation nominee Todd Field (In the Bedroom) for the big screen treatment of his own novel, Little Children. This well-respected drama is precisely the sort of small, character-driven film that misses out on Best Picture but is easily embraced by the Writers’ Branch. Another film that hasn’t a prayer for Best Picture but has proven a strong screenplay contender is Jason Reitman’s Thank You For Smoking, a particular feat of adaptation in that he took a non-fiction book and spun it into a narrative. (Reitman, the 29-year-old son of Ivan, was the kid at the beginning of Ghostbusters II who says, “My dad says you guys are full of crap,…and that’s why you went out of business.”) No other script is heavily favored, so the last two could be Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, or Notes on a Scandal. Borat is unlikely, considering how much of the film was comprised of unscripted interviews. (It’s also barely an adaptation, since the “story” in the film has almost nothing to do with the character’s previous escapades on HBO’s Da Ali G Show.) Scandal scribe Patrick Marber, previously a non-nominee for adapting his own stageplay Closer, may befall the same fate if the Writers’ Branch finds Scandal to be as chilly as Closer. I despised The Devil Wears Prada, but apparently no one else did, and any time a film adaptation is declared superior to its source material, it is a force to be reckoned with; a WGA indicates this sleeper hit will score a nod for Aline Brosh McKenna. Dreamgirls could grab the last spot as part of its looming sweep; its scribe, Bill Condon was last nominated for re-imagining Chicago for the screen, and a previous winner for Gods and Monsters. The writing awards often include a left-field candidate, so surprises could be in the form of The Last King of Scotland, A Prairie Home Companion, The Painted Veil, or the just-barely-released-in-2006 Children of Men.

Best Supporting Actress

With the other three acting races packed with veteran actors long-due for recognition, this category is mostly a study in newcomers. The early favorite is Jennifer Hudson, making her acting debut in Dreamgirls. When I saw this movie in the theatre, the audience burst into raucous applause for her lung-busting musical number and for her name in the end credits, which sums up the way just about everyone on the planet feels about her performance. Hudson’s primary competition comes from another 25-year-old actress, Rinko Kikuchi, in her American film debut. Kikuchi gives her entire performance in sign language, a feat also accomplished by Best Actress winners Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda, Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God, and Holly Hunter in The Piano. Another actress from Babel sure to be recognized is Adriana Barraza, appearing on almost every ballot Kikuchi has. A third actress from Babel is the last sure thing, only Cate Blanchett won’t be nominated for her cameo in Babel, but instead for squaring off against Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal. (With Mirren and Dench, Blanchett is the third former Queen Elizabeth I in contention this year.) The final spot is up for grabs. I’m not optimistic about Emily Blunt, the surprise Globe nominee, or Emma Thompson, given the underwhelming reception of her film. Lily Tomlin might sneak in as a tribute to her director, the late Robert Altman. Catherine O’Hara’s performance as an actress desperate for her first Oscar nomination might compel voters to choose her, or they might be turned off by the idea; since For Your Consideration is widely regarded as the least of Christopher Guest’s filmography, and O’Hara has been better in all three of her previous collaborations with Guest, the latter outcome is more likely. That means the popularity surge for Little Miss Sunshine will bump Abigail Breslin into the final five. Breslin will be 10 years and 284 days old on the day the nominations are announced, which means if she is chosen, she won’t break the record for youngest actress ever nominated, but she’ll be in 4th place behind fellow 10-year-olds Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon, Mary Badham in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Quinn Cummings in The Goodbye Girl.

Best Supporting Actor

In stark contrast to the Best Actress race, where every awards group is nominating the same five people, the Supporting Actor citations are all over the map. Eddie Murphy gave an electric, soul-singing performance that reminded everyone how wildly talented he is (crappy fat-suit movies and tabloid troubles aside.) As the only actor here to be drafted by the Globes and the Guilds, he stands as the lonely front-runner. After him, no one is guaranteed a nomination. Working backwards, I can first eliminate Michael Sheen from the running. His performance as Prime Minister Tony Blair has its fans, but the role is too subdued for this crowded field. Next I can cross off Adam Beach; he had early support for his haunted role in Flags, but Clint Eastwood’s companion film, Letters From Iwo Jima, eclipsed the earlier film, and with it, Beach’s chances. Another early favorite who has lost steam is Ben Affleck, playing actor George Reeves and earning the first wow-he-can-really-act reviews of his career. The Departed boys present an interesting conundrum; will one, two, or all three of them make it? (It is an extreme rarity for three performers from the same film to compete in the same category.) The critics liked Wahlberg, the Globes went for Nicholson (as always), and the Guild chose DiCaprio. Academy rules forbid a single performance to be nominated in the lead and supporting categories, (rules drafted after Barry Fitzgerald got enough votes for nods in both races for 1944’s Going My Way), so if DiCaprio actually racks up enough points in both categories, they will only count the category he got the most votes in, and the other will simply be thrown out. With all DiCaprio’s vote-splitting, and hopefully common sense dictating that it is not a supporting performance, Jack Nicholson should squeak ahead. (He is the most nominated and the most winning male performer in Academy history, so the infatuation is bound to take him the distance.) Another film that fielded three supporting actor contenders is Little Miss Sunshine, though Alan Arkin has emerged the clear favorite over his onscreen family members Steve Carell and Paul Dano. No respectable person doesn’t like Alan Arkin, so he looks like a safe bet. The last two slots will go to some combination of Jackie Earle Haley, Djimon Hounsou, and Brad Pitt. Haley and Hounsou both picked up critics’ awards, got shafted by the Globes, but came back into contention with the SAG nods. Meanwhile, Pitt earned some of the best reviews of his career and gained momentum with a Globe nod, but didn’t get the vote from his peers. Djimon Hounsou is an increasingly well-liked actor in the business (see his left-field nomination three years ago for In America), and even detractors of Blood Diamond can agree he was the best aspect of the film, so I think that gives him a narrow edge. In a ridiculously close face-off between Haley and Pitt, my gut instinct is that while the full Guild membership embraced critical fave Haley, he, like his Breaking Away co-star Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven, will miss out to the more Hollywood choice, when the elite Academy members go with Brad Pitt.

Best Actress

Helen Mirren has already won the Oscar. The formalities of bestowing a nomination on January 23rd and opening the sealed envelope on February 25th will be carried out per tradition, but she has already won the Oscar. This will be her third career nomination and her second for portraying an English Queen: This year as Elizabeth II and 12 years ago as George III’s wife Charlotte in The Madness of King George. She also won the most recent Emmy and Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Movie as Queen Elizabeth I, so she may win not just the Oscar, but an Academy royal title. 2006 will always be remembered as the year that Judi Dench, Meryl Streep, and Kate Winslet competed against each other…that is of course, if it’s not confused with every other damn year for the past 10 years. Dench will pick up her sixth nod in 10 years, Winslet her fifth in 12 years, and Streep will break her own record as the most nominated performer of all time, with 14 nods in 29 years. Pardon me while I yawn. Dench is a shoo-in for her career-best reviews for Notes on a Scandal and Academy voters are putty in Streep’s hands when she takes a break from the weepy accent roles and vamps up the comedy. The only Oscar virgin here will be Penelope Cruz, a revelation in Volver. From Cruz’s American filmography, you’d think her only talent was batting her eyelashes, but in returning to her native Spain and re-teaming with the director who made her a star, Pedro Almodovar, she gave a fierce, heart-felt performance sure to be recognized. These five women are pretty much the Best Actress nominees for every awards group in the country, so it’s most likely they’ll make up the Academy’s shortlist as well. Unfortunately, the film that was supposed to finally get Annette Bening into the winners’ circle, Running With Scissors, got mediocre reviews and crippled her chances. Conversely, Dreamgirls is shaping up to be a major contender, but with the attention focused on the supporting players, it is unlikely Beyonce Knowles will make the cut. The only actress who has a real shot at an upset is Maggie Gyllenhaal, who earned glowing reviews for the little-seen indie SherryBaby. If she can knock anyone out of contention, I’d guess it would be Winslet.

Best Actor

Forest Whitaker is winning everything; if there is a Des Moines Film Critics Award or a Golden Goblet award, he has won it. His portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin made a clean sweep of the top four critics’ awards and picked up every industry nomination possible. With all the gold he has collected, the race should be over; what kind of juggernaut could possibly unseat him? How about the most Oscar-losing actor of all time? Peter O’Toole and the late Richard Burton are currently tied for the most acting nominations without winning, with seven losses apiece, and this year, 74-year-old O’Toole is guaranteed a chance of either breaking the record or being happily taken off the list. After these two, the race is truly over, so three more guys can count themselves lucky just to be nominated. The next most likely candidate should be Leonardo DiCaprio, but the question is, for which film? He gave two starring performances this year, in Blood Diamond and The Departed. The latter film should have the upper hand, with better reviews and a guaranteed Best Picture nod, while Blood was seen as a preachy, so-so film with good performances. However, DiCaprio’s Departed candidacy has been split between the lead and supporting categories. (Which is ridiculous; he is at least the co-lead actor with Matt Damon, if not the single main character.) Academy rules forbid an actor to compete for two films in the same category, so in the event that DiCaprio gathers enough votes for both films, only the film with the most votes will be counted, and the votes for the other film will be tossed out of contention. I’ll put DiCaprio to the side for a moment and size up the rest of the candidates. One is Will Smith. I am very cranky about this candidacy because of his film’s purposely misspelled title, the too-cute casting of his real-life son, and mostly because I can’t stand Will Smith. He was nominated for Ali without a SAG nomination, and this time around he got the guild’s endorsement, so another nod is inevitable. There is Ryan Gosling, critics’ darling for The Believer in 2001, teen heartthrob from that Notebook movie in 2004, and critics’ darling again for the indie movie of the year, Half Nelson. The 26-year-old actor has arrived, so his chances look solid. The last major player in this race is Sacha Baron Cohen, a British actor playing that omnipresent Kazakh reporter that has spawned a rabid cult of fans. Cohen adopts this character as he encounters real people in this semi-documentary (many of whom are trying to sue him over their representation in the film), so the question is, will voters see this as genuine acting or just a stunt? Will they see the film as satire or a feature-length episode of Punk’d? There is a bullying mentality surrounding this film: Anyone who doesn’t like it just doesn’t “get it”! (I get the humor, thank you very much, and while much of the film made me giggle, it was still a puerile vehicle for satire.) Voters may well feel the need to prove they “get it” and give Cohen the last slot, but it seems more likely the film will remain divisive enough that they’ll stick with Leonardo DiCaprio, Scorsese’s new DeNiro for the 21st century, for The Departed.