Fashion Round-Up

My narrow favorite is the flowing shades of violet in Reese Witherspoon's dress. Also ravishing in deep jewel-tones were Emily Blunt and Isla Fisher. Kate Winslet was heavenly in a mint-green Grecian wrap, and Gwyneth Paltrow was unexpectedly cute in strategically gathered shades of peach. It takes quite a lot for me to love a colorless dress, but Rachel Weisz's platinum gown was a knockout with a diamond-encrusted bustline, exquisite diamond pendant, and her dramatically dark hair and lips.











It feels pointless to call Sally Kirkland the worst-dressed. The one-time Best Actress nominee from 19 years ago keeps showing up on the red carpet in floppy, bat-shit insane costumes and flailing herself about in a most pitiful and unsettling manner. So let's give Worst to Eva Green, for wearing a messy wad of fabric the color of decaying flesh. No one else really offended. Jennifer Hudson had a weird shoulder cape that made her dress needlessly bulky, but she took it off once she went inside the auditorium, and looked gorgeous in the uncluttered dark chocolate gown. The color of Penelope Cruz's dress was a complete wash-out, but at least the textures of her gathered bodice and full skirt were appealing. Pencil-lead gray was severe and unflattering on Cate Blanchett, but the glittery details saved the look. Naomi Watts's dress was way to similar to the gown Blanchett wore for her Aviator win two years ago, but what a dress to copy off of. I'm sure plenty of snarky commentators are ripping on Meryl Streep's chunky beaded necklace, because they want everyone to be the same flavor of elegant. Screw that -- Streep's playful, bohemian style is always welcome, and anyone whose attended the Oscars 14 times as a nominee is more than allowed to break away from the same old formal-ware mold.

Best Actor

There are really only two contenders in this race. DiCaprio, Smith, and Gosling are all nice young guys who may win some day, but this is not their year. None can squeeze their way in between the mighty Forest Whitaker and the marvelous Peter O’Toole.

In Whitaker’s corner is a near-unanimous consensus that he gave the best performance of the year, raking in a ton of gold trinkets from critics and peers alike. In O’Toole’s corner: It’s his eighth nomination and he still hasn’t won. O’Toole was given the lifetime achievement award four years ago, but if he loses this year, he will become the most losing actor in Oscar history. Twice before the Academy has bestowed the lifetime achievement award to a perennially snubbed actor, who then went on to grab Best Actor in his own right. Those actors were Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, and Venus feels very much like O’Toole’s On Golden Pond. Eight has also been the magic number for other long-denied actors: Geraldine Page and Al Pacino were both poised to break the all-time loser record, but finally won on their eighth nod.

But these are just numbers. The Academy has been far less prone to vote virtual lifetime achievement awards in recent years than they have in the past (see Lauren Bacall, Albert Finney), and one can’t help but feel O’Toole was playing himself. Sure, he has magical presence every moment those blue eyes twinkle on screen, but the role was hardly a stretch (a boozing, horn-dog British actor) and few could argue it’s his best work. Meanwhile, the bashful Texan Forest Whitaker is towering and terrifying as Idi Amin, adopting the Ugandan culture and language for the role, and disappearing behind the craft with child-like humor and bull-headed rage. Ultimately, I think voters will have a hard time not voting for him, and the SAG award win seemed to seal the deal.

Prediction: Forest Whitaker Personal Pick: Whitaker and Gosling were excellent, and in a way, so was O’Toole. (Haven’t seen Blood Diamond or Pursuit of Sappyness.) Can’t help but feel Whitaker deserves it, can’t help but want O’Toole to win it…

Best Actress

No chance for Penelope Cruz. There may be whispers for Kate Winslet, on her fifth try for a first Oscar, but remember that she is the youngest performer ever to rack up five nominations; you really can’t call a 31-year-old a sentimental favorite. Some may chime in for Meryl Streep, in this, the year of “The Silver Foxes,” but she’s a double-Oscar winner in a film that’s pure fluff – not the stuff to knock out fierce competition.

Judi Dench might score a few votes, since she actually earned career-best notices for Notes, and some may feel Dench deserves to be upgraded to a Best Actress winner after her supporting win for eight minutes of screen time in Shakespeare in Love. Dench actually won the British Film Award for Best Actress, possibly the only award on earth that didn’t go to The Queen.

Know that everyone, but everyone, loves Helen Mirren, and simply adores her in this film. Know that for the moment, Hollywood is suddenly aware (and pretending to be outraged) that the Best Actress race has been ruled by ingénues as of late, and a win for 61-year-old Mirren would make her the oldest winner since Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy. Know that Mirren was also adored as the first Queen Elizabeth in the BBC film this same year, and when she won the Emmy for it, she worried in her speech she might fall “ass over tit” on her way to the stage – is there any way she couldn’t give a marvelous, regal, and just a smidge naughty speech? In short, know that Helen Mirren is unbeatable.

Prediction: Helen Mirren Personal Pick: I’ll be thrilled for Mirren. She deserves to be in the club, and it would be heartbreaking if she suddenly lost after a winning-streak this hot. And yes, I can’t wait to see her white-haired beauty on the cover of every magazine on the newsstand. Funny, then, that I find myself partial to the lyrical but lived-in performance by Penelope Cruz. (If you had told me a year ago I would be charmed by Penelope Cruz over Helen Mirren, I’d have said you’re crazy!)

Best Supporting Actor

Mark Wahlberg is probably the least likely; it’s a small, limited role that required spouting colorful tirades rather than multi-dimensional characterization, so while the nomination is a vote of confidence for his future, this is not his year. Jackie Earle Haley took on the riskiest role of this bunch as a pedophilic sex offender, and his comeback is a sweet victory after years of being so unemployed as an actor that he worked as a pizza delivery man and limo driver. Sentiment could nudge him in, but I think ultimately the Academy will go for a bigger name. Djimon Hounsou could squeak in too, though Blood Diamond was not well-regarded and he hasn’t generated enough of that elusive “buzz” to rattle the primary competitors.

Behold the awesome power of Alan Arkin, master improvisational actor equally adept at comedy and drama. Also behold the awesome power of Eddie Murphy, still so revered for his comic genius in the 80’s, in the rare role that made use of his bravado as a performer and intelligence as an actor. A funny thing happened with Dreamgirls: First everyone was aghast at its Best Picture and Director shut-out, but then confessions of distaste for the film came leaking out of the industry. Also working against Murphy? One word: Norbit. You don’t have to have seen the universally panned non-comedy, just the cringe-worthy commercials, or even just the nauseating, omnipresent billboards to feel queasy about bestowing him with the title “Academy Award winner.”

Sentiment and admiration for 72-year-old Arkin could tip the race in his favor, but as with O’Toole, the performance might not be enough. Arkin’s backseat commentary in LMS was laugh-out loud funny, but the film doesn’t really explore his character. Murphy still has the lead with his SAG victory over Arkin, but it’s a close call.

Prediction: Eddie Murphy Personal Pick: I haven’t seen Blood Diamond, so I can only speak for four of them. I’ll be happy for Murphy or Arkin, but it was Haley who made the deepest impression on me.

Best Supporting Actress

Is Jennifer Hudson really going to win? Normally, a debut performance (and not just her film debut, but her acting debut, for any medium) is a tough sell for a win, but consider this unusual crop of actresses.

There is Cate Blanchett, who won this award only two years ago; if she ever wins again, it will probably be for Best Actress, and in any case, for more commanding work (in a better film.) She’s out. There is Abigail Breslin, who is only 10 years old. Yes, Tatum O’Neal and Anna Paquin beat their more grown-up competitors, but it’s quite a rarity, and Breslin’s candidacy doesn’t have the heft to overcome the odds. She’s quite the long-shot. There are Babel co-stars Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi who never share screen time but will likely share enough of Babel’s fans that they’ll split the vote. Kikuchi’s is the more technically impressive in that she learned sign language for the film and gave her entire performance without speech, but Barraza has the more sympathetic character (for me, the only person in the whole film I didn’t want to smack in the face.)

Now consider what Hudson has going for her: a brazenly assured debut that has been compared to Barbra Streisand’s in Funny Girl, highlighted by a devastating torch performance of “And I Am Telling You” that has been compared to Judy Garland’s burning “The Man That Got Away” in A Star is Born. The oft-repeated story of her comeback after that-horrible-TV-show-whose-name-I-refuse-to-mention makes for the perfect Cinderella story touch on an already strong bid. So she’s gonna win, and she’s gonna bawl her eyes out, and if you have any heart, you will too.

Prediction & Personal Pick: Jennifer Hudson

Best Adapted Screenplay

Man, I can’t believe Borat is here. One can easily question both the “adapted” and “screenplay” merits of this entry; the film’s plot has only a tenuous connection to its origins on Da Ali G Show, and the dialogue was largely improvised. Notes on a Scandal feels too much like a trashy TV movie, even if it is dressed up in British accents. I think Little Children should have been disqualified from this race for its blatant refusal to adapt to a visual medium. It is possibly the worst use of narration I have ever seen in a film, a failed attempt at satire in which the anonymous narrator explains events exactly as they occur onscreen, and spells out the subtext that the actors are perfectly capable of expressing on their own. I didn’t catch up to Children of Men, but its lack of precursor award honors doesn’t look good.

So The Departed remains comfortably in the lead. Monahan’s script is admired both for its hard-boiled dialogue and its cultural transformation from a Chinese film to an utterly Bostonian yarn. Expect to hear that funky Irish-Techno theme music after this envelope is opened.

Prediction & Personal Pick: The Departed

Best Original Screenplay

To vote in this category, it helps to speak both Spanish and Japanese. Mexico’s Pan’s Labyrinth is the only nominee here not up for Best Picture; the Foreign Film award and a few visual prizes will be enough. Letters From Iwo Jima is unlikely, because love for the film is centered around Clint Eastwood putting out two WWII epics in one year. If the film wins anything, it won’t be for the script.

Spanish AND Japanese are spoken throughout Babel, which feels like this year’s Crash: the over-populated and relentlessly bleak melodrama entirely too proud of its own forced diversity and its sophomoric “everybody is connected” theme. This make me a tad frightened Babel could win here, but the remaining two films have shown stronger clout in the race.

The Queen swept all four critics’ awards and the Golden Globe just for fun; here is the “prestige” choice. However, I think the love for Little Miss Sunshine, most notably in its Writers’ Guild win will take it the distance in this category, the easiest to validate of LMS’s four bids.

Prediction: Little Miss Sunshine Personal Pick: I suppose I’ll be alright with that, but Labyrinth is a much better film. (But note I didn’t see Letters.)

Best Director

Pinch me. Martin Scorsese has been close before, but this year he got the DGA award. And his rival from two years ago, Clint Eastwood, didn’t even get a DGA nod this time around. So it’s really gonna happen this time. Really. Seriously. Get ready for the biggest standing ovation in a long, long time. I don’t care if you’re seated in the Kodak Theatre or a Kentucky Fried Chicken on Sunday night, I demand that everyone in the country stand up and clap for Marty.

Prediction & Personal Pick: Martin Scorsese

Best Picture

This is a weird year for Best Picture, with absolutely no front-runner and all five nominees have a genuine shot at winning. The film with the most nods this year, Dreamgirls, isn’t up for Best Picture. There’s no Chocolat or Finding Neverland to immediately dismiss from the running. Even the film without a Best Director nominee isn’t going down without a fight.

At a slight disadvantage are the respectable critics’ faves, Letters and The Queen, which probably won’t inspire enough passion from the voting body. Little Miss Sunshine’s directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris didn’t make the cut, most probably because they were two heads rather than one, which may make it the exception to the pretty hard-and-fast rule about needing a directing nod to take Best Picture. Babel did win the Golden Globe and has the most nominations of these five, but really, what kind of Best Picture winner doesn’t win anything else? Even freak winners Shakespeare in Love and Crash picked up writing awards, and Gladiator and Chicago at least took an acting award.

I’m looking back 11 years for the last Best Picture race this kooky, when early favorites Apollo 13 and Sense and Sensibility saw their directors stunningly shafted from the nominations, even though Sense won the Globe, Apollo won with the PGA and DGA, while long-shots Babe and Il Postino had the upper hand with Best Director nods. That year, a confused Academy decided to match Best Picture with their Director favorite, Braveheart. I think in this murky year, they’ll do the same.

Prediction: The Departed Personal Pick: Hmmm…none of my favorites are here. I was charmed by Sunshine but it’s not Best Picture material. I guess The Departed? (Yup, it’s been that kind of year.) Fear my wrath if Babel wins.

The Rest of the Races

I don’t specialize in the rest of these categories, so I’ll just take my usual guesses.

Cinematography: I have no idea. Pan’s Labyrinth was dazzling to look at; dig that blue-green palette!

Editing: This often goes to multi-plot films like Crash and Traffic, so it will be Babel’s lone win.

Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth had period décor AND ornate fantasy worlds, so maybe the most art direction will prevail?

Costume Design: Delicious rainbows of retro diva-wear over two decades in Dreamgirls should do the trick.

Score: Everybody’s all abuzz about this Alexandre Desplat guy, so The Queen is my ill-informed guess.

Sound Mixing: I dunno. Lately the trend is musicals, so another for Dreamgirls.

Sound Editing: I dunno. How about the only Best Pic nominee, Letters?

Visual Effects: Really, I don’t know. Superman seems like the kind of movie that wins this award, right?

Makeup: Pan’s Labyrinth for sure. Those eyeball hands freaked me out.

Song: Adjusting one’s scale of lameness for the Academy’s taste in music, “Listen” is the only original Dreamgirls song with pizzazz. Because it will go to Dreamgirls rather than “You’ve Got a Friend in Cars” or whatever Randy Newman recycled this year.

Foreign-Language Film: Pan’s Labyrinth has six nods while the rest have none outside this category, so that’s pretty easy.

Animated Feature: Tough call. A victory at the Annie Awards puts Cars ahead of Happy Feet.

Documentary Feature: The message was as important as the filmmaking was dull, but An Inconvenient Truth was a political lightning rod and the film community won’t be able to resist voting for it and feeling relevant.

Julie's Own Damn-Oscars (or Anti-Oscars), Given By Her, Damnit!

Eligible Films I Actually Saw:

Babel, Borat, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, For Your Consideration, Friends With Money, Half Nelson, An Inconvenient Truth, Inside Man, The Lady in the Water, The Last King of Scotland, Little Children, Little Miss Sunshine, Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World, Notes on a Scandal, Pan’s Labyrinth, A Prairie Home Companion, The Queen, Running With Scissors, Thank You For Smoking, United 93, Venus, Volver

Favorite Films
Pan’s Labyrinth, Volver, Half Nelson

Least Favorite Films
Babel, The Devil Wears Prada, The Lady in the Water

Favorite Performances
Ryan Gosling and Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson
The bit players of Inside Man
The cast of Little Miss Sunshine
Ivana Banquero and Maribel Verdu, Pan’s Labyrinth
Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, A Prairie Home Companion
The cast of Volver

Least Favorite Performances
Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
Bob Balaban, The Lady in the Water (still love ya, though, Bob)
The Narrator, Little Children
Lindsay Lohan, A Prairie Home Companion
Katie Holmes, Thank You For Smoking

Julie-Crush Citations
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Paul Giamatti, The Lady in the Water
James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland
Steve Carell, Little Miss Sunshine
Joseph Cross, Running With Scissors

Weirdest Double Feature
Borat and Looking For Comedy in the Muslim World. Someone please write a pretentious thesis paper on them, please.

“Scariest” Triumvirate
Mexican directors Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo Del Toro, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu all helmed three of the top-nominated films which netted a combined 16 nominations. Isn’t some wack-job going to invoke the immigration debate? Because I wrote a really great joke for it: “They only directed the films that American directors didn’t want.” (If Ellen makes that joke, I’ll be so proud of myself!)

Worst Dive
Gustavo Santaolalla, who wrote the poignant, iconic score for Brokeback Mountain and followed it with the laughably awful score for Babel.

Worst Use of John Krasinski
Dreamgirls and For Your Consideration. How could they give him only 5 seconds of screen time apiece? I demand more Krasinski!

Worst nudity
Rinko Kikuchi flashing her beave in Babel.
That dude’s nutsack in Borat.
Two abominations to the human body in The Last King of Scotland.

Best Reunion
Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow in Running With Scissors. If you felt Shakespeare in Love would have benefited from a scene where Will makes vulgar comments about Viola’s twat, then get thee to a video store and rent this sucker.

Confirmed Presenters

I'll be updating this post throughtout the next few weeks. Here are the slated presenters for the Oscar show, as officially announced by AMPAS.

1. George Clooney (will present Supporting Actress)
2. Cameron Diaz
3. Eva Green
4. Hugh Jackman
5. Maggie Gyllenhaal (will appear as host of Sci-Tech Awards)
6. Daniel Craig
7. Will Ferrell
8. Nicole Kidman
9. Reese Witherspoon (will present Best Actor)
10. Cate Blanchett
11. Steve Carell
12. Penelope Cruz
13. Tom Hanks
14. Rachel Weisz (will present Supporting Actor)
15. Ben Affleck
16. Tom Cruise
17. Kirsten Dunst
18. Kate Winslet
19. Abigail Breslin
20. Jaden Smith
21. Jack Black
22. Anne Hathaway
23. Tobey Maguire
24. Jessica Biel
25. Diane Keaton
26. Jennifer Lopez
27. Gwyneth Paltrow
28. Beyonce (will perform "Listen")
29. Jennifer Hudson (will perform "Love You I Do")
30. Anika Noni Rose (will perform "Patience")
31. Keith Robinson (will perform "Patience")
32. Melissa Etheridge (will perform "I Need to Wake Up")
33. Randy Newman (will perform "Our Town")
34. James Taylor (will perform "Our Town")
35. Jodie Foster
36. Queen Latifah
37. John Travolta
38. Jack Nicholson
39. Meryl Streep
40. Philip Seymour Hoffman (will present Best Actress)
41. Leonardo DiCaprio
42. Robert Downey Jr.
43. Greg Kinnear
44. Helen Mirren
45. Clive Owen
46. Ken Watanabe
47. Naomi Watts
48. Gael Garcia Bernal
49. Emily Blunt
50. Catherine Deneuve
51. Al Gore
52. James McAvoy
53. Jerry Seinfeld


I hope Taxi Driver star Jodie Foster presents Best Director. That'd be sweet.

Yahoo News reported Celine Dion will be singing as part of the tribute to Honorary Award winner Ennio Morricone, though this has not been confirmed by the Academy. We had 6 Celine-free years of Oscar telecasts, and they they have to go and pull this bullshit. Insanity.