Presidents and First Ladies

Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field are nominees this year for portraying President and Mrs. Lincoln [left].  Day-Lewis is the second actor to be nominated for portraying Honest Abe; the first was Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940) [right, with Ruth Gordon as Mary Todd]. 





In the inaugural year of the Supporting performance categories, Beulah Bondi was nominated for her portrayal of Rachel Donelson Jackson in The Gorgeous Hussy (1936) [shown with Lionel Barrymore as Andrew Jackson.]  Mrs. Jackson technically was not a First Lady, because she died after her husband was elected but before her husband was sworn into office, but she is recognized on the White House website. Today, Bondi and Barrymore are probably best remembered not as the devoted political couple, but as the evil Mr. Potter and the warm-hearted Ma Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).



 

Alexander Knox was a Best Actor nominee as President Woodrow in Wilson (1944).  He is pictured with Ruth Nelson as Ellen Wilson, who died a year into her husband's first term.  Wilson remarried, while still in office, to the widow Edith Bolling Galt, who is portrayed in this film by Geraldine Fitzgerald.





Greer Garson received the last of her seven Best Actress nods for portraying Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960), pictured with Ralph Bellamy as FDR.






The 1975 film Give 'em Hell, Harry! is one of the most unusual to be nominated for an Oscar, in that it barely qualifies as a film: It is a recording of James Whitmore giving a live, one-man-show stage performance as Harry Truman.  Whitmore is the only person to be nominated for acting without a single co-star.





Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen [left] were recognized in the lead and supporting categories, respectively, as Richard and Pat in Nixon (1995).  Tricky Dick reappeared in the Best Actor race with Frost/Nixon (2008), with Frank Langella as the 37th president [right, with Patty McCormack as Pat].





Hopkins himself also reappeared in the Oscar race as a U.S. president, with his supporting turn as the mutton-chopped John Quincy Adams in Amistad (1997).



It is interesting that of the six actors who have been nominated as American presidents, only two -- James Whitmore and Frank Langella -- are actually American.  Anthony Hopkins and Daniel Day-Lewis were born in the United Kingdom, and Raymond Massey and Alexander Knox were Canadians.

There's no doubt that presidential families will continue to inspire films.  If Barack and Michelle Obama are portrayed onscreen in the near future, I hope it's by Don Cheadle and Regina King.  And if this hypothetical movie I just made up is a good one, may they both win Oscars!

Golden Globes

For the first time in human history, the Golden Globes were awesome.



Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, mighty queens that they are, showed everyone how it's done.  They doled out zingers without being mean-spirited.  They made purposely corny jokes and then high-fived each other.  They got Daniel Day-Lewis to pretend he was E.T., and they got Glenn Close to play sloppy-drunk. They rewrote the lyrics to the Big, Sad song from Les Mis to be about eating a sandwich.  They cuddled up with the stars of Out of Sight and appeared in the audience as fake nominees, which spawned this:



(Thanks, Uncredited Photoshopper!  But here's where I got it from.)



They owned every laugh-out-loud moment of the show except one, the deliriously absurd bit by Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell, an awesomely misinformed recap of the Best Actress nominees.  Judi Dench, policewoman-turned-actress.  Jennifer Lawrence collecting silver for her cookbook.  Meryl Streep as a sassy sheriff: "Hi, I'm Hope Springs!"   And at some point, they all say, "You...get out of here!"




As for the awards themselves?  Ben Affleck was left off the Oscar list for Best Director, but won the big trophy here.  Christoph Waltz took home a golden gong, but he isn't even nominated for a SAG award.  The "Musical or Comedy" categories -- created to combat the usual snobbery against comedy -- were once again undermined, with a musical tragedy trouncing the comedic favorite Silver Linings Playbook for Best Actor and Picture.  So they didn't do much to clarify the Oscar race, but who cares.  It was a fun show with plenty of fashion candy...



(Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Amy Adams, Naomi Watts)



(Jessica Chastain, Sally Field, Jacki Weaver, Helen Hunt)



(Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Helen Mirren, Emily Blunt, Rachel Weisz)



(MVP's Tina Fey, Jodie Foster, and Kathryn Bigelow)



(Misc. favorite gowns: Julianna Margulies, Halle Berry, Jessica Alba, Rebecca Miller)

(More misc. favorite gowns: Olivia Munn, Lucy Liu, and Alyssa Milano...and thanks once again to Helena Bonham-Carter for bringing some humor to the red carpet!)

 

The Nominees: Reactions

I was being pointedly ridiculous when I suggested the Academy might bring "excitement" to the nominations announcement by revealing them in reverse alphabetical order.  What did they actually do?  Reveal them in random order.  [Shaking head in disbelief.]

BEST PICTURE

Amour
Argo
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Zero Dark Thirty

How I Did: 9/9 (though I also predicted Moonrise Kingdom for a total of 10 nominees.)

It is particularly vexing that Moonrise Kingdom was snubbed in favor of...nothing.


BEST DIRECTOR

Amour: Michael Haneke
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: Ang Lee
Lincoln: Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

How I Did: 3/5 (Amour and Beasts... instead of Argo and Zero Dark Thirty)

Holy crap-balls!  The omissions of Ben Affleck and especially Kathryn Bigelow are flat-out insane.  They were actually the front-runners to win (or at least, to make Spielberg sweat the most.)  This reminds me of the 1995-96 race, when Apollo 13 and Sense and Sensibility were the favorites for the top prizes, and somehow Ron Howard and Ang Lee were shafted.  In other factoids, Benh Zeitlin is the first Best Director nominee to be born as recently as the 1980's.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Argo: Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi: David Magee
Lincoln: Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

How I Did: 4/5 (Beasts... instead of The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

This nomination for Beasts makes Lucy Alibar the only female nominated in the authorial categories.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Amour: Michael Haneke
Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino
Flight: John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal

How I Did: 4/5 (Flight instead of Looper)

A big congratulations to Roman Coppola, who is now inducted in the Oscar club alongside his father Francis, grandfather Carmine, little sister Sofia, aunt Talia Shire, and cousin Nicolas Cage.  You're next, Jason Schwartzman!


BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Denzel Washington, Flight

How I Did: 4/5 (Phoenix instead of John Hawkes)

Poor John Hawkes!  I haven't even seen his movie yet, and this still bums me out.  I like me some John Hawkes.


BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts, The Impossible

How I Did: 4/5 (Riva instead of Marion Cotillard)

Riva and Wallis were both included - I love it!  At age 85 and age 9, they have broken the records for the oldest and youngest Best Actress nominees ever.  Here's to hoping that when Jean Dujardin presents this category next month, he delivers his tribute to Ms. Riva in French.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, Argo
Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

How I Did: 4/5 (Waltz instead of Matthew McConaughey)

All five of them have already won.  What a drag.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, The Master
Sally Field, Lincoln
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
Helen Hunt, The Sessions
Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

How I Did: 4/5 (Weaver instead of Ann Dowd.)

The surprise mention for Jacki Weaver makes Silver Linings... the first film since Reds (1981) to be nominated in all four acting categories.


So that makes 14 films nominated in the top eight categories.  I have seen exactly two of them.  Let my crash course in 2012 cinema begin!

NOMINEE PREDICTIONS

Oscar, you are testing my patience!

The Academy continues its recent streak of befuddling stunts for the sake of “excitement” which they hope to parlay into better ratings for the telecast.  First it was the expanded Best Picture category.  This year their website did not list a date for the nominations announcement – promising only the third week in January – and then bam!  At the last minute they announced the nominations would be revealed on the second Thursday of the month.  Edgy!  What’s next?  They’ll read the nominees on live television…in reverse alphabetical order?

Because of their stupid little game, what follows is the best column I could slap together in one night (grumble, grumble.)

***

This year’s races are kind of bumming me out, because they are loaded with former winners, and there will be hardly any first-time nominees.  The Golden Globes lavished nominations on Semen Fishing in the Yalmon and Old White Ladies in India.  Judi Dench and Maggie Smith actually have TWO campaigns apiece.  Here’s to hoping the voting body makes more interesting choices than the Board of Directors.

BEST ACTOR

Who’s In:

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

John Hawkes, The Sessions

Who’s Probably Also In:

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Denzel Washington, Flight

Who Could Be In Instead:

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

Bill Murray, Hyde Park on Hudson

Jack Black, Bernie

Richard Gere, Arbitrage

            The five SAG nominees were all endorsed by the Golden Globes and the Critics’ Choice awards, which makes my first five predictions a pretty solid bet.  It leaves crazy Joaquin Phoenix out in the cold, an early favorite who blew it by shooting his mouth off about how much he hates the Oscar race (after we still hadn’t fully forgiven him for the fake-mental-breakdown stunt), so I don’t think he’ll capture many hearts in the final stretch.  A few months ago, it seemed we would have two U.S. presidents on this short list, but negative reviews for Hyde Park… have all but killed Bill Murray’s chances of bringing FDR to the table.

BEST ACTRESS

Who’s In:

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Who’s Probably Also In:

Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Who Could Be In Instead:

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea

Helen Mirren, Hitchcock

Who I Really Hope Isn’t In:

Meryl Streep, Hope Springs

Judi Dench, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Maggie Smith, Quartet

            It’s nice to see enough leading roles for women to make the race interesting.  Critics’ favorites Riva and Weisz were passed up by the Guilds and the Globes, making way for Cotillard (whose film hasn’t been well-reviewed) and Mirren (ditto.)  Look out for Quvenzhane Wallis, a 9-year-old Louisiana native who was ineligible for a SAG nod (because her low-budget film was a non-union production), but has the best chance of carrying the flag for this beloved indie.  Fun Fact: Wallis would break the record for the youngest lead actress nominee ever, previously broken by Keisha Castle-Hughes in 2003…which was the year Miss Wallis was born!  Whoever makes the last spot, the Academy can agree to lay off Meryl Streep for at least a year, right?  RIGHT?!?!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Who’s In:

Alan Arkin, Argo

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

Who’s Probably Also In:

Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike

Who Could Be In Instead:

Javier Bardem, Skyfall

Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild

            It’s pretty much impossible to win an Oscar without at least a SAG nod, because the Actors’ Branch of the Academy is a subset of the Guild’s voting body.  The SAG lineup this year – Arkin, Bardem, DeNiro, Hoffman, and Jones – guarantees a repeat winner.  Drat.  It’s a tough call as to which of the top eight contenders will still be standing tomorrow morning (Dwight Henry is the only long shot.)  Let’s say the Django fellas cancel each other out, and in the face-off between the box-office smashes, the Bond villain falls short, making McConaughey the only first-time nominee.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Who’s In:

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Who’s Probably Also In:

Amy Adams, The Master

Ann Dowd, Compliance

Who Could Be In Instead:

Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Nicole Kidman, The Paperboy

Judi Dench, Skyfall

            Admittedly, I’m being kinda stubborn on this one.  Sure, it seems most Oscar-y for Dame Maggie Smith to waltz away with this one, but that’s just the problem: The whole race is TOO predictable.  Somebody’s gotta be the “surprise” nominee.  So I’m taking a gamble on ace character actress Ann Dowd (who I know and love from Freaks and Geeks.)  Hers is the tiniest film in the mix, but she managed the NBR award and a Critics’ Choice nod.  Like the supporting actor contest, there needs to be at least one first-timer.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Who’s In:

Argo: Chris Terrio

Lincoln: Tony Kushner

Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

Who’s Probably Also In:

Life of Pi: David Magee

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Stephen Chbosky

Who Could Be In Instead:

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin

Les Miserables: William Nicholson

            The same five films have been selected by all the major awards groups.  Love for Beasts... could make for an upset.  Mixed reviews for Les Miserable won’t spoil its chances in the acting categories, but it is most vulnerable with the Writers’ and Directors’ branches.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Who’s In:

Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino

Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola

Zero Dark Thirty: Mark Boal

Who’s Probably Also In:

Amour: Michael Haneke

Looper: Rian Johnson

Who Could Be In Instead:

Flight: John Gatins

The Master: Paul Thomas Anderson

            Looper and Flight are about neck-and-neck for the fifth nomination, but what usually happens in the Original Screenplay category is that the favorite foreign-language film elbows its way in, which is why I’m giving the edge to Amour.

BEST DIRECTOR

Who’s In:

Argo: Ben Affleck

Lincoln: Steven Spielberg

Zero Dark Thirty: Kathryn Bigelow

Who’s Probably Also In:

Life of Pi: Ang Lee

Silver Linings Playbook: David O. Russell

Who Could Be In Instead:

Les Miserables: Tom Hooper

Amour: Michael Haneke

Django Unchained: Quentin Tarantino

The Master: Paul Thomas Anderson

Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson

            The DGA nods went to Affleck, Bigelow, Hooper, Lee, and Spielberg: Four previous winners in this category, and one screenplay winner.  As previously mentioned, Les Miserables could be passed over by the more discerning Directors’ branch, even if it is favored by the Academy-wide vote for Best Picture (which leans more towards populist spectacle.)  So I think the higher regard for Silver Linings... puts Russell ahead of Hooper.

BEST PICTURE

Who’s In:

Argo

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Who’s Probably Also In:

Moonrise Kingdom

Django Unchained

Amour

Beasts of the Southern Wild

            There will be between five and ten nominees for Best Picture, per the Academy’s silly new rule.  I’m going to predict the full ten nominees to maximize my chances of being right.

            And now I’m going to bed.