Take This Waltz - Trailer

Fantastic. The bittersweet melancholy of everyday life. Sarah Polley confirms herself as a young director with something to say and Michelle Williams, miles from the glamour of My Week with Marilyn, looks exceptional.

Awards Tracker - Best Actress

Surprisingly, Tilda Swinton is the biggest nominee so far, with six nominations, and two wins, which should cement her Oscar chances for the challenging We Need to Talk About Kevin. She's followed closely by Michelle Williams in more traditional Oscar-fodder as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn.


Not the de facto front runner one might expect, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady is tied with Viola Davis in The Help and Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene with four nominations. Glenn Close took long to join the race with Albert Nobbs, but hit the important three with nominations from the Golden Satellites, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild. She is tied with Charlize Theron in Young Adult, although Theron missed out on the somewhat important Screen Actors Guild nomination.

Indie darlings Felicity Jones in Like Crazy, Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia & Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur round out the multiple nominees, with Jones winning both her bids. Rooney Mara picks up only a single Golden Globe nomination for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but her film was released late, so it could be the start of more to come.

The critics have Michelle Williams far in the lead with eleven nominations and seven wins, followed closely by Meryl Streep with ten nominations, but only three wins. They also threw their weight behind Viola Davis, with eight nominations, as well as Elizabeth Olsen & Tilda Swinton, with seven each.

Kirsten Dunst's three and Charlize Theron's two nominations edge out Glenn Close, who shares her single nomination status with Saoirse Ronan for Hanna, Felicity Jones for Like Crazy, Brit Marling for Another Earth, Anna Paquin for Margaret & Adepero Oduye for Pariah. 

Rooney Mara & Yun Jung-Hee in Poetry lead the single nominees by winning their respective Critics nominations, leaving Glen Close in their wake, at least from the Critics' perspective.

So Williams and Streep are locks, Davis is guaranteed a deserved, career & political nomination and Swinton seems positioned to take the home stretch safely, which leaves just one spot for Theron, Close, Mara & Olsen to vie for. It doesn't feel like anyone else - including Dunst & Colman - has enough traction to knock them out of the race.

Best Actress race gets meaty

Michelle Williams gets glowing early reviews; Viola Davis gets the Elle Women in Hollywood award, and gives one heck of an acceptance speech; Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells raises $2000 to promote Olivia Colman in Tryannosaur with an early screening; & Elizabeth Olsen hits the Today show, briefly but eloquently.

This year's Best Actress is a very exciting one indeed, with far too many deserving performances getting due notice. The final five should be a strong five, but There Will Be Blogger outcry when a handful of deserving actresses are inevitably 'overlooked'. My hope is that the Oscar precursors will keep their nominations diverse and not settle on a comfortable five to push all the way to the Oscars. Diversity not only keeps the race unpredictable, and forces Oscar voters to think for themselves, it also means that in retrospect a wider range of performances will have received recognition.

Early praise for Michelle Williams, but not her movie

One of the first out of the gate, Variety's review of My Week With Marilyn calls the film a bit bland and misjudged, but raves Michelle Williams, which is the important part.

"But the film belongs to Williams, whose tour-de-force turn conflates three Marilyns: the lost, damaged little girl who seeks to escape others’ expectations and return to simpler childhood days; the sexy superstar who impishly poses with a wink in complicity with her public; and the actress playing a pre-scripted part. The genius of the performance lies in the way Williams stresses the interconnectedness of these personalities: The neediness fuels the impudence, the vulnerability turns sexually provocative, and the little girl and sexpot together drive the screen role."


They also praise Kenneth Branagh as Laurence Olivier & Judi Dench as Sybil Thorndike, although they are not blown away by either, and predictably love Toby Jones as Arthur Jacobs.

My Week with Marilyn - Trailer

Finally - a Trailer!

Looks like all we hope it will be. A suitably complex part for Michelle Williams. A strong whiff of Me & Orson Welles, but with more tears. I like the line: "Shall I be her?" "Who?" "Marilyn."

High Praise - & trailer - for Meek's Cutoff

"This tough, quiet revelation of a movie… makes everything feel at once mundane and mysterious. But tucked inside these carefully old, almost anecdotal narratives are intense emotions, intractable social problems and human truths that are too deep, too sad and perhaps too painfully absurd to name… MEEK'S CUTOFF is built around a dialectic of freedom and constriction… An undercurrent of mordant comedy… Ms. Reichardt is too wise and self-assured a filmmaker to offer easy answers. MEEK'S CUTOFF is as unsentimental and determined as Ms. Williams's character, its absolutely believable heroine. It is also a bracingly original foray into territory that remains, in every sense, unsettled." -- A.O. Scott, The New York Times
Click here to read the full review.

The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in one another's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as a natural born enemy.


Trailer:

Michelle Williams is a western feminist heroine, & Marilyn Monroe

Following her Oscar nomination for Blue Valentine, Michelle Williams ups her profile with two powerful new roles - first, she teams up with her Wendy & Lucy director, Kelly Reichart, to play stoic feminist heroine Emily Thetherow in Reichart's acclaimed intellectual & enigmatic western, Meek's Cutoff.


After that, she takes a stab at Hollywood History, and more Oscar glory, as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, which chronicles the infamous tension between Sir Laurence Olivier and Ms Monroe on the production of The Prince and the Showgirl. Kenneth Branagh plays Sir Laurence Olivier, appropriately enough; Branagh & Olivier share a passion for adapting Shakespeare, successfully, both behind & in front of the camera.

If anyone can nail Marilyn's externally superficiality & internally complexity, it's Williams.

Lastly, she stars with Seth Rogan & Sarah Silverman in Sarah Polley's bittersweet comedy / drama Take this Waltz. She plays Margot, a woman 'struggling to choose between two different kinds of love', whatever that means.

Be it as it may, Michelle Williams' star is rising.

Interview with Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams talks about making Blue Valentine & why Ryan Gosling is 'an uncommon man':




& a short clip with Williams & Gosling explaining Derek Cianfrance's directing strategies - interesting:

Blue Valentine - Review

I saw Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine a few weeks ago, and had so much to say about it, but it took my a while to get around to finishing my review.  

Before getting into the heavy stuff, the film is, aesthetically, beautiful. Andrij Parekh's loose camera work is gorgeous and draws you into the chaos and intimacy of Dean & Cindy's marriage.

Director Derek Cianfrance wanted Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear to write a score for his film. 


Scheduling problems ruled that out, but Grizzly Bear did the next best thing & handed him their entire catalogue of music to use as he pleased. As a result, the bulk of the film is still underscored by the indie cool of the Brooklyn music scene. 


These stylistic touches contribute to the swooning beauty of the outsider love story and help make the heavier parts easier to swallow.  

As for the heavy stuff, there's plenty of it. Without divulging too much plot, Blue Valentine looks at two pivotal moments in a young marriage - when it began, and when it is in danger of falling apart.

How it begins is an intense swirl of indie cool and bruised adolescence where two damaged people find each other and - under less than ideal circumstances - decide to stick together. How it falls apart is like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with indie kids - no big infidelities or secrets, just the small frustrations that become overwhelming. Heartbreaking stuff.  


It's not an easy film to watch - it is raw, unflinchingly honest and refuses to choose sides. Both characters wear their pain on their sleeves and what initially brought them together threatens to tear them apart when they are unable to put it aside for the sake of their marriage. The joy is mapped out in as much complex detail as the misery. 


Much has been made of the film's sex scenes, but Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams give performances so real & vulnerable, it feels like they are holding their souls up for scrutiny. In that context, there is nothing in the sex scenes that is any more revealing or uncomfortable to watch than in their fully-clothed conversations. Additionally, as in any marriage, the dynamics of the sex scenes are pivotal to revealing their state of intimacy, and, though uncomfortably real, the scenes are certainly not intended to be gratuitously erotic.     


It is a testament to the actors' commitment to their characters that their turmoil is so riveting to watch - these two lost souls feel so real, and their frustrations so palpable, you desperately want to pull them aside and talk them through it.

Blue Valentine is probably best viewed as a cautionary tale about letting your emotions get the better of you. By allowing us to see what their marriage becomes, and also how it started, we are able to see the seeds of what comes between them in the end - whether it's Cindy's fragile & withdrawn nature, or Dean's volatile bullheadedness, what was sweet & charming to them at the start becomes unbearable when they can't get past their own insecurities to be good to each other.

The heartbreak of the film is to learn to face up to the small things in each of our lives that can get the better of us, if we let them, and push away the people and things we love and need the most. 


One of the best written and best acted films of the year. 

Grizzly Bear - Easier, featured in Blue Valentine.

& Penny & the Quarters - You & Me - Dean & Cindy's song:

Blue Valentine Trailer

Sigh. Awesome.

Oscar contenders - Best Actress: Michelle Williams

Originally posted: 8 Jan 2011

Michelle Williams has come a long way since the Creek. She's built her reputation slowly with strong supporting roles in small indies like The Station Agent, Prozac Nation, Imaginary Heroes & scored an Oscar nomination for playing the betrayed wife of real-life partner Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.

Since her Oscar nomination, she has been reliably brilliant, pouring intensity & focus into every small role she’s played. She has pretty much entirely avoided big Hollywood & focused on interesting indies, culminating  in her critical breakthrough in the intimate & highly celebrated Wendy & Lucy. As indie & artsy as they come, she had no shot at major award nominations, but was still considered to be in the running.

This year she was memorable as one of Leonardo’s DiCaprio’s set of crazy dead wives in Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, and teamed up again with Wendy & Lucy director Kelly Reichardt’s feminist western, Meek's Cutoff. Both roles brought in the acclaim, but none as rich & adoring as her work in Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine. 

Years in the making, and a labour of love for writer / director Derek Cianfrance, critics have praised Blue Valentine for its uncompromising authenticity & have raved Williams and co-star Ryan Gosling's portrayal of a young couple trying to salvage their marriage. The film’s indie pedigree & challenging subject matter is the only thing putting a question mark over their chances of being sure-bet nominees.

The whole NC-17 rating debacle (the film was initially classified as erotica, before the Weinsteins made a convincing appeal plea to the MPAA, and had the rating overturned) actually gave the film some much-needed publicity, and the critics awards clearly declared their love in the various Critic Circle nominations. The Golden Globes gave them a welcome mainstream boost, but the Screen Actors Guild gave them a skip (in favour of freaking Hilary Swank & - more understandably - Robert DuVall).

Broader Academy recognition could help the actors along. With 10 slots, it is not unthinkable that Blue 

Valentine, one of the year’s most acclaimed, but depressing, films, could land a slot. More likely, however, it will be a strong contender for Original Screenplay.

I have yet to see the film, but I think so highly of both actors and their considerable commitment to their craft, that they are right on top of my Oscar wishlist.

Wendy & Lucy:

Meek's Cutoff:

Detroit Film Critics name their best

Originally posted: 11 Dec 2011

Nominations from the Detroit Film Critics Society.

Some interesting nominations. Nice to see Winter's Bone in the Best Film Top 5, and awesome to see Edgar Wright nominated for Best Director - inspired, even if it is as a 6th wheel add-on.

Also nice to see some variation in the Best Actress race, with Michelle Williams & Carey Mulligan replacing the usual Anette Bening & Anne Hathaway.

Jeff Bridges also pops up again & is starting to feel like a sure-thing. It's great to see Ryan Gosling also nominated for Blue Valentine. My biggest Oscar wish is that Gosling & Williams are not overlooked. I think it has been getting so much press due to the NC-17 Rating debacle that, hopefully, it will stay on everyone's radar.

On the Supporting Actor front, it's nice to see John Hawke's keep a steady pace & Sam Rockwell landing in the race. As for the ladies, it seems we have a 'locked' 4 in Melissa Leo, Amy Adams, Helena Bonham Carter & Jacki Weaver - with the critics at any rate. Pretty cool to see Greta Gerwig pop up in the 5th slot, although it is not likely that we see her again. A very deserving performance, though.

Full list of nominees, courtesy of the lovely people at AwardsDaily.

Best Film

127 Hours

Inception

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

Winter’s Bone

Best Director

Danny Boyle – 127 Hours

David Fincher – The Social Network

Debra Granik – Winter’s Bone

Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech

Christopher Nolan – Inception

Edgar Wright – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges – True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network

Colin Firth – The King’s Speech

James Franco – 127 Hours

Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine

Best Actress

Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone

Carey Mulligan – Never Let Me Go

Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale – The Fighter

Andrew Garfield – The Social Network

John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone

Sam Rockwell – Conviction

Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech

Greta Gerwig – Greenberg

Melissa Leo – The Fighter

Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

Best Ensemble

The Fighter

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Winter’s Bone

Breakthrough Performance

Andrew Garfield – The Social Network/Never Let Me Go

Greta Gerwig – Greenberg

Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone

Chloe Moretz – Kick Ass/Let Me In

Mia Wasikowska – The Kids Are All Right