Ryan Gosling 'too hot' to win an Oscar?

Silly, but funny. Only on Twitter... (Read timeline from bottom up)

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

RT @Abid_ism: @AwardsDaily He needs to play Meryl Streep.//ftw!

16 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

RT @Frase_Ross: @AwardsDaily he needs to play a paralysed holocaust victim who gets raped //with a speech impediment....

16 hours ago 

Abid_ism Abid Anwar 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily He obviously has to take the Johnny Depp/RDJ route and sell their souls.

16 hours ago 

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zacomer Z. Ron Heltz 

 by AwardsDaily

@AwardsDaily Not only must Gosling star in a Holocaust film, but he must also have a disability. And he must be a rape victim. An ugly one.

16 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

holmes0423 Jonathan Holmes 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily @HSumra @MarlowNYC @lu_bomfim Nah, Gosling needs to star in a WWII/Holocaust movie. It worked for Winslet and Spielberg.

16 hours ago 

Dalephino Delfino Figueroa 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily He's gotta have a speech impediment and a humorous teacher

16 hours ago 

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

RT @rejects: All the dude ever wanted was his rug back, man. //it really tied the room together. #iamthewalrus

16 hours ago 

JordanWellin Jordan C Wellin 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily He needs to have a mental illness and throw plates. Lots of plates. The Oscars dig that crap.

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

I'm thinking he needs to eat his way across Europe, Robert De Niro style to be unthreatening @HSumra @MarlowNYC @lu_bomfim

17 hours ago 

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HSumra Husain Sumra 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily Male pattern baldness isn't enough. He needs to play super ugly to nab an Oscar. I'm talking Elephant Man ugly.

17 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

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@MarlowNYC hahaha.

17 hours ago 

MarlowNYC Marlow Stern 

 by AwardsDaily

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@AwardsDaily He got his male pattern baldness on last year and was still unrecognized, so who knows. #RyanGosling #Oscar

17 hours ago 

AwardsDaily Sasha Stone 

Was just asked if I think Oscar will recognize Ryan Gosling this year. Unless they hold his hotness against him...#cockblocking

Is Ryan Gosling driving 3 of 2011's Oscar vehicles?

Ryan Gosling has a reputation for being picky about his projects, but clearly good scripts are rolling in, and he has chosen very well this year. After last year's Oscar snub for Blue Valentine, he is back with a vengeance. 


The trailer for George Clooney's latest political thriller, The Ides of March, lands just in time to meet strong  reviews calling Gosling's Crazy, Stupid, Love 'fresh', 'crazy smart', 'romantic, touching... and screwball, yet reassuringly down-to-earth' and 'flirting with greatness' (okay, I just took the good stuff).

Although Crazy, Stupid, Love was arguably intended to belong to Steve Carrell and Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling & Emma Stone are getting all the best reviews. Gosling plays flawlessly smooth playboy , Jacob, who has to come to grips with messy feelings when he unexpectedly falls for Emma Stone's Hannah. Gosling is being hailed for showing comic timing as sharp as his abs, although Emma Stone - hot off last year's Easy A -seems to be the real revelation. It's not typical Oscar fare, but with 10 slots, a classy cast and good reviews could take it far if it has significant box office numbers. 


Ides of March comes with ready-made Oscar pedigree, and would have to disappoint to miss out. Its also a meaty role for Gosling, as he navigates the ethics and betrayals of high-stakes politics, and plays off a top-notch ensemble cast.  





Still due for general release is the ultimate Gosling vehicle of 2011 - Nicolas Winding Refn's critically raved - & Cannes Best Director Winner - Drive. Gosling plays a loner Los Angeles wheelman, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night, slowly drawn into a relationship with his neighbour - the lovely Carey Mulligan - by her ex-convict husband. More importantly, Winding Refn stacks up tension and unpredictability like a master, and Gosling inhabits the screen with epic presence, and brings human intensity to the action. An Oscar-contending performance, according to Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Review

Another year, another new British director, but David Yates stuck around to finish the series - known for his acclaimed TV character-driven dramas, Yates is an interesting choice, but he lands on a good tone for the final 3 (4) instalments of the series, and possesses a nice visual flair.  

Order of the Phoenix features one of the best performances of the series in Imelda Staunton's Dolores Umbridge, a poisonous combination of Margaret Thatcher & Joseph McCarthy. In an effort to quieten Harry & Professor Dumbledore's claims that Voldemort has returned, the Ministry of Magic loans loyal state servant Dolores Umbridge to Hogwarts as - you guessed it - the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor & Ministry watchdog. It is not long before she starts to take over, declaring war on anything suspicious. The embodiment of the cold heart of authoritarianism wrapped in a shell of pink & bubbly, she's all the more lethal for never letting the smile out of her eyes, even when her lips are spewing venom. Considering it was the follow up to her Vera Drake triumph, its a wonder she missed out on an Oscar nomination.

Phoenix triumphs with a stirring plot around the past & present band of underdogs coming together with a mutual sense of something being wrong with the status quo. In the past, the legendary Order of the Phoenix teaming up against Voldemort. In the present, Dumbledore's Army preparing for inevitable war despite the Ministry's ban on practicing defense against the dark arts. 




Gorgeous sets (the Ministry of Magic is a highlight), great cinematography, Harry's first kiss, the Room of Requirements somehow emerging as a compassionate - silent - character, a great climatic battle, and another tragic death add the icing to the cake. One of the highlights of the series.

Also fair to mention that Evana Lynch is pretty good fun as kooky Luna Lovegood.

Oscar noms: Curiously, none. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Review

Out with Alfonso Cuaron, in with Mike Newell, in quite a departure from Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco and Mona Lisa Smile. Personally, I would have stuck with Alfonso Cuaron, but Newell does a good job, other than allowing Danielle Radcliffe to sport a highly rubbish haircut, and pulls off some impressive visuals, particularly the Quidditch World Cup, the dragon-duelling (excellent CGI) & the ominous maze of the triwizard cup final challenge.                 

Goblet of Fire is the last truly stand-alone story, as the triwizard cup takes centre stage, before the final three novels build up to the showdown between Harry and Voldemort. Harry is smartly cast as the underdog, unwillingly thrust underage into the triwizard championship, after saving Hogwarts three years in a row, so its easy to keep rooting for him (although you have to wonder what Harry finds intimidating about a inter-school challenge, even a dangerous one for seniors, after seeking out the Philosopher's Stone, the Chamber of Secrets and a werewolf's lair...).



Be it as it may, Harry gets to test his mettle & resourcefulness, while Mike Newell introduces females of the world to Robert Pattinson as generally nice, not very talkative Cedric Diggory. In between, hormones start to flair as Harry works up the courage to ask a girl to the school dance, while Ron & Hermione repress their feelings for each other, all before the great dark lord in the creepy climax. Ralph Fiennes relishes his role as dark lord Voldemort, with his hushed voice, piercing eyes & otherworldly intensity, and his brief performance puts Goblet on the map.  


Goblet is also notable for marking the point from which a major character will be killed off in each instalment, and because the band that plays at the school dance includes Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.

Brendon Gleeson & Miranda Richardson are colourful additions to the adult cast as Professor Alastor 'Madeye' Moody (the new 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' professor with - would you believe it - ambiguous intent) & tabloid reports Rita Skeeter, respectively.  


Oscar nominations: Art Direction 

The Ides of March - Trailer

Amazing poster, brilliant cast (I guess it helps being George Clooney).

I have no idea of the story beyond the trailer, and would prefer to keep it that way. At worst, this should be a solid political thriller, at best, one of the movies of the year.

A Dangerous Method - Trailer

Viggo Mortensen. David Cronenberg. Michael Fassbender.

Three very good reasons to put this on your must-see list. But if you need more, it also stars Keira Knightley & Vincent Cassell and concerns the friendship and psychological constructs of Carl Jung (Fassbender) & Sigmund Freud (Mortensen). And Jung's exploration of his methods through an affair with one of his patients (Knightley).

Cronenberg is never light watching, but he is on a career high. His last two films with Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) were powerful, violent and intensely constructed films, so tackling a period romantic psychological drama is an intriguing next move. Knightley seems on the borderline of overacting, but I doubt that Cronenberg would allow that, so it should be a good vehicle for her.

Trailer:

Alternate Poster:

Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Trailer

The year's first serious contender for Best Actor (or so we're all hoping...).

Gary Oldman has built a career playing extreme characters and unhinged psychos, so its lovely to see him play gentler, more nuanced characters of late - starting way back in 2000 with his quietly, politely evil politician, Shelly Runyon, in Rod Lurie's Joan Allen vehicle, The Contender, through his externally unhinged, internally wholesome & paternal Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series, and his fantastically endearing, good and wearied Jim Gordon in Chris Nolan's Batman reboots.

So it comes as good news to see him take on the intricate, high-stakes Cold War espionage of John Le Carre in what looks to be a smart, classy, character-driven thriller. He plays  George Smiley, veteran spy holding off retirement to engage in a lethal game of cat-and-mouse with a top level government spy. The fantastic ensemble cast includes Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch and Stephen Rea.

Another reason to get excited is that it is directed by Tomas Alfredson, of Let the Right One In fame.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Review

Alfonso Cuaron was as close as the Harry Potter franchise came to a visionary director. I can't imagine why they didn't keep him on for the rest of the movies. Cuaron swathes the film in a new, richly gothic atmosphere & finally gets more gritty performances out of the child cast. In the adult cast, Gary Oldman as the titular escaped convict Sirius Black & David Thewlis as the new Defense against the Dark Arts professor, are excellent as Harry's damaged, morally ambiguous mentors. 

Cuaron's directing, Michael Seresin's cinematography & John Williams' Danny Elfman-esque (I could probably get shot for saying that) score lend a sense of weight & momentum right from the outset. Cuaron's Dementors are thrilling creations, far superior to the ones in Order of the Phoenix. Cuaron nails his tone, & sets the scene for the finale, with an early shot of a bluebird leading the camera around early morning Hogwarts scenery before being chomped by the Whomping Willow.

Harry's breakaway flight on Buckbeak the Hippogriff is one of the series' most stirring & poetic scenes in the series; a rare happy moment for Harry & a triumph of visual effects. The sets are exceptional, even by Harry Potter standards, Hogwarts and surroundings have never looked more stylishly gloomy, the werewolves are cool & tragic, the magic bus is a blast and the nifty time travel plot is smartly executed. Prisoner of Azkaban has no detractors. Easily one of the best in the series. 

Interesting to note that Mexican born Cuaron's presence ushers in the first non-white Hogwarts students, even if they are confined to the background.

Oscar noms: Original Score (John Williams), Visual Effects.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Review

  

Kenneth Branagh is good fun as preening, phony adventure writer Gilderoy Lockhart, the new 'Defense against the Dark Arts' professor. 

Unfairly regarded as an inferior retread of Sorcerer's Stone,  Chamber of Secrets still suffers from over-acting by the youngsters & a syrupy boarding school ending, but features some great set pieces, including the flying car, the whomping willow, a forest full of giant spiders (stealing from Tolkien & upping the ante) & an intense finale in the Chamber of Secrets featuring another giant beastie (Salazar Slytherin's Basilisk) & the 'memory' of Tom Riddle, who became Lord Voldemort. It is notable that JK Rowling introduces Voldemort's first horcrux as early as the second novel, already setting us up for the final showdown.

Chamber of Secrets also carries a strong social message in the story of Dobby the (somewhat annoying) elf. Dobby is a fairly impressive feat of CGI but, no doubt, overshadowed by the same year's introduction of Gollum in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Shirley Henderson is also good, mad fun as Moaning Myrtle, the unstable ghost of the second floor girls' bathroom. 

Oscar noms: None