The Hot Blog

Firstly, Sally Hawkins is hardly a "darkhorse" considering a lot of people have been predicting her since APRIL (I've been predicting her since the day after the ceremony fwiw) and DeWitt is most definitely in contention.

As for Michelle Williams, I suspected that after the Heath Ledger story if she had something worth nominating that they would nominate her, but it seems Best Actress is just too full with too many stars and foreign prestige to allow a movie like Wendy & Lucy in.

BEST ACTRESS CHOICES SHOULD BE:

Evan Rachel WOOD, Kristen Stewart, Keira Knightley, Freida Pinto, Kate Beckinsale.

THAT WOULD OWN.

I also want to say that if that Mickey Mouse fucking dorkfest CARTOON bullshit WALL-E wins Best Picture (IT'S A FUCKING CARTOON, PEOPLE), I will seriously consider moving to Japan, where I will teach English to 21-year-old smoking hot Tokyo chicks who will be in AWE of my awesome American ass like I was Bond in You Only Live Twice.

sally hawkins may get a nom but stands zero chance of a win...it just won't happen for this one.....really, zero....

Sad that Sony Classics isn't pushing Misty Upham at all for Frozen River...she's better in it than Melissa Leo. I was amazed to find out she's an LA-based actress, rather than just some local plucked out of obscurity to "play herself"; same reaction I had to Amy Ryan last year.

If that damn kid from Australia gets nominated I will vomit.

"Wendy and Lucy" might be deemed too "small" by Oscar voters to land Michelle Williams a Best Actress nomination, but no performance this year moved me as much.

"Wendy and Lucy" is very good but it's not gonna stick with voters I don't think. Williams is super in it too, but it's all introspect and no big moments. It would be neat if she got recognized but I don't see it happening.

Plus it seems like there's always these token "small" films that get recognition and I don't see "Wendy and Lucy" outsmalling "Frozen River" in that regard.

Then again, I've been wrong before.

Why is Debra Winger there at all? She was in 4 scenes, and her character had a blank expression the entire time, except the scene where she punches her daughter. That's it. Am I missing something here?

The longshot acting nomination that I am hoping for is Gary Oldman for "The Dark Knight". I know that the Supporting Actor Oscar is Mr. Ledger's and it is well deserved...But I hope that people remember the great, understated performance that one of the all-time great scenery chewers gave in this film. It is akin to Richard Jenkins' turn in "The Visitor"...a great, decent Everyman performance. I believe that "The Dark Knight" is a lock of one of the top five Best Picture nods, and I hope that every viewer/voter will remember how good his performance particular the last bit of monologue that Commissioner Gordon gives to his son. "So we'll hunt...because he can take it...A watchful guardian...the Dark Knight..."

Oldman deserves praise for making that line just a little cringe-worth instead of totally ridiculous, hats off indeed.

My favorite never-could-ever-get-awards performances of this year would be Mena Suvari and Stephen Rea in Stuck.

At the risk of beating a dead (dark) horse, it still irks me that great comedy work so rarely gets considered for a seat at the grown-ups' table. Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder and Franco in Pineapple Express gave two of the best performances of the year, regardless of genre. After a century of cinema, you'd think that more people, especially actors, would realize that giving a great comedy performance is just as hard, and often harder, than delivering the dramatic goods.

And I agree with jeff's take on Oldman -- that monologue is pure comic book stuff, and shouldn't work AT ALL on screen. Oldman's delivery kept my eye-rolling to a minimum.

And TypePad still sucks.

'Downey, Jr. in Tropic Thunder and Franco in Pineapple Express gave two of the best performances of the year, regardless of genre. After a century of cinema, you'd think that more people, especially actors, would realize that giving a great comedy performance is just as hard, and often harder, than delivering the dramatic goods.'

hats off to you on that one, yancy, i couldn't agree more, esp. about franco (but only because rdjr is such a powerhouse that exceptional perfs seem almost run of the mill for him, he's a phenom). i gushed about franco's 'pineapple' perf a while back and no one agreed with me, so i thought maybe it was just me who thought he utterly embodied the role of 'saul' and produced a flawlessly engaging performance. i'm glad someone else saw it, too.

I agree too, for both Downey and Franco. Downey's subtle, yet consistent contempt for Stiller's character, filtered through both the blackface and the Australia-face personae, was excellent.

australia-face. you're on a roll today jeff

I'm in a good mood because Lex shut his maw for a spell.

Cate Blanchett as a dark horse!? That woman could spend an entire film in a coma, entombed in a body cast, only being seen in the background of ONE shot, for .5 seconds, from the ankle down and out of focus, and she would STILL be considered a frontrunner for best actress! Sheesh!!

Just watched Frost/Nixon. Michael Sheen was good -- but had about 3 reactions throughout: smiling smug, blinking with concern, and shock. Langella was superb, however. Truly a great performance. Why he's not even in this list of contenders is beyond me.

"I also want to say that if that Mickey Mouse fucking dorkfest CARTOON bullshit WALL-E wins Best Picture (IT'S A FUCKING CARTOON, PEOPLE), I will seriously consider moving to Japan"

1. That destination is so unintentionally humorous, in light of the topic, it almost seems intentional. And WALL-E is no more cartoonish than your personality on this blog. Probably less.

2. Between your Kristen Stewart Tourettes spasms and comments like this, I'm beginning to think that the other intelligent postings you've made in the past were probably accidental, akin to somebody repeatedly slamming their hands down on piano keys, who once in a while happens into a beautiful fragment of a song in between all of the noise.

Aris: Langella's not on the dark horse list because he's one of the frontrunners.

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