Crushable » oscars

The Academy Is Foolish For Not Letting Jason Segel Perform His Muppets Song At The Oscars

Natalie Zutter — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:40:04 +0000

Not only is it a crock that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences nominated only two songs for Best Song, but now Deadline reports that we won’t even get to see the songs performed at this year’s Oscars! The blame seems to have landed on the awards show’s time constraints; each year it’s a battle to keep it to a neat and hopefully entertaining three hours, and despite protests from Fox and Disney, the songs got cut.

Honestly, I don’t care either way if we see “Real in Rio” from Rio—the real crime is taking away “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets. It was written by Flight of the Conchords‘ Bret McKenzie and performed wonderfully by writer-star Jason Segel (not to mention the cameo from The Big Bang Theory‘s Jim Parsons). If we could get Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore onstage last year to sing their Tangled song, then we shouldn’t miss out on these relevant, genuinely beloved actors.

It’s no secret that Jason’s musical numbers are instant viral content, from his schadenfreude anthem “You Just Got Slapped” on How I Met Your Mother to the impromptu Les Miserables duet he and Neil Patrick Harris launched into on a talk show years ago. If the Academy wanted the Oscars fever to last beyond February 26, they should have included Jason, Jim, and those damn adorable puppets.

The Academy is trying to do damage control by saying that the show isn’t set in stone yet. “Someone ‘leaking’ this possibility to you is just another way for people to try and influence the creative direction of the show,” an insider wrote to Deadline. We only hope they’ll change their minds and book Jason before he finds something better to do.

[via]

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The 150 Oscar Nominees Took A Group Photo And No One Blinked

Jenni Maier — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:37:39 +0000

Yesterday was the annual Oscars Luncheon; an opportunity to eat wonderful food while sizing up your competition in a professional and jovial environment. While we were not invited this year we can only imagine it’s full of polite conversation, golf claps and a few over inflated egos. While I didn’t spot that attention whoring dog from The Artist in any of the photos, I can only imagine he was there demanding all kinds of organic low-fat dog food flown in from the French countryside.

At some point during the festivities, they all gathered together for a group photo. Or as I would call it, the power Facebook upload. Throw that thing causally on your wall and you’re basically guaranteed a few likes. However, just because they’re multi-millionaire Oscar nominees doesn’t mean they’ve figured out how to take a group photo. Sure no one blinked, but it looks like a classic case of “what camera should I be smiling at now?” Some people are looking to the left, others are looking to the right and others are looking straight ahead. Celebrities have difficulty taking group photos. They ARE just like us!

Click here to see the larger version and play a fun game of “where in the photo are the actual celebs?”

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Almost Everyone Stuck To Neutrals For The 2012 Oscars Luncheon

Natalie Zutter — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:18:57 +0000

Today was the 2012 Oscars luncheon: The nominees congregate at the Beverly Hilton to talk shop, catch up — did you know that George Clooney and Brad Pitt hadn’t seen each other in a year? – and bask in the adoration of the Academy. Yet despite the bright decorations you can see in the twitpic above, this year’s guests opted for mostly neutrals: Blacks, whites, grays. Even the colorful dresses were muted… with one striking exception in Viola Davis. We run through the stars’ conservative lunch wear, set to live tweets from the Academy’s official Twitter page.

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Hilarious: ‘If Movie Posters Told The Truth,’ Oscars Edition

Natalie Zutter — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 22:26:55 +0000

Every awards season, this joke never fails: Photoshopped versions of nominated movie posters, if they were actually honest about the intentions behind making each movie. From Leonardo DiCaprio trolling for an Oscar to why David Fincher really remade Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to summarizing our love for The Help, these are your best bet — better than watching the actual movies — come Oscar night when you want to put your bets in on the Best Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture winners.

Thank you! This completely sums up my reactions to Terrence Malick‘s wildly-anticipated The Tree of Life. There were just way too many things going on. If they’d stuck to the plotline where Brad Pitt is a quiet, scarily abusive father in Texas, I think more people would’ve related to it.

Aww, poor Leo, but so true. First he’s on of the only Inception folks not to get invited to participate in The Dark Knight Rises, and now he doesn’t even get a nomination.

Snicker.

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An Illustrated Guide To The Oscar Nominations

Liana Maeby — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:40:14 +0000

Oscar madness is officially underway! The nominations came out yesterday, and this next month will be a flurry of predictions, bets, praise, and disses. As already discussed, we’re thrilled that Jonah Hill scored a nomination but sad Ezra Miller did not. But our opinions don’t stop there! Here are some more thoughts on this years crop of noms, plus illustrations. Can someone get me a statue for these?

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10 Actors Who Have Never Been Nominated For An Oscar (But Really Should Have)

Amanda Chatel — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:56:37 +0000

Finally after being in the industry since the late 1970′s, Gary Oldman got the Oscar nomination that he should have received easily more than a few times so far in his career. When the Academy Award nominees were announced yesterday, Oldman found himself in the Best Actor category for his role in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But why did it take so long for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to acknowledge this phenomenal actor?

In 1986 he gave an outstanding performance as Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy and although he won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer and the ALFS Award for Actor of the year, there was still no Oscar nomination. Later on his roles in such films as The Professional and The Contender still came and went without even a flirtation with the idea that he was possibly in the running for a nomination.

But as we’ve learned from the past, the Academy and its choices aren’t always clear to the rest of us. How many times was Marty Scorsese nominated for iconic films before he finally won for Best Director for The Departed in 2006? Was Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves really that much better than Scorsese’s Goodfellas when the two were pitted against each other in 1990? The wolf dies in the end, people! Sure Joe Pesci’s Tommy DeVito gets whacked too, but at least he had it coming. The wolf’s death is just unnecessary and scarring. I fear the members of the Academy may be dipping too much into the champagne that I hear flows down the streets of Hollywood — or something — and it must be stopped!

Here are 10 other actors who have been overlooked for some of the greatest performances we’ve seen in the past few decades. Perhaps if the rest of the world was as hopped up on these imaginary streets of champagne, we’d be able to understand how some of these actors have been ignored for far too long.

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Is The Only Best Picture Nominee To Fail Rotten Tomatoes’ Rating System

Molly Horan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:14:08 +0000

Consulting Rotten Tomatoes is how many of us decide which movies are worth our $13. Maybe you can gamble on a 55% film if you love the star, and despite 87% awarded to a thriller you might know you’ll enjoy the Katherine Heigl rom-com more, but you can get a sense of the artistic value of a film by the Tomatometer. After all, it’s collecting the opinions of famous critics like Roger Ebert and Peter Travers, getting the take on films from journalists working for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

All these reviewers have something in common besides the esteem they’re held in: They all gave Best Picture nominee Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a thumbs down, contributing to its rotten rating. It’s the only movie out of the other eight nominees to receive a rotten status on the site.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was awarded a 48%, or in other terms, a failing grade. The lowest rating among the other nominees is The Help’s 76%, with the other seven rated in the high 70s, 80s, and 90s. So how did Extremely Loud sneak into a pack of such well-rated films?

Some phrases kept popping up in reviews for Extremely Loud like “Oscar baiting,” “Oscar-mongering,” and “Oscar trolling.” For better or worse, this film seemed to set out with Oscar statues in its eyes and it planned accordingly. Two Academy Award-winning actors (Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock) as leads: Check. An overly precocious kid: Check. A overwhelming tragedy that can be used for unlimited metaphoric purposes: Check.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’s Best Picture nomination proves there is an Academy Award formula, and following it to the letter is sure to snag you at least a nomination, no matter what the sum of those parts are.

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How Come War Horse Got Nominated For Best Picture But Beginners Didn’t?

Amanda Chatel — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:17:40 +0000

As we’ve all been reading all over the internet, the Academy Award nominations were announced this morning at the crack of dawn in L.A. And as usual, there were gasps of joy and mutters of “What the fuck?” not just from the Gershwin Theater but from fans and the media alike.

Not only does the Best Lead Actor category not include Michael Fassbender, who played his role of an emotionally wounded sex addict perfectly in Shame, but the Academy also failed to recognize one of the best films of the year, Beginners.

Written and directed by Mike Mills, the film is based on his real-life experience with his father, (played impeccably by Christopher Plummer and who received a nomination for the role), and his coming out at the age of 75. The character, Oliver, who is portrayed by the always near-perfect Ewan McGregor, is forced to not only deal with his mother’s recent death and his father’s coming out, but the fact that his father, Hal, although in denial about it, has terminal cancer.

Beginners is interconnected by a series of flashbacks where Oliver is trying to remember moments as they actually were, as opposed to how his memory has filed them away. It’s a poignant example of how when our lives are truly in emotional turmoil our brain shuts off as a coping mechanism and it chooses to conjure up the past on a level with which is easier to deal.

After Hal’s death, Oliver becomes the owner of Hal’s dog, Arthur, who like Oliver is equally heartbroken and confused by the events that have occurred. Because of this pain on the part of Arthur, he can’t be left alone without crying and yelping. In turn, this leads to one of the most endearing aspects of the film – Oliver having to take Arthur with him everywhere.

A few months after the loss of his father and with Arthur in tow, Oliver meets Anna, a beautiful French actress played by the beautiful French actress, Mélanie Laurent, at a costume party. Their relationship evolves quite quickly and it’s almost too-real to witness just how much of yourself you can see in these characters who grapple at the strings of potential love all while dealing with their own emotional baggage.

Beginners is not a happy movie; and its ending, just like with love in real life, does not offer something definitive. In other words, there is no sunset in which Oliver and Anna ride off into as the credits begin to roll. Instead, it’s a film about love in all its forms. It’s about love for family, friends and if you’re willing to risk it and put yourself out there, love for another person who, like you, is willing to risk something in the hopes of getting that often elusive ending — that which being ‘forever.’

The poster for Beginners includes the tagline “This is what love feels like,” and it honestly summarizes the film perfectly in just those few words. Love hurts like hell sometimes, but when it comes down to it, you don’t want it any other way. If you’ve never known the anguish that comes with loving someone more than you love yourself, then you can’t fully appreciate when that agony passes and the elation begins.

Why the Academy didn’t understand all that and give Beginners a nomination is mind boggling.

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Ezra Miller Deserved An Oscar Nomination Just As Much As Rooney Mara And Glenn Close

Natalie Zutter — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:37:40 +0000

With the Oscar nominations announced this morning, the Lead Actor and Actress categories seem to have stirred up the most surprises, both delightful and frustrating. We’re psyched to see that deserving folks like Melissa McCarthy and Jonah Hill have been recognized, but for me, there was a glaring omission: Ezra Miller, who embodied the creepy calculation of teen killer Kevin Khatchadourian in We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Judging from the nominees, this year the Academy was swayed by truly transformative performances. Who can blame them? It’s astonishing to see Glenn Close play a woman trapped for decades in her lifelong disguise of a beloved male servant. Part of what made Melissa McCarthy’s performance in Bridesmaids a “breakout” after fifteen years in the biz was that the very feminine actress played up her character’s uncouth and butch mannerisms for humor.

And of course, since Rooney Mara was cast in David Fincher‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, we’ve learned every detail of the sweet young actress’ transformation into Lisbeth Salander: Chopping off her hair, bleaching her eyebrows, piercing her nipple, auditioning hungover, learning to drive a motorcycle, etc. etc.

Ezra’s transformation was much subtler: He didn’t add tattoos or piercings to play the psychopath teenager who deceives his father (John C. Reilly) and tortures his mother (Tilda Swinton). The most distinguishable “costume” he has is Kevin’s penchant for wearing T-shirts and jeans three sizes too small. But Ezra is Kevin incarnate; he’s internalized and put back out every mocking compliment, every shudder of revulsion at his parents’ obliviousness and his peers’ foolish passions.

The destruction and bodily harm he wreaks on his family is all the more chilling for how calculated he is; as they struggle to keep accepting and encouraging him, he catalogs the people and objects they hold most dear and then rips them away. Take, for instance, this scene after his little sister suffers a trauma that leads to doctors removing her eye, and his mother is certain that he did it:

And it’s sorta NSFW, but I have to point to the very disturbing masturbation scene from the movie:

Even more evidence in his favor is that the real Ezra is charming and quirky, bereft of the cruel smirks that warp Kevin’s face. And yet, like any of the actors nominated for their performances this year, he won’t soon forget the character he embodied for the years it took to make this movie. “To my horror, I do feel a little connected to Kevin,” he confesses. “Always did. Always will.”

With the exception of Viola Davis‘ role in The Help, the Best Lead Actress nominations highlighted performances where the actress was almost unrecognizable: The ladies I mentioned above, as well as Meryl Streep in her latest complicated costume (and fake teeth). By contrast, the Best Lead Actor nominees are a lot more recognizable; you think to yourself, “Now this is Christopher Plummer playing a sweet and awakened old man.”

Jonah Hill is the only young’un in the bunch; so both age and type of performance could have made a win wholly unattainable for Ezra. But we would have at least liked for him to have the chance.

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The Oscars 2012 Nominations Are Out!

Natalie Zutter — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:10:25 +0000

The crew of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close must have been camped out at the Gershwin Theater in LA at 5:30 a.m. this morning, because when Jennifer Lawrence announced that that movie had surprisingly picked up a couple of big Oscars nominations, there were muted shrieks from the theater.

Otherwise, the nominees were picked from the films you’d expect: The Help, The Descendants, The Artist. (A lot of “thes” this year, right?) We’re psyched to see Rooney Mara join the usual suspects in Leading Actress, and for Bridesmaids to pick up at least a few nods. (But not Best Picture? Boo, Academy.)

Here’s the list of nominations:

Best Supporting Actress
Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Nick Nolte, Warrior
Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Best Lead Actress
Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis, The Help
Rooney Mara, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn

Best Lead Actor
Demián Bichir, A Better Life
George Clooney, The Descendants
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Directing
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Original Screenplay
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Foreign Film
Bullhead (Belgium)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
A Separation (Iran)

Best Animated Feature Film
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Best Picture
War Horse
The Artist
Moneyball
The Descendants
The Tree of Life
Midnight in Paris
The Help
Hugo
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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