OSCAR
SYMPOSIUM
with
your host Nathaniel
R and very special guests
February 2007
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day two
JEREMY: Enough about Best Actress -- does anybody else feel that this year the usual balance has shifted and it's the Best Actor category that's a weak field? I thought DiCaprio was better in The Departed than in Blood Diamond, and I didn't think he was Oscar-worthy in The Departed. And Peter O'Toole, God love him, is perfectly good in Venus, but this nomination is based on nothing but nostalgia. Whitaker is certainly deserving of the nomination, and I haven't brought myself to see The Pursuit of Happyness, so I can't comment on Smith, but it's definitely Gosling whom I'd like to see win. He's so good in Half Nelson that I didn't notice how cheesy parts of the movie were until days later.
And, to close by tossing out a live grenade, I think Duvall is great, but I'm not sure I agree with Ed about him being the best living actor. But who is? Any nominations?
SASHA: As far as Best Actor goes, it seems if one category is especially strong (actress) it dooms another category, like actor. Forest Whitaker is cleaning up because, basically, he has no competition. Venus is creepy. I turned it off after ten minutes. The other problem is that many of the ads show O'Toole's aging face propped up by plastic surgery, maybe botox? That is not how you win Oscars. They prefer you to be vanity free, like Peter Fonda, or Jessica Tandy. Note to actors: if you try to preserve it, you'll lose your shot at the big prize. Watch O'Toole will win the Oscar. Ryan Gosling was exceptional in Half Nelson. A nomination is good for him in his career right now. A win would be bad. He doesn't need to win for this. Forest Whitaker, on the other hand, deserves to win. I was a bit disappointed that James McAvoy was shut out of all awards. I never understood why. I thought he was so good he upstaged Whitaker in Last King.
I'm also disappointed that the wrong people got recognized in both Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed. I wanted Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette to get nominations. Abigail Breslin is just okay, Alan Arkin phoned it in. Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio are both so good - I'd love to have seen them nominated as well.
Punch? Didn't somebody say punch?
NATHANIEL: Agreed on the nominations going to the wrong places but ain't that always the case. And while we're speaking of The Departed. Let's take this in another direction now.
Here's a little something to chew on or mull over: The proposed sequel to The Departed is getting a lot of ink right now. Regardless of whether or not that particular lightning could or should strike twice, which film in the Oscar race (in any Oscar race) do you feel could actually use one? A sequel. Even if it's just to work through unfinished business or fine tune itself into something more worthy of the praise already garnered.
ED: Sasha, your comments about Peter O'Toole are troublesome. Here is a film that dispels myths about old age and sex, acknowledging that old men desire a good lay now and again and how some of them make no pretenses about hiding it. How is this frankness at all "creepy"? Granted you've only seen 10 minutes of the film, in which case its possible to understand why you might think the picture is actually about a May-December romance, but I sense of hint of ageism in your disgust for the movie.
I'm also not sure why it should matter if O'Toole has had his face lifted (he has?), but it's interesting (maybe even ironic) that you bring this up because Venus is actually about our modern culture's twisted notions of beauty. (One of the sweetest scenes of 2006 was Venus's scene inside the museum, which acknowledges that we are all very special works of art.) I'm not in the habit of obsessing over what celebrities wear and look like (that's the job of gossip rags), but am I really supposed to think that actors are losing Academy Awards because they are shooting themselves up with Botox?
SASHA: Ed, it's simply an observation I've made over the years. I am the mother of an eight year old girl. It has changed the way I look at most things, but movies especially. Although I don't think I'm the only one who was creeped out by the movie, I will cop to the notion that my feelings are tired up with my feelings of being a mom. When I see troubled young women on film I immediately think of my daughter. It makes my palms sweat. I realize this is every film geek's worst nightmare, and I realize it makes me tragically unhip, but there it is. There are things I can elevate my thinking on and other things I react in a primal way to. I have intended on watching the rest of Venus but it was a tough go the first two times I tried to watch it. I'm sure it has resonance for many men and perhaps a few women. I love O'Toole, though, I have to say. But I loved his work in The Stunt Man and My Favorite Year best of all. I think when older actors try to preserve their youth it robs them of their experience, their wisdom and ultimately, their power. But as far as the Academy is concerned, I do believe that there is an authenticity in the aging star's face that they respond to. But the aging star's face that's not allowed to age because of vanity or pressure to work is, well, somewhat depressing. I can't say for sure he's had work done but it looks like it to me.
All the same, I will still try to watch Venus again, if nothing else, to see the gallery scene. I sense I am the weird girl at the party everyone suddenly realized didn't drink, didn't smoke, worshipped Jesus Christ, was still a virgin and had a really loud and distasteful laugh. I try to fit in but alas -- I belong at an Eagles concert.
NICK: I did sit through all of Venus, and I certainly found it to be an unsatisfying and uncomfortable experience. At its best moments (often wordless ones), the film captures some emotional facets of old age that movies rarely come near - the sense of feeling gratuitous, the abrasive but comforting friendships, the competing impulses to reject and embrace the stereotypes of the lech, the sage, the penitent, the buffoon. But the movie has its own trouble navigating those stereotypes, and since Michell has directed his three main actors in totally different directions -- a self-conscious swan-song for O'Toole, a daffy sidekick part for Leslie Phillips, and a crude, unimaginative handling of the inexperienced Jodie Whittaker -- I didn't think the movie had the agility or conviction to bring off its most potentially interesting scenes. It seemed much more comfortable whipping up empty nostalgia like the impromptu waltz between O'Toole and Phillips, then slamming that up against one of O'Toole's clammy come-ons to Whittaker, and hoping that its ambitions could ride out its crudities. Sometimes they do, but a good deal of the material about the muffled despondency and the sexual urges of the aged was handled more memorably when Michell and Kureishi joined forces on The Mother... partly because the actor cast as the young object of lust and adoration (Daniel Craig) could hold his own in a way Whittaker can't, and possibly because Anne Reid went to places that Venus barely asks O'Toole to go. Not a bad performance, but easy to over-credit, I think.
As for Nathaniel's sequel question:
I think Terrence Malick should complete the Iwo Jima trilogy by restaging the battle one more time and contemplating its implications from the point of view of the sand, and maybe the hill, if there's time. Or maybe Steven Soderbergh would like a stab at The Better German, since he's left himself such ample room for improvement. No, I kid.
