Oscar Futures
Keeping pace with Hollywoods perpetual awards horserace.
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Over the course of their never-endingWickedpromo campaign, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have been positioned as equals.
(Only six minutes!)
Others, we grumble that someone has too much screen time to be considered a supporting role.
The case of Rossellini can be addressed in a single sentence.
Shes being recognized less for what she does onscreen inConclaveand more for her overall place in film history.
But the others require a deeper dive.
To start, there are two numbers you gotta know 33 and 40.
This understandable bit of gamesmanship has unintended consequences.
The same goes for movies about same-sex friendships.
Why did Brad Pitt run in supporting forOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood?
Because his character worked for Leonardo DiCaprios, I was told, meaning he was literally supporting Leo.
Extra-textual matters play a role here, too.
The movie effectively becomes her story, he writes.
So why isnt she running as a lead?
In that instance, how does a campaign decide who goes where?
(Not least because hes the one played by the writer-director.)
Running Grande in supporting is not an especially controversial choice!
The pushback against such placement is why Ive stopped saying the supporting races are the lesser categories.
Grande does a fantastic job creating a three-dimensional comic character out of a sidekick part.
Calling it a supporting performance is not an insult.
If any of this bugs you, Ive got good news.
Oscars Futures: IsThe Substancefor Real?
But now Im ready to believe.
Up September 5
After a last-minute release-date shuffle, the years most elusive contender opened this Friday.
Awards-wise, however, that intellectual bent makes for slim margins.
.Current Predix
.
Somewhere out there, Adrien Brody is frantically searching for Dave Portnoys number.
Can you believe hes never been nominated for an Academy Award?
We always say that Oscar voters love a transformation, and Moores is certainlythe most dramatic in the bunch.
Callas could sing three octaves, but the film is mostly one note, saysAmy Nicholson.
Jolie isnt getting off easy, either:Michael Schulmanslams the star for giving a boring, risk-free performance.
But the lack of passion for this project could prove her Achilles heel.
Norton, too, is looking secure after earning nods from both precursors.
As Pete Seeger once sang,to everything there is a season.
A decade afterBirdman, this could be yet another turn, turn, turn for the mercurial actor.
Down Stanley Tucci,Conclave
Ave Maria!
Unless the papal thriller becomes an unstoppable freight train at the Oscars, it appears this Tooch is cooked.
(Richard Brody, whousuallyhatesOscarmoviesand thoughtParasitewasjust okay, named ithis No.
1 film of the year.)
