The Linking Games: Catching Blog
Monday, November 25, 2013 at 2:45PM Self Styled Siren has ten rental suggestions for your friends who are haven't yet become true movie fans - 10 classics anyone will love
The Cut Scarlett Johansson's runway looks for her 29th birthday
Vanity Fair Jason Statham on 'poncy actors' and stuntment deserving Oscars
Variety Emma Thompson is just killing it in these campaign stops for Saving Mr Banks
Awards Daily on a live performance of the score from All is Lost
The Film Doctor revisits Frances Ha and its French New Wave inspirations
MNPP The Moment I Fell For... Mark Ruffalo
In Contention I'm beginning to realize that Guy Lodge and I have very very different taste in actresses. He thinks Julia Roberts is the MVP of August: Osage County. (I will say this for her: she has the toughest role and she is really going for it.)
Gurus of Gold for this week's chart David Poland had us imagine what would happen if Oscar held a "Best Casting" prize and didn't differentiate between Adapted and Original Screenplay. FTR I love some of the other gurus choices for Casting more than my own picks but I was doing it how I thought Oscar might...
Variety Bunheads after glow... TV giant Amy Sherman Palladino joins other producers to bring Sutton Foster back to Broadway in the new musical Violet. Yes, please.
Variety finally a worthy sounding project for Oscar nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno, the biopic Castro's Daughter
All Hunger. All The Time
The Hairpin Closeted characters from The Hunger Games' Katniss Everdeen to everyone in The Great Gatsby
Monkey See and yet more thinkpieces. On gender types: Is Peeta essentially Katniss's girlfriend?
Atlantic Wire An Open Letter to Jena Malone (who does make a fabulous Johanna)
Tweet of the Week
By name you've undoubtedly heard that Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp are both in for a sequel to Eyesore in Wonderland.
It's Official: Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska love money!!!
— Pat Healy (@Pat_Healy) November 23, 2013
What else is there to say really?*
*although don't let that stop you from having doing what you do in the comments
Reader Comments (20)
Love Self Styled Siren's picks although I've never seen The Breaking Point. Now seeking it out.
At least Mia still makes interesting art house films and getting these fat paychecks. Same cannot be said of Depp at this point.
Julia really is the MVP of August.
And yes, Depp and Wasikowska probably love money (come on, who doesn't?) they're definitely under contract.
Didn't Joe Reid also single out Julia as his favorite from A:OC? Can't wait to hear the podcast for this film. Bet it will be a lively discussion!
I always knew Jena Malone would rock as Johanna Mason. She would have been my second choice, and my first choice was very unlikely. I was happy with her from the beginning, and she didn't disappoint the slightest bit!
Nathaniel, but Guy loves Nicole Kidman! Doesn't that make it up for it?
Saw the screening in L.A., and I also thought Julia Roberts was the best in show in August: Osage County.
Is it possible to have a Meryl Streep movie where she's not (gasp) the MVP? The world must be coming to and end. ;)
@Nathaniel - I hope you've seen the THR Actress Roundtable. There are annoying edits in there now with that rather self-important British reporter, and some of those edits cut out some of Emma Thompson's bits, but the presence of Emma Thompson and Oprah Winfrey, two good conversationalists stimulating the conversation, has some great bits. Needless to say, Emma Thompson is the MVP of the roundtable.
not amy adams again!
Adams must really want that Oscar. I feel though that she needs to do less of these interviews (maybe i'm speaking for me) since, while i generally like her acting, i find her off-screen persona off-putting.
Have you heard that Ryan Murphy wants Michelle Pfeiffer for the fourth season of "American Horror Story"?!?!
Tyler -- just posted about it. thanks for the reminder.
Well, since nobody else looks like they're going to say it: I just got in from August, and though Julia is trying like hell, all I could see was the pain of the effort. The only reason she wasn't my least-favorite person in the cast is because Dermot Mulroney appears to have been wheeled on and off the set without anybody bothering to wake him up from his nap.
Oooh....I just saw August. Very campy, very entertaining but I don't see it as an Oscar-worthy Best Picture. Margo and Meryl were superb...I don't know why some said Meryl was 'overacting' when the role actually called for it (if you have not seen the play, do review Deanna's performance on video clips, and you can tell she was one bundle of showboating as well). In short, Meryl was splendid. Margo, to me, was the MVP...if she doesn't get a nomination I will be dead furious. The rest of the cast were good although Dermot could have been easily replaceable by any other actor. Julia was adequate but certainly no stunner. I can imagine Cate Blanchett, Laura Linney or of course Amy Morton oozing more juice out of that role. Chris Cooper was good as well.
Julia was definitely the MVP of the film IMO. Streep chews scenery like nobody's business (and her first scene is even worse than Richard Corliss described - it is hammy and atrocious in every way imaginable), Benedict is just out of place and Juliette Lewis is incredibly uneven and inconsistent (and Mulroney is asleep) but I thought Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson and Chris Cooper really stood out.
I loved Amy Morton and was quite concerned about Julia taking the part but she definitely proved me wrong. She really is the soul of the film and I watched an interview where I think she described Barbara perfectly, she said she's someone who is pissed off and bitter and at about the lowest point a person can be....and then she sinks even lower. That's essentially who Barbara is and Julia really nailed that.
Julianne Nicholson I wish could get some Awards love because she's probably the only somewhat sympathetic character here (along with Cooper) and is so perfect and heartbreaking and really the only character that you want to see have a somewhat positive ending through all this.
Oh I didn't like Abigal Breslin in this either but her role is so minor I can excuse my issues with her.
Of course Mia and Johnny and so does all of you. BTW they are both under contract.
It's interesting to see how August viewers differ so much in their take on each ensemble player in the movie. My three friends who watched the film with me couldn't see eye to eye on many things except TWO things: Margo stood out for all of us and Dermot was awful. One said Streep was showboating, another she was outstanding, yet another she was spot-on. Three of them disliked Julia's performance..I thought it was adequate although I felt she tried too hard in a few scenes (so much so it deflected from her character). We all liked Nicholson to varying extent. As for Chris Copper, we were equally divided. What I'm saying is that it's so enriching to read the perspectives of everyone here...looking forward to more comments on August.
Dermot Mulroney was such a case of, 'It doesn't hurt to have friends in high places' kind of casting, as in he is friends with Julia, George, and John Wells.
And Cate Blanchett in an Oklahoman accent at your own peril. Curious how McGregor and Cumberbatch fared in the accent game. From little I've heard of them in clips and the word of mouth of their performances, clearly they producers could've just cast lesser known but reliable American character actors. On Broadway, the Ewan role was Jeff Perry from Scandal.
I saw this last night at a SAG screening (there was a Q&A with the cast including Meryl) and most of the talk out of it were debates about whether Meryl was over the top and hammy or amazing and this being Julia Roberts's best and most impressive work to date. A lot of the discussion was about the reviews, particularly the TIME magazine review about Julia being better than Meryl and Meryl showboating. I was talking amongst a group of about 7 and I'd say half thought Meryl was fantastic and half thought she chewed the scenery. I think this might become as divisive a performance as Doubt.
After Meryl and Julia there wasn't one person that everyone talked about, it was sort of an assorted mix of opinions on several people.
I have to say though there seems to be a slight consensus forming on how good Roberts is here - TIME, NY Post, Guy Lodge, Thelma Adams from Yahoo and the NYFCC, Daily Beast, David Poland thought she was better than Meryl - if the NY Times, La Times or Washington Post feel similarly I wonder if Harvey may think about oushing her back into Lead.
I'm seeing August: OC on Sunday and I am so itchy already, having had to miss four screening opportunities the past few weeks. Sensory overload awaits: Love the play, love most of the actors, am indifferent to the director, and don't really care for one of the two leads.