Five Easy Linkses
Monday, August 19, 2013 at 6:31PM 
Viola Davis is sad because her daughter when missing. I'm sad because Hollywood keeps underusing her!Cinema Blend on the giving-too-much-away promotion of crime thriller Prisoners. I must add that one thing they're not giving away is Viola Davis. She's barely in the trailers, despite the fact that her daughter -- not just Hugh Jackman's -- also goes missing!
The Dissolve on racial profiling at screenings of Lee Daniels' The Butler
eOnline Jennifer Lawrence & Hugh Jackman & other assorted X-Men go to see The Butler together with Hugh leading the way (also: since when is JLaw back with Nicholas Hoult? I somehow missed that)
blog buddies
Joe & Nick talking about Supporting Actor (thus far this year) with notes on the men of The Place Beyond the Pines (have you heard they're all going supporting in Oscar campaigns?) and James Franco in Spring Breaker
Joe & Nick talking about Supporting Actress (thus far this year) with lots of mutual enthusiasm for Emma Watson in Bling Ring and a nifty little cameo that I'm also jazzed about in Side Effects. Also discussed: Melonie Diaz and Alison Janney. I should note since people have asked in various comments sections that I am less enthused about Emma Watson in Bling Ring than Joe & Nick seem to be.
It's not that I don't think she's funny in it. I very much do. I think she's really good in it. It's just that, for me, she's cribbing too much from Nicole Kidman's Suzanne Stone (To Die For) for me to fully feel like it's a creation of Emma's. That and it seems a touch ACTED when seen next to the beautifully unaffected real-person quality of Israel Broussard and Katie Chang and Taissa Farmiga who are all quite good as well. But still... I'm super glad that Emma is improving so much and so quickly (see also: The Perks of Being a Wallflower) since her beloved yet ghastly acting in those Harry Potter flicks. She was going to get a ton or roles whether or not she did so more power to her for committing to her craft.
Reader Comments (11)
Brie Larson won Best Actress for Short Term 12 at Locarno Film Festival.
I don't think Emma's acting was "ghastly" in the Harry Potter flicks. Well, not all of them, anyway, though Goblet of Fire with the eyebrows was really bad. I remember thinking she was the best of the three in Prisoner of Azkaban so the GoF downturn was that much more disappointing. I really wish Cuaron had stayed for another movie or two, I think the kids' acting improved a lot when he came on board.
There have been reports of JLaw and Nicholas Hoult reuniting for the past couple of months but the linked photos are the first time they were really photographed together looking couple-ish again on their own time.
Has Jeff Wells gone insane (or insaner) by pushing Adele Exarchopoulous from Blue is the Warmest Color (showing at both TIFF and NYFF) as leading actress contender? Nathaniel, I think she might happen or at least make some noise in the critics awards.
re: Pines. Hated it. And the more I think about it and know who some of the screenwriters are and that they made my hometown their canvas, I get a little angrier. I was fine with Mendelsohn and Cooper and found the cinematography very good but I am surprised so many people love it. That third act.....
Honestly, I thought Emma Watson got better as the Harry Potter movies went on and Daniel Radcliffe got worse. Him admitting that he was facing some level of alcoholism during The Half-Blood Prince shooting makes sense now given there was something more than a little off. But then I just think he was stuck in the script.
Glad I have not seen a trailer for Prisoners. You'd think when you take on a movie by the director of Incendies, you'd realize that there may be a twist that is best kept hidden.
I agree that Emma Watson felt more acted in Bling Ring, but I think that's why I liked her in it so much. It brought a really neat sense of performativity to her character, who is after all the most tricky of the group.
I am rooting for Emma Watson. There is a generational shift happening with some new young stars that have some real potential and dimension (Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer Lawrence, Kerry Washington -- in my dreams, not that young but please more work for her, Rosamund Pike, etc.). Poor Amy Adams has no generation. Anne Hathaway is mad at me but she is best served in Liza minimalism. I liked Emma in Bling Ring. But an Oscar nomination for that movie would mean one of the weakest years for women ever, and she would probably tell you this.
Emma Watson's performance reminds me of the Oscar-nominated performance of Quvenzhané Wallis. Both are not bad but not to the point. Both seem well cut together. If you have so many scenes / takes, it should be easy to carry a few moments above average in an entire performance. As Nate has already written, the entire ensemble was good. Emma Watson does not stand out. But I like that she's working on it. In the future, I hope that Emma approaches to play her roles so that no one does notice that she's acting.
I'm all for Emma getting nomiated just for the way she nailed that courthouse speech: "I want to lead a country one day..."
Given I've watched Pretty Wild (hush! Research!) before I have seen The Bling Ring (because my art-house theater lied to me) and I find it hard to believe one can really portray Alexis Neiers, at least in the context of that stage of her life, without being a little cartoon-y.
I'm hoping that Viola Davis' scenes in Prisoners weren't easy to cut up for a trailer. Maybe I'm putting too much on Hugh Jackman, but his reputation for fairness and respect for other actors makes me think he might ensure that Viola had at least one powerhouse scene. They must know each other from back when they did Kate and Leopold (Viola played the cop who made Hugh pick up his dog's poop). I'm also discouraged when Davis only gets supporting roles.
You had to squint to see the potential progression of Emma Watson's abilities in the HP movies. As the books got longer, the movies became more all-Harry, all-the-time, and the supporting characters were less and less vivid. Not to mention in the middle of this came the horrible Half Blood Prince film, where the budding teenagers were reduced to Disney Channel hormonal stereotypes.
But I could see it in Hallows Part 1. She carries that movie from the time they leave the Burrow on. I loved The Bling Ring, and she was MVP for me. I can't wait to see her continue to stretch.
Nat you're assuming that Emma has watched To Die For , she must have been a toddler when that film came out ;-)