The Oscar Week: Greta, Jake, and Timothée
Friday, December 1, 2017 at 12:37PM Murtada is back with his weekly Oscars feature for a new season, following Oscar contenders and examining how their many interviews and appearances impact their chances.
Gerwig at the Gotham Awards
Are you ready for another season of Oscar campaign shenanigans? Frankly I wasn’t. In the year in which Hollywood revealed its ugly hidden true self of rampant sexual harassment, maybe they shouldn’t spend so much time patting themselves on the back. Cancel the Oscars, I cried to one in particular.
But then Greta Gerwig took me out of my dark despair...
There is a way to celebrate the art form we love, have fun with awards while still acknowledging the awful reality of the industry that makes this art. In an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, Gerwig acknowledged the issue and thoughtfully discussed how hard it is to talk about, turned the tables gently and kindly on her interviewer and steered the conversation back to her fantastic film, Lady Bird:
I understand that this is something that we need to talk about, but I also have directed my first film that I wrote on my own, and I want to talk about that.
Jake Gyllenhaal is having a very busy season. In addition to promoting his performance, he is also promoting his friend Carey Mulligan's work. He was seen hosting a screening of Mudbound in New York this week. Stronger is a film he clearly believes in, but will he be rewarded with the second nomination that has long eluded him? To this Oscar watcher’s eye there is an opening after the presumed nominees Timothee Chalamet, Gary Oldman and Tom Hanks. However there are 3 men vying for 2 spots. Gyllenhaal, James Franco (The Disaster Artist) and Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out).
Franco has the comeback narrative, Kaluuya the best picture heat. What Gyllenhaal has is the real life person he’s playing appearing alongside him almost everywhere. So it’s smart for him to link his performance to the man he plays, Jeff Bauman. He told Variety this week:
I was struggling with doubt the whole time. There was no way I could live up to his story or the person that he is. Finally I realized Jeff himself was filled with doubt. He felt he wasn’t up to [the expectations of others and of himself]. And I think that realization was a bit of a fuel for the performance.
Nathaniel thinks he makes the shortlist. So does Chalamet, who’s as smitten with the cast of Mudbound as Gyllenhaal is. Chalamet started his Gotham award speech with a tribute to his fellow nominee Mary J Blige.
It's a charming speech and coupled with his strong and lauded performance, we might have found our challenger for the Best Actor trophy. What do you think about best actor? And does Lady Bird make it all the way?
Reader Comments (16)
No, no, don't cancel them. It's not fair to punish all the hundreds of actors and crew who worked on these films.
I've heard some of Gerwig's other interviews where she's been thoughtful and funny so I'm looking forward to catching up with NPR's.
Lady Bird is wildly popular here in the Boston area. Call Me By Your Name hasn't opened yet, but looking forward to it.
It WAS a great interview until Terry Gross squandered the opportunity to talk to a young FEMALE screenwriter/director and celebrate HER new terrific film. She lost my respect by asking a ridiculous question about the supposed sexual harrassment allegations of an actor in her boyfriend's new movie (i.e. Dustin Hoffman in Noah Baumbach's Meyerwitz Stories). Ugh.
Gross also ruined another almost good interview with Jonathan Groff. She kept harping on his sexuality. For fuck sake, Terry. Why not just ask him why he's so good is in Mindhunter and leave his personal business alone?
I'd say:
Lock: Chalamet.
Probable: Oldman, Hanks, Franco, Kaaluya.
Potential Upsets: Day-Lewis, Gyllenhaal (Those who saw it liked it, but basically no one saw Stronger) Washington.
We're not talking about Pattinson as a nominee? That's too bad.
Chalamet
Day-Lewis
Franco
Oldman
Hanks (maybe Kaaluya, maybe Gyllenhaal)
@Volvagia - Stronger had the weirdest distribution. I don't know if it played Chicago proper at all, or if it did was for a hot second. It only played the suburbs for some reason.
Right now I have Chalamet/Day-Lewis/Franco/Kaluuya/Oldman as the best actor nominees. AMPAS has a habit of forgetting Gyllenhaal/Hanks at the last minute.
I know it's not much but Golden Satellites nominated Renner,no Hanks or Streep.
Nathaniel will have a grudge for a potential Gyllenhaal snub this season as happened with Kidman in 2012 LMFAO!!
Pam - I agree with you about that Terry Gross interview. Her questions were weirdly infuriating. She had Baumbach on earlier this fall and didn't ask him one question about dating Greta Gerwig!
Haven's seen CMBYN yet, but I'm sure Chalamet is definitely in.
I hope LadyBird goes all the way and win.
Not sure if Kaluuya will get in, it's either him or Franco not both.
Ugh. I hated James Franco in The Disaster Artist and I hated the film. So affected. I know that the real Tommy Wiseau was a pretentious jerk, but that doesn't mean I want to spend an hour and 43 minutes of my life watching a movie about him. Just awful.
Timothée Chalamet gives the best performance I've seen on screen in years, and I was a film critic for 18 years and screened over 5,000 films. Chalamet all the way.
I hope the success of Greta Gerwig's directorial debut will not distract her from acting in movies. She's always a bight presence in all films she's in. I was rooting for her in To Rome With Love but maybe her would-be reward in the film's context is no great reward anyway, but still...
And how cool is it to have a Claes Bang in the Best Actor lineup?
Chalamet, Franco, Kaluuya and Gyllenhaal is a very young bunch. I feel like there's gotta be a mystery contender waiting in the SAG wings ala Damien Bachir. And no matter how great Hanks is, can we ever really be confident. I mean, CAPTAIN PHILIPS alone, and then there's BRIDGE OF SPIES. Hmmm.
Greta Gerwig was made in a lab mark my words...or shes a cyborg or a highlander or something shes too good :/