Gotham Tributes: Charlize & Gary Aiming For Oscar

Another day, another "tribute" announcement as legions of luminaries ready themselves at the starting line waiting for that Oscar gun to sound. We've talked about this twice before (focusing on Streep & Spielberg) but "tributes" and "lifetime achievements" are as common during Oscar season as superheroes are during the summer. Even moreso! The Gotham Awards, which happen here in NYC in November, will be honoring four recipients: Director David Cronenberg, Actor Gary Oldman, CEO Tom Rothman and Actress Charlize Theron. 

Obviously Gary (never nominated) and Charlize (2 nominations, 1 win) are aiming for Lead Acting nominations for the spy thriller Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the comedy Young Adult respectively. Rothman, announced previously, is an industry power and you have to bow down to those men/women once in awhile. Meanwhile Cronenberg has A Dangerous Method to push. Though awards traction will be hard to come by for such a subtle and talky film, it's still worth campaigning for because here's the thing: If you're still fighting for your first nomination (insanity given that filmography!) you've got to lay plentiful groundwork and build momentum so that eventually they (awards groups) catch up. I don't mean to be morbid as I hope this is a long time away but can the 68 year old Cronenberg at least get an Honorary Oscar before he dies? I mean... The Fly, Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, etcetera...

The Gotham Awards, which celebrated their 20th anniversary last season, have definitely been picking up steam as a valuable Oscar stop, regularly giving boosts to smaller films like Winter's Bone, The Hurt Locker and Frozen River.

The "career tribute" portion of their ceremony has included at least one future Oscar nominee every year since 2004. With so little information (i.e. clips or photos) on Charlize's work in Young Adult, we have to assume that Gary Oldman is in the best position currently to continue that trend. But it would be awfully sweet to see Charlize Theron work a role worthy of her gifts again... and work it all the way to the shortlist.  She's one Oscar winner whose career, filmography, and popularity have never properly reflected her talent. I mean she even made the most of that way too standard role in North Country for which she received one of those disposable "after glow" nominations. 

For now, we have to just enjoy Charlize in her glamour spokesmodel roles and hope she finds a signature screen role while she's still in the age range in which that happens. Yes, yes, I hear your screams of "Monster (2003)!" But however strong that work was... it doesn't properly reflect Charliziciousness (Charlizionomy?) now does it. THIS does...

COMMENT ASSIGNMENT: (What? I'm bossy!)
If you were paying tribute to Cronenberg, Charlize, and Oldman and could only thank them for one thing, what would it be? Get as specific as such tributes should be!

Yes, No, Maybe So: "...Dragon Tattoo"

I've waffled on whether or not to give the trailer to David Fincher's adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo the yes, no, maybe so treatment. The teaser was an explosive example of what film advertising can be when it escapes its rigid little box. That rush of images and punk spirit promising the 'Feel. Bad. Movie. Of. Christmas.' just Felt.Good. in an A+ way. But did you ever see it in a theater? I did a couple of times and felt nothing from the audience (you know how you can sometimes absorb the collective excitement levels when a teaser/trailer is playing or at least the second it ends?) so maybe Moviegoers and Hollywood need the rigid little box of 2 and ½ minute plot and character intros as security blanket and insurance policy respectively. 

So now they give us the normal kind of trailer introducing us to the plot and characters that 75 million are intimately familiar with already. Meet anti-social, abused, violent, brilliant Lisbeth Salander, now played by Rooney Mara with sick earrings, mad multiple hairstylings and a wondrous lack of comforting eyebrows.

the breakdown plus the new trailer after the jump.

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Never Compromise, The Iron Linky

Feast your eyes on the first poster for The Iron Lady... [via]

I admire the concept of this poster but I think more of her face should have been showing for aesthetic reasons before it began to bled into the Parliament.  As it is it's weirdly torn up.  But perhaps you'll feel differently. You'll tell me, won't you?

Links
Antagony & Ecstasy Nick started a real trend with those 'year so far' awards
My New Plaid Pants "Thursdays Ways Not To Die" takes on Disney's Finding Nemo and you can't argue with that pie chart.
Mr Hipp Strikes! Remember when I said that Drive is one of those movies that will eventually inspire cult devotion. It's already obviously begun.
GQ Natasha VC (whose tumblr i just lurve) on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (one of my favs). Though... apparently she's pissing off some cinephiles with this.

TV Break
Gold Derby Remember how weird it was when Mad Men lost everything but Best Drama at the Emmys on Sunday. Turns out it's not so weird. 
The Critical Condition loves the new drama Revenge which features the return of the wonderful Madeleine Stowe. So do I and I only watched it to see Stowe again. Interesting that he brings up Ringer in his review because the whole time I was thinking: how come Sarah Michelle Gellar couldn't get a decent expensive show like this to headline? Ringer is just a mess and she's a much bigger star than Emily VanCamp. 

Finally...
You can head on over to Towleroad to read my interview with writer/director Andrew Haigh. His debut (scripted) feature Weekend, is a real wow, beautifully observed, well acted, consistently engaging and expressively shot... all the things that no-budget gay cinema usually lacks. There's more to this interview since our conversation spilled over past our alloted time so I might share a few more nuggets later on if I see cause. I'm hoping the film does well on the coasts and prompts further expansion. It's very good.  

"Say, you need a ride?"

Listen you outta ditch the two geeks you're in the car with now and get in with us but that's all right, we'll worry about that later. I will see you there."

Distant Relatives: Persona and Mulholland Drive

Robert here with the first entry in Season 2 of Distant Relatives, the series that explores the connections between one classic and one contemporary film. This week we feature a request by Nathaniel himself. Feel free to make your own requests in the comments.

Two movies about two women

When Mulholland Drive was released to perplexed but ecstatic reviews in 2001, and then again when it was being declared the best film of the decade in many places nine years later, there were few mentions of a film that seems to be an obvious influence: Ingmar Bergman's Persona. Perhaps that's because the actual influence is as indefinable as the two films themselves. The Wikipedia entry on Persona shares a few non-specific sentences about its influence on Mulholland Drive paired with a note demanding a source for this information. So how do we know these films are related? Well they certainly seem like they should be. Both are about two women living together under unusual circumstances, one sick, the other a caregiver. In both cases, at least one of the women is an actress. Both films show a general degredation of these women's relationships. So why weren't more people blathering about the obvious intersection of these two movies? My guess is because both Persona and Mulholland Drive only really inspire one question: What on earth is going on? Interpreting, explaining, "decoding" if you will, these films is the understandable immediate concern of anyone whose just been exposed to these two terrific cinematic puzzles. Yet that does them a sort-of disservice. These films are more than puzzles. You could spend a lifetime trying to figure out what they're all about and completely miss what they're all about. That said, we won't spend much more energy here trying to find answers about these films. We haven't the time, the space, or the likelihood of agreement enough to keep it from being anything but a distraction.

Bergman's Persona begins with actress Elizabeth Vogler (Liv Ullmann) experiencing a sudden fit of despair and going voluntarily mute. In the hospital, she's paired with nurse Alma (Bibi Andersson) and the two are sent off to a seaside cottage where they develop an ambiguously intimate relationship and the silent, passive judgement of Elizabeth begins to turn Alma into an aggressor. Eventually the film begins to flip on it's head, revealing its own artificiality, and it becomes impossible to know who is who, and what role they're playing. Mulholland Drive opens with aspiring actress Betty's discovery of accident victim amnesiac Rita hiding out in her apartment. Soon, between line readings and Betty's audtions, the two lady sleuths are investigating Rita's life and identity and eventually becoming lovers (or have they always been?). Eventually the film begins to flip on it's head, revealing it's own artificiality, and it becomes impossible to know who is who, and what role they're playing.

Unusual universal themes

Death. Sex. Love. Ambition. Lynch and Bergman love all the standard universal themes. But they add two more strange, dark and upleaseant universal themes to the list.... Click for full post.

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