Red Carpet Lineup: Lead Actresses & The Aussie Invasion

It's the final poll of the 87th Oscars and our last red carpet lineup for awhile *sniffle*. In addition to those things this is your daily reminder that Julianne Moore won an Oscar. Because it needs to be repeated often as healing balm for our beleaguered actressexuality.

Who was best dressed on Oscar night? 

poll by twiigs.com

NATHANIEL: Please welcome back Anne Marie and Margaret to discuss these ladies (and five more, too). 

ANNE MARIE: Best Actress! Obviously, we must start by repeating the best news, which is that JULIANNE MOORE IS NOW AN ACADEMY AWARD WINNER. I get tingles when I write it.

MARGARET: BLESSED BE.

NATHANIEL: Thank you. This will serve as our daily reminder (Hee! Are you sick of the daily reminders yet?) But I have to say that beyond Juli as the season ran on I came to love this lineup abundantly. It's the best possible lineup we could have gotten given the media's reticence to admit that there were intersting and worthwhile performances happening all year long in all kinds of films. I even grew to love Felicity Jones in a way (I think she gets an unfair wrap as a coattails nominee when a lot of that movie depends on her emotional fluidity and stubborness. But I hate this dress. It's so off color and pale as to make her fade away.

MARGARET:  Felicity Jones' supportive-wife staple aside, how few 'types' there are! A really great array of characters, only improved by their great performances.

NATHANIEL: I even grew to love Felicity Jones in a way. Yes, it's a type. But I think she gets an unfair wrap as a coattails nominee when a lot of that movie depends on her emotional fluidity and romantic willfulness. But I hate this dress. It's burying her. It's so off color and pale as to make her fade away.

Reese & Rosamund & Aussie goddesses after the jump...

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From the Vaults: Nathaniel's Audience with Julianne

It's your daily reminder that Julianne Moore is now an Oscar winner! I spoke to Julianne very briefly this season at a party for Still Alice. We laughed about her line reading of "Anne Hathaway. How does that work?" in Maps to the Stars (OPENING THIS WEEKEND!) which she told me she was horrified she had to say. Sorry Anne! Which only confirmed how nice she always is. Five years ago, though, I met Julianne for a sit down interview on The Kids Are All Right (2010). Here's how it went if you've started reading the blog only in the past few years. 

Originally Published on July 8th, 2010

The occasion was the release of The Kids Are All Right, Julianne's 48th movie and one of her very best. Julianne plays "Jules" the flighty wife of "Nic" played by Annette Bening. They've raised two children together. Nic had Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and soon thereafter Jules had Laser (Josh Hutcherson). It's one of Julianne's best comic performances in a career that's mostly been noted for her dramatic magic with internally shell shocked women. But it wasn't always accolades. Julianne's big screen career started twenty years ago this summer when the horror flick Tales of the Darkside was released. Inauspicious beginnings but no matter.

My history with Julianne doesn't stretch back quite that far. I first took true notice of Julianne in Benny & Joon (1993) when she was playing a former (bad) actress turned waitress. In one of the movies most endearing scenes, Johnny Depp mimics her horror performance that he's memorized as they watch it together. She nearly dies of embarrassment. Five years later, I did more than notice her. I fell madly in love in her next bad actress incarnation as porn star Amber Waves. Though two 'bad actress' roles began the obsession the woman herself is the polar opposite: she's one of the greats.

The first incarnation of The Film Experience was actually a print zine called "FiLM BiTCH" in the 1990s and Julianne Moore was the first iconic (literally) cover girl. I painted her as a religious icon. I met her for the first time in 2002 on the Oscar campaign trail for Far From Heaven but it was a simple 'hello, good luck' type of public event and my girl friend snapped this dorky photo which you can see after the jump with the full interview...

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"I'm gonna ask you, okay? And you say yes, okay? Are you my mom?" / "Yes, sweetie"

This is your daily reminder that Julianne Moore won an Oscar* 

A lot of actors have played Juli's screen kids over the years. Hopefully not all of them have been too traumatized by it since she plays "bad mommy" more often than good one. In fact, here's a list of them because a) it's fun to make lists and b) we go above and beyond here at The Film Experience. We really do. So you should like us on facebook, follow Nathaniel on twitter, and sign up for the forthcoming newsletter pretty please!

Julianne's Screen Kids... It's a Boy / Girl / Ghost

1. Uncredited (Newborn) - Nine Months (1995)
2. Chauncy Leopardi (Stepson) - [safe] (1995)
3. Mark Wahlberg "you're my baby boy" & Heather Graham "I love you mom!" (Honorary Children) - Boogie Nights (1997)
4. Haunting Offscreen Presence (Child She Isn't Allowed To See) - Boogie Nights (1997)
5. Liv Tyler - Cookie's Fortune (1999)
6. Victoria Rudiak (Dead Child) - A Map of the World (1999)
7. Hayley Lochner (Other Child) - A Map of the World (1999)
8. Tom Cruise (Stepson) - Magnolia (1999)
9. Haunting Offscreen Presence (Imaginary Child) - World Traveller (2001)
10. Will McAllister - The Shipping News (2001)
11. Ryan Ward & Lindsay Andretta (Ignored Children) - Far From Heaven (2002)
12. Jack Rovello & Ed Harris (Same Character) - The Hours (2002)
13. Christopher Kovaleski & Matthew Pleszewicz (Dead Child - Or Did The Child Ever Exist At All ???) - The Forgotten (2004)
14. Trevor Morgan, Ellary Porterfield, Monté Gagné, Robert Clark, Michael Seater, Erik Knudsen, Jake Scott, Jordan Todosey, Ryan Price, Shae Norris, Abigail Falle, Luca Barbaro, Brando Barbaro, Jack Murray, Evan Rose, Jessica Pollock, Emily Persich, Maxwell Uretsky, Brendan Price, Melanie Tonello, Julia Megan Thompson, Connor Sharp (Impossibly Large Brood) - The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005)
15. Marlon Sherman (Missing or Dead Child ???) - Freedomland (2006)
16. Haunting Offscreen Presence (Dead Child) - Children of Men (2006)
17. Barney Clark & Eddie Redmayne- (Same Character) - Savage Grace (2007)
18. Max Thieriot - Chloe (2009)
19. Mia Wasikowska & Josh Hutcherson - The Kids Are All Right (2010)
20. Emma Stone - Crazy Stupid Love (2011)
21. Paul Dano - Being Flynn (2012)
22. Onata Aprile - What Maisie Knew (2013)
23. Haunting Offscreen Presence (Dead Child) - Don Jon (2013)
24. Chloë Grace Moretz -Carrie (2013)
25. Kate Bosworth, Hunter Parrish, and Kristen Stewart - Still Alice (2014)

And now the first of them (Eddie Redmayne) has just won an Oscar! As I said in yesterday's New Oscar Trivia post it's the first time our Best Actress & Best Actor winner have previously costarred as mother & son.

Which of her screen kids will be next?

Maybe Emma Stone who was so delightful while practicing with a LEGO Oscar? Or Wahlberg or Moretz or Stewart or.... what'cha think?  

* How long can I keep this up d'ya think?

New Oscar Trivia. Courtesy of the 87th Academy Awards

What does a fresh list of winners bring? Why... New TRIVIA of course! 

Do you think Patty Arquette has seen SAVAGE GRACE?

picture birdman director alejandro gonzález iñárritu, birdman actress julianne moore, still alice  actor eddie redmayne, theory of everything supporting actress patricia arquette, boyhood supporting actor j.k. simmons, whiplash original screenplay birdman adapted screenplay imitation game foreign film ida animated feature big hero 6 documentary feature citizenfour cinematography birdman editing whiplash production design grand budapest hotel costume design grand budapest hotel makeup and hair grand budapest hotel  visual effects interstellar score grand budapest hotel song "glory" selma sound mixing whiplash sound editing american sniper  live action short the phone call documentary short crisis hotline animated short feast ...I forgot to ask all of you how you did on your predictions? I did decent but not spectacular 18/24 (but i heard from a few readers who said I helped them win their office pool so there's that) but the short film categories messing me up as usual grrrr

After the jump, there's lots of trivia brought on by the 87th batch. If you have a really good one I forgot, I can always update the post so please to enjoy and comment... 

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Your Reminder That Julianne Moore is Now An Oscar Winner

We should start every morning this beautifully in 2015

a moment 20+ years in the making

It was "the foxiest bitch in the world" Amber Waves that first won Julianne Moore her legion of obsessed fans and should have won her the Oscar back when Boogie Nights (1997) first dropped its pants and entered pop culture. Sure, the ginger goddess had been fun in films before that like the trash hit The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) and the romantic comedy Benny & Joon (1993) -- her first stab at playing a bad actress, a recurring and utterly delightful subthread in her filmography -- and she even got to slap Madonna early on onscreen (Body of Evidence, 1993). And she'd been brilliant before Amber in films like Shortcuts (1993), Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) and [safe] (1995) but the latter two were slow burns, only developing their ardent fanbases later on DVD and the first was loved for reasons well beyond and usually eclipsing Julianne's work.

Julianne first truly turned heads in 1993 in a trio of "who is that?" performances: SHORT CUTS, BENNY & JOON, & THE FUGITIVEShortcuts in particular had an interesting awards history. It was one of those odd ensemble pieces, courtesy of Robert Altman, wherein noone ever settled on a favorite performance. The Golden Globes were wise, presaging the invention of SAG's ensemble prize by giving it a special award. Julianne nabbed the films sole acting nomination at a major event with Independent Spirit Awards, but the critics weren't yet in Juli's corner. The NYFCC liked Jennifer Jason Leigh best citing only her (3rd place in their prizes), the NSFC gave their actual supporting actress win to Madeleine Stowe (also my favorite performance in that particular film) as Moore's sister, and the Chicago Film Critics rallied around Andie Macdowell. Oscar didn't know what to do with it either so Robert Altman won the films only nomination for Best Director*. 

But however long it took Julianne to get there, taking her place in history as a Best Actress winner, she got there.  Over the years she continually revealed new shades, new angles, and fresh daring and mystery as a performer, and became a leading lady par excellence to compliment her early supporting genius. She's also kind to fans and visibly appreciative of her good fortune in the industry. Everyone's personal favorite performances vary with a gallery of characters this rich but for yours truly she has more than earned this Oscar.

To Julianne: for Alice, Yelena, Mia, Havana Segrand, Barbara Baekeland, Laura Brown, Linda Partridge, Maude Lebowski, Marian Wyman, Marlene Craven, Sarah Miles and especially for that holy trinity of Amber Waves, Cathy Whitaker and Carol White: thank you, god. You've earned this golden man several times over. May Laurel Hester in Freeheld, your next creation, be a worthy and compelling victory lap. Yours always, xo, Nathaniel 

I love you.

*It's another topic entirely but the films that have only one nomination and its Best Director have always been a fascinating curiousity within Oscar history: see also Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, The Last Temptation of Christ