One For Them, One For Me: Nicole Kidman - 'The Stepford Wives' and 'Birth'

A new series by Christopher James

Nicole Kidman at the Globes for Birth. They were the only group to embrace the film

Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.
— Martin Scorsese: A Journey

This week, Nicole Kidman earned her fifth Oscar nomination for Being the Ricardos, where she plays legendary star Lucille Ball. One can’t spend over thirty years in the industry without a couple of reinventions. The Australian star rose to prominence in America when she became Mrs. Tom Cruise after Days of Thunder. The entire 90s was spent breaking out of that reductive box. It wasn’t until the summer of 2001, when Kidman divorced Cruise, that she stepped into her own as a true A-list star. The one-two-three punch of The Others, Moulin Rouge and The Hours cemented her as both a real actress and a true movie star, culminating in a win for Best Actress for The Hours. At the top of the heap, Kidman decided to take many 'One For Them, One For Me' swings. They didn't always pan out but this post-Oscar period contains some of her best work.

Before her Oscar win she's already filmed The Human Stain, Dogville and Cold Mountain. So 2004 was the year where she really used her cache to gain both cultural clout and big box office...

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Oscar Volley: Can Penelope Cruz or Kristen Stewart land in Best Actress?

Our Oscar Volley series is almost at an end. Here are Matt St Clair, Josh Bierman, and Baby Clyde to talk Best Actress

Matt St Clair: Even though Best Actress has a pretty clear frontrunner, the rest of the category seems mostly up for grabs. Do you guys agree and also, besides Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, do you think there's hope for another non-biopic performance to make the cut?

Josh Bierman: Interesting. I don’t agree that there's a clear frontrunner! I assume you mean Nicole Kidman who is the most solid lock for a nomination. This is a category where I think I have to wait to see who’s nominated before I can declare a winner...

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Who is now in the lead for Best Actress?

by Nathaniel R and Team Experience!

The morning after and we're still reeling from the SAG nominations. But in particular what it's done to presumptions about the Best Actress category. I've updated the Oscar chart but after a brief flirtation with Nicole Kidman as #1, I suddenly felt the urge to give that spot to Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter. Is this insane? Not exactly though it is probably the common pundit psychosis of "overthinking it". My pundit brain began imagining that all the biopic ladies are getting in each other's way with their elaborate makeovers and mimicry (or lack thereof) and through the chaos emerges the true stealth battle of all along: superstar Lady Gaga vs revered thespian Olivia Colman.

Lady Gaga is also playing a real person, like the biopic ladies, but Patrizia Reggiani isn't a famous celebrity being recreated by another famous celebrity as is the usual draw of these things. So the traditional biopic advantage (aka default love for "what a transformation!") doesn't quite apply in Gaga's case. In the end given Olivia Colman mania and Gaga's film having more detractors, is it so outlandish to presume a quick second win could very well happen. So I polled the team, hoping that a crystal clear hive mind pundit choice would emerge. Whoops! Though there is a hesistant "consensus choice" opinions are truly all over the place.

Here's how the team responded to the big question of the moment...

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The silent wins of the Golden Globes

by Nathaniel R

No film truly dominated with Power of the Dog winning 3, and West Side Story 2

The Golden Globe ceremony did not air this year for only the second time in our lifetimes here at TFE. Some of you may recall the ceremony was cancelled once before due to the writers strike and the names were merely read out on television in a glorified press conference. This time, even less hoopla, given Hollywood turning their backs on the group and NBC refusing to telecast them this year. Neverthless they went ahead with their normal rounds of choosing nominees and winners. It's tough to expect that these prizes will mean anything more than, say, any winner lineup from a regional critics group, this year. Televised awards, with their red carpets and celebrity speeches and celebratory atmosphere are the only awards that receive enough mainstream attention to noticeably and consistently influence the Oscars, which always close "awards season".

Winners list and more commentary after the jump...

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25th Anniversary: "The Portrait of a Lady"

by Nick Taylor

Happy Holidays! We are celebrating a very dear, tumultuous season - awards season - and the current wave of critics prizes has left us with some very exciting developments. It’s perhaps not the biggest shock that Jane Campion’s austere, sensual Western The Power of the Dog has become such a critical darling. It’s the first time in nearly two decades that one of Campion’s phone is in serious consideration but the film’s remarkable showing with awards bodies and the sheer number of Best Director wins she’s accrued are both tremendously deserved and, given the overall trajectory of her career, something of a surprise. 

Releasing her first film since 2009’s Bright Star (and after showrunning the acclaimed series Top of the Lake for two seasons), Campion’s favor with the Academy and critics at large has shifted wildly over the years. As rapturously as The Piano was received, her 1996 bold, purposefully hard-edged adaptation of Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady scuttered a lot of that goodwill, and as abrasive as that film is, I can’t for the life of me understand why this torpedoed her prestige reputation so badly...

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