Almost Kate's: Best Supporting Actress, 2000

Roger Ebert said that "everybody from the Vegas oddsmakers to the espresso jockey at Starbucks can tell you that Gladiator, Russell Crowe, Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, and Kate Hudson are at the head of the pack." While he went against that "common wisdom" in some of his final predictions, he held to the impression that "the overwhelming favorite is Kate Hudson." It is a common refrain you read when researching this year: Hudson is the heart of Almost Famous, she glows, she's charming, she's Goldie Hawn's daughter, and wouldn't it be neat if they both won in the same category 31 years apart? 

She was one of four names that kept showing up everywhere: her Almost Famous co-star, who won prizes for both that film and her turn in Wonder Boys; Judi Dench, thought to be the benificiary of Miramax's Chocolat campaign, making it the third of five consecutive Weinstein-backed nominations for the Dame; and Julie Walters, whose chain-smoking ballet mistress in Billy Elliot was an audience favorite. All were nominated alongside Hudson. None were thought to stand a chance, even though, while she was also nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and for Best Lead Actress at the British Academy Awards, the only major "precursor" she won was the Golden Globes. 

But hey, influence and bellwethers change over the years - remember, it used to be "common wisdom" to go with the New York Critics' pick...though that did turn out to be true this year. Alongside the aforementioned quartet was Pollock's Marcia Gay Harden, a name and performance little bandied about after her NYFCC win at the beginning of December. Her "fifth slot" was up for grabs among a number of contenders: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's Zhang Ziyi (BAFTA nominee, Indie Spirits winner, LAFCA runner-up), Traffic's Catherine Zeta-Jones (Golden Globe nominee), Quills' Kate Winslet (SAG nominee), maybe even longer shots like Small Time Crooks' Elaine May (winner at the National Society of Film Critics, I'm guessing because they had little opportunity to award her over the years) or Chuck & Buck's Lupe Ontiveros (National Board of Review winner!, Indie Spirits nominee). But the fifth spot was Harden's, with many assuming the nomination was the award for putting in great work in a little-seen film. What a twist - what a thrill:

Had I a ballot, this is how I'd rank them:

Best Supporting Actress, 2003

What a lineup, huh? We have Shohreh Aghdashloo giving a performance that made American critics and Hollywood sit up and take notice, Patricia Clarkson riding the momentum of 2002’s Far from Heaven and her other 2003 indie The Station Agent, Marcia Gay Harden returning in a Best Picture nominee after her shocking Oscar win in 2000, Holly Hunter back for the first time since her 1993 double-header, and Renee Zellweger on her third consecutive nomination after just missing out on a win the previous year (so we assume, anyway). Zellweger had the ol' "When are we giving it to her already?" going for her, and just like Tim Robbins, her win was considered "in the bag":

The performances, ranked from 5th to 1st:

Who's the Host?

Just like last year, I'm offering up the chance to allow my readers to choose a host for the Hollmann Awards. Last year, Betty White hosted in the first ever Silver Screening Room broadcast. Hosts in years past also include Philip Baker Hall and Patricia Clarkson.

Six options, five individuals:

NAME: Alan Alda

FIVE FILMS: The Aviator, Everyone Says I Love You, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Four Seasons, California Suite

Alan Alda is a veteran at this game. The son of actor Robert Alda, Alan made a name for himself as an actor, writer and director for screens both small and large. Best-known for his Hawkeye Pierce on the television series "MASH", Alda is regularly seen on NBC shows, late 80s/early 90s Woody Allen films, and the more recent Rod Lurie movies. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in The Aviator.



NAME: Judi Dench
FIVE FILMS: Nine, Casino Royale, Mrs Henderson Presents, Iris, Chocolat
Dame Judi Dench is one of the most respected actors in the world. Known for playing sharp-tongued grande dames, Dench excels at comedy and drama alike, and has even earned a place in the Bond Mythology. She is a recipient of the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in Shakespeare in Love, and has five additional nominations to boot. She is also a Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress for Notes on a Scandal.



NAME: Philip Glass
FIVE FILMS: The Illusionist, Notes on a Scandal, The Hours, Kundun, Mishima
Philip Glass is a composer of operas, ballets, symphonies and film scores. His music is all very similar, but also very addictive. He is a three-time Oscar Nominee for Best Original Score. Notes on a Scandal brought him a Best Original Score Nomination at the Hollmann Awards.



NAME: Marcia Gay Harden
FIVE FILMS: Whip It!, The Mist, Into the Wild, The First Wives Club, Miller's Crossing
Marcia Gay Harden worked twenty years in the business before winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Pollock. She was nominated in the same category three years later for Mystic River. Harden is a marvelous actress, who can be motherly, sexy, stern and wild. She originated the role of Harper in Angels in America on Broadway, but lost the Tony; she finally won for God of Carnage last year.


NAME: Maggie Smith
FIVE FILMS: The First Wives Club, Sister Act, Evil Under the Sun, Clash of the Titans, Murder by Death
Dame Maggie Smith is the greatest actress who ever lived. Underused in the aughts even before she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Smith is also great at playing snippity grande dames, though she does play warmer roles quite frequently. When I was a lad in first grade and we watched The Secret Garden, I told my friends I loved her; they thought I was strange for liking someone so old. Or maybe they thought it was strange because she plays a bitch. Maggie Smith has, regrettably, never been nominated at the Hollmanns, but that's because no one has really utilized her enormous talent for the past six years (though Keeping Mum came close). She won the Best Actress Oscar for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for California Suite. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for Travels with My Aunt and Best Supporting Actress Oscars for Othello, A Room with a View and Gosford Park. She kicks all the arses.



NAME: Judi Dench & Maggie Smith
FILMS: Ladies in Lavender, Tea with Mussolini, A Room with a View
They are best friends. Despite only doing three films together, they are the Dream Team. Judi Dench and Maggie Smith were nominated in 2001 for Best Actress (Iris) and Best Supporting Actress (Gosford Park), respectively. Tea with Mussolini earned Maggie Smith another BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress; Judi Dench played M in The World is Not Enough. No one would go with me to see Ladies in Lavender with me when it came out, though I begged and begged. They met in A Room with a View, and Smith won the Best Actress BAFTA Award, Dench the Best Supporting Actress BAFTA Award. They are so bad-ass it's not even funny.

Who do you prefer for the job? One of the solos, or the Dynamic Dame Duo? Voice your wants out loud in the comments!

Whip It

Guys: I really liked Whip It.

I know, I know. After months of talking about it, how could I not love it? That's unfair, of course: with a bar like the one I'd set, it was either fall in love or be let down. Fortunately, it was the former, and though it's not perfect, I still think it's beautiful.

Okay, there are a few problems. The amount of music (non-score) gets distracting, and while a lot of it is really cool...it's distracting. The romantic subplot between Bliss and a bassist (played by actual musician Landon Pigg) is not set up particularly well. Come to think of it, he's kind of awkward to watch, too. Sometimes the editing was jarring, losing some big moments, awkwardly cutting for close-ups, etc. Drew Barrymore is certainly no Sarah Polley.

But as a director of actors, she must kick some ass, because the performances are surprisingly good. When I say surprising, I mean I know that these are actors and characters that could be broadly comic. Instead, the comedy is more amusing than funny, with the dramatic sequences actually hitting that emotional core within all of us. My roommate was tearing up, my DP's girlfriend was tearing up, and the tears were just outright flowing for me. So, yeah, as far as that kind of thing goes, Barrymore's great. She just needs more practice behind the camera.

She's certainly working with a solid script. Shauna Cross adapts her own novel Derby Girl, and having read that, I gotta give mad props. Yeah, they're the same story with the same characters, but Cross approaches them differently, changing her story to suit the medium. It works better here than it does on the page (and it works great on the page).

Also of help: the solid cast. Once again, Ellen Page is a high-schooler marching to the beat of her own drum, but don't you dare mistake this for another Juno. Bliss Cavendar is more reserved, more self-conscious, less dependent on quips. Surely Maxim is wrong: how can Megan Fox be "the new sexy" when Ellen Page exists? Marcia Gay Harden and Daniel Stern play her parents. Harden's pageant-obsessed mother is never a stock character, and she really breaks your heart in a number of scenes. Stern -- Daniel Stern, mind you, from Home Alone and Bushwacked -- also manages to avoid caricature, though there are so many missteps he could have made. And yet, he has probably the most touching scene in the film. Good on Stern, or good on Barrymore?

Barrymore herself plays a stoner derby girl, one of a colorful ensemble of sexy skaters that include Zoe Bell, Eve, Ari Graynor, Juliette Lewis (!) and Kristen Wiig. Wiig gets to play the other mother of the story -- she does well. Lewis is a villainous bitch, absolutely terrifying and yet impossibly awesome. I'm not a HUGE fan, but I admit, I was kind of pleased to see her back. Andrew Wilson is pretty funny as their coach, so far putting him at #2 on the Wilson Brothers Rankings (Owen is still #1).

It's a fun movie, one that definitely should be seen by women. Earlier, I recommended my mother see it with my sisters, because as far as mother-daughter relationships go, this film has one of the more realistically-portrayed ones. Not just the chemistry of the actors, though that is certainly the driving force of the film. The level of approval and disapproval as regards a situation is finally illustrated truthfully instead of idealistically.

I'd see it again, definitely. And again, Marcia Gay Harden. She's great in this. Definitely see it this week -- it needs our help.

Whip It! Trailer

This is the directorial debut of the great Drew Barrymore, starring Academy Award/Hollmann Award Nominee Ellen Page and Oscar Winner Marcia Gay Harden. Do you smell that? That's the scent of a WINNER.

Casting Coup: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

*Casting Coup Month 1, Week 2, Day 2. One of my favorites.*

CASTING COUP MONTH is about to blow your fucking minds.

If memory serves correctly, the subject of today's Casting Coup was the first film to be nominated in all its eligible categories. It's easier to list the categories it was not nominated in: Original Screenplay, Special Visual Effects, Sound Effects, Song, Adapted Score, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Documentary Short, Documentary, Foreign Film. So, let's just keep this in mind: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) was nominated for thirteen Oscars. It won six.

I really need to see every film it was up against in all categories, because I cannot imagine how any movie from 1966 could be better than this. The Academy thought so, though: specifically, it thought A Man for All Seasons was better. And I know I can't, technically, say Fred Zinneman didn't deserve the Director Oscar for A Man for All Seasons over Mike Nichols, but think about this: This was Nichols' first film. Ever. Now watch it again, and prepare to amazed.

Everyone knows of the incomprehensible conspiracy to keep Richard Burton from winning the Academy Award. He's our parents' Peter O'Toole: alcoholic, well-respected, deserved to win, always lost. This year, he lost Best Actor to Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons). And George Segal's memorable portrayal of Nick lost to Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie. Of course, I'm a Matthau fan, so I can't really complain, especially since I haven't seen The Fortune Cookie. But was the Screenplay to A Man for All Seasons (Robert Bolt) really better than Ernest Lehman's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? adaptation? The mind boggles at such a thought. The film also lost Sound (George R. Groves) to Grand Prix (Franklin E. Milton) and Original Score (Alex North) to Born Free (John Barry, one of my favorites).

But why dwell on the losses? Let us be amazed at the wins. For instance, can't we be impressed that the entire cast got a nom in their respective categories, and half of them won? That's right: Elizabeth Taylor, aged 34, won the Best Actress Oscar for playing a fifty-something housewife. AND SHE DESERVED IT. Sandy Dennis, aged 29, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing a much younger, more naive woman. The New Yorker put it best: "When a performance is as triumphant as Miss Dennis' any description seems irrelevant."

Haskell Wexler won the Cinematography Oscar (DESERVED), Richard Sylbert and George James Hopkins won the Art/Set Decoration Oscar (DESERVED), and Irene Sharaff won the Costume Design Oscar (DESERVED). And they all DESERVED it. Martha's outfit is practically iconic. You can't think of the movie without remembering exactly what she was wearing throughout the majority of the picture.

God, it actually boggles my mind that I'm thinking of a new cast for this. Can't I choose another one? The Graduate? The Godfather? MASH? No?

No. For my mind is made up, and I have decided thus: if anyone's gonna take over (and there have been talks for a remake for four years now), than these are the people best suited to the job.

HONEY
Who is She: "The petite, bland wife of Nick. She is 26 years old, has a weak stomach, and is not the brightest bulb of the bunch."

Originally played by: Academy Award Winner Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)



My Choice: The only Brit in this cast, but I think she could pull this off.



Romola Garai (Vanity Fair, Atonement)


NICK
Who is He: "A new member of the biology faculty at New Carthage University. He is 28 years old, good-looking, Midwestern, and clean-cut."

Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee George Segal (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)



My Choice: One of the more sinfully overlooked actors of our generation. In every comedy, but he can nail drama. He just fucking ROCKS.



Ryan Reynolds (The Amityville Horror, Smokin' Aces)


MARTHA
Who is She: "The 52-year-old daughter of the president of New Carthage University. She is married to George, though disappointed with his aborted academic career. She attempts to have an affair with Nick."

Listen to what Martha has to say:

"I swear to GOD, George, if you even EXISTED, I'd divorce you."

"I hope that was an empty bottle, George! You can't afford to waste good liquor, not on YOUR salary!"

"George and Martha: Sad, sad, sad."

"Hey, swamp! Hey swampy!"

"I'm loud and I'm vulgar, and I wear the pants in the house because somebody's got to, but I am not a monster. I'm not."

Originally played (magnificently) by: Academy Award Winner Elizabeth Taylor (BUtterfield 8, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)



My Choice: It's time she step up and play both the housewife AND the bitch.



Academy Award Winner Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock, Mystic River)


GEORGE
Who is He: Someone I want to play very, very badly. "A 46-year-old member of the history department at New Carthage University. George is married to Martha, in a once loving relationship now defined by sarcasm and frequent acrimony."

Let's just hear some awesome things George gets to say:

"Martha? Rubbing alcohol for you?"

"Martha is 108... years old. She weighs somewhat more than that."

"Martha, will you show her where we keep the, uh, euphemism?"

"I said I was impressed. I'm beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw up?"

"Now, I will hold your hand when it's dark and you're afraid of the boogeyman and I will tote your gin bottles out after midnight so no one can see but I will not light your cigarette. And that, as they say, is that."

Originally played (in an almost demigod-like fashion) by: Academy Award Nominee Richard Burton (My Cousin Rachel, The Robe, Becket, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Anne of the Thousand Days, Equus)



My Choice: Underrated, underrated, underrated. Absolutely could play this role and get a nomination. Easily.



Hollmann Award Nominee Bruce Greenwood (I'm Not There, Thirteen Days)


I know you'll all agree with these unless you think only Brits should play George. But come on. You can totally fucking dig this.