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Saturday, March 20, 2010

Forget the tattooed home wrecker, the headlines and the heartbreak: It's not too late for Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock to save her five-year marriage, experts say.

The ugly public revelations that husband Jesse James cheated on Bullock are painful but not fatal for the couple's reeling relationship.

"Sandra would have to get to a place where she could give her husband the gift of trust," said Dr. Flo Rosoff, a marriage counselor.

"That can only happen if she is based in a relationship where they have a high regard for each other as people, not as simply an attractive man and attractive woman."

Rosoff is a contributor to Ladies Home Journal's "Can This Marriage Be Saved?" column, as is fellow Long Island counselor Dr. Robin Newman.

Newman echoes her colleague's prognosis that the celebrity couple can salvage their relationship, despite James' reported affair with ink-stained wench Michelle (Bombshell) McGee.

"Fight for your marriage, fight for it," Newman advised. "And look at what your part in it was. I'm not saying Sandra was all at fault, but there's something going on there that she needs to address herself."

The Oscar-winning star of "The Blind Side" remained out of the public eye Friday, offering no response to her husband's apology after garish tattoo model McGee claimed the two had an affair.

Bullock has canceled an appearance at the London premiere of her hit film and reportedly moved out of the couple's Southern California home.

Beleaguered husband James surfaced to walk his kids to school Friday morning, his wedding ring still visible on his left hand.

His inked-up inamorata surfaced, too, in a far-less flattering series of Nazi-themed photos.

The raven-haired McGee sported a black officer's cap, bra, panties and a Nazi armband in the shots unearthed by TMZ.com.

In one picture, McGee suggestively licks the tip of a knife.

McGee was also denounced by her ex-husband, who hopes to regain custody of their 5-year-old son.

Ronald Modica charged in court papers that McGee was an unfit mom who exposed little Avery to X-rated antics, Us Magazine reported.

"I need protection for my son," Modica said. "I will not continue to expose him to the kind of life Michelle desires and seeks: full on, pornographic, party all the time."

According to McGee, the affair started while Bullock was filming her Academy Award-winning role in "The Blind Side."

James had been married twice, including a two-year union with porn star Janine Lindemulder, before landing America's sweetheart in 2005.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

For Hollywood pundits, industry folk and Oscar fans still paying attention on Monday, a major question remained: How did Hurt Locker beat Avatar?

For as much as "The Hurt Locker" was the critics' darling, it had three major strikes against it in its battle against the mighty James Cameron's "Avatar."

First, the box office was paltry — it's taken in just $14.7 million domestically, compared to an amazing $720.6 million for "Avatar." That makes "The Hurt Locker" the lowest-grossing best picture winner since accurate records have been kept.

Second, it had no big acting names, usually an important factor in Oscar victory.

And third, it was about the Iraq war, a subject moviegoers traditionally just don't want to deal with. "Iraq is usually the kiss of death at the Oscars," says Tom O'Neil, blogger for the Los Angeles Times' Envelope, an awards site.

But even with 10 nominees in the running for this year's best picture Oscar, the two films — whose directors were once married — were quickly pitted against each other in the race for Hollywood's highest honor.

How did "The Hurt Locker" win out? Theories abound:

Finally a non-political film about Iraq
Many films about the Iraq war have fallen into a trap of appearing preachy or at least having a strong point of view. Viewers may or may not agree with that view — that still doesn't mean they want to get it at the movies.

But "The Hurt Locker," a story of three technicians on a bomb-defusing team in Baghdad, is at heart an action movie — a documentary-style close-up of the men, their relationships, their missteps and the almost unbearable tension inherent in their exhausting, terrifying, tedious work.

"This isn't that kind of muckraking film aiming to show torture or violation of rules of war," says Robert Sklar, film professor at New York University. "This is a film about men trying to save lives rather than take them. It's also a buddy story. It has classic war-movie themes."

Oscar likes films with an important message
Often the Academy honors big, sweeping films, which "The Hurt Locker" is certainly not. But it also looks for films with a substantial message. "Oscar likes films of importance, with a capital I," says film historian Leonard Maltin. "Often they're big films, but this is a small film that dealt with a really important subject."

Oscar voters don't care about box office
Who says Oscar cares about box office? "The Oscars don't pay attention to that at all, and nor should they," Maltin says. In fact, he adds, they've often been accused of being too elitist, favoring independent movies over big films favored by the broader public.

Yes, they do!
Nonsense, says O'Neil, of The Envelope: "The Academy wants their movies to do well. Then they anoint them." Even last year's "Slumdog Millionaire," which originally almost went straight to DVD, had made $40 million before the nominations, then rode to $70 million by the time of the awards, he says.

It's about the campaigning
All of "Hurt Locker's" technical merit aside, "it would be naive to think Oscar campaigning had nothing to do with it," says O'Neil. He credits Cynthia Swartz, whose public relations firm was given the Oscar campaigning job by Summit, the film's distributor, which was looking for industry respect and had plenty of money to fund the campaign, having already cashed in with the "Twilight" vampire movies.

"It was a very savvy campaign," says O'Neil. "Full force, and highly aggressive."

The woman factor
As compelling as her movie was, director Kathryn Bigelow had a compelling story of her own. This director who specializes not in female-oriented films but in big action thrillers had a real shot at becoming the first woman in Oscar history to win the best director prize, with her film winning best picture, too.

Yet Bigelow tried to downplay that element of her story, saying in interviews that she just wanted to be seen as a filmmaker, not a female one.

"Bigelow refused to capitalize on the woman factor, and to her credit," says Maltin. Everyone else wanted to make it a story but her. Still, you can't deny it had some impact."

The ex factor
Nor did Bigelow have any desire to capitalize on the "Ex Factor" — in case you're way behind on your Oscar gossip, she was married to Cameron from 1989-91. Were there some voters who were secretly rooting for her to leave him in the dust? No way of knowing, and the two seemed amicable through the awards season, with him standing and cheering as she won her Oscar. Still, there's no doubt that the "battle of the exes" (ok, we're done with the puns) added to the hype.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Best Picture

      The Hurt Locker
      Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
 
Actor in a Leading Role

      Jeff Bridges
      Crazy Heart
  
Actor in a Supporting Role

      Christoph Waltz
      Inglourious Basterds


Actress in a Leading Role

      Sandra Bullock
      The Blind Side

Actress in a Supporting Role

      Mo'Nique
      Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Animated Feature Film

      Up
      Pete Docter

Art Direction

      Avatar
      Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration)

Cinematography

      Avatar
      Mauro Fiore

Costume Design

      The Young Victoria
      Sandy Powell

Directing

      The Hurt Locker
      Kathryn Bigelow

Documentary Feature

      The Cove
      Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens

Documentary Short

      Music by Prudence
      Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

Film Editing
      The Hurt Locker
      Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

Foreign Language Film

      The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)
      Argentina
      Directed by Juan José Campanella

Makeup

      Star Trek
      Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow

Music (Original Score)

      Up
      Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song) : Crazy Heart

      "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)"
      Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

      Logorama
      Nicolas Schmerkin

Short Film (Live Action)

      The New Tenants
      Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing


      The Hurt Locker
      Paul N.J. Ottosson

Sound Mixing

      The Hurt Locker
      Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

Visual Effects


      Avatar
      Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

      Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
      Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher

Writing (Original Screenplay)

      The Hurt Locker
      Written by Mark Boal







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Wednesday, February 24, 2010

With wins at the Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Writers Guild, and British Academy Awards, “The “Hurt Locker” ” has clearly been racking up the major pre-Oscar prizes in the last month.
In fact, with the exception of a couple big-ticket losses at the Golden Globes and SAG Awards, Kathryn Bigelow’s film has nearly accomplished the same sweep that “Slumdog Millionaire” pulled off last year. By that yardstick, the film seems like a sure thing to win the Best Picture Oscar on March 7, particularly because those two high-profile losses came at the hands of two different films (“Avatar” at the Globes, “Inglourious Basterds” at SAG) rather than one.
But then I started looking at all ““Brokeback”  Mountain’s” pre-Oscar record from four years ago and I found some striking similarities. 
“Brokeback” managed the rare feat of winning Best Picture and Best Director at both the New York and Los Angeles film critics awards; so did ““Hurt Locker.” “Brokeback” also picked up those two big prizes at the Broadcast Film Critics Awards; so did “Hurt Locker.” “Brokeback” won the trifecta of PGA, DGA, and WGA trophies; so did “Hurt Locker.” “Brokeback” won 4 BAFTAs, including Best Film, Director, and Screenplay; “Hurt Locker” picked up 6 awards, including Best Film, Director, and Screenplay. And of course, “Brokeback” lost the SAG cast award, and so did “Hurt Locker.” (The main difference between the two films’ tallies is that “Brokeback” did win four Globes, including Best Drama and Best Director, while “Hurt Locker”  went 0 for 3.)
All of this is on my mind right now because we’re about to put our Oscar Odds issue to bed (it’ll be on stands this Friday), and it’s really making me think twice about my prediction that The “Hurt Locker”  will emerge victorious on March 7.
There’s still a distinct possibility that “Hurt Locker”  will mirror “Brokeback”  yet again and win three Oscars (let’s say Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing) but lose the big one to a more easily-digestible rival, in this case “Avatar.” 
But I’m swayed by the argument (best articulated by Steve Pond over at The Wrap) that even if “Avatar” scores the most No. 1 votes, The “Hurt Locker”  is likely to perform better in subsequent rounds of voting, since Bigelow’s film may have more No. 2 and No. 3 rankings than “Avatar” will. So, fully knowing that I may end up being wrong, I’m sticking with The “Hurt Locker”.
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