He's the perfect man: tall, statuesque and made of gold. He doesn't talk back to you, and he can guarantee you a life of glamour, fame and, well, pretty much anything your heart desires. Ladies and gentleman, meet Oscar. For the past 75 years, this little golden man has brought smiles, tears and laughter to Hollywood's finest and to those of us who watch them from our living room sofas.
This year's Academy Award nominations have been announced, and Miramax's on-screen musical "Chicago" and epic drama "Gangs of New York" are the frontrunners in the Oscar race. Blood, guts and drama seem to be the recipe for success in the film world this year. "The Hours" and "The Pianist" also received a lot of nominations, reaffirming my faith in the Academy.
It looks like "Gangs of New York" will take away Best Picture this year, but I'm not happy about it. And don't even get me started on "Chicago." In order to avoid two black eyes when I return home next month, I will agree that, yes, "Chicago" is a good movie, but I cannot support it as anything even close to the best movie of the year, with so many incredible films having been made, many of which did not even get nominated.
Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" is such a powerful film that it wouldn't be possible to express in words what the unforgettably horrific images of Polanki's masterpiece do for the human psyche and the terror of Holocaust remembrance. The film has already taken away the Palme D'Or at Cannes, and my hope is that it will bring home an Oscar as well -- although if "The Hours" wins, I will not be disappointed. It does a fantastic job of weaving together the stories of three women, all linked together over the course of one single day as each woman faces an emotional turning point in her life.
Jack Nicholson has become the most-nominated actor in Oscar history with 12 career nominations. But all nominations and no award make Jack a dull boy. After winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in "About Schmidt," the stakes are high for Mr. Nicholson this year.
I'm quite torn in this category. Nicolas Cage gave an incredible performance as the delusional genius Charlie Kaufman and his identical yet stunningly different brother Donald in "Adaptation," but I cannot overlook Adrien Brody's delicate, emotionally-jarring portrayal as Holocaust survivor Wladyslaw Szpilman in "The Pianist."
Brody had to lose a great deal of weight for the part and sacrificed his health and sanity as he gave everything he had for this role. I think it would be a travesty if Brody were not acknowledged for his accurate and physically draining personification of the horrors of the Nazi death camps.
As far as lead actresses go this year, Nicole Kidman (and her prosthetic nose) did an amazing job in a very unglamorous role as Virginia Woolf in "The Hours," while Diane Lane did justice to the cheating-wife-drama-gone-ugly role she embraced in "Unfaithful." I won't even begin to detail how opposed I am to Renee Zellweger having even been considered for this category with such a stale, impersonal performance in "Chicago." And though Julianne Moore displayed a quiet, elegant grace as a '50s housewife in "Far From Heaven" and Salma Hayek was perfect as ill-fated artist Frida Kahlo in "Frida," I'll have to go with Kidman for this one.
It will be a close race this year for Best Supporting Actor, but my heart and my vote belong to Ed Harris, who really proved his Oscar worthiness this year as AIDS victim and acclaimed writer Richard Brown in "The Hours." Harris plays a man battling both physical illness and depression with professional grace and definitely deserves to be rewarded for his performance.
I'll leave the category of Best SupportingActress up to the Academy since I am finding it nearly impossible to choose between Queen Latifah ("Chicago"), Julianne Moore ("The Hours") and Meryl Streep ("Adaptation").
More intense competition this year lies in the "Best Adapted Screenplay" and "Best Original Screenplay" categories. "Adaptation" is probably my top bid for best, well, adaptation. Charlie Kaufman's complex mise-en-scene about the art of screenwriting and the beauty of life is an example of screenwriting genius, and he deserves nothing less than an Academy Award for is ability to interweave two subplots which eventually collide to produce one of the most mind-blowing scenarios ever to grace the big screen.
As for Best Original Screenplay, foreign is the way to go this year, but the choice is difficult in any language. Pedro Almodovar has done it again with his slightly disturbing yet emotionally jarring story "Talk to Her" about two men in love with women in a coma. This was one of the best films I've seen all year (I knew it was an incredible film when I saw it for the first time in Spanish with French subtitles and still loved it).
I'm almost certain that Scorcese will take home an Oscar for directing "Gangs of New York," but I think the Best Director contest should be between Polanski ("The Pianist") and Almodovar ("Talk to Her").
One more thing: I will personally "battle" everyone in the Academy if Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile" doesn't win for Best Song. Until then, I'll just sit tight, lose myself in the music and get ready for all the smiles, tears and Versace dresses coming my way on March 23rd.
