One Category at a Time: Actor

There will be plenty of suspense leading up to the opening of this envelope on Oscar night. The writing seemed to be on the wall early in the season, but a turning point at the SAG Awards had signaled a tight two-horse race (one made a little less tight by the BAFTAs this past Sunday). The other three nominees will have to sit back and enjoy the show. At least a couple of them can can count themselves lucky that they managed to squeak into the slate when high profile hopefuls Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Fassbender were somewhat surprisingly shut out along with the films they represented.

SAG winners

Stunt Ensemble: Harry Potter

That's all well and good, but why wasn't Mission: Impossible nominated?

Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer,
Beginners

Hard to see how Plummer loses this on Oscar night, but the sudden appearance of Max von Sydow (in a Best Picture nominee, no less) has made me wary.

Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer,
The Help

Yep. Looks like the Oscar's hers. Nice speech too.

Well, damn. Only fifteen minutes in and two of the five awards I care about are done. Am I gonna have to wait an hour and a half until we hit another movie category?

Loved seeing Dick Van Dyke take the stage to introduce and narrate the tribute reel to Lifetime Achievement honouree Mary Tyler Moore. Less thrilled about listening to Mary prattle on about her showbiz name in her speech.

Actor: Jean Dujardin,
The Artist

Well well well, it looks like Harvey's been at it again. Did that pitch perfect Globes speech give Dujardin that extra push here? Where does this put us in terms of the Oscar conversation?

Actress: Viola Davis,
The Help

YES! I was so worried this was going to Meryl. But that acceptance speech. Wow. If that can't net her the Oscar I don't know what can.

Ensemble: The Help

Inarguably the best of the lot.

Well, I BOMBED my predictions (three for six if you include Stunt Ensemble, because why not?), but I'll confess that I was somewhat hedging my bets by predicting Meryl and The Artist; I just really wanted to see Viola and The Help win their respective categories, which they did, so yay!

Tonight marks the third consecutive televised wins for Octavia Spencer and Christopher Plummer. They are the smart Oscar bets, although I have an unsettling suspicion that Max von Sydow could sneak in the backdoor on Plummer. More on that later this week.

The Best Actress tiebreaker fell in favour of Viola Davis, and it was a huge win because it gave her another chance to move the room to tears with a staggering acceptance speech. Believe it or not, those can make a difference. It's PR gold that can tip the scales in your favour if you do it right, and in her two trips to the podium this season, Viola has NAILED it both times. I think the Oscar is her's to lose.

But what about Best Actor? I said that if someone was going to make a move on Clooney it would have to happen here, and it did. Clooney has the BFCA and the Drama Globe, Dujardin has the SAG and the Comedy Globe. It's worth noting that a comedic performance hasn't won the Best Actor Oscar since 1999 when Roberto Benigni ludicrously won for Life is Beautiful, but it's also worth noting that he also won the SAG and was backed by Weinstein (Mirimax, that is). I'm gonna have to think about this one.

Review - The Artist

Silence is golden in Michel Hazanavicius' quaint silent cinema homage The Artist. The story is a somewhat slight but archetypal one about the screen stars of Hollywood's silent era falling into obsolescence and obscurity at the hands of the talkies. The novelty of a (mostly) silent film in 2011 may seem a gimmick, but it's hard not to let yourself be charmed by it.

We first meet George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) at the premiere of another one of his melodramatic hits, where the showman reveling in the noiseless applause of his adoring fans. He's blissfully unaware of the impending cacophony that will threaten not only his livelihood but the way of the world as he knows it, but not before he sends bright-eyed ingenue Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) on her own trajectory to fame and acclaim in the brave new world of talking pictures.