Story Published:
Jan 30, 2012 at 4:43 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Jan 30, 2012 at 4:43 PM EDT
Movie Awards Update Blog
There were few surprises at the SAG awards last night, except Jean DuJardin’s win for The Artist. I expected George Clooney to win. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am not a huge fan of The Descendants and thought Clooney’s performance in Up in the Air was much better. DuJardin’s performance gives hope that Clooney will not win the coveted Oscar after all. Viola Davis’ win for The Help increases her chances of winning the Oscar even more. So many more people have seen The Help than have seen Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady. If Davis wins the Oscar, it will only be the second time in Oscar History that an African American woman has won the best lead Oscar Award. Furthermore only one other black actress, Whoppi Goldberg, has been nominated more than once for an Oscar.
In television categories, the SAG awards went down the same old road, as Alec Baldwin won his sixth award for best actor in a comedy for 30 Rock, and Betty White won her second for Hot in Cleveland. One great surprise was Jessica Lange’s win for American Horror Story, I am a huge Jessica Lange fan and it was great that she was recognized for her work in this bizarre, dark, frightening and disturbing tale. Lange is one of our most instinctual actresses and watching her is like watching a ticking bomb, wondering when it will go off.
Two Sundays ago, January 15th, The Golden Globe Awards were handed out at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel. I was in California at the time, but I was in Palm Springs, so I couldn’t crash the party. I am not allowed in the Beverly Hills City Limits after an incident that occurred in 1997. Just kidding. It was 1996,
The Golden Globes are sometimes a precursor to the Oscars so it is interesting that Meryl Streep prevailed over Viola Davis and won the Globe for best performance in a drama for Iron Lady. However in the very same week, Viola Davis won the Critic’s Choice Award for her performance in The Help. Both women are up for the Oscar. This is Streep’s astonishing 17th nomination and there is some belief that she may actually win her third, long overdue, Oscar for The Iron Lady. After all it has been almost 30 years since her last win. In 2009 Streep was, regrettably, beat out by Sandra Bullock for the Blind Side. Streep’s Julia Childs was fun, believable, and ultimately transcendent. I was not pleased with Bullock’s win, so I am a bit flummoxed as to whom to route for.
The other three nominees for Best Actress are Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn, Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs and Roona Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Shut out were two very strong performances Tilda Swinton in We Have to Talk About Kevin and Charlize Theron in Young Adult. I have seen the latter performance and thought it was terrific, I haven’t seen Swinton’s performance, but she has won several critics awards for it, previously. Williams won the Golden Globe for best female lead performance in a comedy/musical, the Globes, unlike the Oscars have two separate categories.
At the Globes George Clooney won in the drama category, for The Descendants and Jean Dujardin won in the comedy category for the critics favorite The Artist. Both are nominated for the Oscar along with Brad Pitt for Moneyball, Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and dark horse Demian Bichir for A Better Life. This race is definitely between Clooney, Pitt and Dujardin, with all three winning critic’s awards. Clooney is perhaps the favorite, but Dujardin cannot be ruled out, although it is unlikely the Academy will give it to a performance without any dialogue at all, and a
foreign actor. Strangely, Leonardao DiCaprio in J. Edgar was shut of this category. Clooney has previously won in the Best Supporting Actor category.
A great nomination this year is for Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy. It is no secret that the Academy doesn’t like comedy and rarely nominates anyone from comedy films, so it is great delight that the Emmy winning McCarthy was nominated for this film. McCarthy was nominated for the SAG Award, but was beat out last night by the great Octavia Spencer in The Help.
The Oscars are being held on Sunday, February 26.
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