CHICAGO – Excelsior! Comic book legend Stan Lee’s famous exclamation puts a fine point on the third and final play of Mark Pracht’s FOUR COLOR TRILOGY, “The House of Ideas,” presented by and staged at City Lit Theater in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. For tickets/details, click HOUSE OF IDEAS.
From ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ to ‘Milk’: HollywoodChicago.com Picks the 2009 Oscar Winners
BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet in The Reader
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company
Anne Hathaway, “Rachel Getting Married”
-1st nomination; won Chicago Critics Award and National Board of Review
Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
-2nd nomination (one win)
Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”
-1st nomination
Meryl Streep, “Doubt”
-15th nomination (two wins, none since Sophie’s Choice); won Screen Actors Guild Award
Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
-6th nomination (never won); won BAFTA for lead; won Chicago Critics, Golden Globe, and SAG Award for supporting
The transition from supporting actress to lead throws this category into disarray. Either Kate Winslet will walk home with her first prize after six nominations or Meryl Streep will take home her third Oscar but first in a quarter-century. Arguably one of the best actresses that ever lived hasn’t won since “Sophie’s Choice”.
They may be dusty, but Meryl has two Oscars already and dozens of other trophies, and we all agree that Kate Winslet will be career-honored, over Streep who has tons of gold. Harvey Weinstein’s aggressive strategy with “The Reader” will pay off with at least one major Oscar and one of the best actresses of her generation will finally have “Oscar-nominated” next to her name on future previews.
Brian would rather see Ms. Hathaway take home the trophy for her searing, raw work in “Rachel Getting Married” but Patrick and Dustin think that if the Academy goes with Streep for a third time, they’ll be getting it right. Sadly, even though Meryl Streep consistently delivers, we seem to just expect that from her.
As for who’s missing out on the party, there are a number of good candidates, but Dustin and Brian agree that Sally Hawkins got incorrectly snubbed for her amazing work in “Happy-Go-Lucky”. Patrick wishes a former winner was in there for an early-year comedy - Frances McDormand in “Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day”.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Photo credit: Warner Brothers
Josh Brolin, “Milk”
-1st nomination; won National Board of Review and New York Critics Award
Robert Downey Jr., “Tropic Thunder”
-2nd nomination (no wins)
Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Doubt”
-3rd nomination (one win)
Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
-2nd nomination (no wins); won BAFTA, Boston Critics, Chicago Critics, Golden Globe, LA Critics, and SAG Award
Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”
-1st nomination (no wins)
Like the rest of the world, there’s nothing but agreement here, as the staff at HollywoodChicago.com thinks the Academy will get it right and give Mr. Ledger his last Oscar for his amazing work in “The Dark Knight”.
There’s even a bit of agreement on who should have been nominated to be another category bridesmaid for Mr. Ledger. Both Dustin and Brian would have liked to hear James Franco’s name read on nomination morning, although Mr. Levell would have voted for him for “Milk” and Mr. Tallerico for “Pineapple Express”. It makes one wonder if the split at HC wasn’t in the Academy too, causing neither performance to make the final five.
Once again, Mr. McDonald digs back deeper into early 2008, praising Haaz Sleiman’s work in “The Visitor,” a film that we would all agree wasn’t nominated enough by Oscar 2009.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Viola Davis in Doubt
Photo credit: Miramax
Amy Adams, “Doubt”
-2nd nomination (no wins)
Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
-2nd nomination (no wins); won BAFTA, Boston Critics, Los Angeles Critics, National Board of Review, and New York Critics
Viola Davis, “Doubt”
-1st nomination
Taraji P. Henson, “The Curious Case of Benjmain Button”
-1st nomination
Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”
-3rd nomination (one win)
This is that rare category where everyone nominated is just as deserving of the win. The category that is arguably most up in the air has nearly no online consensus, but both Brian and Patrick think the smallest supporting role will be the big winner and Viola Davis’ work in “Doubt” will take home the Oscar. It’s the toughest category but Davis made the most of her screen time over Tomei’s ultimate “exposure” as a stripper.
Dustin goes with Nate Silver (the notorious election prognosticator of fivethirtyeight.com) and picks Taraji P. Henson for her touching work in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”.
Dustin and Patrick would like to see Marisa Tomei take home a second trophy for her daring work in “The Wrestler” and Brian certainly wouldn’t be disappointed by that win, but he’d love to see the critic’s darling win the Oscar and Penelope Cruz hear her name early in the Oscar telecast. She should have won for “Volver” anyway.
Only Amy Adams doesn’t register as a “will win” or “should win,” indicating the range of support for this category, but Patrick still finds a way to praise her, noting that she should have been nominated for “Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day”.
Brian wishes the Academy would have recognized the title character of “Rachel Getting Married” and walked Rosemarie DeWitt down the Oscar aisle while Dustin longs for the days when Kate Winslet was still in this category for “The Reader”. At least it would be an easier pick.
Mickey Rourke also won BAFTA
You failed to mention in your article that Mickey Rourke also won the BAFTA award for Best Actor. This actually gives Rourke an extra edge over Sean Penn. In the past four years, the four BAFTA acting award winners have also won the Oscars. Winning a SAG award, does not mean Penn will win the Oscar. Penn has never won a SAG award before (this was his 5th nomination) and that is why his peers gave him one this time. I really think that Mickey Rourke will win the Oscar, unless politics win over merit and performance, which is a shame.
BAFTA vs. SAG
Thanks for catching that and it has been corrected, although I’m not sure I agree that it gives Rourke the edge. You say that “in the past four years, the four BAFTA acting winners have also won the Oscars.” But the same holds true for the SAG winner. Going back further than the last four years…
2004 - split with BAFTA picking Bill Murray, SAG Johnny Depp and the Academy Sean Penn.
2003 - both SAG and BAFTA went with Daniel Day-Lewis, the Academy chose Adrien Brody.
2002 - both SAG and BAFTA picked Russell Crowe, the Academy chose Denzel Washington
2001 - BAFTA chose Jamie Bell (!!!!), SAG went with Benicio Del Toro for Traffic (who did win but not in lead), and the Academy picked Crowe.
2000 - all three Spacey.
1999 - all three Benigni.
That’s ten years where BAFTA and SAG were either both right or both wrong. It almost lends credence to the theory that they’ll split the vote and Frank Langella or Richard Jenkins would win. It’s clearly one of the closest Best Actor races in history. I’d love to see the vote totals on this one.
Brian Tallerico
Content Director HollywoodChicago.com
Mickey
I really hope to see Mickey Rourke win Best Actor. His performance was amazing. And yet Penn’s was also superb. Seeing who wins will definitely be the most interesting part of the Oscars this year.
“Langella, Penn and Jenkins just got picked in the wrong year.” - I think you meant Pitt, not Penn. :)
Slumdog open my world
I have just seen the movies 2 day ago and i totally fell in love with it. It is open up my world about India because of Slumdog. Everything is fit and perfect.