SAG Awards 2010

SAG Awards

These awards may claim to be about acting, but really the main departure from the Golden Globes is that of pretension and class. There are only a few awards to be won and it tends to be a pretty inoffensive show. Onwards!

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture:

An Education
The Hurt Locker: PROBABLE. This is where they get to make their Best Picture winner guess. “Slumdog Millionaire” won last year, and the young stars of that haven’t done much of anything this past year. “Hurt Locker” is a critical favorite and actually features some top-notch acting in addition to its heady subject matter.
Inglorious Basterds
Nine
Precious

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role:

Jeff Bridges
George Clooney
Colin Firth: PROBABLE. Gay rights are still the hot thing, especially out in Hollywood. Bridges will likely take the Oscar but I can’t see Firth being ignored totally by his peers.
Morgan Freeman
Jeremy Renner

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role:

Sandra Bullock
Helen Mirren
Carey Mulligan
Gabourey Sidbe
Meryl Streep: PROBABLE. There can never be a category where both Meryl Streep AND Helen Mirren get ignored, can they? This a tiny bit of a crapshoot. “Julie and Julia” premeired and Streep was the shoo-in. Then “Precious” came out, and Sidbe could have ridden that film’s popularity to the finish. “An Education” seemed to blow everyone away, but since, Mulligan has yet to receive anything for her performance. Bullock got lucky last week at the Golden Globes, and I would be more shocked than Mickey Rourke to see her win again.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role:

Matt Damon
Woody Harrelson
Christopher Plummer
Stanley Tucci
Christoph Waltz: PROBABLE. This is the one I’d bet on. I can be confident here. None of these other actors were as vital to their film as Waltz was to “Inglourious Basterds.”

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role:

Penelope Cruz
Vera Farmiga
Anna Kendrick
Diane Kruger
Mo’Nique: PROBABLE. Her win last week solidified my theory. Actors love to see other actors lose their shit onscreen. It’s a performance most would describe as “fearless” (I prefer “shameless”) and has personal relevance to her. It would be hard for her not to win.

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series:

The Closer
Dexter
The Good Wife
Mad Men: PROBABLE. A classy, well designed show that’s also low-key enough to sit back every week and let its actors do the work. This season also showcased each major character at some sort of crossroads. Really good stuff.
True Blood

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series:

30 Rock
Curb Your Enthusiasm: PROBABLE. It’s like giving an award to “Sienfeld.” There’s been a huge “30 Rock” backlash and I can assure that neither it nor “The Office” will walk away with the prize.
Glee
Modern Family
The Office

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series:

Simon Baker
Brian Cranston
Michael C. Hall: PROBABLE. He’s great on “Dexter,” the show just avoided a major vacuum of creativity and is more popular than ever, and the man is currently kicking cancer’s ass. He wins.
Jon Hamm
Hugh Laurie

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series:

Patricia Arquette
Glenn Close
Mariska Hargitay
Holly Hunter: PROBABLE. At least, I hope so. Why Margulies won last week while Hunter wasn’t even nominated is beyond me.
Julianna Margulies
Kyra Sedgewick

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series:

Alec Baldwin: PROBABLE. Baldwin takes “30 Rock’s” consolation prize, else the show walks home empty-handed. The dark horse could be Shaloub, whose show recently went off the air with a touch of deserved sentimentality.
Steve Carrell
Larry David
Tony Shaloub
Charlie Sheen

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series:

Christina Applegate
Toni Collette: PROBABLE. She plays up to four roles an episode. Exhausting, plus it holds the weak premise of the show together (barely).
Edie Falco
Tina Fey
Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:

Kevin Bacon: PROBABLE. It’s a TV movie, yes, but he’s also Kevin Bacon, and sadly this puts his recent movie roles to shame.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Jeremy Irons
Kevin Kline
Tom Wilkinson

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries:

Joan Allen
Drew Barrymore: PROBABLE. “Grey Gardens” was just like a theatrical release, save for the fact that Barrymore was actually quite good in it. My earlier prediction that she and Lange would split the vote turned out to be false earlier, but if anyone could steal, it’s be Dee.
Ruby Dee
Jessica Lange
Sigourney Weaver

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture:

Public Enemies
Star Trek: PROBABLE. Great movie, and it had lots of hand-to-hand combat and jumping around.
Transformers 2

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series:

24
The Closer
Dexter
Heroes: PROBABLE? A boring note to go out on.
The Unit

These awards generally tend to be quiet and reserved—unless someone particularly raucous wins something (cough, Sean Penn, cough). Not much fanfare, not much coverage on the red carpet.

Golden Globes 2010

Golden Globes 2010

The Golden Globes kick off the movie awards season, so they are noteworthy only because most of the major players turn out to be repeats, and there are so many categories that the awards actually tend to be given out at a reasonable pace. Ricky Gervais is hosting and it will certainly be an entertaining three hours of television.

That said, I haven’t gotten the chance to see many of the year’s biggest pictures. Case in point, I missed: “Up,” “Up In the Air,” “The Hurt Locker,” “The Lovely Bones,” “An Education,” “A Single Man” and probably more that will rightfully get noticed.

BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA: I saw only “Basterds” and “Avatar,” and am not rooting for either. I think “Hurt Locker” is a frontrunner.
• Avatar
• The Hurt Locker: Probable
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious
• Up in the Air
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA:I missed every single one of these performances and the movies that go with them.
• Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education: Probable
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA: Again, I didn’t see a single one of these.
• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man: Probable
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Tobey Maguire, Brothers
BEST MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Strangely, I’ve seen all but “It’s Complicated,” which I plan on seeing soon. I had a lighthearted year.
• (500) Days of Summer: Preferable?
• The Hangover: Probable
• It's Complicated
• Julie & Julia
• Nine
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: A weird category. Streep may be hurt by the double nomination. Cotillard returned to form after the lackluster “Public Enemies” and gave an impossibly good performance in a flawed movie.
• Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
• Marion Cotillard, Nine: Preferable
• Julia Roberts, Duplicity
• Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia: Probable
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: This was a great year for classic Hollywood leading men in very unexpected parts. George Clooney belongs here, not on the “Drama” side.
• Matt Damon, The Informant!: Probable
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Nine
• Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer: Preferable
• Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM: No contest. Pixar always wins. A great set of nominees.
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox: Preferable
• The Princess and the Frog
• Up: Probable
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: I haven’t heard much American buzz about any of these, but it is the Hollywood Foreign Press.
• Baaria (Italy)
• Broken Embraces (Spain)
• The Maid (Chile)
• A Prophet (France)
• The White Ribbon (Germany): Possible?
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE: the “Up in the Air” ladies will split the vote. Mo’Nique has the sort of balls to the wall, disgustingly go for broke performance that generally wins things.
• Penélope Cruz, Nine
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Mo'Nique, Precious: Probable
• Julianne Moore, A Single Man
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE: it will be most disappointing if Waltz loses because of the insanity of the movie—his performance was quite refined; elegant, in a way.
• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger: Probable
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds: Preferable
BEST DIRECTOR: Here it’s a toss-up between Bigelow, whose movie has gotten nothing but good press, and Cameron, who worked tirelessly for years to get “Avatar’s” technical achievements perfect.
• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• James Cameron, Avatar: Probable
• Clint Eastwood, Invictus
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
BEST SCREENPLAY: Maybe here is where “District 9” is appeased?
• Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9: Probable
• Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
• Nancy Meyers, It's Complicated
• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds: Preferable
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: the “Up” score was brilliantly expressive, and hopefully Giacchino will be recognized as the best composer of the year, also creating a strong hook for “Star Trek” last spring.
• Michael Giacchino, Up: Probable and very preferable
• Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant!
• James Horner, Avatar
• Abel Korzeniowski, A Single Man
• Karen O and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: I hope no one wins.
• "Cinema Italiano," Music & Lyrics by Maury Yeston (Nine)
• "I Want to Come Home," Music & Lyrics by Paul McCartney (Everybody's Fine)
• "I Will See You," Music by James Horner, Simon Franglen; Lyrics by James Horner, Simon Franglen and Kuk Harrell (Avatar)
• "The Weary Kind," Music & Lyrics by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (Crazy Heart)
• "Winter," Music by U2; Lyrics by Bono (Brothers)
BEST TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA: Mad Men had an incredible season, while the other four shows coasted.
• Big Love
• Dexter
• House
• Mad Men: Preferable and Probable
• True Blood
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA: Sedgwick and Jones, the two seeming shoo-ins, did not thrill this year.
• Glenn Close, Damages
• January Jones, Mad Men: Probable
• Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
• Anna Paquin, True Blood
• Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES, DRAMA
• Simon Baker, The Mentalist
• Michael C. Hall, Dexter
• Jon Hamm, Mad Men: Probable
• Hugh Laurie, House
• Bill Paxton, Big Love
BEST TELEVISION SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Here there is possibility a surprise. “Glee” was the smash hit of the season. “30 Rock” is being judged for a poor season while a superior one airs, and “Modern Family” must have been nominated for a reason, right? Meanwhile, “Entourage” is approaching self-parody, and “The Office” had a series of bumpy episodes in a lukewarm season.
• 30 Rock
• Entourage
• Glee: Possible
• Modern Family: Preferable
• The Office
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: Tina Fey’s popularity, while not waning, is hardly rising after the Palin afterglow has worn off. Collette won the Emmy but the enthusiasm about her show has not sustained.
• Toni Collette, United States of Tara: Probable
• Courteney Cox, Cougar Town
• Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie
• Tina Fey, 30 Rock: Preferable
• Lea Michele, Glee
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES, COMEDY OR MUSICAL: “30 Rock” may be losing some steam, but Baldwin seems to be the last remaining solid double the series has.
• Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock: Preferable and Probable
• Steve Carell, The Office
• David Duchovny, Californication
• Thomas Jane, Hung
• Matthew Morrison, Glee
BEST MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: “Grey Gardens” got a lot of attention when it premiered. Pay attention. It’s good for you.
• Georgia O'Keefe
• Grey Gardens: Probable
• Into the Storm
• Little Dorrit
• Taking Chance
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: It’s difficult to tell because I haven’t seen a single one.
• Joan Allen, Georgia O'Keefe
• Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
• Jessica Lange, Grey Gardens
• Anna Paquin, The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler: Possible?
• Sigourney Weaver, Prayers for Bobby
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: I wouldn’t know.
• Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
• Kenneth Branagh, Wallander: One Step Behind
• Chiewetel Ejiofor, Endgame
• Brendan Gleeson, Into the Storm: Possible?
• Jeremy Irons, Georgia O'Keefe
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: Jane Lynch was the breakout star of “Glee,” which featured otherwise bland (and sometimes bad) casting choices.
• Jane Adams, Hung
• Rose Byrne, Damages
• Jane Lynch, Glee: Preferable and Probable
• Janet McTeer, Into the Storm
• Chloë Sevigny, Big Love
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION: NPH has been ignored for so long it seems silly to predict he’ll get any love now.
• Michael Emerson, Lost: Probable?
• Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother: Preferable
• William Hurt, Damages
• John Lithgow, Dexter
• Jeremy Piven, Entourage

Granted, this list is flawed. I have “Avatar” all but shut out, and “30 Rock” as well. But that said, the Golden Globes exist only to set our watches to the town clock and feel what the people that matter seem to be feeling.

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

There is a lot to like about the new Sherlock Holmes feature, but Guy Ritchie’s latest film evokes a few others, intentionally or no. The first that jumps to mind is “Bridget Jones,” solely due to the casting. Brits grumbled when Renee Zellwegger sloppily tried to capture the flighty charm of Helen Fielding’s character, but her undisputable foreign-ness was a roadblock nearly insurmountable. Robert Downey Jr., with his generally good but occasionally patchy accent, faces the same wrath.

The other film this one closely resembles is “Sweeney Todd.” Ritchie seems to be borrowing the CGI streets and artificial darkness Tim Burton put to use in 2007. It almost seems to serve as a companion piece. As Ritchie zooms through mysterious alleyways, chasing cloaked villains, one could almost expect to see Mrs. Lovett pining on a street corner, advertising her pie shop. As much as that film was about the discontent of gutter-dwelling murderers, this film is the opposite. Holmes and Watson enjoy their upper-class life in London, and I could hazard a guess that relocation would be impossible.

Arthur Conan Doyle captured the Victorian era in England well; only Charles Dickens can compete with him. And the beloved sleuth, pipe and stiff upper lip in tow, is the character that best summarizes the period, particularly for foreign audiences. In the past, English actors have gone at it with performances ranging from literally insane (Michael Caine) to ham-fisted (Rupert Everett), but the most beloved is the tweedy, intellectual sort, personified by Basil Rathborne in a “we are not amused” manner that characterizes the times more than it adapted Doyle’s book. In the original writings, Holmes was a drug-addicted, athletic man, and Watson was a competent doctor and soldier. This film takes those characters back to those types, and draws from the actors to create the rest of their dimensions.

Downey Jr. makes a convincing detective. Noticing that his wife is one of the producers of the film, I can’t help but wonder if she had any hand in his participation. He is equipped with his usual Method-y immersion into the world and character, but in the past has been less than skilled at where to point that entire obsessive, exhausting energy. His current hot streak of winning performances in films that match his talent causes me to raise an eyebrow and applaud Mrs. Downey if she’s been able to influence her husband as positively in his professional life as she seems to have been able to contain him in his now very reasonable private one. Enjoying every minute of paranoid sleuthing, Downey Jr. is both charming and, at times, petulant as a child, his talent for mystery solving leaving him emotionally stunted. He is no longer the frowning straight man, but the bumbling fool, a constant mess of corduroy jackets and patterned ties.

Jude Law plays Watson, and brings his typical more-English-than-you pout to the role. His attempts at annoyance constantly flirt with whining, and sometimes the bickering duo can come across too simpering, and, frankly, there is an element of feminine sabotage to their push-pull of a relationship. Law constantly kicks down doors, fences, and people, but he never has the physicality the role requires. His refinement, however, does play nicely off of Downey’s lack of ease. Law is quite capable of surly stillness and silence, and when he is in that mode he does his best acting.

Unfortunately, the film seems too preoccupied with its own homoeroticism. Both Holmes and Watson get love interests, the only point of which seems to be to disguise the sexual tension between the two leads. Rather than dissolve that attraction, however, Holmes’ attempts to seduce Watson back to 221B Baker Street to continue their gallivanting ways seem for reasons even more pronouncedly sexual. Holmes’ own love interest, played unconvincingly by Rachel McAdams (who just five years ago was still pretending to be in high school) really only appears to make Holmes seem more manly. Look! Sherlock kisses girls! But even Downey Jr. loses credibility in those scenes, and judging by the mysterious emission of some that appeared in the previews featuring McAdams in fishnets and lacy underthings, not even the editing room could make them work. Her random, totally modern American accent—she's supposed to be from New Jersey, technically, as the script clunkily tells us—just serves as another reminder that she is the typical, last-minute-addition, femme fatale. It all seems as threadbare as the kiss between Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann in the second “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, and “Sherlock Holmes” would have wasted far less time without her.

But those problems are something that the inevitable franchise will have to address in the future. What Ritchie and company have made here is a quite decent origin story. And like all other origin stories, there are setbacks. Every detail of every character must be painstakingly set up, and all without the relief of any standout supporting players or “the” villain. Like the Joker didn’t appear until “The Dark Knight,” so too does the major villain stay absent from this picture. But for an hour and a half, it’s entertaining to see Downey bring all of his Downey-isms to a stately Englishman and cavorting around town with Jude Law in his checkered coat and walking stick.

Both men are incredibly attractive. That is not to be overlooked.

My initial reaction at seeing the trailer was, “Holmes as Bond.” That viewpoint hasn’t changed much. Holmes is, for the moment, an action flick that has incredible potential to reach far deeper in the next go-round.