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6B - The Michigan Daily - Weekend MaaZiie - Thursday, March 21, 2002
The Michigan Daily - Weeked Magazine-
Mad dog Kingsley should
take Oscar from McKellen
BEST _(nominated this year for Best to cross off in your office Oscar
Actor) volleys flawlessly between poll. Followed, shortly thereafter,
SUPPORTING street-wise cop and homicidal mon- by Jon Voight.
ACT ster. The fact that Hawke actually Voight is as good as he's been in
spent more time on-screen than years as infamous sports announcer
Washington yet didn't receive a Howard Cosell in Michael Mann's
By Lyle Henretty nomination for Best Actor, is "Ali," though the biopic sunk like a
Daily Arts Editor telling of how close attention the ship at the box office. Like Hawke,
academy was paying to him. While Voight is likely to be overshadowed
The Best Actor in a Supporting Hawke does a fine job, the flimsy by his leading actor, as many view
Role has been the most consistently role and even flim- Will Smith's turn as "The Greatest"
astute category in the 74 year sier reviews the to be his finest performance to
Oscar history. Except when the ..film received date. It's also not in Voight's favor
occasional mind-numbing work of (as a whole, that he seems to randomly choose
camp receives the award (Jack though the roles out of a hat, and his bad
Palance took home the little bald acting was choices seem more glaring than his
guy in 1991 for "City Slickers") almost uni- good. His masterful early work in
more top-end performances have u< "v e r s a 1 1 y "Midnight Cowboy" and "Deliver-
been rewarded in this category than p r a i s e d ) ance" seems to have an equal (yet
its more prestigious "leading" makes him opposite) counterpart in "Anacon-
counterpart (Roberto Benigni, for the first da" and "Varsity Blues." Voight
the love of God?). This award has n a m e needs to screw his acting head on
helped character actors achieve straight before receives any more
immortality (Joe Pesci for 1990's awards.
"Goodfellas") and allowed super- Jim Broadbent, on the other
stars to sink their teeth into hand, has made nothing but good
meatier roles (Sean Connery choices this year, appearing in
took home the award in 1987 for both Best Picture nominee
"The Untouchables"). "Moulin Rouge," as well as
This year's race pits five very "Iris", for which he was nomi-
good actors against one anoth- nated. The main problem is that
er, though, as usual, the he is more well-known for his
showier roles will probably "Rouge" turn, and his chameleon
take home the gold. This change between the two films is
almost certainly rules out just too astonishing. Broad-
Ethan Hawke and his role as a bent's breathtaking, loopy turn
stunned rookie cop in "Training as father-figure/pimp to Nicole
Day." Hawke's Jake Hoyt does Kidman in Rouge offsets the
little but react to Denzel Wash- subtlety of his work in "Iris."
ington's ferocious Detective courtesy of2ot Century Fox His quieter role as the lifelong
Alonzo Harris, as the older man Kingsley attempts to turn this oppertunity "Yes." companion to writer Iris Mur-
doch will likely be stomped by
a pair of knights who utilized their
Shakespearean roots to create the
most epic of figures.
Thus, the race comes down to
Sirs Ian McKellen and Ben
Kingsley for their two most larger-
than-life performances to date. Lit-
erally, for McKellen, who plays
J.R.R. Tolkien's sage wizard Gan-
dalf a full four feet taller than his
Hackman,
'Memento' most
egregious Oscar omissions
Do British men often take home Oscars? Do they, Gandalf?
Hobbit counterparts in "The Lord
of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring." While the fantasy hero is
certainly not the artistic achieve-
ment of McKellen's career, his
graceful command of the role is a
factor in elevating the film from a
mere nerdy special-effects extrava-
ganza to an all-out epic master-
piece. Gandalf is as regal and
poised as an older Henry V, with
some of the same vices. As an
added bonus, McKellen was robbed
of a Best Actor Statue for 1998's
"Gods and Monsters" by a little
scary Italian man who shall remain
nameless.
The only Oscar nomination for
Jonathan Glazer's masterful black
comedy/character study was
for Kingsley's pit bull of a
low-level gangster, Don
Logan. Kingsley plays
Logan like an outgrowth
from Richard III's hump.
He chomps through other
characters with bit-
ing anger byr
spitting their
words and -
actions back ~
at them with
wants his way, and his temper
tantrums may include putting a cig-
arette out in your eye. The fact that
the academy singled out Kingsley
from this criminally overlooked
gem should work in his favor, as
should the constant buzz that has
surrounded his performance since
the film's release last June. Many
Oscar voters respond positively to
an about-face in characterization,
and Logan is a far cry from Kings-
ley's Oscar-winning "Gandhi."
Logan is as ruthless and cutting as
Gandhi was calm and good. This is
Kingsley's race to win.
Unless the un-nominated Steve
Buscemi (who gave the performance
of his career in "Ghost World")
takes home a surprise (and
quite impossible) victory,
look for Kingsley to take
home the gold in a fairly
just category. Either that, or
Ethan Hawke will win in
jthe Academy of Motion Pic-
ture Arts and Sciences'
F attempt to get mil-
lions of Ameri-
cans to switch
Soff their tele-
vision sets
before things
Courtesy of Columbia Pictures really get
Raider" ugl.
By Andy TaylorFabe
Daily Film Editor
It's the show you love to hate. From
the geekiest cinephile to the most
mainstream of viewers, everyone cries
tears of rage about the Oscar nomina-
tions and the inevitable omission of
someone or something that should
have been chosen.
For the Best Picture category, the
most obvious omission is "Memento'
which lost its momentum due in part
to its spring release (and also because
it's just a damn strange movie and the
Academy doesn't like taking chances).
The film is about a man named
Leonard (played by Guy Pearce) with
short term memory loss (you see, he
has this condition ...) who is on a con-
fusing and frustrating quest to find his
wife's killer. The film is painstakingly
constructed, and the chopped up, back-
wards timeline of the film firmly
plants you in Leonard's shoes. Pearce
could have also swung a Best Actor
nomination, but I guess they figured
they had enough Aussies this year.
Many have commented on the fact
that the directors of two of the Best
Picture nominees, "Moulin Rouge"
and "In the Bedroom," didn't receive
nominations. People have been espe-
cially vocal on the exclusion of Baz
Luhrmann, considering that "Moulin
Rouge" received nominations in many
technical categories in addition to Best
Picture. This year's director nomina-
tions follow a trend that prompted
Billy Crystal, while commenting on a
parallel situation, to ask "Did this film
direct itself?" This is nice in theory,
but the Director and Best Picture cate-
Which fitm will win
Best Picture...
A Beautiful Mind
45.3%
The Lord of the Rin s:e
TheFe 4oship ot e
A11A..
I Bedroom.
\* \
Gosford Park
3.8%0
Best Picture nominee had to also get a
Best Director nomination, we could
combine the two categories, cutting the
show's runtime down to a trim three
and a half hours.
Several films were snubbed on mul-
tiple fronts. David Lynch's "Mulhol-
land Drive" got him a Director
nomination, but Australian actress
Naomi Watts was passed over (see
above for anti-Australian conspiracy
theory). "Mulholland Drive" is also
more than deserving of some of the
technical awards as well, but alas,
Lynch and his perfectly molded pom-
padour will only be present to not win
Best Director.
The quirky and self-conscious
"Ghost World" was completely
ignored, with the exception of the Best
Adapted Screenplay award. No one
who saw the last third of the film
would argue that it deserves Best
Picture, but Thora BirchN
with her fiber-sarcastic,
deadpan Enid,
should have been
recognized above
Renee Zellweger's
Bridget Jones.
However, the most
criminal omission is
Steve Buscemi
for his role as
the shy
a n d
socially
record
collec-
tor Sey-
mou r.
has given
rock-solid performances in everything
he has done, but has yet to win an
Oscar. Criminal.
If there was a Screw-job of the Year
award, it would have to go to Gene
Hackman. His performance as Royal
Tenenbaum, in Wes Anderson's "The
Royal Tenenbaums," is one of his best.
Royal is the jackass of all jackasses,
and Hackman, with characteristic sub-
tlety and humor, manages to make him
likable. When his children ask if his
divorce is their fault, he quickly
replies, "Well, obviously we had to
make certain sacrifices when we had
you, but Lord no." Hackman hasn't
won a Best Actor award since "The
French Connection" ("Unforgiven"
was Best Supporting), and he contin-
ues to be ignored.
Actually, "The Royal Tenenbaums"
as a whole was largely ignored as well,
with only a Best Original Screenplay
nomination. With a cast that could
have dominated the Best Support-
ing Actor and Actress categories, it
is shocking to see nary a smiling
Tenenbaum face among the ranks
of the nominations.
The newly formed Best Ani-
mated Feature category is off
Ray, to an inauspicious start
ignorant of with the inclusion of
the impending "Jimmy Neutron:
boulder Boy Genius." It
Courtesy of is not that the
SPictures movie itself is so
offensive, but
that it is unbe-
lievable that it
could be cho-
sen over
~ ~ Richard Lin-
klater's
C'mon, it's beer o'clock and Teddy's buyit
thoughtful, if pretentious "Waking
Life," whose fluid animation is capti-
vating enough that the dialogue could
have been made up of text from a phi-
losophy textbook and no one would
have cared ... oh, wait. Hell, even
"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within,"
with photo-realistic animation, could
have displaced "Jimmy Neutron."
The Coen Brothers' "The Man Who
Wasn't There," one of the most beauti-
fully made movies of the year, was
only nominated in one of the technical
categories (Best Editing). Tony Shal-
houb's performance as Freddy Rieden-
schneider, a slick, amoral, fast-talking
lawyer from Sacramento, was both
comic and disturbing. Unfortunately,
even your average well-informed
movie fan doesn't know who Tony
Vietnam and Viel
You are invited to aft
Yung
Author of A Thou
Married to an America
CIA
FBI
Daughter of North Vietnam's w
Yung will address student and
been invited. She will then
No question;
Friday, March 2
Kellogg Auditorium
1011 Nortt
on the corner of North Un
A reception and book signing will fi
the Gordon H. Sindecuse A
Subjects Yung will address:
" Her insights into the
- Vietnam then - Afgh
- Her encounter with,
- The true aftermath c
- Who really were the
accomplish?
Co-sponsored by the Ur
and Gary Lillie anc
www.ga