Shearing the Oscars: Best Actor

This weekend, Black Sheep will be taking a closer look at one of the most exciting categories and one of the most infuriating at this year's Academy Awards. As I figure it best to start my weekend on a positive note, I am going to go with exciting to start. The ladies will wait until tomorrow, where apparently I will begin my day with a coffee and a scowl as I muse on their category. Meanwhile, if we could get to the gentlemen, and they all appear to be folks I could say that about, I describe the Best Actor category as exciting because I genuinely feel that they all deserve to be there. Though Bridges definitely has the edge, it is not a lost cause for the other competitors. And the nominees are ...

JEFF BRIDGES as Bad Black in CRAZY HEART


I did not get the chance to review Scott Cooper's CRAZY HEART when it came out but if I had I would have called it pretty good but not amazing. I also would have said that Bridge's incredible performance is the only real reason to see this film. To watch him disheveled and barely able to stand up is to understand how heavy life can get for an alcoholic who has no respect for his own self. His expression is restrained and real but his resonance is staggering. Bridges has been nominated for four Oscars already, the first for 1971's THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and the last for 2000's THE CONTENDER, but he has yet to win. After snagging the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award for this role, Bridges does seem somewhat destined.

GEORGE CLOONEY as Ryan Bingham in UP IN THE AIR


Clooney had the momentum going in. He picked up early kudos from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle for his smooth work as Ryan Bingham, in Jason Reitman's UP IN THE AIR. The role almost seems tailor made for Clooney, as art imitates what we think we know about his life. Bingham is unattached and approaching 50. He has no interest in settling in one place in particular or holding any one person's hand for too long. Clooney brings so much more than himself to the role though. He brings class and sophistication and such sympathy that he sets the tone for the film to follow. He has lost his edge though and has already won for a supporting role in SYRIANA. He could turn it around but I fear his plane might be grounded.

COLIN FIRTH as George in A SINGLE MAN


I have never really been a big Colin Firth fan. When I caught the North American premiere of Tom Ford's A SINGLE MAN at TIFF this fall though, I was floored by the depth of his range and how much sadness he could carry in his soul. Firth was on hand for the premiere and he could not appear to be more proud of his work and the film itself. The Academy didn't shower A SINGLE MAN with any other love than this nod though so Firth has his work cut out for him. He won awards for his work at the Venice Film Festival as well as from some West Coast critic's associations but so far, he has come up short for anything really big. This is his first nomination and without a major campaign, I can't see this being his first win as well.

MORGAN FREEMAN as Nelson Mandela in INVICTUS


I'm happy to say that with Freeman's and Matt Damon's Supporting Actor nods being the only one's awarded to Clint Eastwood's INVICTUS, it would appear that the Academy's unconditional love for all of Eastwood's work is finally falling off. The best thing about INVICTUS is the acting and Freeman certainly deserves to be nominated for his uncanny interpretation of the former President of South Africa. My criticism, and also why I don't feel this fifth nomination will turn into a second win for Freeman, is that his performance often borders more on imitation.

JEREMY RENNER as Staff Sgt. William James in THE HURT LOCKER


Renner's nod is the only one that doesn't match my Top 5 for the year. I enjoyed him. I felt that he brought different layers to a role that could have been very one-dimensional. I just happened to enjoy another performance more (Michael Stuhlbarg in A SERIOUS MAN). Renner is a fairly fresh face and this is his first nomination. My guess is that he got swept up in the enormous support for Kathryn Bigelow's THE HURT LOCKER and that just being honoured among these other veteran actors is his award.

WHO WILL WIN? Jeff Bridges

WHO COULD STILL UPSET? George Clooney

And so there are the men. Tomorrow, it's the women. I will not be covering the supporting categories as those are pretty much locks already. What do you think? Who do you think will win? And who do you think actually should win? Black Sheep wants to know what you think!

THE DARK KNIGHT

Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman


Alfred Pennyworth: Some men simply want to watch the world burn.

There can only be one Batman and as I sat amongst a full crowd that was silent in awed anticipation at the crack of the film, it is clear that director, Christopher Nolan’s Batman is the one. In BATMAN BEGINS, Nolan (whom at the time he attempted to revive the franchise had only directed a handful of indie projects) took an icon and made him human. Batman, and of course his real life persona, Bruce Wayne, was damaged. He had fears; he had frustrations; he had to find himself. What he found with a little push from Nolan was a flawed figure but also a man whose heroism was defined by his humility and relentless pursuit of justice for those incapable of demanding it for themselves. With the arrival of THE DARK KNIGHT, Nolan has finished with his foundation and taken to the vertigo-inducing heights on the tallest of Gotham’s buildings to analyze the city and all its inhabitants. Gliding both gracefully and dauntingly through all of it is the dark knight himself (reprised by third time Nolan collaborator, Christian Bale). What he sees from his unique view that becomes our privileged spectacle is world of delineating lines and order that is about to torn apart by chaos and chance.


Gotham City must be pretty far down the list of safest places in America to live. Not only does there seem to be nightly violence at the hands of common street thugs but all the crazies seem to end setting up shop there too. Enter the Joker (Heath Ledger). We know nothing of what made him the homicidal maniac he is nor does he have any regard for human life. In fact, he has nothing but disdain for it. Humanity’s rules and order may disgust him but they also make it possible for him to predict how people will behave, allowing him the chance to throw out loops to throw them off and laugh at their expense. The Joker is frightening enough in concept but Ledger’s performance is down right terrifying. As he constantly licks his lips with self-assured cynicism, he cuts to the chase in every scenario. He has no time for any games other than the ones he orchestrates himself and commands control everywhere he goes. His idea of playing always involves games with the ultimate consequence and the highest of stakes. In order to win these games, you must reject what you know and become everything you denounce. Only winners will know the rewards of living both sides of the coin and the Joker is counting on fear to prevail so that he can finally have someone to play with.


Along with his brother, Jonathan, Nolan has crafted a dark, twisted dissection of duality and morality that is often shocking, unexpected and intricately detailed. In every superhero tale, everyone always wants to know the man behind the mask. The mask itself, the creation of another persona other than the one that sits safely behind it, initiates the duality that permeates the notion of the superhero figure. Batman is the dark knight. He only comes out at night and no one would suspect the man he is by day might be one and the same. The Joker’s chaos theory ruptures Batman’s controlled existence and forces him to think in a darker fashion than he has ever had to before. Thinking that darkly though can leave you stranded in that space and this is what the Joker is counting on. What makes THE DARK KNIGHT so rich is that almost every character has conflict and questions their actions and motivations. No answer is the clear right answer and deceit seems to play a role in even the most well-intentioned decisions. The greatest irony is that the darkest character actually has the purest of souls while the would be clown seems to have no soul at all. This is perhaps what makes them such worthy adversaries and why they both almost seem to enjoy the challenge.


When THE DARK KNIGHT feels like it might be ending, the anxiety mounts because you won’t want it to end. It has an enormous scope but is somehow still subtle. It is incredibly complex but yet still simple. The film itself is steeped in just as much duality as its hero. Nolan never loses control of his dualistic duty – to create a Batman film that pleases both the masses and the fans, that encompasses the grandness of a blockbuster with the darkness of the independent spirit and wows without resorting to cheap tricks. Once again, Nolan has grounded the sensational on a very firm footing by never allowing Batman to be anything other than a man. We can then stand on the same level ground as the giant bat and feel a satisfaction that is both real and incredible.

WANTED

Written by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas and Chris Morgan
Directed by Timur Bekmanbetov
Starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Common and Morgan Freeman


Wesley Gibson: I’m finding it hard to care about anything these days. In fact, the only thing I care about is the fact that I can’t seem to care about anything.

I don’t usually say things like this but there’s just something about WANTED that brings out the boy in me so you’ll just have to indulge me. WANTED is awesome! Seriously. Awesome. Well, it’s awesome and also oddly preachy and condescending out of nowhere. And I guess if I’m being completely honest, it is also ludicrous. I mean, essentially, you’ve got this guy, Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) and, unbeknownst to him, he is the son of one of the world’s greatest assassins. Apparently, the ability to hit a target in the most impossible of scenarios is passed on from one generation to the next. (See, I always thought it skipped a generation but I’m hardly an expert on the subject.) Meanwhile, what’s he doing with this gift? Nothing. He is sitting around, wasting his time as a number cruncher in a cramped little box, I mean, cubicle, while letting his supposed best bud get away with nailing his girl on the side. (I apologize if that was offensive to any female readers but WANTED really got my testosterone pumping.) Frankly, I don’t know how this wussy little pushover even managed to get a girlfriend but he can also shoot the wings off flies so his having a girl is pretty believable by comparison. By the way, shooting the wings off flies … awesome!


Really, what is the more ludicrous scenario here? Is it any more unbelievable that there is a thousand year old group of assassins out there who kill bad guys before they fulfill their bad guy destinies than the reality that a vast majority of humanity gives the bulk of their lives away to the bad guys every day, contributing to their own slow deaths? When you think about how many of us are giving up our dreams, our hopes and our control over our own lives, it’s a wonder more of us don’t get up and become killing machines. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I work in one of these lovely boxes. I swear, every day I’m there, it’s getting a little smaller. So yeah, my friends had to hold me down to stop me from standing and cheering loudly when Gibson grows a pair and tells his boss to stick it before slamming his ergonomic keyboard into his best friend’s face. There isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t want to tell everyone I work with (who hopefully never read my work) exactly what I think of them before breaking out into a musical number with full choreography announcing my departure.


Uh, sorry, my testosterone must have dipped there for a second. No problem though. Another screening of WANTED will fix that. Contemporary visual innovator, Timur Bekmambetov, crams so much manliness into his first Hollywood feature that men everywhere who see it will inevitably walk out with their hands firmly grabbing their crotches. They may even spit. Who knows? You’ve got colliding car chases, furious fistfights, enormous explosions and Angelina Jolie. The best part about all of this is that Bekmambetov ropes it all together with unpredictable ferocity. Sure there are unavoidable MATRIX inspired action scenes but once those are out of the way, the action always feels fresh and excitingly innovative. And while the stunts and scenarios are often shockingly brash, Jolie, as Gibson’s assassin mentor, is controlled and calculated, like a mechanical goddess. She appears to Gibson when he looks away for a second and for a while, it seems like he might be imagining her as a way out of his doldrums. Once she gets a few good punches in on him during training though, it becomes clear that she is definitely there to wake him up but his scars are most certainly not imagined.


WANTED is about wanting something from life, from yourself. It is about not giving in to the conformist existence so many of us fall into and choosing to walk a different path, a more exciting path. Now I don’t think it’s encouraging everyone to leave their desk jobs and kill people professionally. That has to run in your family, remember? There is no mistake though that Bekmambetov wants to wake you up. In fact, he gets a little aggressive on the subject in the film’s final scenes. This is the only thing that irked me about the entire experience. I had already had a blast the whole time that the energy itself was enough to get my blood boiling over the monotony of my weekday life. Up until then, it seemed as though he had sympathy for Gibson and the millions of us out there just like Gibson. But then, all of a sudden, he was pointing the finger directly at me and calling me a loser to my face. Still, maybe getting everyone angry is the only way to get anyone to actually do something about it.