Oscar Unchained, Part One
Well, I guess it’s about time to weigh in on this year’s Oscars, or at least start weighing in. All the major pre-Oscar awards have been handed out, and so there’s nothing else to consider when trying to get a sense of how the Academy may be swaying. With the surprise of Ben Affleck’s omission from the Best Director slate, the race has found an unexpected jolt of suspense. If Affleck had simply been nominated by the Academy’s branch of directors, then the race would now look as though the outcome was a foregone conclusion, with Ben and his Argo taking home the top two prizes. After all, Argo won Best Drama and Best Director at the Golden Globes, then the SAG ensemble prize, the PGA’s Best Picture, and, most significant of all, the DGA’s Best Director award. The million-dollar question is whether or not the Academy will vote for Argo as Best Picture even without a corresponding nomination for Affleck’s direction. It does look a little silly to announce that a picture is the year’s best but that its director’s work didn’t quite rank among the top five directorial achievements this year. But, if they bypass Argo, don’t they then look like they were forced into voting for their second choice? If Argo does in fact win Best Picture, it will make the winner of the Best Director Oscar look as though he were holding a consolation prize and not an Oscar as shiny as the others given out that night. When Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), or maybe David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), wins Best Director, won’t he feel Affleck breathing down his neck? Anyway, it will be kind of fun to watch the Oscars without any clear idea of what will win Best Picture or who will win Best Director.
One thing seems certain: Daniel Day-Lewis will become the first three-time winner of the Best Actor Oscar. His portrait of Lincoln is extraordinary. End of story. I do wish that John Hawkes was in the running for his outstanding work in The Sessions. His absence is unforgivable, especially when voters found room for Hugh Jackman’s empty, lifeless performance in Les Miz.
The Best Actress race has been talked about as a stand-off between two relative newcomers: Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty and Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook. There’s no question who has the more “Oscar” role. That would be Lawrence, and so I predict that she’ll take home the award. Chastain has the handicap of playing someone whose character is her job, who doesn’t really get to show a personality separate from her work. And so we don’t get to know her, aside from the conviction and smarts with which she pursues her investigation. As for Lawrence, well, she has a role that was built to allow a talented young actress to shine. As a bruised girl with a hard shell and an aching vulnerability (that she tries to conceal), Lawrence reminded me a bit of Shirley MacLaine in The Apartment. She becomes the emotional center of Silver Linings even though the movie is about Bradley Cooper’s character. (Similarly, The Apartment is about Jack Lemmon, but MacLaine, without effort, deepens our investment and sympathy and, therefore, breaks our heart.) And the climax of Silver Linings belongs to Lawrence. It’s her happiness, more than the so-called star’s, that we’re rooting for. She has what might be called a ferocious poignancy.
Wide open is the Best Supporting Actor race, in which all five contenders have a shot. It seems to me that Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) played leading roles, but all five men, cast to their strengths, did exemplary work. If pushed, I’d guess that Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln) will be the victor. I also must admit that my top choice in this category didn’t make the cut. That would be Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained), in what may be the year’s riskiest performance. Playing a character who’s most uncomfortable and troubling to encounter—a villainous, surprisingly powerful and power-abusing slave—Jackson channels every black stereotype of Hollywood movies of the 1930s and ’40s and transforms his character into a funny, terrifying, and unforgettable creation.
If Sally Field wins Best Supporting Actress for her Mary Todd Lincoln in Lincoln, she will become, with only three nominations, what it took Meryl Streep 17 nominations to become: a winner of three Oscars, two for Best Actress and one for Best Supporting Actress. I’m going to guess that Streep isn’t voting for Field, but I’d vote for Field because she deserves it.
One more thing about Argo. Last year, much was made about The Artist being the first Best Picture actually about Hollywood. Well, here we are, just one year later, with Argo, a movie that makes Hollywood a hero in a true life-or-death political thriller, quite conceivably on its way to becoming the second Best Picture about the movie industry.
