...and the Oscar for Best Actresss goes to.....

Posted: 12/30/03 at 9:02am

..or I'll eat my shirt!

Now...let's get her to Broadway!


"Theron delivers one of the greatest performances ever to be put on film"
-Roger Ebert - THE CHICAGO SUN TIMES

"Just give Theron the Oscar now. ... Rarely has an actor been given such an opportunity to play so far against type and rarely has she succeeded so well."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS

"Theron breaks through with a ferocious performance -- a real career-changer."
-- Peter Rainer, NEW YORK MAGAZINE

"Charlize Theron turns a Monster into a human being."
-- Scott Nash, THREE MOVIE BUFFS

"Charlize Theron delivers a bit of her soul within the bravest woman's role in years."
-- Emily Blunt, BLUNT REVIEW

"A brilliant, praise-hailing portrayal by Theron. One of the great performances of the past twenty years."
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM

The drama's uncompromising nature and, above all, Charlize Theron's powerful, physically astonishing performance should attract the kind of critical attention necessary to mine the specialized niche."
-- David Rooney, VARIETY

Heavier, with bad teeth and blotchy skin, Theron is nearly unrecognizable in the role. She's also astonishingly good."
-- Carla Meyer, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

In [Theron's] hands what might have been an extreme-acting stunt is instead an abrasive study in bitter, lethal desperation."
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 9:06am

* sigh *

And to those of us in Ohio, we can only hope this movie even plays around us.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 9:38am

I'm seeing it this very afternoon. I dread it, only because Woronos' life was a non-stop downer. But after BOYS DON'T CRY and MONSTERS BALL, we expect Oscar winners to be in movies requiring St. John's Wort be sprinkled on the popcorn.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 11:43am

It wasn't a stellar year for knockout performances on the female front though, so it's not like she has a huge amount of competition. With the possibility of Nicole Kidman snagging a double nomination (Cold Mountain and Human Stain, though she doesn't deserve to be up for either) and Scarlett Johanssen doing the same (Lost In Translation and Girl With A Pearl Earring), there might only be 3 people in the running. And I don't mean that to detract from what I hear is an absolute knockout of a performance in Monster by Ms Theron.

Supporting Actress has to go to Renee Zellwegger for Cold Mountain. She's outstanding.

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 11:45am

Rumor is still that Johanssen will be bumped down to Supporting for 'Lost In Translation.' No, it doesn't make sense but that's what's being said.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 11:54am

Which will make her the Julianne Moore of 2004. Nominated in leading and supporting, winning neither. Shame.

Posted: 12/30/03 at 12:16pm

Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give is the other main leading contender...a masterwork performance by a great actress...

It's between Keaton and Theron....so says "the buzz"..

Remember there is still a lot of alldacochca in AMPAS and they LOVE Diane...

Zellwegger can start writing her supporting speech now....their were people who thought she was robbbed last year...she is in almost every frame in CHICAGO and worked her ass off

...so did Kidman but she was in her film for 25 minutes...

even Kidman is pushing for her for this as well..(class act as always).and if Bob and Harvey have their way...well, done deal....

Colud Mountain is wonderful btw..did'nt think I would like it and just was swept away by it...

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 12:23pm

"If you're willing to glug a few hundred cans of Ensure, wear prosthetic teeth, conjure terminal impairment/homosexuality, and dredge up an OxyContin-slurred drawl that would scare the banjo off the inbred 'Deliverance' boy, importance can be yours. And thus, with an Oscar-angling performance that swings from muscularly sympathetic to pre-'Extreme Makeover'crass... Theron is poised to ride the tribulations of state-executed Florida prostitute and john-snuffing serial killer Aileen Wuornos straight to Slingbladin' Hilary Swankdom.

"It's in these moments that Theron's empathetic victim-wrath and elemental female outrage almost trump the otherwise cartoonish gender-bending and award-grubbing po' folk put-on." -- The Village Voice

I'll tell you what I am sick of. This kind of crap. I am so over the whole E! Network cycle of awards and pre-awards and post-awards and I'm sick of the "important" movies coming out after Xmas with all of these performances just designed to win awards so they can sell you the dvd version with deleted scenes. It's just garbage.

I'm getting to be like Dollypop, I'm coming to loathe movies. Unless an actor is IN FRONT OF MY FACE on a stage doing his or her job, I'm just going to assume that it's all smoke and mirrors, which is all the movies have ever been but I have grown sick of it and the hype and the breathless reportage. I don't need Ann Curry to tell me in the Today news on Monday mornings what the top box office gross was over the weekend. I DO NOT CARE.

And most importantly, I am sick of this formula like the one described above. "Ohh she gained weight for the part, how brave and unglamorous." Frig it. Do it on stage Charlene and all you other Oscar grubbers and maybe I'll pay attention.

Link

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 12:25pm

Actually, I find myself less and less interested in theater, especially Broadway, and far more interested in film where at least small works with talented actors have a chance to be seen. I'm supposed to trudge 7 hours to New York to see 'Wicked? (speaking of smoke and mirrors!')

Oh, please no ... let me see 'The Cooler' or 'House of Sand and Fog' any day. Updated On: 12/30/03 at 12:25 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 12:55pm

Oh, no no no no no no no. Non!

I certainly didn't mean to imply that. BROADWAY? No! Good lord. However, I'll travel a couple hours to see the upcoming Hartford Stage Company production of Charles Ludlam's The Mystery of Irma Vep starring Jeffery Roberson (a.k.a. Varla Jean Merman). Or something small and interesting, Off-Broadway, like that latest Kushner.

As for movies, I'm talking negatively about this "serious Hollywood" stuff, the TROLLING for Oscars and all that. The Farrah Fawcett in The Burning Bed phenomenon. Take a glamorous model type and make her look crappy and put her through hell. Hello, accolades. It's just as much a formula as anything else nowadways and I am surprised people are still falling for it.

Gimme an Iranian film festival and I'll be happy at the movies. But Paycheck? Lord of the Rings? Anything with a steam roller of hype? NTY.

Updated On: 12/30/03 at 12:55 PM

[JohnPopa]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:02pm

Ah, gotcha!

Although I do enjoy Hollywood awards season. Sure, it's calculated but, still, I'll see more good American movies in the next two months than I've seen all year. And some great performances, too.

Alas, that 'Return of the King' nonsense will probably get all sorts of accolades along the way ...

[shermanslave]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:02pm

Since we are talking about movies, I have to say that I think film can be very good. Sure there is plenty of crap out there that I would never pay 10 bucks to see, but if you live in a big city like New York, there are always films with very talented actors and directors that are worth seeing . You may have to go to the smaller and less glamorous art house instead of the 25 screen stadium-seating muti-plex, but who wants to sit in a movie theater with people who were counting the days until "The Fast and the Furious 2" came out? When you go to the smaller venues to see the smaller films, not only are you seeing great work, but you are surrounded by like people who want to see the same things you do. I am on my way now to see the animated film The Triplets of Belleville which has made the top ten list for several critics this year. Supposed to be wonderful animation, a great score and story and not for children. If I can't see Caroline, or Change today then why not see a great movie?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:07pm

No, I know. It was the actually giving a crap about the Oscar (tm) prognostications that made me respond the way I did. WHO CARES ANYMORE? And watching the HUGE BUCKS that go into making formulaic "small performances" taken from the indie film template (which, you have to admit is what it has become) into potential Oscar gold is what is so disheartening.

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:13pm

Ah, Varla Jean...quite a talent, truly a child of stars who sets off sparks herself.

Bulldog.

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:19pm

Geezzzz namo..tad constipated....

it's just a movie..it's just talk....

..and remember namo...movies are sometimes next to TV the only entertainment to be had within 30 miles of some cities...

sure we can run to see anything at the public...or any new show

but can a kid in Pispot, texas???....how much theatre does he get?

Thus a movie to that kid is a big, big deal...

Hell, even that cross-eyed gal from Brooklyn, New York once said:

"To me, being a star meant being a movie star"

and she lived 6 miles from the Schubert!

and trolling for Oscars's has been going on since Mary Pickford cut her locks in hopes of getting one... Updated On: 12/30/03 at 01:19 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 1:51pm

Oh, right right right. I forgot you're Voiceanth, the man who is always sensitive to the needs of the regular people in Fly Over Land! The champion of the regular Joes!

What I thought was funny was you falling for the Oscar grubbing. And that you were pulling quotes as if there weren't people like the Voice critic who sees thru all that crap.

And, no, I'm not constipated, am very much regular, thank you very much.

Of course it's just talk, of course it's just movies. And sure, let's get her on stage (she probably ought not to start out with Broadway, let's see if she can hold her own at LaMama) and see if she's worthy of the hype that has been heaped on her (and reheaped by your post).

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:00pm

..you know very well mon petite namo that the Voice has been saying the opposite of anything for 45 years...of course they hated it!

They hated "GoodFellas" in 1990...

The reviled "Pulp Fiction"...

Oh yeah, I go to them for Film Reviews !!!!!

Ummmm..helllloooooooo..

and I am a voice of the fly over people..

Don't you remember my BRUCE post!

It's what first brought us together...

I think you called me a "tool"..

i think I called you a "load"..

We've been heady in love ever since...

Namo..I'm into a lot of things but the heaping part is just not me.... too German!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:07pm

The proof is in the pull quotes, oh he who can't help but mention that he went shirtless in his profile pic once. NINE pull quotes absolutely, positively counts as a heap. NINE.

Face it, now that you have joined The Entertainment Industrial Complex (that makes sure that box office and hype and awards is all that really matters to the citizens of our Entertainocratic culture), you are now a tool more than ever. Not that that's a bad thing at all. It's just that you are now part of the machine.

Updated On: 12/30/03 at 02:07 PM

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:12pm

Oooooo like that chick in Metropolis...she went shirtless too, ya know.....

You miss me namie and you know it...and god knows what happened to that shirtless photo in your home.....

heaps, indeed!heaps, indeed!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:18pm

The first thing the photo did was crack my monitor, which was a bummer but at least I got a groovy new flat screen. My insurance didn't cover it, they called it and I quote, "An Act of, well, Not God, That's for Sure, But An Act."

Now, WHEN do you think E! will do their How to Host an Oscar Party special?????

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:26pm

Oh Namo...

He seems to take pleasure in being mean and brutal. And yet, he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. And Linton's is as different as frost from fire... Ellen, I AM Heathcliff.

Have a good new year, kisses, av!

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:34pm

"I can understand people having an affinity for the stage, but movies are such garbage."

...THE BOYS IN THE BAND

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 2:43pm

Word, tommyboy!

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 5:15pm

*snarf* "The Entertainment Industrial Complex" !*snarf*

[BwayTheatre11]

Posted: 12/30/03 at 5:25pm

Voiceanth, you are back! John, I agree with you. Camp never made it to Ohio niether.