Andrew: Hello readers! We're
back with day four of our analysis and predictions for this Sunday's 85th
Academy Awards! Yesterday we discussed the supporting half of the actingcategories, and today we're going to tackle the lead acting categories. Just
like yesterday, Sarah, one of these categories is far more of a certainty than
the other one is, so let's get that one out of the way first.
BEST ACTOR
The nominees for Best
Actor are:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
- Hugh Jackman, Les
Miserables
- Denzel Washington, Flight
- Bradley Cooper, Silver
Linings Playbook
- Joaquin Phoenix, The
Master
A: Okay, Sarah, it's pretty obvious to
people who have been following award season that there's only one nominee here
who should be expecting hear his name be read from a card on Sunday. And that
is...?
S: Bleh, Daniel
Day-Lewis. Yeah, he's probably the best actor of our age and the fact that he
apparently didn't break character the whole time of filming is admirable, I
suppose. But this was the most boring characters of the year! Yeah, Lincoln was
an amazing president and did so many good things for our country, but a three-hour
movie on it?! Unnecessary. I think what bothered me the most about this
character was that he just seemed to ramble and drone on. I think it actually
made one of our greatest presidents look a little foolish at times. I
would love to see Bradley Cooper win this one as this was his best movie ever.
A: I'm right there with you. I was impressed with Daniel
Day-Lewis's ability to totally become his character, but I wasn't blown away by
it. Like you I was far more impressed with Bradley Cooper's performance, and in
any other year he might be the front-runner. But as it is, Day-Lewis has won
every award under the sun for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln and he is
literally the surest thing in the whole show. So yeah, I predict Day-Lewis wins Best
Actor. Going out on a limb, I know.
S: Yes, I
have to predict Daniel Day-Lewis will win, too. Ugh. Lame. Know what
would be funny? If they gave the award to Joaquin Phoenix just out of spite!
Ok, moving on...
BEST ACTRESS
The nominees for Best
Actress are:
- Jessica Chastain, Zero
Dark Thirty
- Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
- Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts
of the Southern Wild
- Naomi Watts, The
Impossible
- Jennifer Lawrence, Silver
Linings Playbook
A: The Best Actress category is another acting category that is
full of competition and fun trivia. For example, Quvenzhane Wallis (pronounced “kwa
ven jenay”) is the youngest actress to ever be nominated for
the Best Actress Oscar, and Emmanuelle Riva is the oldest actress
to ever be nominated for the award. And then you have a very real and very
strong competition between Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain for the
award, with Riva a close third in my opinion. What's your take on this
category?
S: So this is a tough one.
I think that the two front-runners are pretty obvious in Lawrence and Chastain.
They have both won awards for their roles this year so we can't really go
by that. It's definitely not a sweep for either lady. Lawrence gave a
powerhouse performance in Silver Linings Playbook and it
could possibly be the defining role of her career. Her grieving widow is
unnerving with a lot of quirky and plays off Cooper perfectly. I loved that it
was different than anything else we have seen her in.
Chastain on the other
hand gave a very different performance. It was restrained and calculating.
Compared to her role as Celia in The Help which she was
Oscar-nominated for, this one was much more Oscar-typical. I loved watching
this CIA agent go through ten years of searching for a man and the subtle way
she starts to get obsessed as the years go by. It was also impressive because
she didn't have a ton of long dialogue, she was mainly talked to and
that was pretty cool.
Who do you think the
two front-runners are?
A: For the most part I
completely agree with your assessment of Chastain and Lawrence. I think they
are, by far, the two leading candidates in this category. Wallis and Watts are
just happy to be here. I think Riva will get some support
because by all accounts Amour is all about her
character facing death. But it's really Chastain vs. Lawrence for the exact
reasons you stated.
So between the two,
who do you think SHOULD win and who do you think WILL win?
S: I really have no idea who will win. They
were both nominated for very different reasons, so at this point I really think
it's anybody's game! I think Chastain should win but there's a
very good chance that Lawrence will take home the prize. It's a close race and
both of these women deserve Oscars in their bathrooms during their careers, but
for this one I’m going to predict Lawrence wins.
A: If I had a vote, I'd vote for Lawrence
in a heartbeat. Chastain was great, don't get me wrong, but Lawrence was
electrifying. So I think Lawrence should win
and will win.
Okay readers, that’s
all for this penultimate edition of our 85th Academy Awards analysis
and predictions! Come back tomorrow when we discuss and then predict which of
the nine Best Picture nominees will take home the big prize. We’ll also be
posting our full predictions that will include the ones we’ve discussed this
week plus all the technical categories.
S: And don’t forget we’ll be LIVE-BLOGGING the Oscars on Sunday
night! I’ll have a work meeting that night so I might join a little late, but
Andrew will be starting up at little before show-time, so come back Sunday
night for that! And thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment