Roundup: Witherspoon stumps for Watts
Also: Hooper, Danna honored by Palm Springs, 'Holy Motors' tops IndieWire poll
Naomi Watts and Tom Holland in "The Impossible."
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Though the film itself can't seem to catch much of a break in the awards race -- those omissions from Oscar's VFX and makeup shortlists still sting -- "The Impossible" star Naomi Watts keeps gathering momentum. After neatly scoring SAG, Globe and BFCA nods last week, the actress now has her own vocal Academy advocate (her Julia Roberts, if you will) in the form of Reese Witherspoon. A public fan letter to Watts from Witherspoon, who is not a close personal friend, compares her performance to those of Meryl Streep in "Sophie's Choice" and Sally Field in "Norma Rae" (both Oscar winners, as it happens) and declares "The Impossible" "one of the best films I have ever seen in my entire life." Witherspoon is not the "Impossible" team's first celebrity cheerleader: Angelina Jolie hosted a screening last month. Is this the tip of the iceberg in terms of actors' branch support? [EW]
Devin Faraci on why "Zero Dark Thirty" does not endorse torture. Yes to all of this. [Badass Digest]
More Palm Springs festival honorees: "Life of Pi" composer Mychael Danna gets the Frederick Loewe Award, Tom Hooper the Sonny Bono Visionary Award. (Now there are two names I never expected to type in one sentence.) [LA Times]
So far, the Academy's new online voting system appears to be progressing without a hitch. [Variety]
Anne Thompson talks to Eddie Redmayne about singing for the first time in 12 years in "Les Mis." (If you ask me, which you didn't, he has the best voice in the whole thing.) [Thompson on Hollywood]
"The Master," which is lately living up to that critics' pet status many of us assumed it would own this season, tops this year's Village Voice poll. [Village Voice]
It has to settle for second place, however, in IndieWire's extensive critics' poll, where "Holy Motors" (along with star Denis Lavant) takes the gold. [IndieWire]
Quentin Tarantino talks to Karina Longworth about "Django Unchained," misconceptions about the film's edit, and much, much more in a lengthy interview. [Village Voice]
The Berlin Film Festival unveils the official poster for its next edition, which is sooner than you might think. The next two months are going to be fun. [Berlinale]
Alexandre Desplat, who is in the Oscar hunt for "Argo," "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Rise of the Guardians," talks about the challenges of scoring the last of these -- his first animated feature since "Fantastic Mr. Fox." [Screen]
2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupRichardZ
December 19, 2012 at 8:20AM EST Reply to CommentI can just imagine Reese Witherspoon doing best Tracy Flick style campaign. I love it.
Alex Amazing. I don't think Witherspoon will ever be able to top her role in Election (unless she already did so in Legally Blonde).
December 19, 2012 at 8:53AM ESTGuy Lodge Naomi Watts-themed cupcakes, Reese. It's the only way.
December 19, 2012 at 9:36AM ESTAndrej
December 19, 2012 at 9:40AM EST Reply to CommentRise of the Guardians is Desplat's second attempt at scoring animation, as he had worked on Fantastic Mr. Fox before (and got an Oscar nod for it).
Guy Lodge Quite right! I guess I misinterpreted one of Desplat's quotes in the article and Fantastic Mr. Fox slipped my mind.
December 19, 2012 at 11:25AM ESTdaveylo What I've heard from the Guardians score is lovely and very different from his work for Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. One of Desplat's most haunting scores was for Twilight: The New Moon, which would never have gotten nominated--but it is gorgeous.
December 19, 2012 at 6:43PM ESTGautam
December 19, 2012 at 2:56PM EST Reply to CommentThe reason why other actors are liking Watts' performance is demystified by Mark Ruffalo when he writes about her:
"Naomi masterfully imparts Maria's longing for something that not even she is able to articulate. Naomi does this in a look or a simple few words about her husband always being on his cell phone. She then turns her disappointment into a light-hearted laugh to cover her longing, to cast off any heaviness or discomfort. These things are subtle and nearly imperceptible to any other audience member, but to an actor they are admirable in their restraint, poise and intention."
I also believe if Impossible manages to crack the Best Picture nomination, the seemingly 2-way Best Actress race will suddenly change to 3-way race.
Al
December 19, 2012 at 5:56PM EST Reply to CommentIt may not endorse torture, but theres a reason its there. The information was gathered through torture, and like it or not, its what gave Boal and Bigelow their movie, as it gave us Bin Laden.
JLPatt And I suppose you would know, not the people who were actually involved who have denied any use whatsoever of the torture tactics depicted in the movie...
December 19, 2012 at 6:35PM ESTAl I must have missed the refutal of torture you're talking about.
December 20, 2012 at 11:07AM ESTJLPatt Well, it's rather hard to miss it now.
December 20, 2012 at 6:03PM ESTAl Right, now. i.e. not yesterday. Also, the trusted high praised journalistic duo Bigelow and Boal maintain that they didn't embellish this part of the story. At first the McCain and co. article read as purely fact, but its still pretty far from confirmed. We'll see, however if it does turn out to be true (that this part of the story is false) I'll gladly swallow my words, just pointing out though, they're letter wasn't published yesterday.
December 20, 2012 at 10:34PM ESTJLPatt No, THEIR letter wasn't, but I had been reading about the torture refutals since Monday. They aren't the first to speak up.
December 21, 2012 at 12:03AM ESTAl That particular set of news doesn't necessarily get around as quickly as other stories, and I honestly hadn't been hearing anything other then how insanely accurate this was. Considering all of the non stop good word for months from insiders about how accurate it was, I took the films side. Needless to say, I'm taking it easy on what to believe in from now on (incidentally, a practice I normally stick too) with matters concerning classified information.
December 21, 2012 at 12:55AM ESTdaveylo
December 19, 2012 at 6:41PM EST Reply to CommentThough The Impossible may not be a perfect film, it has stayed in mind since I saw it in Toronto and I saw 36 films in one week there. Watts, McGregor, and Holland are wonderful in the film. A shame it's coming out so late in the year.