Did “Bridesmaids” get left behind at Oscar’s Best Picture altar? Or are the raunchy comedy’s two nominations already more than it deserves?
Some early buzz suggested that Kristen Wiig’s R-rated wedding-disaster hit was a contender for the Academy Awards’ top prize, especially now that the field is open to more than just five films. That didn’t happen, but “Bridesmaids” did score a supporting-actress nod for Melissa McCarthy, who played the endearingly obnoxious and sexually voracious Megan, and an original screenplay nomination for writers Wiig and Annie Mumolo.
Best Picture was always going to be a long shot. The fact is that the Oscars have never been kind to comedies, as a look at recent years makes clear. Of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture this year, only Woody Allen’s “Midnight In Paris” is considered a comedy, and of the 10 nominations in 2010 and 2011, only the animated movies “Toy Story 3″ and “Up” qualify.
Originally published Jan. 24, 2012 on MSNBC.com. Read the complete article.
A quick look at the nominees in the major categories for this years Academy Awards.
Originally published Jan. 25, 2011 on msnbc.com. Read the complete article.
How well do you know the 10 best picture nominees? What does “Hurt Locker” really mean, and what about Michael Oher’s life was fictionalized in “The Blind Side”? Test yourself.
Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 18, 2010. Read the complete article.
The Academy Awards are all about glitz and glamour, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few hiccups. In 1959, host Jerry Lewis was caught flat-footed when the awards ended 20 minutes early, forcing him to wing his way through the end of the broadcast. In the 1970s, the show was interrupted by a streaker, and Marlon Brando famously sent an American Indian activist to accept his award for him. Here’s a look back at eight of the most infamous moments from Oscar’s last 30 years.
Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 11, 2010. Read the complete article.
A quick look at the nominees in the major categories for this year’s Academy Awards. (I still think Sam Rockwell got robbed for his performance in Moon.)
Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 2, 2010. Read the complete article.
From their audacious 1984 debut Blood Simple onward, filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen have built a remarkably consistent and unmistakably personal body of work.
Their latest, a hard-edged adaptation of Cormac McCarthys novel No Country For Old Men, is one of the frontrunners at this years Oscars, tied with There Will Be Blood with eight nominations, including best picture.
While it clearly ranks alongside Fargo and The Big Lebowski as the brothers best work, No Country has an unusual place among their movies, in some ways perfectly typical of their style and in others an unexpected reinvention of it. Heres a quick look at some of the characteristic hallmarks of the Coen brothers success.
Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 19, 2008. Read the complete article.
When Sean Penn won this year’s best actor Oscar for his role in the crime drama “Mystic River,” it was a vindication for an actor whose great talent had never been officially recognized by a statue from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. But this year’s crop of nominees featured a rarity in not one but two nominations for comic roles Lost in Translation’s Bill Murray and Johnny Depp of Pirates of the Caribbean. The award almost always goes to a dramatic actor (and Penn’s roaringly intense Jimmy Marcus certainly qualifies). Only a very small subset of the winners in any of the acting categories have won for funny roles.
Originally published at msnbc.com March 1, 2004. Read the complete article.
When the Oscars are handed out at the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles on February 29, theres one group of nominees who might be just as happy not to win: The five women up for best supporting actress. Thats because Pirates of the Caribbean isnt the only thing with a curse attached to it. Theres a longstanding Hollywood superstition that a supporting actress win, rather than heralding that a new star has been born, means career oblivion.
Originally published on msnbc.com Feb. 27, 2004. Read the complete article.