Oscar, We Have a Frontrunner

 

Well, it didn't take long.  Less than one week into the season's film awards, we already have a frontrunner for the Oscar.  Only two major critics awards have been handed out, and "Zero Dark Thirty", which tells the story of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, has just won its second Best Picture award in a row.

Today the National Board of Review announced its favorite films and actors for the year, and in addition to naming "Zero Dark Thirty" as Best Picture, the New York group also named Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director, also marking her second win in a row.  We-thinks Miss Bigelow had better open her laptop and start typing up an acceptance speech.  She's probably going to need it a few times this awards season.

For Best Actor, The NBR named Bradley Cooper, for "Silver Linings Playbook", and also for "Zero Dark Thirty", Jessica Chastain was named Best Actress.  Just two years ago, Chastain was a completely unknown actress, but she burst onto the Hollywood scene in a handful of notable movies, nabbing a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for one of her first big films, ("The Help").  And in almost no time, she's not only become the frontrunner for Oscar glory, but also one of the hottest actors in the business.  Boy, when this town falls in love, it falls hard, right?

Leonardo DiCaprio was named Best Supporting Actor for "Django Unchained", and another relatively unknown actress, Ann Dowd, was awarded the Best Supporting Actress trophy for an unknown film, "Compliance".

r.- ann dowd in "compliance"











The Awards tally so far:
Best Picture:  Zero Dark Thirty (2 wins)
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (2 wins)
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Bradley Cooper (1 win each)
Best Actress: Rachel Weisz, Jessica Chastain (1 win each)
Supporting Actor: Matthew McConaughey, Leonardo DiCaprio (1 win each)
Supporting Acress: Sally Field, Ann Dowd (1 win each)


(jessica chastain in "zero dark thirty")

Next up:  On Friday, the Los Angeles critics name their film winners for the year, and on we go!

Is This a P.F. Chang's?

We watched "The Hangover II" last night, and we woke up this morning, still laughing. Literally.

In comedy, laughs come from one of two things, either the "situation", or simply from one-liners. When thinking of the "situation comedies" which got the biggest laughs from the set up and delivery of a situation, think "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" or "The Dick Van Dyke Show". Comedies that made their living off hilarious one-liners were "Cheers" and "Friends". In "The Hangover II", the situation is non-existent, or at best, it's a carbon copy of the situation from the first "Hangover", but it doesn't matter because the one-liners are some of the funniest we've ever heard. Writing a funny one-liner is only half the equation, though, you also have to have a comedic actor who can deliver the one-liner and make it funny. And in Zach Galifianakas and Ken Jeong, you have the reason why "The Hangover II" is breaking major box office records; those two actors' ability to deliver a funny one-liner is genius.

It's sad that someone of Ed Helms comedic ability is almost relegated to "straight man" status in "The Hangover II", but when you've got Galifianakas and Jeong, why try to compete? Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Galifianakas plays the goofy innocent to perfection; his delivery is quiet and subtle, but listen carefully, almost every word he utters will have you on the floor. We're still laughing at the question he asks when walking into a Buddhist temple. And Jeong is the comedic equivalent of singer Reba McEntire, who made a career out of milking sixteen syllables out a two-syllable word. Jeong can extend one word in a line and almost force the funny out of a line that on the written page probably wasn't even that humorous. In one particular scene, his explanation for his computer password was priceless.

The critics are tagging "The Hangover II" as too raunchy, but we disagree. We're the first to deride a comedy that's raunchy for raunchy's sake, and which has no other redeeming value, (think "There's Something About Mary": the film equivalent of a 13 year-old boy making armpit noises). But "The Hangover II"'s raunch is perfectly placed and suits the situation and tone of the movie; it's not there to exploit and cheapen, it's there to heighten. There is a difference. But again, we go back to the importance of the cast of a movie. When Galifianakas and Jeong are framing the raunch, you can't help but enjoy it; on the other hand, when you're saddled with "There's Something About Mary"'s Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz, who have never been funny, then the raunch just makes one feel so cheap and insulted that only a long, hot shower will wash the "stupid" away. And not to sound corny, but "The Hangover II" has a heart; the guys really care about each other and other people around them. The characters are not cruel or without feeling, another element which elevates "The Hangover II" above other movies in the "raunch" genre.

There's also a lot of discussion in "The Hangover II" about the use of male genitalia for comedy. Of course, some of the same critics deriding this "last frontier" of comedy have probably never said a word about the decades we've spent watching women's hooters used as comedic props. All we can say is, "Grow up, people, it's a whole new world out there, and turnabout is fairplay."

Congrats to "The Hangover II". You made us laugh out loud, and even as we write this post today, when we think about some of the lines in the movie, we're still laughing. But as enjoyable as the movie was, we can't wait to see what happens next with Zach Galifianakas and Ken Jeong's careers. Welcome to the bigtime, boys!

Love Hangover... I Don't Wanna Get Over

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Happy 36th Birthday to actor Bradley Cooper, who shot to "household name" status after starring in the mega-hit comedy, "The Hangover". The guy with the million dollar smile and eyes that almost literally light up when he flashes that smile next stars in "Limitless", playing a man who finds he has supernatural powers. After that comes "The Hangover II", then Cooper stars with Anne Hathaway in a movie called "The Silver Linings Playbook".

Abs, Meet Pecs... Pecs, Meet Abs

According to the Hollywood Reporter, actors Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper will team up in a new movie being described as an edgier, R-rated version of the "Lethal Weapon" series. Sounds great for the 14 year-old boy demographic, but the only way this movie would sell us a ticket is if the two leads really "teamed up", and we think you know what we mean...
.All kidding aside, we mentioned in our recent post about Bob Paris that it wasn't that many years ago that the majority of Americans believed that to be gay means that you're a prancing sissy boy. But now that America understands that gay men are also cowboys, pro football players, rugby players and other all-around tough guys, when will Hollywood catch up? When will we see our first movie with two rugged gay male leads who are hot for each other, and don't apologize for it?

Can You Return the Money We Spent on 'The Blind Side'?

Earlier this year, Sandra Bullock became the first woman to win both the Oscar and the Razzie in the same year, right? The Razzie is the award given to the worst film actors and performances of the year.
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(sandra bullock and bradley cooper in "all about steve")

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Well, it was reported today that The Razzie Organization asked Sandra to return her Razzie Award.
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What?
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Listen, when we first heard Sandra had won the Razzie, we were surprised to hear that she'd won it for "All About Steve", we thought she should have won it for "The Blind Side". But no, that's the movie she won the Oscar for. Oh my. Anyway, as it turns out, there is some justice in the world, the Razzie's aren't asking Bullock to return the award because they've changed their minds that she deserved it, (bitch, please!), as it turns out, she inadvertently took the actual, original trophy which has been around for almost twenty years, instead of the five dollar copy of the trophy which is normally given to the winners.
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Poor Sandra. Now if could just find a way to return her five dollar husband.

Backstage at The Oscars

Backstage at the 2010 Oscars...

Bradley Cooper: What is Ryan Seacrest doing with those tweezers? Oh man, he's plucking Zac Efron's eyebrows.

Gerard Butler: Hmmm. Strange. Very strange.

Gratuitous Male Nudity

Here at East Village Afternoon, we usually don't go in for the "gratuitous shirtless male" shot, but in Bradley Cooper's case, we'll make a rare exception. Ever since his star rose to the top of the Hollywood pecking order a few years back, you can't help but notice how impossibly cute this guy is; that infectious smile and eyes that almost literally twinkle are hard to resist. All he needed was a body to go with the face, right? Well, he got one, and it looks like it will be on full display in the new "A-Team" movie. Much has been made of Jake Gyllanhal's also blown-up, new body in the upcoming movie "Prince of Persia", but we have a feeling that Gyllanhal might just suffer a beat-down if he goes up against Bradley Cooper in Hollywood's new pec-a-thon.