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Thursday, February 4, 2010

BEST ACTOR GAYDEN WREN | NYT NEWS SYNDICATE Sometimes a familiar name pops up, but even hardcore BEST ACTRESS cinephiles may have missed the film in question: Jeff JEFF BRIDGES ach year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts nom- Bridges has been around forever, but what is Crazy Heart? The mythical title ‘Best Actor of His Generation’ has been inates 20 actors for its highest honour, the Penelope Cruz is familiar from a hundred movies, but did The Academy loves a comedian who pulls off a dramatic applied to Bridges for a good 30 years now, and this four- , and every year the nominees are anyone see Nine? And is that the same Christopher role, and Bullock surprised a good many industry experts time nominee tops most critics’ lists of people who a mix of the familiar and the unexpected. This year Plummer who played the guitar and sang Edelweiss in The when she not only turned in a convincing performances should have won an Oscar by now. As a boozy, down-on- Eis no exception. Oscar regulars such as George Sound of Music 45 years ago? as a pushy Southern mom with a heart of gold in The his-luck country singer in Crazy Heart, Bridges adds Clooney and made this year’s list, as did old With Academy Awards night set for March 7, here are Blind Side but also made the film a surprise box-office another indelible role to a filmography already packed faithful , but so did first-timer brief introductions to the famous and little-known alike, smash. She’s played dramatic roles before, but never with with them. And he does his own singing, which always and . And who is along with recommendations of previ- such conspicuous success. goes over well with Academy voters. ? ous work that’s available on DVD. Don’t Miss: While You Were Sleeping (1995) offers per- Don’t Miss: The Big Lebowski (1998) casts Bridges as haps Bullock’s best performance to date, blending her what has become his iconic role, the gentle, addled ston- customary deft humour with a wistful loneliness as she er who prefers to be known only as The Dude. The Coen finds herself embraced by a warm, loving family that brothers’ funniest movie has a plot, but it’s mostly an thinks she’s the fiancee of their comatose son (Peter excuse for Bridges to do his hilarious Dude thing. Gallagher). Others to Look For: The Last Picture Show (1971) may Others to Look For: Bullock shows her flair for slap- still be the best film Bridges ever made, and his perform- stick in Miss Congeniality (2000), playing a tomboy FBI ance as a cocky, fumbling teenager in a dying West Texas agent forced to go undercover as a beauty-pageant con- town is still golden. In The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) he testant. Her dramatic skill in The Blind Side should come underplays brilliantly as a lounge pianist with the talent as no surprise to anyone who saw her as novelist Harper to be much more. Lee in “that other Truman Capote movie,” the unjustly overlooked Infamous GEORGE CLOONEY (2006). J Not so long ago the question was whether the e k ff c B llo handsome star of ER(1994-2000) could make it r u HELEN MIRREN id on the big screen. Now the question is whether g B Many people’s candidate for the best living e ra s d n he’ll bother carrying on as a movie star when a actress, Mirren already has an Oscar for The he’s gotten Oscar nominations as a writer and S Queen (2006) and an Emmy for Elizabeth I as a director. His Up in the Airperformance, as (2006). As the imposed-upon wife of Russian an always-on-the-road corporate ax man novelist Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer) undergoing a moral awakening, shows that in The Last Station, she delivers yet another Clooney still has what it takes. Ge nuanced performance that’s short on orge irren Clo len M Don’t Miss: The actor’s cocky charm oney He histrionics and long on believability. was never so appealing as when he Don’t Miss: The reigning Queen of played a master criminal flirting with England might not seem a likely a police detective (Jennifer subject for a feature film, but Lopez) in Steven Mirren makes her magnet- Soderbergh’s Out of Sight ic in her stillness in The (1998). Queen, which recounts her Others to Look For: Besides struggle to deal with the after- C his long-standing alliance with Firth arey M math of the death of Princess Diana Colin ulliga Soderbergh, Clooney has had a nice n in an automobile crash. chemistry with the : He Others to Look For: Mirren plays yet got his hands dirty, and did some singing another English queen, opposite Nigel too, in the thoroughly entertaining O Hawthorne as a deranged George III, in Brother, Where Art Thou (2000). an G The Madness of King George (1994), and m a e bo shapes Det. Supt. Jane Tennison into a re u F re COLIN FIRTH n y memorable character in the British series a S Pigeonholed by some as a master of souffle- rg id Prime Suspect (1991-2006). o ib M r e light romantic comedy, Firth dazzled every- e M n n e one with A Single Man, in which he plays a r CAREY MULLIGAN e y R l middle-aged professor paralysed by grief y S Mulligan came out of nowhere to dazzle t r m e after the death of his partner. His per- e critics and audiences alike in An Educa- r e e p formance is a masterpiece of tiny details J tion, playing a 1960s British teenager and the confidence to trust the audience drawn away from her family by a sophis- not to overlook them. ticated older man () who offers her a Don’t Miss: It’s been 15 years since Firth played Darcy wider and more dangerous world. It’s a role that could be in the British television version of Pride and Prejudice a cliche, but Mulligan makes it heartbreakingly real. (1995), but for many fans it remains his career-defining Don’t Miss: Mulligan’s best work lies ahead of her – role. And deservedly so. she’s in ’s : Money Never Sleeps, due Others to Look For: Firth plays the lead role in Milos later this year, and is rumoured to be up for the role of Forman’s Valmont (1988), a morally compromised noble- Eliza Doolittle in the upcoming remake of man who lives for seduction in what many consider the (1963) – but she contributed a strong supporting per- best screen adaptation of Liaisons Dangereuses. formance to the television movie My Boy Jack (2007), holding her own with , and MORGAN FREEMAN . Freeman has apparently spent years developing a film in Others to Look For: Mulligan’s previous work has been which he would play South African icon Nelson Mandela, mainly in British television, but she has nice supporting only to be stymied by the decades-long sweep of parts in Pride & Prejudice (2005) and Public Enemies (2009). Mandela’s story. When Freeman’s friend and former director Clint Eastwood bought the project that became GABOUREY SIDIBE Invictus – focusing on only a brief slice of Mandela’s later Few people look less like a conventional movie-star role years – it was a match made in heaven. than the overweight, downtrodden and sexually abused Don’t Miss: Freeman won an Academy Award as Best title character in Precious. By the end of the movie, how- Supporting Actor for his work in Eastwood’s Million Dol- ever, Sidibe has achieved what many actors try and few lar Baby (2004), playing a thoughtful boxing trainer and succeed at: She has shown Precious to be beautiful in her ex-pug who is the good cop to Eastwood’s bad cop in heart. training a female boxer (). Don’t Miss: Her future work. Precious is the 27-year- Others to Look For: In a career of brilliant perform- old’s screen debut, but after this she ought to get plenty of ances, the two that still stand out most are Driving Miss additional opportunities. Daisy (1989), a two-hander for Freeman and Oscar win- ner , and The Shawshank Redemption (1994), MERYL STREEP in which he plays a cagy convict who knows all the The all-time acting leader in Oscar nominations with 16, angles. Streep is considered by many the best American actress of all time. Her one Achilles heel: She’s traditionally failed JEREMY RENNER at comedy while excelling at drama. The Devil Wears The track record of movies about the war in Iraq has been Prada (2006) disproved that once and for all, and this awful, and Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker seemed to OscarOscar regularsregulars suchsuch asas GeorgeGeorge ClooneyClooney year she delivered two performances that were both be coming late to the party. Nonetheless it scored with comic and dramatic, playing cooking guru Julia Child in critics – and, in a surprise to many, with audiences – andand HelenHelen MirrenMirren mademade thisthis year’syear’s list,list, Julie & Julia and a divorcee having an affair with her ex- thanks to its tight, driving narrative and a magnetic lead husband () in It’s Complicated. performance by Renner as a bomb-squad chief trying to butbut soso diddid first-timerfirst-timer JeremyJeremy RennerRenner Don’t Miss: Sophie’s Choice (1982) remains as captivat- keep himself and his men alive while doing one of the ing a comedy, as compelling a drama and as harrowing a world’s most dangerous, most thankless jobs. andand CareyCarey MulliganMulligan whowho mademade itit toto thethe tragedy as it was 25 years ago. Don’t Miss: This is easily Renner’s best work to date, Others to Look For: The Bridges of Madison County but he has a string of strong supporting roles – often as highesthighest honourhonour thisthis yearyear (1995) could easily have been as gooey as the book it was villains – to his credit. Check out North Country (2005). based on, but Streep and director/star Clint Eastwood Others to Look For: Renner has a rare lead role in give it new depth and power. Streep’s best recent per- Dahmer (2002), playing the titular serial killer, and is a formance was in four different roles, including an elderly cop gone bad in S.W.A.T. (2003). male rabbi, in Angels in America (2003).