Tag: My Week with Marilyn

Oscar Predictions 2012

2 Comments

Confession: my Oscar picks rarely match the Academy’s choice winners. I can’t help it if I’m a sucker for the underdog. But, loving a loser in this case still means loving a nominee. Second runners up dodge with dignity but remain eternal favorites.

BEST ACTOR nods to Brad Pitt‘s tux,  but George Clooney should take it home for his distraught dad in The Descendants. Gary Oldman is still too creepy despite his beloved Commissioner Gordon in The Dark Knight. In the end, Jean Dujardin will accept in French for his perfect Gene Kelly joi de vivre in The Artist.

SUPPORTING ACTOR? Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn.

Though The Help will put up a good fight, this Oscar for BEST ACTRESS belongs to Michelle Williams for her Marilyn Monroe. And Jessica Chastain is up for playing my favorite character in The Help, but she should have been nom’d for Tree of Life.

It seems the true battle cry will rise up between the DIRECTORS – all deserving. The Artist Michel Hazanavicius, The Descendants Alexander Payne, Hugo Martin Scorsese, Midnight in Paris Woody Allen, The Tree of Life Terrence Malick.

Malick may not show, Payne may be all show, Allen would dance the jig if he got it, H will bring the dog along, but the night will belong to Scorsese.

Hugo might just take BEST PIC’s statue home. But I believe that all the feel-good films that fight or first will sit it out while the little, lower budget, love song of a silent film The Artist takes first.

It’s a good year for Oscars and a decent year in film. They open with the red carpet, and the show begins at 4pm, Feb. 26. Download a ballot and cast your votes, or get the Oscar App free this week.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN (2011) movie review

1 Comment

Marilyn Monroe
Gaudy. Mystical. She was an icon of whimsy and total sex appeal. All who saw her fell in love. In death, she immortalized. She will never age. Her silver screen images will never prove mortality by promoting Depends ads. She will never gain weight and move to making Jenny Craig commercials, or have children and do that kiddie film just for them. She will ever be the bombshell blonde known for her curves and whispy vibrato.
In this glorious film tribute, illustrious cast on call, Michelle Williams leads the parade exuding the vulnerability of the gauzy star and allowing us to ask the questions. Was Marilyn capable of suicide? Was she the actress she hoped she’d be? Was it all a show, a game to her? Did she know exactly what she was doing? Was her real life as enchanting as she wanted us to believe?  Or, did she absently originate the term ‘dumb blonde‘ by being herself?This film raises another set of questions regarding the philosophy of classical acting versus method. Two schools of thought: I’ll call it Shakespeare Vs Stanislavsky. It’s no shock that Branaugh, known as the world’s favorite Shakespearean film lead, bests a brilliant Sir Lawrence Olivier -bucking the “method.” The whole historical grudge between these two has held in enmity over time. I believe Ryan Gosling to be an undeclared method actor. Michelle Williams is all too familiar with the man Heath Ledger who followed the method and died; many believe he died when he allowed himself to get too much into his character’s life, art, and back-story. Method actors search the resources of their minds to become their characters on and off screen in order to present the most realistic and believable performances possible. Believe it or not, Marilyn fancied herself a method actor. Ah ha! Herein lies the rub? No one claimed to know who Marilyn truly was. Couldn’t someone have saved her? I believe the journals of this film’s lead boy tell a brilliant story with no difinitive answers. But, we like suspense. Spend a week with Marilyn here and decide all for yourself.

PS. (Its “R” rating is akin to The King’s Speech (2010)…for language). Like Marilyn Monroe’s many films, the sensual tease in this film is ever apparent and acute but never acted upon. Visit Scarecrow Video in Seattle and rent one of Marilyn’s films. A few favorites include: How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), Monkey Business (1952), and River of No Return (1954).