Meryl going back to lead?

Now Tom O'Neil over at Gold Derby is reporting that after a final cut has been completed of August: Osage County for its world premiere in Toronto in two weeks, it looks like the consensus may turn out be that Meryl is indeed lead after all.  Duh.  Apparently a "final decision will be announced within days."  While I'm personally pleased by the prospect of Streep getting nominated in lead instead of supporting, the original story that came out a few weeks ago about category placement is seeming more and more like a ploy by Harvey Weinstein and O'Neil to get buzz going.  Kudos to both, because it worked beautifully.  I've no doubt that with this new revelation the blogosphere will fucking explode...again.  Latest production still:

Octavia Spencer in "Fruitvale Station"

Joe's working tonight so I decided to catch Fruitvale Station on the way home from work.  Like last weekend when I saw Lee Daniels' The Butler, I went with the purpose of viewing a particular performance, but I've also just wanted to see this movie for a while and I'm worried about getting too far behind during awards season.

First reaction is that it's a better film than The Butler.  Yes, it's a very different movie, but I responded very nicely to the documentary feel of it.  Michael B. Jordan (Oscar Grant III) is every bit as good as his reviews.  I happened to be impressed with Melanie Diaz as Oscar's girlfriend, but Octavia Spencer was definitely the standout supporting role.

The film itself is short (only 85 minutes), and she didn't really have much to do in the first 2/3 of the film.  In the hospital scenes, however, she really shined.  She so convincingly portrayed a mom trying to hold it together in the worst moment of her life, before breaking down with a sense of guilt for having suggested that Oscar take the train.  What she intended as an act of concern resulted in her son being put in harm's way.  I know nothing about Oscar Grant's real mother, but through Spencer's performance I believed her history as a mom who always tried to do right by her child.  I highly recommend seeing this film.

It almost seems vulgar to pit Spencer and Oprah Winfrey's roles against each other in a comparison, considering the importance and poignancy of their films' subjects, but this is after all a candid blog.  Spencer's was the less showy role, but with what she had "to do" in the film, without hesitation I would place her performance above Winfrey's.  That said, having won last year for The Help, there isn't a cat in hell's chance of a repeat win for Octavia.  So far this is Oprah's to lose. 

Streep headed to South Africa for "The Giver"

Sources are reporting that Meryl will be heading to Cape Town in late September or early October to begin filming The Giver.  The shoot is expected to last six to eight weeks.  We all know that Meryl is currently busy rehearsing/shooting Into the Woods, which is expected to wrap prior to Christmas.  I imagine this situation is sort of like when she was working on Kramer vs. Kramer and Manhattan simultaneously back in the late '70s.  With a brief break from London, Meryl will likely be able to complete her work on The Giver in a week's time.  I love how many projects Meryl has going this year. 

PS--The Telluride Film Festival begins tomorrow in Colorado...the official start of awards season (smiley face emoticon).  

Sizing up the competition

With the expressed purpose of judging Oprah's performance, I invited my friend Kristan to join me for a viewing of Lee Daniels' The Butler last night.  After last week's news of the possibility of Meryl going supporting for August: Osage County, I figured I better start seeing some films, considering I'm going to have to now check out both lead and supporting contenders for Best Actress.  I still think it's up in the air which category Meryl will be placed in eventually.  Toronto may help give us a better indication in a couple weeks.

So, The Butler.  It was better than I had expected, frankly.  I don't want to get into too much of a full review of the the film, but suffice it to say I was entertained.  More of the story focused on the Civil Rights Movement than I had anticipated, which was a small, albeit welcomed surprise.  Not that I really learned much or was challenged by the makers of the film to ponder many deep questions, but it was an admirable homage to the heroes of the time.  

Winfrey was in quite a bit of this film.  I can see how one could argue the role being lead, but supporting is probably a more fitting category. Her performance overall for me was...fine.  I don't know how much acting training she has but we know she's only done three films.  This inexperience coupled with the fact that she's so iconic to me as a TV personality made it difficult to see her as someone other than who I'm used to seeing.  I never quite believed Gloria as a cheating alcoholic.  An accent that sort of came and went like the wind didn't help much either.  As an old woman in her final scene, all I could picture was the dream scene with Michele and Sandy Frink from Romey and Michele's High School Reunion.  I doubt that's the effect Daniels was going for.   

My criticisms and the goofy presidential cameos in this film notwithstanding, I'm thrilled for Oprah and I'd be shocked if she weren't nominated for an Academy Award.  And as of right now, she probably has the best chance for the win.  It doesn't necessarily take an exceptional performance to get votes.   A bigger factor much of the time is the narrative.   Were Oprah new to the scene, I doubt we'd make much fuss about her in this film.  Ultimately I found it an unremarkable performance from an incredibly remarkable woman.  

Meryl's role in "The Giver"

So, I got a copy of The Giver from the library and read it while on vacation last week.  I wish I had when it came out when I was 14.  It's a great story, albeit a bit depressing at times.  I don't want to give away spoilers but suffice it to say that I liked the ending.

Meryl's role will be rather short.  She plays the Chief Elder.  Her only scene in the book is when she announces each child's future occupation in an important annual ceremony.  While reading that scene all I could picture was Maggie Smith as Professor McGonagall.  It will certainly be interesting to see how Meryl interprets the role.  I don't imagine her having to do much soul searching for it.  However, I think this film has the potential to make a shit-ton of money at the box office, so if that happens it'll be nice that Meryl's involved and widely seen. 

In other news, a new production still for August: Osage County was released today.  I think they titled it "thanks for agreeing to go supporting."

Meryl to attend Toronto International Film Festival

The latest news is that Meryl and Julia Roberts will both be attending the world premiere of their upcoming film August: Osage County at next month's Toronto International Film Festival.  August will be shown on Monday, 9/9 and Tuesday, 9/10.  Less than three weeks, folks!  After this release we'll be provided a wealth of reviews and opinions on the film and its stars' performances.  I'm hoping that we'll also get a little bit of light shed on whether or not Violet Weston will be believable as a supporting role.  Regardless, I just hope it's a great film and even greater performance from our girl.

Wish List entry #2: Susan B. Anthony

Winding down a week long vacation in the Pacific Northwest (which has been amazing btw), Joe and I have decided to finally spend a much needed evening in.  I'm getting a chance to do some reading and thought I'd update my blog with a wish list entry.  With the dust somewhat settled on the tragic news of Meryl going supporting for August: Osage County, I'm momentarily turning my attention to a film role possibility that I would be thrilled to see her portray.

In an interview early last year, Meryl indicated that she had discussed with Kathy Bates an interest in doing a film of 19th century civil rights activists and women's suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  If you're at all familiar with either activist's appearance, you'd understand why it's pretty likely Meryl would play Anthony and not the other way around.  Meryl had been busy promoting the proposed Women's History Museum on the National Mall, so perhaps the story of Anthony and Stanton was at the forefront of her mind at the time.  Regardless, not much more was mentioned about it after that initial revelation.

What's interesting is that after doing a little searching, there's actually a script floating around by a writer named Helise Flickstein about the two women entitled The Revolutionists.  There's even a link to a PDF copy of it online.  I haven't read it (yet), but I don't have particularly high hopes for its chances at getting produced.  That said, I like that there's at least some semblance of an interest in getting the story of these two incredibly important figures in U.S. history to the big screen.  As the writer of the screenplay points out, there's a potentially historic election coming up in 2016.  Were Hillary Clinton to be in the mix for election as the first female president of the United States, what great timing it would be to release a film about the two women who drafted the Constitutional Amendment that prohibited restricting the vote based on one's gender.

If Meryl's participation in The Good House pans out, I'm guessing filming would likely begin in the second half of 2014 with a late 2015 release planned (Oscar territory).  If the Anthony/Stanton picture were to happen, we'd still have two years from now before they would need to begin filming in order for it to be in theaters by summer 2016.  Perfect, right?!

It's been too long since Meryl has done one of her "buddy" projects, a la Death Becomes Her with Goldie Hawn, Marvin's Room with Diane Keaton, or (although never made) Mary Stuart with Glenn Close.  So, Meryl and Kathy, clear your schedules.  Ms. Flickstein, perfect that script and find a buyer.  Everyone else, spread the word.  This project needs to happen.