Copious Notes

Best actress winner Kate Winslet, second from left, is congratulated by some of her predecessors in the honor, including Sophia Loren (left), Nicole Kidman (top right), Shirley MacLaine, Halle Berry (right), and Marion Cotillard (foreground). AP Photo | Mark J. Terrill.

They told us they got it.

Nothing speaks louder in television than ratings, and after years of putting on the longest, most bloated awards show out of the majors, dismal ratings (by Oscars standards) in 2008 told the Academy Awards producers they needed to shake things up. They could no longer say it was the Oscars, and people would watch no matter what they did, which is the spirit of actual quotes I’ve seen from Academy directors in the past.

So, we were told this would be a radically different, surprising Academy Awards ceremony.

It did have its moments.

Probably the best were the acting award presentations, featuring five former winners congratulating this year’s nominees. It gave every nominee something to walk away with.

Michael Shannon walks the red carpet with his girlfriend, Kate Arrington. AP Photo/Amy Sancetta.

Just take our Lexington guy, Michael Shannon. We all knew he would not be winning, up against the performance and the emotional backstory of the late Heath Ledger. But he got this heartfelt public tribute from Christopher Walken: “You were right on target. Well done.” Mickey Rourke suffered a mildly surprising defeat, but had Ben Kingsley declare him, “The returning champ.” And each winner walked into the congratulatory embrace of their predecessors. The appreciation of those moments and arrays of best actors and actresses they gave us were really great.

Also great was host Hugh Jackman’s opening number, a recession-era tribute to the best picture nominees. It even included a Dark Knight moment, acknowledging many people felt the Batman movie should have been nominated for best picture and other awards, and the mind-blowing idea of Anne Hathaway playing Richard Nixon.

The producers couched the show in an storyline of talking about how a film is made, starting with screenplay awards and moving into technical honors. Some of the categories were grouped, like all the visual art awards, and that had to help things go faster and brought the show to a close before midnight. But it was a contrived idea that forced the show to awkwardly work in the awards for films that weren’t scripted, live action features and sort of ignored that before all those technical awards, you have to have a director and stars.

The show also tried some things that didn’t work, including a production number — how 1970s! — celebrating the supposed return of the musical, and a film from Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen that was supposed to honor the comedies, but didn’t do much of anything.

This was by no means a bad show. It had some lovely moments, including the beautiful and dignified best supporting actor acceptance speech by Heath Ledger’s family and Queen Latifah’s bittersweet rendition of I’ll Be Seeing You for the film clips of people who passed away last year.

The Academy Awards producers are on the right track trying to refine this thing, and it still is a huge night. But this year’s edition didn’t offer anything to attract people who wouldn’t be tuning in anyway. And in truth, there really is little the producers can do to attract people that aren’t interested in the contenders. It’s not like the Grammy Awards, where you can turn the ceremony into a big concert, and so what if you’re giving all the awards to an album most of America hasn’t heard.

Oscar can’t do that. It needs blockbuster contenders for blockbuster Oscars audiences, and right now, Oscar-worthy and box-office-champ seem to be mutually exclusive terms.

• One thing this year’s Oscars did have over last year’s ratings bomb was a sense of joy. Last year, you could honor the artistry of No Country for Old Men, but it was like cheering on a funeral, the film was so dark and violent, and the Coen brothers seemed to barely register any pleasure in their victory. Slumdog Millionaire, on the other hand, was this uplifting film that brought along an exuberant cast and crew, including a bunch of cute kids.
• Several post-mortems raise the provocative question, should Oscar dump behind-the-scenes and other “minor” categories from the broadcast? I’ve always liked that Oscar gives people like sound designers and short-subject filmmakers a moment in the global spotlight. But can the show ever truly gain momentum unless it relegates some of these honors to pre-gala ceremonies, like other awards shows do?
• Thanks to Hollywood.com for including Copious Notes in its TwitterNation roundup.

• Click the play button to hear our interview with Michael Shannon talking about his career and his Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

Copious Notes podcasts are available on iTunes.

• Click here for our story and interview with Shannon about Revolutionary Road and his upcoming projects.

• Check the LexGo version of the story for more photos and Shannon’s filmography.

Michael Shannon’s journey to the Academy Awards started at Tates Creek Junior High School in Lexington.
“I was in eighth grade, and I was not athletic at all,” Shannon says, recalling the years at Tates Creek. “But I wanted some sort of after-school activity.”

Michael Shannon. Copyrighted Associated Press Photo | Matt Sayles.

He tried the speech team.

“They gave me a little monologue to work on,” Shannon, 34, says. “It just captivated me. It wasn’t anything I fantasized about. When I was a little boy, I wanted to be an architect. So, it kind of surprised me.”

That surprise has translated into a serious stage and film career that has resulted in Shannon’s Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his performance in Revolutionary Road.

He will learn whether he won Sunday night, when the Academy Awards are handed out in Los Angeles.

Revolutionary Road, about a couple who try to flee 1950s suburbia, is loaded with Oscar-caliber talent, including stars and previous nominees Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet and Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes. But, on Jan. 22, when the nominations were announced, Shannon’s best supporting actor nod was one of only three for the film, in which he plays a mentally disturbed man who makes powerful observations.

The movie’s other two nods are for art direction and costume design.

Shannon slept through the nominations.

He was at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where two of his films were premiering: The Missing Person, in which he plays a noir detective, and The Greatest, in which he plays another brief-but-memorable role as the driver who killed Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon’s son.

Michael Shannon (standing) and Dallas Roberts in Adam Rapp's "Finer Noble Gases," part of the Humana Festival of American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

“I had gone to see a midnight movie the night before … so, unfortunately, I didn’t get to sleep until 3 a.m.,” Shannon says.

The nominations were announced at 6:30 a.m. Utah time. That’s when his phone started ringing.
“I was pretty shell-shocked,” he says. “It just kept ringing all day long.

“That’s the special thing about it is realizing how many people are rooting for you.”

Including people back home.

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Dev Patel, left, and Anil Kapoor in Slumdog Millionaire. Copyrighted AP/Fox Searchlight photo by Ishika Mohan.

Who wouldn’t like a feel-good story right about now: a tale of redemption, an artist getting her due, last respects for a fallen star. Oscar might give us those warm fuzzies Sunday night when the envelopes start opening. Here are my predictions:

Best actor

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

His Golden Globe win was a sign that people really liked this fearless performance and liked Rourke. Sean Penn’s Harvey Milk in Milk and Frank Langella’s President Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon have their adherents. But Mick has been the comeback story of the year in film, and isn’t it about time for a good comeback story?

Best actress

Kate Winslet, The Reader

Who’s more due: Winslet, nominated five times with no win, or Meryl Streep, ­nominated 10 times without a win since 1983 (for Sophie’s Choice)? Bet on ­Winslet, who could have been nominated for The Reader or Revolutionary Road. She’s truly the best actress of 2008.

Supporting actor

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

We would love to tell you that Lexington ­native Michael Shannon will win Sunday night, but would you even want to beat the late Ledger, with all the emotion behind this nomination? Ledger will win a well-earned ­posthumous award for a film that should get more recognition. Shannon will be back.

Supporting actress

Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This is the biggest coin toss of the major categories, and there is some fun in the idea of “two-time Oscar winner Marisa Tomei.” But immensely talented and drop-dead gorgeous have always worked in this category, and it should work for Cruz, who also is due for her brilliant career.

Best director

David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Slumdog Millionaire’s Danny Boyle might very well saw off the limb I’m out on here, but 13 nominations connotes some respect for Ben Button, and a lot of that achievement is in the cat-herding task of directing this thing. It’s also hard to imagine a flick going 0-13, which some bet Ben will do.

Best picture

Slumdog Millionaire

Right after the nominations came out, there was some drama: Would accusations that Slumdog exploits Indians derail it? Would Harvey Weinstein bully The Reader to a win? But Slumdog has continued to roll - nearing $100 million at the box office - and Weinstein has lost his ability to surprise people.

~ Watch Sunday here and in the Herald-Leader for our profile of Michael Shannon.

~ I’ll be Twittering the Academy Awards Sunday night, using the hashtag #oscars. Come and  get in on the conversation, and stay with LexGo.com for continuing coverage from L.A.

Frank Langella portrays Richard Nixon, left, and Michael Sheen portrays David Frost in "Frost/Nixon," which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best motion picture drama. AP/Universal Pictures photo by Ralph Nelson.

All the talk that blockbusters may make a charge back onto the Oscar ballots has to be somewhat muted by the 2009 Golden Globe Award nominations.

Box office champs that seemed poised to muscle their way into contention this year were largely left off the Hollywood Foreign Press Associations list of finalists, that was once again dominated by arthouse fare from prestige studios such as Paramount Vantage and Fox Searchlight. They’re all probably fine films — we haven’t seen most of them in Central Kentucky, yet — but it is a safe, predictable and unimaginative list.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon and Doubt topped the movie nominations with five nods each, while efforts such as Batman: The Dark Knight and Tropic Thunder just received one and two nominations respectively, all in the best supporting actor category: Tom Crusie and Robert Downey Jr. for Thunder and the late Heath Ledger for his performance as the Joker in The Dark Knight. Cruise’s self-effacing turn in the Ben Stiller comedy is a pleasant surprise.

Critically acclaimed "Wall-E" is a nominee for best animated feature. AP/Walt Disney photo.

Pixar’s Wall-E, which is winding up atop numerous critics’ Top 10 lists, did get a nod for best animated feature. There has been speculation that the environmentally conscious film about a dutiful robot left to clean up a trashed and vacant Earth may transcend the animated category come Oscar time and get a best picture nomination.

On TV, cable once again was dominant, claiming all but one of the shows in the drama category, Fox’s House being the lone broadcast representative. NBC’s 30 Rock and The Office were the two broadcast comedy representatives.

Last year’s Academy Awards were followed by widespread kvetching that a lack of box office draws contributed to some of Oscar’s lowest ratings ever. As 2008 progressed, hints started emanating from Hollywood that maybe this year’s Oscars would have a little more box office and star power — with films such as The Dark Knight receiving strong critical notices.

Dual best actress Golden Globe nominee Meryl Streep in "Mama Mia!." AP/Universal Pictures photo by Peter Mountain.

But the Golden Globes, often viewed as a harbinger of Oscar nominees, don’t seem to be interested in taking a populist route, electing to stay with the kind of films that have dominated awards seasons for the past decade.There is a little more star power in the acting awards with tabloid darlings Brad Pitt (Benjamin Button) and Angelina Jolie (Changeling) nominated for best acting performances in the drama category along with other marquee stars such as Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married), Leonardo DiCaprio (Revolutionary Road), Sean Penn (Milk) and Meryl Streep, a dual nominee for best actress in a drama (Doubt) and comedy or musical (Mamma Mia!).

Absent from contention this year are Kentuckians George Clooney and Johnny Depp, who had become awards season mainstays the last few years. Clooney starred in Burn After Reading, which was nominated for best comedy or musical, but Frances McDormand was the only acting nominee from that film.

Absent from Central Kentucky, so far, are any of the best drama nominees. Slumdog Millionaire is currently slated to open Dec. 19 at the Kentucky Theatre, Benjamin Button is set for a Dec. 25 opening, and Revolutionary Road (with a supporting performance from Lexington’s own Michael Shannon) is Jan. 16, though all of those dates are subject to change. The other nominees, Frost/Nixon and The Reader, are currently in limited release. We’ll let you know here at Copious Notes blog and Twitter when opening dates for those and other nominees are announced for Lexington.

So, what do you think of the nominations? Does this look like a good field, or were you hoping for a few of those more populist films to get in the race? Are you OK with the migration of quality scripted drama and comedy series away from broadcast? Hit the comment tab and discuss.

Note: Movable Feast is having a benefit screening of Milk tonight at the Kentucky. It opens tomorrow.

The late Heath Ledger could be up for a posthumous Oscar in February for his performance in "The Dark Knight." Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

After this year’s Academy Awards, the question was whether the Oscars were still relevant, or if they were going the way of art galleries and modern dance, perceived as too elite and avant garde to appeal to the masses.

Of last year’s best picture nominees, none of them had cracked the Top 10 or $100 million mark at the box office.

Numerous reasons were cited, including studios obsessed with movies calculated to open big, art be damned, and the presence of boutique subsidiaries such as Paramount Vantage and Warner Independent Pictures to release “specialty” and “prestige” fare.

Well, the buzz is Oscar night 2009 may look quite different.

Not that we will suddenly see Harold and Kumar contending for best picture or anything like that.

But you could have Batman.

The late Heath Ledger, a 2006 best actor nominee for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, is seriously being talked about as a best actor possibility for his consumed-by-evil turn as The Joker in Batman: The Dark Knight.

Think that’s funny?

Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller, left) and Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr., right) are shooting an epic war movie and wind up in a real battle in “Tropic Thunder.” Photo by Merie Weismiller Wallace | DreamWorks.

A lot of people think that Robert Downey Jr. was brilliantly funny as a method actor who darkened his skin to play a black soldier in Ben Stiller’s Hollywood-bashing Tropic Thunder. Now, he’s a serious contender for a best supporting actor nomination for the box office hit that has made more than $110 million.

Dark Knight, also considered a best picture and director contender, as well as a shoe-in for numerous technical award nominations, now sits atop this year’s box office chart, and it’s likely to stay there. Why? For a while, during the summer, Dark Knight was threatening to overtake Titanic for the all-time box office record of $600 million, though with a home video release of the Batman movie set for Dec. 9, it appears that won’t happen.

Speaking of Titanic, the 1998 Oscar winner for best picture marked the last time the Oscars generated true mass hysteria, and its leading man and woman are back together this year. A Paramount Vantage offering with the downbeat plot of a crumbling 1950s marriage, Revolutionary Road isn’t likely to be all the rage with teenage girls like Titanic was. But it does have an intriguing A-list cast with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Other A-listers on short lists for Oscar contention include Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood, Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and, seriously, Beyonce Knowles for her role in Cadillac Records. We should also mention that Lexington native Michael Shannon is getting buzz for Revolutionary Road.

This isn’t any concerted effort to help Oscar avoid going the way of the Tony Awards in terms of its national spotlight. But there are a few trends that may be boosting the awards’ star power and box office relevance this year and in years to come:

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