6 • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OSCARS
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2003
Film critics pick Oscar winners
With the Academy Awards right around the corner, Jayplay film critics Aaron Passman and Stephen Shupe face-off about which films and actors they think deserve to take home the little gold man on Oscar night.
Best Picture
Nominees: Chicago; Gangs of New York; The Hours; The Pianist; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Passman:
Will win: Chicago.
Should win: Chicago
Breathtaking in so many ways and a return to the traditional style of movie musicals, Chicago is hard to dislike. Rob Marshall's direction should be commended for so successfully bringing a stage musical to the screen, and the choreography, costumes, music and acting are all spectacular. My guess is that this one's in the bag, and while my heart's with Lord of the Rings, my head's with Chicago.
Shupe:
Will win: Chicago
Should win: The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers
An enlightened professor told me the other day that Chicago has 10 minutes of plot. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, on the other hand, has enough plot to fill 308 pages of a book (which it does, by the way) and an epic sweep that arguably tops 1997's Oscar champ, Titanic.
Best Director
Nominees: Rob Marshall, Chicago; Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York; Pedro Almodovar, Talk To Her; Stephen Daldry, The Hours; Roman Polanski, The Pianist
Passman:
FILM
Will win: Martin Scorsese
Should win: Martin Scorsese
If there's one sure thing on Oscar night, this will be it. Scorsese's been making films for decades and, despite crafting some of the seminal pictures of the last three decades the man has never won an Oscar. So, in typical Academy fashion, he'll win it this year for a film that finds him anywhere but close to the top of his game.
Shupe:
Will win: Martin Scorsese
Should win: Martin Scorsese
Let's get serious here: Martin Scorsese has never won an Academy Award. With Gangs of New York, he's directed a ferociously ambitious American saga. As President Truman once put it, "It's like writing history with lightning."
Best Actor
Nominees: Adrien Brody, The Pianist, Nicolas Cage, Adaptation; Michael Laine, The Quiet American; Daniel Day-Lewis Gangs Of New York; Jack Nicholson About Schmidt
Aaron Passman apassman@kansan.com
Passman:
Will win; Daniel Day-Lewis
Should win: Nicolas Cage
Should win: Nicolas Cage Day-Lewis came out of a self-imposed career hiatus to make Gangs of New York. Day-Lewis has been nominated for Oscars before, and odds are that he'll get the Oscar both for career recognition and for a deserving performance.
Cage won an Oscar in 1995 for his leading role in Leaving Las Vegas, but Adaptation is the best work he's done to date. Playing twins, Cage gets to show off several different sides of himself and there's the feeling that he's branching out more as an actor, rather than just sticking with the norm.
Shupe:
Will Win: Jack Nicholson
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis
As Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York, Daniel Day-Lewis burned every venomous word and gesture into the id. But on the big night, the camera loves Jack with his big smile and cool shades.
Best Actress
Nominees: Salma Hayek, Frida; Nicole Kidman,
The Hours; Diane Lane, Unfaithful, Julianne
Moore, Far From Heaven, Renee Zellweger,
Chicago
Passman:
Will win; Nicole Kidman.
Should win: Salma Hayek.
Everybody loves it when somebody beautiful uglies herself up, and Nicole Kidman certainly did so in playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Kidman's performance in The Hours wasn't half as compelling as Salma Hayek's in Frida, but I'm guessing the Academy will want to reward Kidman.
Hayek spent years trying to get a Frida Kahlo biopic made, and her performance was stunning.
Will Win: Nicole Kidman
Shupe:
Should Win: Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore were all equally brilliant. The Academy prefers real people personified, though, so that gives the edge to Hayek as Frida Kahlo and Kidman as Virginia Woolf. My vote's with Hayek, but her film has far less fanfare than Kidman's does.
Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Chris Cooper, Adaptation, Ed Harris, The Hours, Paul Newman, Road To Perdition.
Stephen Shupe
sshue@kansan.com
John C. Reilly, Chicago, Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can
Passman:
Will win: Paul Newman.
Should win: Christopher Walken
Newman's a hell of an actor, and his work in Road To Perdition was some of his best work in years (though, admittedly, he's working much less frequently as he ages). His role as leader of an Irish-American crime family in the 1930s and father figure to Tom Hanks was sinister and grim, yet still somehow likable.
But if there's one actor who has his own stereotype, it's Christopher Walken. But what's often overlooked is Walken's talent as an actor, and that's something that comes across in Catch Me If You Can.
Shupe:
Will win: Christopher Walken
Should win: Ed Harris
Ed Harris gave Meryl Streep a verbal smackdown and died beautifully in The Hours and I want him to win because he's been snubbed four times in a row. Representing snubs of a different kind are sentimental favorites Christopher Walken and Paul Newman, whose films, Catch Me if You Can and Road to Perdition, deserved a lot more Academy attention in the acting categories than they got.
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Kathy Bates, About Schnidt;
Nominees: Kathy Bates, About Schmid; Julianne Moore, The Hours; Queen Latifah, Chicago; Meryl Streep, Adaptation; Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
Passman:
Will win: Catherine Zeta-Jones. Should win: Queen Latifah.
If Zeta-Jones takes home the Oscar, she'll certainly deserve it. But, hands down the best thing about Chicago, is the Queen. Just like Zeta-Jones, she was smart, businesslike and had attitude to spare, but whether the Academy is going to honor a black actress two years in a row remains to be seen.
Shupe:
Will win: Julianne Moore
Should win: Julianne Moore
Julianne Moore provided The Hours with its emotional peak. She won't win for Far From hates empty
Heaven, and since the Academy hates empty
hands, I think she'll end up with one win for two nods.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees: About A Boy Screenplay by Peter Hedges and Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz; Adaptation Screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman; Chicago Screenplay by Bill Condon; The Hours Screenplay by David Hare; The Pianist Screenplay by Ronald Harwood Passman:
Will win: Chicago
Should win: Adaptation
Bill Condon won an Oscar in 1999 for adapting the screenplay for the outstanding film Gods & Monsters, and if he wins again for Chicago it'll certainly be deserved. Director Rob Marshall's vision would be nothing without Condon's screenplay, which smoothly and perfectly translates the musical from stage to screen.
Adaptation sets a record in Academy history—it's the first time a fictional character has ever been nominated for an Oscar.
Shupe:
Should win: About a Boy
Will win: The Hours
About a Boywas an overlooked gem. I think some Academy members will vote for Adaptation just to see how Charlie Kaufman might handle the issue of his fictional "cowriter," Donald Kaufman, in his acceptance speech. But The Hours is going to lose in all the technical categories, and this award will look great listed after Kidman and Moore on the DVD cover.
Best Original Screenplay
Nominees: Far From Heaven, by Todd Haynes; Gangs of New York, Screenplay by Jay Cocks and Steve Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan Story by Jay Cocks; My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Written by Nia Vardalos; Talk To Her, Written by Pedro Almodóvar; Y Tu Mama También, Written by Carlos Cuarón and Alfonso Cuaron Passman:
Will win: Gangs of New York.
Should win: Y Tú Mama También.
Gangs of New York is directed by an extremely gifted filmmaker and it took Scorcese decades to get the film made. Never mind that it wasn't that great of a script; the Academy will probably still want to acknowledge a film that tried to do so much and accomplished so little.
But, Y Tu Mama nominated is riginal, funny and surprisingly moving, this was one of the best, most thoroughly modern coming-of-age stories I've seen.
Shupe:
Will win; Far from Heaven
Should win: Far from Heaven
Todd Haynes' script for Far From Heaven is a masterful update of Douglas Sirk's socially conscious 1950s melodramas. His film was the hit of the year as far as the critics are concerned. Shutting it out just looks silly