Jake Gittes

Any genre he feels like tackling.

The way you word it, could mean she has done something since then, but didn't prove her talent. In fact she just hasn't been in any movies, period. She has four in post-production and scheduled for this year, the least we could do is wait until we've seen her in those.Regardless, I also think she was fantastic in True Grit and out-acted everyone in the supporting category that year. Had she been in leading, though, I'd still have had the Oscar go to Portman.

The person who Adams most reminds me of in terms of Oscars is Thelma Ritter. She was a character actress who was nominated for 6 supporting actress awards from 1951 to 1963, and never won. She was in All About Eve and Rear Window, among others.Adams will surely win hers, though, and hopefully for lead actress. That Janis Joplin biopic might do the trick easily if it happens and turns out well.

1. The Social Network2. The Turin Horse3. Shutter Island4. Drive5. Chapiteau-show (a 2011 Russian film)6. Exit Through the Gift Shop7. Zero Dark Thirty8. We Need to Talk About Kevin9. Young Adult10. 127 Hours

I certainly have better memories of The Artist than of TKS. The latter is still discussed in major part because it upset TSN, but The Artist didn't have its own SPR/TSN/Brokeback to go out against - Hugo didn't receive that sort of praise and Tree of Life was happy just to be nominated. So The Artist was chosen and that satisfied most people, there's no inclination for them to debate it now. On the other hand, I agree that The Artist also doesn't have enough weight to be one of the better-remembered Oscar winners - it might not be a TKS or a Crash, but it's not in the No Country/Departed/Slumdog league either. Those will likely stand the test of time much better.

I'm at the point where I'm inclined to just give Chastain, Lawrence, Watts and Riva a 25% chance each.

I actually think that's completely sincere and endearing.

The Artist was the most charming, fun and playful film to win the main Oscars since forever.

Yeah, although it won the GG for comedy

Slumdog and ROTK were the only GG/Oscar winners in the past 10 years

I think it should be either Haneke alone, or Haneke, Riva and Trintignant.

Perhaps I'm too pessimistic, but based on its BO gross and how it fared with critics' awards I have to wonder how many voters even bothered to watch it. Even if enough did, it's a divisive movie, and very different from Reitman and Cody's past work. Original screenplay might have been a possibility - they like to put edgier movies in there, and the category wasn't too stacked last year - but Theron had to contend with like 20 other actresses and I doubt anyone would have cared enough for Oswalt.

I thought Vikander was the worst thing about A Royal Affair. Boring as fuck, and she might as well be a piece of furniture when Mikkelsen and/or Mikkel Forsgaard (aka the best thing about A Royal Affair, an amazing debut performance) are in the room. She's more alive in Anna Karenina though, and that film is much less concerned with its characters and actors than A Royal Affair is.

And yeah, Foxcatcher looks very promising. Mark Ruffalo also looks nearly unrecognizable in the set pics.

Agreed on Labor Day. Young Adult was a fluke (and a very undeserved one), but I think Reitman could easily be friends with the Academy again with LD. Although I would love it if he managed, at the same time, to dig deeper into darker and less sentimental filmmaking, an example of which Young Adult was. It's easily his best work, IMO.

RDJ deserves to have a statue. I do hope he has another couple of 'Chaplin'-like performances in him.

I never have absolute faith, especially with a year still to go. Weinstein isn't God. Any time I get a desire to lock something up as a BP nominee months before anyone has even seen it, I just remember Nine. That was Weinstein, too.

Boogie Nights more or less fits that description, actually.

Inherent Vice doesn't sound even remotely like anything that would attract the Academy, though. To me it sounds like a colorful and wild romp more in line with something like Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. And if that's indeed the case, I'd trust PTA to embrace it rather than try to make it more Oscar-friendly.

Concerning August, I just looked up its director, John Wells, and he's done directing-wise nothing except The Company Men (a Sundance recession drama from 2010 with Affleck and TLJ that got a mixed critical reception and audiences never showed up to see it) and some TV episodes of Shameless and ER. That alone makes me hesitant to lock it up as a major awards player, because this guy isn't even in the Tom-Hooper-before-TKS league. At best, he seems like a Tate Taylor, and that guy was never really in the Best Director conversation, which means the film stood no chance of winning BP. I'm more than willing to believe that August has all it needs to get three or four people nominated for acting, but I can't be certain about anything more. Uninspired direction can turn the greatest source material into mediocrity.

Coens' new movie sounds great to me. And even if it didn't, I'd trust the Coens enough. I'll be delighted if Oscar Isaac's lead role is meaty enough to get him into the awards conversation. Guy's a great, underrated actor. I'm also curious to see how Timberlake will fare going from Fincher to the Coens.

I also nearly fell off my seat at "Kinda like Gandalf". It was very unexpected and all the more hilarious for it. And it showed you Maya knew at least some of her pop culture.

I thought the best female performance of last year came from Cotillard.

ZDT is much more popular, acclaimed and weighty than My Week with Marilyn, though. That movie had next to nothing to offer except for Williams' performance, while Chastain's is a great performance in the center of a great film.

As a fan of Kavalier & Clay... HBO mini-series or GTFO.