Review: The Post (UK Cert 12A)

In 1971, the New York Times published a series of articles based on 'The Pentagon Papers'- leaked classified reports which demonstrated that successive US administrations (from Truman to Johnson) had in effect lied to the American public about the efficacy of the Vietnam War. When Richard Nixon used his position as President to bar the New York Times from publishing anything further, the Washington Post picked up the baton. 

This forms the basis of The Post, a biographical drama written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, and directed by Stephen Spielberg. 

Meryl Streep is superb as Washington Post publisher Katharine 'Kay' Graham. Taking on responsibility for the newspaper after the death of her husband, she is still trying to find her feet when the maelstrom over the Pentagon Papers hits. It's odd seeing Streep in a role where she's mousy or submissive; certainly, she starts that way. Graham is talked over, patronised to, and almost dismissed by some of the men who work for her. So it's a pleasure when she finds her voice and is unequivocal in her support to publish. She also has a powerful scene with Bruce Greenwood (who plays Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara) where Graham confronts McNamara about the lies he's told and the lives that have been lost as a consequence of them. Unsurprisingly, Streep got an unparalleled twenty-first acting Oscar nomination for her performance, and it's well deserved. 

Tom Hanks is good as editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee. Trying to enhance the reputation of the Post (from a 'small family paper'), he seizes on the Papers- and the court injunction against The New York Times, who initially published the first tranche of articles covering the revelations in the Papers- to get ahead of the game. He is the strongest advocate for freedom of the press- essentially 'publish and be damned'- but also realises what's at stake if the White House takes the paper to court. A fine performance.

Other performances of note are Sarah Paulson as Bradlee's wife Tony, who is underused but used to good effect when she is on screen; she gets a strong scene where she tries to explain how Kay would be feeling after being dismissed for so long; there's good work by Bob Odenkirk and Carrie Coon as two members of the editorial team who help to break the Post's coverage of the Papers, and a nice turn by Michael Stuhlbarg who plays New York Times editor A.M. Rosenthal. Bruce Greenwood is great as McNamara, and Matthew Rhys lends an air of defeated disillusionment to Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Papers. 

Like Spotlight and All The President's Men before it, The Post is also a paean to investigative journalism before the days of the Internet. Tracking down leads, going through reams and reams of paper to find their story; there's a great scene at Bradlee's house when the team are literally wading through hundreds of pages of the Papers (none of which are in order) to find what they'll lead with. There's also a real joy in seeing the front page being painstakingly typeset and a wonderful sequence where you see the entire newspaper being printed. 

Spielberg is a master storyteller and he elicits great performances from his cast. Because this is a biopic- and the result is a matter of public record- the whole story is less 'will they publish?' as 'how did it happen?'. There's a wonderful score by John Williams to add to the mood and the cinematography of Janusz Kaminski- from the boardrooms of Washington to the jungles of Vietnam, a swanky party to a busy newsroom- is superb. 

Not only is it a well made film, The Post is an important reminder of the need for freedom of the press to challenge and to hold to account those in positions of power. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Awards Season 2017: Golden Globes Winners

Last night, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced the winners of this year's Golden Globe Awards, for both television and film, in a ceremony hosted by Jimmy Fallon for the first time.

Here is the full list of film winners.

Best Motion Picture (Drama): Moonlight

Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy): La La Land

Best Director: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Actor (Drama): Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea)

Best Actor (Comedy or Musical): Ryan Gosling (La La Land)

Best Actress (Drama): Isabelle Huppert (Elle)

Best Actress (Comedy or Musical): Emma Stone (La La Land)

Best Supporting Actor: Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Screenplay: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)

Best Original Score: Justin Hurwitz (La La Land)

Best Original Song: 'City Of Stars' (La La Land)

Best Foreign Language Film: Elle

Best Animated Feature Film: Zootopia

Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award: Meryl Streep


La La Land has broken the record for most Golden Globes won, winning every award it was nominated for, and coming away with an impressive haul of seven gongs.

A couple of surprises with Isabelle Huppert and Aaron Taylor-Johnson winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor (I still can't believe Taylor-Johnson was even nominated for his atrocious turn, let alone won) but everything else went to who was expected to win, it seems. 

Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech to launch a brilliant and blistering attack on president-elect Donald Trump for generally being a descipable human being whilst several people made the joke that the Golden Globes would be wound up under Trump's presidency because it's got the words 'Hollywood' 'Foreign' and 'Press' in it.

In the TV awards, Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Olivia Colman all took awards for their roles in The Night Manager whilst The Crown took Best Television Series (Drama) and Claire Foy took Best Actress (Drama) for her role as Queen Elizabeth II.

Tomorrow (10th January) we get an Awards Season double-whammy (you lucky, lucky people) with the announcement of the Producers' Guild Awards nominations AND the BAFTA nominations as well. 

Review: Florence Foster Jenkins (UK Cert PG)

The story of American soprano Florence Foster Jenkins may not be known to many, but that will change with the latest film by Stephen Frears (Philomena, Mrs Henderson Presents, The Queen) which stars Meryl Streep in the title role. 

Jenkins was famed for being one of the worst singers to perform in public (a posthumous collection of her recordings has the slightly arch title Murder On The High Cs). An eccentric New York heiress, Jenkins wanted to become an opera singer and had the money to indulge that desire- despite not having the requisite talent to go with it. She was consistently flat, with very little sense of pitch or rhythm, appalling foreign pronunciation and attempted songs that were far beyond her range and ability (such as the challenging 'Queen Of The Night' aria from The Magic Flute). She only ever gave one recital to which the general public could attend, booking out Carnegie Hall in October 1944 when she was at the grand age of 76. She was once quoted as saying 'People may say I can't sing, but no one can ever say I didn't sing' (an admirable sentiment)

Frears' film takes a standard biopic approach, with the climax being the Carnegie Hall performance. 

Streep's performance is, as you would expect, flawless (even if the script doesn't always match). She plays Jenkins' eccentric little tics broadly but without ever lapsing into caricature, whilst also showing a more tender and emotional side- Jenkins had a tragic early marriage to a man who would give her syphilis on her wedding night (which may have accounted for some of her difficulties in later life). Her bad singing is very bad, so bad as to almost be good (much like playing the piano, it seems one has to be very good at something to do it badly). 

Hugh Grant gives one of his best performances in years as St Clair Bayfield, Jenkins' second husband, a Shakespearean actor who later acted as her manager. He's sweetly indulgent of Jenkins' plans, never once pulling her short or bringing her back to earth, supporting her and protecting her even in the face of public ridicule (on the morning after the Carnegie Hall recital, he tries to buy every copy of a newspaper he knows has written a scathing review). There's a bit of unnecessary padding showing his relationship with another woman- because of Jenkins' illness, arrangements were made for Bayfield in what appears to be a kind of 'don't ask, don't tell'- which, for me, detracted from the main story, although there is a good turn by Rebecca Ferguson as 'the other woman'.

There's a lovely, gauche and very unassuming performance by The Big Bang Theory's Simon Helberg who plays Jenkins' accompianist Cosme McMoon. We see him auditioning for her at the beginning and is aghast at the first time he actually hears Jenkins sing. He is much more the voice of reason- although only ever to Bayfield, never to Jenkins herself. Yet, he remains loyal throughout despite his reservations.  

It's a gentle, almost Sunday afternoon film- there's no strong swearing, no violence, no graphic sex- and veers between laugh-out-loud comedy and a touching drama about a woman who never let her lack of talent hold her back. Joyous.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: Suffragette (UK Cert 12A)

It's a sobering thought to realise that the UK has only had universal suffrage for less than a hundred years. It was 1928 before all women over the age of 21 were allowed to vote; in 1918, women and men over 30 who met certain property criteria could vote. The suffragette movement, headed by Emmeline Pankhurst, would often use civil disobedience to make their points. Many suffragettes were imprisoned and several gave their lives for the cause. 

Written by Abi Morgan (Shame, The Iron Lady) and directed by Sarah Gavron, Suffragette tells the story of the women's suffrage movement through the prism of a fictional character, laundress Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) who gets caught up in a suffragette riot on her way from work. She gradually becomes more involved in the movement which causes friction at home and work. Meanwhile, the suffragettes resort to more and more extreme measures to get their voices heard.

Mulligan's performance as Maud is just superb. Maud really goes through the wringer, imprisoned, beaten and (in one particularly unpleasant scene) force-fed, then ostracised from family and friends for daring to speak up. The irony is at the beginning Maud isn't at all interested. Mulligan has some great scenes opposite Ben Whishaw, who plays her husband Sonny, who is opposed to the movement. There's a particularly well-written scene where Maud asks Sonny what they would have called their child had it not been a boy. I fully expect to see Mulligan's name crop up in the upcoming awards season as this is a truly brilliant performance. 

Helena Bonham Carter is similarly excellent in her role as Edith Ellyn. Ellyn is a fictional character, although based in part on a suffragette called Edith Garrud. Ellyn is a chemist and one of the instigators of a more extreme type of protest. I fully expect to see Carter recognised in awards season too. Meryl Streep is as good as always as Emmeline Pankhurst but, if she's onscreen for longer than five minutes, I'll be surprised (which does make the poster slightly misleading). She gives a rousing speech from a balcony and then disappears into the back of a cab. Whilst the story of the suffragette movement would be whitewashed without a mention of Pankhurst's role, I do wonder about whether this scene is particularly needed.

Other performances are similarly strong: Anne-Marie Duff is a strong presence as Maud's workmate Violet Miller who helps get Maud into the movement and there's a good turn by Romola Garai as a local MP's wife who is also sympathetic to the cause. FInally, Natalie Press is powerful as Emily Wilding Davison, the suffragette whose actions at the Epsom Derby brought the movement to widespread attention. 

In terms of the male characters, you may expect them all to be unsympathetic oppressive bastards. This isn't entirely the case, although both Samuel West and Geoff Bell fulfil those roles as the local MP and the lecherous laundry boss respectively. Whishaw's performance is strong but Sonny's sympathy only extends so far before social pressure becomes too much for him. Similarly, Brendan Gleeson is good as Inspector Arthur Steed, a man charged with finding and dealing with any suffragette actions. He has some particularly good scenes with Mulligan as Maud and Steed clash heads.

So, it's well acted, well written for the most part (the script manages to mostly avoid the tendency to be overtly preachy), and the period detail is impeccable. However, the whole thing is let down by some frankly nauseating camerawork. It uses the handheld approach for scenes that really don't need it which does detract from what's actually going on in the scene.

That niggle aside, this is a well made film about an important part of British history and should be seen widely.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: Into The Woods (UK Cert PG)

Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's fairy-tale mash-up Into The Woods was first produced in 1986 and a movie version has been on the table since the early 1990s. But it's director Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) that has brought this musical masterpiece to the big screen.

A vengeful witch has put a curse of childlessness upon a Baker and his Wife. To lift the spell, he must find four fairytale artefacts- the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold- and bring them back in three days' time. Meanwhile, Cinderella wants to go to the ball, Jack has to sell the family cow, and a little girl in a red cape must bring bread to Grandmother's house. All of them must go into the woods... But who will live happily ever after?

Because it has a PG rating in the UK, and is a Disney film, the trailers before the film were all for animated kids' movies. Make no mistake, this isn't a happy-go-lucky, fluffy, kid-friendly musical. It's very dark in places- death, infidelity and darkness abound, especially in the second half of the film- and the adult themes of some of the musical numbers might not be too appropriate for younger children. That said, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

Meryl Streep plays The Witch and is the main focus of most of the advertising (despite the character being very much a supporting one in the grand scheme of things). This is the first time Meryl Streep has ever played a witch, and you can see she's having an absolute ball. It's a high camp performance but she absolutely sells it, especially in the Witch's final song, a triumphant screw-you entitled 'Last Midnight' where she leaves an emperilled band of characters to their bickering. An absolutely delightful performance.

Anna Kendrick (who has proven her vocal talents in Camp and Pitch Perfect) makes for a great Cinderella, yearning for a different life then finding out it's not quite what she had planned. Emily Blunt is great as the Baker's Wife, providing an emotional anchor for most of the film. James Corden is a bit wooden on times as the Baker and sometimes struggles to sell the performance but it's decent enough.Chris Pine channels his inner Shatner to play Cinderella's Prince and has a nice tongue-in-cheek duet with Rapunzel's Prince (Billy Magnussen) called 'Agony' about his love for the mysterious stranger at the ball. However, a man raised to be 'charming, not sincere' can be trouble and his wandering eye soon causes issues.

Finally, Johnny Depp vamps it up as The Wolf, channelling the 1940s Tex Avery cartoons. This is where I run into a problem. The Wolf attempts to waylay Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford, who starts off as a little annoying but mellows as the film progresses) and there are some, frankly, rather pervy comments in his song 'Hello, Little Girl' (especially one about 'scrumptious carnality'). They've cast a 13-year-old girl as Red so the whole thing feels a little bit wrong. Depp earns his 'and' credit, in the film for barely five minutes.  

The film looks sumptuous, so praise should go to cinematographer Dion Beebe, as well as the costume, make-up and production design teams. As an adaptation of the musical, it's quite faithful although several of the musical numbers have been excised, a few roles have been changed (the notable one is the omission of the Narrator, whose role is filled by Corden) and a few of the outcomes have been altered- and some of the deaths made more palatable. The rougher edges have been taken off, but the central message is still there - fairytales are not always nicey-nicey stories, they're often cautionary tales about behaving badly or contrary to societal norms.  They're also quite barbaric (hinted at in the fate of Cinderella's Ugly Sisters who suffer the same fate as the original story). 

On the whole, a few moments of weirdness aside, I thoroughly enjoyed Into The Woods. Sondheim fans will no doubt have an opinion on the veracity of the adaptation, but it's worth seeing for the stellar performances of Streep, Kendrick and Blunt and a couple of damn good musical numbers.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

Awards Season 2015: SAG Award Nominations

Yep, it's another dose of Awards Season fun. Don't worry, this won't take long (as the bishop said to the actress)

Today saw the announcement of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards, which- like the Golden Globes- give awards for both television and film.

Here are the film nominations:

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Birdman

Boyhood

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Imitation Game

The Theory Of Everything

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)

Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)

Michael Keaton (Birdman)

Eddie Redmayne (The Theory Of Everything)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

Jennifer Aniston (Cake)

Felicity Jones (The Theory Of Everything)

Julianne Moore (Still Alice)

Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)

Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Robert Duvall (The Judge)

Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)

Edward Norton (Birdman)

Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)

J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)

Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)

Emma Stone (Birdman)

Meryl Streep (Into The Woods)

Naomi Watts (St. Vincent)

It's a double whammy for Cumberbatch, also being nominated for Best Actor in the TV nominations for Sherlock.

Interesting to see Steve Carell nominated as Best Actor for Foxcatcher, as early reviews have suggested his is more of a supporting role (maybe in terms of story), but having seen a trailer for the film prior to The Imitation Game, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

As I'm in the UK, I think I legally have to say it's been 'A Good Showing For The Brits'(TM) with well-deserved nominations for Cumberbatch, Redmayne, Jones, Pike and Knightley (and those who know me will know how difficult it was to write that last part)

Tomorrow (11th December) is the Golden Globe nominations. Be interesting to see whether the same names come up tomorrow.

As you were.

Tez

Review: August: Osage County (UK Cert 15)

Blood is thicker than water. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. Both of these truisms have at their heart the complex and sometimes fractious relationship of family at their core, and that's something that describes August: Osage County to a tee. A merciless dissection of a dysfunctional family brought together by tragedy, it's adapted by Tracy Letts from his own Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play. It also brings together one of the finest ensemble casts assembled on-screen.

Leading from the front is Meryl Streep in a role that has just garnered her an unparalleled eighteenth Oscar nomination. Formidable matriarch Violet Weston is an absolute gem of a role and Streep attacks it with gusto- Violet is by turns a pathetic, fragile, drug-addled mess, without her wig and glazed behind the eyes (she is receiving treatment for mouth cancer) and then she's a malevolent presence at the dinner table, poised like a black widow spider, cigarette in hand, ready to deliver a barbed comment (of which there are many) at any of the unfortunate family members round the table. There are times when you really feel for the woman and there are times that you just want to slap her, but she's a force of nature and it's another very impressive performance by one of the world's very best actresses.

Equally as good is Julia Roberts, who plays eldest daughter Barbara. Struggling with the breakdown of her own marriage to Bill (a quiet and studious Ewan McGregor) and dealing with a precocious teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin), Barbara clashes spectacularly with Violet and also becomes embroiled in the other dramas circling the Weston household as- inevitably- old secrets are revealed and age-old resentments come to the boil. It's a tough role but Roberts acquits herself perfectly in it.

Whilst Roberts and Streep have had the lion's share of the awards praise, each member of the ensemble cast is pitched perfect. This is high drama, heightened drama and every member of the main cast gets a moment to shine. It seems unfair to single any member out, as they all do such a sterling job. Julianne Nicholson and Juliette Lewis play the other two Weston daughters- Ivy and Karen- and there's a wonderful scene between the three sisters where a few surprising truths tumble out; Nicholson is just excellent as the mousy Ivy while Lewis is great as the slightly self-deluding Karen. There's a strong performance by Margo Martindale as Violet's sister Mattie Fae, another vicious-tongued harridan who hasn't got a good word to say for her own son Little Charles (Benedict Cumberbatch, playing against type as a nervy, anxious man with a secret love). Chris Cooper has some great scenes as de facto patriarch Charlie, particularly when he calls Mattie Fae out about her treatment of their son.

This is an adaptation of a play and feels like it- it never really slips from the stage origins. Apart from some brooding shots of the Oklahoma landscape, the action is focused on the actors and their performances. But that's OK. There doesn't need to be any visual tricks or gimmicks- the pyrotechnics here come from the words. Director John Wells has a strong grounding in directing for TV (having done episodes of ER and the US version of Shameless) and it shows. It's almost as if he's set the cameras up and let the actors get on with it, and when you have actors of this calibre, they will not disappoint.

Letts also wrote the plays Bug and Killer Joe (both have been filmed), both of which take a very bleak look at the world and human relations. The same is true here: there's precious little comfort here, people are- in some cases- unnecessarily cruel to one another, and the one glimpse of happiness is shot down in a shocking revelation which, for me, delivered an exquisite little gut-punch but might leave others cold. There has been so many other secrets revealed up to this point that it could be felt that another might overturn the apple-cart and launch the film into a place that's almost too ridiculous. But for me, it worked, even if it does rob the piece of a saving grace.

This will not be to everyone's tastes. It does present a very bleak view of the world and the people in it, that people are selfish and cruel and nasty to those they're supposed to love, and it's also got a rather downbeat view of family (Ivy states at one point that they're 'just people, accidentally connected by genetics') but it's wickedly funny in place- the script is alive with so many vicious one-liners, it's unreal- and the uniformally brilliant performances makes it shine.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Tez

The 84th Annual Academy Awards

I love the Oscars.

This won’t come as any surprise to anyone who’s been watching or listening to the show, but it’s true. I love the Oscars. And I make time for them. Since 2002, I have watched the Oscar telecast and been amazed, moved, stunned and occasionally bored rigid by the night.

Last night/this morning was a night of few surprises but a lot of heart.

The biggest surprise seems to be The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo winning for Best Editing. Most of the other big awards went the way they were supposed to. But more of that later.

Billy Crystal was on top form, taking hosting duties for the ninth time. He made for an affable and charming host with the occasional barb thrown in for good measure (his little crack about being in Christian Bale’s eye-line before the volatile actor came on to announce Best Supporting Actress was rather nice). He also made a very touching personal tribute to former Academy producer Gil Cates, who passed away in the last year, before the ‘In Memoriam’ segment.

It may just have been me, but the ceremony felt a lot more streamlined this year. It may be due to the fact that there were nine films nominated for Best Picture, but they dispensed with individual segments for each of the Best Picture nominations; instead, they played together as a montage before the main prize was announced. Similarly, there was no full performance of the songs nominated for Best Original Song; a bit of an odd oversight considering there were only two songs, and I would have paid good money to see the Muppets on the Oscar stage. All of this brought the running time in to approximately three-and-a-quarter hours (including copious ad breaks).

On to the awards themselves.

Unsurprisingly, The Artist took Best Picture. It also took Best Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Best Original Score (Ludovic Bource), Best Costume Design (Mark Bridges) and Best Actor for Jean Dujardin. As you may know, I plumped for George Clooney in the Best Actor category but, hey, five out of six ain’t bad (and I did better than last year!). The Gallic exuberance of Hazanavicius and Dujardin in their acceptance speeches was truly touching and they are both very worthy winners.

Not to be outdone, the other paean to the art of the movies, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo also took home five technical awards (Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects)- again, all well-deserved. Even without the 3D addition, Hugo is one of the most visually stunning films of the last twelve months.

No surprises in the other acting awards with Meryl Streep picking up her third Academy Award, after twenty-nine years, for The Iron Lady; Octavia Spencer ‘freaking out’ after being awarded Best Supporting Actress for The Help and Christopher Plummer giving a very dignified and lovely acceptance speech when he picked up Best Supporting Actor for his role in Beginners (which makes him the oldest actor not only to win Best Supporting Actor but to win a competitive acting Oscar; at 82, he surpasses Jessica Tandy who won at the age of 80 for Driving Miss Daisy)

The guest hosts for each award, as usual, varied in quality. My personal favourites were Chris Rock presenting the award for Best Animated Feature (in those two minutes, he showed more edge and charisma than he did when he actually hosted the Oscars); Emma Stone and Ben Stiller presenting Best Visual Effects (with Stone skewering some of Stiller’s previous Oscar appearances, which I have personally found increasingly insufferable) and the cast of Bridesmaids who paired off to present the three Short Film sections. There was also some wonderful banter between Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow as they presented Best Documentary Feature.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful night celebrating the best in movies.

---------------- 

Below is the full list of winners at the 84^th Annual Academy Awards:

Best Picture: The Artist

Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)

Best Actor: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)

Best Actress: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer (The Help)

Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen (Midnight In Paris)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash (The Descendants)

Best Animated Feature: Rango

Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation

Best Original Song: ‘Man Or Muppet’ from The Muppets

Best Live Action Short Film: The Shore

Best Animated Short Film: The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr Morris Lessmore

Best Documentary (Short Subject): Saving Face

Best Documentary (Feature): Undefeated

Best Visual Effects: Hugo

Best Sound Editing: Hugo

Best Sound Mixing: Hugo

Best Art Direction: Hugo

Best Cinematography: Hugo

Best Original Score: The Artist

Best Costume Design: The Artist

Best Make-Up: The Iron Lady

Best Editing: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Congratulations to all winners!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed - it's been something of a long night.

Tez

Mini-Countdown: Five Favourite Meryl Streep Performances

Last week, Meryl Streep was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. She is the most nominated actress in the history of the Academy Awards with seventeen nominations- fourteen for Best Actress and three for Best Supporting Actress- and two wins (Best Supporting Actress for Kramer Vs Kramer and Best Actress for Sophie's Choice). She seems almost certain to win her third Oscar, after twenty-nine years, for The Iron Lady. In honour of this genuinely classy lady, here are my five favourite Meryl Streep performances (in chronological order).


1. Madeline Ashton in Death Becomes Her (1992)

Streep is often considered to be a 'serious' actress but shows impeccable comic timing in this deliciously over-the-top black comedy from Robert Zemeckis. Appearing as a narcissitic, manipulative diva yearning to stay young and beautiful forever, Streep's performance positively crackles and she handles a good line of bitchy banter with co-star Goldie Hawn.




2. Clarissa Vaughan in The Hours (2002)

As the modern-day embodiment of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, Streep gives a lovely performance in this Stephen Daldry drama. Whilst co-stars Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore were Oscar-nominated for their roles, Streep's performance was slighly overlooked in favour of her role in Adaptation. It's a real shame because this is a nicely judged performance in a truly special film.




3. Senator Eleanor Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate (2004)

It's no mean feat to remake a film and have it turn out as good as the original. Luckily, Jonathan Demme's adaptation of John Frankenheimer's classic 1962 political thriller is as good and that's in no small part to Streep's portrayal as the domineering and utterly ruthless mother of Sergeant Shaw. It's a steely, chilling performance with an unsettling layer of ambiguity with the mother-son relationship.




4. Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Glacial, withering, a razor-sharp put-down never far from the pursed lips, Miranda Priestly is an absolute gift of a part for any actress and Streep plays it to the hilt. She  barely raises her voice to deliver devastating sideswipes to hapless underlings in a silky-smooth tone. Rumours persist that Miranda is based on New York fashion doyenne Anna Wintour; Streep really makes the part her own.




5. Julia Child in Julie & Julia (2009)

Streep's turn as chef Julia Child is a pure joy. It's a beguiling and consummate performance, going beyond mere minickry (although she's nailed Child's strident tones). Absolutely tenacious and strong-willed, the 'Julia' scenes of the film- as she attempts to become a cordon bleu chef amongst the men of 1950s Paris- provide a warm and wonderful heart for the movie 




So, there are mine. What about yours? Did Streep's performance in Mamma Mia! raise the roof, or do you prefer her as a suspicious nun in Doubt? Perhaps her performances as Lindy Chamberlin or Karen Silkwood do it for you? Or maybe her Oscar-winning performances in Sophie's Choice or Kramer Vs Kramer? Let me know in the comments box below.


Tez

Programme 6: Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol, The Artist, The Iron Lady and Super 8

Programme 6 sees an interesting difference of opinion over Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Tez's view on Oscar bait The Artist and The Iron Lady and Rhys finally gets to see Super 8...

In the news round-up, there is casting news for Star Trek 2 and the Golden Globe winners are announced.

A podcast version of this programme can be found at Podbean and iTunes