Countdown to the Oscars: Best Supporting Actress

the nominees for best supporting actress are:

penélope cruz, nine
vera farmiga, up in the air
maggie gyllenhaal, crazy heart
anna kendrick, up in the air
mo'nique, precious: based on the novel 'push' by sapphire

as i mentioned when discussing best supporting actor, the best supporting actress category appears to be a lock.... possibly even more so than supporting actor.

and many of the old rules can be thrown out quite quickly.

there is no nominee who could be seen as a lifetime achievement winner. but, as discussed, that rarely even holds true for the supporting categories any more.

you have the "give the award to the actress who has been nominated before" award... and that would be penélope cruz. with nine, cruz snags her third nomination. but after winning just last year for vicky cristina barcelona... it's too soon to award her with another oscar (no matter how incredibly sexy she is).

so that brings us to our four, first-time nominees.

maggie gyllenhaal finally joins her brother, jake, in the realm of the oscar nominated with her nod for crazy heart. and she has long been overshadowed by her brother who was nominated in the supporting ranks for brokeback mountain. but gyllenhaal has turned in a string of stunning performances, including her recent role in sherrybaby, which many people thought deserved a nomination.

this year gyllenhaal was more of a surprise nominee, possibly pushing out one-time nomination fave julianne moore for her work in a single man.

but after several films and a number of critics awards for her work in sherrybaby and secretary, this nomination is more of an acknowledgement of gyllenhaal's talent and the promise of an oscar to come.

at this point in the race, up in the air co-stars kendrick and farmiga most likely cancel each other out... for a time, kendrick seemed the talk of the oscar statuette. and both seemed to be strong candidates for the ultimate win. but up in the air seems to have lost most of its momentum.

and then came a movie with the pretentious title: precious: based on the novel 'push' by sapphire.

and then came mo'nique's shocking and horrifying performance as mary, mother to precious.

to my knowledge, nothing prepared us for mo'nique's turn in precious. her performance is bare-knuckled ugly and she holds nothing back. mary is evil and mo'nique embraces it.... and then hurls it at her daughter's head.

mo'nique's performance is brave enough to leave all glamour at the door. and she creates one of the most despicable characters ever to be captured on celluloid. and if you don't believe... be brave enough to watch until the very end. just when you think mary can be no more pathetic, mo'nique is there to peel back another layer... and sink even lower into her character's darkness.

mo'nique, even after a potentially destructive and obnoxious start to an oscar campaign, has gone on to win nearly every critics award... including the golden globe and the screen actor's guild.

there is no stopping mo'nique with this powerhouse performance. it's monstrous. it's sickening. it's the best performance of the year.... and without question, deserving of the win and a lock for the gold.

will win: mo'nique, precious...
should win: mo'nique, precious...

e.

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Supporting Actor

the nominees for best supporting actor are:

matt damon, invictus
woody harrelson, the messenger
christopher plummer, the last station
stanley tucci, the lovely bones
christoph waltz, inglourious basterds

let me begin by saying we should not be in store for many surprises come oscar night. everything seems to have fallen into place with only an odd new voting system for best picture potentially upsetting the givens.

and in no category may this be more true than best supporting actor. okay.... maybe best supporting actress. but that's tomorrow.

christoph waltz's explosive turn as colonel hans landa in inglourious basterds manages to overshadow a film filled with tarantino irreverence. beyond the dialogue. beyond the slickness of production. beyond brad pitt.... waltz raises basterds. he brings nuance. he brings evil. but beyond that.... he brings weight to the story.

waltz has won every major critics award from the new york film critics circle to the los angeles film critics association. he's won the broadcast film critics and the national society of film critics awards. he's taken home the golden globe and the screen actors guild. he even won the gold at cannes.

i mean, seriously... who can stop him?

this is matt damon's first oscar nomination since his oscar nomination for acting and oscar win for writing good will hunting 12 years ago. and in invictus he is overshadowed by morgan freeman's mandela.

this is actually woody harrelson's second oscar nomination. he was nominated back in 1996 for best actor for his work in the people vs. larry flynt. the academy often likes to award prior nominees but the messenger was seen little and i expect harrelson would come in a distant fourth in the final ballot.

then you have stanley tucci garnering his first nod for the lovely bones. unfortunately, bones is such a mess of a movie it might be difficult for academy voters to find any way to stomach rewarding the film. no, tucci's nomination is more, finally, a recognition of his talent.... it also probably helped that he turned in an equally impressive performance in another mess of a film: julie & julia.

and speaking of a long overdue recognition of talent: christopher plummer, at age 80 and after 5 decades of making movies, garners his first nomination this year with the last station. there was a time (not long ago) when the supporting categories were often used more as a lifetime achievement award than an honor bestowed upon the most deserving performance. perhaps in the 70s or the 80s, possibly even the 90s, plummer would have been given the gold simply for his life's work.

but the academy has moved away from that and has, somehow, found a way to honor (more often than not) the most deserving.

perhaps plummer's nomination - which is much deserved, i'd like to add - will be honor enough for him after all these years. and there just may be a lifetime achievement award for him in the near future.

but this year... i think the academy will once again get it right.

will win: christoph waltz, inglourious basterds
should win: christoph waltz, inglourious basterds

e.

Baby

i saw photos of my oldest friend's new baby tonight. they made me cry.

not exactly sure what's wrong with me lately....

i don't generally like children. i adore my niece...when i see her....but that's not often. most of the time when i'm around children i feel ill at ease. unsure of how to act. i treat them as i would any individual.... probably too old for them really.....

so why this tug when looking at the baby pictures...?

she is lovely as far as babies go. they say all babies are beautiful.... and i take them at their word.

yet here i am.... wiping away the tears. looking at my friend's two day old daughter.

i think, perhaps, i find myself longing these past couple of weeks. maybe months? what am i missing? what do i want to experience?

love, i suppose.

many other foolish things... do i perhaps suddenly regret that i shall probably never have a child of my own?

in my youth... i always wanted children. excelled at interaction with them. and i would have been an exceptional father. but now... in my adulthood.... i've grown hard. the walls are up and are only allowed to come down at the odd moments of solitude. perhaps the amount of solitude i've sought out in recent weeks has allowed more emotions to surface?

perhaps that is why i cry this evening....?

funny things... emotions. they so often catch you unawares.

e.

For Sister Epiphenita

because we both love nothing more than blasphemy....

e.

Gay vs. Gay-Gay

earlier today...after a conversation about a friend of mine and some of his beliefs... i had someone ask me if my friend was "gay" or "gay-gay." i said, "like take it up the ass gay?" she said, "no, like gay-gay."

"you mean, does he decorate and cut hair? have tiny dogs?"

"no!"

finally....we found the crux of the question: "if he were in a relationship, would he be the man of the woman?"

ah.... (straight people. oy!)

so i pressed further: "so, like, does he clean the bathroom and his partner cook the steaks?"

she said, "no! like i'm the woman in my relationship..."

i said, "yes, because you have a woo-woo. and your husband has a penis."

basically, what she was looking for was who fit best into traditional gender roles.

traditional gender roles piss me off.

actually, before i go any further... i should say that it all began because i was explaining to her that this particular cocksucking friend is a very devout christian. he prays daily.... asks whathisface for guidance.

we talked about his interest in the "once gay" christians that are now, thanks to the help of (hallelujah) god and his offspring, straight.

i don't want to go so far as to call him a self-hating fag.... but i do think if god could make him straight, he'd sign on the dotted line.

so that led to whether or not he was "gay" or "gay-gay." for example...where does he fall on the kinsey scale? is he a perfect six or does he wobble around the 4 or 5 point?

"100% gay," i said. "never been with a woman... has no desire."

and then THAT led into the discussion of gender roles. and gender roles piss me off.

are we on the same page now...?

so, anyway..... i think she basically assumes that if you want to be cared for and have the "man" take care of you... then you're the woman. but if you're the one taking care of the little woman... holding them at night, caressing them when they cry... then you're the man.

so i said, "well, he wants to be the woman... but usually ends up the man."

but i despise those labels and those stereotypes. i know so many women that are far stronger than the men in their lives. does that mean these women, vaginas and all, are the men? are the emotionally self-deficient men, no matter how well hung, the women?

fuck that noise.

i don't think all newborns should wear pink if they're girls and blue if they're boys. i don't think all boys should want to grow up to be astronauts and firemen and women princesses and nurses.

when i was younger....besides wanting to be wonder woman...i wanted to be a baker. that's the first job i ever remember wanting to be when i grew up. never a policeman. never a fireman.

am i any less of a man....?

i know women who play sports better than any man i know. does that mean they're uterus is any less...... uterussy?

gender roles and gender stereotypes continue to cause a rift in society and the workplace and they perpetuate inequality. from equal pay to equal expectations.

women can't be strong... then they're bitches. but bitchy men are held up as titans of enterprise.

women who only wear pants and never dresses can never be considered as much of "a lady" than pretty, young things that wear flowy gowns. and they certainly can't be made president. (side note: back in the campaign, i had someone actually tell me he thought hillary would do better if she just carried a purse. i had another person tell me once the WNBA would succeed if the women wore more make-up and cuter outfits.)

on the flip side... men who have sex with men can't be "real" men. don't you dare like the color pink or you're automatically a fag.

it's all such bullshit.

i was so happy when my younger brother and his wife told me they would never buy anything pink for my niece. they didn't want to buy into that nonsense. but guess what? EVERYONE else buys pink for her.

it's so ingrained in our society: men are the breadwinner and will take care of their wives. women should only ever want to get married and obsess over their wedding day and dress and honeymoon.

let me tell you something. a friend and i used to talk about our perfect weddings and honeymoons.... and he is STRAIGHT!

and i watch football. and my "gay-gay" friend doesn't watch football. but my one dyke friend does when my other dyke friend doesn't.... and my straight female friend does... and another one doesn't.

and it's green to some people and avocado to others.... and some take it up the ass and others don't.

and it doesn't make one person more of a man or a woman than the other.

it just means we're all unique. not necessarily special... because, let's be honest, i know some pretty lame, boring, not-so-special people.

but they are, always, unique.

e.

Happy Halloween

My Day at White Trash Pride

this morning i headed down to the recovering and ever-chic burg of galveston to assist in their 3rd annual pride festival.

my assignment: man the human rights campaign (HRC) booth, gather contact information and spread the word about all the great work the organization does.

no problemo.

oh wait.... that's right! i was in fucking galveston.

we arrived shortly before noon and by 1:38pm i had already witnessed three kate gosselin haircuts, enough bad drag to make a grown man cry and the ever-present-galveston quandary: how do you tell the difference between an everyday galveston resident and a lesbian?

i also had to deal with a competing oktoberfest, drunk dykes who asked every couple of hours if they could buy our gay pride flag (to which, every couple of hours we would tell them "no") and one particularly creepy old, bearded man that eyed me off and on for 30 minutes or more.

we had a frightening moment when two christian rehabbers handed us a possible banana bread bomb and...while it wasn't ticking....i told the person holding it to throw it away in the nearest trash bin in hopes of lessening to explosion's impact.

we saw ren faire drag done up in hopes of passing as opera drag. i saw guys with hair straight out of 1990's australian cinema. and just one trashy queen after another.

don't get me wrong... there were some hotties. but they were not easy to find.

the entertainment consisted of the aforementioned bad drag in costumes that would make the late selena cringe. an ex who continues to sing and pack on the pounds. derrick barry, aka britney spears, aka glorified drag queen, aka spoiled, egomaniacal diva. someone named kady malloy who was on some show called american idol who had the hottest fucking boyfriend i have seen in a long time... and that would have entertained me far more than she did.... oh, and we didn't stick around for 80's pop queen, tiffany. who - honestly - i don't remember. but someone told me a song she sang (which i've already forgotten) and i'm pretty sure i had heard of the song.

(on a side note: a old and dear friend of mine was responsible for pulling together all the entertainment and he did a fabulous job in balancing the needs of the local drag divas and the real talent brought in to bring in higher prestige for the event.)

but.....i couldn't stick around for tiffany. i had to get home to watch the texas game.

texas 41, mizzou 7. hook 'em.

and happy pride!

e.