Fresh new look, same old content, Oscar ruminations

While I wish to refrain from becoming one of those sorts who spends more time cycling out different site designs than actually, say, adding new content, I want to move this site into a more professional direction and use it to focus on some of the stuff I do outside of OverClocked ReMix, which gets enough attention as is. I thus decided a slightly different look was needed, and - why be shy - also thought that since it’s a personal site, part of the design should be some pics o’ me.

So as to avoid this post being overly meta, I thought I’d weigh in on the Oscars. Honestly, I’ve no right to, as this year I’m way behind and haven’t caught The Queen, Babel, or Letters from Iwo Jima, amongst others, but there are a couple omissions in the Best Actress category that I think need to be mentioned. Everyone’s always somewhat accurately complaining about how there are no roles for women, so when a couple of amazing, demanding roles come along, with stellar performances, and don’t get the nomination nod, the situation warrants investigation. I’ll preface this by saying that I haven’t seen ANY of the films which the actual list of nominees starred in. Streep, Dench, Mirren, and Winslet are all great actresses, and I’m sure there’s good reason they made the list. As for Penelope Cruz… I’ll need to see Volver before I’m convinced she’s not playing a near permutation of herself, or previous roles.

The two actresses that weren’t duly recognized were Ellen Page in Hard Candy and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby. The former film was released in last year’s Oscar timeframe at Sundance, so perhaps it’s a technical thing (the larger release was in this year’s span, back in April), but if that’s the case, they snubbed her last year. Anyone who’s seen the film, in which Patrick Wilson also redeems himself for The Phantom of the Opera’s medio-core Raoul, knows that she delivered an amazing performance of a role that any actress would DREAM of, but few would have the metaphorical balls to attempt. Gyllenhaal plays stupid, hopeless, selfish, destructive, and in the end (possibly?) resigned with a rare degree of realism and authenticity in Sherrybaby; at times, the film feels like a documentary, due not to any intentional manipulation on the director’s part, but rather the transporting directness of the actress’s approach.

There you have it - two roles (and corresponding performances) that are edgy and which stack up against the best of what men are getting these days. Whether it was the candidates’ youth, the subject matter being dealt with, or the ethically ambiguous actions both characters make, or whether Meryl Streep’s performance of a oh-so-really-bitchy-fashionista-boss really was so damn gut-busting and spot-on that they just HAD to give her yet another nod is, of course, a matter of opinion.