The Envelope In Print: The Nomination Issue (Jan. 30, 2008)

January 30, 2008

MOVIES

Gilroy and Clooney talk 'Clayton'

TONY GILROY is an industry veteran, until recently best known for scripting all three "Bourne" films and co-writing "Armageddon." But in the awards-season crush, he's a rookie, especially as a director with his debut, "Michael Clayton," earning honors from all sides. Luckily, he has war horse George Clooney to show him the (velvet) ropes.

January 30, 2008

LIGHTS, CAMERA . . .

The look of 'The Great Debaters'

FILM design is about creating an atmosphere in which a story can be told. Whether it is a black college in Marshall, Texas, circa 1935 or a futuristic galaxy, the concern is to be true to the story as well as to the period and place in which it is to be told. The photojournalism of the New Deal's Works Progress and Farm Security administrations (Walker Evans, Carl Mydans, Eudora Welty and John Vachon to name a few) was an invaluable research tool for authenticating the look of the picture.

January 30, 2008

MOVIES

No bit players here

WITH all this focus on awards, isn't it time to thank the little people? No, not the agents. The actors who play small roles and manage to create whole worlds out of them. This isn't about the cameo, that bright and often distracting walk-on for a star. And it's not about the larger, secondary roles. It's the support that gets no notice, the kind that, when done well, can help make a good film great.

January 30, 2008

STYLE

If looks could kill

COSTUME designer Colleen Atwood, a six-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner ("Memoirs of a Geisha," "Chicago"), has spent a lot of time making the strange, dark cinematic dreams of Tim Burton come to life ("Edward Scissorhands," "Sleepy Hollow").

January 30, 2008

CONTENDER Q&A

Susan King: Ruby Dee's big break

Who says there are no decent film roles for women over 40? Ruby Dee found one at 83.

January 30, 2008

MOVIES

Worthy (digital) performances

THEY can move us to laughter, tears, joy and sorrow -- who cares if they don't have a pulse? If a performance rises to a sublime artistic and emotional level, shouldn't an artificially generated character be entitled to compete for an Oscar?

January 30, 2008

OSCAR REDUX

Snubbed by Oscar, but beloved

OK, so Angelina, Denzel and Keira didn't get asked to the Oscar prom. They shouldn't shed too many tears over their absence from this year's nominations.

January 30, 2008

IN CONTENTION TOM O'NEIL

The villainous Oscars

THESE may be the darkest Oscars since the last time a serial killer romped through the race ("The Silence of the Lambs," 1991). Now "No Country for Old Men" stalks a rival about a murderous tycoon ("There Will Be Blood") in the best picture race and its fiendish star (Javier Bardem) may bump off all others in the supporting-actor clash. Elsewhere, there's a demon barber loose (Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd") and a devilish exec trying to kill George Clooney (Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton"). Oh, whatever happened to those good ol' Oscar days of singing nuns and Yankee doodle dandies?