For Your Consideration: Gauging a Crowded and Female-Friendly Spirit Award Field

This article was originally published in early November, and has been re-purposed in anticipation of the The Film Independent’s Spirit Awards nominations, which will be revealed tomorrow, November 30.

With the recent announcements of the Gotham Award nominations and the British Independent Film Award nominations, it only seems appropriate for this week’s column to take on the grand daddy of independent film awards: The Film Independent’s Spirit Awards. With nominations to be announced November 30 - just under a month from now - the awards promise to (as always) - be a surprising and at times unexpected representation of the year in American independent film.

One thing that can be expected though. This year’s event promises to be much more crowded and much less predictable than last year’s Spirits, which turned out to more or less become the “Precious” show. In large part due to “The Hurt Locker”‘s ineligibility (it was nominated the year prior), “Precious” ended up taking home five major awards including best feature, best director, best first screenplay and acting honors for Gabourey Sidibe and Mo’Nique. There were certainly other films that factored into the mix - including “Crazy Heart,” “A Serious Man,” “A Single Man,” “Sin Nombre,” “The Messenger” and “(500) Days of Summer” - but in general it seemed like a much less congested year than usual. From the outset, it was hard to imagine anything other than “Precious” taking the top prize heading at the ceremony.

This year, this is unlikely to become the case. Sure, Debra Granik’s “Winter’s Bone” (which, like “Precious” won Sundance’s top prize) certainly seems like this year’s indie darling, but what about Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine,” Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole,” and Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere”? All seem likely to eligible for the Spirits, and all have their fair share of supporters. Not to mention Jay and Mark Duplass’s “Cyrus,” Aaron Schneider’s “Get Low,” Nicole Holofener’s “Please Give,” Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture,” and maybe even Matt Reeves’ “Let Me In” (which factored into the Gotham nominations, but straggles a limitation with a reported $20 million - exactly the budget cutoff). That’s a whole lot of indie going on, suggesting a “Winter’s” sweep might be a very unreasonable assumption when the awards head back to the beach in February. Not to say it won’t be a major presence at the awards, and deservedly so. It’s just that it’s going to have a lot of competition. Perhaps more competition than the Spirits have seen in many years.

So let’s break it down with respect to a few of the Spirits’ major categories to see where things might be headed.  Keep in mind the awards’ eligibility rules when considering what is seemingly left out. For example, “127 Hours” is budgeted at $30 million, while “Fair Game” is reportedly budgeted at $22 million, placing them both just outside the limitations of a budget under $20 million. Meanwhile, while “Animal Kingdom,” “Another Year,” “Biutiful,” “I Am Love,” “The King’s Speech” and “Made in Dagenham” are all not American productions, thus excluding them from all categories except “foreign film,” where one would suspect a lot of them will pop up. There’s also the tricky thing of films that haven’t been theatrically released showing up thanks to their festival screenings (“The Hurt Locker” did this in 2008, for example). Mike Mills’ “Beginners,” Gregg Araki’s “Kaboom,” Aaron Katz’s “Cold Weather,” and especially Kelly Reichardt’s “Meek’s Cutoff” would be the films to watch out for if that ends up being the case in their regard. So that all said, here’s a best guess (and check out the predictions in chart form here):

Best Lead Male

Prediction: Aaron Eckhart (Rabbit Hole), James Franco (Howl), Stephen Dorff (Somewhere), Robert Duvall (Get Low), Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)
Spoilers:  Casey Affleck (The Killer Inside Me), Ronald Bronstein (Daddy Long Legs), Michael Douglas (Solitary Man), James Gandolfini (Welcome To The Rileys), Kevin Kline (The Extra Man), John C. Reilly (Cyrus), Ben Stiller (Greenberg)

Comparatively weak relative to its female counterpart but still offering some fine work, the lead male category could see a pretty awesomely mixed bag of actors. From bonafide Oscar contenders, like “Blue Valentine”‘s Ryan Gosling, “Get Low”‘s Robert Duvall and “Rabbit Hole”‘s Aaron Eckhart, to worthy underdogs, like “Somewhere”‘s Stephen Dorff, “Howl”‘s James Franco, and “Solitary Man”‘s Michael Douglas, to performances that the Spirits were created to honor, such as Casey Affleck in “The Killer Inside Me” or Ronald Bronstein in “Daddy Long Legs” or John C. Reilly in “Cyrus.” Of course there’s always the potential for an Adam Scott in “The Vicious Kind”-type nomination (which last year occurred over favorites like “The Messenger”‘s Ben Foster and “A Serious Man”‘s Michael Stuhlbarg), so who knows how these nominations may pan out. Though a Gosling vs. Duvall showdown (both previous winners in this category, for 1998’s “The Apostle” and 2006’s “Half Nelson,” respectively), seems like a good bet for the ceremony itself.

Best Supporting Female and Best Supporting Male

Female Prediction: Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone), Elle Fanning (Somewhere), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Sissy Spacek (Get Low), Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole)
Female Spoilers: Greta Gerwig (Greenberg), Rebecca Hall (Please Give), Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Melissa Leo (Welcome To The Rileys), Kristen Stewart (Welcome To The Rileys), Marisa Tomei (Cyrus), Kerry Washington (Mother & Child), Mia Wasikowska (The Kids Are All Right)

Male Prediction: Chris Cooper (The Company Men), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Bill Murray (Get Low), John Ortiz (Jack Goes Boating), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Male Spoilers: Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), Jonah Hill (Cyrus), Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right), Samuel L. Jackson (Mother & Child), Alex Karpovsky (Tiny Furniture), Paul Reubens (Life During Wartime), Sam Rockwell (Conviction), Michael Shannon (The Runaways), Miles Teller (Rabbit Hole)

The Spirits tend to get even more wildly unpredictable when it comes to the supporting categories (who predicted Dina Korzun in “Cold Souls” and Natalie Press in “Fifty Dead Men Walking” over “Crazy Heart”‘s Maggie Gyllenhaal and “A Single Man”‘s Julianne Moore” last year?), so continue to take these suggestions cautiously. But it’s hard to imagine the “Winter’s Bone” supporting duo of Dale Dickey and John Hawkes being left out of these categories, or the many outstanding supporting performances from films like “Rabbit Hole” (Dianne Wiest, and maybe Miles Teller as well), “Black Swan” (Barbara Hershey, and perhaps Mila Kunis or Vincent Cassel), “Cyrus” (Jonah Hill and/or Marisa Tomei), “Get Low” (Bill Murray and/or Sissy Spacek), and “The Kids Are All Right” (Mark Ruffalo and/or his biological children Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson). Whatever happens, expect a diversity of performances in true Spirit Award-spirit, and a much less predictable outcome of winners (last year Woody Harrelson and especially Mo’Nique were essentially assured their trophies).

indiewire for rest
xoxo
Carrie

Gandolfini, Leo Probe Troubled Marriage in "Rileys"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It stars Kristen Stewart but is a far cry from her teen romance "Twilight" movies, and for adult audiences heading to see "Welcome to the Rileys" when it debuts in theaters on Friday, that may be a good thing.

In a moviegoing era when producers are aiming big-budget fare mostly at teen audiences, adults are finding two few dramas dealing with topics more familiar to them than falling in love with vampires. In fact, that is what drew co-stars James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo to the dark film drama.

""I loved that grown-up love story on the page, and I loved that (director) Jake Scott wanted me so much for it when it was so different," Leo told Reuters in a joint interview with Gandolfini.

For his part, "Welcome to the Rileys" gave Gandolfini -- the former, angry mob boss Tony Soprano of "The Sopranos" fame -- a chance to delve into a character who is more concerned with doing right, than wrong.

"There's just a simplicity to the movie," he said. "I spent a lot of years screaming and yelling, and this is different."

In response, Gandolfini's Doug Riley grows ever more distant, eventually deciding it's better to stay away from Lois. When he befriends a 17 year-old stripper on business trip to New Orleans, Doug decides to bring the teen into his house with Lois, and the girl's presence sparks a return to some sort of normalcy for the Riley's relationship."Welcome to the Rileys" stars Gandolfini and Leo as an emotionally distant couple whose teenage daughter loses her life in a car accident. Her death causes Leo's character, Lois Riley, to become deeply depressed and afraid to leave home.

Leo, who was Oscar-nominated for her lead actress role in 2008 drama "Frozen River," said what lured her into the role of grieving mother and wife Lois Riley was the chance to play a woman whose emotions are bundled up inside, even though they are quite ready to burst out.

"I've always played different kinds of women but their is a lot more movement in them than in Lois. Her emotions are so repressed and internal," she said.

The movie has played at film festivals throughout 2010 to mixed critical reviews, but now audiences get their chance to see it and decide for themselves whether they like it.

And while many of the 20 year-old Stewart's mostly young "Twilight" fans may not turn out, it just may be she gains some new followers among older adults.

Gandolfini, for one, is impressed.

"I thought it ('Rileys') was an interesting choice for her," he said. "She wants to do certain things as an actress on the screen, and that's nice. When I was 21, I had no clue about anything...She's a smart young lady and that's nice to see."

ABC
xoxo
Carrie

James talks about Kristen

Once Tough Guy, Now Nurturer

“What the hell is happening now?” James Gandolfini asked, not quite smiling, at the start of an interview last week. Mr. Gandolfini is not big on interviews; journalists who mention his most famous role, playing the mob boss Tony Soprano, get swatted away. “I never think about him, ever,” Mr. Gandolfini, 49, said.

But some projects are worth talking about. For HBO he is an executive producer of “Wartorn: 1861-2010,” a documentary about the history of post-traumatic stress in the military; it makes its premiere on Nov. 11. And in his next film, “Welcome to the Rileys,” a dark indie opening on Friday, Mr. Gandolfini is a businessman with a fractured family who befriends a stripper, played by Kristen Stewart (equally touchy about her star-making turn in the “Twilight” series). The film, the second feature from Jake Scott (son of Ridley), was shot on location in New Orleans, one of Mr. Gandolfini’s favorite cities.

“I like dark places,” he said over lunch in a Midtown Manhattan hotel, spearing at a salade niçoise with such ferocity that the glass-topped table shook. “I’d love to live in New Orleans. I love the freedom of it — for good and for bad.” Mr. Gandolfini spoke with Melena Ryzik about the new projects, his aversion to watching his own movies and his love of stupid comedies. These are excerpts from the conversation.

Q. So, are you a big fan of “Twilight”?

A. Actually I’ve never seen it.

Q. Did you tell Kristen that?

A. Well, she didn’t ask. I don’t think she watched “Sopranos” much.

Q. Do you worry about typecasting? In this role you’re sort of a surprise softie.

A. I read a lot of different stuff. Mostly it’s not a lot of that stuff anymore with shooting and killing and dying and blood. I’m getting a little older, you know. The running and the jumping and killing, it’s a little past me.

Q. So it was only the nonviolent script that attracted you to this?

A. I found out Kristen was going to do it. I saw her in “Into the Wild.” Some people kind of jump off the screen because they’re — actually, it had nothing to do with her beauty. She’s beautiful, but her intelligence seemed to leap off the screen. I thought, this is a smart young girl. And Jake Scott, I know his uncle — Tony [Scott] actually gave me my first big film [“True Romance”]. It was different from something I played before, and I thought the script had some humor in it. I have not seen the movie yet so I don’t know how much humor we kept, but I thought it was good and interesting and had a pretty good point.

Q. Which is?

A. I understand the motivation of the guy, his essential goodness. And I think I’ve seen people like this, girls like this, and you just shake your head and go, how did it happen, so goddamn young, and it’s a bad path already at that age, 17, 18. That struck me. I hear people talk about, well, you know, I would never be in that position, and you’ve just got to do this or you’ve got to do that, and it’s your own fault. I go, no, not always. Some people get kicked in the teeth a lot, and sometimes we look down on that, and I don’t think it’s their fault a lot of the times. That’s what was interesting to me, that struggle of this is where I am now, how do I lift myself out of this and move on. [Grins] We’re getting pretentious.

Q. Why have you not seen the movie?

A. To me the experience of the movie is doing it. I trust the people I worked with and I’m not one to go and change the order of that stuff. Not that anybody would listen to me anyway.

Q. Do you watch much TV?

A. No.

Q. But you’ve made two documentaries for HBO about combat, “Alive Day Memories” in 2007, and now “Wartorn.” How did you get involved in that?

A. It all started when we were doing “The Sopranos” and I would get letters or feedback from people saying the soldiers [in Iraq], they would go out and patrol and then they’d come back and watch “The Sopranos.” Tony Sirico [who played Paulie Gualtieri], who was a Marine, and I decided to go over there. Sheila Nevins, who was the head of documentaries at HBO, found out about this and decided that it would be interesting to do this documentary. Then I was going to go back to Afghanistan and Iraq with Tony Sirico again just to walk around and say hello to guys — we don’t sing and dance. She wanted to do something about post-traumatic stress from the Civil War on, and I said sure. We talked to a lot of guys, and they were pretty open with us. Gen. Ray Odierno said he would talk to me, which I was reasonably astounded by. He has a lot to do, head of everything in Iraq.

Q. Did the soldiers seem to connect with Tony trying to bridge the worlds of violence and family?

A. [Laughs] Maybe Tony had a little post-traumatic stress.

Q. “Welcome to the Rileys,” the play “God of Carnage” and of course “The Sopranos” are all about these besieged patriarchs. Do you have a particular interest in struggling families?

A. To be honest, I don’t, you know — who’s that guy that blows everything up? — Michael Bay hasn’t been calling too much. I’m fine with doing what I’m doing, these little scripts, I’m lovin’ them.

Q. You’re also an executive producer on a Hemingway movie for HBO. Are you a big Hemingway fan?

A. Actually not that much. I read some of his stuff, but I come from a pretty regular blue-collar background, I kind of like not to do too much research about something until the script’s done, so I can read the script as somebody would see it. Just a regular guy looking at it, saying, wow, that’s what this guy was about?

Q. If you don’t watch your movies, what kind of movies do you like to watch?

A. I watch stupid comedies. “Role Models.” I love them. “The Rocker.” I love that. I like idiotic comedies.

Q. How come we haven’t seen you in one?

A. Nobody’s asked.

nytimes
xoxo
Carrie