Interesting. I haven’t seen Rabbit Hole yet. Tried to talk my husband into it, but he wasn’t interested. (I made the mistake of describing the plot.) However in every clip I see, I’m just mesmerized by Nicole’s frozen forehead. Presumably it’s less distracting in the movie? And presumably too, heavily botoxed people also lose children, so there’s no reason why that character wouldn’t look like that. But I’d be sad to see her being rewarded for ruining her face like that. Yes ladies, you CAN inject masses of botox into your face and still win an Oscar.
“And presumably too, heavily botoxed people also lose children, so there’s no reason why that character wouldn’t look like that. But I’d be sad to see her being rewarded for ruining her face like that.”
That first line there is awfully funny (you are kidding, right?), while the second line is awfully disturbing (you are serious, right?).
If Portman has 2011 to overcome in order to win, Kidman has every movie she made between this and ‘The Hours’ to overcome. I don’t think she has a real chance of winning. The upset this year, if there is one in the acting, will be Bale losing.
Kidman’s audience flops, like THE STEPFORD WIVES and AUSTRALIA, are nothing to write home about. But she’s very honorably put herself at the disposal of a number of indie and “arthouse” directors; it’s not her fault that they’ve largely let her down.
There’s nothing wrong with a lot of the performances she’s given since The Hours, IMHO…she’s fine in The Invasion, Stepford Wives, Cold Mountain, Fur, etc., etc. Sure, a lot of the films themselves could have been better — except for Birth,which rocks! — but I don’t think Academy voters much care about that kinda stuff; they would probably just rather you didn’t “coast” any any point in her career. I don’t really feel she’s been doing that.
But having said that, she’s already won, and Rabbit Hole seems to have been pretty slightly received. It doesn’t really appear to be her year.
I see Cashill beat me to the punch. I’d also add Dogville to the list…regardless of what you think of that film, Kidman really does her part and lays it all out there. You simply cannot blame the actress for stuff like that.
She is beyond great in Dogville. That’s a career peak, with Birth closely behind.
Give her some credit; while she hasn’t been in a string of successes, as mentioned above she’s worked with many younger and less-mainstream directors. And perhaps more importantly, she’s done every type of genre: fantasy, horror, indie drama, sci-fi, comedy, animated films, historical epics, musicals, even a western considering a good portion of Australia.
Hold on, Kidman’s audience flops have been HUGE and you’re completely writing them all off completely? We’re not talking about a handful of movies while she has largely devoted herself to smaller acting projects; it’s quite the opposite.
Here’s a list: ‘The Human Stain’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, ‘The Intrepreter’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Invasian’, ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Australia’, ‘Nine’ (allegedly; I literally don’t remember her in this).
That is not a list of “underperformers”, those are genuinely terrible movies. ‘Cold Mountain’ is an “underperformer”.
Her forays into small movies failed despite her, sure, but I don’t see why you’re saying that should be in any way to her credit for this Oscar. If they liked her in ‘Dogville’ or ‘Birth’ or ‘Fur’ so much, they would’ve nominated her for *those* small acting-based movies directed by respected directors, instead of this one.
And, PS, you make it sound like any of her smaller movies are generally respected; ‘Birth’ is floating at under 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, and ‘Dogville’ has sunk over the past decade as people have grown tireder and tireder of von Trier.
Any list of horrible-post-Oscar-careers should have Kidman neck and neck with Cuba Gooding Jr.
By “two of the best films in the last decade” what, exactly, do you mean? This has been a year of “best of decade” lists… can you point to one that had ‘Birth’ on it? Of course not, that would be impossible.
I’m not going to say that there’s nobody championing ‘Dogville’, but, like all Von Trier movies, it’s highly divisive, and it’s absurdly dismissive to cite it as if its some sort of dividing line between taking films seriously and not doing so.
I would say that citing The Human Stain’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, ‘The Intrepreter’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Invasian’, ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Australia’, ‘Nine’ as ranking among the worst films of the decade is certainly far less hyperbolic.
Lex – it’s weird to me that somebody so obsessed with “Who watches *that* movie anymore?” could bring up ‘Moulin Rogue’. I honestly believed that if all the DVDs of that movie had stopped working around 2003, not a single person would’ve noticed up until today.
Also no one would really consider any of those movies in your last paragraph to be in the 10 or 20 worst of any of their years of release, let alone of the last decade. Those a fairly nice list of 2, 2.5 star movies.
to clarify, I’m not knocking ‘Birth’ or ‘Dogville’, but saying ‘Birth’ is one of the best films of the 2000s is like saying ‘Swimming With Sharks’ is one of the best films of the 1990s. It’s a fine film with a strong central performance, but suggesting much more than that is just being contrarian. ‘Dogville’ is a wonderful performance, but the more films by Von Trier I see, the smaller his bag of tricks seems, and that one is the most archetypical Von Trier movie of all of them.
If ‘Bewitched’ is not one of the worst movies of the decade, I don’t know what (beyond ‘Alice in Wonderland’) would qualify.
‘Human Stain’ wasn’t even “pretty good” when it was Philip Roth masturbating over how much he wants to fuck a young dumb immigrant, let alone when they tried to make the movie out of it.
I’m not going to shit on SOMEWHERE, because I can see how it’s for some people, but I will advise anyone who hasn’t gone it yet that if the opening scene makes you want to leave, do it.
I like all Von Trier movies, it’s highly divisive, and it’s absurdly dismissive to cite it as if its some sort of dividing line between taking films seriously and not doing so.
The question is – Is what Nicole Kidman does in Rabbit Hole more award worthy than what Natalie Portman does in Black Swan? Or Annette Bening in Kids Are All Right?
I seem to remember a column a few years ago where the career of Nicole Kidman was compared to Betty Grable. #1 female star but none of her movies are going to stand the test of time and be remembered in 50 years. Seems like it was written around the time Stepford Wives or Bewitched came out.
“‘Human Stain’ wasn’t even “pretty good” when it was Philip Roth masturbating over how much he wants to fuck a young dumb immigrant, let alone when they tried to make the movie out of it.”
George – dammit, I’m conflating it with ‘The Dying Animal’, aren’t I? Sometimes it’s hard to keep straight who Roth masturbates over in which later novel.
Later novel? Roth wrote of being the priapic young male animal 40 years ago, now he writes of the priapic aged male animal.
The Human Stain was awful, and Kidman was at her most artificial in it.
Dogville’s success depends not on how seriously viewers take movies, but how much they can stand neo-Brechtism. Me, not at all.
I’d hazard a bet that Kidman is far better in RH than Portman was in BS, though. She is far more skilled at characterisation than America’s Own Child-Woman.
Yeah, but I can keep his early novels straight, at least until the Zuckerberg Bound trilogy. And there’s a batch of later, non-masturbation-based ones I can keep straight too (‘I Married a Communist’ and the one about Philip Roth finding a Philip Roth impersonator being two I really loved).
Anyway, I was actually really, really impressed with the characterization Portman brought to ‘Black Swan’. She reminded me exactly of several girls I knew who had had various levels of dance experience (aspiring to the level she reached, never getting near that). The mother was dead-on too.
But I respect Kidman enough that I can conceive of her being equally good. “Grieving parent” sound like a really obvious character but, then, you could say the same about “wallflower dancer”.
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Interesting. I haven’t seen Rabbit Hole yet. Tried to talk my husband into it, but he wasn’t interested. (I made the mistake of describing the plot.) However in every clip I see, I’m just mesmerized by Nicole’s frozen forehead. Presumably it’s less distracting in the movie? And presumably too, heavily botoxed people also lose children, so there’s no reason why that character wouldn’t look like that. But I’d be sad to see her being rewarded for ruining her face like that. Yes ladies, you CAN inject masses of botox into your face and still win an Oscar.
My first assumption reading your headline, Wells: “How would anyone know if Kidman’s upset after all that Botox?!”
I think that Annette Bening singing that Joni Mitchell song in “The Kids Are All Right” practically assured her of the Best Actress Oscar.
That’s the sort of scene that they show at AFI tributes.
That said, I have shamefully not seen “Black Swan” yet.
I’m going on Friday, though.
“And presumably too, heavily botoxed people also lose children, so there’s no reason why that character wouldn’t look like that. But I’d be sad to see her being rewarded for ruining her face like that.”
That first line there is awfully funny (you are kidding, right?), while the second line is awfully disturbing (you are serious, right?).
There NEEDS to be a last-minute push for Elle Fanning in SOMEWHERE.
That scene where LITTLE ELLE lets Dorff know how much she dislikes his latest conquest without saying a word is the best acted scene of 2010.
FANNING POWER.
@ Lex: Elle is amazing in the little seen (by most) “Phoebe in Wonderland”.
Didn’t notice Kidman’s botox at all in the movie, nor did I mind her accent slips during one big scene. She’s excellent in the film.
If Portman has 2011 to overcome in order to win, Kidman has every movie she made between this and ‘The Hours’ to overcome. I don’t think she has a real chance of winning. The upset this year, if there is one in the acting, will be Bale losing.
Kidman’s great in this. Lesley Manville in Another Year is better.
Kidman’s audience flops, like THE STEPFORD WIVES and AUSTRALIA, are nothing to write home about. But she’s very honorably put herself at the disposal of a number of indie and “arthouse” directors; it’s not her fault that they’ve largely let her down.
There’s nothing wrong with a lot of the performances she’s given since The Hours, IMHO…she’s fine in The Invasion, Stepford Wives, Cold Mountain, Fur, etc., etc. Sure, a lot of the films themselves could have been better — except for Birth,which rocks! — but I don’t think Academy voters much care about that kinda stuff; they would probably just rather you didn’t “coast” any any point in her career. I don’t really feel she’s been doing that.
But having said that, she’s already won, and Rabbit Hole seems to have been pretty slightly received. It doesn’t really appear to be her year.
I see Cashill beat me to the punch. I’d also add Dogville to the list…regardless of what you think of that film, Kidman really does her part and lays it all out there. You simply cannot blame the actress for stuff like that.
She is beyond great in Dogville. That’s a career peak, with Birth closely behind.
Give her some credit; while she hasn’t been in a string of successes, as mentioned above she’s worked with many younger and less-mainstream directors. And perhaps more importantly, she’s done every type of genre: fantasy, horror, indie drama, sci-fi, comedy, animated films, historical epics, musicals, even a western considering a good portion of Australia.
And this is all in the last decade.
Hold on, Kidman’s audience flops have been HUGE and you’re completely writing them all off completely? We’re not talking about a handful of movies while she has largely devoted herself to smaller acting projects; it’s quite the opposite.
Here’s a list: ‘The Human Stain’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, ‘The Intrepreter’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Invasian’, ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Australia’, ‘Nine’ (allegedly; I literally don’t remember her in this).
That is not a list of “underperformers”, those are genuinely terrible movies. ‘Cold Mountain’ is an “underperformer”.
Her forays into small movies failed despite her, sure, but I don’t see why you’re saying that should be in any way to her credit for this Oscar. If they liked her in ‘Dogville’ or ‘Birth’ or ‘Fur’ so much, they would’ve nominated her for *those* small acting-based movies directed by respected directors, instead of this one.
And, PS, you make it sound like any of her smaller movies are generally respected; ‘Birth’ is floating at under 40% on Rotten Tomatoes, and ‘Dogville’ has sunk over the past decade as people have grown tireder and tireder of von Trier.
Any list of horrible-post-Oscar-careers should have Kidman neck and neck with Cuba Gooding Jr.
Except anyone who takes movies seriously considers Dogville and Birth easily two of the best films in the last decade.
I’m surprised how much money The Golden Compass made worldwide. People talk like that was one of the biggest bombs.
DAYS OF THUNDER POWER.
Also there isn’t a dry at the House of Lex when Kidman and McGregor do “Come What May” in MOULIN ROUGE.
Also her performances in EYES WIDE SHUT and DOGVILLE are incredible.
Also COLD MOUNTAIN is awesome.
I even kind of like THE INVASION.
By “two of the best films in the last decade” what, exactly, do you mean? This has been a year of “best of decade” lists… can you point to one that had ‘Birth’ on it? Of course not, that would be impossible.
I’m not going to say that there’s nobody championing ‘Dogville’, but, like all Von Trier movies, it’s highly divisive, and it’s absurdly dismissive to cite it as if its some sort of dividing line between taking films seriously and not doing so.
I would say that citing The Human Stain’, ‘The Stepford Wives’, ‘The Intrepreter’, ‘Bewitched’, ‘The Invasian’, ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Australia’, ‘Nine’ as ranking among the worst films of the decade is certainly far less hyperbolic.
Lex – it’s weird to me that somebody so obsessed with “Who watches *that* movie anymore?” could bring up ‘Moulin Rogue’. I honestly believed that if all the DVDs of that movie had stopped working around 2003, not a single person would’ve noticed up until today.
And I dig ‘Cold Mountain’ too.
Man, Lupo, what did Nicole Kidman ever do to you?
Also no one would really consider any of those movies in your last paragraph to be in the 10 or 20 worst of any of their years of release, let alone of the last decade. Those a fairly nice list of 2, 2.5 star movies.
HUMAN STAIN is actually pretty good.
to clarify, I’m not knocking ‘Birth’ or ‘Dogville’, but saying ‘Birth’ is one of the best films of the 2000s is like saying ‘Swimming With Sharks’ is one of the best films of the 1990s. It’s a fine film with a strong central performance, but suggesting much more than that is just being contrarian. ‘Dogville’ is a wonderful performance, but the more films by Von Trier I see, the smaller his bag of tricks seems, and that one is the most archetypical Von Trier movie of all of them.
If ‘Bewitched’ is not one of the worst movies of the decade, I don’t know what (beyond ‘Alice in Wonderland’) would qualify.
‘Human Stain’ wasn’t even “pretty good” when it was Philip Roth masturbating over how much he wants to fuck a young dumb immigrant, let alone when they tried to make the movie out of it.
I’m not going to shit on SOMEWHERE, because I can see how it’s for some people, but I will advise anyone who hasn’t gone it yet that if the opening scene makes you want to leave, do it.
She’s a fucking dynamo in Eyes Wide Shut.
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Does anyone care except David Thomson?
I like all Von Trier movies, it’s highly divisive, and it’s absurdly dismissive to cite it as if its some sort of dividing line between taking films seriously and not doing so.
I haven’t seen Rabbit Hole (God willing, I never will) but it’s probably as good as most of the other dreck that’s up for Oscars.
The question is – Is what Nicole Kidman does in Rabbit Hole more award worthy than what Natalie Portman does in Black Swan? Or Annette Bening in Kids Are All Right?
I seem to remember a column a few years ago where the career of Nicole Kidman was compared to Betty Grable. #1 female star but none of her movies are going to stand the test of time and be remembered in 50 years. Seems like it was written around the time Stepford Wives or Bewitched came out.
“‘Human Stain’ wasn’t even “pretty good” when it was Philip Roth masturbating over how much he wants to fuck a young dumb immigrant, let alone when they tried to make the movie out of it.”
She wasn’t an immigrant, she was white trash.
I always knew BobbyLupo was anti-semitic.
George – dammit, I’m conflating it with ‘The Dying Animal’, aren’t I? Sometimes it’s hard to keep straight who Roth masturbates over in which later novel.
Later novel? Roth wrote of being the priapic young male animal 40 years ago, now he writes of the priapic aged male animal.
The Human Stain was awful, and Kidman was at her most artificial in it.
Dogville’s success depends not on how seriously viewers take movies, but how much they can stand neo-Brechtism. Me, not at all.
I’d hazard a bet that Kidman is far better in RH than Portman was in BS, though. She is far more skilled at characterisation than America’s Own Child-Woman.
Yeah, but I can keep his early novels straight, at least until the Zuckerberg Bound trilogy. And there’s a batch of later, non-masturbation-based ones I can keep straight too (‘I Married a Communist’ and the one about Philip Roth finding a Philip Roth impersonator being two I really loved).
Anyway, I was actually really, really impressed with the characterization Portman brought to ‘Black Swan’. She reminded me exactly of several girls I knew who had had various levels of dance experience (aspiring to the level she reached, never getting near that). The mother was dead-on too.
But I respect Kidman enough that I can conceive of her being equally good. “Grieving parent” sound like a really obvious character but, then, you could say the same about “wallflower dancer”.
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