It’s George Clooney’s Oscar To Lose

It’s George Clooney’s Oscar To Lose. There’s a point in every silly season - oh of course, I meant to say awards season – when I actually get interested in the race. It happened yesterday when I saw The Descendants and realized no one is likely to beat George Clooney’s deep and touching performance. OK, maybe I also got interested because I am sick of hearing about Herman Cain and Rick Perry in that other contest; will everyone please stop taking those buffoons seriously? But mostly it was Clooney.

He chose the part well. Matt King, living in paradisiacal Hawaii, has a wife in a coma after an accident, a feisty 10-year-old daughter and a college-age daughter who lets him know why she’s been so angry at her mother: “Mom was cheating on you.” You can see that much in the trailers.

What you don’t instantly see is how beautifully Alexander Payne directs the film, or how gracefully the parts fit together. There’s a semi-comic strand about Clooney’s character looking for the Other Man, and a socially-conscious strand about his family’s plan to sell the beautiful, undeveloped land they inherited. That’s a pretty complete package.

Clooney never overacts; even his eye-popping comic turn in O Brother Where Art Thou fit the Coen Brothers’ stylized approach. But he is especially subtle here, as he was in his last Oscar-nominated leading role, in Up In the Air.

But let’s be cynical about awards for a minute – or, let’s go all in and make that for the season. I’m not saying Clooney and Payne calculated this role as awards bait; I’m not saying they didn’t. But I will say it fits every criteria. Clooney gets to cry and grieve and be droll. The film is mainstream and accessible but not depressing. And there is nothing working against it.

Who can beat him? Brad Pitt is terrific in Moneyball, but his baseball-manager’s role doesn’t really have awards depth. Michael Fassbender is searing as the sex addict in Shame, and I can believe that Oscar voters have gotten younger and less fusty, but are they really going to vote for a film so raw it’s been rated NC-17? Moneyball’s too cold, Shame is too hot, but The Descendants is just right.

There’s plenty I haven’t seen yet, including Leonardo DiCaprio as J. Edgar Hoover; he seems to get nominated easily, just for playing not-Leo. Some other actor could make me change my mind. But for now, Clooney’s deeply realized performance in this straight-down-the-middle film makes it his Oscar to lose.

from: Caryn James

Composer Hans Zimmer Sitting Out Oscar Race

Composer Hans Zimmer Sitting Out Oscar Race. Hans Zimmer is apparently tired of the game of musical chairs surrounding the Academy Awards race. The Oscar-winning composer told The Hollywood Reporter Saturday that he is not submitting any of his work for consideration. While he considers being nominated a big deal, Zimmer said he’d just rather observe this year.

“As soon as you get nominated, and I don’t care who you are — there are certainly people of better character than me — it all goes crazy,” Zimmer told THR. “You get the phone call at five o’clock and after that you have to do the interviews and then do the parties and meet all these people and do all these things. It’s disruptive, and I think it would be more interesting to observe it for a year.”

Zimmer’s eligible scores this year include “Rango,” and the sequels “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and the upcoming “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.”

“It’s not like I’m not proud of ‘Rango,’ because I think it’s a pretty amazing little movie,” Zimmer told THR. “But another thing is I don’t really have (original) scores this year because I’ve done sequels. I don’t want to make a big thing out of it, but I just thought ‘no Ronni — I’ll take a break,’” Zimmer said of his decision to sit out the awards race.

Zimmer has been nominated for eight Oscars, and won for Best Original Score in 1995 for “The Lion King.” The composer used to represented by late publicist Ronni Chasen, who was tragically shot to death last year. Zimmer currently is composing the score to “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Hollywood Awards Predicts Oscars?

Can Hollywood Awards predict Oscar winners? The Oscars are still a few months away, but that doesn't stop movie fans from handicapping their favorites. And the Hollywood Film Awards, handed out earlier at the at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, may be a good harbinger of awards to come.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2," based on the last novel in J.K. Rowling's series, was named Movie of the Year. George Clooney took home the actor award for "The Descendants" and Michelle Williams won the actress award for playing Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn."

Both Clooney and Williams have been getting Oscar buzz this fall as have some of the other award winners.

Here's a look at who else went home with a trophy Monday night:

Hollywood Director Award: Bennett Miller for "Moneyball"

Hollywood Supporting Actor Award: Christopher Plummer for "Beginners"

Hollywood Supporting Actress Award: Carey Mulligan for "Shame"

Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award: Joseph Gordon-Levitt for "50/50"

Hollywood Screenwriter Award: Diablo Cody for "Young Adult"

New Hollywood Award: Felicity Jones for "Like Crazy"

Hollywood Ensemble Cast Award: "The Help" cast - Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen

Hollywood Career Achievement Award: Glenn Close for "Albert Nobbs"

Hollywood Producer Award: Letty Aronson for "Midnight in Paris"

Hollywood Breakthrough Director Award: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

Hollywood Cinematographer Award: Emmanuel Lubezski for "The Tree of Life"

Hollywood Film Composer Award: Alberto Iglesias for "Tinker", "Tailor", "Soldier", "Spy"

Hollywood Editor Award: Stephen Mirrione for "The Ides of March"

Hollywood Production Designer Award: James J Murakami for "J. Edgar"

Hollywood Visual Effects Award: "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" - Scott Farrar

Hollywood Animation Award: "RANGO" directed by Gore Verbinski

Hollywood Spotlight Awards: Shailene Woodley for "The Descendants