Can Sam Rockwell really get an Oscar nomination?

The oddest thing about the Somali pirate story that grabbed our attention for a few days earlier this year is that no one has bothered to make a movie about it, but that's about to change.

It seems that Billy Ray has been hired to pen the story of captain Richard Phillips, who was held hostage by Somali pirates until Barack Obama gave the order for some rather badass snipers to give them three shots to the head. (I only mention Obama because he could certainly use whatever goodwill he can get these days.)

Ray is easily one of my favorite screenwriters. "Breach" finished in my top 10 for 2007, and if you haven't seen "Shattered Glass," his flick about serial journalistic fabricator Stephen Glass, it's even better and well worth a rental. He was also one of three (wtf?) writers listed for "State of Play," which I just watched on DVD and enjoyed quite a bit.

Assuming this all comes to fruition (and why wouldn't it?), I would hope they pick someone besides Ray to direct it, because although I like all the movies he's helmed, they're very claustrophobic and cat-and-mouse, really not what we have here.

And in other, odder news today, it seems that the often great Don Cheadle is somehow getting into the sitcom business with NBC.

It's certainly not surprising that NBC would order up more comedies (last night's episode of "Community" was easily the funniest one yet - and on another network, of course, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" also had its funniest episode of the new season.) But why would Cheadle lower himself to TV?

I suspect it's due to the involvement of "Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder, who will write and I'd have to assume at least sometimes direct for the series. He'll certainly have to tone down his act for this new show about "mismatched brothers who reunite to open a private security company," but here's hoping he can keep it raw enough to be very funny.

But what sparked the headline for this post was that I saw there's now an online petition with about 700 signatures on it to get Sam Rockwell an Oscar nomination for his work in "Moon," and as far as empty gestures go, this one certainly has its heart in the right place. If you want to sign on, click here.

I had the distinct pleasure of squeezing into the screening of Duncan Jones' flick earlier this year at the Atlanta Film Festival 365, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It does steal more than a little directly from "2001," but it's still the kind of very smart sci-fi allegory we don't see on the big screen nearly often enough these days (and that, frankly, Neil Blomkamp's "District 9" only thought it was.)

And if you've seen this flick (if you haven't, it's finally coming to DVD Dec. 29), you know that Sam Rockwell's in just about every frame all alone, and he's sensational. Though Rockwell could have easily hammed it up with the descent into madness, he instead let it play out at a natural pace and turned in easily one of the best male performances I've seen this year.

So, is there any real chance that he could get a Best Actor Oscar nomination next year? I don't think so, but looking at the competition, I'd say he's at least a fairly healthy dark horse. Here's a look - as best as I can gauge it - at the contenders so far, plus a few players to come later. In my heart, I certainly wanted to include Peter Capaldi's gloriously profane turn as Malcolm Tucker in "In the Loop," but I really couldn't see that happening, so here goes:

Someone from "The Soloist"
I haven't seen this one yet because it just looks way too mawkish for me, but my fellow cubicle slave Randy Waters - whose taste I almost always trust - swears its good, so I should probably give it a shot on DVD. I'm certain, even without having seen it yet, that either Robert Downey Jr. or Jamie Foxx will get an Oscar nod for this - if not both - and I'd put my money on Foxx.

Someone from "The Hurt Locker"
Outside of Rockwell's run in "Moon," Kathyrn Bigelow's (not pro- or anti-, just) war movie has the best two male performances I've seen this year from Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner. Though they both just perfectly capture the state of soldiers in combat, I can't imagine they'd both be nominated, so I'll bet on Renner.

Matt Damon
I suppose this could come for either Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant" or for his upcoming role in Clint Eastwood's South Africa flick "Invictus," but I sure hope it's for the former. In Soderbergh's flick, he was just the perfect definition of a weasel as he kept digging deeper and deeper with the lies of Mark Whitacre, and it was thoroughly fun to watch.

Johnny Depp
And no, not just because he's Johnny Depp. In "Public Enemies," which made a surprisingly strong $97 million or so at the U.S. box office, Depp just carried the movie with ease as bank robber extraordinaire John Dillinger (and since he also had to carry the pretty much dead weight of Christian Bale as lawman Melvin Purvis, that was some truly heavy lifting.)

Future contenders

George Clooney
With "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "Men Who Stare at Goats" and "Up in the Air" all coming in short order very soon, this fall will certainly be the season of Clooney, and I suspect you'll hear his name called next year for his role in the latter, the new flick from Jason Reitman and one I'm certainly looking forward to seeing.

Daniel Day Lewis
Because, well, he's Daniel Day Lewis and because, as the only dude in a sea of Oscar-winning women in Rob Marshall's epic musical "Nine," he'd have to just really, really suck to not snag a nomination for this, and I can't see that happening.

And there you have it. Please feel free to mention any I might have missed, and have a great weekend. As for my movie weekend, I'll probably go see Chris Rock's "Good Hair" and maybe "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant," but not "Paranormal Activity," not because it looks too scary but because "The Blair Witch Project" was just easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen and I just don't think I can sit through another horror gimmick flick. Peace out.

Tuesday tidbit and a couple of cool videos

Am off out now. Good night all. Hands up who still wants a HOT FUZZ sequel.

OK, that was probably just a joke taken completely out of context, but even so I just wanted to respond to that tweet (or twit, or whatever the hell they might be called) from Edgar Wright by waving my hands all around as spastically as Horshack. That would indeed be just the definition of cool in my book.

And speaking of things I would love to see that are just highly unlikely to happen, this headline got me momentarily interested in a subject I thought I had managed to leave for dead: "IFC Picks up 'Arrested Development'."

Well, any rational person would quickly realize that that simply means that the IFC channel is picking up all 53 episodes of "Arrested Development," and not that it has somehow set in proper motion an "Arrested Development" movie, as I briefly did. But hey, I write this thing at like 6 in the morning, so cut me some slack. The good news, I suppose, is that if you get IFC, which I do not so I can watch way too much soccer instead, I suppose that means you'll have the Bluth clan in your house just about every night starting Monday.

And speaking of soccer, I've liked just about every movie made about the game (except for, oddly enough, Carlos Cuaron's "Rudo Y Cursi," mostly because it just had so little of the beautiful game in it.) I've made no secret of my desire to see "The Damned United," and now Mia Hamm is getting in the movie game to produce a soccer flick of a completely different sort.

It seems that the soccer great is teaming up with Breaking Ball Films to produce a screen version of "Alive and Kicking: When Soccer Moms Take the Field," a book by New York Times sportswriter Harvey Araton. And despite that title, it's not a horror movie, as far as I know.

Instead, it's the story of a women's soccer team in Montclair, N.J., formed by mothers who were tired of standing on the sidelines while their kids played. I can see any numbers of ways this could be just truly awful, but I'll have to keep an open mind. Not that they're gonna be at all similar, but I'd just like to close this subject by adding somewhat tangentially that "Bend It Like Beckham," as silly as it is, still just makes me smile every time I see it (and it's probably five times or so by now.)

OK, after that, all I have today are a couple of videos that caught my eye this morning. After Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" finally comes out everywhere (which it now seems like won't be until Christmas day, damnit), I think Anna Kendrick's finally gonna be a big star. In this clip she takes on George Clooney about his obsession that fuels the film, to amass 10,000 frequent flyer miles. Enjoy.



Next up and finally comes this montage from Rob Marshall's upcoming "Nine," which I'd say will have to be the Oscar heavyweight for this year unless it somehow just sucks. The musical version of Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical "8 and a half," its rather star-stocked cast includes Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Dame Judi Dench and, even, somehow unfortunately Kate Hudson and Fergie too. Anyways, this rehearsal montage is, I think, the first clip released for the flick, so enjoy and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

Men of the year: The best male performances of 2007

Lest anyone who just happens by here thinks I'm somehow slighting the ladies, they got their day yesterday, so please feel free to scroll back and see who made that list too.

As I tallied up a year full of great male performances, there were three glaring omissions in my viewing calendar that rose to the top; you won't find Sam Riley from "Control," Casey Affleck from "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" or, most embarrassingly, Don Cheadle from "Talk to Me" simply because I haven't seen those yet.

With those conditions in mind, and the further one that I limited my choices to one from each movie (except in the honorable mention), here are my ten favorite male performances from 2007 (and, as always, please feel free to add any I may have overlooked.)

Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Picking just one dude from this epicly good movie seems like a crime, but those are the rules I set going in, and I do think he rose to the top of this amazing cast. To me, his portrayal of Anton Chigurh is just the essence of evil, and best expresses the complete abhorrence of violence that is at the core of the Coen brothers' admittedly very violent (and stunningly beautiful) movie.


Michael Cera, "Superbad"
I'm still waiting for the time that George Michael Bluth will be too old to play the straight-laced teen, but it hasn't come yet. He was almost as good in "Juno," but as the sounding board/punching bag to Jonah Hill in the funniest movie of 2007 (hint: that means you will very likely see it in my best of 2007 movie list coming Monday), he's just pitch-perfect. Though I don't know in the world he's going to pull it off, he's set to (possibly) play a 14-year-old as Nick Twisp in the film adaptation of one of my favorite novels, C.D. Payne's "Youth in Revolt." Here's hoping they at least start filming soon!

Chris Cooper, "Breach"
I've seen this one twice now, in fittingly different circumstances. I didn't fully appreciate it during my private screening of one during its one-week-or-so run in Macon, but it was just the perfect movie to watch while crammed on a very long flight to South Africa this summer. The movie is at times just as suffocating as that experience, but Cooper just manages to draw you in anyway with his absorbing portrayal of uber-spy Robert Hanssen.

Robert Downey Jr., "Zodiac"
Despite being handicapped by its early-calendar release and length (which you'll never hear me complain about), this flick seems to be building some possible dark-horse buzz as a Best Picture contender, which would make me very happy. Of the trio of stars at its core, Mr. Downey's journalist just best epitomized the obsession behind the drive to find the Zodiac killer.


Idris Elba, "Tyler Perry's Daddy Little Girls"
The better of Tyler Perry's 2007 movies somehow gets only a 3.3 out of 10 in the user rating at the IMDB. 3.3? Sheesh. I know his fairy-tale flicks aren't for everyone, but they're almost as smart as they are funny, and Idris Elba, a k a the late Stringer Bell on "The Wire," steps comfortably into his world as a mechanic who's also trying to care for his titular "Little Girls."

Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
I'll only confess to crying once in a movie theater this year, and it came when Emile Hirsch's Christopher McCandless turns his back on the world for the last time, rejecting the fatherly love of Hal Holbrook's Ron Franz. No actor made a bigger impression in a shorter time in 2007 than Holbrook did in this flick, and to me that's just the textbook definition of a great supporting actor.

Daniel Day Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
I'm still not sure how exactly I felt about Paul Thomas Anderson's epic take on the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil." It's certainly amazing movie making, but it would have left me more than a little cold if it weren't for the incredible performance of Mr. Lewis, who only seems to emerge every three years or so. Here, you'll find it hard to take your eyes off his face as he slowly devolves from enterprising oilman to a madman consumed by greed and other vices. Easily the best performance of 2007.

Peter O'Toole, "Ratatouille"
The closest thing to a true moment of grace in 2007 came when O'Toole's Anton Ego finally takes a bite of the titular "Ratatouille," and it's one of the many charms that has made this Pixar flick linger as my favorite flick of 2007. A true dark horse for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, but he's certainly got my support.

Simon Pegg, "Hot Fuzz"
I like to laugh, and I'm not going to start apologizing for that anytime soon. I suppose this nomination should be split between Mr. Pegg and his partner in crime, Nick Frost, but it was Pegg's channeling of David Caruso and other demons that just made Edgar Wright's spoof of '80s actions flicks work so well.

Reece Thompson, "Rocket Science"
I almost typed "Superbad" instead of "Rocket Science," but even though I did see those two flick on the same weekend in Minneapolis this summer, they couldn't be more different entrants in the arena of great teen flicks. As the alter ego of director Jeffrey Blitz, young Mr. Thompson stammers his way to easily one of the most memorable performances of 2007.

Honorable Mention (and be warned, this will be a bit long): Irfan Khan, "The Namesake"; Glen Hansard, "Once"; Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"; Titus Welliver, "Gone Baby Gone"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; J.K. Simmons, "Juno"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"; Paul Dano, "There Will Be Blood"; Josh Brolin, "No Country For Old Men"; Jonah Hill, "Superbad"; and Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, "American Gangster"

There will be blood - on an epic scale

Paul Thomas Anderson is a truly maddening filmmaker to me.

He's managed to make two of my favorite flicks in "Boogie Nights" and "Hard Eight," but also two other that just drive me crazy. I still have no idea what he was going for with "Magnolia," even though I forced myself to watch it a second time to see if there was somehow something I missed (there wasn't.) And "Punch Drunk Love," despite the best efforts of Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, was only intermittenly charming at best.

But what all his movies have, whether you like them or not, is passion. He clearly throws himself into his projects completely, which means it can often take a short lifetime for him to make a movie (it's been five years since his last, "Punch Drunk Love.") Now, however, he finally seems to have found a subject epic enough to fit his talents and an actor who similarly gives everything he has to each performance.

Due early in 2008, "There Will Be Blood" is based on the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil," which I will be reading before this comes out. Set in the booming West coast oil fields at the turn of the 20th century, it will star Daniel Day Lewis as rugged prospector Daniel Plainview, who becomes an independent oilman after hitting it rich with the strike of a lifetime. I hope this plays wide enough for me to see it, or is playing in some kind of limited run when I hit NYC for my family's annual trip at year's end, because this just looks like the perfect melding of subject, director/writer and actor. Here's the poster and a glimpse of what's to come with the trailer (I concede that this may be months old to some of you, but it's new to me, so here goes):



More "Jackass"? Yes, please

Surely there have been greater crimes of omission than teasing us with Don DeVito getting his tooth pulled by a truck in the trailer for "Jackass Number Two" and then not including it anywhere in the movie or DVD, but that was one that really grated my cheese. Now, however, it seems that lovers of that and all other kinds of jackassery will soon get more.

According to the great /film blog, Johnny Knoxville and the boys are filming new scenes to add to the 40 minutes or so of leftover footage from "Number Two" to make a "Jackass 2.5" in time for a straight-to-DVD Christmas release. And yes, they promise the infamous tooth pull will indeed be included.

Wiest joins the 'Jezebel'

I can't think of a midseason replacement show I've tuned in to since, well, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but "The Return of Jezebel James" is one I'll definitely give more than one chance.

After all, it's the new series from "Gilmore Girls" creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and hubby Daniel Palladino. This time they've cooked up a half-hour sitcom for Fox about two estranged sisters (Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose), one of whom (I'm not sure which) just happens to be carrying the other's baby. Now comes word that the always very likable Dianne Wiest will be joining the cast in a recurring role as their mother. Extremely girly, yes, but it will hopefully also be thoroughly entertaining.

A golden opportunity from the Film Guild

The Macon Film Guild has been bringing arthouse flicks to the big screen here in Macon for years now, but they've really hit a high point with their next two screenings.

It starts this weekend with "The Lives of Others," which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. I was all set to rent this on DVD to see how it could have possibly beat out my favorite movie of 2006, "Pan's Labyrinth," when I got the guild postcard and decided to hold out.

The movie, as far as I can tell, is about a Stasi agent (the late Ulrich Muhe) who is charged with spying on the private lives of German citizens until he finds out some unseemly truths about the people he's spying for and has second thoughts. I'm surely not doing it justice, so come out and see for yourself at the Douglass Theatre. Screenings will be at 2 and 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Hopefully I'll see you there at the first show.

Coming next month will be "The Wind that Shakes the Barley," Ken Loach's IRA movie starring Cillian Murphy (not Ciaran Hinds, as I posted earler before being corrected by always-welcome reader Carrie Lofty.) It won the Palme D'Or at Cannes, and like all of Loach's movies, will certainly be a very entertaining piece of agitprop. Mark your calendar for screenings on the second Sunday of October. Peace out.