

The 2009 Oscar Winners. Well, we may all know exactly who won, on this day-after the Oscars; but in a year or so, a reference sheet may be desired…So, here they are, all in list that’s printable…

Viola Davis shows everything, in her character-restraining way of showing practically nothing.
She is calm, and direct, and holds back with the dignity of a black woman who is confronted, unexpectedly; and yet is able to maintain composure. All the while, letting us, the audience, get a sense of her whole life. All the burdens she experiences.


It says, on the very back page; in the final little blurb that a CPA named Tony Knapp, listed nine million dollars, for Sean Penn’s”Gay Lessons”, in ‘Milk’.As kooky as so much EX-cess Hollywood can seem…I don’t know…This one just administers a bit of a jolt. Something ’bout, it’s simplicity of description.


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Anne Hathaway in “Rachel Getting Married” Angelina Jolie in “Changeling” Melissa Leo in “Frozen River” Meryl Streep in “Doubt” PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Amy Adams in “Doubt” Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” Viola Davis in “Doubt” Taraji P. Henson in “The Curious Case [...]


“This was very different for me in so many ways because here I was being given that opportunity that I have waited a lifetime for, the opportunity to carry the film. So everything mattered that much more to me. I was that much more involved in all of it. There’s all kind of utter nonsense that goes on on-set but, somehow, you get the darn thing in the can anyway….”


I noticed that they all worked together, as if knitted together. It was my first sense, and desire, to be part of an acting ensemble. And, the role that Sinatra played, it was like a drop of ink on a piece of blotter paper. Just filled up the part. With an ease, and an intensity that never felt intense, at all. Magically alive.


Well, I was drawing from my life, too, from my mom. We were the only black family in Central Falls, Rhode Island in 1965. She had to fight doctors who wanted to experiment on us when we were sick, and she had to fight parents who saw us as thugs and bad influences on their children, though we were just rambunctious, creative kids. She had to fight teachers who just didn’t see our intelligence at times.

…6 The fable-like structure of the film has the strength and simplicity of a fairytale….9 The profound hatred or mistrust of corrupt wealth and the consequent adoration of lucky poverty could not have a better dramatic demonstration….10 The new air of magical realism is about to crush photographic realism in the movies.”