George Clooney at the Oscars, 2012

the right time and the right place


hmmm?

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Oh... Hathaross...Thank you for posting that pic! Sweeeet!

I've said this before, and I'll say it again - that man should wear nothing but grey. Good lord, he looks good in that color!

well
any colour I guess

or without them all

Interesting take on The Descendants. Is it as profound as the Tree of Life?

Palm Tree of Life
The sneaky profundity of The Descendants.
By Elbert Ventura|Posted Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012, at 8:00 AM ET

Nominated for five Academy Awards, boasting an 89 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and tallying a healthy $75 million (and counting) at the box office, The Descendants is hardly in need of a defense—but it is in need of further discussion. For all its success, Alexander Payne’s film has been less unappreciated than unexamined. Skeptics have dismissed it as mezzobrow indiewood, undeserving of scrutiny; yet even supporters have undersold its virtues, fixating on its (considerable) surface pleasures without noticing that Payne has made a layered and searching piece of work. Don’t let the soothing uke and sun-dappled sadness fool you—The Descendants is no less interested in the cosmic than that exegete’s delight The Tree of Life.
Perhaps Payne’s insistence on making human-scaled drama obscures his reach. Allergic to grandiosity, his movies depict losers, schlubs, and schmos dealing with domestic turmoil and personal crises in a nondescript, lived-in America. Across those movies, Payne has carved out an authorial identity defined by career-making performances (Reese Witherspoon in Election, Paul Giamatti in Sideways), adroit tone shifts, and the pitch-perfect rendering of life in these United States.
The Descendants shares many of those qualities, which might explain why the critical conversation surrounding the movie has seemed stunted, with most reviews amounting to little more than pronouncements of what “worked” and what didn’t. What such assessments overlook is a major American director working on his largest canvas yet and confronting some pretty fundamental questions. If Payne’s previous movies cast a sidelong glance at How We Live Now, this one emerges as an affecting inquiry into How We Live, period.

Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings, The Descendants tells the story of Matt King (George Clooney), a real-estate lawyer whose wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), plunges into a permanent coma after a boating accident. But the grieving is interrupted when his teenage daughter, Alex (Shailene Woodley), reveals that Elizabeth had been having an affair. Meanwhile, another crisis looms as Matt, trustee of a large parcel of beachfront property on Kauai, presides over the dissolution of the trust—and finds himself having second thoughts about selling paradise despite the windfall awaiting him and his cousins.
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The title alludes to both plotlines. The Descendants spends most of its time with Matt and his descendants, Alex and Scottie (Amara Miller), the inattentive father explicitly wondering how to raise two daughters he has barely parented. But the movie also reminds us of Matt the descendant, privileged recipient of a lavish patrimony. At a couple of points, Payne interrupts the action to ruminate on ghostly photographs of Matt’s ancestors, staring back from the past as he ponders their bequest’s future. These haunting interludes give resonance to Matt’s earthly thrashings, anchoring his experience in something bigger than himself.
The setting only enlarges the film’s scope. Much has been made of The Descendants’ focus on quotidian Hawaii, but such praise always seemed overblown. As J. Hoberman notes, “Despite a gesture or two toward Honolulu’s downside, Hawaii still feels like heaven on earth.” He meant that as a putdown, but it misses what Payne’s up to. The Descendants’ Hawaii is Edenic all right—intentionally so. Montages of the lush landscape not only offer rhythmic punctuation to the narrative, but gather cumulative power as emblems of eternity itself. Reminiscent of Ozu, these pillow shots—of sea against sky, mountains over beaches—encase the movie’s human drama in an elemental frame. The cutting between Matt’s grief and the indifferent beauty and humbling grandeur of the natural world suggests a transcendental perspective—as does Matt’s about-face on selling the land to developers. The Malickian outlook reaches its apotheosis in a climactic montage that transports us from a deathbed to clouds, cliffs, and shoreline, telescoping us from the earthbound to the timeless. It’s a diaphanous flourish all the more powerful for capping a resolutely naturalistic movie.
The title is something of a giveaway. Dripping with biblical freight, it all but asks us to think of the story as metaphor. Finely observed family portraiture becomes something else: By the time Matt finally confronts his dilemma, it’s clear that the inheritance he’s brooding over isn’t just his—it’s ours as well. Payne suggests that we too came into an astounding bequest—our time in this world—and yet, as Matt admits of his birthright, we haven’t quite earned it. The Descendants implicitly asks: How do we justify this gift? What can supply meaning to an existence that’s but a blip in time?
It’s in that context that Matt makes his choices. To his wife’s lover, he grants permission to make one last visit to Elizabeth; to his resentful father-in-law, he hides news of Elizabeth’s infidelity; to the land itself, he chooses preservation over profit. There’s something to Bilge Ebiri’s dismissal that The Descendants is the latest in a genre he calls “George Clooney Does the Right Thing.” Peer beyond the feel-good veneer, however, and you see a director interrogating, with something approaching grace, why we end up doing the right thing.
Perhaps the movie’s most celebrated scene, the coda of Matt and the girls vegging on the couch and watching TV, offers something of a summa. On one level, the long-take scene is simplicity itself: A family restored, harmony achieved. But Payne packs the frame with suggestion. We see Scottie, curled up under a yellow quilt, the same one we saw over her mother when she breathed her last breath. It’s a lovely touch—the dead remembered and death reclaimed for the living. On the TV, we hear a familiar voice: Morgan Freeman narrating March of the Penguins. “It wasn’t always like this,” he intones, “Antarctica used to be a tropical paradise.” The snippet isn’t a throwaway gesture or a random choice, but a shrewd stroke. Juxtaposing real time with geological timelessness, Payne underscores his theme, even as gives his characters and the audience a gentle sendoff.
Except for the fleet stylishness of Election—a movie made under the spell of Casino—Payne has never been a showy filmmaker. The director himself admits that he makes movies “within the commercial American narrative cinema”— movies that are legible to a mass audience. That may be why The Descendants hasn’t been subjected to the critical unpacking it merits. Indeed, in its obsession with the past, with ancestors, with transience, eternity, and our raison d’être, The Descendants emerges as an unlikely diptych partner to The Tree of Life. Both are fixated on grief and the human response: If The Tree of Life is about the invention of god, The Descendants is about the invention of morality.
But while Malick’s movie inspired reams of engaged criticism, Payne’s has been a victim of critical complacency, damned (at best) as merely a good movie with good performances by a good director. It’s more than that. The Descendants is a sneakily profound film made by an artist in peak form. Pillow shots and inserts glimmer with meaning; the loveliest dissolves in recent cinema unlock reserves of emotion. The marketing tells us The Descendants is a vehicle for Clooney’s lifetime performance. Look closer, though, and it’s Payne’s breakthrough that you’ll see.

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aye, aye, aye........

Nina to attend the Oscars?!?!

Lainey is linking to an article at Deadline about an Oscar pre-show involving the moms of some of the nominees sharing stories about their children, and Nina is one of them. Lainey seems to think it will be live and Nina will accompany George to the awards, but these things are usually pre-taped, right?

First article is Lainey's; the second is the article she links to at Deadline. Click through for photos of Nina looking lovely as always.

George’s “Mominee”
February 23, 2012
Posted at 11:22 AM

Finally.

As you know, I’ve been saying for a while now that the girlfriend situation for publicity and awards just isn’t working for George Clooney. Just bring your parents!

Well, it turns out that Mother Clooney will actually make an appearance at the Oscars on Sunday. Deadline is reporting the Academy will feature nominee moms during the pre-show, sharing hilarious and embarrassing anecdotes about their children in an attempt to make Hollywood more “relatable”. What’s up MiniVan Majority?

The “mominees” of George Clooney, Melissa McCarthy, and Gary Oldman will be profiled. Is it too late though for G since voting has already closed?

No matter. One way or another, his ma will be there...alongside Stacy Keibler? It wouldn’t be the first time she’s stepped out with one of his pieces. Check out Mrs Clooney with the former Italian Queen in 2009 while promoting Up In The Air. But she is BEAUTIFUL, isn’t she? (Mrs Clooney, obviously) And, really, George, mom as your date through award season would have been your slamdunk. Instead, you and Keibler let Weinstein and Dujardin into the lead. A month ago, this chart was Clooney across the board. Now it’s Dujardin by 60-40ish.

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Oscars Scoop: George Clooney’s & Melissa McCarthy’s Moms To Be Spotlighted Pre-Show

By NIKKI FINKE | Tuesday February 21, 2012 @ 6:26pm PST

EXCLUSIVE: This year’s producers Brian Grazer and Don Mischer are expanding on a good idea from last year – “Mominees” – to make Hollywood’s biggest night more relatable. Once again, during the pre-show for the 84th Academy Awards, mothers of nominees will discuss insights into their kids. Featured will be George Clooney’s mom, Melissa McCarthy’s mom, Gary Oldman’s mom, plus others. ”Great fun,” an insider tells me. (Especially if they say anything that embarrasses their kids…) Last year, the Oscars also featured the nominee’s mothers who took to Twitter in the lead up to the Oscars and during the show. That’s when the term ‘Mominees” was first coined, and moms of James Franco, Jeremy Renner, Mark Wahlberg, Mark Ruffalo and others were enlisted. Those moms, too, were interviewed on TV for the Oscar pre-show.

For years Hollywood’s marquee names have been escoorting their moms to the Academy Awards. Winners’ speeches almost always thank their parents right alongside their agents, managers, and lawyers. In 2011, the opening monologue featured both Anne Hathaway’s mother and James Franco’s grandmother in cameos from their seats. (Hathaway’s mom critiqued her daughter’s posture, while Franco’s grandma expressed glee at the sight of “Marky Mark”.) Abbd last year’s Best Director winner Tom hooper said in his acceptance speech: “Listen to your mother.” Looks like Grazer and Mischer took that advice to heart this year.

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Love that picture of George.
He has sexy hairy arms

I'm Glad Nina is going to the Oscars
Can't wait to see the pictures.

I know I've said this a thousand times
and I'll say it again...

I HOPE GEORGE WINS!!!

Awww that pic with her mum!! So adorable

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but is it Nina and stacy or just his mom?

Is Nina going to the Oscars? Or just being interviewed for the special beforehand?

That's what is unclear. I am pretty certain that nominees are only allowed one guest to sit with them near the stage; anyone else has to sit in the balcony. For example, Kate Winslet brought her husband and her parents a few years back; hubby sat with Kate, parents in the balcony. I can't imagine George would make Nina sit alone in the balcony (since Nick has mentioned he is a nervous wreck when George is nominated and would never go), so if she goes, I think she'd be in place of Stacy.

sexy hairy arms?
ALL SEXY!

I read that Robin I forget her last name interviewed Nina at home for this piece. I don't think Nina is actually going to the Oscars.

hathaross wrote:[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

WOWWEEELAAAA!!! One of the most beautiful pictures in the world!!! In the Rascal look category??

Thanks for posting... Hathaross... or anyone who did before ... sorry haven't read full thread ...

hathaross wrote:Awww that pic with her mum!! So adorable

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YUPPPP!!! BEST picture in the "George Clooney Adorable" category
God bless whoever it is who took them

Missa wrote:That's what is unclear. I am pretty certain that nominees are only allowed one guest to sit with them near the stage; anyone else has to sit in the balcony. For example, Kate Winslet brought her husband and her parents a few years back; hubby sat with Kate, parents in the balcony. I can't imagine George would make Nina sit alone in the balcony (since Nick has mentioned he is a nervous wreck when George is nominated and would never go), so if she goes, I think she'd be in place of Stacy.

Phew!!! I am not even close anywhere... and already a nervous wreck!!!!!!!!!

Who-ever goes with George... who-ever does not... Whatever George wears... whatever he does not ... I wish George and his team THE VERY BEST!!! Lots of courage, happiness, funning, peace and love

GO George GO!!! BESTEST BESTEST BESTEST!!!
The rest... is upto God...

yep

Did anyone know that those pictures of George & Nina together
also included EC ?
Nina must be SO flexible in having to meet all these different ladies
in her son's life.
She deserves a gold star

George's UK buddy is presenting at the OSCAR's....Colin Firth.
Hope to see more bear hugs and hand holding

LOOOOL!

about Nina
I guess she is
really patient
too...

Hope this works! It's a video on "Three Words" they ask Oscar nominees to use to express how they feel. Alexander Payne and George are in the beginning, it's really cute.
Sorry, it starts with a commercial

thanks

(he really is... )

Thanks a bunch bellybaby...loved Gary at the end.
"Life is Good"
Shame they didn't include Uggie even though he's not nominated.

Just asking. Is it odd that George has not shown up for any pre-Oscar parties - especially some hosted my close friends of his? We've seen him out and about and looking great during the day, but no sign of any night life.

He was at the Jimmy Kimmel one but there are no pictures.

BL?
today

no?

(can't stop thinking to those thick eyelashes.... )

Nice video!

here's my three words

best ( 42nd ) birthday ever

He may be burning the midnight oil writing the script
for Monument Men.

Good Luck George at the OSCAR's.... and have fun !

Hmm miam!! Promised a diet after the party!



Young Hollywood gets tummies growling as Executive Pastry Chef Sherry Yard gives us a preview of all the desserts the stars will be indulging in at the Governor's Ball after the Oscars! From 5,000 chocolate Oscars to a 24-foot long chocolate buffet, no celebrity sweet tooth will go unsatisfied! Sherry also reveals the dessert preferences of superstars like Tom Hanks, George Clooney, and Sandra Bullock! Hosted by Nikki Novak.

That food so good I now want chocolate.

That was nice....I've got a Cadbury Whole Nut Bar in the kitchen....
SO....off to find it.....Byeee !

quick post just to say that the french ceremony of Cesars (like the oscars, but french...} are tonight and Jean Dujardin did not win best actor for the Artist. Not sure what this means for george on sunday, but yeah Dujardin can lose (and in France where he's supposed to be more popular} !

The entertinment reporter on NY CBS channel 2 projected today that George would win best actor and Viola Davis best actress at the Oscars. And she said she's "sticking by it."

macs wrote:quick post just to say that the french ceremony of Cesars (like the oscars, but french...} are tonight and Jean Dujardin did not win best actor for the Artist. Not sure what this means for george on sunday, but yeah Dujardin can lose (and in France where he's supposed to be more popular} !

strange!!!

and interesting....

The entertinment reporter on NY CBS channel 2 projected today that George would win best actor and Viola Davis best actress at the Oscars. And she said she's "sticking by it."

I thought this was an interesting take from CNN:

The Oscars: Winners, losers and omissions

- Martin Scorsese's "Hugo" has more nominations, and among the nine contenders for best picture, only "The Tree of Life" has made less money at the box office, but ever since the New York Film Critics Circle named a black and white French silent film the best picture of the year back in November, "The Artist" has been the unlikely frontrunner in the Academy Awards race.
And there it has remained, picking up the lion's share of the top prizes across the awards season, from the various trade guilds and industry groups to the Golden Globes and the Baftas.
There has been a similar conformity even in those categories -- like best actress -- which "The Artist" won't win. "The Help" star Viola Davis is the red-hot favorite in that race, which would extend Meryl Streep's losing streak to an unlucky 13 nominations since her 1983 win for "Sophie's Choice." All of which could make Sunday's ceremony the most predictable -- and anti-climactic -- Academy Awards in recent memory. And that's saying something!
Here's the breakdown of the major categories, who we think will win, who should win, and our selections for the most undeserved omissions from the list, the nominees that Oscar overlooked this year.
The Nominees
Early Start Oscar predictions Sacha Baron Cohen's red carpet showdown Co-star of 'The Descendants' speaks out Friendly competition for the Oscars

SW = Should Win
WW = Will Win

Best Picture


"The Artist" WW
"The Descendants"
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
"The Help"
"Hugo" SW
"Midnight in Paris"
"Moneyball"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"
Overlooked: The industry didn't know what to make of "Margaret," Kenneth Lonergan's film was overshadowed by its long and troubled backstory -- so it chose to ignore it. But this ragged, emotionally gripping drama was an unsung American masterpiece, a more probing study of grief and youth than "Extremely Loud," "The Descendants" or even "The Tree of Life".

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close ("Albert Nobbs")
Viola Davis ("The Help") WW
Rooney Mara ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo") SW
Meryl Street ("The Iron Lady")
Michelle Williams ("My Week with Marilyn")
Overlooked: Charlize Theron won the Oscar for playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in "Monster," but her performance in "Young Adult" is even more courageous and more nuanced. She dared to play a deeply damaged and highly dislikeable individual, and despite everything made us care. And spare a thought for Kirsten Dunst, whose chances were probably scuppered by her "Melancholia" director Lars von Trier's foolish remarks in Cannes.

Actor in a Leading Role

Demian Bechir ("A Better Life") SW
George Clooney ("The Descendants")
Jean Dujardin ("The Artist") WW
Gary Oldman ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy")
Brad Pitt ("Moneyball")
Overlooked: Pitt and Clooney both gave career-best performances this year, but so did Woody Harrelson, whose bigoted, self-loathing, alcoholic cop in "Rampart" didn't get the promotion he deserved.
iReporters share their views on the Oscars

Actress in a Supporting Role

Berenice Bejo ("The Artist")
Jessica Chastain ("The Help")
Melissa McCarthy ("Bridesmaids") SW
Janet McTeer ("Albert Nobbs")
Octavia Spencer ("The Help") WW
Overlooked: Not overlooked entirely, but Jessica Chastain could easily have been nominated twice, or even three times, in this category, such was the quality of her work as the innocent wife of the deranged Michael Shannon in "Take Shelter" and her angelic mother in Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life."

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh ("My Week With Marilyn")
Jonah Hill ("Moneyball")
Nick Nolte ("Warrior")
Christopher Plummer ("Beginners") WW, SW
Max von Sydow ("Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close")
Overlooked: Patton Oswald ("Young Adult") and Albert Brooks ("Drive") had every right to expect nominations this year, and frankly their Screen Actors Guild colleagues got it wrong.
Directing
Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris")
Michel Hazanavicius ("The Artist") WW
Terrence Malick ("The Tree of Life")
Alexander Payne ("The Descendants")
Martin Scorsese ("Hugo") SW
Overlooked: Like comedy, sci-fi movies get a raw deal at awards time. Duncan Jones made one of the smartest, most entertaining movies of the year with "Source Code." Too bad nobody noticed.

Animated Feature

"A Cat in Paris"
"Chico & Rita" SW
"Kung Fu Panda 2"
"Puss in Boots"
"Rango" WW
Overlooked: It wasn't a great year for animation, but "Arthur Christmas" was a typically witty and ingenious effort from Aardman Animation, the studio that gave us Wallace & Gromit and "Chicken Run."
Foreign Language Film
"Bullhead"
"Footnote"
"In Darkness"
"Monsieur Lazhar" WW
"A Separation" SW
Overlooked: Where to begin? Well, "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" for a start, the Turkish police procedural that's part road film, part existential comedy, all masterpiece.

Documentary Feature

"Hell and Back Again"
"If a Tree Falls"
"Paradise Lost 3"
"Pina" WW, SW
"Undefeated"
Overlooked: Again, multiple omissions here, including "The Interrupters," "Senna" and "Nostalgia For the Light," any of which would have made a worthy winner.

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I think this could be very exciting....didn't GC always say he could always pick the winners and he knew when he lost....I think this is anyone's game.....

he could always pick the winners and he knew when he lost

don't remember....

I think it's better when the field is wider. I hate it when someone is a sure thing and everyone already knows who has won. At least we will all stay awake!

At this point, it might be BEST for George, if we thought more of him WINNING than otherwise... Let us continue our prayers and keep away our fears... IF that is alright by everyone... Might also help greatly if we can all bunch up our positive energies and send it up to him... keeping total control on our expectations

Love...

And I take this in advance for my pompous patronizing self Love you all... Ta for now...

Yup! Take care It's me la I hope we will all have a swell time in George's fun spirit as well... YAY Dex!! Perfect as always...

all

it's me wrote:sexy hairy arms?
ALL SEXY!

I'm so with you on the arm thing, there's nothing sexier than a strong hairy forearm

I'd love to see George with his Mom on his arm on Sunday.

The next mrs clooney wrote:I'd love to see George with his Mom on his arm on Sunday.

I am with you TNMC.
Would be nice for a change to see him with a beautiful, inside and out, lady. Classy, respected and admired by everybody.

Yes Pari, she is.
And we would finally see the true love in his eyes and honest, heart breaking smile on his face.

i agree with all of you... his mom would be better than any Oscar...Indeed!

( although i know, we all would liike to see him win something)

We can wish but my money's on Stacy being there.

Anway, let's not go too off topic talking about his girlfriend and keep this about the Oscar.