Does Natalie Portman Deserve the Oscar?

We heard rumors today that might question whether Natalie Portman deserves her Oscar. According to Sarah Lane, Natalie's stunt double in last year's "Black Swan," Natalie only did 5% of the actual dancing seen in the movie. "All the other shots are me," Lane claims.

What about the claims that Natalie trained for over year for her role as ballerina Nina Sayers? When a lot of the discussion around Natalie's performance centered around her ability to transform herself into a seemingly professional ballerina, it puts her performance into question... or does it?

"Physically, I trained starting a year ahead of time, and then the six months prior to [shooting] the film, went into a sort of hypertraining, where I was doing five hours a day of both ballet and crosstraining with swimming," Natalie told reporters at a press conference at the Venice Film Festival late last year.

It's hard to believe that Natalie would lie about something like that. And there's no taking away from the real method acting that took place on this film. Her body, her mannerisms, her demeanor- you believed that Natalie was going through everything a real ballerina would go through. So what's the real problem with this?

Well, according to Lane, Fox Searchlight explicity told her not to speak publicly about her role in the film, so as not to take anything away from Natalie and her Oscar campaign.

“They were trying to create this facade that she had become a ballerina in a year-and-a-half,” Lane commented to Dance Magazine in December. “So I knew they didn’t want to publicize anything about me.”

One person that Portman has on her side, however, is fiancee and father of her child, choreographer Benjamin Millipied. Lane “just did the footwork and the fouettes and one diagonal in the studio,” Millipied in an interview with the L.A. Times. “Honestly, 85 percent of that movie is Natalie,” he said.

So, should this take away from Natalie's Oscar win? What about other actors and actresses who have had similar issues? Should Marion Cottilard give back her Oscar, considering she didn't do most of the singing as Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose?" What about Adrien Brody's performance in "The Pianist?" He won an Oscar back in 2002, while only learning the exact keystrokes so it would seem like it was him playing the piano.

"They wanted to create this idea in people’s minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance, Lane said. “It is demeaning to the profession and not just to me. I’ve been doing this for 22 years…. Can you become a concert pianist in a year and a half, even if you’re a movie star?” It's tough to imagine that anyone really though Natalie became a world-class ballerina in less than a year, but who knows with the Academy bunch.

Regardless, I don't think one can argue that Natalie didn't deserve that Oscar. "I just want to be perfect," Nina proclaims throughout the film. And for almost 2 hours, Natalie Portman came pretty darn close.

But what do you think? Would Natalie still have won the oscar had people known she only did 5% of the dancing (if that is even true).

UPDATED: Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky has finally released a statement regarding this situation. He said he got an editor to count the number of shots Natalie is dancing. "111 are Natalie Portman untouched. 28 are her dance double Sarah Lane," Aronofsky wrote. "If you do the math that's 80% Natalie Portman. What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second. There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement. Even so, if we were judging by time over 90% would be Natalie Portman." Continued the director, "I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor. Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance. And I don't want anyone to think that's not her they are watching. It is."

Fox Searchlight has also released a statement, basically saying the same thing. "We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences," Fox said, "and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did. However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film."

However, I think film critic Roger Ebert summed it up best, when he tweeted: "Let us not forget Natalie Portman did ALL of her own acting in 'Black Swan,' and that's why she deserved her Oscar." Well said, Roger, well said.

Image Credit: Niko Tavernise; Inset: Joe Schildhorn/PatrickMcMullan.com

What are the expectations for Mildred Pierce?

I have so many things I want to say about this trailer. From when I first heard they were doing this, a lot of thoughts began to arise. Could Kate Winslet take on a role that Joan Crawford played so brilliantly AND won the oscar for (in 1945)? Of course, we are pretty much accustomed to Winslet being able to handle anything thrown her way...the same we expect from Meryl Streep and, to a lesser extent, Cate Blanchett. Those 3 rarely seem to disappoint, and with this and this coming out, I can only see the trend continuing.


But back to Kate. This is her first role since winning the Oscar for The Reader, which she totally deserved. The film, along with its book by Bernhard Schlink are, in my opinion, mind blowing and eye opening at the same time. Don't even get me started on the trailer, which is also one of my favorite ever. From Todd Haynes (director of Far from Heaven, starring Julianne Moore), we should expect a lot. He has 5 hours to turn adapt the book, almost 3 hours more than the original film did. We should, and rightfully so, be expecting a lot. The cast is rounded out by Evan Rachel Wood, Guy Pearce, and probably 2011 Oscar winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter). Although from what I can remember, Melissa's character doesn't play a huge role. I would have LOVED to see her play Ida Corwin, Mildred's confident and comedic partner.


Nonetheless, with this great cast and being broadcast on HBO, there will be a ton of expectations. Expected of course are an abundance of Emmy nominations and wins. Unless ERW trumps her, which will be difficult because HBO will almost certainly place her in the supporting category, Winslet should win the the trifecta of the Emmy, SAG and Golden Globe.


I also think this is a great career move by Winslet. She has won that elusive Oscar that took her 6 nomination to attain. The Emmy will pretty much be in the bag after this airs. Her next career move should be Broadway, which doesn't seem totally out of the cards at this point. Expect an announcement in the next few months that she will be starring in either a.) a revival of a classic Tennessee Williams play, or b.) a world premiere of some great British playwright (read: David Hare). Although Julianne Moore recently starred in one of Hare's plays on Broadway, The Vertical Hour, and totally bombed, Kate seems like a natural for the Broadway stage. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.


Until then, let's just keep watching the trailer AND this great "invitation to the set" until the miniseries premieres on HBO on March 27.


Credit: HBO

Can Natalie Portman do a musical?

For your Sunday viewing pleasure....

Thrillicious: 2008 SoBe Life Water Super Bowl Ad

In honor of Super Bowl weekend, I am posting the ad that I most remember from these past few years. As crazy as Naomi Campbell, no one can deny how glamorous she is. Out of any model I know, I would most want to interview her. What goes that mind of hers is anyone's guess. And the Daily Beast is right: "Conceptually this ad doesn’t quite hit the mark, but the overall message gets across: if you want to look like a supermodel, drink Sobe. And when the message gets through, dollars tend to follow."

Visual Effects Explained for Black Swan

I just think this video is so awesome. One of my favorite movies of the year, and it explains how the visual effects were for the film were done. I honestly though that Natalie Portman did MOST of the moves herself, so it is a bit disappointing to see that all they had to do was a head replacement. Although it is nice to see a film with a miniscule budget compared to other Hollywood films be able to do what they did.

And it still doesn't take away from Natalie's performance. Oscar winner? I think so!

Oscar Nominations..Do We Agree?

It's that time of year again. Oscar nominations..the time we await all year long. For the most part, nominations were business as usual. Black Swan, The Social Network, The King's Speech, and The Fighter. I think those four were the concensus for a while now as to which films would be nominated for Best Picture (although some might disagree). If the Academy still only nominated 5 films, I believe those four would definitely be in there. From there, things got somewhat tricky. True Grit seemed like the obvious choice for major oscar love. The Coen brothers, starring last year's Best Actor winner Jeff Bridges, alongside Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, and new IT girl Hailee Steinfeld. Then the Globes snubbed it, and people were no longer sure what to think. What was going on? Then the film came out, it made $100+ million (and counting), and suddenly David Poland proclaimed he believed it was now the Oscar frontrunner. Blogger Sasha Stone "mocked," and Scott Feinberg "couldn't believed his eyes."

Well, I think Poland went a tad over-the-top in his prediction, but True Grit did end up getting 10 nominations, the second most nominations after the King's Speech with 12. I think its best shot at a major award belongs to Steinfeld in the Best Supporting Actress category. But even that category is a stacked race, with any of those ladies having the ability to walk away with gold. As long as we are talking about the Best Supporting Actress race, let's discuss the one issue I have with the race. People think Mila Kunis should have been nominated for Black Swan. Erroneous. Barbara Hershey's performance in that film as Natalie Portmnan's mother was nothing short of spectacular. She was so eary, so disturbing..almost like a modern day "Mommie Dearest" stage mother (I love me some Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford). Honestly, I really thought she would get a last minute nomination, a la Maggie Gylenhaal in Crazy Heart last year. But alas, Jacki Weaver got the last slot. I haven't yet seen Animal Kingdom, so I can't really say much as to how much she deserved it or not. But from what I have heard, she nails it.

Some other complaints? Black Swan not being nominated for Best Make-up and Best Costume Design? Comn Academy. No Ryan Gosling for Best Actor? Ryan and Michelle played off so well together--their story was one. If you nominate Michelle, how can you not nominate Ryan--even with how stacked the Actress race was. Speaking of Best Actress, I am still speechless as to how I Am Love has totally been off the radar. Tilda Swinton was absolutely awe-inspiring in that role, in which she learned to speak Italian with a Russian accent. I can't believe she did not launch more of a campaign, but from what I have heard about Tilda, not totally unexpected. And John Adam's score? I still listen to it on my iPod all the time.

Those are my initial complaints with this year's Oscar nominations. For your viewing pleasure, considering my love for Black Swan, I will leave you with a cool video in which the CG process for the film is explained and shown in a very cool way. Take a look.

What is so great about twitter?

I woke up this morning knowing full well the Golden Globe nominations had been announced a few hours earlier. I was too lazy to find the remote, and WAY too lazy to get up to get my laptop. Instead, i picked up my phone, clicked a few buttons, and voila, the golden globe nominations appeared. (In case you haven't seen them yet, they are here). The Golden Globes are never taken quite too seriously, in both film and television. I mean, I love Halle Berry as much as the next guy, but its fairly obvious at this point that she will NOT be getting an Oscar nomination for Frankie and Alice. In terms of television, just ask Angela Lansbury if she would trade in her six Golden Globes for one of the EIGHTEEN times she was nominated for an Emmy, and I don't think she would hesitate. Nevertheless, the Globes have always been this way though. Always choosing star wattage over the performance, which probably includes some pressure from the execs over at NBC to boost ratings and get stars on the red carpet (see Gwyneth Paltrow being nominated for Proof). Last year, interestingly, they went 4/5 in choosing the Best Actress nominees at the Oscars, with only Emily Blunt (who should have been nominated for The Young Victoria) not getting that coveted Oscar nomination. [Meryl Streep, who got the fifth slot at the Oscars, was in the Musical/Comedy category that year for Julie and Julia)].

As someone who loves film, loves reading about film and getting the latest updates on upcoming films, trailers, movie deals, etc, it's tough navigating the internet to find what you are looking for. And this is why twitter is so great. I have everything i need, right in a small newsfeed. Between Peter Knegt & Anne Thompson over at indieWIRE, Guy Lodge over at inContention, Scott Feinberg, resident film scholar Matt Mazur, or one of my all-time favorites, Nathaniel Rogers over at The Film Experience, one of them will surely have what I need. If they don't, they probably retweeted it from someone else. I no longer have to stalk Apple Trailers, although sometimes I still will, as trailers are constantly being tweeted by different sources (usually i will see, for the most part, the same tweet over and over again). Twitter is also a great place to get free screening tickets, if that's the kind thing you are into and you like to save a few bucks (I know I do). Every single screener I have gotten tickets to this year (Love and Other Drugs, 127 Hours, The Fighter, Unstoppable, The Next Three Days) all came from someone tweeting an RSVP code. If you have no idea what I am talking about, check out Gofobo.

Twitter isn't just great for the film lover though. Following the New York Times, New York Post, CNN, Gawker, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, etc, I am rarely ever behind the eight ball (though it does happen). For instance, what did I do last night when my friend told me that Bobst library at NYU was on fire? I knew if I googled it no one would have anything on it yet. I searched on twitter, and found people tweeting things to the effect of: "ALERT: Someone threw a burning book into the Book Return receptacle at Bobst. FIIIIIIIIRE!" As I am writing this, I have now learned that the Kimmel Center at NYU has been evacuated due to fire as well. NYU kids love to do crazy shit, but two days in a row? Must be finals time.

And, for those of you still looking for that ultimate job, twitter has an app for that too (Funny? No? Ok, moving on). Seriously though, most companies have a twitter for their human resources department, in which they tweet when new jobs open up, where you can apply for them online, and even when their internship program begins accepting application.

Like I said, no matter who you are or what you are interesting in, you really should be on twitter.