The Oscars are here, and, as usual, Chris Herrington and Greg Akers are here to provide 8,000 words of commentary — who will win, who should win, and who got robbed — about an industry event that isn’t nearly as important as the art in the artform, and about a ceremony that will last just a little longer than the runtime of The Hobbit. So get in the cockpit of this Oscars jumbo jet. Herrington and Akers are drunk and coked up and flying this plane upside down.
Best Supporting Actress
Nominees: Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)
Greg Akers: Will Win: In the biggest lock of the night, Anne Hathaway gets her first Oscar. All of the actresses are good, but the reason Hathaway is a lock: Because. A butterfly flapped its wings in China in October 2007. I don’t know. But Hathaway is a locomotive carrying nitroglycerine and blowtorches. (I actually don’t know the science involved in this analogy.)
Should Win: Despite how sleepy Les Misérables made me, there’s no denying how utterly riveting Anne Hathaway is. When Fantine dies (spoiler alert), they should just roll the credits. She’s the life of the film. As for the others, Amy Adams has been nominated for four Supporting Actress Oscars and one day will win one or two of the things. She’s excellent in The Master, particularly that one scene. You know the one I’m talking about. Sally Field is as good as she’s been in ages and keeps Mrs. Lincoln from falling into a pop-psychology crazy lady ball-and-chain. I liked Helen Hunt okay in The Sessions, and would’ve liked to have seen even more of the subplot between her and her husband (a rough-looking Adam Arkin). As for her sex scenes, I couldn’t — Hunt’s nudity aside — keep my eyes off John Hawkes. I liked Jacki Weaver a lot, too, but she was given the least to work with of the four main actors (Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and Robert De Niro).
Got Robbed: I never get to do this, so I can’t resist naming the same person three times: Anne Hathaway, this time in The Dark Knight Rises. Her Selina Kyle/Catwoman is an Occupy Wall Street-type crusader who is as driven to bring down corporate criminals as Bruce Wayne/Batman is to defeat the physically violent. The two extremists pair up and form a perfect whole to right society’s wrongs, provided they can moderate each other’s approach. The film seems at first blush to be thematically schizophrenic but really it’s just willing to present multiple perspectives and see where it goes. It mostly works. If only Christopher Nolan had given more time to Hathaway.
