BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
IN A SUPPORTING ROLE This is actually the toughest category for me to
decide, since I love nominee Mark Ruffalo in anything (what gay man doesn’t?). Pretty much ditto regarding Edward Norton and I was more frightfully impressed in two hours by J.K. Simmons in the terrific drummer drama Whiplash than during his entire multi-season run as a neo-Nazi on HBO’s superb Oz. Robert Duvall’s turn in The Judge has eluded me, as of press time, but I’m nevertheless inclined to go with Ethan Hawke in Boyhood. For me, his performance as the main charac- ter’s emotionally maturing father is the glue that holds Boyhood’s impressive, 12-year storytelling arc together.
BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
WITH THE MOST By chris carpenter
THE HOST Neil Patrick Harris had a memorably successful 2014. He
won a Tony for his rockin’ trans performance in the Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, played a creepy hetero- sexual stalker in the blockbuster Gone Girl, sang and danced on the big screen in Seth MacFarlane’s A Million Ways to Die in
the West, published a bestselling autobiography and ended his 9-year run as lovable womanizer Barney on TV’s How I Met Your Mother. If all that wasn’t enough, Harris and longtime partner David Burtka finally tied the knot last year.
IN A SUPPORTING ROLE I haven’t been a big fan of Keira Knightley, not in
Love Actually, The Pirates of the Caribbean series or her previously nominated turn in Pride & Prejudice. Suffice it to say, I was blown away by her turn as Joan Clarke, Turing’s intellectually gifted teammate and would-be wife in The Imitation Game. As written by the deservedly nominated Graham Moore, [Joan] is a great part for any actress, but Knightley invests in it fully and makes it her own. I admired the work of her fellow nominees Streep, Patricia Arquette, Laura Dern and Emma Stone but, to me, Knightley was a revelation.
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Selma Having previously served as host of both the Tony and
primetime Emmy Award presentations multiple times, the entertainment industry’s go-to gay will be hosting the 87th
Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 22. The com- mercials airing for the event suggest Harris will be employing his skills as a magician in addition to his comedic and musical
gifts. He actually serves as president of the board of directors of Hollywood’s famed Magic Castle.
Harris rose from humble beginnings in his hometown of director Ava DuVernay was
controversially snubbed in this category, although she was recognized as Best Director by our Gay and Lesbian Enter- tainment Critics Association (GALECA). That leaves here a handful of undeniably talented if predominantly white men: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Richard Lin- klater, Bennett Miller, Wes Anderson and Morten Tyldum. Longtime indie auteur Linklater is the standout for me and likely for the majority of Academy voters, in light of his masterful cinematic odyssey Boyhood.
Albuquerque, New Mexico (where he was born in 1973) to being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010. He initially found fame at the age of 16 in the title role of TV’s Doogie Howser, M.D. and has subsequently traveled easily between television, web series, theatre and movies. Harris was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. In 2006, Harris became one of the bigger-name celebrities up
to that point, to declare that he was gay. To be specific, he said: “I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest
the fullest.” It will be a true pleasure to watch Harris host this year’s Oscars.
will be a true pleasur is host this
BEST PICTURE Selma did make the cut in this category
along with seven other features: American Sniper (the biggest surprise); Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance); Boyhood; The Grand Budapest Hotel; The Imitation Game; The Theory of Everything and Whiplash. The ground- breaking Boyhood gets my vote here and will likely win the Oscar, barring a Birdman or Grand Budapest upset.
All will be revealed on Sunday, February 22, beginning at 4 p.m. on ABC. Here’s hoping everyone agrees with at least some of the Academy’s final choices.
FEBRUARY 2015 | RAGE monthly FEBRUARY 2015
17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64