Old-timers seize the Oscar spotlight

DERN, FORTE AND SQUIBB. Turn in insightful, indelible performances in “Nebraska.”

The year 2013 has given movie buffs a lot to cheer about. But, the sheer volume of quality pictures has made it difficult for some actors’ career-best portrayals to get the Oscar recognition they deserve:

Tom Hanks is just as brilliant portraying a pirates’ hostage in Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips” as he is as Walt Disney in “Saving Mr. Banks” (showing next week)—which also features a crackerjack turn from the fabulous Emma Thompson, who’ll make you laugh as hard as you cry in the film about the making of “Mary Poppins.”

In Spike Jonze’s futuristic romance, “Her” (opens on Feb. 26), Joaquin Phoenix is heart-breaking as a lonely letter-maker who falls in love with the operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) of his computer. Robert Redford (“All Is Lost”) and Oscar Isaac (as a struggling folk singer in “Inside Llewyn Davis”) would have also been classy additions to the Academy’s Best Actor list.

Also deserving of golden statuettes: Julia Louis Dreyfus and James Gandolfini as “Enough Said’s” unlikely lovers, Oprah Winfrey as a flawed but sympathetic wife in “The Butler,” and the exceptional Julie Delpy as Ethan Hawke’s better-half in “Before Midnight.”

With a lineup that includes the brilliant but showy thespic head-turners of Leonardo DiCaprio (“Wolf of Wall Street”), Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”), Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts (“August: Osage County”), Jennifer Lawrence (“American Hustle”), Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years A Slave”), and Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”), it’s easy to see how the superlative but subdued performances of Redford, Delpy and Phoenix could rank low on Oscar voters’ priorities.

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Given the textured, no-fuss portrayals of Sandra Bullock (as an astronaut in dire peril in “Gravity”) and “Philomena’s” Judy Dench (about the protagonist’s 50-year-old secret and the ensuing search for the son she gave away as a teenager), making it to the Final Five is a feat in itself.

Alexander Payne’s satisfying black-and-white dramedy, “Nebraska” (which opened here last Wednesday), is another exception that proves the desultory rule: Topbilled by Oscar nominees, Bruce Dern and June Squibb, the film’s dramatic scenes don’t have the flash and fury of Meryl Streep’s catty dinner-table confrontation with Julia Roberts, but they’re just as powerful and funny—and they pack as much wallop as any scene from “Wolf of Wall Street’s” ode-to-’80s-excess.

Turning in the performance of a lifetime, Cannes Best Actor winner Dern is cast as Woody Grant, a half-senile retiree who goes on an 840-mile road trip—from Omaha to Nebraska—with his son David (Will Forte) to collect the $1 million sweepstakes prize he insists he’s won.

The unexpected trip forces Woody to revisit his hometown—where news of his alleged luck spreads like wildfire. It doesn’t take long for his greedy relatives and opportunistic “friends” to demand their share of the loot! But, wait till you hear what Woody’s indefatigable and foul-mouthed wife, Kate (Squibb), has to say about the “silly ruckus!”

The situations seem familiar, but Payne smartly throws narrative conventions off-balance by crafting a darkly comic mood and atmosphere that are anchored on the dynamic portrayals of 77-year-old Dern and 84-year-old Squibb.

As he did in “The Descendants, “Sideways” and “Election,” Payne displays a knack for coaxing well-limned characterizations that are as real and resonant as anything you’ll see in this year’s busy Oscar lineup.

If Dern and Squibb win in their respective categories next weekend, they’ll be the oldest-ever Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress winners in the Academy’s 86-year history!