Sorry today’s results are so late; I almost forgot about these lovely ladies. With a total of 43 participating voters, here are the Top 5 Best Suupporting Actresses:
Check back tomorrow for Best Supporting Actor.
Editor’s note: Welcome to the second of a 33-part series dissecting the 83rd Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
When is a supporting actress not a supporting actress? The selection of women up for this year’s Oscar in that field offers four fine and worthy contenders, and one interloper who has no business being in direct competition with them. I am not questioning the validity of that performance’s Oscar claims for one moment, but instead I’m questioning the blatant flouting of – if not the law – then at least the spirit of the awards. Even if Hailee Steinfeld doesn’t win the Best Supporting Actress Oscar this year, her very presence in the category casts a pall over the contest.
Here’s my take on the five ladies in contention for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award
Amy Adams as Charlene Fleming in The Fighter
Adams brings an unexpected steeliness to her performance as the woman who helps Mark Wahlberg stand up to his family and focus on his career. It’s a strong turn that gives Adams a good teary-eyed scene while also giving her the rare opportunity to break another woman’s nose (there’s more than one fighter in this movie). After two Oscar-nominated turns playing meek, innocent, optimistic characters, the Academy may well look kindly on her generally successful attempt to broaden her range, although it’s hard to see her overcoming her co-star.
Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech
After spending most of the decade in the lands of Harry Potter and Tim Burton, what a relief it is to see this wonderful actress playing a living, breathing human being again. Her sympathetic turn as the stammering king’s supportive wife is a near-perfect supporting performance, in which she takes a small role and quietly ensures she makes an impact whenever she appears on screen. Bonham Carter should have an Oscar already for 1997’s The Wings of the Dove, and while this is not the best work of her career, Oscar-winning performances rarely are.
Melissa Leo as Alice Ward in The Fighter
Leo gives the showiest performance in this category, but in a movie precariously balanced between abrasive characters and strong-willed silent types, her display fits the role well. She’s capable of playing it broad while keeping it real, and she also has the advantage of being a much-respected veteran character actress, with a general feeling growing that this may be her time. Leo has her nose just about in front right now thanks to the number of awards she has collected during the precursors. Voters all over really seem to be responding to The Fighter as an actors’ movie.
Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross in True Grit
Hailee Steinfeld is magnificent in True Grit. The 14 year-old commands the screen and holds her own confidently alongside Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin. She can be strong and bullish while also appearing childlike and vulnerable. It’s a fantastic piece of acting – but it doesn’t belong here. Mattie Ross is the film’s main protagonist, appearing in every scene and even providing the narration, and as Steinfeld plays her for all but the last few moments, how can she be considered a supporting player? Now that she’s involved at this level she must be considered a real contender, but a victory would be tainted.
Jacki Weaver as Janine Cody in Animal Kingdom
This is a great supporting performance because of the way it sneaks up on you. Jacki Weaver’s matriarch grows in prominence as the film progresses, gradually unveiling her dark, manipulative tendencies as she steps in to protect “her boys.” Weaver plays her with an icy conviction and intelligence, and while it’s not the standout performance in the film as far as I’m concerned – I wish Ben Mendelsohn’s chilling performance had received half as much awards attention – it’s an attention-grabbing turn nonetheless, and it deserves a nomination, even if it won’t come close to winning.
My Prediction – Stick a pin in Leo, Bonham Carter or Steinfeld. It’s a tight race. My gut feeling is for Bonham Carter.
My Choice – My favourite performance is Steinfeld’s, but as I’m discounting that on moral grounds, I’ll go for Bonham Carter here too. She is long overdue.
An alternate 5: Alice de Lencquesaing (The Father of My Children); Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone); Mila Kunis (Black Swan); Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole); Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer)
While the expected victor still took home this LION[ess], it wasn’t quite the blowout that you might’ve expected. In fact, had the next two vote getters not perfectly split their votes, leading us to yet another tie, there might’ve really been a contest. As such, the 46 votes for this award led to these top three ladies:
Tied for runner-up with seven votes apiece: Anna Kendrick for Up In the Air
And Mélanie Laurent for Inglourious Basterds
The winner, of course, with 12 votes: Mo’Nique for Precious
Next up… Best Supporting Actor. Stay tuned to the LAMB for more of the LIONs, culminating with our Top 10 Films of 2009.
Editor’s note: Welcome to the seventh of a 33-part series dissecting the 82st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
By Fitz of Nevermind Popular Film.
Virtually a contender every single year Cruz has yet again netted a nomination for her work in Rob Marshall’s Nine. Cruz’s performance as Guido’s mistress Carla wowed almost every critics while the film’s response was tepid at best.
Editor’s note: Welcome to the seventeenth of a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every day leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category of the Oscars. To read any other posts regarding this event, please click the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
By StinkyLulu of StinkyLulu.
A sweet young thing tarnished by her encounter with the big bad world. A fiercely devoted mother desperately trying to protect her child from the world’s casual cruelties. A sultry and possibly insane temptress. A generously loving mother with humble wisdom to spare. A hussy with a heart of gold. In many ways, the roles performed by this year’s Supporting Actress nominees draw upon some of the most familiar cliches. At the same time, this year’s roster of nominated Supporting Actresses stands as one of the most uniformly deserving and accomplished in recent years.
Amy Adams in Doubt
Adams’s Performance: In a role that requires simplicity without stupidity, purity without pretension, Adams’s gift for conveying sweetness melds with her knack for revealing her character’s easily overlooked depths to accomplish a near perfect performance in Doubt’s trickiest role.
Why Adams Will Win: Though her role might not be the year’s showiest, and her performance might not be the most memorable, Adams delivers a likably moving performance in one of the year’s most acclaimed films. What’s more, Adams benefits what might be called the “Hollywood” advantage, as she’s a rising and increasingly bankable American star supported by a really skilled publicity machine. If there’s an “upset” this year, it might well be Adams who takes the trophy home.
Why Adams Won’t Win: If anything, voters might look past the astute work Adams does in the deceptively simple role of Sister George, noticing instead the showier, fireworks-laden performances of her co-stars and her co-nominees.
Cruz’s Performance: Cruz’s Maria Elena arrives to the film at its midpoint, bringing the entire enterprise into a sharper emotional focus and injecting a clarifying jolt of instability to the film’s routine experiments in sexual chemistry. Cruz is, by turns, hilarious and heartbreaking — some might say, “Gee-nee-uuss.”
Why Cruz Will Win: Oscar has recently begun appreciating Cruz as more than just another foreign pretty face and Cruz’s memorable handling of this emotionally complex, bilingual role promises to appeal to a broad range of Academy voters. Plus, the Academy has a long history of noting Woody’s Supporting Actresses (while ignoring him elsewhere).
Why Cruz Won’t Win: Since summer, the trophy has seemed Cruz’s to lose and, with Winslet now out of the Supporting race, it seems likely that Cruz’s grasp on the goldenboy is increasingly secure. Yes, the Doubt women loom as potential spoilers (albeit for different reasons), and Tomei has been known to surprise, but look for a blast of Spanish pride as last year’s Supporting Actor Javier Bardem calls Cruz’s name as Best Supporting Actress.
Davis’s Performance: Viola Davis’s brief but indelible turn as a devoted mother trying only to protect her son from harm both complicates and elevates Doubt. Hers is a breakthrough performance by a formidable acting talent.
Why Davis Will Win: It’s a meticulously crafted, emotional wallop of a performance. Plus, not only is the role just the sort to stick in voters’s minds (it won Adriane Lenox the Tony on Broadway) but Davis also steals the movie right out from under the likes of critical favorites Meryl Streep, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Why Davis Won’t Win: Some Oscar pundits say the role is too small, the screentime too minimal, but the main reason Davis will likely not be accepting a trophy on her own behalf is probably because the acclaimed stage actress’s film career has not quite taken full flight…yet.
Henson’s Performance: With wit, warmth and dramatic clarity, Taraji P. Henson amplifies the humanity of a well-worn stock character and, in so doing, provides proof of her many gifts as a screen performer. In Benjamin Button, Henson provides a compelling reminder of her status as one of the most consistently captivating, capable and surprising actresses of her generation.
Why Henson Will Win: For all the depth of Henson’s skill and talent, and acknowledging that Henson is way overdue for such recognition, this nomination (and Henson’s potential win) strikes me as what I sometimes call a “coaster,” or one of those occasions when a Supporting Actress nomination/win gets swept into the current of positive sentiment for the film and, as a result, “coasts” to its own recognition.
Why Henson Won’t Win: For the reasons stated above, in any other year, Henson would likely prove a real contender for the win but, up against this batch of ladies, roles and performances, I’m thinking that, for Henson, it will be an honor just being nominated. An overdue honor, but an honor nonetheless.
Tomei’s Performance: With unflinching empathy and precision, Marisa Tomei brings both sides of her character — Cassidy the world-weary stripper and Pam the lonely single mom — to vivid life. Tomei is naked, emotionally and physically, in the role and The Wrestler’s the better for the clarifying reality of her presence.
Why Tomei Will Win: After years of being the category’s biggest punchline, Tomei has stealthily emerged to become one of the category’s stalwarts. With her third nomination as Best Supporting Actress, Tomei joins the elite sorority of actresses to have received three or more nominations in the category and stands out as perhaps the only Supporting Actress to be nominated while in her 20s (for 1992’s My Cousin Vinny), in her 30s (2001s In the Bedroom) and in her 40s (for 2008’s The Wrestler). So the voters might do well to recognize Tomei for stamina alone. Not to mention the fact that Tomei’s performance is as remarkable for its subtlety and nuance as it is for her fully exposed, rockin’ 44 year old bod.
Why Tomei Won’t Win: Her performance is solid, surprising and effective — better than it needs to be, really — but isn’t that exactly what we’ve come to expect from Marisa Tomei? Indeed, Tomei’s emerging status as the “Cher” of the Supporting Actress category might work against her taking another trophy home for some time to come, as it almost certainly will this year.
Who Will Win: While Oscar really can’t go wrong in calling any of these names to the winner’s podium on February 22, the trophy probably will (and probably should) go to Penélope Cruz for the electrifying magic she brings to Vicky Cristina Barcelona. That said, the accomplished work done by Adams and Davis yet casts some — ahem — doubt on the certainty of a Cruz win.
Who Should Win: If I had a vote, I’d probably give it to Viola Davis, though I would be sorely tempted to split it with Cruz and Marisa Tomei. (As much as I adore her, and as much as it pains me to do so, Taraji P. Henson’s is the only nomination I find myself rooting against.)
The votes have been cast, the independent accounting firm of Fletch & Fletch has been consulted, and the time has come for the LIONs to be handed out.
Just yesterday, I told you that today’s award would be for Best Supporting Actor. For reasons I’m not at liberty to disclose at this time, I’m going to have to call an audible.
Our third award for presentation is for Best Supporting Actress. There were a total of 50 votes. The result - a tie! With six votes each, I present you with the co-winners of this prestigous honor…Viola Davis of Doubt and Marisa Tomei of The Wrestler.
Bonus award for Best Out-there Vote: Dame James Henry of Rants of a Diva for picking Ashley Tisdale of High School Musical 3: Senior Year.
Next up… Best Supporting Actor. Honest. Stay tuned to the LAMB for more of the LIONs, culminating with our Top 10 Films of 2008.
Editor’s note: Welcome to the twenty-first of a multi-part series (just two more remain!) dissecting the 2008 Academy Awards, brought to you by the Large Association of Movie Blogs and its assorted members. Every weekday leading up to the Oscars, a new post written by a different LAMB will be published, each covering a different category (or more) of the Oscars (there are 24 in all). To read any other posts regarding this event, please just click on the tag following the post. Thank you, and enjoy!
By DJ Heinlen of Matte Havoc.
In collaboration with my fellow LAMBs I have been assigned a special Oscar’s themed category in which I will be basing this entire article upon. As explained by the prompt listed on the LAMB blog site I have been assigned to review the list of 2008 Oscar nominees for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The task may be interesting and challenging since I haven’t seen the entire list of films in which the nominated actresses have starred in. But I am up for the challenge. Now, here is a list of nominees for this respective category:
Now for the guts of the whole article rests upon my lack of talent for predicting the future. Who will win the 2008 Oscar award for best actress in a supporting role? The nominated films that are on that list that I have seen are Michael Clayton, Atonement, and American Gangster (click on the links to read my review for those films).
Actress: Cate Blanchett
Character: Jude Quinn
Film: I’m Not There
This film is receiving a large amount of positive reviews from around the world, and Cate Blanchett has received a lot of recognition for her contribution. It’s interesting to hear about her nomination, because the last time a woman has been nominated for playing a man was back in 1983 when Linda Hunt won the Oscar award for the exact same category when she portrayed Billy Kwan in the 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously. I should mention that I have every intention of seeing this film at my earliest convenience (most likely when it is released on to DVD), and I’m sure that ever cast member has done a superb job at portraying any one particular character trait of the famous singer and songwriter Bob Dylan. I did happen to stumble across a video clip from the film starring Cate Blanchett in the role from this film. Click here to watch the clip. And to those who have their curiosity running wild I should confirm that you’re eyes and ears don’t deceive you when you see comedian David Cross pull up in a golf cart with a full head of hair and a lengthy beard as he converses with a woman (Cate) who is dressed up as a man. Oh, the amazing world of movie wardrobe. I have mixed feelings about the idea of her winning the award for this film. She’s also nominated for her portrayal as Queen Elizabeth in the period film Elizabeth: The Golden Age. In fact she’s the winner of the Oscar award for portraying the same character in the first installment in the film franchise about the historical queen. It would be interesting to see if she wins two separate Oscar awards for portraying the exact same character. For the nomination as supporting actress I would say that she should be passed over this year.
Actress: Ruby Dee
Character: Mama Lucas
Film: American Gangster
I thought Ruby Dee has accomplished a terrific performance in this film as the lovable mother of criminal mob boss Frank Lucas (played by Denzel Washington). The film is an intense ride through the Frank’s life, but his mother is the shining sigh of relief that makes you wonder how a sweet old woman ever went wrong with raising her children. My concern about her nomination resides the amount of screen time that she gets. Her role isn’t a prominent enough to take a lengthy period of screen time, but she does have a strong effect on the story itself. Watching her relationship with her son sway back and forth with the ocean’s tide is intriguing and emotionally moving. This is the first Oscar nomination for Ruby Dee, and the fact that it is a rare occurrence for an 80+ year old veteran actor (or actress) to receive an Oscar nomination or an award. Don’t believe me? Check out the “age statistics” that have been posted on the Academy’s website by visiting this page here. I must admit that if she does win this award there will be quite a few people who may experience the warm, fuzzy feeling of sentiment upon seeing her give an acceptance speech.
Actress: Saoirse Ronan
Character: Briony Tallis
Film: Atonement
You might want to definitely check out my review for this film, found here, because I do spend a little bit of time questioning how this movie was nominated for the Oscar awards. I am concerned why the Academy keeps allowing nominations to go through for people who are so young in age. I keep thinking about the hard working Joe Smoe adults who never earn the respective employee of the month award at their work and the sad “rub it in your face” feeling the person would experience if the recognition would go to a thirteen year old co-worker. I’m irked by the idea of hearing another name of a person who’s too young to drive and yet has been nominated to receive such a high honor in the respective profession. I say this because I view it as a curse to the person’s career. It would be long before the actor is confronted with taking the wrong turn by making a bad career move such as appearing in the a comic book movie (ahem, Anna Paquin) or dropping out the film business entirely due to a personal disaster (ahem, Tatum O’Neal). I don’t want to see Saoirse win the Oscar this year, because I don’t want to see her be subjected to the Juvenile Oscar Curse. I wish her the best of luck with her future career, but hopefully she’ll be able to move on in life without winning the coveted award so early in her life.
Actress: Amy Ryan
Character: Helene McCready
Film: Gone Baby Gone
There’s not much I could say for Amy Ryan. The movie itself was a huge hit and the box office (despite the fact that my parents walked out of the theater before the film even finished) and it promoted a lot of talk at the water cooler. You might want to check on an article that I wrote a couple of months ago about this film’s odd correlation with the Madeline McCann story. You can read the article here and see the comparisons that I am talking about. As I had mentioned earlier I have seen this movie yet, but I did track down a video clip of the film, found here, and took a peak at her intense performance. I must admit that she was able to turn out such a detailed performance that I completely bought the ugly reality of the character’s identity as a believable persona. I wouldn’t be surprised if she did win the award for this film, because over the last few years there have been several Oscar wins for ugly performances. Take a look at Charlize Theron’s win for Monster (2003) and Halle Berry’s work for Monster’s Ball (2001). If only this film was titled “Gone Monster Gone” then Amy’s chances of winning will have been backed up by the “monster” good luck charm.
Actress: Tilda Swinton
Character: Karen Crowder
Film: Michael Clayton
As I clearly mentioned in my review for Michael Clayton this happens to be one my favorite films for 2007. I had originally seen a preview screening for the film a few days before it’s public release and I was blown away by the lethal combination of the acting and the clever storyline. I have read a couple of other reviews that have been written against the quality of the film’s final cut because of the way the time line of the story is projected on the screen. The film begins three quarters of the way into story, then jumps back to the beginning to allow the audience to catch up with everything that has proceeded beforehand. Tilda Swinton’s character, Karen Crowder, is the villainous character of the film who is a professional businesswoman who was just promoted to a powerful executive position at the high profile company in which she works for. The sad twist in her character’s professional career is the inheritance of a massive environmental disaster in which the company has attempted to cover up for several years. It is up to her to continue the covert operations to prevent the company from falling apart financially, but it comes with a heavy price. The company’s key litigating lawyer, played wonderfully by Tom Wilkinson who was also nominated for his performance, completely falls apart after he stops ingesting medication that suppresses the symptoms of his manic depressive behavior. I believe Tilda exceeded expectations with her low-key performance. It wasn’t over the top, but remained cool and study just as her character would want to project as a consummate professional. I would like to see Tilda win the Oscar award for this category, but I’m not sure she has a strong enough support from the Academy voters who may be tempted by the box office success of Gone Baby Gone. I guess I will have to wait until Oscar night to find out the results. Sigh.