Oscar Nominees:
1. Rooney Mara in Carol:This placement irks me in multiple ways. It's the wrong category for her, and I don't mean in the sense that supporting category is in any way demeaning to an actress, it's just: she gives the greatest LEAD performance of this decade so far, and should be recognized as such for it. Anyway, I've written so much about Mara's performance at this point that it's negligible to say more. It's a bit annoying to have to do my placement of her here because it makes her a case of category fraud, and makes me question my choice, but I'll stick with fraud for now because this is a near undeniable performance, regardless of the context.
2. Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hateful Eight: This is a great performance but I still need a bit of time to think about how great, exactly. She gives perhaps the most terrifying performance I've seen all year. The makeup department need a great deal of credit too, but Leigh is simply brilliant in how she first works on the character creation of a brainless hillbilly come under the governance of men, to revealing her true colours as a literal walking embodiment of evil, is captivating. Even when the camera's not focused on her she just makes the most of every disgusting, demented little reaction she makes to the increasingly dire stakes moving in her favour. Each bile-inducing, hateful phrase is spat out with such vigour, and yet she also plays the different sides to Daisy besides her disgusting nature so well as she's oddly charismatic and convincing in her own way.
3. Rachel McAdams in Spotlight: The most straightforward, non-actory performance of these nominees but which makes do much out of just very minimal emotions. She has a great script to work with but also delivers so well in the margins of it, bringing the right amount of emotional weight to each of her interactions with the victims of the cade she's investigating. This is just a solid, excellent supporting turn by an actress I usually care very little for, and she does tremendously well with it.
4. Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl: Another case of category fraud. It's a shame Vikander got nominated for an Oscar for her 3rd best performance this year, but that's not to disparage her work in The Danish Girl at all. She gives a movingly rendered reactive performance, has great chemistry with Eddie Redmayne and Matthias Schoenaerts, and of course brings such impact to her emotional scenes. I can only justify her placement as fourth by saying, boy would it have been swell to have her in here for Ex Machina.
5. Kate Winslet in Steve Jobs: A supporting performance in the most traditional sense. I've heard some having issue with the accent she uses and though I agree it's a bit iffy, it's rightfully so. She gives the best performance in the film, in my opinion, and though my liking of it has definitely waned she's stayed with me. I don't like her quite as much as McAdams and Vikander, and she definitely lacks the huge impact scenes the aforementioned two have, but she helps to mask the deficiencies of Fassbender's lead turn a great deal.
2. Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Hateful Eight
3. Elizabeth Debicki in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.:Technically speaking a fairly well-worn character trope but she's just so brilliant in it. Ever since seeing her brilliant performance in Gatsby I'd wondered how her incredible physical awareness and overflowing mystique of her talents would fare in a larger role and here she does not disappoint, in fact she surpassed the loftiest of my expectations. She's quirky, threatening, sexy, seductive, funny, and just an incredibly entertaining villain who's so fun to watch and yet strangely naturalistic and actually quite chilling in the third act.
4. Hattie Morahan in Mr Holmes: One-scene wonder but it's a great one. Morahan makes such a fascinating enigma for McKellen's Sherlock Holmes to follow through the mysterious edge she gives to her portrayal of a grieving mother. She sets it up beautifully to that scene on the bench with Holmes where she only serves to enhance McKellen's performance by emphaisising the heartbreaking impact of her revelations.
5. Elizabeth Banks in Love & Mercy: Just great supporting work to the story of Brian Wilson as she shares such effortlessly sweet chemistry with John Cusack, such effortless anti-chemistry with Paul Giamatti, helps sell the sweetest moments in the film and turns out a performance which, though hardly groundbreaking in conception, is quite the achievement as she completely overturns any notions of a simple role being incapable of breeding a great performance.
6. Marion Cotillard, Macbeth
7. Rachel McAdams in Spotlight
8. Tessa Thompson in Creed
9. Joan Allen, Room
10. Analeigh Tipton in Mississippi Grind
11. Cara Delavigne in Paper Towns
12. Riley Keough in Mad Max: Fury Road
13. Lea Seydoux in Spectre
14. Cate Blanchett in Cinderella
15. Helen Mirren in Trumbo
16. Rose Byrne, Spy
17. Jane Brennan/Fiona Glascott in Brooklyn
18. Julie Walters in Brooklyn
19.
20. Rosie Hutington-Whiteley in Mad Max: Fury Road
Interesting that Vikander probably lost out on a nomination because of her placement for the Danish Girl, since she probably would have been double nominated if she had been campaigned properly.
ReplyDeleteLeigh's unquestionably my #1 of the year and out of the nominees especially since she's actually supporting.
Fair enough. Is Blunt a 5, or 4.5 for Sicario now?
DeleteHaven't seen Leigh or McAdams yet, out of what I've seen my pick is easily Mara who gives an outstanding, subtle performance in the best movie of the year, although she's 100% leading. I like Vikander who I think manages to be pretty remarkable in a downright horrible movie, and Winslet gives a good performance and she hits all the humorous and emotional beats that the role requires even if the role itself is fairly limited. Vikander is my pick overall for her terrific performance in Ex Machina, and I'm glad you mentioned Thompson's charming work in Creed, Blanchett's fun yet layered work in Cinderella and Delevingne's short but nuanced performance in Paper Towns. I have to admit I didn't care for much for Walters in Brooklyn (enjoyable but forgettable), Seydoux in Spectre (okay but I don't think it's much of a role, or much of a movie actually) and Allen in Room (she's warm and sweet but not great as some say she is). I really liked Nicholson in Black Mass (that final scene with Depp was chilling) and I thought Chastain was fine but nothing too special in The Martian.
ReplyDelete