Ranking Oscar Nominees: Best Actress 2016

5. Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins

Easily the weakest of the lot; now this is otherwise a rather brilliant lineup, so it's not that Streep gave a bad performance, or that Florence Foster Jenkins was a bad film, I just...didn't take to it as much as the other nominees. As the larger than life socialite and rather out of tune amateur soprano, I found her convincing enough in being a fairly endearing bad singer, and a sweet outlandish personality. Streep is an actress who likes to go mannered with her performances, sometimes it works well (The Iron Lady, The Devil Wears Prada, and Into the Woods being good recent examples), sometimes not so much (Reds). This performance thankfully veers more towards the former. It doesn't feel wholly natural, but her very specific mannerisms, overly cheery laugh and accent all work well enough in establishing the BIG personality of a BIG persona.

Her performance is rather consistent, in that Florence is just pretty cheery and happy throughout till the end. It's not a particularly complex character, Streep is entertaining within the limits of the role though, I found that she enlivened most of her scenes in the comedic bits, and has a nice rapport with her onscreen husband Hugh Grant, and rather heartwarming in the scenes where she expresses what singing really means to her. The ending is rather poignant because of her work, and she's a charming presence, but overall I thought the highlight of the film really was Grant.

4. Ruth Negga, Loving

This is a performance that, alongside her (unfortunately) un-nominated co-star, just got better on re-watch. Loving is a very, very quiet film. That may prove to be the detriment of the film for some, for me on first watch I found it a bit too understated for its own good, but on a second, proper viewing it flourished all the more. The film recounts the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Negga), plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. Though the film occasionally steps into saccharine Steven Speilberg-esque territory which isn't really Jeff Nichols' style, for the most part this is a very small and simple romance that happens to be part of a grander scheme of racial relations. The Lovings were not radicals, they were a loving couple who simply wanted to build a home and raise a family in their hometown Virginia. The film evokes this beautifully through its intimate, small-scale in its domestic depiction.

Fused perfectly to this style is Negga, who could not be more quietly luminous in the role. She evokes this very unshowy sort of charm befitting this Virginia gal who's so incredibly attractive in her very unique way, but also so unassuming. She feels so real even though this is technically a mannered performance, in terms of Negga putting on the Virginia accent and playing a woman of a very specific time frame, I should also mention that watching real-life footage of the Lovings, Negga captures not only the voice and mannerisms so well but the general spirit of the woman. You believe this is Mildred Loving every second onscreen.

Negga realizes this simple love of Mildred not only for her husband - her and Edgerton have an incredible chemistry that might actually be my favourite romance of the year (sorry, Seb and Mia) - but also for the simple rural life she leads in Virginia. You feel joy watching her thrive in her environment, with her beloved family and community; and it's absolutely heartwrenching when you see it all taken away from the Lovings as they are forced to move to the city due to the interaccial marriage laws in Virginia. The way this weighs down on Mildred is powerful, as you see her struggle to accept such an oppressive and unfair treatment, that makes the scene where, on the phone, she learns that the American Civil Liberties Union willing to take on her case. In that one scene she is tremendous, giving such an honest and powerful reaction to this ray of light. As the film grows larger in its scope in dealing with the court case, Negga's performance remains small, but in an extremely effective fashion. When she says 'we may lose the small battles, but win the big war', you feel the power of these words despite her low-key delivery. It's a performance that grows on me more and more I write about it, and I have to admit I loved every moment of this work.

3. Natalie Portman, Jackie

As an actress, and actually in terms of what films she chooses, Portman is extremely hit-and-miss for me. She's been in everything from her stunning debut in the action masterpiece (and one of the all-time great films) Leon: The Professional to absolute crap like The Other Boleyn Girl and Your Highness, where she's far from the worst thing about them, but doesn't help matters. She can do two dreadful Star Wars prequels (again, not her fault they were awful), and give an underrated supporting turn in Cold Mountain and an Oscar nom for Closer (a good performance, if a bit overhyped) in between. She can go from a clinical but effective leading turn in Black Swan to a pointless role in Thor the next year. Suffice to say, you really never know what you're going to get from her or the film. Well Jackie is decidedly on the positive side of her filmography; it's far from a flawless film, the pacing and editing is very off at certain points, and there's the occasional line of dialogue that smacks of overwriting (like some of Robert Kennedy's lines), but it's got a superb ensemble, the experimental style pays off, the set design and costumes are all on point, and gosh is that soundtrack incredible.

As for the performance? Well, let's get into that, shall we. The first thing one will ask about this performance is, does Portman 'nail' Jackie Kennedy in the most obvious sense. As such a well-known public figure, the performance might have fallen flat if Portman had been anything less than convincing in the physical and vocal creation of the 35th First Lady. Well all I can say is, well done Nat. Her accent, a New Yorker one with a bit of an unnatural touch, but very much spot-on replication of the real deal, that stilted way of walking and the shy and somewhat awkward 'public' posture contrasted with her slightly more relaxed 'private' self, and in extremely impressive fashion her direct replications of Jackie's White House restoration tours; all of it is perfect. If this was just an impersonation contest, this would be 10/10 work already, but more needs to be done in order for the performance to work in the context of a feature film, especially one which is such an intensive character study of a public figure, in the wake of one of the most highly publicized events in American history, the assasination of JFK.

The film flits between three time periods, broadly speaking. Jackie, pre-assasination of JFK; in the immediate aftermath of JFK's assassination; and some time afterwards, in her Life interviews with an incisive journalist (a terrific Billy Crudup), and her unconventional 'confessionals' with a priest (a wonderful John Hurt in one of his final performances). It's incredible how Portman changes her performance for each of these time periods, being so 'showy' and slightly artificial, but in a genuine way (if that makes any sense) in her pre-assasination scenes where she seems a bit out of her element as the First Lady, but desperate to make a good impression. She never makes Jackie into some angelic figure living a perfect life, there's hints of marital unhappiness in her portrayal, but Portman portrays a woman simply trying to make the best of her position in life. Then in the aftermath of the assasination, I found her very effective in showing the extreme grief of Jackie overflowing her, with her public reserve and determination to give a fitting funeral for Jack with the help of Bobby Kennedy (an effective Peter Sarsgard, so much better here than in The Magnificent Seven) a means of repressing her sadness. My favourite part of the performance, though, is when Jackie has been given some time to grieve. In her scenes with Crudup, Portman gives a heartbreaking portrayal of such a broken woman whose defensive stance and censure occasionally breaks down to reveal the shattered emotional state within. Portman's eyes in particular, and wavering voice do so much here in internalizing the complete mess Jackie Kennedy is. Then in her scenes with Hurt she's amazing in showing how her public front gradually falls away to find a way of making peace with her past. I won't lie, this is a performance I realize I love the more I write about it.

2. Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Portraying probably the most emotionally distanced and problematic character (though not in a bad way at all) of the nominees, Huppert's depiction of Michèle Leblanc, a successful businesswoman who after being raped (handled by the film in a series of brief but harrowing scenes) who takes matters into her own, is a tremendous centerpiece of a rather intriguing, if difficult to watch film, not just for its graphic qualities but the general sense of unease that envelops the picture. At its center is a character who, though sympathetic through her victimization, is also an incredibly aloof and sardonic figure, who responds to her mother falling into a coma by asking whether or not she could be feigning it, pressing her son's girlfriend into riling at her with cool command, has an affair with her best friend's husband, and ruling over her video game company with an iron fist. She may be a victim, but director Paul Verhoeven and David Birke have crafted a rather morally complex one at that. Like Natalie Portman in Jackie, Huppert depicts the fallout of a traumatising experience, but in an altogether different fashion.

I like to think of this year's Best Actor and Best Actress nominees as having direct counterpoints. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, naturally, for La La Land. Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea and Natalie Portman's Jackie both depictions of overwhelming grief and attempts to combat it. Ruth Negga in Loving and Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge giving honest depictions of simple folks thrust into big circumstances but retaining a certain modesty; Denzel Washington in Fences and Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins as the showboating sort in a loving but problematic marriage based on lies. Which leaves Viggo Mortensen and Isabelle Huppert for their work in Captain Fantastic and Elle. Both were the sole nominees of their respective films, which are far removed from usual awards fare, and both...well, holding on to Mortensen for now, Huppert gives a performance that is decidedly not in the Academy's usual ballpark.

Huppert, an actress who apparently has a reputation for a 'cold' onscreen presence, though you wouldn't be able to tell if you'd just watched her awards speeches this season or like me, have only seen her in Amour which she plays the supportive role of a loving daughter who watches old age enshroud her parents. Her character could not be more different in Elle. Michèle, far from having two loving parents, has a strained relationship with her narcissistic mother, and whose father, as is gradually revealed over the course of the film, was an infamous mass murderer. This aspect of the character is only gradually dealt upon, but Huppert gives such nuance to how it haunts her. It's realistic in that, having gotten used to it over time, it's not the defining feature of her character, just something that deeply troubles her mostly when she's in private, or when she meets up with her mother. It's subtly internalized and Huppert does a great job with this.

Huppert's creation of Michèle as a character is downright fascinating from the outset as we watch her in the aftermath of her rape, calmly compose herself, cleaning up her surroundings, taking a shower, ordering a takeaway, and telling off her deadbeat son. Huppert establishes the cold and precise nature with the cold and precise way she deals with her situation; like Mahershala Ali this year, and Mark Rylance last year, Huppert manages to imply so much without doing anything overt with her performance. She builds up the gripping intensity and traumatising experience of the rape even though the film only briefly, and never gratuitously, dwells on these scenes, in such a subtle way that you'll be forgiven for missing them, but I personally found myself gripped throughout each scene she conveys this underlying despair of her character.

Life goes on for Michèle though, and as we get to know her more, we get to know some of her less savoury aspects. Her affair with her best friend's husband Robert (Christian Berkel, who you'll probably recognize from stuff like Downfall and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., interesting to see him in a French role) is dispassionately depicted by Verhoeven, in a fashion not all that different to the violence of the rape scenes. Huppert plays these scenes expertly as she shows the shallow sexual enjoyment of her character, but there's also an undercurrent of guilt that extends to her conversations with her best friend. Huppert and Anne Consigny have good chemistry, and most importantly Huppert suggests that for all of her cold posturing and sardonic airs, she truly does care for her friend.

In the workplace, whether she's tearing the work of her videogame developers or confronting the rather obscene actions of one of her closest associates, Huppert dominates the screen. She really gets under your skin in the best possible way, with a queen-like dominance over her surroundings. This supremacy can be found in the domestic scenes too with her ex-husband, her son, her mother, all over which she exerts a certain control in a more subtle fashion. Of course, she does not always have the upper hand, as the masked assailant who raped her continues to pester her through text messages, emails and a second assault. In these moments, Huppert reveals all the physical and mental torment of the ordeal just lying underneath the surface, threatening to break through. One way this is not an 'Oscar-y' performance is that she never breaks down completely, never has a scene where she gets to show her character's defences drop completely into an emotional mess. It doesn't matter, because what Huppert does in showing these gaps of weakness is more powerful. They are scenes where the content makes you want to look away for comfort, but her screen presence draws you in.

The most complex aspect of the film, and subsequently where it is at its most contentious, is her relationship with her assailant. Huppert never quite gives the game away, even at the end, as to what her character's intentions are in engaging the assailant in a strange and twisted sexual relationship. Honestly, I found the whole idea behind this part of the film quite perverse and unsettling, and the scenes make for difficult watching, but Huppert really delivers in each moment no matter how difficult viewing the film becomes. It's not all twisted perverseness, there's moments of levity in Huppert's characterisation as she manages to almost give a semi-comedic performance at points with patronising airs, and certain reactions to her mother's death, her son's mistreatment by his wife, an inappropriate laugh at the Christmas dinner table, and most memorably her visit to her father in prison which ends in an unexpected fashion. They are all brief scenes, but Huppert's work is rather immaculate in bringing the warmth beneath the coldness to the surface ever so momentarily.

Eventually, Verhoeven releases the tension and the finale, divisive as it is (and it didn't entirely work for me), places Michèle in a whole mix of emotions and interactions. The ways she solves the various mysteries and plot threads are all intriguing in their unique ways; her incisive questioning of a videogame developer is darkly humorous and rather scary, and her confession to her best friend about her affair with her husband is delivered in such a cold manner, befitting the character, but Huppert conveys such honesty in her delivery that makes it somewhat...heartwarming, almost? Elle comes to a conclusion with several resolutions, not all satisfactory. I particularly love her reaction to the wife of her assailant's parting words, and her unique way of reconciling with her son and best friend. This really is quite the amazing performance in a difficult role and difficult film, I'm glad I watched it and will most probably re-watch it when it properly comes into UK cinemas in early March.

2. Isabelle Huppert, Elle

Portraying probably the most emotionally distanced and problematic character (though not in a bad way at all) of the nominees, Huppert's depiction of Michèle Leblanc, a successful businesswoman who after being raped (handled by the film in a series of brief but harrowing scenes) who takes matters into her own, is a tremendous centerpiece of a rather intriguing, if difficult to watch film, not just for its graphic qualities but the general sense of unease that envelops the picture. At its center is a character who, though sympathetic through her victimization, is also an incredibly aloof and sardonic figure, who responds to her mother falling into a coma by asking whether or not she could be feigning it, pressing her son's girlfriend into riling at her with cool command, has an affair with her best friend's husband, and ruling over her video game company with an iron fist. She may be a victim, but director Paul Verhoeven and David Birke have crafted a rather morally complex one at that. Like Natalie Portman in Jackie, Huppert depicts the fallout of a traumatising experience, but in an altogether different fashion.

I like to think of this year's Best Actor and Best Actress nominees as having direct counterpoints. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, naturally, for La La Land. Casey Affleck in Manchester by the Sea and Natalie Portman's Jackie both depictions of overwhelming grief and attempts to combat it. Ruth Negga in Loving and Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge giving honest depictions of simple folks thrust into big circumstances but retaining a certain modesty; Denzel Washington in Fences and Meryl Streep in Florence Foster Jenkins as the showboating sort in a loving but problematic marriage based on lies. Which leaves Viggo Mortensen and Isabelle Huppert for their work in Captain Fantastic and Elle. Both were the sole nominees of their respective films, which are far removed from usual awards fare, and both...well, holding on to Mortensen for now, Huppert gives a performance that is decidedly not in the Academy's usual ballpark.

Huppert, an actress who apparently has a reputation for a 'cold' onscreen presence, though you wouldn't be able to tell if you'd just watched her awards speeches this season or like me, have only seen her in Amour which she plays the supportive role of a loving daughter who watches old age enshroud her parents. Her character could not be more different in Elle. Michèle, far from having two loving parents, has a strained relationship with her narcissistic mother, and whose father, as is gradually revealed over the course of the film, was an infamous mass murderer. This aspect of the character is only gradually dealt upon, but Huppert gives such nuance to how it haunts her. It's realistic in that, having gotten used to it over time, it's not the defining feature of her character, just something that deeply troubles her mostly when she's in private, or when she meets up with her mother. It's subtly internalized and Huppert does a great job with this.

Huppert's creation of Michèle as a character is downright fascinating from the outset as we watch her in the aftermath of her rape, calmly compose herself, cleaning up her surroundings, taking a shower, ordering a takeaway, and telling off her deadbeat son. Huppert establishes the cold and precise nature with the cold and precise way she deals with her situation; like Mahershala Ali this year, and Mark Rylance last year, Huppert manages to imply so much without doing anything overt with her performance. She builds up the gripping intensity and traumatising experience of the rape even though the film only briefly, and never gratuitously, dwells on these scenes, in such a subtle way that you'll be forgiven for missing them, but I personally found myself gripped throughout each scene she conveys this underlying despair of her character.

Life goes on for Michèle though, and as we get to know her more, we get to know some of her less savoury aspects. Her affair with her best friend's husband Robert (Christian Berkel, who you'll probably recognize from stuff like Downfall and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., interesting to see him in a French role) is dispassionately depicted by Verhoeven, in a fashion not all that different to the violence of the rape scenes. Huppert plays these scenes expertly as she shows the shallow sexual enjoyment of her character, but there's also an undercurrent of guilt that extends to her conversations with her best friend. Huppert and Anne Consigny have good chemistry, and most importantly Huppert suggests that for all of her cold posturing and sardonic airs, she truly does care for her friend.

In the workplace, whether she's tearing the work of her videogame developers or confronting the rather obscene actions of one of her closest associates, Huppert dominates the screen. She really gets under your skin in the best possible way, with a queen-like dominance over her surroundings. This supremacy can be found in the domestic scenes too with her ex-husband, her son, her mother, all over which she exerts a certain control in a more subtle fashion. Of course, she does not always have the upper hand, as the masked assailant who raped her continues to pester her through text messages, emails and a second assault. In these moments, Huppert reveals all the physical and mental torment of the ordeal just lying underneath the surface, threatening to break through. One way this is not an 'Oscar-y' performance is that she never breaks down completely, never has a scene where she gets to show her character's defences drop completely into an emotional mess. It doesn't matter, because what Huppert does in showing these gaps of weakness is more powerful. They are scenes where the content makes you want to look away for comfort, but her screen presence draws you in.

The most complex aspect of the film, and subsequently where it is at its most contentious, is her relationship with her assailant. Huppert never quite gives the game away, even at the end, as to what her character's intentions are in engaging the assailant in a strange and twisted sexual relationship. Honestly, I found the whole idea behind this part of the film quite perverse and unsettling, and the scenes make for difficult watching, but Huppert really delivers in each moment no matter how difficult viewing the film becomes. It's not all twisted perverseness, there's moments of levity in Huppert's characterisation as she manages to almost give a semi-comedic performance at points with patronising airs, and certain reactions to her mother's death, her son's mistreatment by his wife, an inappropriate laugh at the Christmas dinner table, and most memorably her visit to her father in prison which ends in an unexpected fashion. They are all brief scenes, but Huppert's work is rather immaculate in bringing the warmth beneath the coldness to the surface ever so momentarily.

Eventually, Verhoeven releases the tension and the finale, divisive as it is (and it didn't entirely work for me), places Michèle in a whole mix of emotions and interactions. The ways she solves the various mysteries and plot threads are all intriguing in their unique ways; her incisive questioning of a videogame developer is darkly humorous and rather scary, and her confession to her best friend about her affair with her husband is delivered in such a cold manner, befitting the character, but Huppert conveys such honesty in her delivery that makes it somewhat...heartwarming, almost? Elle comes to a conclusion with several resolutions, not all satisfactory. I particularly love her reaction to the wife of her assailant's parting words, and her unique way of reconciling with her son and best friend. This really is quite the amazing performance in a difficult role and difficult film, I'm glad I watched it and will most probably re-watch it when it properly comes into UK cinemas in early March.

1. Emma Stone, La La Land

Time travel some random cinema and musical afficionados from the 50s or so to 2017 and show them La La Land, they'd be taken aback by the presence of all things technological and 21st Century, but I think they'd like or love the songs, and upon meeting the protagonists Sebastian and Mia (Ryan Gosling and Stone), wonder 'where have these starlets been? MGM better find them something good and soon'. What I'm trying to say that despite being very much a modern-day set film, La La Land is an old-fashioned, old-style, old Hollywood film in many regards, extending to the performances of its two stars. I'll get onto Gosling at a later point, but let's discuss Stone for now.

In many ways, Stone and Huppert are giving the least 'mannered' performances of the lineup, which is not to disregard the incredible amount of work and effectiveness of the accent and mannerism work of the other nominees, but both actresses are playing on their unique off-screen personas, in a way. Stone, off-screen, always comes across as just a fun and joyous person to be around, with incredible amounts of charisma that, onscreen, lifted The Amazing Spider-Man films as much as she could. She's done great work that doesn't rely on her charm, like her brilliant Birdman performance for example, but in La La Land she takes her usual loveable star persona and amps it up several levels. Stone is not playing 'herself', Mia Dolan is a character in her own right, but Stone's sparkling presence and intrinsic charm brings a certain something to the role only she can bring.

Mia, a struggling actress in Hollywood, is not the most original character on paper, but Stone's take is anything but uninspired. Again, that charm I mentioned brings so much to the role. It's not the only thing that defines the character, the film's balanced vision ensures that, at the beginning, we see her frustrations at being stuck at a dead-end job, continually flunking auditions, feeling out of place at the very Hollywood-y parties she attends out of hope that someone in the crowd, could be the one you need to know, the one to finally lift you off the ground into the stars via planetarium. Stone and the screenplay gives so much weight to these frustrations and makes you instantly sympathize with her. Of course, it's no fun just watching Mia sit around and moping after some nasty audition experiences. In terms of singing and dancing, as someone who knows nothing about the finer points of either, she's just splendid to watch. Whether it's the vibrant and catchy 'Someone in the Crowd' or her half of the delightful 'City of Stars', or something else I'll get onto in a bit, she's simply the star she hopes she can show the world.

Then there's her chemistry with Gosling. Now I have a different perspective to La La Land than most, I actually never found myself rooting for their relationship and romance all that much so to speak. I found it to be a somewhat problematic relationship, didn't really find Sebastian all that sympathetic for the majority of the runtime (though that's not a problem at all with Gosling's performance, see future post for more), and I personally find the ending more sweet than bitter on the 'bittersweet' scale. These are not so much reservations as personal opinion, and it doesn't really matter since Gosling and Stone, as they showed to a lesser extent in Crazy Stupid Love (let's forget Gangster Squad exists) have perfect chemistry. Even though I didn't think all that much of the relationship itself, I loved watching them together. If I had to explain myself, I'd compare this to watching Kermit and Miss Piggy isn't necessarily the most constant and healthy relationship but you enjoy seeing sparks fly between them. But I digress! They're so attuned to one another in terms of just dancing, their songs, but also how their character's artistic drives bring them together, but also drive them apart. Stone, by herself, wonderfully portrays her character's drive to succeed, and her reactions to every failure is so subtly powerful. She never overplays these moments, but you really feel for her nevertheless.

Also, this is a hilarious comedic performance, one of the funniest of 2016. One of my favourite moments for Mia is her suggestion for Sebastian's band to play 'I Ran' at a pool party (although I personally find that song to be ace), her lip syncing and trolling of Sebastian is priceless. There's also more subtler funnier moments such as when she playfully ridicules Sebastian's pretension (which goes a long way to making his musings about jazz seem a little less uptight). Of course, it's not all about the laughs and joy. Stone's performance of THAT scene, the scene everyone talks about, 'Audition', is stunning. It's a stunning scene, arguably the best scene in the whole film, and though the direction and music is great, the power comes mainly from Stone, who delivers in such a naturally flowing fashion the conviction in her character's dream, but also a poignant tribute to the 'fools who dream'. And that finale, with fantastic work by Chazelle of course, is concluded perfectly by her heartfelt glance to Sebastian that makes for a pitch-perfect ending. I'm not going to lie, writing about this film makes me appreciate it all the more, and I'm probably going to re-watch it soon. I won't need a re-watch to evaluate this work by Emma Stone though, magnificent stuff, and if she wins the Oscar she'll go down as one of the strongest winners of the decade.