Because I forgot to really bother read any Oscar previews, I've done my own.
So here is a quick ramble around the acting categories about
who I wouldn’t mind winning (and some irrational annoyance with Bradley Cooper
for tradition’s sake….)
Supporting Actress:
It is stunning to me that one of the most beautiful films I can
remember, If Beale Street Could Talk, only has 3 nominations. Maybe if I’m
awake enough tomorrow I will put up a special post on the utter brilliance of
Barry Jenkins. But I’m glad that one of those nominations was for Regina King’s
incredible performance. It is a film full
of memorable performances but the quietly brilliant range of emotions that
Regina King finds for her character is nothing short of stunning. There are so
many difficult scenes of conflict where she finds such a perfect pitch of
empathy, that you need her character to prevail – not for the other characters
to fail, as they are usually complex rather than out and out bad – but because
of her sincere and deep attempt to do right. She has
an incredible way of communicating this, and I would absolutely love her to
win.
Of course, if either Emma Stone or Rachel Weisz won, I would
definitely not object. I’m just not sure how to separate them. And they play
off each other so well, it almost feels like a single performance across two
actors. They are clearly having so much fun (and kudos for Emma Stone on her accent,
which she just about keeps to throughout and actually sounds real, rather than almost
right). Both are brilliantly morally
ambiguous, bold and funny and also do exactly what a supporting actress should
do – allow the incredible lead actress to shine but create an amazing rich
space around her too.
Amy Adams and Marina de Tavira are both excellent in their
roles, but really their films belong to Christian Bale and Yalitza Aparaicio respectively.
They both have some incredible moments but I think it’s got to be between the
three above.
Supporting Actor
Let’s just say I have some, um, thoughts about Green Book….
One of them though is that a) Mahershala Ali is way, way too good for that film
and b) thank goodness he was in it as I hate to think what would have happened.
There are so many missed opportunities for an interesting take in that film,
but I’m not entirely sure they would have entered my head, had it not been for his
interesting and layered performance. I probably wouldn’t have noticed that
there was actually potential for a really interesting and deep and challenging
film from that story, if it wasn’t that he brought so much of those elements
and created a fascinating and complex character from what seems like quite thin
material. He literally supports the film
from falling into a complete hole of obnoxiousness, support it perhaps doesn’t deserve…
But I’m not sure that’s quite what they mean by supporting actor.
It seems likely Mahershala Ali will win and, if he doesn’t, that Richard E Grant will. I’m pretty sure Richard E Grant already had all the
fun he ever needed just making the film, but he is absolutely superb, and perhaps
in another year he would be nailed on favourite, and my favourite too. It’s a
witty and well judged performance, it could have been absurd and exaggerated,
but he roots the character in an underlying sadness that means instead it is
heartbreakingly real. Unlike Mahershala Ali, he is lucky enough to work with
excellent material, in a film that certainly deserved Green Book’s best picture
slot, and he absolutely makes the most of it.
Sam Elliott is absolutely
fine and very Sam Elliott, but in a rather cliched and underwritten role. Sam
Rockwell is fun but overshadowed by Christian Bale in Vice and Adam Driver is
very entertaining and effective in Blackkklansman, but that is John David Washington’s
film, and it’s a shame he didn’t get a nomination instead. Embarrassing note, I
only discovered John David Washington is Denzel’s son about three weeks ago.
Well it’s a performance his dad could have been proud of giving himself, and I’m
not sure there’s a much higher compliment I can give (still think Denzel was
robbed a couple of years ago for one of the greatest screen performances of recent
years).
Actress
This category this year could have had about 15 nominees and
the quality would still have been ridiculous throughout (special nods for Chloe
Grace Moretz in the Miseducation of Cameron Post, Thomasin Mackenzie in Leave
No Trace and probably a load of others that I’m going to suddenly remember I’ve
forgotten tomorrow).
It looks like it could be Glenn Close’s year, finally, and
even if it becomes one of those sort-of lifetime achievement awards because it’s
‘her time’, it would still be well deserved for her performance in The Wife. It’s
an incredible performance, full of ambiguity and emotions that are suppressed
just beneath the surface – communicated in a way that really feels like only
her character and the audience know they are there, whilst the other characters
remain oblivious. It is a ridiculously skilful performance as well as being
incredibly engrossing and moving. The fact that she is so charismatic to the
audience and yet believably barely visible to those around her is such a feat
of balance, that whether anyone else could have pulled it off, is hard to say.
It would be harsh on Glenn Close should she not win for that
performance, but then again, how awesome is the phrase Oscar winner Olivia
Colman? I would happily just give her an Oscar for her Olivia Colman-ness, all
of which she brings and more to The Favourite. How the hell she made her
character so utterly awful and ridiculous and yet so utterly wonderful and
sympathetic is beyond me. How she had the guts to be just so wonderfully out
there (any time I see her interviewed, she is so goddam lovely, I don’t know
where it comes from, I know she’s an amazing actress but still how?!!) is just
incredible. And we all knew she has the skill to play any character absolutely
brilliantly, it’s just wonderful that she got such an incredible part in such a
high-profile film to do so.
There probably are many years where Melissa McCarthy or
Yalitza Aparicio would be firmly deserving to win. Many of the adjectives I’ve used to describe
Olivia Colman’s performance could probably apply to Melissa McCarthy as well. She
fearlessly and unapologetically gives us a character is often bitterly awful,
yet is sympathetic (and sometimes pathetic) and feels very real but also
entertainingly surreal. It’s a fantastic
performance in a wonderful film, she plays off Richard E Grant brilliantly and
it’s unlucky she hasn’t been more favoured.
It’s hard to believe Yalitza Aparicio was previously a
teacher with no acting experience, given how amazing her performance in Roma
is. It’s almost hard to talk about without accidentally giving something away. But her quiet warmth and earnestness is so
engrossing, her sweet humorousness is so endearing and she is already
compelling before the emotional final third of the film where she is just heartbreakingly
brilliant. It’s such a skilful performance, and yet totally natural.
Lady Gaga is by far the best thing about A Star is Born and
perhaps if the film had just been about her, I might have wanted her to win. But
I am punishing her by association and assuming / hoping she won’t. She’s great
though, for me unexpectedly as I hadn’t seen her act before. She’s charming, emotionally truthful and the
film lights up when she’s on screen.
Best Actor
Let’s just get the rant out of the way first. WHY HAS
BRADLEY COOPER NOW BEEN NOMINATED FOR FOUR ACTING OSCARS? This is getting ridiculous.
That’s the same number as Mahershala Ali and Sam Rockwell put together.
Uuuurgh. And he’s not terrible in A Star is Born, he’s ok, his character is
horrible, Lady Gaga is way better than him, and it feels like for all her
charisma, he’s draining it away. But he also is in it way, way too much. She’s
amazing, why can’t she be on the screen all the time, just go away Bradley
Cooper. Umm so that basically was my
internal monologue throughout the film.
So yeah, Bradley Cooper is blah, Bradley Cooper put far too much of
himself in his own movie and Bradley Cooper should not have four acting
nominations over his career. Does he have dirt on people in Hollywood or
something, or are there loads of blah people in Hollywood who like nominated
Blandley Cooper to feel better about themselves?
Oh, and just before I get on to the half decent performances,
how the hell was Viggo Mortensen nominated too? I’ll go into why I didn’t much
like Green Book later, but Viggo Mortensen was pretty one-note throughout and
didn’t really show much depth or do anything interesting. I don’t dislike Viggo
Mortensen, I think he’s a pretty decent actor, perhaps Mahershala Ali’s brilliance
showed him up, but I just couldn’t see what the nomination was for. Just think,
the Academy could have had fun and nominated Lakeith Stanfield for Sorry to
Bother You or Joaquin Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here, but instead they
went for a uninteresting performance of a racist bore who learns that – shock horror-
black people are people!
I haven’t seen Willem Dafoe’s performance as I don’t think it’s
reached the UK yet, so I’m assuming/ hoping that Best Actor is between Christian
Bale and Rami Malek. Christian Bale is terrific, and terrifying and somehow
just makes sense of a very confusing and hard to read character. But the main
way I would say he is brilliant is that in the interview at the end is I
thought that we had cut to real footage of Dick Cheney, right up until the
minute he broke the fourth wall. It’s one of Christian Bale’s best performances,
and he sets a reasonably high bar….
I don’t mind if Rami Malek wins, as he certainly gives it
his all, and like Mahershala Ali is way, way too good for the film he is
in. It’s a bold and convincing
performance, that is far more interesting than the film itself and he carries
off the performance scenes brilliantly – they could easily have been
underwhelming or exaggerated but he gets it right. But for all that he is good,
I’m not quite sure whether he is being rewarded for the performance or the
role. Unlike the performances in the Best Actress category, where we have interesting
characters brought to the screen in remarkable, complex and varied ways, Rami
Malek in some ways feels like the acting equivalent of a high-class tribute
band. That’s still a really hard thing to pull off, but it’s hard to work out
how much of the interest and enjoyment comes from the original, rather than the
performer in front of you. But hey, at least he’s not Bradley Cooper.
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