Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Wait Until Dark is absolutely pointless – I couldn't even get through it – and though Hepburn could be a smart and graceful actress, grace is not exactly what one needs to enliven this incredibly tedious plot. She lacked a certain dynamism (yes, I understand that her character was mostly meant to be...

For all the vanity/measured self-obsession that plagued Fonda later in her career (ie. reenacting the transformation of her public persona through her every damn role). And you're saying Vietnam Jane didn't do that here? No, I'm saying that she did it somewhat effectively here, and, compared to her...

Julie Christie is exciting playing against type in one of my favorite films, but the role is way too limited. Jackson, when not being absolutely unhinged and expressive like she was in Women in Love, was often a difficult actress for me to warm up to – incredibly talented, but nothing I can get enth...

Interiors is horrifyingly bad – stilted and completely uninspired. I don't care very much for what Geraldine Page does in it. I feel similarly about Autumn Sonata, where Ingmar Bergman appeared to have lost any awareness of basic narrative structure. I can admire Ingrid Bergman's work in it, but it'...

I'm 100% with Tee. The Lion in Winter is devoid of meaning and not fun in any conceivable way. The actors go down with the ship. Joanne Woodward is a wonderful actress, and I've always been a big fan of her in Rachel, Rachel. She can also be somewhat boring, though, which is what I think she is here...

I haven't seen Thompson, but I'll chime in anyway... I've never understood the wild acclaim for Bassett in What's Love Got to Do With It (I've even read an article in which she's been compared to Falconetti). She's obviously an intelligent and well-trained actress – and that's the damn problem. Ever...

I haven't seen all the performances, so I didn't vote. But I'm glad that Haing S Ngor's performance – full of authenticity and sadness, which arose almost effortlessly from lived experience – hasn't been reduced to a charity case win here. His is really one of the most beautiful pieces of acting I'v...

Was Victor Banerjee campaigned in supporting? He was mentioned quite a few times in the lead actor thread for 1984, and any prizes he won/was nominated for his work (NBR, BAFTA) were in lead. I certainly think he's lead. (Haing S. Ngor is also lead, but that's another story)

I'm on the Mariel Hemingway train. A spontaneous, deeply-felt performance from an actress whose work I've always found unconventional (though this was certainly a case of pitch-perfect casting). Damien's assessment was spot-on.

Meg Tilly is absolutely ridiculous in Agnes of God, and that's a good thing in my book – she takes a bunch of odd, silly risks as a performer that I, at least, find admirable for such a young actress. And it works – she's the only moderately effective thing about her movie. So she gets my vote for d...

I adore Lesley Ann Warren but I've never gotten the appeal of her broad, totally uninteresting performance in Victor/Victoria. I am a gay male. Kim Stanley was clearly an imaginative performer but I didn't find her approach effective in Frances, especially next to Lange's more expressive and natural...

Nicholson blew me away in Reds, but Howard Rollins was astonishing in Ragtime – deeply felt and graceful.

Joe Pesci has never seemed as dynamic as he was in Raging Bull. I imagine he must've seemed something of a fresh, challenging presence in 1980. He gets my vote by a mile. Jason Robards is just perfect – both mysterious and complex – in his few minutes on screen. The reason The Great Santini sort of ...

And Justin Henry in Kramer vs Kramer is, for once, a real child - believable, human, natural, extremely well directed certainly (Benton showed a Truffaut touch here). Any performance, in films especially, is the result of the combined work of actor and director, and this beautiful, affecting but un...

Opens tomorrow on the East Coast. Weisz is getting absolute raves from a few reviews I've read.