My personal choices:
1. Séverine Caneele, in "A Piece of Sky"
2. Oksana Akinshina, in "Lilya 4-Ever"
3. Marina de Van, in "In My Skin"
4. Samantha Morton, in "Morvern Callar"
5. Angela Bettis, in "May"
6. Kati Outinen, in "The Man Without a Past"
7. Anne-Marie Duff, in "The Magdalene Sisters"
8. Asuka Kurosawa, in "A Snake of June"
9. Goldie Hawn, in "The Banger Sisters"
10. Parker Posey, in "Personal Velocity: Three Portraits" / Jennifer Aniston, in "The Good Girl"
Best Actress 2002
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Precious Doll
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Thanks a great lineup Damien. I'm so glad someone has finally mentioned Lucy Russell's performance in The Lady and the Duke - one of the very best of the decade.Damien wrote:My Own Top 5:
1. Emmanuelle Devos in Read My Lips
2. Lucy Russell in The Lady And The Duke
3. Renee Zellweger in Chicago
4. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos in Femme Fatale
5. Summer Phoenix in Esther Kahn
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
You're wrong , Damien. We'll leave it there.Damien wrote:I had completely forgotten that Diane Lane has an Oscar nomination. Unfaithful has to be one of the 5 worst movies ever to serve up a lead acting nomination. It's twice as trashy as BUtterfield 8 and not even half as much fun.
Salma Hayek gives a competent, stolid performance in a competent, stolid bio-pic. Neither the performance nor the movie has any passion or excitement.
Nicole Kidman is just dour in The Hours -- compare her dreary work here to Vanessa Redgrave's exhilarating, nuanced, heartrending performance in Mrs. Dalloway . . . well, there's no comparison.
Far From Heaven is a lifeless exercise in "style." And for all the references to Douglas Sirk in the film's press releases, there are maybe only a half-dozen shots that have a distinctive Sirkian look. Most of the time it's like a generic Ross Hunter picture directed by a Jerry Hopper or a Joseph Pevney (with a little Nick Ray here, a Nunnally Johnson there). Ed Lachman's cinematography is brilliantly redolent of 50s Technicolor and Elmer Bernstein's pastiche-y score is very evocative but the film is unmoving. The characters remain exaggerated recreations of very specific archetypes and this mimesis results only in waxwork figures. The main problem is Julianne More's terribly miscalculated performance. In their attempts to play up the ineffectual naivite of middle-class 50s housewives, Moore and director Todd Haynes overplay the guileness so much that she seems to be mentally deficient.
So my vote goes enthusiastically to Renee Zellweger in Chicago. I've run hot and cold on the actress over the years, but this is a great, no holds barred movie star performance, akin to Liza Minnelli's in Cabaret. It may not be subtle, but it's full of vitality, charismatic, funny, fearless and heartbreaking.
My Own Top 5:
1. Emmanuelle Devos in Read My Lips
2. Lucy Russell in The Lady And The Duke
3. Renee Zellweger in Chicago
4. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos in Femme Fatale
5. Summer Phoenix in Esther Kahn
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Eric
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Since everyone's talking bests of decade, I'd have to say my top leading female performances of the '00s are one of this small handful:
Mania Akbari, Ten
Björk, Dancer in the Dark
Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love
Fatoumata Coulibaly, Moolaadé
Laura Dern, Inland Empire
Tilda Swinton, Julia
Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive
Mania Akbari, Ten
Björk, Dancer in the Dark
Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love
Fatoumata Coulibaly, Moolaadé
Laura Dern, Inland Empire
Tilda Swinton, Julia
Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive
I had completely forgotten that Diane Lane has an Oscar nomination. Unfaithful has to be one of the 5 worst movies ever to serve up a lead acting nomination. It's twice as trashy as BUtterfield 8 and not even half as much fun.
Salma Hayek gives a competent, stolid performance in a competent, stolid bio-pic. Neither the performance nor the movie has any passion or excitement.
Nicole Kidman is just dour in The Hours -- compare her dreary work here to Vanessa Redgrave's exhilarating, nuanced, heartrending performance in Mrs. Dalloway . . . well, there's no comparison.
Far From Heaven is a lifeless exercise in "style." And for all the references to Douglas Sirk in the film's press releases, there are maybe only a half-dozen shots that have a distinctive Sirkian look. Most of the time it's like a generic Ross Hunter picture directed by a Jerry Hopper or a Joseph Pevney (with a little Nick Ray here, a Nunnally Johnson there). Ed Lachman's cinematography is brilliantly redolent of 50s Technicolor and Elmer Bernstein's pastiche-y score is very evocative but the film is unmoving. The characters remain exaggerated recreations of very specific archetypes and this mimesis results only in waxwork figures. The main problem is Julianne More's terribly miscalculated performance. In their attempts to play up the ineffectual naivite of middle-class 50s housewives, Moore and director Todd Haynes overplay the guileness so much that she seems to be mentally deficient.
So my vote goes enthusiastically to Renee Zellweger in Chicago. I've run hot and cold on the actress over the years, but this is a great, no holds barred movie star performance, akin to Liza Minnelli's in Cabaret. It may not be subtle, but it's full of vitality, charismatic, funny, fearless and heartbreaking.
My Own Top 5:
1. Emmanuelle Devos in Read My Lips
2. Lucy Russell in The Lady And The Duke
3. Renee Zellweger in Chicago
4. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos in Femme Fatale
5. Summer Phoenix in Esther Kahn
Edited By Damien on 1268878810
Salma Hayek gives a competent, stolid performance in a competent, stolid bio-pic. Neither the performance nor the movie has any passion or excitement.
Nicole Kidman is just dour in The Hours -- compare her dreary work here to Vanessa Redgrave's exhilarating, nuanced, heartrending performance in Mrs. Dalloway . . . well, there's no comparison.
Far From Heaven is a lifeless exercise in "style." And for all the references to Douglas Sirk in the film's press releases, there are maybe only a half-dozen shots that have a distinctive Sirkian look. Most of the time it's like a generic Ross Hunter picture directed by a Jerry Hopper or a Joseph Pevney (with a little Nick Ray here, a Nunnally Johnson there). Ed Lachman's cinematography is brilliantly redolent of 50s Technicolor and Elmer Bernstein's pastiche-y score is very evocative but the film is unmoving. The characters remain exaggerated recreations of very specific archetypes and this mimesis results only in waxwork figures. The main problem is Julianne More's terribly miscalculated performance. In their attempts to play up the ineffectual naivite of middle-class 50s housewives, Moore and director Todd Haynes overplay the guileness so much that she seems to be mentally deficient.
So my vote goes enthusiastically to Renee Zellweger in Chicago. I've run hot and cold on the actress over the years, but this is a great, no holds barred movie star performance, akin to Liza Minnelli's in Cabaret. It may not be subtle, but it's full of vitality, charismatic, funny, fearless and heartbreaking.
My Own Top 5:
1. Emmanuelle Devos in Read My Lips
2. Lucy Russell in The Lady And The Duke
3. Renee Zellweger in Chicago
4. Rebecca Romjin-Stamos in Femme Fatale
5. Summer Phoenix in Esther Kahn
Edited By Damien on 1268878810
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
A fine year for female actors in leading roles. I would have gone for Maggie Gyllenhaal for Secretary, Ronit Elkabetz for Late Marriage, or Esther Kahn for Esther Kahn (if you count its '02 release), and far more deserving of praise than four of the five are Isabelle Huppert for The Piano Teacher, Samantha Morton for Morvern Callar, Maribel Verdú for Y Tu Mama Tambien, or Catherine Keener or Emily Mortimer for Lovely & Amazing.
Of the nominees, Kidman does something interesting, committed, yet wholly ridiculous. I never understood all the praise for Lane, who is quite good but really one of those performances that probably should be nominated but isn't for nature of the film. Not the critic's group tear that she went on. She's certainly fine, which I can't say for Hayek who is quite bland and dull. I'm glad she got her film off the ground but that's about all I can say. Co-star Molina is much better. I think Renee Zellweger is quite good in Chicago. Not a great singer or dancer by any means, but it plays on her persona quite well. I think she's the best thing in Chicago, a film that has not aged well at all, and she certainly deserved it more than Kidman. With Kidman's subsequent career, it's amazing some felt so obligated to give her an Oscar, let alone for something as silly/dull/stupid/boring as The Hours.
Then there's Moore who was just about as good as the hype indicated. I was hoping she would win but it became apparent as the season went on that Far From Heaven was viewed as a film experiment more than a movie. Which is a shame.
Of the nominees, Kidman does something interesting, committed, yet wholly ridiculous. I never understood all the praise for Lane, who is quite good but really one of those performances that probably should be nominated but isn't for nature of the film. Not the critic's group tear that she went on. She's certainly fine, which I can't say for Hayek who is quite bland and dull. I'm glad she got her film off the ground but that's about all I can say. Co-star Molina is much better. I think Renee Zellweger is quite good in Chicago. Not a great singer or dancer by any means, but it plays on her persona quite well. I think she's the best thing in Chicago, a film that has not aged well at all, and she certainly deserved it more than Kidman. With Kidman's subsequent career, it's amazing some felt so obligated to give her an Oscar, let alone for something as silly/dull/stupid/boring as The Hours.
Then there's Moore who was just about as good as the hype indicated. I was hoping she would win but it became apparent as the season went on that Far From Heaven was viewed as a film experiment more than a movie. Which is a shame.
"How's the despair?"
I hate to say something not very original, but in this case I have to: Julianne Moore's performance in Far from Heaven is the best (by an actress in an American movie) of the decade. A rare example of sublety, warmth, control, affection for the character but not over-indulgence... Wonderful, and one really wonders how they could deny her the Oscar. (And by the way, I'm sure that, had she been nominated this year for the same performance, she would have still lost to Sandra Bullock), Maybe she's too subtle, maybe not popular enough - but this is certainly one of Oscar's biggest recent mistakes.
I'm not even sure that the other nominees were so bad (except maybe Hayek, which gave an admittedly flat, forgettable performance) - but the difference in talent was so obviously wide that seeing Moore losing to any of them would have been (as it was) a major crime. But of course Kidman was a major star, wore that fake nose, and played a great artist AND an insane woman, an unbeatable combination.
Let's just hope that Moore - in my opinion one of the great American actresses - will have more chances in the future, though, while still beautiful, she won't get younger as time goes by.
I'm not even sure that the other nominees were so bad (except maybe Hayek, which gave an admittedly flat, forgettable performance) - but the difference in talent was so obviously wide that seeing Moore losing to any of them would have been (as it was) a major crime. But of course Kidman was a major star, wore that fake nose, and played a great artist AND an insane woman, an unbeatable combination.
Let's just hope that Moore - in my opinion one of the great American actresses - will have more chances in the future, though, while still beautiful, she won't get younger as time goes by.
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Precious Doll
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I voted for Diane Lane, but would have been happy with a Zellweger win. The other 3 are just fillers. Thank goodness that Meryl Streep wasn't nominated for The Hours - a Razzie yes, Oscar no. Her breakdown scene in front of the dishwater is one of the unintentionally hilarious moments in film history. My partner and I nearly wet ourselves of watching it.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Snick's Guy
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The Original BJ
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As occurs so often, I must agree wholeheartedly with Mister Tee: Julianne Moore gave the single greatest performance of the entire decade in Far From Heaven. What is so magnificent about her work here is that it is both incredibly stylized and technical AND possessing deep wells of human emotion. She somehow manages to be appropriately artificial and yet very real and human at the same time. It's a beautiful performance. That she ran, at best, third on Oscar night, was a great disappointment to me.
As for the also-rans (and that's all they are):
Diane Lane's performance was the one that made me realize how important the bird-in-the-hand rule was. I'd doubted her chances all year long, thinking even up until Oscar morning that the lowbrow nature of her movie would cause her spot to go to Meryl Streep. But there she was, and I was pleased, because I'd been rooting for her throughout the year. Unfaithful is sort of an odd movie -- at its heart, it's complete trash, but there a lot of interesting grace notes I didn't expect, most of them thanks to Lane's slow-burning performance. Still, that she won the NSFC and NYFCC Awards over Moore, particularly when the latter group went otherwise crazy for Far From Heaven, was a great disappointment to me.
Renée Zellweger is hilarious in Chicago. Some of her line deliveries were just aces -- "And she broke the lock!" and "In the bed department, Amos was...ZERO" were particularly memorable. And she's great as the puppet in "They Both Reached for the Gun." It's a really fun comic turn, though her SAG victory over Julianne Moore was a great disappointment to me.
As for the ultimate Oscar winner, I like Kidman a lot as an actress, but I didn't find very much memorable about her work in The Hours. She's not even really in all that much of the movie -- I was baffled anyone could walk out of this film and think Actress of the Year. Her train outburst is good, but she's been so much more impressive in so many other off-Oscar pictures, it's a real bummer her trophy came for this. That she trumped Julianne Moore for both the Globe AND the Oscar was, you guessed it, a great disappointment to me.
Hayek was pretty flat in Frida. Molina just about blew her off the screen. Thank god she didn't steal too many awards from Julianne Moore.
As for the also-rans (and that's all they are):
Diane Lane's performance was the one that made me realize how important the bird-in-the-hand rule was. I'd doubted her chances all year long, thinking even up until Oscar morning that the lowbrow nature of her movie would cause her spot to go to Meryl Streep. But there she was, and I was pleased, because I'd been rooting for her throughout the year. Unfaithful is sort of an odd movie -- at its heart, it's complete trash, but there a lot of interesting grace notes I didn't expect, most of them thanks to Lane's slow-burning performance. Still, that she won the NSFC and NYFCC Awards over Moore, particularly when the latter group went otherwise crazy for Far From Heaven, was a great disappointment to me.
Renée Zellweger is hilarious in Chicago. Some of her line deliveries were just aces -- "And she broke the lock!" and "In the bed department, Amos was...ZERO" were particularly memorable. And she's great as the puppet in "They Both Reached for the Gun." It's a really fun comic turn, though her SAG victory over Julianne Moore was a great disappointment to me.
As for the ultimate Oscar winner, I like Kidman a lot as an actress, but I didn't find very much memorable about her work in The Hours. She's not even really in all that much of the movie -- I was baffled anyone could walk out of this film and think Actress of the Year. Her train outburst is good, but she's been so much more impressive in so many other off-Oscar pictures, it's a real bummer her trophy came for this. That she trumped Julianne Moore for both the Globe AND the Oscar was, you guessed it, a great disappointment to me.
Hayek was pretty flat in Frida. Molina just about blew her off the screen. Thank god she didn't steal too many awards from Julianne Moore.