Best Supporting Actress 2002

[Snick's Guy]

Hands down Meryl Streep -- this should have been no contest looking back in retrospect.

[dws1982]

To me, Julianne Moore belonged nowhere but on a Razzie ballot for The Hours. Catherine Zeta-Jones is better than that in Chicagoi, but not a great deal better, and her lack of any kind of charm or charisma is fatal to the role. Queen Latifah has the charm and the singing voice, but her role is essentially a great big entrance with nowhere to go.

Kathy Bates is fun in About Schmidt but I've already voted for her once, and I don't feel like she has to have my vote here; plus, I dislike the movie too, and don't really want to vote for anything associated with it.

So, Meryl Streep. It feels like a default choice, and yes, at this point in her career, it feels strange to vote for her in Support. But my only other choice is a null vote, and I tend only to do that if I haven't seen some of the most well-regarded or well-known nominees, or if I dislike all of the nominees.

My picks for 2002:
1- Helen Mirren, Last Orders
2- Tovah Feldshuh, Kissing Jessica Stein
3- Clea DuVall, 13 Conversations About One Thing
4- Patricia Clarkson, Far From Heaven
5- Shannyn Sossamon, Rules of Attraction



Edited By dws1982 on 1291126690

[ITALIANO]

Not the best line-up ever.

The two girls from Chicago aren't exactly bad - but their roles aren't interesting enough to deserve more than a nomination. And Zeta-Jones is just another of these recent Oscar winners who seem to have been chosen more for ther looks and their (often unfulfilled) potential as big stars than for their actual talent. (She's still more impressive than Queen Latifah who has really very little to do).

Julianne Moore, an actress I love, can express almost anything except, it seems, alienation - or at least alienation as seen by Stephen Daldry (she's actually great in Magnolia) - and Stephen Daldry, as we know, isn't Michelangelo Antonioni.

I'm not a fan of Adaptation. Meryl Streep is good in it, and she's certainly supporting in this movie - but voting for Streep as a Best Supporting Actress in this phase of her career is, I feel, a bit unfair. And she's been much better in other movies.

So, maybe by default, I have picked Kathy Bates. Not a great movie, I know, but the character she creates is a nicely done caricature of a certain human type that we have met so often, not only in America. That nude scene was probably more shocking in the US than in Europe (we have gone through Elena Fiore after all), but the performance in itself is definitely solid.

[Hustler]

Streep gets my vote for her challenging performance, far away from her previous characters.

[Big Magilla]

At the time I was one of the few here who liked The Hours and didn't like Far From Heaven. I think Damien and I were pretty much alone in our dislike of the latter. However a reassessment of Heaven when we were doing the Best Actresses caused me to change my opinion of the film.

As a slice of 50s life it is still off-base, but as a tribute to the film-making style of Douglas Sirk, it is worthy of all the praise it received. Julianne Moore's performance in Heaven is stronger than in The Hours - for one thing she had more to do - but her 50s mother in the Hours in more in tune with the times and while she does play the role in a state of near-catatonia, that's what the role called for. Nonetheless her nomination was category fraud, so I ended up moving her to lead for Heaven and giving her the award instead of Diane Lane. At the same time, I moved Streep, who I had previously nominated in lead for The Hours to support for Adaptation, a film I didn't like then and still don't like now. She was amusing, yes, but that was about it, and while as I predicted, she is winning here, I'm glad to see Kathy and the Queen are getting votes as well.

By the way, Betsy Blair was hired to play Moore's role in the final scene in The Hours. I think she actually filmed it, but the director (Stephen Daldry) wasn't happy with the results - I think it had more to do with her not really looking like Moore than it did with her actual performance - so Moore was brought back and put into that unflattering makeup.

[anonymous1980]

Julianne Moore is a LEAD in The Hours and I agree with Magilla that she's the best out of the three leads in the film (I believe she actually has more screentime than Best LEAD Actress winner Nicole Kidman). She's here merely as a strategic move to avoid vote-splitting. Though I liked her performance, I did not like her film.

Kathy Bates was very amusing in her role in About Schmidt including in her much ballyhooed nude scene (I've already seen her naked in At Play in the Fields of the Lord). Queen Latifah was also great in Chicago. Not enough to make me vote for her.

It all comes down to Meryl Streep and Catherine Zeta-Jones for me. I have nothing bad to say about Streep's performance. Perhaps I should give Adaptation a second look but I really was not a fan of that third act. Went way too crazy for me. But Streep was fantastic. I loved Chicago and I loved Catherine in it. I'll go against the grain and say she deserved her win.

[mlrg]

Meryl Streep - Adaptation

[Reza]

Voted for Kathy Bates.

My picks for 2002:

Madhuri Dixit, Devdas
Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
Queen Latifah, Chicago
Meryl Streep, Adaptation
Julianne Moore, The Hours

[Damien]

Kathy Bates is a big ol' bore doing her Kathy Bates schtick in About Schmidt, and it's a pretty odious movie. Julianne Moore is fine in The Hours, but I think that Toni Collette and Clare Danes give more impressive supporting performances in the film. Meryl Streep seems to be having a grand time in Adaptation, so the audience has fun with her, too.

I think Chicago is a terrific movie, but I never understood the acclaim for Zeta-Jones. I found her mannered non-charismatic performance to be the weakest element in the picture. (She's also a lead.) On the other hand, Queen Latifah lights up the screen whenever she's around -- her sass, wry humor and show biz pizzaz are unforgettable, and she also manages to find a real person inside her characterization. A vote for the Queen is an easy vote for me.

My Own Top 5:
1. Isild Le Besco in Sade
2. Tina Lifford in Blood Work
3. Isabelle Huppert in 8 Women
4, Ludivine Sagnier in 8 Women
5. Drew Barrymore in Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind



Edited By Damien on 1291106564

[Sabin]

Streep. Doesn't take much thought. Zeta-Jones was miscast. Queen Latifah is better but her part is pretty slight. Julianne Moore is at her most wan and expressionless in The Hours. Bates is my closest runner up, and prior to precursor season I thought she might honestly win. But Meryl Streep is wonderful in Adaptation., just a goofy, warm-hearted delight.

(I think Emily Mortimer is technically a co-lead in Lovely & Amazing. Otherwise, she would get my vote here. I think that 2002 has to be one of the best years for Leading Actresses in ages, but you wouldn't know from the nominees.)

I can't find my nominees for this year. I'm pretty sure I included Isabelle Huppert for 8 Women, Patricia Clarkson for Far From Heaven, Miranda Richardson for Spider, and of course Streep. There's probably a bevy of others I could choose from that I just don't recall off-hand.

[rudeboy]

Have to disagree with Magilla - I think this is a dismal line-up. Nothing particularly offensive but nothing to get excited about either. Catherine Zeta Jones was one of Chicago's weaker links, although she can sing and hoof a bit. Latifah was a lot of fun but wasn't given enough big numbers to warrant a win. I loathe The Hours, agree that Julianne Moore was clearly lead and thought she was lousy - quite laughable in old age makeup at the end. Bates was fine in a film I didn't care for much. However I'm going with the actress in the film I actively disliked - I didn't get the love for Chris Cooper and Nic Cage and the film itself fell apart long before that terrible ending, but Meryl Streep was Adaptation's one bright spot. A genuinely fresh, funny and surprising performance and, at the time, my favourite work from her in quite a long time. It's a reluctant vote, but a clear choice.



Edited By rudeboy on 1291098157

[Precious Doll]

Julianne Moore's nomination was another case of category fraud. If Kidman is a lead, and Streep was in the running for lead, then Julianne Moore is lead. She's the best thing about an appalling film but nowhere good enough to deserve a nomination.

I never 'got' Adaptation, nor the acclaim for Cage, Streep & Cooper in it.

Kathy Bates was lots of fun, and my sixth choice overall. I voted for Queen Latifah who was even more fun in Chicago.

My choices:

1. Miranda Richardson for Spdier
2. Tovah Feldshuh for Kissing Jessica Stein
3. Bebe Neuwirth for Tadpole
4. Jennifer Tilly for The Cat's Meow
5. Queen Latifah for Chicago

Other notables performances included Inge Apelt, Ivica Vidovic & Nina Violic in Fine Dead Girls, Kathy Bates & June Squibb in About Schmidt, Julie Hagerty & Lupe Ontiveros in Storytelling, Amy Irving in Tuck Everlasting and Jill St. John in The Trip.

[Eric]

Bates wins major points for greatly enlivening what had until her arrival been, for me, not just a bad movie but an infuriating one.

Patricia Clarkson, Far From Heaven
Rosario Dawson, 25th Hour
Rosario Flores, Talk To Her
Julie Hagerty, Storytelling
... and I can't seem to find a single review to help me remember the name of the actress/real-life-person who shaved her head in Kiarostami's Ten, but she's in the fifth slot

[Big Magilla]

One of the strongest line-ups we've had in this category, I can't say anything bad about any of the nominees, though with my rule of nominating one performance per performer per year I would have to take away Julianne's Moore's nod here if I am to leave her Best Actress nod (and poll win) for Far From Heaven. I would replace her with Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander.

That said, my vote goes to Kathy Bates who I think not only gave the best nominated performance, but who for the luck of the draw might have been nominated instead for Chicago in which she was reportedly in the running for the role that went to Queen Latifah.

My hunch, though, is that Miss Meryl will clean up here.



Edited By Big Magilla on 1293243546