ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
**Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit**
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Best Actress 2010
Re: Best Actress 2010
Not a huge fan of this lineup, but Lawrence and Bening are both solid nominees. My picks is Bening, although I thought she was even better in Mother and Child.
My picks:
1- Jeon Do-yeon, Secret Sunshine
2- Giovanna Mezzogiorino, Vincere
3- Lesley Manville, Another Year
4- Annette Bening, Mother and Child
5- Kim Hye-ja, Mother
My picks:
1- Jeon Do-yeon, Secret Sunshine
2- Giovanna Mezzogiorino, Vincere
3- Lesley Manville, Another Year
4- Annette Bening, Mother and Child
5- Kim Hye-ja, Mother
Re: Best Actress 2010
2010 was a brilliant year for Lead Actresses. You wouldn't necessarily know it from this lineup, but it is a stronger one than usual. Birgit Minichmayr for Everyone Else, Hye-ja Kim for Mother, and although I have not seen Vincere, I have heard incredible things about Giovanna Mezzogiorno so I feel inclined to include her. But this lineup while not approaching quite this benchmark of awesomeness is still mostly exceptional.
First off has to sadly be Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole. She is perfectly cast in this role, as she has recently hit something of a renaissance playing cold in Birth, Rabbit Hole, and Margot at the Wedding. But it's impossible to talk about her acting without talking about her face, and the woman has butchered herself. She cannot emote like a normal human and she looks out of place in this suburbia with this amount of work done to herself. It's just difficult to look at her, which is such a shame because this could have been some of the best work of her career. How Dianne Wiest failed a nomination anywhere is a total mystery to me.
Next is Michelle Williams, because she is just undermined by her project. The film is as unspecific about her as it is specific about Ryan Gosling's man-child. Williams does a lot of heavy-lifting in this role in her attempts to fill personality in wherever she can, but this is the work of a man who doesn't really understand women, and subsequently it feels like a stunt. She's done much better work elsewhere and will likely do so again, so I don't feel too bad.
Then there's Oscar winner Natalie Portman for Black Swan, a movie I like a bit more than most on this board, but it is pretty ridiculous stuff. She is certainly good in the film, but she basically has to keep her head above the noise that flows through the rest of the film. I can't imagine anyone else in the role and it's not a terribly undeserving win coming off of the nonsense that was Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, and Marion Cotillard, but some fifteen years after her screen debut nobody has really made great use of Natalie Portman. She only seems to thrive in extremis, and outside of Beautiful Girls and Cold Mountain it's all pretty much been a load of hooey. But like Jodie Foster, everyone is so glad she survived that she's likely to win again.
Damien is right that Julianne Moore is pretty wonderful in The Kids Are All Right. She's just been so humorless for so long that it was refreshing to see her playing somebody recognizably human. I wish the film knew what to make of both of these actors more. That it's being developed into a sitcom should tell you something. But Annette Bening is very good in the film. She would get my vote if only to end this "Annette Bening is due for an Oscar!" bullshit if it weren't for Jennifer Lawrence. Winter's Bone was my date for the the prom and nothing has changed. Lawrence is in pretty much every shot of the movie, she carries it with incredible charisma, I turned off the voice in my head that I was watching a gorgeous Angeleno pretty quickly, and she became inexorably intertwined with the film's success in my eye. She's the only possible choice, and I can't wait to see what she does next.
My Choices
1. Birgit Minichmayr, Everyone Else
2. Hye-ja Kim, Mother
3. Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
4. Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
5. Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
First off has to sadly be Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole. She is perfectly cast in this role, as she has recently hit something of a renaissance playing cold in Birth, Rabbit Hole, and Margot at the Wedding. But it's impossible to talk about her acting without talking about her face, and the woman has butchered herself. She cannot emote like a normal human and she looks out of place in this suburbia with this amount of work done to herself. It's just difficult to look at her, which is such a shame because this could have been some of the best work of her career. How Dianne Wiest failed a nomination anywhere is a total mystery to me.
Next is Michelle Williams, because she is just undermined by her project. The film is as unspecific about her as it is specific about Ryan Gosling's man-child. Williams does a lot of heavy-lifting in this role in her attempts to fill personality in wherever she can, but this is the work of a man who doesn't really understand women, and subsequently it feels like a stunt. She's done much better work elsewhere and will likely do so again, so I don't feel too bad.
Then there's Oscar winner Natalie Portman for Black Swan, a movie I like a bit more than most on this board, but it is pretty ridiculous stuff. She is certainly good in the film, but she basically has to keep her head above the noise that flows through the rest of the film. I can't imagine anyone else in the role and it's not a terribly undeserving win coming off of the nonsense that was Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, and Marion Cotillard, but some fifteen years after her screen debut nobody has really made great use of Natalie Portman. She only seems to thrive in extremis, and outside of Beautiful Girls and Cold Mountain it's all pretty much been a load of hooey. But like Jodie Foster, everyone is so glad she survived that she's likely to win again.
Damien is right that Julianne Moore is pretty wonderful in The Kids Are All Right. She's just been so humorless for so long that it was refreshing to see her playing somebody recognizably human. I wish the film knew what to make of both of these actors more. That it's being developed into a sitcom should tell you something. But Annette Bening is very good in the film. She would get my vote if only to end this "Annette Bening is due for an Oscar!" bullshit if it weren't for Jennifer Lawrence. Winter's Bone was my date for the the prom and nothing has changed. Lawrence is in pretty much every shot of the movie, she carries it with incredible charisma, I turned off the voice in my head that I was watching a gorgeous Angeleno pretty quickly, and she became inexorably intertwined with the film's success in my eye. She's the only possible choice, and I can't wait to see what she does next.
My Choices
1. Birgit Minichmayr, Everyone Else
2. Hye-ja Kim, Mother
3. Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
4. Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
5. Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
"How's the despair?"
Re: Best Actress 2010
My picks for 2010:
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
Annette Bening, The Kids Are Alright
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are Alright
The 6th Spot: Patricia Clarkson, Cairo Time
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
Annette Bening, The Kids Are Alright
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are Alright
The 6th Spot: Patricia Clarkson, Cairo Time
Re: Best Actress 2010
If there's something I've learned from my The Tree of Life debacle is that there is something fundamentally wrong with me so I can't get ART even when it hits me in my face. That's probably why for me the notion of Nicole Kidman acting is that of looking at a plastic mannequin while simultaneously hearing a recording of Hedda Gabler. There must be some kind of alchemistic reaction I don't get happening, since so many people, some of them rather intelligent, do get her. All this meaningless rambling is here to explain why I feel I can confidently lend my take on this race even though I didn't see Rabbit Hole.
This is what I said about Jenifer Lawrence ages ago (earlier this year), but I guess it's still valid: "She's definitely displayed at least some promise. Unfortunately she didn't suggest that her character could ever evolve into the like of the older people who surround her, which I believe should have been a crucial element in her performance".
Portman's performance was juvenile – it worked perfectly at some points, as Tee rightly said, but overall it didn't – I was not a big fan of BS, but it had its somewhat distinctive vision. Unfortunately, Portman's little-girl-lost persona was abused rather than used in the service of it.
Another celebrated actress I'm not a huge fan of is Benning. Unlike Kiddman, she is a capable, intelligent, well trained thespian and it shows, alas too well. She curved a niche for her self playing controlled, self guarded, commanding women, and she does it effortlessly, the problem is that in the realm of American cinema she's always supposed to soften up, to melt, to step down of her pedestal – or to use the term from another of her celebrated films – to just be. And this she just can't.
That leaves me with only one viable choice, and fortunately Williams delivers. It's a lovely, lived in performance. There's a little pompous person inside my head claiming her turn is not grand enough, not important the way an Oscar winning performance should be, but he's definitely an idiot.
It's a pity, but the other true (English speaking) contenders, must be looked for in films made outside of American cinema. Katie Jarvis' performance in Fish Tank had everything Lawrence's lacked – authenticity, rawness, and no glimpse of false redemption. And then there are the ladies from my favorite film of the year, Another Year. The way I read it, both are leads. Manvile had the showier role, but it was Sheen's masterful combination of compassion and still which was the standout for me. I'm still short of five names. Ok – Stienfeld, for holding her own in True Grit.
This is what I said about Jenifer Lawrence ages ago (earlier this year), but I guess it's still valid: "She's definitely displayed at least some promise. Unfortunately she didn't suggest that her character could ever evolve into the like of the older people who surround her, which I believe should have been a crucial element in her performance".
Portman's performance was juvenile – it worked perfectly at some points, as Tee rightly said, but overall it didn't – I was not a big fan of BS, but it had its somewhat distinctive vision. Unfortunately, Portman's little-girl-lost persona was abused rather than used in the service of it.
Another celebrated actress I'm not a huge fan of is Benning. Unlike Kiddman, she is a capable, intelligent, well trained thespian and it shows, alas too well. She curved a niche for her self playing controlled, self guarded, commanding women, and she does it effortlessly, the problem is that in the realm of American cinema she's always supposed to soften up, to melt, to step down of her pedestal – or to use the term from another of her celebrated films – to just be. And this she just can't.
That leaves me with only one viable choice, and fortunately Williams delivers. It's a lovely, lived in performance. There's a little pompous person inside my head claiming her turn is not grand enough, not important the way an Oscar winning performance should be, but he's definitely an idiot.
It's a pity, but the other true (English speaking) contenders, must be looked for in films made outside of American cinema. Katie Jarvis' performance in Fish Tank had everything Lawrence's lacked – authenticity, rawness, and no glimpse of false redemption. And then there are the ladies from my favorite film of the year, Another Year. The way I read it, both are leads. Manvile had the showier role, but it was Sheen's masterful combination of compassion and still which was the standout for me. I'm still short of five names. Ok – Stienfeld, for holding her own in True Grit.
Re: Best Actress 2010
This is a year when I'm really tempted to say None of the Above. I think Rabbit Hole is pretty wonderful, but it works DESPITE Nicole Kidman, not in any way because of her. She is such a cold actress, she brings the baggage of her aloof past performances to the film, and so her detachment here just seems like Nicole being Nicole, not the character's numbed reaction to horrible events.
Blue Valentine is like a bad parody of John Cassavetes. Michele Williams -- like Ryan Gosling -- attacks her role with gusto, but she can'r make you give a fuck about the character even for a second.
Black Swan is not just risible, it's pathetic. At least Natalie Portman stops at risible and doesn't cross over to pathetic.
Winter's Bone is a good, solid small movie, and its greatest asset is the remarkably lived-in faces of the actors – except, unfortunately for Jennifer Lawrence, who seems like a nice, pretty young actress who just came in on Jet Blue from L.A. She's entirely unconvincing in the role.
Annette Bening is perfectly okay in The Kids Are All Right. But Julianne Moore -- an actress about whom I rarely have anything positive to say -- is much more interesting and has a much richer, more nuanced character.
None of these performances deserves an Oscar, but I'll vote for Natalie Portman and pretend the Oscar is actually for V For Vendetta, a great film and, easily the actress's best performance, with only My Blueberry Nights coming close.
My Own Top 5:
1. Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere
2. Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank
3. Barbara Sukowa in Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
4. Tilda Swinton in I Am Love
5. Marie Bunel in Inspector Bellamy
.
Blue Valentine is like a bad parody of John Cassavetes. Michele Williams -- like Ryan Gosling -- attacks her role with gusto, but she can'r make you give a fuck about the character even for a second.
Black Swan is not just risible, it's pathetic. At least Natalie Portman stops at risible and doesn't cross over to pathetic.
Winter's Bone is a good, solid small movie, and its greatest asset is the remarkably lived-in faces of the actors – except, unfortunately for Jennifer Lawrence, who seems like a nice, pretty young actress who just came in on Jet Blue from L.A. She's entirely unconvincing in the role.
Annette Bening is perfectly okay in The Kids Are All Right. But Julianne Moore -- an actress about whom I rarely have anything positive to say -- is much more interesting and has a much richer, more nuanced character.
None of these performances deserves an Oscar, but I'll vote for Natalie Portman and pretend the Oscar is actually for V For Vendetta, a great film and, easily the actress's best performance, with only My Blueberry Nights coming close.
My Own Top 5:
1. Giovanna Mezzogiorno in Vincere
2. Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank
3. Barbara Sukowa in Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen
4. Tilda Swinton in I Am Love
5. Marie Bunel in Inspector Bellamy
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"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
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Mister Tee
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Re: Best Actress 2010
I'm with BJ in finding this one of the better slates of recent years, and can't fathom why some would dismiss half the nominees as unworthy. In a normal year, Julianne Moore would easily have cracked the list, and, if Hailee Steinfeld had to be nominated, she belonged here, as well.
That said, I can't claim to have a truly strong choice from the group, so, when I start eliminating, keep in mind that the distance between number five and number one is not vast.
I found Rabbit Hole a somewhat wan vehicle, but I'll agree with BJ that it's the strongest of Nicole KIdman's nominated performances. It's NOT up to the level of To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut or Birth (or even The Others), but, compared to Moulin Rouge! and The Hours, it's above par. Still not enough for an Oscar win.
I'll toss out board front-runner Annette Bening next. I've just never seen anything out of Bening, anywhere, that merited the praise she rather routinely gets in award circles. She's perfectly solid in The Kids Are Allright, but I think Julianne Moore's character and performance are far more interesting.
I said on the day I saw Black Swan that the moment BJ highlights -- "He picked me, Mommy" -- was absolutely an Oscar-worthy one; it gave me chills. And Natalie Portman, though she never matches that one moment again, is quite good throughout the movie...a movie I enjoyed on its own terms, without taking it remotely seriously. Portman's win is not one for the ages, but a perfectly acceptable one.
Michele Williams continued a run of strong perfomances with her level-headed but trapped-in-a-killing-relationship young woman. I fully expect Williams will be a regular presence on nominations lists over the coming decade. She doesn't quite score this time, but she comes close.
I, though, have to for once side with the youngster. I think Winter's Bone is the best film on this list, and Jennifer Lawrence is the rock-solid core of it. She's a beauty, no doubt, but she's not coasting on that. She gets completely inside this backwoods young girl -- makes us see the limitations she faces every day and the determination that will carry her through. This is the most impressive work by a young actress I've seen in many a year (apologies to fans, but I think she blows Carey Mulligan/An Education out of the water). It's, as I say, a fairly evenly-matched strong field, but Lawrence is the choice in the end.
That said, I can't claim to have a truly strong choice from the group, so, when I start eliminating, keep in mind that the distance between number five and number one is not vast.
I found Rabbit Hole a somewhat wan vehicle, but I'll agree with BJ that it's the strongest of Nicole KIdman's nominated performances. It's NOT up to the level of To Die For, Eyes Wide Shut or Birth (or even The Others), but, compared to Moulin Rouge! and The Hours, it's above par. Still not enough for an Oscar win.
I'll toss out board front-runner Annette Bening next. I've just never seen anything out of Bening, anywhere, that merited the praise she rather routinely gets in award circles. She's perfectly solid in The Kids Are Allright, but I think Julianne Moore's character and performance are far more interesting.
I said on the day I saw Black Swan that the moment BJ highlights -- "He picked me, Mommy" -- was absolutely an Oscar-worthy one; it gave me chills. And Natalie Portman, though she never matches that one moment again, is quite good throughout the movie...a movie I enjoyed on its own terms, without taking it remotely seriously. Portman's win is not one for the ages, but a perfectly acceptable one.
Michele Williams continued a run of strong perfomances with her level-headed but trapped-in-a-killing-relationship young woman. I fully expect Williams will be a regular presence on nominations lists over the coming decade. She doesn't quite score this time, but she comes close.
I, though, have to for once side with the youngster. I think Winter's Bone is the best film on this list, and Jennifer Lawrence is the rock-solid core of it. She's a beauty, no doubt, but she's not coasting on that. She gets completely inside this backwoods young girl -- makes us see the limitations she faces every day and the determination that will carry her through. This is the most impressive work by a young actress I've seen in many a year (apologies to fans, but I think she blows Carey Mulligan/An Education out of the water). It's, as I say, a fairly evenly-matched strong field, but Lawrence is the choice in the end.
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The Original BJ
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Re: Best Actress 2010
After '04 and '06, the best Best Actress lineup of the last decade, in my opinion. I don't really have anything bad to say about anyone.
Michelle Williams does an excellent job portraying a woman with ambition and intelligence who has found herself in a life well below her potential. I do wish the script to Blue Valentine allowed her more opportunity to chart the breakdown of her marriage in more gradual steps. But this performance is very strong work nonetheless, from an actress who is shaping up to be one of our most interesting, and I look forward to voting for her some time in the future.
Jennifer Lawrence was a revelation in her Winter's Bone breakthrough. I visited the Ozarks a number of weeks ago, and only then learned how well Lawrence captured the physicality of a woman living in such an environment -- it's amazing how the young people in rural Missouri can look so physically worn-down. She carries the movie in an emotionally grueling role, though I think the nomination alone at her young age was plenty reward. But I'm thrilled to see more of her.
Nicole Kidman is one of those actors whose Oscar track record doesn't line up with her best accomplishments, at least for me. I love so many of her performances, just the not the two that earned her back-to-back nods. Rabbit Hole is the first time I felt she was nominated for genuinely impressive work. She's got an obvious award-bait role -- a grieving mother -- but the actress's sense of sarcasm keeps the character feeling original and prevents the movie from dipping into the somber.
But this race comes down to the two front-runners in my book. Natalie Portman was terrific in her grand star turn, as the perfect muse for Aronofsky's mad vision. I have no problem that a performance this expressionistically BIG copped the trophy, especially because the actress has a number of quieter moments that impress as well. (Best of all -- "He picked me, mommy.") I think Portman has her limitations as an actress, but here she focused her energies so intensely and crafted such a striking portrait of artistic obsession/madness that I have no choice but to heap praise upon her.
But I voted for Annette Bening. Natalie Portman's face is a great camera object, but I think Annette Bening accomplishes a bit more of what I think of when I think of best ACTING. In other words, she burrows deeper into her character and shows significantly more range. She has some great lines in The Kids Are All Right that allow her to be very funny, but she also has those emotionally-charged theatrics in the film's second half that give her a nice change of pace. I, too, love her facial expressions at the dinner table after uncovering her wife's affair. I'd like to make clear that I don't subscribe to the Tom O'Neil school of thought that Bening is the most robbed actor in the history of the Oscars -- I wouldn't have voted for any of her earlier nominations, and I wasn't disappointed that she lost this year, to a performance I like as much as Natalie Portman's. But, I think I would have smiled had she upset on Oscar night, so I'll toss her my vote in this poll as well.
Michelle Williams does an excellent job portraying a woman with ambition and intelligence who has found herself in a life well below her potential. I do wish the script to Blue Valentine allowed her more opportunity to chart the breakdown of her marriage in more gradual steps. But this performance is very strong work nonetheless, from an actress who is shaping up to be one of our most interesting, and I look forward to voting for her some time in the future.
Jennifer Lawrence was a revelation in her Winter's Bone breakthrough. I visited the Ozarks a number of weeks ago, and only then learned how well Lawrence captured the physicality of a woman living in such an environment -- it's amazing how the young people in rural Missouri can look so physically worn-down. She carries the movie in an emotionally grueling role, though I think the nomination alone at her young age was plenty reward. But I'm thrilled to see more of her.
Nicole Kidman is one of those actors whose Oscar track record doesn't line up with her best accomplishments, at least for me. I love so many of her performances, just the not the two that earned her back-to-back nods. Rabbit Hole is the first time I felt she was nominated for genuinely impressive work. She's got an obvious award-bait role -- a grieving mother -- but the actress's sense of sarcasm keeps the character feeling original and prevents the movie from dipping into the somber.
But this race comes down to the two front-runners in my book. Natalie Portman was terrific in her grand star turn, as the perfect muse for Aronofsky's mad vision. I have no problem that a performance this expressionistically BIG copped the trophy, especially because the actress has a number of quieter moments that impress as well. (Best of all -- "He picked me, mommy.") I think Portman has her limitations as an actress, but here she focused her energies so intensely and crafted such a striking portrait of artistic obsession/madness that I have no choice but to heap praise upon her.
But I voted for Annette Bening. Natalie Portman's face is a great camera object, but I think Annette Bening accomplishes a bit more of what I think of when I think of best ACTING. In other words, she burrows deeper into her character and shows significantly more range. She has some great lines in The Kids Are All Right that allow her to be very funny, but she also has those emotionally-charged theatrics in the film's second half that give her a nice change of pace. I, too, love her facial expressions at the dinner table after uncovering her wife's affair. I'd like to make clear that I don't subscribe to the Tom O'Neil school of thought that Bening is the most robbed actor in the history of the Oscars -- I wouldn't have voted for any of her earlier nominations, and I wasn't disappointed that she lost this year, to a performance I like as much as Natalie Portman's. But, I think I would have smiled had she upset on Oscar night, so I'll toss her my vote in this poll as well.
Re: Best Actress 2010
Annette Bening - The Kids are All Right
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Re: Best Actress 2010
Except for Bening and Portman I think they're all fillers.
My disdain for Black Swan is well documented in other posts so no need to repeat myself. Portman is good, though, in a difficutl role, but the nomination should have been enough. Bening in her best screen role should have wonhands down.
As for the others, Lawrence was impressive and earns her fill-in nomination but Williams and Kidman fail to transcend the maudlin material they have to work with. Ryan Gosling was better than Williams in Blue Valentine, but just barely, and Dianne Wiest in her few scenes was more memorable than Kidman in Rabbit Hole. My nominees for the two spots were Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go and Noomi Rapace in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I never bought Mulligan in An Education, but I thought her sad puppy dog performance in Never Let Me Go was just what the film needed. Rapace and the rest of the cast was so good in the Dragon trilogy I'm still scratching my head over the need for the pending Hollywood remakes.
My disdain for Black Swan is well documented in other posts so no need to repeat myself. Portman is good, though, in a difficutl role, but the nomination should have been enough. Bening in her best screen role should have wonhands down.
As for the others, Lawrence was impressive and earns her fill-in nomination but Williams and Kidman fail to transcend the maudlin material they have to work with. Ryan Gosling was better than Williams in Blue Valentine, but just barely, and Dianne Wiest in her few scenes was more memorable than Kidman in Rabbit Hole. My nominees for the two spots were Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go and Noomi Rapace in Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
I never bought Mulligan in An Education, but I thought her sad puppy dog performance in Never Let Me Go was just what the film needed. Rapace and the rest of the cast was so good in the Dragon trilogy I'm still scratching my head over the need for the pending Hollywood remakes.
Best Actress 2010
Magilla suggested doing a one of the recent actress polls in the interim since our Best Actor 2005 post was premature.
I really did not find Jennifer Lawrence award-worthy at all for this performance. She seemed dull and uninteresting and I couldn't get into her character at all even though there was a lot for her to work with. I think both nominations from Winter's Bone should never have happened.
Nicole Kidman was good in Rabbit Hole but it's not her best work and the other nominees are better. This was obviously the filler nominee. The necessary also-ran.
Michelle Williams blahblahblah. I am not a fan of her work and Blue Valentine is no exception. I have a hard time deciding whether she earned this for good work or because her film got all that NC-17 hype early-on that made her performance seem all the more dramatic.
I adore Black Swan. I think it's an amazing film and extremely well-done on Aronofsky's part but Portman falls short for me. She gives a nomination-worthy performance, I'll give her that. My only problem is that I just can't give an award to someone who plays terrified the whole movie through. Scared is the easiest emotion to portray (hence why all the shit actors are in horror movies) so I can't give this to Portman.
So I give this to Bening whom I've voted for three previous times on this board. I think The Kids are All Right is a lovely movie and Bening is the obvious standout in the cast. Although Julianne Moore has the affair, which is usually the more dramatic, heavy role, Bening gives a powerful, powerful performance as the cheated on Nic. The scene when she sits back at the table after having found Jules's hair all over Paul's bathroom and bedroom and sips on her wine and analyzes what all is happening is purely awesome. What Bening can do with her facial expressions in scenes like that along with what she can do with her heated speeches creates a great combination that is award-worthy in my book.
I really did not find Jennifer Lawrence award-worthy at all for this performance. She seemed dull and uninteresting and I couldn't get into her character at all even though there was a lot for her to work with. I think both nominations from Winter's Bone should never have happened.
Nicole Kidman was good in Rabbit Hole but it's not her best work and the other nominees are better. This was obviously the filler nominee. The necessary also-ran.
Michelle Williams blahblahblah. I am not a fan of her work and Blue Valentine is no exception. I have a hard time deciding whether she earned this for good work or because her film got all that NC-17 hype early-on that made her performance seem all the more dramatic.
I adore Black Swan. I think it's an amazing film and extremely well-done on Aronofsky's part but Portman falls short for me. She gives a nomination-worthy performance, I'll give her that. My only problem is that I just can't give an award to someone who plays terrified the whole movie through. Scared is the easiest emotion to portray (hence why all the shit actors are in horror movies) so I can't give this to Portman.
So I give this to Bening whom I've voted for three previous times on this board. I think The Kids are All Right is a lovely movie and Bening is the obvious standout in the cast. Although Julianne Moore has the affair, which is usually the more dramatic, heavy role, Bening gives a powerful, powerful performance as the cheated on Nic. The scene when she sits back at the table after having found Jules's hair all over Paul's bathroom and bedroom and sips on her wine and analyzes what all is happening is purely awesome. What Bening can do with her facial expressions in scenes like that along with what she can do with her heated speeches creates a great combination that is award-worthy in my book.
"Men get to be a mixture of the charming mannerisms of the women they have known." - F. Scott Fitzgerald