Not the most interesting race ever.
Wild at Heart was the movie one HAD to like that year - especially, I guess, in Europe (it didn't matter that it actually wasn't very good and certainly not the best of its director). The Academy couldn't completely ignore it, so Diane Ladd was singled out for a performance that, in any other movie, would have seemed frankly atrocious. But this was postmodern cinema and had to be respected.
The Grifters wasn't much better or much less postmodern-ish (I remember a completely unconvincing final death scene), but the young, sexy Annette Bening was at least well-cast in it. She didn't have much to do but she certainly looked right for the role.
Mary McDonnell was the conventional "love interest" in the big movie of the year. You could feel that she had talent even in such a predictable part. Not nomination-worthy maybe, but she was an undeniably pleasant presence on screen.
But it's definitely between Lorraine Bracco and Whoopi Goldberg. Bracco was in the better movie, had an interesting character and played it well - so well, in fact, that I expected her to become, if not a star, at least a familiar face in American movies of the time, rather than more or less disappear from sight (I've heard that she's often on tv though). Voting for her would be a good choice.
As for Ghost, it's a much worse movie than Goodfellas, and while back then I could easily understand why it was commercially successful, even I couldn't predict that, after 20 years, it would still be so legendary, so fondly remembered by so many, so widely seen when shown on tv (or at least on Italian tv - but of course we are sentimental). Needless to say, I didn't buy the soulful, new-ageish, supernatural love story nor was moved by it (despite it being so expertly planned), but I must admit that I found the comic relief provided by Whoopi Goldberg rather effective. In another year, or maybe even in this year but with a different competition, a nomination for her would be enough; but in these circumstances she is, I'd say, a worthy winner, and while I never found her convincing in dramatic roles, as a comic actress - especially when she didnt have to carry a movie - she could be quite funny.
Best Supporting Actress 1990
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Snick's Guy
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Whoopi Goldberg's win is ludicrous. Not only is her comic performance in a different dimension from all the hideous maudlin sincerity that makes up the bulk of Ghost, she's not even vaguely amusing. But hey, she was hot at the time in a hugely profitable studio film . . .
I liked Annette Bening when I first saw The Grifters, but truth to tell, when I think back on the film, I scarcely recall her, Anjelica Huston and Pat Hingle being the presences I conjure.
There's great David Lynch and there's awful David Lynch. Wild At Heart is unwatchable David Lynch. I'm all for Diane Ladd, but her performance fit right in with the tone of the film.
Mary McDonnell competently did exactly what was needed out of her in Dances With Wolves.
So that leaves the only conceivable winner, Lorraine Bracco. She's so real, so funny, so full of life in GoodFellas (a film which I find ridiculously over-rated, by the way) and is especially memorable in both conveying an Outer Borough persona, and in the child-like delight she expresses when things are going good and she is rewarded with material pleasures.
My Own Top 5:
1. Shirley MacLaine in Postcards From The Edge {20 years later, her non-nomination remains for me one of the biggest mysteries in Oscar history}
2. Lorraine Bracco in GoodFellas
3. Ricki Lake in Cry-Baby and Last Exit To Brooklyn
4. Elizabeth McGovern's in The Handmaid's Tale
5. Mai Zetterling in The Witches
Edited By Damien on 1287477377
I liked Annette Bening when I first saw The Grifters, but truth to tell, when I think back on the film, I scarcely recall her, Anjelica Huston and Pat Hingle being the presences I conjure.
There's great David Lynch and there's awful David Lynch. Wild At Heart is unwatchable David Lynch. I'm all for Diane Ladd, but her performance fit right in with the tone of the film.
Mary McDonnell competently did exactly what was needed out of her in Dances With Wolves.
So that leaves the only conceivable winner, Lorraine Bracco. She's so real, so funny, so full of life in GoodFellas (a film which I find ridiculously over-rated, by the way) and is especially memorable in both conveying an Outer Borough persona, and in the child-like delight she expresses when things are going good and she is rewarded with material pleasures.
My Own Top 5:
1. Shirley MacLaine in Postcards From The Edge {20 years later, her non-nomination remains for me one of the biggest mysteries in Oscar history}
2. Lorraine Bracco in GoodFellas
3. Ricki Lake in Cry-Baby and Last Exit To Brooklyn
4. Elizabeth McGovern's in The Handmaid's Tale
5. Mai Zetterling in The Witches
Edited By Damien on 1287477377
"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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Precious Doll
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I think this is a reasonable, solid line up, with Mary McDonnell even managing to overcome a silly hairdo.
The best supporting performance of the year was definitely Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, which despite having a ridiculous premise was immensely entertaining and to my surprise holds up to repeat viewings.
My choices are:
1. Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost
2. Dianne Wiest for Edward Scissorhands
3. Annie Potts for Texasville
4. Kathy Baker for Edward Scissorhands
5. Diane Ladd for Wild at Heart
Other notable work was from Christine Baranski & Glenn Close in Reversal of Fortune, Joan Cusack in Men Don't Leave, Whoopi Goldberg in The Long Walk Home, Jennifer Jason Leigh in Last Exit to Brooklyn & Miami Blues, Rozenne Le Tallec in Milou in May, Laurie Metcalf in Internal Affairs and Grace Zabriskie in Wild at Heart.
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287473094
The best supporting performance of the year was definitely Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, which despite having a ridiculous premise was immensely entertaining and to my surprise holds up to repeat viewings.
My choices are:
1. Whoopi Goldberg for Ghost
2. Dianne Wiest for Edward Scissorhands
3. Annie Potts for Texasville
4. Kathy Baker for Edward Scissorhands
5. Diane Ladd for Wild at Heart
Other notable work was from Christine Baranski & Glenn Close in Reversal of Fortune, Joan Cusack in Men Don't Leave, Whoopi Goldberg in The Long Walk Home, Jennifer Jason Leigh in Last Exit to Brooklyn & Miami Blues, Rozenne Le Tallec in Milou in May, Laurie Metcalf in Internal Affairs and Grace Zabriskie in Wild at Heart.
Edited By Precious Doll on 1287473094
"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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Big Magilla
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1990 was one of Oscar's worst years in every category.
In the matter at hand, I agreed with three of the nominees, though none could be considered among the greatest performances of all time.
The two I disagree with are Mary McDonnell and Diane Ladd. I barely remember McDonnell in Dances With Wolves, a film I haven't watched in its entirety in twenty years. Ladd I don't remember at all in Wild at Heart even though that's a film Ive seen more recently, maybe 11 or 12 years ago.
I thought Lorraine Bracco was quite good as the Mafia wife in GoodFellas and Annette Bening more than that as the moll in The Grifters, but I have to go along with the Academy's pick of Whoopi Golberg, whose expert comic timing has never been used to better advantage on screen than as the medium in Ghost.
Others I liked: Shirley MacLaine impersonating Debbie Reynolds in Postcards From the Edge; Joan Plowright as the immigrant mother in Avalon; Dianne Wiest as Johnny Depp's surrogate mother in Edward Scissorhands and Glenn Close as Sunny Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune.
In the matter at hand, I agreed with three of the nominees, though none could be considered among the greatest performances of all time.
The two I disagree with are Mary McDonnell and Diane Ladd. I barely remember McDonnell in Dances With Wolves, a film I haven't watched in its entirety in twenty years. Ladd I don't remember at all in Wild at Heart even though that's a film Ive seen more recently, maybe 11 or 12 years ago.
I thought Lorraine Bracco was quite good as the Mafia wife in GoodFellas and Annette Bening more than that as the moll in The Grifters, but I have to go along with the Academy's pick of Whoopi Golberg, whose expert comic timing has never been used to better advantage on screen than as the medium in Ghost.
Others I liked: Shirley MacLaine impersonating Debbie Reynolds in Postcards From the Edge; Joan Plowright as the immigrant mother in Avalon; Dianne Wiest as Johnny Depp's surrogate mother in Edward Scissorhands and Glenn Close as Sunny Von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune.