Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

The newly registered users do not have permission to vote in polls, so I can assure you that those twenty new users could not have made these votes.

I have also banned the "fake e-mail address" extensions those new users employed (there's an actual site where you can establish fake e-mail addresses, I added the extensions of each of those e-mails to the banned e-mail list). I have also banned those particular users.

For all intents and purposes, these old polls are closed.

If someone wants to legitimately add his or her vote with a comment I would more than happy to add that vote to the totals threads but I'm not reacting to these garbage votes.

Probably from the new users 001, 002, 003, 004, all the way to 020...

Alright, where the hell did all these Portman votes come from? The spam votes went to Michelle Williams.

I've seen 4/5 - I'm only missing Bening.

Jennifer Lawrence's film and performance stirred up a critical hype that I find completely baffling. She doesn't really need to do anything here except glare, mumble in a Tennessee accent, set her jaw and know how to skin a squirrel. All of which she does effectively, I guess, but she doesn't have a character to play, only an urge. Her best moments are her natural, unshowy reactions during the meeting with the army recruiter. Her determination to relate to him as an adult while at the same time displaying a childlike eagerness was well done. But neither that nor the rest of the performance qualifies for a nomination as 'best of the year'.

Michelle Williams' film I like less and less the more I think about it. She's remained strong in my estimation, however. The major problem here is that she never quite conquers a melodramatic, navel-gazing script, and most of the issues with her performance double as issues with Cianfrance's writing (she can never really give off the magnetism that would have so many men fighting over her, but that's a casting issue more than anything, and in her loud scenes she struggles with the hamfisted Cassavetes-correcto dialogue). It is uneven but generally solid work and when this very internal actress is actually given the OK, by the script, to play in her wheelhouse (for example, the abortion scenes) she can be very powerful.

Natalie Portman surprised me. Her film is a camp extrashaganza, she has one note to play throughout and there's nothing in the role as written that resembles a character other than it has both a given and surname, yet this limited actress who has never impressed me before pulls it out of the hat, working alchemy with the material given to her and forging id into ego. Throwaway lines and scenes (like the bathroom call to her mother, the club scenes or the ones at her home directly afterwards) are given backstory that isn't on the page, and for the first time this performer who has shown, in the past, such a weird combination of overbearing technique and emotional simplicity, really inhabits both role and screen. It is a very strong performance especially given the material surrounding it, and I have no issues with it winning.

Who surprised me most of all, however, was Nicole Kidman. I've never particularly liked her either - I find her performances lopsided, either focussing too much on essaying internal drama to the detriment of physical or vocal work (Birth, The Hours) or vice-versa (To Die For, Moulin Rouge!). She's a rigid actress who can only work one aspect of performance at a time - and it might be cruel to say, but the very obvious Botox usage hasn't helped matters. However, here she loosens up in a way I've never seen her do before. The film is an empty shell built to contain this performance - usually a bad sign for the performance(s)! (Doubt? lol) - but here Kidman seems to be inspired by this freedom and the result is a work of immense emotional clarity, texture and verve. For me this is not just a surprising turnaround from an underwhelming actress but a work worthy of 'best of year' notices.

I haven't seen too much this year (I use IMDb dates for eligibility and I count Lesley Manville in Supporting), so:

1. Yun Jeong-hie / Poetry
2. Nicole Kidman / Rabbit Hole
3. Natalie Portman / Black Swan
-
4. Michelle Williams / Blue Valentine (I guess?)
5. Jeanne Balibar / At Ellen's Age (I guess?)

The only other contenders I shortlist are Julieta Zylberberg (The Invisible Eye), Catherine Keener (Please Give) and Miriam Yeung (Love in a Puff). But I've only seen 21 films from this year.

If I'm using American release dates it'd look more like this:

1. Birgit Minichmayr / Everyone Else
2. Jeon Do-yeon / Secret Sunshine
3. Nicole Kidman / Rabbit Hole
4. Sylvie Testud / Lourdes
5. Natalie Portman / Black Swan
(6. Bae Doona / Air Doll)
(7. Lotte Verbeek / Nothing Personal)

I vote all the time without putting down my specific thoughts. It's hard for me to find time to put down my thoughts in writing and clicking a button is pretty simple and quick.

mojoe92 wrote:I voted for Michelle Williams about 3 days ago. Being new to the board, is it that uncommon for votes to be given without someone posting about it?

No, it's perfectly okay, but to preserve the integrity of the vote in these dormant polls I have to be able to separate individual votes from ballot stuffers and the only way I can do that is if someone leaves a comment.

I voted for Michelle Williams about 3 days ago. Being new to the board, is it that uncommon for votes to be given without someone posting about it?

I voted yesterday, but have not had time to post my thoughts. Then mayukh captured them perfectly...I agree with everything he wrote.

At some point I may go into the reulsts and manually update additional votes after November 6th where someone has posted a comment on their choice but I will not update these anonymous American Idol style ballot stuffers.

It's been happening in numerous threads. Take a look at some of the older actress threads – it's pretty staggering. I think it's safe to say that some of the latest results on these older polls should be ignored. Revisiting some of them, Midler, Barrault, Burstyn in The Exorcist, etc, among others have all seen a wild increase in number of votes with nary a case arguing in favor of them (or, rather, justifying the extent of these leads).

EDIT:
I voted for Kidman here, by the way. Contrary to how many people seem to feel here, I thought her coldness and considerable vanity worked wonders for the role, effectively conveying her character's simultaneous desire to foster human connection and her inability to do so. I understood the motivations of her character. Her grief informed her actions.

That said, I also found Bening perfect – it's by far her best performance. Though the role itself seems poorly-conceived and rather thin at first glance, she nails it and turns it into a very subtle comment on a certain kind of American person – controlling, overly-methodical in the way she approaches everything, and unwilling to have anyone change that. This is what she didn't do at all in American Beauty – reveal the humanity. Really complex work. Moore was very charming but her acting really lacked any resolve, which turned into a problem once the narrative made her character into an annoying and morally-fickle personality.

Portman – clear case of a director casting, using, and framing an actress competently (or, depending on how you see it, very well). There was no innovation to her performance. She was serviceable. Williams is a certainly a very talented actress but her vehicle puts her through so many dramatic hurdles that it doesn't allow her to create a character who is sympathetic and textured.

Lawrence is so moving and free of affect. I was crazy about her performance when I first saw it and was elated when she was nominated (especially in the face of all those bloggers who foolishly said she's too "amateurish" and "indie" – translation: not actressy enough. Bullshit). I'm not sure how much she can do as an actress, and I can't say that I'm really excited to see where her career takes her just because she seems to have some limits as a performer and because the industry is apt to turn her into something of a sex kitten, but I can't deny that she was absolutely right for this role.

Who should've been nominated? I loved Patricia Clarkson in Cairo Time. Ruth Sheen was so perfect in a rather bad movie, while Lesley Manville was absolutely not – the Academy might've been using their brains when they didn't listen to all the hoopla about that performance. Manville portrays surface-level emotions without developing any core or sense of a person who exists beneath that. She simply conveys a mood.

Agreed, same thing happened on 92 supporting actress, Tomei suddenly went from having 2 votes to 6 votes ahead of Redgrave

Very strange and a mockery of what we are doing here. For an accurate reading of the results go here:

http://uaadb.cinemasight.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=640

It is strange how Williams suddenly picked up so many votes

And more stuffing for Michelle Williams...