Who would win in a fight among a banshee, a whale, and a panther?

This has been my weirdest Oscar nominations week in years!  I didn't get to take the Oscars day off work as usual (thanks, new position at my non-profit), and I also had this weird little thing that happened, which is that my Jeopardy! episode aired on January 24th as well. My focus was totally split! All this is to say that although I watched the live morning nominations announcement and mad e a checklist, I really didn't get a chance to sit and revel and ponder and think about my Oscar checklists until days later (read: today), at which point I realized: I already have a completed category! 

Whaddya know! 

Completed Category: Supporting Actress

Do I have a strong opinion about who should win here?  Weeeelllllll....  no. 

My strongest opinion, of course, so far this awards season is the general overall one that Everything Everywhere All At Once sucks, and due to its leading 11 nominations, that opinion is probably going to get repeated at least nine more times (today is a two-fer).  Both Jamie Lee Curtis and Stephanie Hsu were nominated for that disaster of a flick, so we can only hope the godz hear our prayers and split the vote, if any, leaving one of the other three to win, please and thank you .

On the other hand, I will give some props to the category this year, that you could make a reasonable case that all of these are, in fact, Supporting roles. We all know that this doesn't normally happen, but there is no real egregious leading-role-angling-for-an-award-by- pretending-to-be-Supporting here, so we're already off to a better start than in SO many years.  That said, you could definitely make a reasonable case as well that some of these are, if not proper co-stars, then equal parts of an ensemble. But, really for The Whale and The Banshees of Inisherin (my favorite so far!), the whole film is set up as This One Guy's Story and everyone else orbiting around him.  Hong Chau has a lot to do in The Whale, but she and everyone else are orbiting around our Professor Whale, so I'm not too mad about it.  I would also not be too mad if she won! She was fantastic!!   I might add that she was also beyond fantastic in The Menu, which got exactly zero Awards love, despite being AWESOME. I would love to see her win. 

Ditto for Kerry Condon in Banshees, which I adored.  It is a bunch of co-stars/ensemble revolving around our hapless Colin Farrell hero, and she is just the best there is. 

I think, though, that the safer bet is Angela Bassett in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I have nothing bad to say about her performance, and yes there were emotions, the late Chadwick, etc. etc. but honest to god that movie was boring and long and did I mention it was long?  The first Black Panther was so good and I know our expectations were high but ohmyfreakinggod was that thing ever going to end? SO I can't really remember necessarily the emotions elicited me watching Angela Bassett other than the happiness I felt when I got my popcorn refill. 

What do you think? Who was your favorite Supporting Actress performance this year? 

One category down, twenty-two to go .... which is actually the same number I had on Tuesday when the noms were announced.  I did not get to do my usual ritual of going to see a nominated flick each day this week, either.  In fact, after the noms day, I didn't head to the theatre until, GASP, Saturday night.  That's right; you heard me. I went to a movie in a THEATRE on Saturday night, which makes me so twitchy (but it was Women Talking so the masses weren't thronging my auditorium, thank godz.)  Still just the Supporting Actress complete for now, though.  And so we commence our Awards Season, and maybe even hold out hope that I will blog consistently about it (don't hold your breath).