Completed Category: Actress In a Leading Role

 

Were you alive and well and on the internet this past week? Then you might have heard: Barbie was nominated for Oscars but Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were not nominated, although Ryan Gosling was, and therefore the Academy has re-enacted the entire plot of the film: patriarchy!  At least that was one narrative that was shared, and shared, and shared.  As I mentioned in my initial post about Nominations Day, I had kinda forgotten that when Barbie made a billion dollars last year, that meant a whole lot more moviegoers were going to show up with opinions in Oscar season about what the Academy "always" does and what it "should" or "needs to" do. 

The Actress In A Leading Role aka Best Actress category was one that I had completed before the nominations came out, turns out - with or without Barbie - and so I, too, had opinions this week. I also had some facts. One fact is that when there are five nomination slots and many contenders, there will always be somebody who is disappointed. 

Also, by the way? It is not a "snub" every time someone we wish had been nominated is not nominated. But people love to throw that word around. It makes them feel Oscar-y, I think. 

What I kept asking people was, Which of the five nominated Actresses in Leading Roles would you want un-nominated for Margot to get in?  I didn't mean it facetiously. I know which one I'd give the boot! Can you guess?  Let's take a look at the nominees. 

ANNETTE BENING, Nyad: I was SO glad to hear her name called. I was worried. I was worried because I thought it might be Margot, Natalie (Portman), Lily, Emma, and Carey. I have been worried lo these few Awards buzz months, because I thought Natalie was going to steal Annette's Oscar again, like in 2010 (Black Swan), and I was straight-trippin' on the fact that THEN Annette was in the movie with Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) and NOW Natalie is in the movie with Julianne Moore (May December) and everyone was buzzing that Natalie was like totally in for sure and starting to drown out swimmer Nyad but then it didn't happen like that at all. Annette is nominated! Hurrah! for playing Diana Nyad, who finally swam all the way from Cuba to Florida after many attempts and who is a headstrong but also body strong woman who gives some people grief but also has done some for real stuff in her time on this here Earth. I frankly loved Nyad and I also think Annette's performance was a marvel, and I want her to finally win her Oscar so, so, so very much. I don't have high hopes because I see how the winds have shifted and everyone's all like "It's a race between Emma and Lily!" but you just never know. Maybe if she goes to bed early in England like Anthony Hopikins did?  (Speaking of former Oscar connections to co-stars eh...)  She's just so good. And she basically became a marathon swimmer for the role, earning the praise of real-life Nyad and changing her own life for the better.  Gooooo Annette! 

LILY GLADSTONE, Killers of the Flower Moon:  But yeah, then we have this extremely strong competition here, which is an incredible, layered, powerful, poignant performance from Lily in the devastating adaptation of the book that examined the investigation of the murders of dozens of Osage in the early 20th century. In this case, Lily was nominated while Leo (nardo DiCaprio) wasn't, and that shocked people too. But that wasn't a re-enactment of #patriarchy! so it didn't get as many memes. Anyhoo, Lily is fantastic because this whole story is so terribly complex and fraught and infuriating and she is somewhat of a center around which a lot of happenings orbit, and I never wanted to take my eyes off the screen. In hearing her talk about specific scenes and with everything I've learned about the research and details and participation of the Osage in this filmmaking, I cannot be mad if it wins anything or even if it won everything (it won't though) so I'm happy for Lily and her Golden Globe, and I hope she makes a ton more movies forever, but I still don't quite want her to beat Annette.  But can anyone beat Lily? 

EMMA STONE, Poor Things: Well, yes. And...ugh.  So, Emma gives a maniacal, deep-digging, off-the-charts performance in this batshit movie and I just - hate this so much. The movie is excruciating to watch for the first half and then it gets a bit more palatable but it's still really entirely weird and wrong, like every Yorgos Lanthimos film, but in this case we are being told it's a feminist story and that Emma's character Bella Baxter is empowered and that the movie is a "nuanced" look at what it means to be a woman. People (men) have actually used that word, "nuanced."  Yes, to describe Poor Things. Um, Poor Things is a lot of things, but it is decidedly not nuanced. Nor is it feminist. Speaking of patriarchy, in Poor Things, Bella's body is controlled by various men in various ways until she becomes "empowered" by selling herself in a Parisian whorehouse. Don't you just love it when men explain women's liberation? It's enough to make you want to go find a bunch of bros on a beach somewhere strumming Matchbox Twenty for way entirely too long. 

CAREY MULLIGAN, Maestro: Carey is almost at that Meryl Streep level - or if not quite there, maybe Cate Blanchett - where you just know she's going to bring the Oscar buzz and most likely get a nomination. Interestingly, Carey was a lot of the Barbie-opinion folks' choice to sacrifice her slot for Margot, which I canNOT agree with, particularly since some of the said folks professing that opinion also noted that they had not in fact seen Maestro yet. One said that Carey couldn't be a Leading Role nominee for a biopic about Maestro Leonard Bernstein. To anyone thinking that, I can only say: Watch the movie. It's about them, not him. Her role honestly outshines his in a lot of ways. And, she's really damn good. I had no idea what I was in store for and as soon as I watched it I was like, yup, Carey's in! But it might not be her year to actually hold the statuette in her hand. 

SANDRA HÜLLER, Anatomy of a Fall:  It's such an honor to be nominated, isn't it?  Really. I hope that Sandra enjoys every second of this year, her multiple nominated flicks (she's also in The Zone of Interest), and how transfixed everyone was by Anatomy of a Fall and its many, many lingering questions. It's a talky movie, and she takes us right to the heart of a character going through a bizarre, unsettling situation with a great deal at stake, who absolutely has to remain calm. It's quite a feat. I think we haven't seen the last of her 'round these Awards parts.  But I was honestly surprised that she got nominated and Margot did not - which still does not mean "snub." 

And so, this is the order in which I want them to win, my preference: 

---> Annette Bening <----  
(tie) Carey & Lily 
Emma (ugh ugh ugh to the movie) 
Sandra

But this is the order I think of likelihood of winning, ugh: 

Emma (ugggggh, by thismuch)
Lily  (ohhh so close)
Annette  😢
Carey
Sandra

Please please please let me be wrong. Please let everyone remember how much they love Annette and want to make up for all the times they've not awarded her. I will accept a faux-lifetime achievement win, seriously, if that's what it takes. 

Who's your pick for Best Actress In A Leading Role? 
Whose performance surprised you?
Which movie did you love? Or hate more than I hated enduring Poor Things?