OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2016)
My Thoughts: All right, we're getting back into our regular Monday & Wednesday articles for OVP ballots today, and where last we left off, we were heading into one of my favorite categories, Best Supporting Actress. 2016's acting races were perhaps the first warning sign that the expanded Best Picture field was truly starting to cause laziness in the Oscars, as you can see here most plainly-every single one of these women are nominated for films that were cited for the top prize. We're going to do something we rarely do in these write-ups since I'm getting back into the swing of them, and start with the victor since we don't have a lot of other things distinguishing the contest.
Viola Davis is an extraordinary actor, and one who definitely deserved to win an Oscar at some point in her career, but I do question the film she won it for. For starters, this is a lead performance-you can quibble & fret all you want about this being Troy's story, but it's really the story of Troy & Rose's marriage, and she should have gone lead (I honestly think she might have still won Best Actress in such a field). So knock off a star for category fraud, as well as for not really transitioning this to the big screen. Davis & Washington are exceptional, and this must have been a helluva show at the Cort, but on the big screen they don't feel authentic or real enough for my taste-there's not enough modulation, especially compared to what Stephen Henderson is doing. Davis is great in some of her quieter moments, particularly when she and Washington discuss his love child & lord knows the woman can deliver a monologue, but I'll be honest-this is the least of Davis' three nominated performances for me, and I wish she'd have won for either of the other films instead (she took both OVP's).
Davis' The Help costar would soon tie her record for most-nomiated black actress in 2017, but here she is getting a role that on-paper feels like a slam dunk for Octavia Spencer. She plays her Dorothy with determination, and though obviously based on a real person, it is a role that feels like it was written with Spencer in-mind. That said, she still lands it, and finds ways to modulate the work to make sure that it fits. Look at the subtle ways she makes Dorothy's confidence ebb-and-flow depending on who is in the room (though it's always there in her posture and dialogue), or the killer way she dresses down Kirsten Dunst without it ever feeling like a screenplay ploy. Spencer is oftentimes taken for granted, but adding richness and warmth to a movie is a rare skill, and should be appreciated-Hidden Figures is the better for her appearing in it.
The same cannot be said for Nicole Kidman, who by most definitions is a world-class actress who definitely should be sitting on more Oscar nominations than she currently has. I don't think that she handles her "white savior" role with enough delicacy and realism-there's not enough of her complicated relationship with Mantosh, and it feels glossed over to keep the movie bright and "universal" for audience members who look more like Kidman than Dev Patel. Kidman is too good of an actress to totally fail-she finds some humanity in her relationship with Sunny, but it's not enough, and is one of the drawbacks to the film's weaker second half.
Naomie Harris is the only actor who appears in all three parts of the Moonlight triptych, and thus gets arguably the most difficult task in the film-finding ways to connect with three different actors with a similar (but not too similar) chemistry, while also showing a woman who has moved & struggled through her life. Harris nails this-the accent is spot-on, and I loved the way we initially view her as a competent, harried mother, and once we learn the secrets of her behavior toward her son, we can never unseen that, even in later scenes where she desperately wants for us (and Chiron) to unsee what we've experienced. Harris is spectacular, finding a woman increasingly marginalized by her son and society, using what little power she has to try to find her way into both, and then when she realizes the damage she's done, understanding that she can't change the past.
Our final nominee is Michelle Williams, who compared to some of the competition is practically giving a cameo in Manchester by the Sea (one of the reasons I dock a "star" for category fraud is that it's simply unfair that Williams has to compete with Davis, who is in an hour more movie than Williams is). I am a big fan of Williams, but have found her leaning too much in the "less is less" category of acting in recent years, taking her minimalism too for granted. So imagine me surprised when she shows up and just knocks her Randi out of the park. The early scenes where she's a stressed mother, normal, relatable, are matched by the plastic sheen she brings to later scenes. Affleck couldn't get past what happened to their family-he has to force himself to live with it over-and-over. Williams chose the opposite approach-cutting every tie she had to that person she used to be in hopes that it would save her from drowning in reality. Look at that scene where she asks him to lunch, and how she can barely handle even that moment, understanding it might mean finding closure in a moment she can't physically acknowledge, and the anguish of knowing that she can't put back together the man she once loved. Williams is sensational in this part.
Viola Davis is an extraordinary actor, and one who definitely deserved to win an Oscar at some point in her career, but I do question the film she won it for. For starters, this is a lead performance-you can quibble & fret all you want about this being Troy's story, but it's really the story of Troy & Rose's marriage, and she should have gone lead (I honestly think she might have still won Best Actress in such a field). So knock off a star for category fraud, as well as for not really transitioning this to the big screen. Davis & Washington are exceptional, and this must have been a helluva show at the Cort, but on the big screen they don't feel authentic or real enough for my taste-there's not enough modulation, especially compared to what Stephen Henderson is doing. Davis is great in some of her quieter moments, particularly when she and Washington discuss his love child & lord knows the woman can deliver a monologue, but I'll be honest-this is the least of Davis' three nominated performances for me, and I wish she'd have won for either of the other films instead (she took both OVP's).
Davis' The Help costar would soon tie her record for most-nomiated black actress in 2017, but here she is getting a role that on-paper feels like a slam dunk for Octavia Spencer. She plays her Dorothy with determination, and though obviously based on a real person, it is a role that feels like it was written with Spencer in-mind. That said, she still lands it, and finds ways to modulate the work to make sure that it fits. Look at the subtle ways she makes Dorothy's confidence ebb-and-flow depending on who is in the room (though it's always there in her posture and dialogue), or the killer way she dresses down Kirsten Dunst without it ever feeling like a screenplay ploy. Spencer is oftentimes taken for granted, but adding richness and warmth to a movie is a rare skill, and should be appreciated-Hidden Figures is the better for her appearing in it.
The same cannot be said for Nicole Kidman, who by most definitions is a world-class actress who definitely should be sitting on more Oscar nominations than she currently has. I don't think that she handles her "white savior" role with enough delicacy and realism-there's not enough of her complicated relationship with Mantosh, and it feels glossed over to keep the movie bright and "universal" for audience members who look more like Kidman than Dev Patel. Kidman is too good of an actress to totally fail-she finds some humanity in her relationship with Sunny, but it's not enough, and is one of the drawbacks to the film's weaker second half.
Naomie Harris is the only actor who appears in all three parts of the Moonlight triptych, and thus gets arguably the most difficult task in the film-finding ways to connect with three different actors with a similar (but not too similar) chemistry, while also showing a woman who has moved & struggled through her life. Harris nails this-the accent is spot-on, and I loved the way we initially view her as a competent, harried mother, and once we learn the secrets of her behavior toward her son, we can never unseen that, even in later scenes where she desperately wants for us (and Chiron) to unsee what we've experienced. Harris is spectacular, finding a woman increasingly marginalized by her son and society, using what little power she has to try to find her way into both, and then when she realizes the damage she's done, understanding that she can't change the past.
Our final nominee is Michelle Williams, who compared to some of the competition is practically giving a cameo in Manchester by the Sea (one of the reasons I dock a "star" for category fraud is that it's simply unfair that Williams has to compete with Davis, who is in an hour more movie than Williams is). I am a big fan of Williams, but have found her leaning too much in the "less is less" category of acting in recent years, taking her minimalism too for granted. So imagine me surprised when she shows up and just knocks her Randi out of the park. The early scenes where she's a stressed mother, normal, relatable, are matched by the plastic sheen she brings to later scenes. Affleck couldn't get past what happened to their family-he has to force himself to live with it over-and-over. Williams chose the opposite approach-cutting every tie she had to that person she used to be in hopes that it would save her from drowning in reality. Look at that scene where she asks him to lunch, and how she can barely handle even that moment, understanding it might mean finding closure in a moment she can't physically acknowledge, and the anguish of knowing that she can't put back together the man she once loved. Williams is sensational in this part.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes weirdly went for a carbon copy of the Oscars, something they had not done since 1996 (and that year was cheating, as the HFPA went with six nominations instead of Oscar's five due to a tie). SAG did the same thing, and Viola Davis won both, indicating a shocking lack of creativity when it came to this field that year. BAFTA also went for Davis, but at least they found a new name, throwing out Spencer in favor of Hayley Squires in I, Daniel Blake. In terms of sixth place, it's hard to tell with such uniformity. Other names being bandied about at the time were Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women), Molly Shannon (Other People), Lily Gladstone (Certain Women), and Janelle Monae (Hidden Figures), the latter being my guess considering that was the one movie that proved popular with Oscar, even if Gladstone got the LAFCA trophy.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: Overall, this isn't a bad lineup-there's a reason there was so much uniformity in the precursors-this was a relatively light year for great supporting actress performances. That said, I surely would have included Monae, who wasn't just awesome in Hidden Figures, announcing herself as a proper movie star, but also in her small role in Moonlight. I also would have found time for Dakota Johnson, whose nymph in A Bigger Splash is fascinating character work, and kind of announced her as an actress to watch.
Oscar’s Choice: Category fraud, yes, but it's probably better for the world that Viola Davis has an Oscar.
My Choice: A pretty close race for me between Harris & Williams. I'm going to go with Harris in a slight nod over Williams if only because it's a more difficult part to get across in such a short time frame. Following them would be Spencer, Davis, and then Kidman.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Pretty much everyone went with Davis, so I assume I'm in the minority by picking Harris-or does someone want to join me on Team Moonlight? Why do you think there was so much uniformity when it came to this category from precursors? And who do you think was the sixth place finisher of this field-with so few names in the mix, I'm curious who you think nearly made it? Share your thoughts below!
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