OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2020)
The Nominees Were...
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Youn Yuh-Jung, Minari
My Thoughts: On Friday, we profiled the Best Supporting Actor race (all links to past 2020 contests at the bottom of this page), and I made a statement that in 2020, there were no Supporting Actor races that I loved. The same cannot be said for Supporting Actress. Not only were the supporting women of 2020 considerably better than the supporting men, but Oscar noticed them. Though, at least in the case of our first nominee, it's not like he needed to have it pointed out considering how superb she's been recently.
Few actresses have capitalized on their Oscar wins quite in the same way as Olivia Colman. The star of The Favourite has scored two Oscar nominations in the three years since, as well as headlined a major series for Netflix (and supported in the crowdpleasing Heartstopper). The best part is-this isn't overkill, she's just consistently wonderful. Her work in The Father is so tricky. She plays a woman in middle age, struggling with her own battles (notice how we can't quite tell what's been going on with her life, but it's been bumpy), but having to deal with a father who clearly was not her favorite (and she not his favorite child). Colman trickily navigates love, family obligation, and the subtlest of impatience about wanting to live her own life as her father consumes hers-it's riveting stuff, with the Oscar winner putting all of her emotions right on her face, even when the character doesn't want her to.
The last time that Colman was nominated she wasn't expected to win, of course. Instead, the victory was assumed to be Glenn Close's, but Close in a big surprise lost the statue. Here, though I think there was at one point some assumption she'd get in, she wasn't nearly as much of a frontrunner, and part of that was because her movie was utter rubbish (honestly, for Close's sake, it's best she didn't win & have to be on tape thanking future-Senator JD Vance in a speech). She's the best part of this film, but that doesn't say much-it's hard to judge great acting when you're against a cast that's cartoonishly-written and two-dimensionally portrayed. Close is too expressive of an actor to totally whiff here, but this was an afterglow nomination that I could've done without (it's definitely the nomination from her career most people will forget).
Close & Colman both lost to Youn Yuh-Jung in her first major role. A longtime television star in her native Korea, Youn adapts perhaps the best of any of the actors to the naturalism that director Lee Isaac Chung is going for, finding a lot of personality behind her work. I will say that I wasn't as taken with this performance as most of my online film friends. I think it's because it always feels like it's surface-level, never really giving us a lot of the connections I'd want between characters. There's something lacking in this progression...it's not necessarily bad for the film (I think it works well with the movie's naturalism), but it also makes it hard to rave about a particular performance since they all work best as a collective.
This is not the case for Amanda Seyfried, who steals Mank every scene she's in. Seyfried, who gained fame as a teenager in Mean Girls, gets her big Oscar moment playing Marion Davies, the forgotten leading lady (and lover of William Randolph Hearst) who inspires the character of Susan in Citizen Kane. Seyfried's not afraid to coast on sheer magnetism in some of the bigger moments of Mank, like when she's in the car after leaving MGM. But there's also some great side moments...her expressive eyes betray her worry. She's a woman in a precarious position (she's Hearst's lover, not his wife), and Seyfried knows how to play that perfectly, always finding a way to be not just the center-of-attention in a room, but in control.
Our final nominee is one of the weirdest citations in the history of the Academy Awards. If you can name another situation where an unknown actress gets included for an improvisational comedy sequel, I'm all ears. Obviously to get in for something like this, Bakalova has to be special, and she does match Sacha Baron Cohen's manic energy & impeccable timing. But it's also not really a performance-it's all instinct, but not necessarily building anything. Any scenes where she's not trying to control the situation but instead foraging an actual character feels like it's too cartoonish, too many big swings. I'm curious what she does next, but this nomination I can't support.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes truly went their own direction, choosing to give this statue to Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian) atop Close, Seyfried, Colman, & Helena Zengel (News of the World), making this the first time since Katharine Ross in 1976 (for Voyage of the Damned) that the Globe winner did not get nominated at the Oscars. SAG was a bit more attuned with Oscar's choices, picking Youn as their winner while Close, Colman, Zengel, & Bakalova were nominated, while BAFTA also favored Youn against Bakalova, Ashley Madekwe (County Lines), Dominique Fishback (Judas and the Black Messiah), Kosar Ali (Rocks), & Niamh Algar (Calm with Horses). In terms of sixth place, I honestly think Foster was a fluke with the Globes, and that it was Zengel that was in sixth (probably over Seyfried, who was fading at the time).
Actors I Would Have Nominated: Comedy is ignored by Oscar too often, so I can't really complain in a year where they swung for the fences with Bakalova. However, Miranda Hart is so marvelous in Emma (after being a scene-stealer in the classic Spy) & I think should've gotten in for making ridiculous feel so moving.
Oscar’s Choice: Had Close or Seyfried pulled off the Globe, I think they could've stampeded to the Oscar. Both would go with different Oscar favorite tropes (Close the living legend playing a nurturing mother figure, Seyfried the sexy thirtysomething actress playing a real-life figure), but it would've latched on. Foster's win, though, allowed for Oscar to get creative and Youn sealed the deal the second she won the SAG.
My Choice: I'm going to very slightly go with Seyfried over Colman. I'm aware that Colman is giving the more intricate performance, but Seyfried has to take the bigger swings with her role, and honestly takes the credit for the best parts of Mank...it's tight though. Youn is in third, followed by Close & then Bakalova.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Will anyone join me with Seyfried, or am I standing alone, particularly with Youn & Colman as options? Is Glenn Close ever getting a statue...and honestly, is this really how her storied career with Oscar ends after eight nominations? And why do you think Foster was such a hit with HFPA but not AMPAS? Share your thoughts below!
I thought that the statue would go to Seyfried too at the beginning of awards season, but I was happy with the winner in the end.
ReplyDeleteIt's such an original year !
I think it's a win that will hold up, but other than Close, I think any winner here would've stood the test of time (Close's win would've felt like a consolation prize, and given JD Vance's politics, one that she'd probably distance herself from when he becomes a senator).
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