OVP: Best Actress (2023)
The Nominees Were...
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Huller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Emma Stone, Poor Things
My Thoughts: Recency bias is one of the most annoying things about being a part of online social media discussions about the Oscars. You will hear the most insane hyperbole. Last season, it was a near constant stream of "Stephanie Hsu losing to Jamie Lee Curtis is akin to a war crime" madness (news flash: Jamie Lee Curtis is nowhere near one of the worst acting wins of all time...she wasn't even the worst acting win that night). In 2023, it felt like this was directed at Lily Gladstone's snub for Best Actress. As you'll find out in a second, I really liked Gladstone-I think she's talented, and I think this is the sort of performance that grows on you. But no nominee in 2023, despite what you may have heard on Twitter, was an "all-timer" in a field of winners that includes Blanche DuBois, Ada McGrath, & Mary Poppins.
Gladstone's work, though, is really wonderful. I loved the interiority of this part. She is a woman conditioned to only show her true self to people she can trust, and it's shocking to watch the film and understand how little she actually trusts her husband. The monologue toward the end, where she starts to interrogate him to understand what was real & what wasn't in their marriage, is devastating less because she's realizing this man she has been with for so many years is a liar, but more so because she realizes that she never was able to trust anyone to begin with. This is the sort of measured consistency she brings to her Mollie Kyle.
Speaking of Twitter controversies, you'd also think that the Academy had committed one of the ultimate sins by choosing Annette Bening over Margot Robbie in Barbie (spoiler alert for my My Ballot on Sunday: neither of them should've been here). Bening likely got her citation for Nyad because she wanted it, Hollywood loves her, and there's a general consensus that she should have an Oscar by now, which will require some more nominations to rectify. But I do think that this is better than the reputation it's earned (even if it's not very good...oh lord, why is Twitter making me defend Nyad?). Bening's chemistry with Jodie Foster is strong here, and I like the single-minded determination she brings to a champion, but the film's perspective is so dull (not getting into the controversy about Nyad after-the-fact was a choice, and a weird one), and this doesn't have all of the best bite that Bening's finest creations have. But Margot Robbie is doing fine, so settle down.
Emma Stone's work in Poor Things continues a run since her first Oscar that was inevitably leading to a second, as she's too famous and too good to be ignored. I loved what she did with Bella Baxter. So much of this season has been me realizing that Poor Things has aged badly for me, but that doesn't mean that I'm blind to its bet asset. The way that she approaches almost a dozen characters at once (Bella's evolution being so pronounced and exact in each scene, you have to come up with someone new almost every chapter), it's genius. This is, I'm happy to say, a win that is going to age quite well, as it'll be correctly a definitive performance of her career.
Sandra Huller's work in Anatomy of a Fall could be the announcement of a new international talent (or she could simply be Jean DuJardin, never to be heard of again from Oscar voters). I think she's much better than a picture I didn't particularly care for (the overlong legal melodrama where they tell you the ending at the beginning is not a genre I want), though I thought she was better in The Zone of Interest. The work here is layered, with her intentionally not showing too much of her hand (so that the "is she guilty?" question works), though that also holds back some of her performance. Part of what we need to realize toward the end is if she believes she's innocent, as that's where Huller's performance is going, but we never quite get there.
The final nominee is Carey Mulligan, who like Huller is given a less than ideal vehicle, but one that she makes the best of the situation. Bradley Cooper's work here is unfulfilled, but I don't feel like his onscreen wife has the same issue. Mulligan plays the part of a beard, in many other movies a role that would be milked for sympathy or be a joke, as complicated and complete. We realize that she loved Lenny, but also loved him from a distance because that was the only way she could without abandoning herself to a man she'll never be able to have fully. I love the brittleness of her work, the way that she also needs to stay "in the closet." The only thing really lacking is I don't think her ending gives us enough catharsis with her Felicia, but perhaps even that is keeping in character.
Other Precursor Contenders: As you know, the Globes separate between Comedy/Musical and Drama, and for some reason had six-wide fields in 2023, so we have 12 nominees. Setting up the matchup for the season, we had Gladstone taking Drama over Bening, Huller, Mulligan, Greta Lee (Past Lives), & Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), while Comedy/Musical went to Stone over Fantasia Barrino (The Color Purple), Jennifer Lawrence (No Hard Feelings), Natalie Portman (May December), Alma Poysti (Fallen Leaves), & Margot Robbie (Barbie). SAG favored Gladstone atop Bening, Mulligan, Robbie, & Stone, while BAFTA went with Stone against Barrino, Huller, Mulligan, Robbie, & Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane). In sixth place, it was almost certainly Margot Robbie. She was in a major Best Picture nominee, playing a title character...that's usually enough to make it (for the record, I predicted Bening correctly which was the nominee most missed if they went with the Barbie actress-I missed Mulligan in favor of Robbie). Despite what future "precursor only" readers will say, I don't think her biggest competition was Greta Lee or Fantasia Barrino-I think it was Aunjanue Ellis for Origin, which could've been the biggest shock of the morning given its late-breaking buzz (if it had opened two weeks earlier, I think she gets in).
Actors I Would Have Nominated: I actually like a performance, in a biopic, and it gets precursor support...and still nothing. Academy, what are you doing to me by ignoring Cailee Spaeny like this?!?
Oscar’s Choice: In a truly tight race, Stone's position as a producer, her star power, and headlining in a film that the Academy seemed to want to honor more got her a win over Lily Gladstone, one that it was clear she wasn't entirely prepared for (and it's not obvious she even wanted given whom she was beating).
My Choice: I'm going to pick the opposite with Gladstone taking it over Stone (my second place). I think Gladstone's work is a quiet triumph, whereas Stone's is a loud one, and works more effectively (particularly in both of their films' last thirty minutes). Behind them, let's go with Mulligan, Huller, and then Bening.
Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours! In the battle of the rolling stones, were you Team Emma or Team Lily? Are we ever going to see Annette Bening clutching her own Oscar? And why do people feel the need to throw out such hyperbole about the Academy Awards every season (or in general)? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Also in 2023: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023
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