OVP: Supporting Actress (2001)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2001)

The Nominees Were...

Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind

Helen Mirren, Gosford Park

Maggie Smith, Gosford Park

Marisa Tomei, In the Bedroom

Kate Winslet, Iris

My Thoughts: We talked a little bit about this in the Adapted Screenplay race, but part of the reason that A Beautiful Mind has aged poorly is not because it was a bad movie, but because it beat better movies at the Oscars.  When this is discussed, the focus is usually on the Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay races, mostly because people do not enjoy being mean about individual actors winning Oscars.  It's weird when there's a star with dozens of characters (potentially in movies you like) behind the win (this is partially why people win in the first place for performances that might not be worthy or are just career-achievement statues).  But that's definitely the case here, as it's hard to look at this list of either actors or performances and not think that the least of them won.  But let's see if that's actually the case?

Jennifer Connelly is an actress I don't get, though I'd never name check her as an actress I dislike.  She's very beautiful, and I think her best role might be The Rocketeer, where she leans in on that, or perhaps Requiem for a Dream (though there she's upstaged by Ellen Burstyn).  This work is solid-I think she understands Alicia Nash, and she delivers her monologues beautifully.  But I believe this falls too often into the trope of "what if there was a wife?", where the role is largely meant to be a reflection of her husband.  That's sometimes called for in a movie, but it's not the type of role I think of when I think of handing someone an Oscar, and that's what we're talking about given the point of this article, so Connelly falls short.

On the flip side, you have Helen Mirren doing everything she can to nail a side character that will come into further focus as the movie churns along.  This was still during Mirren's "acting god" phase, before she won an Oscar & was never quite as good again.  Every line in this is really something from her, starting off as very cross & devoted to her employer, and as we move on we understand there's more to both that relationship and the relationships of those around her than meets the eye.  By the crucial climax of the film, she's done all of the work to get to ace her big monologue, totally devastating the audience as the film closes.

Mirren's definitely going in on all cylinders here, in maybe her best film work to date, and is playing against type as a dowdy maid.  Two other actresses in this race are playing into our expectations of them, but doing so beautifully.  Mirren's costar Maggie Smith is one of them.  I think Smith's role here, which would inspire her part in Downton Abbey, is more substantive than some of her later "comic relief dowagers."  She plays her part beautifully between being someone who is mocked (she's poor, and has to rely on her richer relations for money), but also who has lived this life for so long she doesn't know how to be anything other than what she currently is.  It's a balance she pulls off with a great deal of wit, but the work she's done, like Mirren, pays off toward the end in smaller moments as she becomes relieved that her problems entering the house aren't what they were when she leaves, showing just below the veneer.

The other actress who is leaning into what we'd expect from her is Kate Winslet.  This was during that period where pretty much every Winslet performance was an event, leading up to her inevitable Oscar.  Winslet is marvelous here.  Yes, she's playing another earth mother role that is sexually liberated, but she does so with finesse.  She is given the difficult task of giving us an Iris to mourn as Judi Dench's character shows what has been lost, full of life, vitality, and genius.  Winslet does that brilliantly, frequently shocking the audience but doing so with enough specificity that this Iris doesn't get lost alongside some of her other work of this period.

The final nominee is Marisa Tomei, who at the time felt like she was giving a middle finger to the people who, for a decade, had been talking about her My Cousin Vinny win as if it was a gigantic mistake the Oscars made.  Tomei is smart in this part, playing her role as someone whose motives aren't always clear-does she love Nick Stahl's Frank, or is he just a way out of a bad life for herself?  Is she aware of the danger she's putting Frank in...and does she care if it means that she might get out?  Tomei plays this fluttering beneath her eyes, a sense of a pretty girl who generally can play that card to get out of responsibility.  It's the sort of role that easily could've been played just for sympathy or sentiment, but she makes her steelier, a bit more ruthless, and that helps make the ending (even when she's offscreen) so powerful.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Connelly, besting Mirren, Smith, Winslet, Tomei, & Cameron Diaz (Vanilla Sky).  The SAG Awards put Connelly in lead due to a balloting error, so the winner was Mirren, who beat Diaz, Cate Blanchett (Bandits), Judi Dench (The Shipping News), & Dakota Fanning (I Am Sam).  BAFTA went back to Connelly, topping Mirren, Dench, Winslet, & Smith.  I'm torn on sixth place.  Diaz did the best in the precursors, but Diaz was cited for a lot of precursors during this era (not just for Vanilla Sky, but also There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich and Gangs of New York) and couldn't make it for any of them, so I think she just wasn't Oscar's speed.  I'm guessing it was between Dench & Fanning, and I'm going to lean toward Fanning given Dench was already in for Iris...Penn getting in for Best Actor makes me think they liked the film, and children do well in this category.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: This is a very good lineup, the best of the four acting lineups that Oscar amassed in 2001.  But if they could've squeezed in Cate Blanchett's Galadriel, it would've been even better.

Oscar’s Choice: Connelly spent the entire season giving extraordinarily dull acceptance speeches, but Oscar didn't care and gave her the statue.

My Choice: Mirren is the best of this very good lineup-she's not just playing against type, but she's the emotional crux of her film.  Following her I'd go Smith the silver, followed by Winslet, Tomei, and Connelly.  The reputation of this race was right-she was out of her league.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Do you side with the Academy in giving Jennifer Connelly her only statue, or would you like to join me in the downstairs with Helen Mirren?  Doesn't it feel a bit of a crime that no Robert Altman film ever won an acting trophy given how good he was with actors?  And was it Fanning, Dench, or Diaz in sixth place?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2001: Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2001

Past Best Supporting Actress Contests: 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: Actress (2006)

OVP: Best Actress (2006)

The Nominees Were...

Penelope Cruz, Volver

Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal

Helen Mirren, The Queen

Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada

Kate Winslet, Little Children

My Thoughts: On Wednesday, we talked a bit about how weak-sauce the Best Actor field was-one of the worst lineups that Oscar has ever pulled together, and definitely one of the dullest.  The Best Actress field in 2006, though, pulls together (for my money) one of the best that Oscar has come up with.  The rare field to host five winners (though two had to wait a few years to get their statue), and has a quintet of women at the top of their games.  Sadly (but in true Oscar fashion) most of the films that are cited here are not films we saw a lot of in terms of nominations in other categories, so we'll segway into this field with one of the few performances that did.

Helen Mirren won the Oscar in 2006-this is not a spoiler alert, but it does sort of ruin the climax of this article, so I generally don't mention this in the write-ups.  I say it here because this victory has been chalked up in retrospect as the kind of win that happened inevitably-a storied actor at the top of her game getting into an Academy-friendly biopic.  What gets lost in that (not inaccurate) description is that Mirren is glorious in The Queen.  She gives to Elizabeth II (before The Crown tried to three-dimensionalize her) a sense of detachment combined with duty & authenticity.  It would be easy for Mirren to play Elizabeth in private as some broken figure during a moment of national tragedy, but that's not what she does.  Her Queen remains elusive, unknowable, even in her private moments someone who has spent so much time not revealing herself that she sometimes struggles to know where duty ends & Elizabeth begins.  A true triumph from a world-class actor, and the rare case of an overdue performer getting in for some bravura work.

Meryl Streep had been hunting for her third trophy for several decades by the time Prada rolled around, and the "overdue" drum had been beating to give her a statue since at least Bridges of Madison County.  Had it not been for Mirren, it's probable that she would've won it here.  Streep's work here is some of the best of a career that is defined by being "the best."  Miranda Priestly would also be easy to humanize, a woman of immense power who has had to sacrifice much of herself to get where she is, but Streep doesn't play her that way.  Miranda is not a saint, she's not perfect or even a hero, but she is a woman who knows what it takes to succeed, for the good or the bad, and Streep gets that.  It's a small part (she's in less than a third of the film...Dench & Cruz are double that), but she lands every second with a brilliant iconography-Streep has not been this good since.

Judi Dench has made a career out of playing a similar breed of aging British woman-sometimes with money, sometimes without, but a pleasant scene-stealer who is there to please your aunt.  Notes on a Scandal is the closest that Dench has (since becoming a bonafide movie star) come to playing against type, which is a risk (sometimes such things fall flat), but here she nails her part.  Dench is jaw-dropping as a closeted lesbian in lust with a flawed younger teacher, and totally nails every inch of this sociopath.  As an audience we're taught to understand how deep Dench's malevolence goes pretty early on, but it's still a juxtaposition to have sweet Judi Dench tear apart an unknowing Blanchett's life simply for not conforming to her twisted fantasy.  The final scene, in particular, with the cool lies & lack of perspective, totally sell the movie.

It's hard to believe, but at one point it was a question mark as to how good of an actress Penelope Cruz was.  Between the mixed views on Vanilla Sky (which I will be watching later this month, but haven't seen yet) and the press's preoccupation with her love life (specifically dating Tom Cruise), Cruz felt before 2006 to be an actress that was more for the tabloids than the Oscars.  With Volver, she quickly proved herself to be a proper actress, playing the complicated role of Raimunda (a woman with secrets who is being "haunted" by her mother), flawlessly.  Cruz is so good at combining Almodovar's cheeky sense of humor with his propensity for dark plots, and has marvelous chemistry with the cascade of women in the cast.

Kate Winslet was not, in 2006, someone that we were wondering if she could act (this has never really been a question mark in Winslet's storied career).  But in 2006 we were wondering what direction her career would take as she played yet another earth goddess-style figure, ready to be worshiped by Patrick Wilson.  Turns out, this was still essential viewing.  Winslet brings a specific kind of bored energy to her Sara, someone who knows that she can seduce a man, but wants to test exactly how he'll make her feel, as she's walled up so much of her true self.  Little Children is not an easy film to love, but Todd Field's ability with actors is shown best with Winslet's work here, as he lets his actor's natural strengths shift the way we view the character.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their nominations between Drama and Musical/Comedy, so we have ten women nominated for these awards.  The Drama categories gave it up to Mirren, with all save for Streep among the nominees (in her place, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby), while Streep won Comedy/Musical over Annette Bening (Running with Scissors), Beyonce (Dreamgirls), Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine), & Renee Zellweger (Miss Potter).  SAG & the Globe went with an exact replica of the Oscar race, both winners & nominees.  Gyllenhaal was probably sixth, but as someone who lived through this year, it was one of those seasons where no one was taking down this Top 5...

Actors I Would Have Nominated: ...and with good reason.  I will reveal my final ballot next week, but the only name that is remotely in contention to take out one of these top five is Naomi Watts in The Painted Veil (a great portrayal of a complicated, thawing woman), and she'd be going for fifth place at best.

Oscar’s Choice: In a different year Streep might have won a third or we would've gotten an early coronation for Penelope Cruz, but in 2006, there was no beating Helen Mirren.

My Choice: I know this will shock the collective internet, but I'm also going to agree with Oscar here. Streep (my silver) gives an iconic turn, but I feel like Mirren ultimately has layers in her performance that go unnoticed until we rewatch.  It's a close race though, with Cruz, Dench, & Winslet bringing up the back.  The rare year where Oscar could have picked anyone & it would've been one of the decade's better decisions.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Are you with the collective awards run (including me), or will you go with Miranda Priestley & her legions of memes?  Who's another actor like Judi Dench we want to see play against type as a villain?  And has there ever been such a lock-step Oscar field?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also in 2006: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2006

Past Best Actress Contests: 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

OVP: Actress (2004)

OVP: Best Actress (2004)

The Nominees Were...

Annette Bening, Being Julia

Catalina Sandino Moreno, Maria Full of Grace

Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake

Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby

Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

My Thoughts: When I write these articles, most often I'm writing them with an idea of how I'm going to rank the nominees, and usually I stick to that.  While I don't always know what I'm going to say about the contenders, I have an idea of roughly the order that they might turn up, and it's rare that I change my mind talking about them out loud.  The 2004 Best Actress contenders, though, are a race where I genuinely change my mind all the time.  The race features three actresses giving some of the best work of their careers, three terrific performances that I struggle to be able to discuss without tripping over myself, and honestly leave flummoxed as to who is the "best" of the bunch.  So...this one's going to be a mystery for both of us.

Before we get to those performances, though, let's discuss the also-rans (since the eventual winner is genuinely a mystery to me, I'm going to lay down the cards pretty quickly on the remaining nominees).  Catalina Sandino Moreno managed to land a nomination for Maria Full of Grace in spite of that film being disqualified for Foreign Language Film for being "insufficiently Colombian" (early on it was the frontrunner for that category).  Sandino Moreno gives a heavy-handed performance as Maria, playing her inwardly, oftentimes far-too-much, as the movie goes on.  It's a tough role, and one that's in a very serious movie, but Sandino Moreno does most of her acting through her eyes, which can work...it's just not enough to save a movie that relies more on subject matter to carry its story than its actual characters.  Still, I'm not going to knock this too hard just because it was such a hard-fought nomination (the only Colombia film in history to be nominated for an acting prize)...it's just kind of a middling performance.

The same is true for Hilary Swank.  Swank is not bad in Million Dollar Baby, but that this performance dominated the whole season is a real question in terms of Oscar's taste.  Swank spends much of the film letting a lack of expression be her domineering trait, allowing the audience do most of the heavy-lifting in our interpretations of her Maggie.  It's a blasé piece of work, five years after her first win (in a weird way Swank is quite similar to Luise Rainer in that she won two Oscars with virtually nothing else-to date-of note in films, though unlike Rainer Swank has kept working in the pursuing decades).  Eastwood & Freeman are much better in the movie, giving at least a story behind their performance, but Swank's work is mostly reliant upon physicality and reacting...we don't know who this woman is, and she's at her best when she's being interpreted by the other actors in the film.  That's maybe a decent directorial trick to have an actor pull off, but it's not a great performance.

Swank in 1999 beat Annette Bening for her trophy, and she famously did the same in 2004, taking the trophy from Bening for Being Julia.  Being Julia is the least-remembered of the three "big" performances in this category, and it is (while still a great movie), the least of the three actual films on its own merits.  But Bening owns the screen here, and makes Julia Lambert a totally unique creation.  Borrowing from the best divas, she plays Julia as a shrewd, brilliant, but impetuous figure, putting the cruelty of a world-leaving-her-behind (even though she's far from ready to give up the limelight, and as she shows through the film, the limelight should be staying on her) in every moment of the movie.  Her triumphant final act, when she "ad libs," totally owning those who thought they'd gotten one-over on her is magic, and Being Julia becomes the kind of movie that is truly elevated by one outstanding central piece-of-work.  This might be my favorite performance from Annette Bening, which is saying something.

It's also saying something, though, that Kate Winslet's Clementine Kruczynski is perhaps her greatest piece-of-work (I told you this would be hard).  Winslet plays Clementine as a free-spirit "manic pixie dream girl" who is truly complicated (or "fucked up," as she'd put it in the film).  It's a hard role to land-she has to make Clementine not likable in the way we traditionally associate with romantic comedies, but she's also the kind of character that will make you fall in love with her.  That's not easy, and what is at the crux of Eternal Sunshine being a genuinely beautiful movie: these people love each other in spite of themselves, and whether or not they can make it work, that love (tough, raw, sometimes ugly) is tangible throughout Winslet's work.  It's bravura stuff.

Staunton gets the most traditionally dramatic part, but also the least showy of the three women.  Staunton's Vera Drake, an ordinary housewife who helps young women in difficult situations by performing abortions on them, is a triumph of understated acting.  Staunton makes Vera not only be ordinary, but feel ordinary-the way she goes about her day, she is someone who you pass by on the street, and she's okay with that.  This makes her atypical behavior as a woman who performs abortions so extraordinary-this secret life isn't something she considers unusual or outside-her-realm, but instead something that you do in the same way you buy bread or help a neighbor who has tripped on the sidewalk.  Abortion is the sort of gut check issue where people come in with callous, almost malignant attitudes about the other side of the debate, but Staunton's Vera Drake is so brimming with soul that you almost feel like she could bridge the gap.  An astonishing piece-of-work.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their nominations between Drama and Musical/Comedy, so we have ten women nominated for these awards.  Swank won for Best Drama, over Staunton as well as Scarlett Johansson (A Love Song for Bobby Long...which I've never seen & feel a little bad about-anyone else see this movie or have any memory of it?), Nicole Kidman (Birth), and Uma Thurman (Kill Bill Volume 2), while Bening bested Winslet, Ashley Judd (De-Lovely), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), & Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera).  SAG went with the same lineup & winner as Oscar, while BAFTA totally swung for the fences, giving their trophy to Staunton while nominating Winslet for both Eternal Sunshine and Finding Neverland, and also nominating Zhang Ziyi (House of Flying Daggers) and Charlize Theron a year late for Monster.  In terms of sixth place, I honestly think that Oscar didn't really have a lot of competition other than these five, but at the time I recall the closest contender was Thurman, with Rossum a distant seventh, so that's probably what it was.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: Obviously three of these contenders would make my personal Top 5, and so close to the end (we'll do "My Ballots" next week) I don't want to play my cards too much here since you already know 60% of my nominees.  That being said, I do wonder what would have happened if Uma Thurman had somehow been able to compete for the full Kill Bill franchise in one year...the second half isn't as good as the first, but combined this is also the role of her lifetime, and it's a pity that she didn't score a nod either in 2003 or 2004 for her work in this series.

Oscar’s Choice: Oscar, despite not yet having given a trophy to either Bening or Winslet yet in 2004 (half of that they've since corrected) chose to give the award to Swank, likely by a bigger margin than her more celebrated first win.

My Choice: We'll go backwards here.  Swank is last, since she does the least with her performance of the bunch, and I think she gets a better film to work within than Sandino Moreno (so not getting more out of that script is a larger crime).  In bronze, I'm going with Staunton.  If she as in 2003 or 2005, she'd win, so this is a performance that deserves credit.  For the win, I'm going to go with...Winslet?  I think so.  It's a harder role to nail, and though Bening gets the best scene in the movie, Winslet's performance is just a bit more well-rounded.  Literally, though-in all of the years of the Oscars if I was only afforded one Best Actress tie this is probably where I'd use it-it's that close...picking one over the other feels a crime with work this strong.  I will continue to go back-and-forth in my head on this, but in terms of the official OVP, Kate Winslet gets this trophy.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Are you with me (cautiously) in Team Kate or do you prefer the runaway winner of Swank?  How exactly is it that Swank beat three performances that are all clearly better than hers (was it a genuine vote split)?  And where does Uma Thurman stand in your personal 2003 & 2004 ballots?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also in 2004: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2004

Past Best Actress Contests: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

Ammonite (2020)

Film: Ammonite (2020)

Stars: Kate Winslet, Saoirse Ronan, Fiona Shaw, Gemma Jones, James McArdle, Alec Secareanu

Director: Francis Lee

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Three years after the fact, I still am haunted by the majesty of God's Own Country.  I saw the film in theaters with few expectations-it had two cute guys, likely making out, which generally was enough for me in 2017-but it was a brilliant piece of filmmaking.  I ended up citing all four leads for nominations at my personal awards that year, and put it on my list of the Best Pictures of the year.  It was dwarfed in most discussions by some of the other queer cinema of the year (specifically Call Me By Your Name), but Francis Lee's work is delicate & wonderful, particularly in the film's final, aching moments.  As a result, I was eager to see Ammonite not just because of my love of the leading ladies (both favorites), but more so because I wanted to see what Francis Lee does with another gay love story.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film is based at least on real people, though it's not clear how much of these real people's lives are accurately depicted here.  Mary Anning (Winslet) is a paleontologist who lives in Southern England, collecting fossils along the seashore to sell to tourists.  As we discover from an incident with Roderick Murchison (McArdle), Mary was once a great discoverer of fossils, and at age 11 found a fossil that is now in the British Museum.  Roderick asks Mary to watch his wife Charlotte (Ronan), who is suffering from depression after the death of her child (it's not clear if the child died in infancy or childbirth), but she must stay as he goes on an expedition.  Mary nurses Charlotte back to health, and they start a love affair (despite it being the 1840's), one that poses a ticking clock challenge as eventually Charlotte must return to her husband.

I'm going to end the recap there because it's kind of where the writers do.  Ammonite is glacially-paced (which is not usually a problem for me-if there's a criticism I can look beyond it's a movie being too meditative).  However, it also doesn't know what to do with Ronan's Charlotte, and neither does the actress, and this is a problem because much of the film's final third rests with Charlotte.  Charlotte seems intent on the two spending their lives together, but in doing so reveals that she doesn't understand Mary at all.  Mary is a woman whose work comes first, and who must have her independence, and Charlotte offers her a gilded cage.  This would have been a good, if melancholy, ending, but it actually ends with Mary going to the British Museum to see her discovery, and Charlotte is there, smiling.  That's the ending-no hint as to what comes next, and because we don't really know Charlotte (and she doesn't understand Mary) we can't infer anything (this isn't Carol).

That being said, Winslet is so good you might not care.  Winslet, an actress of great verve, whose earth goddess routine doesn't feel well-suited for a sullen, bitter woman who clearly loves deeply, but not in ways that can make her connect to others.  Yet here she is, bringing decades of pain, dismissal, and hope to the role.  There are no big moments where she lashes out, the actress never takes the easy way with her character & a tear-stained breakdown, but it's all there.  The boredom with her life, the way that she adapts to routine, the genuine pleasure she gets from the work, and the possibility of Charlotte-it's all there in Winslet's mannerisms, voice, & eyes.  I'm someone who has been subscribing a lot to late-career Winslet (I adored her work in Steve Jobs and thought she was even better in Wonder Wheel, giving Woody Allen perhaps his final great performance), so I'm not surprised or laying on "best in decades" praise here (Wonder Wheel remains her best work since Eternal Sunshine), but she continues to be one of our finest working actresses, and this is another master class from an (under-appreciated?) actress.

OVP: Supporting Actress (2015)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2015)

The Nominees Were...

Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs

My Thoughts: While category fraud has been prevalent and growing at the Oscars for decades, one has to wonder looking at 2015 if this was the straw that broke the camel's back, for the good or the bad.  In 2015, there was no pretense about the category fraud of two specific contenders (Rooney Mara & Alicia Vikander), both of whom are leads in two-lead films, one of which (Vikander) doesn't even have the recent excuse of "no two leads from the same gender in the same movie."  I'm strongly against this category fraud, not least of which because I'm a huge classic movie buff, and wouldn't want to deprive the world of the fame achieved by the likes of Thelma Ritter, Agnes Moorehead, Walter Brennan, and Claude Rains by getting Oscar nominations for their best roles.  As a result, I usually knock anyone that is a clear violator of category fraud of one "star" in the ranking of how I would vote for them here.  That doesn't always mean that I don't end up giving this trophy to a lead performance when they're miles above the rest of the field (see here for example), but it does mean that they have to work harder since they're already starting with a clear advantage.

This has to be said because Rooney Mara is sensational in Carol.  It's very hard to play an introverted character, unequipped with the language to express what she's feeling, particularly in a period piece where she's starring opposite an actress who gets both of those tools to deliver a performance, but Mara does it.  There's something so meticulous in her Therese.  Look at the way that she unpacks speeches she wants to give to Carol but says them to other people (Jake Lacy's Richard, for one) instead, or how she has to express so much through her face that her words and body can't.  Mara isn't an actress I would have gone to when she made her big splash in The Social Network a decade ago as someone who would have made a great silent film star, but here she shows that ability, acting out complex emotions that are alien to her character with a complete effortlessness.

Vikander is also swell in The Danish Girl.  2015 was a banner year for the actress, and if she doesn't start straightening out her career choices, might be the only banner year in her career, but she deserved the kudos she received for this and other films that year.  There's an ease to her Gerda, a comfortable nonchalance that hides the insecurities in her relationship with Einar/Lili, and she more than makes up for Redmayne not really getting his character.  I would have liked to have seen more of what happens to her as the story becomes entirely Lili's toward the end, and she's pushed to being the supportive wife, but Vikander is much better than cheeky Twitter commentators would let you believe when they discuss The Danish Girl.

When we get to the three actual supporting parts, we sadly don't see the consistency that Vikander & Mara bring to their work.  It is very hard to begrudge Jennifer Jason Leigh an Oscar nomination after all of these years of waiting, but did it really need to be for Quentin Tarantino's worst movie, and not just that, but one of the worst movies of 2015?  Her performance here is completely one-note, and one of the lesser examples of "I'm the only girl in a cast of all men" which feels about how she got noticed here (also Tarantino does have a strong history of landing at least one of his actors with Oscar).  She gets some fine asides in against Russell, but there's nothing special or interesting happening here, and it feels a lot like Stanley Tucci's nomination for The Lovely Bones a few years back in that they just desperately wanted to honor this specific actor while they had the chance.

Speaking of "I'm the only girl in a cast of men," we have Rachel McAdams, who like Leigh is landing her first (and so far only) Oscar nomination for Spotlight.  Unlike Leigh, who most people just assume was finally getting cited after years of rejection, McAdams appears to have her defenders in this role, but I'm not one of them.  I've come around to her as an actress (Disobedience being my "oh, right" moment), but here she does nothing with her Sacha Pfeiffer, taking introverted to just mean one-note and reserved.  Leigh at least brings some life to her character, but McAdams only occasionally has a spark, her eyes flickering when an interview says something interesting, but there's nothing special going on here, nothing that would warrant a nomination, and one wonders if Hollywood (who has always loved McAdams more than she seemed to love it back considering the press she gets compared to the roles she's done), just wanted to encourage her a little more into being in memorable pictures.

Our final nomination is for Kate Winslet, a proper supporting part and one that actually brings it.  Winslet had the longest absence with Oscar since she'd first been nominated (a seven year spread), and this was a welcome reminder of how good she could be.  Joanna Hoffman could just be observational, there for expositional conversations with Steve Jobs to move along Aaron Sorkin's life, but Winslet fills her with such passion and knowledge you understand why she's the only person who can tell Steve off without having to explain it.  That final scene, where she gives Steve a lecture about what it means to be a father could have been SO hokey (that's how it was written), but she sells it because she's put in the work throughout the film without you realizing it, and that "or you can contact me, at my new job working anywhere I want" line reading where she not only chastises him for his misuse of his daughter but also of her (reminding him that she is also a catch and could work literally anywhere and walk away at any time) may be the best line reading of any actor in 2015.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes in a wonderful touch put Vikander & Mara in the lead categories where they belonged, and as a result we had room for Helen Mirren (Trumbo) and Jane Fonda (Youth), as well as substituting out McAdams for Vikander in Ex Machina (a proper supporting performance).  Winslet would take the trophy, setting her up as the obvious second place to Vikander throughout the year.  The SAG Awards were bound to the category fraud due to their rules (you have to vote for what the studio submits, rather than the Globes or Oscars where it's at your discretion).  Here Vikander won, and the only person thrown out was Mirren in place of Leigh.  Leigh was at the BAFTA Awards, however, as the two that were thrown out were Vikander for herself (she was cited for Ex Machina while The Danish Girl competed for Best Actress) and McAdams, who was replaced with Julie Walters (Brooklyn).  I have to assume that Leigh, McAdams, and Mirren were in some sort of genuine battle for inclusion here, though it's not out-of-the-question that if Vikander had gone lead (very possible), she would have been double-nominated.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: Well for starters I'd put in Vikander for the right role-not only is she supporting in Ex Machina, she's better, and in fact better than this whole field.  Rose Byrne is marvelously campy in Spy, and a nomination would have been an acknowledgement of all of the brilliant work she's been doing in comedy over the past decade.  I'd have found room for Kristen Stewart's crown jewel of a performance in Clouds of Sils Maria (she has emerged as one of our finest actresses in the past few years), and finally I would have kept Jane Fonda for that devastating cameo in Youth, arguably a role that would have best illustrated how absurd it is to have Vikander & Mara in this field.

Oscar’s Choice: In what was probably a closer matchup than you remember between Vikander and Winslet, Oscar went full-in on the category fraud.

My Choice: For me it would be between Mara & Winslet, but with Winslet being a proper supporting performance, I'm giving it to her.  Mara follows, with Vikander, Leigh, and McAdams behind.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Are you in concurrence with Oscar on Vikander, or does the category fraud make you go for Winslet? Do you think that Leigh or McAdams will ever be nominated for better work, or will this nomination suffice for the reminder of their careers?  And who will Helen Mirren be doomed to show up to precursors for the rest of time, never actually getting back to the Oscars?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2015: Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2015

Past Best Supporting Actress Contests: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

Wonder Wheel (2017)

Film: Wonder Wheel (2017)
Stars: Kate Winslet, Justin Timberlake, Juno Temple, Jim Belushi
Director: Woody Allen
Oscar History: 2017 is the wrong year to try and get nominated for a Woody Allen movie.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Every time one of Woody Allen's movies comes out, I struggle more-and-more with whether to see it, but I end up going anyway.  The reality is, that while Woody Allen offscreen is a louse and a jackass, his movies still number amongst my favorite pictures.  No director makes movies quite so cinematic, so attuned to the romantic ideas of a filmmaker creating a body of work in the vein of Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, and Stanley Kubrick.  And so, like clockwork, I hit every Woody Allen movie in theaters without fail, come rain or shine, good reviews or the paltry, the latter being where Wonder Wheel has largely fallen if you go by Rotten Tomatoes metric.

(Spoilers Ahead) This is typical Woody Allen, returning from any sort of European excursions he may have been on before and now settled squarely in Brooklyn, specifically the gaudy sounds of Coney Island.  The movie is about Ginny (Winslet), a waitress in a disappointing marriage to Humpty (Belushi), a carnival barker who is more interested in doting on his long-lost daughter Carolina (Temple) than in realizing that his wife is spiraling.  All of their lives are thrown asunder when Mickey (Timberlake), a lifeguard initially charms Ginny but then falls for Carolina, who is a marked woman after leaving her mobster boyfriend.  The film unfolds with Ginny trying in vain to sabotage Carolina's budding romance, all-the-while watching her real life fall apart in the same fashion as her fantasy one.

Like all of Woody's films, the movie doesn't so much have a start and finish as it does a beginning and a completion.  Allen's movies never have happy or sad endings, but just finales, and this is the case for Wonder Wheel.  The actual plot feels a bit weighed down and heavy (you see where most of the movie is coming a mile away), and the actual film itself is stifled by its leading man.  Timberlake serves as our Woody proxy (there's always a Woody proxy), which is absurd as the former pop star who has become identified with a sort of compensating masculinity in his public persona (compensating in the sense that he never feels at-home with his boy band roots and former teen idol status) couldn't be more opposite of Allen if he tried.

Timberlake's acting career has been a source of consternation for me as a filmgoer, as I'm actually fine with his music (though I think it seems pretty repetitive at this point), but I don't know that he's been worse in a major movie than he is here.  Timberlake has no understanding of Mickey.  He reads lines as if it's a success he memorized them, not getting into the persona of a lifeguard that dreams of becoming Eugene O'Neill.  One gets the sense that Timberlake has no idea that his character is a joke, someone who claims that he's smart because he knows the names of smart people, and you also get the sense that he's never actually read The Iceman Cometh or Hamlet even as he celebrates them within the confines of the movie.  It's a performance that feels like it's being performed by an aging Abercrombie cutout, and you also get the sense that perhaps Timberlake (only six years younger than Winslet in real life, whereas he's eight years senior to Temple) was far too old for this part, and looks kind of ridiculous espousing on women like a man of 20 when he's almost 40.

The movie, though, is nearly saved from its hackneyed plot and failed leading man by Kate Winslet and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro.  Winslet gets an underwritten part, but just nails it as a woman who cannot understand how her life got to where it is, and is clearly in the midst of an emotional breakdown of some sorts.  This isn't really in Winslet's obvious wheelhouse (there's no earth mother routine happening here, and she's hardly a manic-pixie-dream-girl), but it also shows what an immense talent she is that she finds the diamond in the rough of this character.  Ginny is unglued, but clearly the savviest figure in the film, and the emotional final ten minutes of Wonder Wheel nearly confuse you into thinking this was a good picture, as Winslet's character has a breakdown that recalls Vivien Leigh's in A Streetcar Named Desire.  Combined with Vittorio Storaro's sun-dappled mood lighting (has Coney Island ever looked more beautiful onscreen, and when was the last time you saw natural light so fabulously frame the face of an actress like Winslet?), the movie is impossible to dismiss as a trifle, even though Allen has made much better, and somehow Timberlake has never done worse.

The Dressmaker (2016)

Film: The Dressmaker
Stars: Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis, Hugo Weaving, Sarah Snook
Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I know it doesn't rival, say, Flora Plum or Margaret (at all), but The Dressmaker has been advertised for so long that I kind of can't believe I got to see it this past weekend.  I remember the initial trailer (which was out over a year ago as I recall thinking it could factor into the 2015 Oscars), and thinking "wow, Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth look dead sexy in this film."  Upon completing the film, I can confirm that, in fact, both of them are truly dead sexy in the film, though I can unfortunately also confirm that the film, while fairly fun, runs disjointed and probably all of that development allowed for too many cooks in the production kitchen.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Tilly (Winslet), a woman who mysteriously waltzes back into her small Australian home town 25 years after the death of one of her classmates and being branded a murderer as a child, all the while trying to reconnect with her mother Molly (Davis) and fending off the advances of her delicious old friend Teddy (Hemsworth).  Tilly is initially dismissed as a pariah, but she has an unusual skill with a sewing machine, creating iconic, Fifth Avenue-worthy creations that start to transform the women of the town, to the point that they all look a tad ridiculous walking around the village in the highest of haute couture.  Along the way, she discovers that she did not, in fact, kill the young boy but instead he killed himself while trying to severely injure her.  She ends up in a charming picnic under the stars with Teddy while her mother starts to pull her life together after repairs have been made to their relationship.

Except that's not where the film ends.  The movie is strange about the way that it swings between a straight drama, very harrowing, and a black comedy of sorts-I probably overuse the phrase "balance problem" but there's really no other way to put it-the film suffers from a lack of a driving identity.  Is Tilly simply trying to correct a past injustice with these shallow, cruel townspeople or is she trying to move on from a tough chapter in her life?  The film really was leading toward the second half when they pull the rug out from under our eyes by letting both Teddy and Molly die in tragic deaths, the former of which feels particularly cruel since neither he nor Tilly really deserved such a nasty twist of fate (where he simply dies trying to prove she isn't cursed).

As a result, the final third of the film feels unusual in that you kind of hate the writers for it.  You get this wonderfully-spry romantic comedy for most of the movie, and then you just make us all sort of hate everyone onscreen save for Tilly.  I feel like this may have been what caused the film to be delayed-the ending, which is probably the same as the book, can't have tested well with audiences since they didn't remotely hint that Teddy could die and he was by far the most likable character in the film.  The ending, therefore, also feels underwritten-Tilly is going to destroy the town while dressed like a Barney's mannequin, which is great imagery but doesn't really do anything for me as I was still mad she didn't get an actual happy ending.  As a result, I liked a lot of The Dressmaker but not enough to recommend it.  Hemsworth and Winslet despite their (unacknowledged) age difference smolder throughout and haven't been this sexy in years (in Liam's case, ever), but that doesn't really make up for the nastiness of the film's final third.  Costumes are great, though.

Those are my thoughts on The Dressmaker, a film that I'm still not sure what the point was, but perhaps you can enlighten me in the comments.  Just start typing. :)

My Dozen Favorite Actresses

I am back to writing daily blog articles this week, and as a result of that, I want to do a few GTKY articles in relation to movies, as we're now entering the phase of the year where we weirdly overlap movies/politics.  The Oscars are picking up, the elections are in full-swing, and so I decided to do a series of three articles (we'll go one today, one Thursday, and one this weekend) where I count down my dozen favorite actresses, actors, and directors, of all-time.

I haven't really done this before, and I was debating whether to rank or whether to go alphabetical, and partially because of a cop-out, but mostly because I think it's darn near impossible to actually rank different actors/styles, I decided to go alphabetical below.  If I get enough comments (or at least a couple), I'll spill the beans about how I would have properly ranked these, but in the meantime, let's start with the ladies as they're always the most interesting.

Honorable Mentions: It has to be said that a lot of women were in contention here.  There are some that just missed (Cate Blanchett ignobly was positioned at thirteenth, with people like Tilda Swinton, Julie Christie, and Myrna Loy were not far behind).  There are a few actresses where I feel like they're poised for greatness, but haven't quite made enough movies yet (Chastain, Viola Davis, Cotillard, Weisz), while others I've always loved but can't quite claim to have seen enough of their filmography to warrant a spot (Stanwyck, Lombard, Hayworth, and Dietrich all spring to mind).  It also has to be said that I could name-check women that should be on this list until the end of time, while the men's list will not remotely approach this adoration.  This is an endlessly fun activity, though, so please berate, agree, and recommend in the comments (along with providing your own list).

Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/3 wins (Gaslight, Anastasia, The Murder on the Orient Express)
First Impressions: I think my first experience with Ingrid Bergman was actually Casablanca-I want to say I saw it right at the same time as Anastasia so theoretically I could have seen her there first, but my gut is telling me Casablanca was the culprit.
Why the Love: I don't think that you can pinpoint exactly one reason to love Ingrid Bergman, for many years my easy answer for favorite actress (I'm not ranking here, but she'd be still be Top 5).  She has this instinctive, natural introverted glamour in every movie she makes.  Even when she's being funny or joyous, there's something mesmerizing in the way that she does it.  There are few actresses in the history of cinema I've felt more connected to the language of their eyes and faces-she is the sort of performer who would have been famous in every decade of the movies.
My Favorite Performance: Casablanca, most assuredly.  I know she didn't like that everyone pointed this movie out, but she's my favorite performance in my favorite movie, and the way she just effortlessly projects being the object of Rick's affection, and yet still striking in her own ways as a woman complicated by loving two men at once: it's to-die-for.
Missing Piece: Almost certainly the performance of hers I'm missing and most excited to see is Autumn Sonata.  I love both Bergmans, and so the idea of the two of them together is thrilling.

Juliette Binoche (1964-Present)

Oscar History: 2 nominations/1 win (The English Patient)
First Impressions: I think the first film I ever saw of hers was Chocolat, a film I remember quite enjoying when it came out even if it was a bit frothy (it's the sort of pleasant comedy that I tend to have a lovely time with even if it's not remotely Oscar-worthy), though I will save both my brother and I the embarrassment of sharing my initial thoughts of Binoche, particularly when she shockingly bested Lauren Bacall at the Oscars.
Why the Love: Binoche is truly a superb actress, one who finds the center in pretty much every characterization she's in, and who has been, in her forties and now fifties, continually growing.  Her early work as a young, earthy beauty has transformed into a mature, confident performer, one who continually amazes even decades after she first got onto our screens.  Honestly-Binoche is one of those rare performers I'll not only see all of their movies, I'd be willing to bet I'd like the movie that holds them.
My Favorite Performance: Surely it'd have to be (my favorite?-it competes with Casablanca on a steady basis) movie The English Patient.  The way she handles line readings as the optimistic, but consistently abandoned Hana is a work of pure poetry.
Missing Piece: I've never seen Blue.  I know, I have no excuse on that one.

Joan Crawford (1904-1977)

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (Mildred Pierce)
First Impressions: Like most people younger than forty, my first impression of Crawford was clutching a wire hanger, being impersonated by Faye Dunaway in a camp classic (which I've never seen somehow, but we all know that rodeo even if we haven't caught the picture).
Why the Love: No Golden Age performer has grown more on me in recent years than Joan Crawford.  Seriously, for all of the Mommie Dearest jokes or the cracks about her shoulder pads, Crawford was a consummate movie star, and a damned fine screen presence.  Honestly-I have yet to find a film of hers where I didn't enjoy her, even if occasionally the films surrounding her border on the absurd (or more accurately in her grand guignol period, the camp).  Crawford is intensely watchable, perhaps even more so than her arch-rival (who, thanks to a fortuitous use of the alphabet, she sits right atop right now), and always holds the attention of every movie she's starring in (Joan Crawford doesn't do bit parts).
My Favorite Performance: I mean, I truly hope one of these isn't a horrible cliche, but I'm going to go with Mildred Pierce, where she's absolutely aces as a melodramatic mother (with a daughter from hell).  She won the Oscar in a bit of a surprise that year, but her victory was well-earned.  Truly, though-Joan Crawford's greatest role was pretty much always Joan Crawford.
Missing Piece: I haven't seen either of her other two Oscar-nominated turns in Possessed and Sudden Fear, so I'll go with those-arguably the two Best Actress nominations I'm most looking forward to from the late 40's/early 50's.

Bette Davis (1908-1989)

Oscar History: 10 nominations/2 wins (Dangerous and Jezebel)
First Impressions: The Kim Carnes song aside, my first introduction to Bette Davis was weirdly Jezebel.  When I first got into the Oscars I started randomly watching any film on AMC that had ever won a Big 6 trophy, which is why a twelve-year-old boy was watching a then sixty-year-old movie about a woman desperately (but unfortunately) in love with Hank Fonda.
Why the Love: Because Bette Davis doesn't take shit from anybody, and you have to admire someone like that.  You'll notice by now if you're peaking ahead that I didn't put her longtime Oscar rival Kate Hepburn on this list.  At one point she absolutely would have made this and if I expanded to 20 I probably would have found room, but Hepburn I almost never could get into when she did drama (1968 set aside).  Davis, on the other hand, was worth it whenever she was delivering a laugh or a dramatic line, and perhaps was best when she was trying to do both (Baby Jane Hudson, anyone?).  She was a consummate actress, even if the public toward the end of her career demanded a movie star, and one that echoed her tough broad persona even more than in her heyday.  Davis always delivered.
My Favorite Performance: I looked ahead-I don't always go with the cliche, so I'm here going to say the role that she was born to play (all do respect to the talented Claudette Colbert, but it wouldn't have been the same had the producers' first choice been available): Margo Channing.  Her throw-a-mink-like-a-wet-umbrella attitude was classic, and she sells all of the lines of (arguably) the best screenplay ever written with All About Eve.  A close runner-up is her desperate romantic nature in Now, Voyager, which is a much better movie than you remember it.
Missing Piece: I'm going to go with Dark Victory, the film she ended up in instead of Gone with the Wind, and the movie that many people suspect she would have clinched her third Oscar for had it not been for Vivien Leigh.

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)

Oscar History: 5 nominations/1 win (Roman Holiday)
First Impressions: Like so many, I remember loving My Fair Lady growing up, thinking it absolutely loverly.
Why the Love: Audrey Hepburn has also been someone that I've said for years is "my favorite actress" and depending on the day probably still is.  There's a quiet grace in her work, something that's hard to pinpoint but evident when she's at the top of her game.  It's not just the waif-like beauty, but also the way she presents her heartbroken self as genuine, and genuinely lonely.  I see something like Sabrina, and am flabbergasted at how good her performance is in an era where she was more likely to go into histrionics over a lost man than simply sustain a subdued facial expression.  Hepburn largely disappeared from the cinema after she set it afire for most of the 1950's and 60's, but she left a wonderful footprint.
My Favorite Performance: Sabrina Fairchild is actually pretty close to the top-it's one of those romantic comedies that works better if you slightly change the ending (Sabrina never really needed any man-just her Paris cookbooks), but I can't deny the impact that Holly Golightly has had on me.  I spent years after Breakfast at Tiffany's emulating her deep, distant love for Fred, to the point where I once walked in front of Tiffany's with a croissant, playing "Moon River" on my iPod.  Yes, that happened-the movies are my life.
Missing Piece: Arguably Hepburn is the actress I do the best on in terms of seeing all of the important works.  I am missing her Oscar-nominated turn in The Nun's Story, and while I haven't heard great things (it seems to be the weakest link in her AMPAS quintet), it's the only major film she ever made I haven't caught, so I'll go with that one.

Diane Keaton (1946-Present)

Oscar History: 4 nominations/1 win (Annie Hall, though Keaton better step it up if she's going to continue her strange only-once-a-decade Oscar streak).
First Impressions: One of my mom's all-time favorite films is Baby Boom, and we would watch it as a family on a regular basis for many a movie night-I probably still know most of it by heart.
Why the Love: Keaton's the quirky girl you desperately hope to be while forcing yourself to fit into a group of people you don't really like.  The actress is strangely good in drama (oddly enough, despite her multiple successful forays into comedy, she's actually best as a dramatic actress), imbuing her characters with a wide-eyed forcefulness, even if they don't match her actions.  She's spent years creating a honed, eccentric (and besuited) persona offscreen, but my love for her comes in the quieter, honest moments she brings to the big-screen.
My Favorite Performance: I told you I'd go off the beaten path here.  I love Annie Hall, don't get me wrong, and what a wonderful thing that she got her Oscar for Woody's magnum opus, but for me this has to go to Reds, one of the most romantic films ever made and almost certainly Warren's magnum opus as well.  I might even put Annie in third, behind Louise and then Kay Corleone, in the second installment of the series (I may or may not have done the "it was an abortion" speech every single time my brother and I were washing dishes as a kid).
Missing Piece: Here's a strange case where I've seen most of her work, including a lot of her stuff with Allen.  Perhaps Looking for Mr. Goodbar, the film that many people thought helped carry her Academy Award across the finish line?

Nicole Kidman (1967-Present)

Oscar History: 3 nominations/1 win (The Hours)
First Impressions: I believe that Nicole Kidman was one of the first actresses to ever really underscore what a sexy woman was for me, which is a weird thing for a very gay man to proclaim, but her work in Batman Forever was so glamorous, and I maintain to this day that I'd probably be into blonds if I were straight (fortunately for me I'm gay...and into redheads).
Why the Love: Kidman, after a decade of being married to Tom Cruise with only a spattering of success, managed to have one of the great second acts of movie history, pushing out a series of fine, pitch-perfect performances for auteur after auteur.  She is courageous as a performer (witness The Paperboy), gamely finding herself in pretty much every vision that is put in front of her, and is occasionally lightning in a bottle when she finds the right match for her icy, grand talents.
My Favorite Performance: Oh Satine, you are breathtaking, but I will always be looking to Virginia Woolf, waiting for the train.  I am that person who actually thought she deserved the Oscar for The Hours even in hindsight.
Missing Piece: The 2004 duo of Birth/Dogville stick out in my mind, or perhaps even the dark comedy of To Die For.  Either way, Kidman is that rare recent actress where I actually have some room to grow.

Vivien Leigh (1913-1967)

Oscar History: 2 nominations/ 2 wins (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire)
First Impressions: Strangely, it's not Scarlett, but Blanche that first made my acquaintance.  I was eleven-years-old, and I credit that screening of A Streetcar Named Desire as the exact moment that I permanently became a fan of the movies, someone who didn't just go casually but was willing to devote their life to them.
Why the Love: Because Vivien Leigh is perfect, and not just because she gave two of the world's most iconic performances.  Leigh is glamorous steel, a weird conglomerate of pixieish beauty and a dangerous, ardent performer's heart.  She also may be one of the cinema's most underrated performers.  I mean, look at some of the work that she's done-even if she just had her two most iconic creations, that'd probably be enough to be on this list, but she also found time to make a slew of romantic heroines in the 1940's that were continually excellent.
My Favorite Performance: Leigh's made some of my all-time favorite films, and while Gone with the Wind is a titanic achievement (word-choice quite purposeful) and Waterloo Bridge is one of the most romantic movies I've ever seen, nothing compares to Streetcar.  I've seen thousands of movies, tens of thousands of performances, and this is my favorite in all of film history.
Missing Piece: I'd probably go with The Deep Blue Sea, a film that I absolutely loved Rachel Weisz in a few years (I would have given her the Oscar), as I think the tortured soul having a love affair is a part Leigh was born to play.

Shirley MacLaine (1934-Present)

Oscar History: 6 nominations/1 win (Terms of Endearment...though it's worth noting one of her nominations was for directing the documentary The Other Half of the Sky)
First Impressions: My first impression of Shirley was actually not a film, and not even her belief in channelling or UFO's, but instead an ardent need to see the film Guarding Tess, which looked delightful when I would constantly pass it at our local video rental store, but I never was able to rent it (it had to have been rated PG-13, which was forbidden in my household).  Either way, I loved the sly grin she had on all of those posters and was convinced it could be a favorite movie.
Why the Love: MacLaine is one of those performers I've come to more passionately as the years have gone by, an actress that is so consistent it's hard to remember she's also consistently refreshing.  I honestly can't think of a Shirley MacLaine performance I didn't love.  I've seen other actresses on this list upstaged, but I genuinely can't remember a single MacLaine film where she isn't the best part about it-it's the fact that she's always a trouper.  While other actors of her generation slid into the laziness of playing themselves over-and-over-and-over again (cough, Al Pacino), Shirley continues to make interesting films whenever she gets the chance well into her eighties.  Man do I wish filmmakers would take advantage of her still solid timing and ability.  We deserve a Shirley moment for the ages just one more time.
My Favorite Performance: Aurora Greenway-it's that perfect combination of terrific movie, marvelous movie star turn, and damn fine acting.  It was probably a victory for MacLaine at the Oscars because "how the hell hasn't she won yet?" but it's likely she would have won anyway even if she was hunting for a second trophy as she was just that good.
Missing Piece: I'll go with The Turning Point, a film that stars not only Shirley, but actually gets her to act opposite an actress I haven't seen her with (Anne Bancroft).  Shirley's always at her best starring opposite other women (Debra Winger, Meryl Streep), so this feels like an easy answer to investigate.

Maggie Smith (1934-Present)

Oscar History: 6 nominations/2 wins (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite)
First Impressions: Maggie Smith is that rare performer who, especially for Millennials, is littered with performances you remember from childhood.  My first impression of her was actually in Hook, though, as an aging Wendy.  I thought she was wonderfully creepy and old in the role (which is saying something for the makeup department, who made her look older than she was), and it was kind of a love affair whenever I found her later on in any picture.
Why the Love: Smith's voice is where it starts.  That crisp, precise accent that only she can achieve (though countless comedians are constantly trying to parody), is so marvelous and exact.  But she's an actress that can rely on more than just her dialect.  She's someone with great feeling.  It might shock a generation of people who watched her do her "Maggie Smith schtick" in things like Downton, Harry Potter, and Best Exotic Marigold, all prim and upper-crust, to know that she once-upon-a-time was an actress that was quite sexual in her role choices and would fling herself into affairs in my favorite of her works.  Smith is the sort of presence, even if the film's not on the top of its game, I'm always more than joyful to see show up on an opening credits line.
My Favorite Performance: Undoubtedly this would have to be The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, one of those rare Best Actress wins that not only totally deserved the win, but was the exact right moment for an actor who was actually a bit of a surprise victory at the time.  It's a towering achievement if you've never had the chance to catch it, and one of my personal favorite movies.
Missing Piece: I somehow have never seen the other film that won her an Oscar in California Suite, which I'll obviously hit sometime in the OVP, but impatience may get the better of me one day and I'll move it to the top of the queue.

Meryl Streep (1949-Present)

Oscar History: 19 nominations/3 wins (Kramer vs. Kramer, Sophie's Choice, The Iron Lady)
First Impressions: I genuinely don't know what the first film starring Meryl Streep I ever saw was-I want to say it might have been Kramer or The Deer Hunter-that sounds about right as I would have seen both of those films when I was first starting to watch Oscar-winning pictures.  My first impression of her, though, was that she was an actress that was treated as something of a deity, as I remember reading an Entertainment Weekly Oscar issue in 1995 where they talked about how she could upset Susan Sarandon's expected victory as she had legions of fans at the Oscars who always voted for her (they may have been onto something there).
Why the Love: I mean, at this point naming Streep as one of your favorite actresses is like naming Michael Jordan one of your favorite basketball players-everyone has to do it.  But the point of the matter is that Streep deserves her spot in the pantheon.  Some of her work, especially when she's at the top of her game, is unmatched.  She can develop a naturalism onscreen like few others can achieve, and she's that rare multi-talented performer where it's almost hard to tell what she's best at-she can make you laugh, make you cry, she can sing like an angel and forebode with just the slightest of inflections.  All-in-all, Streep is worthy of all the hype.  After all, she can live up to it.
My Favorite Performance: For years I would have said The French Lieutenant's Woman, but I've actually had something of a resurgence this year of Streep roles (I've seen three of her Oscar-nominated turns for the first time...four if we think Florence Foster Jenkins gets there, which is looking increasingly plausible), and one of them has taken the top of the heap: Silkwood, where Streep casts aside pretty much any pretenses we have about her and just, scene-after-scene, is marvelous and exact and nails it.  A brilliant piece of work.
Missing Piece: Like I said, I'm working my way through all of Streep's Oscar-nominated turns quickly and swiftly, but I still have two left: A Cry in the Dark and One True Thing.  So I'll go with those two, but the Streep filmography gaps are closing quickly.

Kate Winslet (1975-Present)

Oscar History: 7 nominations/1 win (The Reader)
First Impressions: I actually most remember my mom talking about how much she liked her.  The 1995 Oscars were the first Academy Awards I really got into (it helped that there were several films like Apollo 13, Batman Forever, and Babe that I had actually seen which were up for a number of awards), and I recall my mom looking at the Supporting Actress lineup and proclaiming Kate Winslet the one that should have won.  As my mom dictated a lot of the movies I could see, that instantly added a huge weight in wanting to see Winslet in more films.
Why the Love: Winslet is the youngest actress on this list by nearly a decade, and so I teetered whether to include her or thinking perhaps she was still too new (and hadn't yet entered the treacherous-for-actresses period of her 40's).  Yet I can't deny the love is there, and pretty much always there.  I've seen most of Winslet's filmography, and she's one of the few women on this list I can genuinely claim I've seen every one of their Oscar-cited turns.  She's a vision, consistently, onscreen-someone who is rarely judgmental of her characters, which gives imperfect creations like Rose or Marianne or Hanna so much more weight as she portrays them on the big screen.
My Favorite Performance: I'm torn.  I think arguably her best acting role ever was Clementine in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a truly wonderful and special movie, one that will probably never be duplicated (it feels like the kind of film you only pull off once in a career), but the other half of me is screaming "TITANIC!" at the top of my lungs.  As she's the last actress listed here, I'll just say both and cheat and bravo for getting through one of my lengthier blog posts.
Missing Piece: Like I said, Winslet's a rare performer I've actually seen most of her major movies.  I'll go with her big break, though, which I haven't caught yet which is Heavenly Creatures.

There you have it-my twelve favorite actresses!  Like I said, please take some time to visit the comments section, as I'm positive you have your own list of favorite actresses, or thoughts on mine!  There's a plethora of comments directions to take, so I encourage you to do so!