OVP: Actress (2000)

OVP: Best Actress (2000)

The Nominees Were...

Joan Allen, The Contender

Juliette Binoche, Chocolat

Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream

Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me

Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich

My Thoughts: Every time we tackle one of the Oscar Viewing Project seasons, there's always 1-2 contests where I can't quite figure out what I'm going to do with the wins at the top of the season.  Sometimes, like 2001 Score or 2004 Actress, that is something I end up deciding in the moment, and still am not entirely sure I made the right decision.  Today, I feel more confident in where I'm headed, but I do think it's one of those races where I don't entirely know that I want to be on record as picking one of these performances, with three much-lauded pieces of work, above the others.

By sheer accident, we've started all of our 2000 acting races with the winner, and since this will never happen again, we'll finish that trend today by beginning with Julia Roberts.  Roberts' victory is considered by many to be about as perfect as you can get-the best combination of right actress, right time, and right role.  It's hard to argue with the logic there.  Roberts is sensational, giving a movie-star turn as the titular Erin, totally playing this for both the cheering crowds and for the discerning critics, making Erin prickly-but-lovable.  I admire the way that some of the speeches feel both off-the-cuff but rehearsed, as if Erin (and Julia) knew that this moment was coming, and have wanted to say them all of their lives.  There's a lived-in quality here that is undeniable.

The problem for Roberts is that she's also against some other great pieces-of-work.  Ellen Burstyn is giving maybe her most-celebrated (give or take The Exorcist) performance in Requiem, and it is truly something to behold.  The 1970's feminist archetype here plays a housewife with a drug addiction, and it's scary how well she incorporates failed dreams, inner-doubt, and abject loneliness into one performance.  I am not always on Darren Aronofsky's side (I think his films are difficult to watch, and sometimes head into Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-levels of despair that feel more about torturing than challenging the audience), but while Requiem is a tough sit, it's a good one, and that's due in large part to Burstyn.

While Burstyn was a comeback and Roberts a coronation, Laura Linney was an ascendance, though not to stardom (more to "elevated character actress").  Her work in You Can Count on Me is so strong.  I love the scenes where she's in the car, and she's laughing (or crying), and you just feel her Sammy as a person.  It's undeniable that much of her performance's strength comes from this authentic, marvelous chemistry she has with costar Mark Ruffalo.  It is rare to see a movie that has two actors playing siblings that feels so real, like you can't honestly believe these two haven't known each other their whole lives.  The best performances either actor have given to date.

Joan Allen in 2000 was on something of a streak, one that was about to end.  In six years, she'd amassed not only three Oscar nominations, but much-lauded work in The Ice Storm & Pleasantville that easily could've gotten her to five nods in six years.  Her work in The Contender isn't as impressive as some of the rest of that run, though.  I think this is strong stuff, but it's a lot of "girlboss" rah rah before that would become a thing.  We see her play a woman of honor in a town that wrings that from you, and her speech toward the end felt like an active play to liberal Oscar voters (or me...I'd vote for her senator too!).  But it doesn't feel like we really get to know her character-we just get to know her as an idea.

It always feels a little silly to me that Juliette Binoche, maybe our finest working actor, not only has just two Oscar nominations, but she has the latter one for a little trifle that most people mock.  That doesn't feel totally fair.  Binoche is good in Chocolat, and gives exactly what this little confection (pun intended) is meant to taste like, but it's just not a performance that deserves to be in the conversation for an Oscar.  Not every movie is supposed to be an Oscar nominee, and she lands all of her jokes, plays her character as unknowable (but still fascinating), but it's...this is not the sort of Grade A bubble gum that we complain about missing out at Oscar...one of the few times he nominates this, and it's not something totally refreshing like Clueless or When Harry Met Sally.  Still, on some level I'm glad that Binoche got a nomination since she's deserved this at least four times since (and multiple times before).

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes separate their nominations between Drama and Musical/Comedy, so we have ten women nominated for these awards.  For Drama, Roberts won, beating out Allen, Burstyn, Linney, and Bjork (Dancer in the Dark), while for Comedy/Musical Binoche actually lost to Renee Zellweger (Nurse Betty), the rare time the Globe winner bested an Oscar nominee; also in contention were Brenda Blethyn (Saving Grace), Sandra Bullock (Miss Congeniality), and Tracey Ullman (Small Time Crooks).  SAG went with the exact same lineup (and winner) as Oscar, while BAFTA got crazy, giving their statue to Roberts, but she beat Binoche, Kate Hudson (Almost Famous), Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), & Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry)...a year after Swank won the Oscar.  In sixth place, it's surely Zellweger, but I'll be honest-this was one of those "locked up tight" Best Actress lineups that no one was going to break.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: The Oscars have been criticized, frequently correctly, for ignoring the achievements of Asian actors.  22 years before she won an Oscar for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh would become the textbook example of this when she couldn't get a nomination for Best Picture nominee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a nomination she more-than-earned.

Oscar’s Choice: The internet will occasionally convince itself that Burstyn was a threat here, but she was not.  This was Julia's time-one of the biggest locks this category has ever seen.

My Choice: This is a good moment to remind readers that the Oscar Viewing Project is a multi-decade experiment I'm doing, where I pick only the winner in a vacuum, meaning that I don't think about outside factors (like if they've already won) to see if I make the same mistakes as the Academy, even if that means an actor I like (and a performance I'd be proud to see win a statue) never takes home the gold.  In real life, I probably would've voted for Julia too, because I am not immune to a narrative.  But if we're talking the best performance in this lineup, it's Laura Linney, and she's going to get my statue atop Roberts and then Burstyn (all three are showing up in my My Ballot next week), even if that means Roberts, the biggest actress of her era, will probably never win an OVP.  Behind them are Binoche, and finally Joan Allen.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Do you think that Roberts is genuinely the best of this lineup, or (in a vacuum) do you want to stand with Linney (or Burstyn)?  Do you think considering previous wins or career longevity is a good or bad way to handle close Oscar races with a lot of worthy contenders (like this year)?  And does it tick you off as well that Michelle Yeoh had to wait so long for her Oscar nomination?  Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Also in 2000: Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2000

Past Best Actress Contests: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: Supporting Actress (2004)

OVP: Best Supporting Actress (2004)

The Nominees Were...

Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

Laura Linney, Kinsey

Virginia Madsen, Sideways

Sophie Okonedo, Hotel Rwanda

Natalie Portman, Closer

My Thoughts: We continue our week devoted to the supporting nominees of 2004 with the actresses.  I remember the 2004 Oscar race for a variety of reasons, but one of the main reasons that I do was because it was the first Oscar season ever that I had seen all of the Big 6 contenders on Oscar night (I want to say I hadn't seen 1-2 nominees on Oscar nominations announcement, specifically Vera Drake and Maria Full of Grace, but my memory only serves me so far here).  As a result, I had a lot of opinions going into this race, probably some more fully-felt than I might have had in retrospect (since it was the first Oscar race where I not only followed, but could have opinions about everything).  This was truest in Supporting Actress, where two of the nominated roles standout as pretty inconsequential (and so much lesser than the other three) that I remember being actively angry at their inclusion in a way that I am not in retrospect, having seen far greater sins the further I've gotten into the Academy's archives.  That being said, we'll cover those two first as they aren't really important to the conversation of the "best" of the year.

Sophie Okonedo won her first (and to date, only) Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda in 2004.  This is an intense film, with very little levity & is exceedingly grim.  It's also a movie with not enough character development for my taste, and that is most evident in the role that Okonedo is supposed to play.  She is oftentimes asked to scream or cry in the movie, but otherwise there's nothing there other than a devoted wife.  She doesn't lend much more to what's happening onscreen, and feels too big for the part (the best thing I've ever seen her in was her work in the recent Broadway revival of The Crucible-her acting style is much more at-home on the stage), playing for the rafters more than providing subtlety.  It's the kind of performance Oscar oftentimes goes for regardless of quality, but it's not a worthy inclusion.

Neither is Laura Linney, a brilliant actor & one of my favorites from her generation who gets the least of her Oscar citations with Kinsey.  Linney, like Okonedo, has to play the doting wife for most of the film.  This was in the era where it felt like Linney was on the verge of an Oscar nomination (think Joan Allen in the 1990's)-not a star, exactly, but someone that you should pay attention to because this could be building to a big statue moment.  That didn't happen (though she has plenty of Emmys at this point), and you kind of get why with the Kinsey nomination, where the Academy cited her for being a warm screen presence, but nothing more than that-the script has no interest in her as we explore Kinsey's bisexuality further, and she feels less-than-consequential to the resolution.

The remaining three are all triumphs, though.  Natalie Portman plays the part of Jane, the closest thing that Closer has to a moral compass, very close-to-the-vest.  It's the toughest part in the quartet to play, mostly because she must remain unknowable (and yet knowable upon rewatch), a trick that is part the script but mostly what she's bringing to the role.  Portman doesn't make her an ingenue or try to dumb down the part, which would've been an instinctual read but taken away from the ending of the film-her Jane was in control the whole time, not just learning a lesson from the men she surrounded herself with.  It's smart, cool performing from an actress officially graduating from child star into a proper adult thespian.

Cate Blanchett has the advantage of playing Oscar's favorite leading lady, Katharine Hepburn (Meryl can say what she will, but she doesn't have four acting Oscars yet, does she?).  Blanchett owns this part, adopting a perfect Connecticut accent, and finding a way to balance Hepburn's onscreen persona.  It's very difficult to play a famous actor like this, one whose private life was hidden from us (Hepburn is not Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley, just as well-known at this point offstage as on), but whose public face is embedded in our memories.  She gives the movie a jolt of electricity, and a tenderness to Hepburn, a woman in love, but not willing to sacrifice herself for a man who might destroy her.  This was the exact right time in Blachett's career to get her an Oscar, so it's a treat that it's for such a great piece of work.

Similar to her costar Thomas Haden Church, nothing about Virginia Madsen's career heading into Sideways seemed to indicate an eventual date with Oscar.  Her biggest successes were in the 1980's & early 90's in films like Dune, Fire with Fire, and Candyman.  But given this role, she shows what genius can look like when you take a chance on a performer who has been under-utilized.  Her Maya is a difficult part-playing someone world-weary but not necessarily jaded is a tough balancing act to maintain, but she does it so well.  That epic monologue about the "life of wine" would be obnoxious in the mouth of someone less earnest, but she so fully commits to this role it's difficult not to root for her, easily the best part of this acting ensemble.  A total home-run.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes stayed pretty close to the Oscars with their nominations, only excluding Okonedo in favor of Meryl Streep (The Manchurian Candidate), though their winner was Natalie Portman.  SAG went with Blanchett as their victor, and similar to Best Supporting Actor, hurt Portman's chances by not nominating her at all (there must be a story on Closer being a complete bust with SAG that I don't know about as it missing entirely with that cast feels strange) and instead favoring Cloris Leachman (Spanglish).  BAFTA also gave their trophy to Blanchett, here favoring only Portman from Oscar's lineup, going instead with Streep, Heather Craney (Vera Drake), and Julie Christie (Finding Neverland).  Conventional wisdom would dictate that Streep was in sixth place, but considering Finding Neverland's strength (and that movie's less-than-stellar reviews) I'm inclined to disagree, and think that Kate Winslet for Finding Neverland nearly landed this field (she plays a dying mother in period clothing in a Best Picture nominee...she was in the hunt).

Actors I Would Have Nominated: If the Oscars were going to take the time to cite Virginia Madsen, a product of the 1980's with a well-earned nomination, they might have continued that trend by also recognizing Darryl Hannah.  Her Elle Driver in Kill Bill, Volume 2 is perfection-the exact kind of scene-stealing work that would surely have gotten a nomination in Tarantino's later years, but warranted it even in a field like 2004.

Oscar’s Choice: Portman's momentum stalled after the SAG miss, the Oscar was Blanchett's for the taking (and she did).

My Choice: There are a few cardinal rules for the OVP, chief among them is that you don't consider any other race when picking the winner-you focus solely on the five performances at hand, and don't worry about if someone already has a trophy or if you know there's a trophy coming to them.  If I were considering such things, I might be inclined to go with Virginia Madsen, who is just superb in Sideways and I know will never get a role like this again.  But if I'm being honest, I think Cate Blanchett is slightly more successful in The Aviator, and deserves this trophy even if I know she's already got an OVP title.  Behind these two are Portman, Linney, and Okonedo, in that order.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Is everyone on Team Cate when it comes to this field, or do you want to make the case for a different lady?  Why is it that Oscar is so obsessed with the "devoted wife" role (is it just sexism, or is there something more to it)?  And which of Oscar's frequent favorites (Winslet or Streep) nearly added to their tallies in 2004 with a just-miss sixth place?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2004: 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 Supporting Actress Contests: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

Oscar's Long-Suffering Bridesmaids

Glenn Close-will she go 0/7?

We are in the heat of precursor season, and while these awards are relatively pointless if all they're doing is trying to predict the Academy Awards, let's be honest-that seems to be what most of them are doing.  If that's the case, we could be looking at yet another year where Glenn Close & Amy Adams are trying to secure their long-awaited Oscars, and I thought "wait, Oscar trivia...there must be some way that I can turn that into a list!" and lo-and-behold, I was right.

A couple of things can be true about the Oscars at once-it's very hard to be nominated for an Oscar and if you're nominated once, it's likely going to be your only nomination.  However, if you can get in a couple of times, it's probable that you're also going to get a trophy.  There's almost certainly a mathematical explanation here (you can only have so many years where you've got a "20% shot of winning" and not actually win), but it's rarer, especially for living actors, for you to be nominated 3+ times and not have an actual trophy.  For women, there are currently only fifteen actresses to hold this distinction, two of them being Close & Adams.  Were they to die without having ever won, they would join a small group of actresses ranging from Irene Dunne to Thelma Ritter to Deborah Kerr, but it's a short list.  Only 11 women have ever been nominated for at least three competitive Oscars and died without winning one, so it's very probable that most of the women on this list eventually take home a trophy.  Let's take a look and guess how many will actually win, and see who has come the closest to Oscar, shall we?

Note: These are ranked first by how many nominations an actress made, and then by who most-recently got her latest nomination.

15. Saoirse Ronan (1994-Present)

Nominations: Atonement (Supporting Actress in 2007), Brooklyn (Actress in 2015), & Lady Bird (Actress in 2017)
She Lost To: Tilda Swinton, Brie Larson, & Frances McDormand
Closest to the Win: Maybe Atonement?  Brooklyn is more likely that she got second place, but Larson was so far-out-in-front that year that 2007, which was a genuine question mark headed into Oscar night, might have actually been her closest.
Well, She Still Won...: Ronan lost the Oscar for Lady Bird, but she still won the Golden Globe that year (and let's be honest, should have won the Oscar).
Is This Happening Someday?: She's 24 and already a three-time nominee who appears almost constantly in Oscar BAIT-y projects (just this year she's playing a queen who spends most of the film giving passionate speeches).  This is the easiest call of the bunch-she's probably going to win, likely in the next 4-5 years.

14. Laura Linney (1964-Present)

Nominations: You Can Count on Me (Actress in 2000), Kinsey (Supporting Actress in 2004), & The Savages (Actress in 2007)
She Lost to: Julia Roberts, Cate Blanchett & Marion Cotillard
Closest to the Win: None of these were particularly close.  The Savages was a shock nomination, and no one could beat Julia in 2000, so it's probably 2004, though she would have had to get through Natalie Portman & Virginia Madsen to even have a shot at Blanchett.
Well, She Still Won...: Linney wins Emmys, not Oscars.  Linney has been nominated for five Emmys, and taken home four of them (her only loss came to Melissa McCarthy in 2011, where she famously stood on the stage in a mock-beauty-pageant), and she's also picked up two Golden Globes, though again for her TV work, not film.
Is This Happening Someday?: Probably not.  Linney isn't as famous as Adams or Julianne Moore, where she could launch a campaign out-of-nowhere and suddenly she'd be on a stampede to Oscar, and she doesn't really make the sorts of movies that get this kind of attention, particularly with TV being considerably kinder in terms of fame than movies ever have been (she's currently starring on the acclaimed Ozark for Netflix).  Never say never for a 3+ nominee, but I don't see this happening.

13. Joan Allen (1956-Present)

Nominations: Nixon (Supporting Actress in 1995), The Crucible (Supporting Actress in 1996), & The Contender (Actress in 2000)
She Lost to: Mira Sorvino, Juliette Binoche & Julia Roberts
Closest to the Win: Surely it was Nixon, where a win was actually very much in the cards (that year was a threeway heat between Sorvino, Allen, and Kate Winslet for Sense & Sensibility).
Well, She Still Won...: While her long list of screen credits have gotten her a lot of nominations, the only major award that Allen has ever won was for her years on Broadway, taking the Tony for Best Actress in 1988's Burn This.
Is This Happening Someday?: Amy Adams, take note, as Joan Allen could very easily be your future.  From 1995-2005, Allen regularly appeared in major contenders (in addition to her three nominations, she plausibly could have been cited for The Ice Storm, Pleasantville, and The Upside of Anger), but the roles dried up as did the Academy's love of her, and she couldn't even get a surprise nomination in 2015 for playing a struggling mother in a Best Picture nominee (which would have been a gimme back in her heyday).  I don't think she is a priority for Oscar anymore.

12. Debra Winger (1955-Present)

Nominations: An Officer and a Gentleman (Actress in 1982), Terms of Endearment (Actress in 1983), and Shadowlands (Actress in 1993)
She Lost to: Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, & Holly Hunter
Closest to the Win: Probably none of these.  In a different world where Sophie's Choice didn't exist I could make an argument that she could take it for Officer and a Gentleman (her career was sort of inching to an Oscar at that point, and Lange didn't need two), but she had three really impossible-to-beat actresses she had to go toe-to-toe with during her three AMPAS competitions.
Well, She Still Won...: Winger is perhaps the only actress on this list to never win a major award of any kind.  She's picked up a couple of critics prizes, but despite Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Emmy nominations, she's never won any of them.
Is This Happening Someday?: No.  Winger famously quit acting in the 1990's, inspiring the film Searching for Debra Winger, and she still has the goods to deliver a role (she was superb in 2008's Rachel Getting Married), but there's no momentum for her to win again, and she was famous for too brief of a period in the 1980's to have a "she needs an Oscar!" movement from the public.

11. Michelle Pfeiffer (1958-Present)

Nominations: Dangerous Liaisons (Supporting Actress in 1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (Actress in 1989), & Love Field (Actress in 1992)
She Lost to: Geena Davis, Jessica Tandy & Emma Thompson
Closest to the Win: I'd assume it would be Fabulous Baker Boys, where she was the only real competition for Tandy, and had won a host of precursors that year, likely meriting the win over Tandy, who was the sentimental favorite.
Well, She Still Won...: Pfeiffer took the Golden Globe for Baker Boys as well as a BAFTA Awards for Dangerous Liaisons, so she's hardly lacking in hardware.
Is This Happening Someday?: Unlike some of our previous actresses, Pfeiffer still has a great deal of pop culture cache, and is the sort of person who is famous enough to launch a Still Alice-style campaign and actually pull it off.  One has to assume that if mother! hadn't divided critics so last year that she could have snuck in for a fourth nomination (and with Russia House, The Age of Innocence, and White Oleander as near misses, a fourth nomination has been in the cards for a while).  She's notoriously press shy & doesn't make a lot of movies, but the fame is still there if she wanted to make a run for this, and quite honestly she's the level-of-famous that she could someday take an Honorary Oscar.

10. Diane Ladd (1935-Present)

Nominations: Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Supporting Actress in 1974), Wild at Heart (Supporting Actress in 1990), and Rambling Rose (Supporting Actress in 1991)
She Lost to: Ingrid Bergman, Whoopi Goldberg, & Mercedes Ruehl
Closest to the Win: Bergman's win in 1974 seems to have been something of a surprise, with the precursors all-over-the-map, but they do somewhat hint that Ladd was a probable favorite here along with Valentina Cortese, so I think her first outing was her best option.
Well, She Still Won...: Ladd won the BAFTA Award for Alice..., and then took a Golden Globe Award for the TV series based on Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, called Alice.
Is This Happening Someday?: I'd say no considering her age and her stature as a character actress, but if her daughter Laura Dern can get a revival for her father, why couldn't she get one last hurrah for mom?  Ladd clearly has wanted this for a while (her campaign to get a nomination for Wild at Heart is the stuff of Oscar legend).

9. Sigourney Weaver (1949-Present)

Nominations: Aliens (Actress in 1986), Gorillas in the Mist (Actress in 1988), & Working Girl (Supporting Actress in 1988)
She Lost to: Marlee Matlin, Jodie Foster, & Geena Davis
Closest to the Win: Weaver became the first actor ever to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year and lose both of them (since then it's happened three times, though only once, 2002 with Julianne Moore, did the Oscars doubly-snub someone who hadn't won before).  I would assume considering that 1988 had two winners that were somewhat surprising at the time that her best shot was that year, and perhaps she split her own vote too much to take it.
Well, She Still Won...: Weaver won both of the Golden Globes in 1988, a flip of her eventual Oscar night, and also took home the BAFTA for 1997's The Ice Storm (starring #13 on our list, Joan Allen).
Is This Happening Someday?: While she's not really famous enough to ever win an Honorary Oscar, she still is famous enough from her work in the Alien franchise to demand attention, and could get a fourth nomination if she had the right kind of movie.  Considering she's one of the few actors patient enough to work with Jim Cameron more-than-once, he owes her another juicy role in a movie at some point, if he ever stops making the nonexistent Avatar sequels.

8. Piper Laurie (1932-Present)

Nominations: The Hustler (Actress in 1961), Carrie (Supporting Actress in 1976), & Children of a Lesser God (Supporting Actress in 1986)
She Lost to: Sophia Loren, Beatrice Straight & Dianne Wiest
Closest to the Win: I'm genuinely not sure.  All of these nominations predate my involvement with the Oscars, and I haven't read any of these races as being particularly close.  Were it 2018 when The Hustler came out, she surely would have won Best Supporting Actress for the movie, denying Rita Moreno her iconic win, and proving why category fraud is so dangerous as one of Oscar's best choices would be ruled out as a result.
Well, She Still Won...: Laurie took an Emmy for 1987's Promise and won a Golden Globe in 1990 for Twin Peaks.
Is This Happening Someday?: Laurie still acts (she's seen in the Matthew McConaughey film White Boy Rick this year), but has never been a consistent presence in film, frequently taking long detours on the stage (she didn't appear in a Hollywood movie from The Hustler to Carrie), so I doubt it.  She's not well-known enough to win an Honorary Award, so I'm guessing her next mention with AMPAS will be at the In Memoriam (morbid, but accurate).

7. Angela Lansbury (1925-Present)

Nominations: Gaslight (Supporting Actress in 1944), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Supporting Actress in 1945), & The Manchurian Candidate (Supporting Actress in 1962)
She Lost to: Ethel Barrymore, Anne Revere, & Patty Duke (don't you love that there's still someone living who once competed against Ethel Barrymore?)
Closest to the Win: Lansbury was the heavy favorite for her dragon-lady mother in 1962's The Manchurian Candidate, but she had to go against Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker, which is pretty much a lead role and a sympathetic one at that, so she ended up losing as a result (Duke's very good in the movie, but nowhere near as marvelous as Lansbury).
Well, She Still Won...: Lansbury won an Honorary Oscar in 2013 for her body-of-work, a well-deserved honor that the Emmys should duplicate considering her 18 nods without a win there.  She also has five Tony Awards & six Golden Globes...Lansbury has a complicated history with awards ceremonies, with some adoring her while others consistently keep her in her seat.
Is This Happening Someday?: The Honorary Award was a great nod from Hollywood to one of its most enduring stars, but it was also an indication that Lansbury's time in the competitive categories is over.

6. Michelle Williams (1980-Present)

Nominations: Brokeback Mountain (Supporting Actress in 2005), Blue Valentine (Actress in 2010), My Week with Marilyn (Actress in 2011), & Manchester by the Sea (Supporting Actress in 2016)
She Lost to: Rachel Weisz, Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, & Viola Davis
Closest to the Win: Probably her first at-bat?  The other films had pretty strong frontrunners, but 2005 could have gone a few different ways, including toward Williams as the "long-suffering wife."
Well, She Still Won...: Williams picked up the Globe for her work in My Week with Marilyn (I remember Seth Rogen making fun of the "hilarious" movie while presenting and then having to sheepishly hand the statue over to his Take This Waltz costar).
Is This Happening Someday?: Only 13 women have been nominated four or more times for acting without actually winning a trophy, so we're entering very good odds territory, especially for someone who works as often as Williams who has made the move from leading lady to supporting parts relatively seamlessly.  She's admittedly turning forty in a couple of years so it'd be smart to score soon, but this is still achievable.

5. Annette Bening (1958-Present)

Nominations: The Grifters (Supporting Actress in 1990), American Beauty (Actress in 1999), Being Julia (Actress in 2004), & The Kids Are All Right (Actress in 2010)
She Lost to: Whoopi Goldberg, Hilary Swank, Hilary Swank (again), & Natalie Portman
Closest to the Win: I distinctly remember there being a lot of conversation in 1999, when Bening was just north of 40, that "it's time" for her to win for American Beauty, which she didn't do but had to be close.  While in hindsight that was ridiculous considering the body-of-work she's put out since, it has to be noted that women around the age of 40 frequently have their flourishing acting careers disappear if they can't transition into playing the grittier, indy films that Hollywood's sexism relegates them toward.
Well, She Still Won...: Bening took home the BAFTA for American Beauty (Boys Don't Cry feels a more "American" story than American Beauty, so this makes sense though it's weird they didn't go with Julianne Moore for the "more British" End of the Affair), and nabbed Golden Globes for both Being Julia and The Kids Are All Right.
Is This Happening Someday?: Yeah, I think it is, though it's probably going to have to be supporting.  While Bening has missed in the past two years, she scored major precursor nominations (Globes & BAFTA) proving the love is still there, and she's the rare actress in her sixties that still headlines movies.  I think she's quite likely to get this, and it doesn't hurt that she's married to Hollywood Royalty, as Warren will clearly push for his wife to win this if she's close.

4. Jane Alexander (1939-Present)

Nominations: The Great White Hope (Actress in 1970), All the President's Men (Supporting Actress in 1976), Kramer vs. Kramer (Supporting Actress in 1979), and Testament (Actress in 1983)
She Lost to: Glenda Jackson, Beatrice Straight, Meryl Streep, & Shirley MacLaine
Closest to the Win: Straight was a big upset in 1976, with most people assuming the trophy would go to Alexander or Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver.  Her other three options she wasn't one of the main contenders, so I think this was her best option even though it's not the most memorable of parts in All the President's Men.
Well, She Still Won...: Alexander took home the Tony for the stage version of The Great White Hope and won Emmys for her work in Playing for Time and Warm Springs.
Is This Happening Someday?: No, I don't think so.  Alexander still works regularly, but mostly in TV (I'd totally buy that she has another Emmy win in her), and was never a household name in the way that Bening is, so there's less pressure to give her an Honorary trophy.

3. Marsha Mason (1942-Present)

Nominations: Cinderella Liberty (Actress in 1973), The Goodbye Girl (Actress in 1977), Chapter Two (Actress in 1979), & Only When I Laugh (Actress in 1981)
She Lost to: Glenda Jackson, Diane Keaton, Sally Field, & Katharine Hepburn
Closest to the Win: It's hard to tell, but it'd be one of her first two nominations.  Jackson's win in 1973 was considered a big surprise (if you've never seen the looks of shock and not-so-veiled disgust on Mason's, Joanne Woodward's, and Ellen Burstyn's faces when Jackson won at the 1973 Oscars, do yourself a favor).  Mason seemed happier being beaten by Diane Keaton, though considering the Annie Hall wins weren't a foregone conclusion that night (Mason & Jane Fonda were both in the running), she might have just been acting.
Well, She Still Won...: Mason picked up Golden Globes for both Cinderella Liberty & The Goodbye Girl, but is one Tony nomination away from having been nominated for every leg of the EGOT but not winning any of them (only Lynn Redgrave has ever pulled off this feat).  Considering how often she treads the boards, this is not out of the question (weirdly Redgrave also won two Golden Globes in her career).
Is This Happening Someday?: Doubtful.  Mason is very active, one could argue more active than even Alexander, but her days as a leading woman are largely forgotten by modern audiences, and so there's no way for her to easily get in on pop culture cache.  She'd need to land a really good film role, which is tough for a woman nearing eighty.

2. Amy Adams (1974-Present)

Nominations: Junebug (Supporting Actress in 2005), Doubt (Supporting Actress in 2008), The Fighter (Supporting Actress in 2010), The Master (Supporting Actress in 2012), & American Hustle (Supporting Actress in 2013)
She Lost to: Rachel Weisz, Penelope Cruz, Melissa Leo, Anne Hathaway, & Cate Blanchett
Closest to the Win: I don't think Adams has ever actually been close to a win.  Her best shot would have been in 2013, where she was competing against four former winners so a movement to "make her one of the club" was definitely possible, but it never panned out.  She's more consistently in 4th place when she's nominated.
Well, She Still Won...: Adams took an expected Golden Globe for American Hustle and then a shock win for Big Eyes (she clearly hadn't prepared even a "I can't believe I won" speech that year).
Is This Happening Someday?: Only five women have gotten to the 5+ club without taking home a competitive trophy, so Adams is in rare company if she never wins, but I kind of think she will.  Her fame and age indicate it should happen soon, and Oscar's love of her may be waning (she missed for Big Eyes & Arrival despite ample precursor attention), but Vice this year has a solid recipe for a trophy (supporting part, biopic, showy work) if its reviews don't bury her chances alive.

1. Glenn Close (1947-Present)

Nominations: The World According to Garp (Supporting Actress in 1982), The Big Chill (Supporting Actress in 1983), The Natural (Supporting Actress in 1984), Fatal Attraction (Actress in 1987), Dangerous Liaisons (Actress in 1988), & Albert Nobbs (Actress in 2011)
She Lost to: Jessica Lange, Linda Hunt, Peggy Ashcroft, Cher, Jodie Foster, & Meryl Streep
Closest to the Win: In 1988, Close was the frontrunner for this win.  Most people assumed she'd take it after a decade of headlining major films, perhaps joining Sigourney Weaver on the stage (getting two women off of this list), but Jodie Foster pulled off the upset, and Close would have to wait another 23 years before she finally was invited back to the Oscars.
Well, She Still Won...: Close has won two Golden Globes, three Emmys, and a trio of Tony Awards-the only thing left to cap off an incredible career would be an Oscar...
Is This Happening Someday?: Close joins Thelma Ritter & Deborah Kerr as the only actresses to ever hit six nominations and never win the Oscar.  As a result, it's hard not to see a movement happening for her if she gets a citation this year since she'd be in uncharted territory for a woman if she got seven nods & never won.  In a normal year, I'd argue that Olivia Colman or Lady Gaga or even Emily Blunt would have more steam than Close's quiet, introverted turn in The Wife, but that's the sort of performance that eventually won Geraldine Page her Oscar too after losing seven times previously (though Close is better than Page was in The Trip to Bountiful), and honestly at this point the movie behind her name might not matter-they are likely just voting for Glenn Close, Oscar Winner, at that point.  I think if she gets in there's a very strong possibility the Oscars decide to avoid another Richard Burton situation and just gives her the trophy.  If not, expect an Honorary Oscar soon, though Close famously wants this so I doubt she settles for an Honorary if she can help it.

OVP: Actress (2007)

OVP: Best Actress (2007)

The Nominees Were...

Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney, The Savages
Ellen Page, Juno

My Thoughts: It's strange to think that one of my favorite categories at the Oscars, the Best Actress field, was so atypically weak in one of Oscar's best years (by far the finest of the ones we've profiled so far), but it's hard not to look at the above photos and realize that 2007 wasn't a high water-mark for this category when remembering these performances as a collective.  Surely these are all good actresses, with all but one of them nominated for another film in addition to 2007, but it's hard to look at anyone here as doing the best work of their career save Page, who hasn't really done anything since that can compare.  Either way, I profile through the good and the bad, and there is admittedly some good to be had here, particularly when it comes to Julie Christie's brief comeback vehicle in Away from Her.

Comeback is probably the wrong term for Christie, however, as this was hardly a marked return and in a way many thought she'd simply retire from acting after this (considering the dearth of good movie roles she had in the following years, perhaps that would have been for the best).  Christie's Fiona is a thing of beauty, as is her performance.  I love the way she still uses certain attributes that are innate to her (her beauty, her charm, her confidence) far after her memories have started to fade.  The performance is at once very cerebral and physical, and she uses her movie star quality to quickly connect to the audience, Lara disappearing before our eyes.  I love the chemistry she has with Pinsent, and how she still comes of age even as her life is slipping away.  It's a breathtaking, raw performance and one of her best, a great testament to how certain actors never lose their gifts.

Her main competitor for the Oscar at the time seemed to be Marion Cotillard, who was the ingenue in the field and ended up being a major, major talent in the years that followed, taking on the baton that Juliette Binoche had left in terms of "French actress that American audiences are enamored with."  Cotillard is one of my favorite performers of the past decade, but I'll be the first person to admit that I didn't really get this, and I think it's the least of her celebrated roles.  She physically takes on Edith Piaf, but it borders into the hammy, and I don't really think I know Piaf the consummate professional, as Cotillard plays her more as a freak-of-nature style singer, someone who can belt to the rafters but is otherwise a figure of constant tragedy.  She isn't helped by the movie being standard-fare "famous musician biopic," but this is just a large performance, not a particularly good one.  Add in that the best part of her performance, the singing, is done by Piaf and not by her and I will admit this leaves me lacking.

Another world-class actress giving a performance that screams to the heavens is Cate Blanchett.  Our double nominee (she was just in our Supporting Actress lineup), this is hardly the master class of acting that I'm Not There shows itself to be, instead Blanchett becomes a massive tower of camp at her best, and hammily sunk by a self-important script at worst.  Her best actual acting is the film's light comedy bits, particularly those involving her being courted by foreign princes, and I will admit it's fun to watch her scenery-chewing when she gives speeches like "I too can command the winds sir!", but this is not great acting or a performance that should be celebrated outside of an episode of Drag Race.  Even Blanchett herself appeared somewhat embarrassed by the nomination when the clip played at the Oscars that year.  Let's chalk it up to Cate love and remember she genuinely earned most of her other nominations.

Laura Linney had previously lost to Blanchett in 2004 for Kinsey, and she went home empty-handed yet again for The Savages.  This film was just so-so but I remember being truly struck by Linney's Wendy at the time, the way that she plays her as someone who has a completely different internal vision of herself than what she projects to the world and what she actually was.  It's a difficult part to play, and she inhabits years of disappointment with her life onscreen with refreshing honesty-Wendy is a character you root for, but one that you're uncomfortable with their decisions, and Linney knows that.  Linney hasn't really done anything onscreen that remotely approaches this work (keeping her best stuff for television), but this is a reminder of what a dynamic powerhouse of an actor she can be when given the chance.

Finally we have Ellen Page, playing the iconic Juno in the self-titled film.  Page does such a sure job taking on Diablo Cody's very specific script that I worried for a while after this performance that she'd be typecast (this was not the case, in fact she's never played a part similar), as it's a very confident, extroverted performance that wears well on re-viewing.  I did feel at times that Page gets lost in the words, not entirely understanding where Juno herself is coming from in a scene or whether she's just playing off of the script, but her best scenes, particularly that great final monologue about Jennifer Garner's character and her sublime interactions with Allison Janney and JK Simmons, are what make this movie work so well and make her performance so special.  She may never do anything quite this sensational again, but it's a cool nomination.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Globes of course split their nominations between Drama and Comedy/Musical, but even though that happened weirdly Laura Linney was nowhere to be seen (they clearly had caught the picture as Philip Seymour Hoffman had been cited for the film in Best Actor).  Christie emerged victorious in Drama over Blanchett, Keira Knightley (Atonement), Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), and Jodie Foster (The Brave One), while Cotillard was the champion in Comedy/Musical (emphasis on the musical in her case, as La Vie en Rose struggles for even a single laugh), besting Page, Amy Adams (Enchanted), Helena Bonham Carter (Sweeny Todd), and Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray).  BAFTA also threw out Linney, keeping in Knightley (Cotillard won), while the SAG Awards favored Jolie over Linney (Christie won).  All-in-all, I remember at the time that Jolie was the shocking exclusion for A Mighty Heart, but don't forget how rare it is for women to miss for Best Picture nominees-Knightley was probably closer than we initially considered.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: I definitely would have included Knightley if I were making this list.  Her performance in Atonement is classic full-bodied, breathy Keira as we know and love her, and I'm just a huge fan in general, but I'd argue this is her best performance to date (she was the threat for my own personal win that year, coming in second).  I also think it's bizarre considering the Academy's love for Amy Adams that they skipped over one of her more iconic roles, as Princess Giselle is a delightful skewering of Disney all-the-while keeping her character likable and real in her own reality.  It's not the sort of thing that ever gets nominated, save for Mary Poppins, but it should have been.  Finally, we have Tang Wei, who gave a sultry, sexy, and marvelous performance in Lust, Caution, and then was banned from acting for a few years by the Chinese government.  The performance itself was worthy enough, that she was later banned from acting was a heinous act of censorship, and it'd have been nice if AMPAS had killed two birds with one stone by nominating her, as she was worthy AND it would have struck a blow to governments banning art.

Oscar’s Choice: 2007 was a genuinely close race.  Cotillard and Christie dominated the precursors, but I do recall Page getting a last-minute push from the press to take the trophy.  Cotillard won, in what was yet another "deglam" victory in 2007, but I think the other two were nipping at her heels.

My Choice: A pretty easy victory for Julie Christie, the only performance I truly loved of this bunch. I'll follow her up with Linney, Page, Blanchett, and Cotillard in back.

Those are my thoughts, but now I want to hear yours!  Are you with me in the Team Christie camp or are your Edith Piaf records doing a scratch right about now?  Anyone think that Ellen Page will ever get another nomination, or is she in the one-and-done club forever?  And was it Knightley or Jolie that was in sixth place?  Sound off in the comments!

Also in 2007: 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, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2007

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

OVP: Sully (2016)

Film: Sully (2016)
Stars: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn, Mike O'Malley
Director: Clint Eastwood
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Sound Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

I always feel lately like I'm catching up from something-do you ever feel like that?  Where month after month for a long stretch of time, you're consistently behind in every aspect of your life, and wonder how it is that the other human beings in your life, seemingly just as capable but flawed as yourself, manage to somehow do everything in their lives with relative ease while you struggle in so many of your goals?  Well, this is to say that I'm going to try to glue myself to this computer for the afternoon (give or take a coffee date) and get some of the nearly twenty film reviews that are staring back at me from my to do list out of the way, and onto this blog.  We're going to start with a film that needs no spoiler alert since we literally all know what happened since it was plastered across our televisions for weeks in early 2009: the story of the Miracle on the Hudson.

It's hard to know what possessed Clint Eastwood, who with this film likely became the oldest person ever to direct a major American motion picture and have it issued in wide release (I've been trying incessantly to figure out if there's someone else that can approach Clint's record, so if there is I'll be beholden to you in the comments if you share it there).  After all, this is about as straight-forward of a story as you can imagine coming into a movie theater.  Sully Sullenberger accomplished the seemingly impossible, somehow saving the lives of 155 people when his plane was hit by a flock of geese, and then he landed in the middle of January on the Hudson River.  It's a fascinating story, one that makes for a harrowing interview with Katie Couric, but hardly one that felt worthy of a ninety minute movie.

At least that was my thought heading into the film, and really where I went with it as the motion picture progressed.  The film handles the exact crash with ease, even if the recent Denzel Washington picture Flight, which you'll recall I didn't enjoy, is far more exhilarating in this regard.  There are moments when you realize that this is an actual plane, in the middle of the Hudson River, that is slowly but steadily filling with water-you think getting through the crash is the hard part, but now you're on a giant medal bus in the middle of this large body of water-Eastwood does a fine job of keeping what should be a pretty dull series of scenes (since we know everyone survives from the news) sharp and crisp.

Everything else about the film, however, is an utter and embarrassing disaster.  That crash is thirty minutes of fine craftsmanlike movie-making, but when Eastwood tries to stretch the film, you can feel it being pulled.  This is a ninety minute movie that feels roughly an hour too long.  The scenes with the NTSB investigators are appallingly bad, with Eastwood's deep distrust of any sort of government oversight in his own politics creating a cartoonish villainy in these individuals, who approach their jobs as people trying to bring down a hero, even though there's little basis of that in fact.  It also serves very little purpose except to make the story a battle between one man's instincts and the government trying to bring him down.  I've complained in the past that there needs to be a place for conservative politics at the cinema, and have point-blank stated that American Sniper, with a few tweaks, could have approached such a place and been a superb movie, but Sully lacks any of American Sniper's intrigue or potential-it's just a bad movie.

The dialogue here is deeply hackneyed and clunky.  There's a speech late in the film that Anna Gunn gives where you almost feel like at the end of it she should have added, "remember casting directors-I have an Emmy, don't take me off of your rolodex after this before re-watching Breaking Bad).  The female characters in the film are so absent that Laura Linney's entire role is her talking into a phone, solidly parodying that Amy Schumer skit (that, it's worth noting, Laura Linney was actually a part of) though here she's simply a wife who is constantly harping on her heroic husband.  Literally-she's talking on the phone to Sully for her entire part of the movie.  Aaron Eckhart is given little to go with other than a hero worship of Sully, and Tom Hanks, who has been on fire recently with roles in Captain Phillips and Saving Mr. Banks, cannot save this movie even if he's arguably trying to do so.  Honestly, this is the worst Clint Eastwood film I've ever seen, and that includes Flags of Our Fathers, which is saying something.  Every time I watch one of his recent movies, I re-question my ardent love of Unforgiven and his acting in general.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Are you with me that this was a low point for Eastwood, or do you think that he succeeded in bringing Sully Sullenberger to life onscreen?  Who else felt this film was a tad bit...unnecessary?  And what do you think of its Oscar chances? Share below!