Supporting Actress 1986

One of the things I like about going back and seeing these older movies is that you get to see the old movie studio intros. Tri-Star, Orion, old Fox and Warner Bros and it's very nostalgic. I like it. I've seen none of these but am very hopeful for a good birth year retrospective.

1986 Best Supporting Actress

Dianne Wiest - Hannah and Her Sisters

Here we are again with Wiest winning for a role in a Woody Allen film. And what is kind of synergistic is that she is an actress in this one as well. Though this time she plays a sister of Hannah and is an aspiring actress working with Carrie Fisher (talk about synergy, RIP) at a catering company. She is feisty and she is the oddball of the three sisters. And I can't understand why she won unless the rest of this category is just god awful. She doesn't get all that much to do, really. She is the third sister of the three, meaning she is the least paid attention to by the overall story. She does her struggling artist thing and we see her working hard at the catering thing once and going to a couple auditions but it's never anything amazing to make you really stand up and go wow. It's also very Allen-esque for the female roles. You've seen this a million times in his films because she's similar to a lot of the parts he's written for women and going backwards, this doesn't feel new, it just feels used and outdated. But if I put myself in 1986, I can maybe see the Academy identifying with the struggling artist aspect. The ending with her character is pretty hokey to say the least. It's done because the studio wanted a happier ending so we get her telling Allen she's pregnant. I don't get why they reconnect after a failed date years and years ago but it is forced by the script. I'm trying to rack my brain as to what else Wiest did to possibly deserve the win and I can't come up with anything. That sounds harsh but I'd rather my winners stand out and not just be popular or whatever is left standing. She is fast talking and slick but I struggle to see what singles her out from say Barbara Hershey, the second sister. I like this better than her second win, I think, but did she even deserve this one? 2017 ain't starting off strong!

Tess Harper - Crimes of the Heart

Here is another one where I'm racking my brain to figure out why exactly she was nominated. Harper plays a nosey neighbor who is kind of annoying and just a busy body really but that's the extent of the performance. She has a couple brief scenes in the beginning where she is all up in the business of the main characters, kind of being a pain and is shooed away. She pops up briefly a couple times at the end and does the same thing, annoys the sisters and gets chased away once and brushed aside once. It's not memorable in any way. The film is about three sisters (Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange) coming back home because one (Sissy Spacek) shot her husband. It's one of those southern fried family sort of comedy/drama type films where the draw is seeing those three sisters all act together. That's what you remember about the film is three previous Oscar winning women all having fun together. You don't really pay attention or remember Harper. The only things I can think of as to why she was nominated is that voters remembered this film and wanted to nominate someone for supporting but the sisters are all co-leads so Tess Harper benefited. And the other that I read about was that a lot of people felt she was snubbed for her role in Tender Mercies a couple years prior and that this was a make up/apology nomination as a result. That all makes sense to me because you can't really point to anything about the performance that should be nominated. Not much else to say. This year is off to a poor start so far.

Piper Laurie - Children of a Lesser God

There have been many times when I've railed against nominated performances that are short or aren't really much of a factor in their small amount of screen time. A lot of times it's because of who the actor is or even the film they are attached to. Laurie isn't in this film much. In fact she's only in two scenes essentially, both at the very end of the film. Maybe the placement of where the scenes are has an impact on them getting nominated and the film itself, probably. But small scene performances like these need to be effective and need to be good for me to be okay with them included in a category. Laurie is good and I feel her performance is effective for what it is. It's certainly not Viola Davis in Doubt good, but she conveys a lot in her short time that is needed to understand Marlee Matlin's character a lot more. Laurie plays Matlin's mother who takes her in when her relationship with William Hurt sours and she needs a place to escape to. You can kinda see why Matlin is so bitter and angry about life in her return to mama. I don't want to pretend that Laurie eschews convention and stands above the rest of the cast and delivers some towering performance. She has two scenes that she does a fine job with and helps us to understand Matlin more in the process. She's not a good signer which might not be on purpose but I took it as Laurie was reluctant to learn it for her daughter and then never got the chance to really practice it. The two scenes are her taking in her daughter and then telling her that Hurt came by and to say hey, he does love you. I am fine with the nomination because Laurie manages to do a lot in those two extended scenes without actually doing a lot. It's in the fiber of the performance (pretentious alert) that we see and experience things with the character that aren't plainly spoken or seen. Laurie conveys a lot more than just being the caring mom. I dunno, I like the small performance and feel this is a decent inclusion.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - The Color of Money

You know, a lot of what I read about this nomination was people dismissing it as another typically weak Scorsese female character. When I first watched this years ago, Mastrantonio was one of the things that really stood out to me in the film. Watching it again only confirmed that same sentiment to me. She is really strong in the role and even if she is a marginalized character without much help from the script or Scorsese, she makes her character stand out and works it. She plays Tom Cruise's older girlfriend who has latched onto him because she sees that he is a brilliant pool player and she can make some money from him. She's not totally a sycophant but actual makes their relationship seem natural and normal enough that you don't question her intentions. You don't feel as if she would leave him over some little issue but that she is helping to mold him and loves him at the same time. She is basically his manager and when we first meet her is when Paul Newman realizes she is the key to getting to Cruise and we see exactly how influential she is in all of this. Mastrantonio also is so natural in the character. She doesn't look like obvious acting and really is the yin to Cruise's yang, they compliment each other well. That's why I think she is so strong in the film because she tempers Cruise and forges her own way without being the stereotypical girlfriend. I wanted to see more of her. I wanted to know more about her past and how she came to be so strong and independent and in charge of Cruise. I wanted to see where she went from there after they both played Newman at the end. She is the only one in this category that made me pay attention and for that she is my clear cut winner and way more deserving than Wiest.

Maggie Smith - A Room with a View

I have been struggling to start writing this review for a little bit. Not because Maggie is bad or because I'm blase about her performance, just that she's pretty good in the role and there's not much to really get dramatic about. She plays Helena Bonham Carter's cousin and chaperone on a trip to Italy where Carter meets a boy and Smith goes into over protection mode and tries to steer her away from him. The film has to do with Edwardian England and it's oppressive, restrictive morals in society so Smith doesn't want Carter to fall for the carefree, free spirited boy. It also speaks to her past where she made mistakes, I guess, and doesn't want Carter to do the same thing. Smith is very good at playing the protective worrywart and she is a quintessential British actress so she can pull off that proper manor and it works perfectly. And that's what she brings to this role - a workman-like quality without any big, grand displays. It's solid acting and her getting a nomination for it is more than okay. She already has two Oscar wins under her belt and this didn't blow me away, so it's hard to champion this as a winner when I liked Mastrantonio more. But Smith is an easy second place in the category. A lot of people might actually put her first since she's really good at playing fretful, like when she and Judi Dench are walking a little alley and pass by some Italian guys and Smith makes these slight faces and kinda hop skips by them - it's good. These are the kinds of supporting performances I wish we saw more of in the category instead of like Tess Harper's.


Not the most amazing category I've watched but it's alright, I guess. I get tired of nominations like Harper because there is nothing to them. You can't tell me you watched that film and singled in on that performance. Not a fan of Wiest as a winner (for both of her wins, honestly) because I don't think she even really stands out among the other women in the film. Why not Barbara Hershey? Not a good winner. Piper Laurie has two extended scenes but I think she's effective in them. She's nothing more than a third for me. Smith is good and really could compete for a win. But I like Mastrantonio the most. Just a strong female role that I wanted to see more of in the film. Don't get why so many people dismissed it in reviews. Anyway, ho hum start to the year, so hopefully it gets better.

Oscar Winner: Dianne Wiest - Hannah and Her Sisters
My Winner:  Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - The Color of Money
Maggie Smith
Piper Laurie
Dianne Wiest
Tess Harper