Obviously I've seen none of these before now but how amazing is it that 3 black women make it into one category? It's a record and it's really awesome to see. I want these nominations to be about merit from now on so that's what I want to see in the future, doesn't matter if it's one or five minorities in the category. Davis was the front runner the entire way even though you could argue she's a Leading Actress in her film. Category fraud is what it is and has been an Oscar thing forever. It is nice to see Davis get her Oscar, though.
2016 Best Supporting Actress
Viola Davis - Fences
The big issue with this performance was that everyone claimed it was category fraud and wrote it off. Like okay she's great and in the wrong category and obviously strong enough to win so fuck everything else let her win and then go on from there. I finally watched Fences with the category fraud on my mind and I gotta say that I can legit understand why Davis was nominated in Supporting. She is onscreen for like half the film or more and a big part of the movie but she does seem to take the backseat at times because Denzel just chews every scene he's in. But let's be real, Viola shouldn't be supporting. She was placed here to win and she did. She deserves the win and hopefully that means she stops manipulating the categories to be nominated. Viola feelings aside, she really does a great job with her role as the neglected, secondhand wife to Denzel. She cares wholeheartedly for her kids, whether they are actually hers or not, which gives her this savior type of role in the film. She loves being a mother and it shows and her performance is just as slick as Denzel's. She is great in the scenes where she interacts with Denzel who threatens to take over. She holds her own and is strong and steadfast and comfortable in her role. She is a woman on top of her game giving great performances and this is a continuation of that. This is as good as her previous Oscar work and as good as her Emmy Award winning work. This is the culmination of a woman who has become so good that she can do no wrong with her work and every move is amazing. Her work as the battered wife is worth nominating and rewarding. It might be category fraud but she at least deserves her Oscar, from this performance or another. All I can really say is that this was coming. You know certain actresses are guaranteed an Oscar after awhile because of their work and Viola Davis was one of them. There are lots of those examples where an actress builds up to a win and this was Davis' example of that. I'm on board with the win because it gets Davis her Oscar.
Naomie Harris - Moonlight
I really hate to say this but Harris was the one thing in Moonlight that I wasn't all that thrilled with. I enjoyed all the other performances but I kinda feel like maybe Harris came along for the ride with the film. I think she does a good job at being the crack addict mother but I don't feel like she has any pay off. She is awful to her son Chiron and only wants him around when convenient or to get money from him. She is a drug addict and sleeps with men for money and is just overall a poor excuse for a mother and is the reason Chiron is so quiet and meek in the beginning. That is the character for the most part, though there is an ending scene for her as the mother when adult Chiron comes to visit her in a rehab type place. She apologizes and says she loves him and all that but I didn't feel any closure or payoff with her character from that. It just kinda felt like that was something that was added in as an afterthought or just wasn't fully developed because it wasn't really emotional to me. Harris' best scene, her most Oscar-y scene, was when she was confronting middle Chiron after coming home late and wanting money and just being this frantic, drug addled woman who was treating her son like an ATM and not like her actual son. She was screaming and just very convincing as a woman who had lost all control to her habit and didn't care about Chiron and only used him for selfish reasons. Harris is fine in the rest of her performance but it really wasn't anything that wowed me like Ali or kept my interest like the Chiron kids. Can't hate on this performance or nomination too much because the film is so good and Harris does what she can with a role that is limited. It's also pretty awesome to have three black women nominated in this category, so there's that, too.
Nicole Kidman - Lion
I have been pretty harsh when in comes to Kidman in my previous reviews. Although, I did like her Oscar winning turn in The Hours, it's more I hate her fans and most of her Oscar bait performances. But, this is about Lion. And Nicole Kidman in Lion actually kinda blew me away. She was so prepared to love and was desperate when meeting Saroo for the first time that it was palpable onscreen. She just wants to be a loving mother and Saroo just happens to be that loving son. Kidman was certainly not done up beautifully and had a big curly redhaired do going on but the thing that stands out is that she transcends being Nicole Kidman and became a desperate mother and it was entirely believable. We don't spend much time with Kidman at this moment but it was so obvious that it leapt off the screen. Once we return to her, we see she is devoted to Saroo and her other Indian adoptee son. She loves having a family and deals with all that comes with including a difficult second son who beats himself and we see later is into drugs. She still loves him despite this and it tells us the kind of woman she truly is. Kidman is even okay with Saroo seeking his real mother and going off to find her. It's a very good supporting performance, honestly. I've had my issues with Nicole Kidman but I feel this is deserving and warranted. She may not be good enough to win but she is good enough to pay attention to.
Octavia Spencer - Hidden Figures
It becomes obvious as you watch more and more of the Oscars year by year that they just can't help themselves when it comes to previous nominees/winners. By that I mean, in a film like Hidden Figures, with a couple strong supporting performances that you could take to represent this film, the Academy falls back on the person they already know instead of going with someone like Janelle Monae for a nomination. Now, you'd then have to argue about whether Spencer is truly better than Monae and all of that but this kind of thing happens again and again throughout Oscar history. Hell, it happens twice in Supporing Actor this year with Jeff Bridges getting a nomination over Ben Foster and Michael Shannon getting a nomination over Aaron Taylor-Johnson! It's a thing that the Academy does that annoys me because you could have so many opportunities to reward not only younger people but set those actors up for possibly better roles in the future. Anyway, diatribe over. Spencer is not bad here by any means, I don't want this to be misconstrued. She's a great actress and does a very good job in her role as the de facto supervisor of the black women working at NASA. She's the elder one of the trio and a realist and a calming, authoritative figure. Like I said, it's a very good performance from Spencer in a film that highlights the amazing accomplishments of a few black women who were essential in the space race. Someone needed to be represented from this film and Spencer got the draw over Monae. Monae was very good herself as the angry but determined one of the group. I'm fine with either of the women getting the nomination but Monae getting it would have been cool just for having someone new in the historical aspect of Oscars. I think even without the controversy of the year prior with the OscarsSoWhite thing that someone from this film was getting nominated no matter what. No one was winning from this film because of the Viola Davis buzzsaw, though. Nitpicking aside, I'm glad someone from the film was nominated and am content with Spencer since she was the one chosen.
Michelle Williams - Manchester by the Sea
I am a Michelle Williams fan and she consistently puts in good, serious work. I would have given her an Oscar for her turn in Blue Valentine which was tremendous. In this film, she plays the wife/ex-wife of Casey Affleck's character. There is a lot of tragedy in this film centered around Affleck's life and Williams is a part of that. Without giving anything away, she too suffers personal loss. The story is told in the present with flashbacks before the major tragedies interwoven throughout the film, much like in Blue Valentine. Williams' role in the film is very small with essentially three to four small scenes. I will say that her Boston/Massachusetts accent is pretty great and she fully embodies a lower middle class type of mother. I mean, honestly, those first two or three scenes don't really offer up much in the way of characterization. She's there so we see that Affleck had a wife and kids before things happened and it seems to be a typical family life with ups and downs. Her big Oscar moment is her last scene where she runs into Affleck after everything has happened and opens up to him about being sorry for the way she treated him and wanting to talk more with him and crying her eyes out and being emotional. You will read in reviews and online about how stunning and mesmerizing and powerful and all those big adjectives Williams is in this film and performance but I felt her big scene was overly dramatic and frankly not well done. I wish it had more actual heart behind it but it just feels like Williams was told to cry and be emotional and it got away from her a little bit. She's a supremely talented actress but this one didn't do all that much for me. Along with it being pretty short, I think she gets in for her prior history with the Academy. I wanted to really like this performance but I just can't unfortunately.
This was mostly an underwhelming group. I am happy that three black women were nominated but I really wish they were better roles. Davis is the clear winner but that's because she dominates with a Leading performance even if she got placed here. I'm fine with her win because she now has an Oscar and she was one of those women that were due, so to speak, as claimed by the internet hivemind and others. Plus, no one else here really stands out all that much. I really enjoyed Kidman, which surprised me since I'm not her biggest fan but she put in solid work as a loving mother. Spencer was the representative nominee for her film and that's fine. I did mention Janelle Monae who was in the film, too, without realizing she was also in Moonlight which makes me surprised they didn't nominate her. Normally a breakout year like that is rewarded, but whatever I guess. The bottom two are also whatever. You can have either one in last place. Harris is fine but she does nothing with her crackhead mother role that's interesting. Anyone could have played that role with the same results. And Williams is just not in the film enough to register and her Oscar scene is somewhat awkward. So yeah, underwhelming for sure. I expected a lot more from the group so I'm pretty disappointed overall. Really hoping 2017 is a lot better for this category!
Oscar Winner: Viola Davis - Fences
My Winner: Viola Davis - Fences
Nicole Kidman
Octavia Spencer
Naomie Harris
Michelle Williams
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