Supporting Actress 1978

Once I've finished this category, I'll be half way through the whole year with three of the films having multiple nominations. I both love and hate when that happens. It's awesome because it shouldn't take as long but I hate it because then I have 3-4 reviews for the same film which is exhausting at times. I've seen none of these but I am very excited about finally watching them.

1978 Best Supporting Actress

Maggie Smith - California Suite

This was Maggie Smith's second Oscar win, yet you know her better as Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter films. This was her fourth of six Oscar nominations which is amazing that Smith could have so many yet fly under the radar even with her late resurgence as an actress. I liked one and disliked the other of her two previous (latest) nominations. In this film, Smith plays an Oscar nominated actress (so meta) flying into LA for the awards ceremony and has a loveless marriage with Michael Caine, who is gay. She's nervous and anxious about the Academy Awards and the two stars quip and snipe each other with funny, acerbic lines. Smith has great comedic timing and a good rapport with Caine so their part of the story is fun to watch. There are three other stories that don't mix (though I think they are all staying at the same hotel) including Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby in a comedy of errors, Walter Matthau in a comedy of errors, and Alan Alda and Jane Fonda in a dramatic story. It's a weird Neil Simon written mix-match of ideas and Fonda and Smith are the most fleshed out. Smith is what you expect Smith to be in her performances with her dry, biting humor and her pursed lips and scrunched up nose and standoffish air that hides a vulnerable, emotional person underneath. That's Smith in this film and her last scene is really well done emotionally where she is worried about where her career goes from there and becoming older and the lack of opportunities and all that. It's a very dramatic scene but it also sticks out from the film that is more about comedy and funny situations. I read that this was around the point that Smith sort of cemented her acting style to what we know today and in her later nominations which makes me want to see her early nominations to see what the difference is, if any. Maybe this was a new direction for her and the Academy responded well to it. That's the problem with going backwards in this project instead of in chronological order - I miss out on changes in style and some of the nuances of earlier to later performances. Smith is very good in this role, though, and is easy to like. I just don't know yet if this was worthy of a second Oscar win.

Dyan Cannon - Heaven Can Wait

I really feel like this could be a very short review. She's not in the film all that much and doesn't do anything of note other than scream and, well, that's about it. Seriously. Cannon is the younger wife of an old millionaire businessman who is sleeping with his executive assistant and who has just tried to kill him before Warren Beatty popped into his body after a bungled job by Heaven for his original body. Cannon screams hysterically when she first sees him because she doesn't expect him to be alive and that's really the only memorable thing about her performance. From there she is just the wife that Beatty doesn't care about because he knows she tried to kill him and isn't interested in her. She has some other scenes in which she doesn't do much and then at the end with the investigation she speaks more than the rest of the film but nothing that sticks out. Certainly nothing that makes you sit up and go wow, that's great acting that the Academy should reward because it really adds to this film and should be remembered for all time. I guess she just got through because the film was so beloved for some odd reason and she came along for the ride. She certainly isn't worth a win and she's not really worth a nomination. You will watch this film and struggle to find a reason, not just a good one, that she should be on this list. I hate to be so snarky and negative but there isn't anything here and yet she is Oscar nominated while whatever other good supporting performance this year is overlooked and forgotten about.

Penelope Milford - Coming Home

Going into this performance, I was expecting the worst. This is a name I've never heard of in a supporting category for a film that got a lot of acting nominations. That usually means the unknown name rides a wave of goodwill and love for the film to a nomination even though it's not deserving. Happens all the time. So I was expecting Milford to have a nothing role and a meh at best performance. Well, she at least has a good performance in a okay role. She plays Fonda's friend who works at the VA hospital with her, her boyfriend is a marine in Fonda's husband's company, and her brother lives at the VA hospital because he is having mental issues after going to Vietnam. She is the support to Fonda while she starts an affair with a disabled veteran but she is also a vessel to see how the PTSD affects a family since her brother is mentally damaged from the war and she can't understand why because he seems so normal otherwise. It's not a very deep performance and it's one that gets too easily overshadowed by the three titans she shares scenes with and gets lost in the story towards the end. But I did think she is able to hold her own in a role without much depth and give something at least a little more interesting than say Dyan Cannon's pointless performance. Her big moment is after her brother has an incident and she goes to a club and gets drunk and goes back to a hotel with some guys and does a drunken, pathetic, sad striptease and breaks down. The scene should be better and resonate more than it does because Milford seems so unsure of herself but at least it gives her performance something more than just reactions. The performance is better than you are thinking but not as good as you're hoping it will be. The film just has too many other big names giving great performances for anyone to really try to champion this for a win.

Maureen Stapleton - Interiors

I thought Stapleton was okay in her win for Reds, but that it was a small role that she did well with. In this film, Stapleton plays Pearl, a new girlfriend of the recently divorced father figure of the film and then eventual wife. The film is about an upper class family who has the parents get divorced while the three sisters deal with that news and their own issues. The film is a Bergman clone, which means something to those who have actually seen his films (I've only seen like two or three, so I am far from a Bergman expert) but it doesn't matter for this performance other than the film is kinda depressing and dour and not all that accessible personally. Stapleton shines because she is a breath of fresh air that the film desperately needs. Her girlfriend/wife character is vibrant and like a normal person. That matters because everyone in this film is so depressing and negative and full of their own insecurities and shortcomings. And here comes Stapleton as this electric force that you'd rather the film focus on because she talks a mile a minute and responds to the sisters' negative questions with common sense answers that puts them to shame. As in, they ask stupid questions and she answers with well, why would you think that stupid thing when this is more enjoyable. You get the idea that she lives life to the fullest and is happy and doesn't let negativity play a role in her life. Stapleton plays that character perfectly and it does say something that it feels like she rescues this film at the last second from life support. When she realizes the sisters hate her, you can feel her pain because Stapleton emotes so well. It's a good performance from Stapleton that benefits from being the only positive thing in a very dour film.

Meryl Streep - The Deer Hunter

So here it is at last, after twenty (!) nominations, my final Meryl Streep review. Of course, Streep will probably go on to get five more nominations in the future, so this probably isn't the actual last review. But it's sad that going on with this project means no more young Streep nominations to watch. I have been anticipating this film for years and this performance, too, since it started Streep off on her Oscar path through the years. I will say that I was underwhelmed with the film and that the film treats the women as mostly nothing important. Streep herself acknowledged that point and stated she only took the role because her boyfriend at the time, John Cazale, was in the film and dying of a terminal disease and it allowed her to be with him. She plays the fiancee of Christopher Walken's character but she kinda is into Robert De Niro's character, too. And that's really all there is to her character arc. It's like she's a background character shoehorned into a love triangle that isn't really addressed in the story and mostly goes nowhere. Any other actress and this role would stay a nothing role and be forgotten about at awards time. But Streep tries to make it a fully realized performance. I read that director Michael Cimino told Streep it wasn't much of a role but that she could come up with whatever lines she wanted for her character. If that's true, then Streep rescues her character with her own work and makes it something that gets your attention. It's obvious from this performance why she would go on to be in such huge demand in the next couple years and win a couple Oscars. She has this presence in the film where she can't be ignored but the film gives her nothing to do. So you are expecting something from this actress and the film keeps overlooking. It says a lot about Streep that she can turn a nothing role into something and get nominated for it.


This year kinda sucks. I'm not sure I'd vote for any of these women for a win. Cannon is so pointless as a nomination and not interesting at all that I can only assume she got in because of Warren Beatty. It's not a good performance. Milford gets in because of the strength of the other actors and the film as a whole. She isn't anything Oscar worthy, though she does do a good job with what she is given. It just really isn't something that deserved a nomination. Stapleton breathes life into a dead film but that's because her character is the opposite of everyone else in the film. It's fun to watch and she's good but I think she would be a 5th in most years but a third here because the other two are pretty weak. I was (and still am) unsure of who should be the winner. Smith for me was funny and good at what she does but it was a role that just leaves you scratching your head that she won her second Oscar for it. I don't if it was all that worthy of a win but in this year with three bad to meh performances and then a newcomer who wasn't winning because she was new...well, your winner by default is Smith and I think that's how it happened. I actually like what Streep was able to do with her performance because it rescues a stock role and turns it into something more interesting though not amazing because the film doesn't allow it to be so. I know I've given Streep so many wins, but it seems like there are years where no one else stacks up. It would be cool if she won but I don't even think her performance is award worthy. Normally I should let the winner stay the same, but I don't think Smith deserves that second win so here we are. I can just only hope that 1977 is much better than this incredibly weak year.

Oscar Winner: Maggie Smith - California Suite
My Winner:  Meryl Streep - The Deer Hunter
Maggie Smith
Maureen Stapleton
Penelope Milford
Dyan Cannon