I am sitting here writing this in August of 2020 and wondering if we are even going to have an Oscars season this year. We have barely had any films come out and everything is getting pushed back and I'm hoping stuff can come out in time but I'm highly doubtful. It's feeling like we won't have a ceremony next March or whenever. Completely unprecedented but I'd also like a stacked ceremony and not some random terrible films that would have never sniffed the ceremony. Time will tell but Id figure I'd mention it for posterity sake. These are a group of women I don't really know with some interesting films I've been anticipating for awhile so I'm excited to start this off.
1968 Best Supporting Actress
Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby
This film gets bandied around as being one of the best horror films or one that a lot of people respect and reference. But this film didn't seem like it was much horror at all. If anything, you might call it a bit creepy at times but it's more of a mystery for me. I was trying to figure out what was going on and if it was real. I wasn't scared or unnerved or anything. This was a timid horror film that deals with Satan and witches and an anti-Christ, I assume that's what the baby is anyway. The only emotions I had were being mildly creeped out at the rape scene and more interested in seeing if Mia Farrow was crazy or if this was real. Gordon plays an old married neighbor of Farrow's and she is a witch (I think). I always thought that this was supposed to be a creepy performance and one that was so revered because she was a great villain, but I didn't get much of that. Maybe my expectations were too high and maybe I was thinking of a different film/performance but this one always gets high praise when talked about. She is more of a comedic kick to the story as the intrusive neighbor who can't help but be overly nosy and burdensome. She has this interesting slurry way she talks as if she's combining a lot of words together and also tired of talking. She pops in and out with Farrow and gives her stuff to drink and is always checking in and just being the overbearing old neighbor. She does have some menace to her but mostly it's the creepy vibe we get. I was fully expecting a lot more to the performance. I think Gordon is fine at the role she's given and she does pull it off naturally. You know there's more to her bubbling underneath the surface but we don't really get to see it except for the brief moment at the rape scene. My disappointment is because I was expecting something very different which is all on me, but this also isn't too varied of a role. She does the concerned elderly neighbor thing that is meant to be more than just loving concern. I'll have to see the others to figure out if this is a strong performance or a weak one to win.
Lynn Carlin - Faces
This is a John Cassavetes film, so going in I knew to expect something raw and real. It's made in the cinema verite style in black and white, so it's right in your face and their faces (ha!) and has this improvised quality to it. The first half of this film mostly features John Marley (who we know from his Love Story nomination and The Godfather opening) and Gena Rowlands. Carlin is the wife of Marley who he wants a divorce from and is stepping out and seeing Rowlands who is a prostitute, I think. We don't see much of Carlin in the first half except for a brief exchange where the two giggle and laugh in bed and it seems pretty innocuous. But once Marley says he wants the divorce, Carlin goes out with her girls to a dance club and the group of girls bring back Seymour Cassel, a young playboy, to her house. This bit of the story is where I really fell in love with Carlin's performance. It's mostly wordless and just full of these looks and faces from Carlin. Her face just tells so much about what she's thinking and feeling and expresses so much with just a glance or roll of the eyes it's amazing. She's actually super attractive in those moments because she is playing hard to get knowing she already got his attention earlier and is just waiting for everyone else to leave. They have great chemistry and the performance is made by her looks. It really is simply fantastic acting. I kinda wished that's where it would end after they go to bed. Her final act is kinda perplexing to me because - spoilers - I guess she took too many sleeping pills and had to be revived by Cassel forcing her to puke. It's not explained if she did it on purpose or in the moment of having fun or what (maybe someone can enlighten me on that) but it felt weird for the character. She seemed so assured of herself and in control but maybe that's where real life hits and we see she didn't take the divorce announcement very well by sleeping with a random young guy and trying to kill herself. The very end is her and Marley getting into it without anything being discussed and it's apropos of the times. But I really enjoyed that middle half of Carlin's performance so much. The rest was good but that really elevated her in my mind. Not sure where she will end up in the rankings but this was a nice little surprise for me.
Sondra Locke - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
This was a very surprising film and one I had always wanted to see because of the title being so cool sounding. It's about a deaf mute played by Alan Arkin who moves to a new town to be near his deaf mute friend who gets sent to a mental institute. He rents a room at a house that has a mercurial teenage girl, Locke. She is a different kind of girl. Tall, spindly, a bit gaunt. She is comfortable talking to Arkin's character who is much older and the subtext is almost a little creepy because it's like Arkin is into her and vice versa but it also is like two lonely people finding each other and bonding in being different. She is older than her age but still very young emotionally and it's hard to balance that in a performance but Locke does her best. At times it's uneven, but she is a teenage girl who is a bit tempestuous. Locke is this fast talking Southern girl who is almost like a tomboy but who at times in the story is concerned with appearances. There's a lot of dichotomy in this character that Locke has to work through and with and deliver something that is difficult for any veteran, let alone a newcomer like herself. She also makes it feel like a real character, too. Locke is a girl trying to figure out life in a small Southern time that doesn't seem to offer much of a future for her. She wants to play piano and adores classical music, trying to describe it to Arkin so he can understand it's impact and feeling. The performance has a few of these really great authentic moments and Locke is mostly up to the task of creating a believable character in the film. Some of her work is still a bit raw and not perfect, but overall it's a pretty good performance. Only real issue is that Locke is a leading performance through and through and you know how much I hate when the Academy puts them in the wrong category. But performance is good and her chemistry with Arkin is very good, definitely worth a watch.
Kay Medford - Funny Girl
After watching Funny Girl, it seems wild that anyone other than Barbra Streisand could be nominated for this film. This is her star vehicle and one that she had a big hand in making. Therefore all the other characters get kinda get the short shrift. Medford plays Rose Brice, the mother to Streisand's Fanny. She barely has any screen time and most likely gets nominated because the film itself did so well. From what I understand, the role was much bigger in the stage production so maybe that was factored in for people who had seen it before. I'm saying all this because there's really nothing to the performance. What's weird is seeing all the actressexuals or stans online who love the role and Medford and write glowingly about her. She may be wonderful but all she does is play a a wise quipping mother. She has a few one liners but it's not really anything with depth or substance. She will make you laugh and maybe think of your own mother or grandmother if they are the same way, but just not much there because the focus is all on Streisand. I liked how someone else summed up this performance as being supporting, but not essential. That's the truth and Medford is lucky to be nominated.
Estelle Parsons - Rachel, Rachel
Parsons is here in large part because the Academy loves rewarding those that have recently won Oscars with more nominations. It's like an afterglow effect where the Academy is like well we loved you before and then you did this performance we also like, here's another nomination! Sometimes they can be well earned, usually they are not. Parsons had just won the year prior for Bonnie and Clyde and this feels a little like going back to the well but also she is in a rather interesting film with a role I don't think had been seen much at that point. Parsons plays the school teacher friend of Joanne Woodward who is a middle aged spinster. Parsons is sorta more carefree at the school and with her attitudes from what we can see in the few scenes she has in the beginning with Woodward. She takes her shy friend to a religious revival and that overwhelms Woodward who leaves. When Parsons checks on her, she too is caught up in the moment and passionately kisses Woodward who recoils and runs away. That's obviously when we realize Parsons character is a closeted lesbian and makes her earlier carefree attitudes make sense. We see her a couple more times try to apologize to Woodward and then Woodward comes to her towards the end for help and that's the performance. I think the lesbian revelation was a bit intriguing for the time and to see two women kissing, too. Parsons is good in the role and matches that carefree attitude I keep mentioning but that is also at odds with her religious zeal. Parsons makes this character who is seemingly at odds with herself work as one character instead of a collection of tropes needed for the story. It's good work and you can see why she had just won an Oscar but it would have been better with a more cohesive arc to it.
I love that I am getting all these actresses and performances I've never heard of or seen at all. It makes this category way more enjoying when I have no idea what to expect and can go in super blind to almost everything. Now I did have some expectations for Gordon's performance, but not the others. Medford is barely a performance at all and squeaks in only because they loved Streisand and the film so much. I'd rather she be replaced with something more substantive. Parson had just won and gets in on that win and not really her performance here. It is a little interesting, but not overwhelmingly so. Locke is a leading performance that got relegated to supporting for who knows what reason. But she is clearly lead and very good in the role. Carlin was a revelation for me. I loved all her little subtle glances and looks and how she did so much with very little acting. I maybe didn't like the arc but it felt a bit true to life. I think it was very good for the times. Gordon is talked about as one of those sort of iconic roles of the crazy old lady. I liked the performance but I didn't get the whole scary nature of the film. She was just a nosy neighbor with ulterior motives. I think it's a decent enough performance but one that I was expecting more from based on all I've heard about it over the years. Maybe that sullies my perception of it but I think for now, Carlin edges her out for my win. I can say this was an interesting year even if it wasn't the greatest.
Oscar Winner: Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby
My Winner: Lynn Carlin - Faces
Ruth Gordon
Sondra Locke
Estelle Parsons
Kay Medford
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