2020 Best Actress
Frances McDormand - Nomadland
Okay, so I still haven't seen any of the other ladies yet, but thankfully I don't hate this performance. It's a good, little film about a woman whose husband has died and the town she was living in, which was ran by the company the husband worked for, is dissolved because they closed the gypsum plant at the center of it. So she starts a nomadic, van dwelling lifestyle and we just kinda watch as she interacts with folks and goes from state to state and job to job to survive. I see and get the appeal. She is dealing with her traumas in a way that makes sense to her while still trying to honor her late husband. McDormand is good in the role and she mostly plays a version of herself, which is what she and director Chloe Zhao came up with after trying something else originally. It's a very natural performance helped along by interacting with non-actors throughout the film and not having to actually do a lot of heavy lifting acting wise. It feels more like improv, which is still good, but not something that should have been rewarded with a third Best Actress Oscar, the second within four years. I enjoy the performance and think it worthy of a nomination but McDormand walks around a lot, makes small talk, is filmed doing odd jobs, and that's mostly it. A handful of small scenes where she cites Shakespeare to a young nomad boy, or gets a bit personal with a guy who is like a community nomad leader type. She does much better work in Three Billboards and of course is iconic in Fargo. This one doesn't match up to those and I'm still annoyed they rushed to give her a third win. A good performance but not on a winning level, though I say this without having seen the others so I could be dead wrong (but I don't think I am).
Viola Davis - Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Davis was a front runner along with Carey Mulligan for much of the season before Frances McDormand took over and won. She won the SAG award, defeating all of these ladies except Andra Day who wasn't nominated. So there was real belief that she could win her second Oscar and first Best Actress award and make history, which this nomination did itself by making her the most nominated black actress in history. But how is the performance you ask? I actually really enjoyed it. It's Davis doing what she does best which is inhabit a take no shit kinda role. She is Ma Rainey, a successful black singer who comes to a recording studio to cut a record with her band and entourage, so to speak. She's a powerful lady and people make way for her and do her bidding because she is a star. Davis exudes this attitude and confidence of someone who has had to deal with so much as a black woman in the 1920's. When she says go, you go. I like that Davis can bring a little ferocity to the performance in the moments when she needs to put her foot down and get her way or say no or whatever it is. Her accent is great and her bad makeup fully rounds out the character. I think some people may point to this performance as being too short for this category and I can understand that. It clocks in only around like 26 minutes or so, roughly about a third of the film's run time. But besides the young woman she keeps around as eye candy, Ma Rainey is the only female role in the film and of course the film's name is about her. She is the focus or is hovering around the edges even when not on screen, kinda like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector. So I do feel like she belongs here and isn't category fraud. I don't quite like the fact that Davis didn't sing the songs, which I get and totally understand it's a very specific sound, but when you play a singer and don't actually sing (minus a barely sung little thing that doesn't really count) I'm going to count that against you. Davis nails the personality of Ma Rainey perfectly and gives a good performance, it might just be too little for me to fully get behind. Definitely worth the watch, though, easily.
Andra Day - The United States vs. Billie Holiday
This performance reminds me so much of Cynthia Erivo from the year prior. Strong, important black woman in history (of varying degrees) with a singular great acting performance coming from a very lackluster to mediocre film. That's exactly what Day is in this performance. The film is not that great and honestly felt like it dragged on way too long even though it's just over two hours. Day is the only reason you pay attention and she claims this film as her own with just a powerhouse performance that dances circles around everyone else involved. This was the second Billie Holiday performance nominated in this category all time, with Diana Ross doing it first in 1972. I enjoyed her debut role which was raw but had obvious talent. I even preferred her version of Strange Fruit. This was also Day's film debut as she was a singer originally, too. I think if you had to make me compare them, I'd take Day's performance in Ross's film as the two better products. Day is good and is a force in the film. I'm glad she was nominated because she really goes all in with the role and makes it something worth watching because Lee Daniels (the director) certainly does not. Like I honestly did not know that Day is an R&B singer first. I thought this was an up and coming actress who had put in some dues to get this role. But no, this was her first just like Ross and Day is easily better and more convincing. And a little more brave, though you can do a lot more things in film in 2020 than in 1972. Day portrays the addicted and out of it part of Holliday's life really well, slurring words, drooping eyes, swaying body. I mentioned something similar in Ross's review, so it really is hard to not compare them both even when I don't mean to do so. This is a solid performance, although it doesn't make me root for it as a winner. I can just recognize she is doing good work and hope that she is able to do more like this and not just be a footnote in Oscar history.
This was the one nomination that never really won anything but was always on the list of nominees. Kirby plays a young woman who has a homebirth that goes wrong and her baby dies. And so the rest of the film deals with that loss. The homebirth takes over twenty minutes from the start of the film and feels like that is what got the attention of the awards folk. It's not as strong from there and the film is not all that great. Kirby does her best as a grieving mother/woman as we see her deal with an overbearing mother, a too supportive husband who spirals out of control, and her own delusions that having a homebirth was the sane and rational thing to do. Don't understand homebirths and trusting yourself to people who have no medical knowledge and who suggest going to the hospital when things go wrong. She did this to her self and I don't think we really see that guilt in the film. We see her reacting negatively to everyone around her who tries to help and then questions her decisions. Then she stands up for the woman who was in charge of the homebirth and spares her from being convicted of a crime. It's some absolute garbage and the film and performance suffers greatly from that scene. Figures that the writer/director of the film suffered the same thing and thinks homebirth is okay. Totally ready to defend my anti-homebirth stance because it's so dumb but also the performance goes downhill after the birth scene. I think it's that there is a real relationship at first and then they both react as if they are strangers. Then Kirby becomes unlikable despite the writer and director trying to make her into a sort of strong character because she moves on and forgives the homebirth woman. Not a fan of this one, though I understand all it offers and that Kirby is only playing a character and does a great job of inhabiting her. I just don't think it's as strong as it thinks it is and Kirby goes downhill a bit from the very vivid and intense opening. Hoping we get to see more from Kirby in this space because I recognize she is a talented actress and could excel given a better role.
Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman
Mulligan was the presumptive front runner for most of the season even though the awards were spread out to everyone. I thought it was going to be Mulligan winning and yet McDormand won her third because reasons. Having now seen this film and performance, I understand why people thought it was going to win. I feel like it's the most interesting of the five to me, though I'm sure folks can argue the merits for everyone else being more interesting. But this is a tough role to pull off because it teeters right on that edge of comedy and realism. It's some real dark humor with lots of actual true to life moments that make you uncomfortable. Mulligan has such an unenviable task of making this character who is out getting revenge for her best friend who was raped and then killed herself into a fully fleshed out person who we can connect with. I think Mulligan succeeds at that because she can deliver dark comedy or dark truth on the same wavelength. She effortlessly slips into the drunk woman who trusts anyone only to become that guy's worst nightmare later. She has moments of great comedy just by certain looks and way she says things. She's terrifying at times and could honestly see her pulling off some serial killer horror film vibe. She's caring and warm at times when she needs to be and it just points to how many different characters she has to play, often in the same scene. This was the only performance that I was truly intrigued by right from the beginning and through to the end. It's not just some revenge porn fantasy, since the ending isn't the happiest it could be and because she only tries to scare scumbag dudes straight and not anything worse except for those directly responsible. I think Mulligan is terrific as an actress and probably should re-watch her Oscar nomination for An Education now that I've grown my own education of film and the Oscars. But this is solid and should have been an easy win for her. Will never understand the urgency to crown McDormand so quickly when you can reward a super strong performance like this right now. This is the only performance I'd rather watch again of the five and I think that says everything about this group for me.
Continuing that theme from the last sentence there, this is a disappointing group of nominees because most of them just didn't move me to really get behind them. Honestly, McDormand for a third Oscar winner, doesn't do much for me at all. Too much of her just reacting to things around and playing herself rather than giving us an all-time performance, which is what I feel that should be. Especially when she doesn't do anything exceptional or better than her fellow nominees. Day is good and probably caught lightning in a bottle just the same that Diana Ross did, but she gave it her all and was entertaining and I can't hate on her being in this group. Kirby does have a tough assignment and does well within the confines of the film and the role, but it could have been better. I blame the film more than Kirby who is good and I can see her getting some roles down the line to return here. If not for Mulligan, Davis would have been my winner, even with the short role. Maybe category fraud, but she is large and in charge and a force in the film felt even when not on screen. That's a good performance in my book. Mulligan has the hardest role and I think turns in a great performance that is more understated than maybe it should be. She could have been louder with it if she wanted but I enjoyed what she was able to do and was the only one to really intrigue me for me than a little bit. Some good names, but not the best which speaks to leading roles for women in 2020 and beyond. Kinda sad, but hopeful for 2021 now.
Oscar Winner: Frances McDormand - Nomadland
My Winner: Carey Mulligan - Promising Young Woman
Viola Davis
Andra Day
Frances McDormand
Vanessa Kirby
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