What a wild ride this race was all awards season! Yeoh and Blanchett were going back and forth all season to where I didn't know which name was going to be called come Oscar night. And that's so exciting when we have no idea who it will be! It gets boring when the same person wins everything and is a matter of formality at the ceremony. There was also the controversy of Riseborough's nomination because of the crazy campaigning on her part, which came from the director of her film and his wife. They launched a campaign that had other well known actors advocating on Riseborough's behalf with the same copy pasted language essentially and it just felt real scummy and wrong. The Academy has had this happen before and has changed rules in response to these efforts like they did for this one. They changed the whole social media campaigning rules as they should have. Her film was barely in any theaters, made very little money as in thousands, not even hundreds of thousands, and set off a racism controversy because her nomination left out two possible black women in Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler. So yeah, some really sketchy stuff going on that I hope doesn't happen again. I haven't seen Riseborough's performance yet, but I am wholly interested to see how she does now.
2022 Best Actress
Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once
This was such a great and historic win. The first Asian woman to win Best Actress and it goes to a legend like Yeoh. I was rooting for her all season long and hadn't even seen her performance, so I'm glad she ended up winning. Having seen the performances now, it's a good showcase of her talents. She's a strong actress with a commanding presence and this film asks her to do a lot of heavy lifting. At first, she starts out as this incredibly busy laundromat owner that is getting audited by the IRS and when events start happening, she is extremely confused just like we the audience are. Once she learns what all is happening, she embraces and accepts her role and we get to see Yeoh play a couple different versions of herself in the multiverse. The one I enjoyed the most is the movie star version and it was funny that they used actual red carpet videos of her in the film. I liked that she also got to have some action and fight scenes since I think that's what a lot of folks know about her and it was just fun to see her in her element being the badass we all know she is. Her character has a great arc where being nice is what ultimately defeats the villain of the story and it felt like Yeoh's performance got stronger as the film went on. It's just a performance that draws you in and keeps you captivated and you realize you are watching something really well done and is unique and just fun. Yeoh's performance is a good winner, and I would say elevates the film, but all the acting is good and the film itself is already elevated so she is just another great component of a Best Picture winner. I'm super happy she won and glad that the performance is good and worth watching and worth winning.
Cate Blanchett - Tar
I kinda wanted to hate this one without ever having seen it. Not because I dislike Blanchett or think she's a terrible actress or anything. No, it's much more petty than that: it's because she already has two Oscars and I just can't get behind awarding three or more unless it's like the greatest performance ever. And boy, does Blanchett try her hardest to do just that. This is a masterclass in acting. Blanchett is the whole focus of the film and is in every scene of the film. It's undeniably impressive work from probably the current best actress working today, assuming Meryl Streep is mostly done and Katharine Hepburn is still dead. Blanchett plays Lydia Tar who is a world renowned conductor and maestro of the Berlin Philharmonic. She is at the top of the mountain peak and excels at her craft and this story shows the downfall of her career. Blanchett is incredible because of what is asked of her to do in the film. There's a scene where she guest teaches at Julliard and it's a long one shot scene where she has to move about the classroom, play some piano, and is dialogue heavy. It's always impressive to me when an actor can do a long scene with lots of intellectually dense dialogue and make it look not scripted or heavily rehearsed. It's fun to watch and the film has a few of those types of moments. Blanchett re-learned how to play the piano, learned how to speak German, and learned how to conduct an orchestra. That is dedication to a role and the craft and it pays off because she looks natural at all of these things in the film. If you told me Blanchett was actually raised in Germany and that's why she speaks German so well (assuming she does, I don't know German), I would absolutely believe you. I don't know if there is another actress out their today that could handle doing this film and making it work. It's why director Todd Field said he would only make the film with Blanchett and nobody else. He'd rather trash his own script than work with some other person in the main role. I honestly think this could get talked about in best ever actress performances and yet I will still give the win to Michelle Yeoh because she already has two Oscars. If this was to be her first, it's a no-doubter. But this is probably the performance of Blanchett's illustrious career and I don't know how she could ever top it. I would like to see her try because that means we will continue getting outstanding performances from her.
Ana de Armas - Blonde
This was an interesting choice for the Academy. It was a very minor surprise that she was actually nominated, but I think it really shouldn't have been much of one. She is playing Marilyn Monroe and there's probably enough of the old members of the Academy that would for this performance just because of that reason. They probably would also want to fuck de Armas and I wonder how much that played into her nomination. The film itself was a bit controversial because it was rated NC-17 and there was a ton of nudity, but honestly nothing very graphic or really titillating. The film is also pretty bad when it comes to the story. It's based off a novel by some woman who basically made up everything we see in the film including all of the rapes and sexual assaults and the abortions and a lot of other things. I just can't get into the story knowing it's all a bunch of distasteful bullshit and how badly it exploits de Armas. She herself said she was cool with all the nudity and trusted director Andrew Dominik (he who directed the utterly brilliant The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and very good Killing Them Softly, films!) but it's hard to watch that film and not feel like she was used in the wrong way. She does an admirable enough job with the performance and looks very much like Monroe with the help of some prosthetics, of course. She tries her best at the breathy, distinct voice of Monroe but her natural Cuban accent slips out so often that it's really distracting at times. Apparently, it was even worse in early screenings and they had to work on it in post production. Her acting is fine, but she mostly just cries and looks terrified or confused and there's just a ton of reacting to something. It's not a fully fleshed out performance because it's just pieces of one that de Armas acts out without anything ever coalescing into something you can really grasp onto. To me, it's mostly style over substance, though I believe that de Armas thought she was doing great work. I'm not hating on her at all, I just think that becoming Monroe in this type of film was a really hard sell. I would have liked to see her work in a more traditional biopic since this isn't even a biopic really. I think she may have been nominated because she's young and hot and nude a lot and maybe to honor Monroe one more time. I don't think her nomination is solely because of her acting, sadly.
Well, here we are finally. The most controversial thing about this year's season was Riseborough getting the nomination. Lots of things going into that which started with a (even still) little seen film that made almost no money all the sudden exploding on social media and heavily backing Riseborough to be nominated. It was criticized immediately for how shady and scummy it felt. The director's wife is an actress and I guess they have lots of friends and coordinated this social media push to get their film out there and to try and ram Riseborough into the nominees by getting the acting branch to vote for her last minute. It rubbed me the wrong way because I hate campaigning so openly like this. For Your Consideration campaigns are fine to me, but I dunno, something about how particular this was handled didn't sit well. I'd rather just let the best rise to the top and not force anyone into the nominees because you have connections. I live in a fantasy world with that belief, but point stands it's not a good look. I have no idea how much influence, if any, that Riseborough had with this so I don't know if this is a Chill Wills situation or not. But finally having seen her performance I can somewhat understand where all this campaigning is coming from and why her director and other actors got behind her so hard. I think that if someone got into the Oscars say 10 years from now and started watching everything they could and got to 2022 and came across Riseborough's nomination and performance, well I think they'd believe it fits right in this group. I think it's a good enough performance that it doesn't feel out of place. Yeah, it's a small indie film but it's got an Oscar winner actor in the film in Allison Janney. It's got Marc Maron, Stephen Root, and even Bubbles (Andre Royo) from The Wire. It's not like this was a bunch of unknown actors from a local community group or something. It's a legit film. It just also doesn't tread on any new ground or do anything unique or different. The story is that Riseborough plays a woman who wins a small lottery in a small town and blows it quickly. Life spirals and she is an alcoholic who can't keep a job or a place to live and is somewhat estranged from her son, who is now 20. It's a story we have seen a million times where someone with an addiction has to try and get their life back together or risk losing everything. These kinds of stories rest solely on whoever is playing the addicted or outcast person. They have to be great to make it interesting and worth watching and I think Riseborough accomplishes that goal. Trying to play a drunk is hard. You have to be convincing without going over the top into histrionics or not being believable enough. Riseborough plays a great drunk/alcoholic and is wholly believable as a woman who has hit rock bottom. She prances around and is in good spirits when finally stealing some cash to get her first drink of the day. She sways and looks tired when at the bar. She sizes up men at the bar and tries to flirt her way into a drink but it all comes across as awkward and painful to watch. She gets angry the more she drinks and moves around and flails about as the night goes on. Riseborough gets all the particulars right and it makes for a more authentic performance and story. We would laugh at times, but we see how put off everyone else is and how much of a fool she's making herself to be. I would say that's the best thing about the performance. The story ends up being almost too good of a feel-good story all neatly wrapped up in the end. Which is why the film itself is just alright, but Riseborough gets us to invest in her character and hope that there is a payoff at the end, that she can overcome her demons and be a normal person again. There are other parts to the performance like when she starts trying to get right at the end or when she is staying with her son but she is really just using him for a place to stay and to steal from. The main draw for this is Riseborough playing the drunk. If you ask me if I think this belongs in this group, I'd say yes. But I have to see the rest of the group and figure out where she fits. This could just be a fifth spot that could go to anyone and would thus be fine getting nominated. I can't be angry at the performance, but I can be disappointed in the way she got here in the first place. After this, I'll be keen to see what Riseborough does next or at least down the road and see if she lives up to being an Oscar nominated actress.
Michelle Williams - The Fabelmans
This was Williams' fifth Oscar nomination in her career and probably the least exciting one I've seen so far. It feels like it's only a matter of time before she finally breaks through, but I hope it's for something more challenging. And that's my main issue with this role and performance. She plays the fictional version of Steven Spielberg's mother. It's a good performance. It's a fine performance. It's a performance that Williams could do her in sleep. We know she's a phenomenal actress, but nothing blew me away here and I feel that's where she has set the bar for herself when it comes to nominations. Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, My Week with Marilyn, and Manchester by the Sea all offer up some really juicy, dramatic roles or at least something challenging like being Marilyn Monroe. This performance at least has more to do than just be a mother and wife, I'll give it that. Her character needs to be the center of attention and is a very artsy, somewhat bohemian type of person. She encourages her son who is most like her to make movies and we see that motherly love on display. She gets an added bonus of playing a woman who is in love with another man who is friends with her husband, Paul Dano. Bennie, played by Seth Rogen, is always around and eventually through the film we see that as the family moves west because of Dano's jobs and has to leave Rogen behind, Williams can't handle the separation and is makes her relationship with Dano contentious. That sounds really juicy, but we see it develop and there's no one to really stop her and change her mind. So when it comes to a crescendo, it lands with a whimper. We also see Williams' character be a little quirky with only using disposable plates and silverware, keeping a pet monkey she names Bennie, dancing in a see through nightie in front of her whole family. The character is an interesting woman and Williams is more than up to the task of portraying that bit of kooky. But some of her performance comes off a bit chintzy to me where she is a little too cutesy or too theatrical. It feels like a deliberate choice but it doesn't always work for me and can be annoying at times. That probably speaks more to the character but Williams is the one portraying her. I just don't think it's her best work and the nomination feels more like an afterthought or a nod to Spielberg more than Williams actually delivering something worth voting for.
This was definitely a two-horse race between Yeoh and Blanchett and I'm super glad that Yeoh got the Oscar. Blanchett would have been very deserving but I am not a fan of repeat winners. Simple as that for me. The rest were all pretty mid. Williams has done much better work and honestly I wouldn't have nominated her here. It just felt like a rubber stamp nomination coming along for the ride with Spielberg's film. Then we have to see if Riseborough truly belonged here. She was good, but it's a small, low budget film that most people would not and have still never seen. Obviously that shouldn't truly matter but with how the campaigning went and that it possibly pushed a black actress out of a nomination, I think it really needed to be better than good. Unfortunately, de Armas tries her best in a mess of a film though she has a much tougher job to do than Riseborough. The bottom of this group was a bit rough to watch because none of them really inspired me. At least the top two were pretty great.
Oscar Winner: Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once
My Winner: Michelle Yeoh - Everything Everywhere All at Once
Cate BlanchettMichelle Williams
Ana de Armas
Andrea Riseborough
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