Another boring race in this category. Saldana was the frontrunner almost the entire time and there was no real suspense or buzz for anyone else to challenge her. I honestly hate when we have essentially wire to wire winners. I want the fun of not knowing whose name is going to be read out loud on Oscar night. Knowing it's a foregone conclusion months before the ceremony takes a lot of the joy out of being an obsessive Oscar fiend. Nonetheless, I am excited to watch all of these performances to see if Saldana was a good choice or not.
2024 Best Supporting Actress
Zoe Saldana - Emilia Perez
It's cool that Saldana has an Oscar. She has been part of some huge franchises in Marvel and Avatar and done some other smaller work that's good, too. But for this movie, she is essentially the lead, so we get yet more category fraud winning in Supporting. No fault of Saldana, of course, and she really gives this performance her all. You can tell she is acting her ass off and wanting this to be great. I hate that the movie is bad because she deserves a good movie surrounding her that would be remembered fondly. She plays a lawyer that helps out a cartel boss to transition into a woman and then supports her after the transition try to make amends for her sins. It's an interesting story, made so because of Saldana's acting as the lawyer who is earnestly trying to help in the transition and afterwards in helping those disappeared by the cartels be found to give families peace. She is fully believable in the role and can play the tough badass and the sensitive friend with equal parts of the earnestness noted already. I think the movie is better when she is onscreen and doing her thing. Even though her dancing and singing is a bit cringe-y, I enjoyed some of the songs she had. They are certainly not her strong suit, so luckily she has the acting chops for the rest of the performance to fall back on. And that's the thing about her performance, we know she's an incredibly talented actress that does some really good work in lesser films, so it's nice to see her branch out a bit and do something that looked like it was a bit out of her comfort zone. She still did a great job with what she had to work with, no matter how bad the movie was.
Monica Barbaro - A Complete Unknown
The film itself is kinda whatever to me, but I do love that the actors, Barbaro included, sang the songs and played the instruments themselves. It's massively impressive to me to be able to learn those songs and be able to sing them and sound good and do the real life counterpart justice. Barbaro plays Joan Baez, who is a renowned folk artist that I don't recognize any of her songs. But this isn't about me, just mentioning because I don't have a frame of reference for Baez like I do for Bob Dylan, so I can really only judge the performance as it is. I think Barbaro is solid, but doesn't wow me. Just solid, good work. My take on Baez is a woman who is starting to become the Queen of Folk and who seems very business like, looking after herself foremost. When she meets Dylan, I think it's more of a curiosity for Baez as she is intrigued by the music but maybe a little off put by his demeanor and behavior. But she still sees someone she can work off of and with to her benefit. Them hooking up is just a result of two people working closely together and nothing more. Barbaro is good during these moments because she doesn't get all lovey dovey with Dylan, but asserts her independence as someone calling her own shots on what happens. When she feels she's being used, she kicks him out and it's refreshing to see that because she isn't just gaga over him because of who he is, since her star at times is much bigger. I like that Barbaro plays some of those scenes with some hesitation and like she's sizing up who he really is, which seems to be a fuck boy that she can see through. I also like the little quips that she and Timmy spit at each other while on stage at times. It's fun to see that aggression come out but then immediately change into let's kill this song. Like I said, I feel that Barbaro is solid, but not exactly amazing and it's nice to see her rewarded here after her coming onto the scene with Top Gun: Maverick. This feels like it won't be the last time we see her nominated and wouldn't be surprised to see her back again soon.
Ariana Grande - Wicked
Ok, I was very conflicted about this nomination having not yet seen this performance. I am not a fan of Ariana's pop music and she has a less than stellar reputation with licking donuts and cosplaying or appropriating aesthetics like black and Asian to get attention. I know she is a great singer with some pipes on her, but I was most worried if she could hang acting wise. But this is why we watch the films. I enjoyed the hell out of Ariana's performance. Yes, she can sing wonderfully and that is on full display here. But she is also very funny and engaging as an actor and has the most amazing chemistry with Cynthia Erivo, which we saw on full, weird display during the Awards season. But their chemistry is paramount to the success of this film as a whole, because if you don't buy them eventually becoming besties, then the film is lost. Ariana has a lot of great moments early on where she is establishing herself as Galinda. Her comedic timing is spot on and her facial expressions really help make her character. Her kindness is real and almost doesn't feel like it's for the film as she befriends Elphaba. Her performance is actually way better than I could ever imagine and I fully fell for it. I never expected Ariana Grande to give us something that could win an Oscar, and I didn't want her to, but this absolutely does the job. This is in serious contention for my win.
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist
This is a much better nomination than her first one for The Theory of Everything, which I was very much not a fan of (film or her performance). Jones has matured as an actor for sure and she plays the wife of Adrien Brody's character dutifully. And really she is here mainly because of her last big scene where she confronts Guy Pearce and his family while they eat and accuses him of raping her husband. It's an incredibly powerful scene that is impeccably acted by Jones. You have to believe her confrontation is from the soul and it for sure is, which was my complaint about her first nomination - no soul. This is a performance where her years of torture and abuse in the concentration camps shows itself in her heated response of trying to protect her husband. She seems measured and thoughtful about her confrontation, as if she is compelled to do so after mulling it over. She's very intelligent and it shows in how she interacts with her husband and how calculated she seems when responding to anything. Her character is interesting because it's almost as if she and Brody aren't in love and are just a match of convenience or necessity. Her accent work is great, I don't care about the AI improvement to it, and her performance made me want to see more of her character. She only pops in during the second act and don't hear a lot about her before that. It's strong and compelling work. I don't know if I'm making sense with this review, but I enjoyed Jones a lot more in this role and performance than her previous nom and feel she gets in with that Oscar moment last scene that is very powerful. It has sat with me for a bit now and I keep thinking about her performance, so that's a good sign to me. Just wish she was in the first half of the film, too.
Isabella Rossellini - Conclave
This is a very short nomination as far as screen time goes. Which hasn't necessarily mattered to the Academy in the past, as they have rewarded very short performances before with a win (looking at you Judi Dench). So this doesn't really feel out of place based on that criterion. You also have to understand she is something of acting royalty or at least a nepo baby if that's how you want to put it because she is the daughter of multi-Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman and famous Italian director Roberto Rossellini. So she has that going for her for the older generation of Oscar voters, who love this kind of thing. But also, her short, yet powerful performance stands out in a film where she is the only female actor who gets to really have a part and do anything in this film. She plays Sister Agnes, who is the head caterer and housekeeper, who mostly stays in her lane but does have a couple scenes where she is roped into the political intrigue of the Conclave and has her Oscar moment when speaking up during a meal to call out one of the Cardinals who has a lot of support to be the next Pope, but pulled some shenanigans to discredit another possible frontrunner. It's brave and something totally unexpected by me that the film would do and I loved that it helped to keep the reality of the story, though I don't believe this would ever really happen, I just feel like for this nun to do this in this moment felt very real. I also loved her little curtsy after she said her piece which just perfectly punctuated the moment. Rossellini knew exactly how much to give to a role that could have easily just been a background character or a character used to highlight some bit of exposition about a tradition or procedure and have no real bearing on the story or the film. Rossellini gives her character the perfect edge needed to keep the intrigue going in the story. I quite enjoyed what she brought to the film, though I don't think she's in this enough at all to be serious for a win.
This category actually ended up being a very good group, thank the Lord baby Jesus! The winner is actually my least favorite. Saldana is just not interesting to me in a film that I despise. I have no idea why she swept this category all season long. It boggles the mind really. Barbaro is next. I love that she sang and played the guitar, but her Joan Baez doesn't really have a lot to do in the film. Jones surprised me with how much I liked her. Powerful performance that should have been introduced earlier in the film. But really helped elevate the film. I wouldn't have minded a win for her, honestly. Rossellini is runner up for me. I think she gives the film a much needed presence and her short time is what powerhouse acting is. Grande is my winner which might be shocking, but I think she adds so much to the film and is a great Galinda. She does everything to make this her own role and not just be like Kristin Chenoweth's version. That's a tall order for people who were highly anticipating this film and this performance and she still knocked it out of the park. That's why I think she deserved the Oscar and I'm no Grande stan. Would be a much better winner than Saldana, blech. Going to roll into the current 2025 Oscars after this all gets published. Very excited to delve into that.
Oscar Winner: Zoe Saldana - Emilia Perez
My Winner: Ariana Grande - Wicked
Isabella Rossellini
Felicity Jones
Monica Barbaro
Zoe Saldana
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