Best Supporting Actress 2006

1998 through 2007

Best Supporting Actress 2006

Adriana Barraza - Babel
13
23%
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
13
23%
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
3
5%
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
15
27%
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel
12
21%
 
Total votes: 56

ITALIANO
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Post by ITALIANO »

The idea that in musicals the singing is more important than the acting when it comes to judging a performance is not subjectively wrong - it's objectively wrong. We all say idiotic things sometimes even if we are not idiots - it can happen - and this concept is just, simply, idiotic.

Those who voted for Jennifer Hudson aren't stupid of course. Actually some of them usually make interesting, intelligent choices. They just made a stupid choice this time - and it's good, we all must have our stupid moments once in a while, it's even healthy I'd say. But Jennifer Hudson's performance is objectively terrible, as we all know.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Uri wrote:What really bugged me was your complete submissiveness to the Oscar clip oriented school of evaluating acting. It's not even about this-actor-was-very-good-it's-a-pitty-he/she-didn't-have-any-big-moment-for-them-to-clinch-a-nomination anymore. Never mind that subtle, non showy performance are left sideway in favor of the flashy' in-your-face turns (latest example - Ruth Seen is every bit as brilliant as Lesley Manville in Another Year but she's totally neglected while her costar's fireworks are – rightfully - celebrated). Now it's not even about playing for the balcony. Your point is that a performance by an actor in a film is not necessarily an organic entity that should be evaluated as a whole, but assembled fragments, each may be judged on it's own, and if there were enough good bits, one can ignore the rest of them. If I'm following your logic, if I find Get Happy to be Garland's finest musical number on film my conclusion should be that her turn in Summer Stock is her best performance ever. It's as if it was a concert by a performer, and in the end of it one might say – most of the songs were blah, but that one song was so amazingly performed, it was a worthwhile evening after all. But acting is not a variety show. Good acting is about the ability to create and maintain a character or an idea or a concept even in those moments that will never be screened in the Kodak Theater. And having this philosophy as a criterion in making decisions, even in this game, is just plain wrong.

You need to keep it in perspective. It's all subjective.

I didn't say anything about a big moment - I said a thrilling moment. A thrilling moment can be something as subtle as a look - Beulah Bondi looking at Victor Moore at the end of Make Way for Tomorrow - Jane Darwell holding an earring to her ear for the last time in The Grapes of Wrath - those are thrilling moments that add to a performance.

Hudson's on stage performances are all good, one or two of them are beyond that. Fortunately her dialogue is kept to a minimum so her inability to act doesn't harm the performance. What Judy Garland does through most of Summer Stock is rather bland and blah. Get Happy is a knockout but it doesn't compensate for the rest.

Besides which Summer Stock is a different kind of musical. It belongs to the "let's put on a show" school of movie musicals in which the only songs sung are those performed on stage or in concert. They make the story stand still, as opposed to advancing it as do the songs in a book musical like Dreamgirls. You don't have to like that type of musical - anyone who abhors The Sound of Music obviously doesn't - but you can't deny that Hudson isn't acting her songs in the film or that they don't advance the story.
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Post by Uri »

Big Magilla wrote:
The Original BJ wrote:I also don't hate Jennifer Hudson. True, her non-singing scenes won't ever appear in a montage of great cinematic moments...but she sure did knock those songs out of the park. And not just "And I Am Telling You." I thought "I Am Changing" was a great moment too.
Being one of the five or ten people in the U.S. who doesn't watch American Idol, I had never seen Hudson before.

"I Am Changing" is what did it for me. I was expecting a thrilling rendition of "And I Am Telling You" which she provided, but it was "I Am Changing" that sent chills up and down my spine.

When we think of the great performances in musicals over the years, how often do we think of the singers' line readings?

Does anyone even remember Paul Robeson's lines in Show Boat? No, what we remember is his singing of "Old Man River".

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly did more for musicals than any others actors, but their "acting" wasn't always the greatest. Kelly in non-musicals makes me cringe. He almost ruins Inherit the Wind and is ridiculous in 40 Carats.

Judy Garland was sublime in the dramatic scenes in A Star Is Born, but what we remember most is her singing, particularly of "The Man That Got Away".

Julie Andrews makes a delightful entrance in Mary Poppins, bit it isn't until she sings "A Spoonful of Sugar" that we fall in love with her.

Quite simply none of Hudson's competitors had a moment in their films as thrilling as her rendition of "I Am Changing" .
Sorry, but what you've said is so, well, not wrong – it's your opinion, therefore it can't be wrong per se, but it's certainly, for me, very disturbing.

And it's not about, or not only about, Hudson's performance. We all seem to agree she couldn't, can't and probably will never be able to act. I wasn't impressed with her musical numbers, which I found to be, just like anything else in Dreamgirls, simplistic and rather didactically obvious as dramatic pieces. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I experienced this film without any real previous knowledge of the original musical or any of its songs. So I found her numbers to be rather conventionally fabricated, pushing all the usual emotional buttons. If you were following American Idol you'd be familiar with this type – the overweight black girl with the big pipes overselling the vocals of a song believing it represents artistic intensity and having the studio audience in the palm of her hand. Everyone's an Aretha.

What really bugged me was your complete submissiveness to the Oscar clip oriented school of evaluating acting. It's not even about this-actor-was-very-good-it's-a-pitty-he/she-didn't-have-any-big-moment-for-them-to-clinch-a-nomination anymore. Never mind that subtle, non showy performance are left sideway in favor of the flashy' in-your-face turns (latest example - Ruth Seen is every bit as brilliant as Lesley Manville in Another Year but she's totally neglected while her costar's fireworks are – rightfully - celebrated). Now it's not even about playing for the balcony. Your point is that a performance by an actor in a film is not necessarily an organic entity that should be evaluated as a whole, but assembled fragments, each may be judged on it's own, and if there were enough good bits, one can ignore the rest of them. If I'm following your logic, if I find Get Happy to be Garland's finest musical number on film my conclusion should be that her turn in Summer Stock is her best performance ever. It's as if it was a concert by a performer, and in the end of it one might say – most of the songs were blah, but that one song was so amazingly performed, it was a worthwhile evening after all. But acting is not a variety show. Good acting is about the ability to create and maintain a character or an idea or a concept even in those moments that will never be screened in the Kodak Theater. And having this philosophy as a criterion in making decisions, even in this game, is just plain wrong.
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Post by Bruce_Lavigne »

I don't hate Little Miss Sunshine as a movie (as a Best Picture nominee, certainly, though I would've been thrilled with a supporting-actor nod for Steve Carell), but even by "cute little kid in well-liked movie" standards, Abigail Breslin does nothing for me.

When it comes to supporting awards, I don't vote for roles that are clearly leads, even if the performance in question is head and shoulders above the supporting competition. That's not really a dilemma this year, as Blanchett was her usual exquisite self in her leading role in Notes on a Scandal, but not a clear standout in the sense that I particularly care to see her receive awards recognition for it. But then, I'm one of the few who seems to think that she does have "The" role among her Oscar nods, the one defining performance for which, if an Oscar win for it was to be her legacy, it'd be a fitting one -- and that that role is in The Aviator, which is a tremendously fun and even interesting movie when she's in it and a rather unengaging one when she's not.

I'm more pro than con on Hudson's performance. As Magilla has pointed out, one really doesn't go into this type of movie musical looking for the actors to do much outside of their big songs, and Hudson knocks her big songs out of the park. Her line readings may be embarrassingly amateurish, but for her to make the powerhouse scenes she does out of "And I Am Telling You" and "I Am Changing" takes more, in a cinematic context, than a big soulful voice; it takes good acting. I'm not going to vote for her, and probably wouldn't even nominate her myself, but I don't begrudge anyone who did.

I generally found Babel to be fairly overblown and dumb, and as good as Barraza may be individually -- and she is very good -- her role is inseparable to me from the same overblown and dumb crap as the rest of the movie. I do, however, think there's an excellent smaller-scale movie trapped inside Babel, and it's the one that stars Rinko Kikuchi. When actresses get naked for a role, and when actors of any gender play someone with a disability, it gets slapped with the empty label of "courageous" so often that I hate to use the term here, but in this case, it's entirely earned. Babel is the only thing I've seen her in, so I have no idea whether or not she's a "good actress," but in this role, in this film, she's absolutely extraordinary. It's a raw, harrowing, and -- yes -- courageous performance, and it turns what might have been a completely unwatchable movie into an intermittently affecting one. She gets my vote here easily.

Would've been nice if we could have gotten nominations for Phyllis Somerville (Little Children), Catherine O'Hara (For Your Consideration), Emma Thompson (Stranger Than Fiction), and maybe Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada).
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Post by Big Magilla »

The Original BJ wrote:I also don't hate Jennifer Hudson. True, her non-singing scenes won't ever appear in a montage of great cinematic moments...but she sure did knock those songs out of the park. And not just "And I Am Telling You." I thought "I Am Changing" was a great moment too.

Being one of the five or ten people in the U.S. who doesn't watch American Idol, I had never seen Hudson before.

"I Am Changing" is what did it for me. I was expecting a thrilling rendition of "And I Am Telling You" which she provided, but it was "I Am Changing" that sent chills up and down my spine.

When we think of the great performances in musicals over the years, how often do we think of the singers' line readings?

Does anyone even remember Paul Robeson's lines in Show Boat? No, what we remember is his singing of "Old Man River".

Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly did more for musicals than any others actors, but their "acting" wasn't always the greatest. Kelly in non-musicals makes me cringe. He almost ruins Inherit the Wind and is ridiculous in 40 Carats.

Judy Garland was sublime in the dramatic scenes in A Star Is Born, but what we remember most is her singing, particularly of "The Man That Got Away".

Julie Andrews makes a delightful entrance in Mary Poppins, bit it isn't until she sings "A Spoonful of Sugar" that we fall in love with her.

Quite simply none of Hudson's competitors had a moment in their films as thrilling as her rendition of "I Am Changing" .




Edited By Big Magilla on 1292386126
The Original BJ
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Post by The Original BJ »

NOTE: Edited in 2016 to reject category fraud.

A really tough year for me to choose. I actually don't think the field is so horrible -- but there isn't a standout either. In most years, my second or third favorite of the nominees would get my vote over anyone here.

The only nominee I definitely wouldn't vote for is Abigail Breslin, though I thought she was the best thing about her film. I actually left Little Miss Sunshine thinking "that wasn't remotely funny, but the kid was a find." Still, her cuteness wasn't something worthy of an Oscar, or even a nomination.

After that, it gets really tricky -- I could almost flip a coin.

I side with Mister Tee in liking Babel a lot more than most. I'd liked both women a lot, but figured Oscar noms for two unknown foreign actresses wouldn't be in the cards. I was thrilled, then, that they showed up at every important precursor showing. I considered voting for Kikuchi here, partly because she has so little support from this board -- I thought she made a powerful impression in a demanding role. But I do think I like Barazza a bit more -- especially for those wrenching desert scenes and that final beat in the police station. I'm not sure either actress has a very big arc -- many of their scenes involve similar beats of emotional suffering -- but I wouldn't have minded wins for either.

I also don't hate Jennifer Hudson. I think her work is uneven -- it's true that her non-singing scenes won't ever appear in a montage of great cinematic moments...but she sure did knock those songs out of the park. And not just "And I Am Telling You." I thought "I Am Changing" was a great moment too. These numbers, for me, were more than just great singing -- she performs the hell out of them, and despite the fact that her acting is limited elsewhere in the movie, I have to acknowledge her high points as well.

Which brings me to my Cate Blanchett dilemma. I think she's a clear lead. But she's also clearly the best actress here. As for her performance, it was commanding and emotional, and of a different stripe than the other actresses. I think the other four nominees were well-cast for their roles, and their raw spontaneity made for some strong moments, even if "great" thesp-ing played less of a part. Blanchett, I think, maybe was a little miscast -- her intelligence and charisma may not have been the most obvious fit for such a flighty, dim character -- but her obvious technical abilities made her performance enjoyable to watch even if she's had other roles for which she's been better suited. If I'm voting for best performance, it's Blanchett.

But Blanchett is category fraud -- one of two leads in a two-hander. As for Jennifer Hudson, I can see the argument that she's lead as well, but I think there's also a good argument to make that Dreamgirls is an ensemble film, and no one actor is really central enough to be the lead. Hudson isn't a great choice, but given the options, I can't really object to naming her the year's best supporting actress as much as some have.
Last edited by The Original BJ on Fri Aug 19, 2016 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by FilmFan720 »

Chalk me up as another Jennifer Hudson vote, though I only did that because Damien voted for her and then told me I should vote for her. I can't really come up with an opinion of my own.

As for the other four, none of them were bad, per se, but were all in films I was so lukewarm about (or worse) that I can't parson them out from their hideous screenplays.

My Top 5:
1. Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
2. Carmen Maura, Volver
3. Maribel Verdu, Pan's Labyrinth
4. Tammy Blanchard, The Good Shepherd
5. Sylvia Sims, The Queen
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Post by Eric »

Mister Tee wrote:Rather appalled to see people singling out Fiona Shaw/Black Dahlia. One of the worst, most hysterical performances by a very good actress I've ever seen.
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Post by flipp525 »

Mister Tee wrote:Would have preferred Emily Blunt and/or Phyllis Somerville -- the latter not least because she's a friend of ours. (See, I can behave like an Oscar voter!)
Please tell her that she was fantastic on "The Big C" this past season!
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Post by Mister Tee »

One we did in real time, so no need to dwell too long:

Would have preferred Emily Blunt and/or Phyllis Somerville -- the latter not least because she's a friend of ours. (See, I can behave like an Oscar voter!)

Rather appalled to see people singling out Fiona Shaw/Black Dahlia. One of the worst, most hysterical performances by a very good actress I've ever seen.

Of the nominees:

Abigail Breslin was OK, but I so disliked the movie I can't possibly vote for anything connected to it.

Jennifer Hudson puts The Song over with serious panache, which enables some to overlook the uncomfortable fact that she simply can't act. Of course, that was true of Jennifer Holliday as well, and she similarly won prizes. Sorry; I need the best supporting actress to be minimally qualified in the acting area.

I don't hate Babel with the heat of a thousand suns, and have never understood the banshee level of opposition it aroused. Both actresses are fine for what they're asked to do. Barazza would be the choice if one had to select one.

But for me this is an easy pick of Cate Blanchett. I don't have the Category Confusion problem that seems to send so many into a tizzy. I thought Dench was clearly the lead, and Blanchett a strong supporting choice. Beyond that, I think both ladies are perfect (I voted for Dench for lead) -- Blanchett makes her reckless activity completely believable and even somehow sympathetic. Of her five nominations, only her I'm Not There work competes with this for career-topper. I'm rather surprised she hasn't received more support.
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Post by Snick's Guy »

Though misplaced in the wrong category, Blanchett is the most deserving of this group, and gets my vote.
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Post by ITALIANO »

Big Magilla wrote:We know now Hudson is a pretty bad actress
Well... to be completely honest some of us (maybe just me, ok) knew this even back then...

What I find interesting - and I swear that I'm not going to judge it, but I can't deny that I'm surprised - is that after these four years 8 people here can still think that she was the best. And the reason? She sings well.
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Post by Big Magilla »

This one's been a tie from the outset. First Hudson would lead, then Barraza, then back to Hudson. It's a dead heat right now with both at 8.

We know now Hudson is a pretty bad actress as anyone who sat through the insufferable Sex and the City - The Movie can attest to, which makes her debut performance all that much more stunning in retrospect, though she is still only a winner by default.

As for child actors, yes, Oscar has always been kinder to little girls than little boys although it should be noted that Breslin had been charming us for several years on TV as dying little girls in TV shows like House and even a dead little girl who came back as a ghost on Ghost Whisperer. She was also competing in a less competitive category in a less competitive year than Jamie Bell who was a complete unknown.




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Post by Bog »

Jennifer Hudson is a hideous actress, but the woman is from American Idol...shame on us for every week from January to May making this program even more highly rated than the week prior...thus allowing an idea like this to even pop into someone's head.

I considered saving Okri "misplaced" vote and taking Barazza, but I couldn't even muster up the gumption to do that...I'm sorry, I null voted.

Just when the Academy seems like it might be open to recognizing foreign performances with the nom for Cruz in Volver, this awful list's lack of Volver nom(s) brings you back to reality that only would happen if the performance was from a big star here as well as abroad.

(yes, 1.5 nominees here were in a foreign language per se, but am I wrong to think Babel an American film?)
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Post by anonymous1980 »

Ah yes. ITALIANO's favorite year. LOL.

Both Adrianna Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi give excellent performances but their material is so bad. I think Babel is largely a poor film but it isn't their fault, it's Inarittu's but still, I can't vote for them.

Cate Blanchett did a good job in Notes on a Scandal but that's all it is: A good job. She did what the material asked of her. No more, no less.

Abigail Breslin was fine in Little Miss Sunshine but far from even nomination worthy. The Academy sure is quick to nominate little girls for Oscars but boys like Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot and Kodi Smit-McPhee in The Road couldn't.

That leaves Jennifer Hudson. I loved her rendition of "And I'm Telling You (I'm Not Going)" and she does a pretty great job with her role, even for a first-timer. She gets my vote by default.
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