Re: Best Supporting Actress 2020
Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 1:50 pm
I think this is the weirdest acting race I've seen since I started watching the Oscars. There have been plenty of wide open races where it's hard to boil down the top five, like Best Supporting Actor 2015 for example. But this race was just inscrutable from day one so much so that it's one of the best arguments against season-long Oscar prognostication.
Before having seen their films, I'm reasonably sure everyone and their mother thought this was going to be some sort of match-up between Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy and Amanda Seyfried for Mank. By nomination morning, I think most us were at best 50/50 as to whether or not they'd be nominated. Hillbilly Elegy was released to RT% numbers more fitting of Norbit or a Zach Snyder DC film. And Amanda Seyfried barely figured into the second half of Mank and failed to get a SAG nomination. As for the performances themselves? It's not inconceivable that had Hillbilly Elegy been better (which is to say: different script, different director) that Close could've won. I'm fine with saying Close is responsibility for Hillbilly Elegy's strongest moments but can't be taken seriously for a win. And Seyfried? She's quite good, but just not enough to do. A fine scene or two in a movie I've come to mostly dislike.
On paper, Olivia Colman looked like a possible winner. Why not? She'd just won for The Favourite, she was starting a career where she was instantly beloved by the industry, and her role was enormously sympathetic in a Best Picture nominee (the only one outside of Seyfried). But again: she just didn't have enough to do. The Father is a very promising film that feels just a tiny bit too schematic in how it excises any fat that doesn't forward the story like an unfolding mystery. Had a scene or two departed from this framework and given us a little more insight into Hopkins and Williams without fear of losing the thread (which I don't think it would have) and perhaps she would be in a better position for a win -- and I would be inclined to support it.
The critics were split between Maria Bakalova and Yuh-Jung Youn. I have no idea if the race truly ended up between those two but for a while it sure seemed like it. With Close, Seyfried, and Williams taken out of serious contention, and with the non-nominated Jodie Foster taking a surprise Golden Globe (none more so than herself), there were only three prime pieces of precursor real estate to go, and Yuh-Jung Youn gobbled them up. It's a shame that the Academy excised clips from the evening so they could get an opportunity to see her performance. That alone would've been responsible for several rentals, who at the least would've said "Okay, if she drinks that kid's pee, I'll check it out." I spent quite a bit of the Oscar season dismissing her chances due to history but having seen her role, her presence in the race shouldn't have be in doubt. Whether one likes the arc of her role or not, she arcs the narrative of the film to a massive degree, goes through arguably the most personal change (more on that in a moment), and garnering sympathy along the way. I don't think she has the most original or challenging role (Han Ye-ri is the one actor who deserved mention) but I thought she was good.
There's so much that I enjoy about Maria Bakalova in Borat Subequent Moviefilm but it's mainly the choices that the filmmakers made to give her a journey of empowerment that felt positively bent. Her character starts out in a literal cage and ends up with agency of her own that doesn't feel inauthentic. But that's largely the filmmaker's doing. As an actor, she gets by on being completely game for whatever the film does to her and largely not acting like she's in a comedy. But I didn't laugh much at Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and I didn't laugh much at Bakalova's performance either. I don't think the movie would've worked without her but I don't think it worked extremely well with her.
I'm torn because I want to vote for the comedic performance. Perhaps if I watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm again I might find more grace notes in Bakalova's performance but at this moment I'm left with little choice than to go with Yuh-Jung Youn whose role isn't remarkably different from a profane granny but at least finds more than one moment to keep it fresh.
Before having seen their films, I'm reasonably sure everyone and their mother thought this was going to be some sort of match-up between Glenn Close for Hillbilly Elegy and Amanda Seyfried for Mank. By nomination morning, I think most us were at best 50/50 as to whether or not they'd be nominated. Hillbilly Elegy was released to RT% numbers more fitting of Norbit or a Zach Snyder DC film. And Amanda Seyfried barely figured into the second half of Mank and failed to get a SAG nomination. As for the performances themselves? It's not inconceivable that had Hillbilly Elegy been better (which is to say: different script, different director) that Close could've won. I'm fine with saying Close is responsibility for Hillbilly Elegy's strongest moments but can't be taken seriously for a win. And Seyfried? She's quite good, but just not enough to do. A fine scene or two in a movie I've come to mostly dislike.
On paper, Olivia Colman looked like a possible winner. Why not? She'd just won for The Favourite, she was starting a career where she was instantly beloved by the industry, and her role was enormously sympathetic in a Best Picture nominee (the only one outside of Seyfried). But again: she just didn't have enough to do. The Father is a very promising film that feels just a tiny bit too schematic in how it excises any fat that doesn't forward the story like an unfolding mystery. Had a scene or two departed from this framework and given us a little more insight into Hopkins and Williams without fear of losing the thread (which I don't think it would have) and perhaps she would be in a better position for a win -- and I would be inclined to support it.
The critics were split between Maria Bakalova and Yuh-Jung Youn. I have no idea if the race truly ended up between those two but for a while it sure seemed like it. With Close, Seyfried, and Williams taken out of serious contention, and with the non-nominated Jodie Foster taking a surprise Golden Globe (none more so than herself), there were only three prime pieces of precursor real estate to go, and Yuh-Jung Youn gobbled them up. It's a shame that the Academy excised clips from the evening so they could get an opportunity to see her performance. That alone would've been responsible for several rentals, who at the least would've said "Okay, if she drinks that kid's pee, I'll check it out." I spent quite a bit of the Oscar season dismissing her chances due to history but having seen her role, her presence in the race shouldn't have be in doubt. Whether one likes the arc of her role or not, she arcs the narrative of the film to a massive degree, goes through arguably the most personal change (more on that in a moment), and garnering sympathy along the way. I don't think she has the most original or challenging role (Han Ye-ri is the one actor who deserved mention) but I thought she was good.
There's so much that I enjoy about Maria Bakalova in Borat Subequent Moviefilm but it's mainly the choices that the filmmakers made to give her a journey of empowerment that felt positively bent. Her character starts out in a literal cage and ends up with agency of her own that doesn't feel inauthentic. But that's largely the filmmaker's doing. As an actor, she gets by on being completely game for whatever the film does to her and largely not acting like she's in a comedy. But I didn't laugh much at Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and I didn't laugh much at Bakalova's performance either. I don't think the movie would've worked without her but I don't think it worked extremely well with her.
I'm torn because I want to vote for the comedic performance. Perhaps if I watch Borat Subsequent Moviefilm again I might find more grace notes in Bakalova's performance but at this moment I'm left with little choice than to go with Yuh-Jung Youn whose role isn't remarkably different from a profane granny but at least finds more than one moment to keep it fresh.