I like Sandra Bullock. I feel like I have to start from there. Her Oscar win should have seemed inevitable to me from the first moment I heard about the movie. For, you see, I am almost never happy with the way this category pans out (as opposed to Supporting Actress wherein I apparently have more Oscar-friendly taste). Unlike the mega-millions of other people who like Ms Bullock, I didn't spend the season trying to justify nor am I OK with her being an Oscar winner. It's BEYOND weird to me that Kate Winslet, an Oscar level actress if ever there was one, had to endure such vitriol from fans and non-fans alike for winning an Oscar last year for one of her minor performances but Sandra can coast along to Oscar on little more than being "likeable" and elevating bad movies and people are happy for her! I don't get that math at all and I wish people would be more consistent about why they got angry about the Oscars. Not that it's easy to be angry about Sandra Bullock who is gracious and loveable. And gives good speech! More on that in another post.
And now for my split screen envelope opening emotional projection obsession!
"and the winner is... | ...Sandra | Bullock" (it sinks in)
Gabourey Sidibe and Carey Mulligan seem genuinely nervous before the name is read. I don't imagine either expected to win per se, but if it's your first time through it's probably easier to believe that anything is possible. Even if you don't want to believe it for fear of disappointment, Carey. Dame Helen Mirren (of the spider tattoo... thanks Michael Sheen) seems totally bored. I'm guessing she was thinking "Meryl or Sandra? Oh okay, Sandra" -- no emotional fuss whatsoever. Gabby appears to be waving to the camera in the last still but it's actually just a strange way of clapping parallel to your body rather than the normal perpendicular way. Meryl seems to be doing the turn your head to avoid the camera seeing your disappointment thing but in truth, Sandra is just across the aisle to that side of her and they've been uh, flirtatious, throughout awards season. She was just looking at her. Meryl is a good loser. The Best actually. She's perfected it over the past 28 years. She always seems utterly delighted to be there even when losing. She's so good at it you'd think she doesn't even care about winning. But that seismic blast of joy when she won the SAG for Doubt last year indicates otherwise. La Streep WANTS to win a third. And who could blame her after all she's done for the cinema?
So the Oscar Math goes like so when it comes to the Best Actress category:
Swank is > than Streep who is = to Bullock who is > than the following combined:
Pfeiffer, Close, Weaver, Turner, Moore, Allen, Deneuve and Linney.
Pfeiffer, Close, Weaver, Turner, Moore, Allen, Deneuve and Linney.
Oscar Actress Math never computes.
But here are my favorite Best Actress Oscar winners from the Oscar decade just ended
I'm only half kidding. And I didn't even want Julia Roberts to win that year because I was rooting for Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream (who would make my nominee list even if the Oscars were only once a decade). My point is this: I am almost never happy with how Best Actress turns out. Almost never ever. The last time I had the same #1 as Oscar? Thirteen years ago when Frances McDormand won for Fargo. Even when one of my all time favorite actors does win (like Nicole Kidman & Kate Winslet) they win for the wrong performance!
I was going to do the same thing i did for best actress that I did for supporting and list the top 5 but it was EXCRUCIATING to even narrow it down to 12. Horrible horrible... actual physical pain.
Nathaniel's Top Dozen Best Actress 2000-2009
- Björk, Dancer in the Dark (snubbed)
- Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream (nominated, lost)
- Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal (nominated, lost)
- Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher (snubbed)
- Nicole Kidman, Birth (snubbed)
- Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven (nominated, lost)
- Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake (nominated, lost)
- Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada (nominated, lost)
- Tilda Swinton, Julia (snubbed)
- Uma Thurman, Kill Bill (snubbed)
- Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr (snubbed)
- Kate Winslet, Eternal Sunshine (nominated, lost)
I'm sure you noticed a pattern. Half were snubbed by the Academy altogether and none of the nominees won. In an entire decades worth of Oscar! Even my favorite of Oscar's winners (Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich) isn't in my top 12! I have no idea why Best Actress continues to be my favorite category. It will lead me to the madhouse.
Do you have any categories that you love in this masochistic way?
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