The Films of 2019. The 20th annual FiLM BiTCH Awards
PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES
AND THE NOMINEES ARE...
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Best Actress
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| Scarlett Johansson "Nicole" MARRIAGE STORY |
Jennifer Lopez "Ramona" HUSTLERS |
Lupita Nyong'o "Adelaide / Red" US |
Mary Kay Place
"Diane" DIANE |
Alfre Woodard
"Warden Bernadine" CLEMENCY |
 Scarlett soulfully searches-- that monologue in the lawyer's office! -- and she finds. This sometimes maddening but work-in-progress actress (Nicole not Scarlett) is a reminder to everyone that Scarlett is one of the best. |
Lopez does her best ever work as wily, sexy, powerful Ramona. But she's a double-edged sword. Lopez reels you in as Ramona does her marks, but you she lets inside, baring this stripper's rage, and narcissistic rationalization. |  Earning her place among the "best" lists twice over in this truly inspired double-performance. She carries the film with both wary and scary ease, and adds vocal and physical invention to elevate it yet further. The closer you look the more clues she drops. |
 Ah the satisfaction of seeing a gifted character actor get a whole meaty leading role. She nails it as this generous but tetchy caretaker who has her own troubles and has HAD IT with her addict son. Bonus points: that solo bar outing! |
Woodard's quiet sad turn as a hard-drinking prison warden totally avoiding a self-reckoning is a slow burn. She's imelting away on the inside, refusing to acknowledge her own regrets. And they're volcanic as we learn in close-up. |
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Finalist: "Heloise" is the object of Portrait of a Lady on Fire's fascination and desire but Adele Haenel refuses to play along, resisting being a fantasy while retaining the mystery of one. How on earth does she do that? | Elisabeth Moss is unbearably inside"Becky Something" in Her Smell -- what ragged commitment! | Charlize Theron uncannily becomes "Megyn Kelly" in Bombshell. Semi-Finalists: Renee Zellweger as Judy, Sienna Miller as "Debra" in American Woman, Julia Stocker as "Guida/Gisele" in Invisible Life, and Awkwafina as "Billi" in The Farewell |
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Best Actor
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| Antonio Banderas "Salvador Mallo" PAIN & GLORY |
Leonardo DiCaprio "Rick Dalton" ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD |
Adam Driver "Charlie" MARRIAGE STORY |
Taron Egerton "Elton John" ROCKETMAN |
Brad Pitt "Cliff Booth" ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD |
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"The movie is the same. It's your eyes that have changed" Who knew that the muse could so intimately inhabit the soul of the maestro? Banderas does his best work yet in an aching performance full of years of history, and wistful but unsentimental memory. And those soulful hugely expressive eyes! |
A confession: I often find DiCaprio too self-aware as an actor. That utterly works for this actor in crisis role. It's the movie star's best performance in many years with vulnerability, humor, heart, vanity, and backstory all jumbled up together, occasionally tripping up his tongue and confidence. | The genius of this three dimensional performance is that you're right there with him, rug pulled out, but also can see that Nicole isn't neccessarily wrong about him. Bonus points: So emotionally naked in the climactic screaming match that I actually worried for the actor. Still more bonus points: "Being Alive" |
An exhaustively committed performance as a star who loves being a star more than he loves himself. Therefore you feel that "I'm Still Standing" triumph late in the picture. How Taron, how are still standing? Plus we love an actor who can do their own vocals for a musician biopic. |
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Finalist: I'm not sure that "Arthur Fleck" fully coheres as a character OR matches any criminal mastermind understanding of the iconic villain he becoms but Joaquin Phoenix is mesmerizing with a possessed physicality that's hard to shake in Joker | Felix Maritaud is all id without a hint of self-awareness (so rare in great performances) as "Léo" in Sauvage/Wild Semi Finalists: Chao Deng as "Jing Zhou / Zi Yu" in Shadow, Jonathan Majors "Montgomery Allen" in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Brad Pitt "Roy McBride" in Ad Astra, Robert Pattinson as "Ephraim Winslow" in The Lighthouse, and Eddie Murphy as "Rudy Ray Moore" in Dolemite is My Name |
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Best Supporting Actress
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| Laura Dern "Nora Fanshaw" MARRIAGE STORY |
Cho Yeo-jeong |
Florence Pugh "Amy" LITTLE WOMEN |
Octavia Spencer |
Shuzhen Zhao "Nai Nai" THE FAREWELL |
| Dern has considerably more range than this young-harridan period she's working through but you don't always need to stretch to nail a role. And that's exactly what she's doing, with immense entertainment value as this obviously gifted manipulative lawyer. | Parasite is a miracle and she's the lynchpin of its expert comedy. She has to convince you that Mrs. Park is dim and gullible, not from stupidity but from learned helplessness. It's high wire work, with her rich housewife forever teetering over an abyss of hysteria and then throwing money at the fear. |
Does she convincingly pull off a teenager? Who cares. In this semi-anachronistic bold take on Little Women, she's playing half of it as a memory anyway. As the adult Amy it's a thrill to watch her sink her formidable charisma and acting chops into such a major reclamation of a vilified character. |
Let Luce be a lesson to Hollywood. Stop asking Octavia to play second fiddle characters with easy singular character traits. She can do so much more including conflicted, maddening, intellectual, and complex characters like this self-righteous teacher. | The amount of love and history she packs into her preferred term of endearment "stupid child!" is a miracle. Even better is the way she continually hints that Nai Nai knows what's up OR, more accurately, doesn't want to know what's up. |
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Finalists: Lee Jeong-Eun is wonderfully ingratiating and then alarmingly undone as original housekeeper "Moon Gwang" in Parasite | Taylor Russell is quiet flower "Emily" blooming before your eyes in Waves once she takes control of her story | Annette Bening is authoratitive and winning as "Senator Feinstein" in The Report and everyone takes her immense skill for granted. Let's all stop that, shall we? Semi-Finalists: Scarlet Johansson as "Rosie" in Jojo Rabbit, Juliette Binoche as "Dibs" in High Life, Park So-dam as "Ki-jung/Jessica" in Parasite, and Luana Bajrami as "Sophie" in Portrait of a Lady on Fire |
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Best Supporting Actor
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| Alan Alda "Bert Spitz" MARRIAGE STORY |
Tom Hanks "Fred Rogers" A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD |
Aldis Hodge "Anthony Woods" CLEMENCY |
Joe Pesci "Jimmy Hoffa" THE IRISHMAN |
Song Kang Ho "Kim Ki-taek" PARASITE |
| Alda has always been great with comedy but he's especially funny here, and an exhausted beacon of warmth in a brutal profession. He's seen it all (too often) but he's endearingly outmatched. As he says about his ancient cat 'I wouldn't expect much' | In Hanks's artful and provocative take on Mr Rogers there's real cunning (for a good cause). He refuses to become the movie's subject, hero, or protagonist. Instead he'll help Lloyd (and you) through your story as patient host and spiritual guide. |
A remarkably controlled performance of great internal turmoil, as this death row inmate continually guards himself from feeling too much hope or trust. When they slip through...pain always follows. A heartbreaking turn --cast him in everything! |
Pacino was initially the take away (and yes, he's great too). But here's to lingering like memory and reflecting the film that houses you. Pesci is so confident in this unusual (for him) performance, he'll sit back while you wait: for marching orders, for clues, for flickers of conflicted feeling. |
South Korea's ever-reliable star has awe-inspiring range. The tragic modulation of his arc is effortless. The con takes him from casually jokey to cruelly criminal (that broadly played moment holding the bloody napkin -- so funny!) to humiliated and desperate. |
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Finalists: John Turturro is brilliantly pathetic as indecisive "Arnold" in Gloria Bell. Get away while you can Gloria! | Al Pacino finally returns to big screen form as shouty obsessive "Jimmy Hoffa" in The Irishman | and Tracy Letts has multiple fine moments as "Henry Ford II" in Ford V Ferrari trying to secure his legacy while attempting to control the swinging dicks who work for him. Semi Finalists: Sterling K Brown and Kelvin Harrison Jr as "Ronald" and "Tyler" in Waves, Wesley Snipes as "D'Urville Martin" in Dolemite Is My Name, and Park Myeong Hoonas "Guen-se" in Parasite |
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PICTURE | ACTING | VISUALS | AURALS | EXTRAS | SPECIAL | SCENES