Nathaniel's Ballot: Best Actress
Monday, January 23, 2012 at 6:04PM Actresses being my favorite thing in the world, "Best" is a strange term to apply. It has to be plural, you see. There are more great actresses in the world than there are great roles, sadly. If you are a screenwriter reading this, fix this situation! We'd prefer the roles to grow rather than the number of great working actresses to dwindle.
The 12 Lead Actresses I Loved Most This Year
I only allow myself 12 total honors or "semifinalists" each year with 5 of them absurdly lifted up above the other 7 in the end. Though really, such exercizes are excruciatingly subjective and incite an internal war where all sides of the self lose. Except when watching these rich performances. Ask me again in a few years and the lineup might change. This year was so embarrassingly rich I'd be happy with a lineup consisting of any of them. A dozen performances and I still had to shut out a few performances I found interesting or moving or "of note" which includes many of the Oscar contenders. Last year Oscar and I really saw eye to eye in this category but this year we have to part ways. It goes like that sometimes.
Regarding The Queen of the Universe
As for Meryl Streep, I will let you know up front that she is not one of my nominees this year though I happily agree that she is her usual mix of generous entertainer, great actress, and true movie star in The Iron Lady and I will be very happy for her once she finally wins that long overdue third Oscar. But: how weird is it that even Meryl Fucking Streep has to do biopic mimicry to get something like winner's heat? I feel like I'm always apologizing to people for not embracing the biopic performances since you're really supposed to love them and admire them above all else (as consensus proves in most years. See also: Michelle Williams who I honestly think is way better in her previous two Oscar nominated turns. What can I say. They just don't capture my imagination in quite the same way as they do everyone else's and these are my awards. I just happen to be, generally, more excited by acting which builds an entire believable life from only words on a page, or finds a way to humanize an auteurist exercize or blazes into full stylization with great creativity.
If you're angry -- devoted Streep fans are famously feisty -- consider this: In the 11 years I've been giving out awards Meryl has already won my top prize (The Devil Wears Prada) as well as two additional medals which is more than you can say for her track record with the Academy. She's not "overdue" here at the Film Experience though it's true that I nominate her less than Oscar does. To make it up to you we'll soon have a Streep Party in the form of Reader Rankings. It got pushed a week becayse this time of year is, well, you know. Tomorrow morning: eeek!
Film Bitch Awards, Meryl Streep
Reader Comments (40)
Oh, Nate—I know you could be a bigger Glenn Close fan, but she's not even top-12 worthy to you? :(
I continue to argue that Iron Lady is a memoir and not a bio ... because the makeup and voice are to show the real person does not mean Streep mimicked Thatcher... I still feel she immersed herself into the role. I will stay fairly firm on this.
Such a fantastic list of women, and it's so weird because I think this year has been - like so many years - a great year for leading women, but this best actress slate to come looks devastatingly trite and considering the embarrassment of riches last year's best actress slate was I guess we were spoiled.
(Curious, was Keira supporting for you...or did she just not make your top 12?)
I agree with Rick. I have no words for streep omission!!!
No Tilda?! :O
I'm actually shocked to see Streep among the finalists. She is the movie, and the movie is bad, that's all I can see.
Lovely list, though it's one of those rare years when I'm actually more interested in Best Actor. FYC: Chris New in "Weekend". I'm sure Tom Cullen is already your nominee /and I personally would give him a gold medal/, but honestly, if New had downplayed the unlikeability of his character /and damn, Glen sure is irritating/, Cullen wouldn't have half as much to react to.
Your write-up of Binoche's perfomance is pitch-perfect. You really give us an idea of how complicated this performancet's the best and the most difficult performance in years - even if you don't agree with the "best" part and give the gold medal to somebody else, you know exactly what you're seeing.
Same goes for the great observation of Poetry's protagonist's role duality: it's a performance goes in opposite directions and it never feels like she is stretching too much. Yun can do everything effortless.
What I like best about your ballot is that you don't award only great performances: you try to see beyond this, how difficult these specific roles are, what makes them so difficult, and how these actress deal with these difficulties.
It's a great year, not only of performances, but a year of great roles for women, and these actresses didn't fall short: it's not like you can find any actress that can be a human puzzle like Binoche or a fierce bitchy miniature-sociopath like Theron. Even the simplest and most underwritten role, Davis' is complicated by her: she elevates the whole thing.
Great year.
One of my favorite moments of the Oscar season: Nathaniel lets us know his Best Actress nominees, finalists etc!
Personally, I liked Kirsten Dunst and Yun Jeong-hie a lot, not sure how I feel about Binoche (I know I'm supposed to love that performance but I'm not sure I agree about the specificity many people think she brought to the role), I liked Viola a lot but I think even the anger had a kind of nomibity that makes me unsure if I agree with you on the non-saint thing.
Agreed on Wiig, not sure about Wasikowska, and I can't wait to see Olsen, Oduye and Paquin.
I don't think I'll watch the Iron Meryl. Really, who am I and what have I done with myself?
I think it can't be said better: "She's the movie, and the movie is bad". If Meryl's performances ranking would have included this one, her Margaret Thatcher would've been the last one in the ranking... This is an amazing year for actresses, and Meryl's work in The Iron Lady is less than average. I'm sad for not seeing Wiig or Olsen nominated (I thought she could have been even medallist!), and not seeing Gainsbourg, Mara and Knightley even in the top 12.All this four performances are far superior than, say, Davis. Anyway, happy for Binoche, Dunst and Theron. But yes, pretty disappointed for all the love to Meryl's lazy performance, I mean, in some scenes there's even bad acting from her!! That's the only way Meryl surprised me with her last performance.
Lazy, awful, horrible, mimicry....whatever. Streep will get a record breaking 17th nomination tomorrow. All the women mentioned would kill for the career she has.
Oh Nathaniel, between those 2 whole paragraphs above and the very strategic scheduling of the Streep Reader Ranking, it seems like you're really afraid of the wrath of the Streepophiles. Are they that scary?
Hey all of you- she's not that great!!
(only joking, I take it back, please don't kill me)
This was a big one and despite the absence of Tilda (not even a semi-finalist?!) is still an incredibly strong and interesting lineup! :)
My Picks…
BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Juliette Binoche, CERTIFIED COPY
Viola Davis, THE HELP
Yun Jeong-hie, POETRY
Tilda Swinton, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
Charlize Theron, YOUNG ADULT
I agree with Rick above, as usual. I saw no mimicry in The Iron Lady, but call it what you like, Nathaniel. I witnessed an astounding and deserving performance myself. Anyway, I also feel a wee bit used/mishandled/exploited/betrayed, Nathaniel, to extract Streep info from me. I fell for it. I guess I'm sensitive.
Oh dear! Look what you did! Now we will all live in fear that Streep fanatics may attack you any time...
I think it's totally fine that Nat left Streep off. It's his list and the five women he chose as best are very deserving (although I haven't seen Poetry yet, sadly. I need to get on that). I will disagree on the mimicry/biopic factor that seems to be the main discomfort with Streep's performance...
I agree with Jamie and Rick that Streep's performance far transcended simple mimicry and caricature. There really was an embodiment of this woman and through Streep you not only saw this woman's steadfastness, determination, but also her emotionally violent resoluteness that eventually led to her ostracism within her own party. I will agree that the film's shift from past to present was often jarring and thematically inept and the parts with Jim Broadbent's ghost or whatever was just silly and annoying, but Streep never fell to the inadequacies of the script. And let me just say that although I adore Meryl, I'm not a rampant Steep fanatic (I honestly wasn't a huge fan of her in Doubt or Julie & Julia) and I don't even think this is my favorite female performance of the year (that would be Tilda), but I think this performance has been unfairly maligned. IMHO, she really does achieve greatness in this.
Binoche, Colman, and Yun Jeong-Hie? LOVE this.
I would rank The Iron Lady as one of Streep's Top 5 performances of all time, easily.
WHERE CAN I SEE PAST FILM BITCH AWARDS AND NOMINEES? SINCE WHEN ARE THESE AWARDS?
I have to agree with Brandz.
But it is Nat's list.
Michelle Pfeifer and Charlize Theron would never appear on ANY list of mine so who am I to judge?
And yes....we Streepophiles know where all of you live :)
P.S. Lookin at past BITCH awards....Julia Child was not even in the top 5 of 2009. GEESH!
Just some other actresses I had never heard of.....well maybe 2. So I am not surpised Thatcher did not make his list.
@ Jamie - so, because you've never heard of those actresses, they couldn't possibly have given better performances than Streep's in Julie & Julia? ;-)
@ Nathaniel - Great list! We have roughly the same lineup, just replace Charlize with Mia. I feel bad about leaving her off the list, but, like you said, 2011 was a great year for this category.
Steve....it was a joke
Charlize and Kirsten in your lineup struck me as birds-of-a-feather icy blonde screen presences. Which, of course, reminded me of your Pfeiffer pfandom.
Which led me to the inevitable and orgasmic place of imagining a version of Young Adult filmed 15 years ago with Michelle Pfeiffer. And then I died.
To be fair to the Academy (in comparison with the FB awards), I bet Meryl would have at least 3 or 4 silver medals in those eleven years.
Oh Oscar. ;-)
@ Jamie.... it was a joke. Didn't you notice my winky face? ;-)
"Michelle Pfeifer and Charlize Theron would never appear on ANY list of mine so who am I to judge?"
I think that says it all right there; Nathaniel assesses things fairly on his own judgement of the actual performance, not "so-and-so would automatically not make my list."
Everyone knows Streep is an amazing actress, so WHAT if people don't think a performance is as amazing as you do? The Streep fanatics just turn me off of her, which is sad.
I love the list. Great performances. Such a good year. Kinda sad because there were a few I would've liked to see, but it was a really good year, so there you have it.
Streep deserved the Sophie's Choice win. Nothing since has been spared this feeling as though she is demonstrating technique over true emotion.
My top five: Theron, Davis, Dunst, Wiig, Olsen, probably in that order. I have not seen Streep, Binoche, Oduye, or Swinton yet.
My fave female performance of the year is from Tang Wei (Late Autumn), too bad it only played in two of NY's AMC theaters for one week.
Sorry for venting all.....but I promise I will be in a better mood tomorrow :)!!!!
I love that Theron is in your top 5, it just kills me that William's much lesser performance is a sure-fire nominee but Charlize has fallen behind.
Plus I think that equating Meryl's performance with the quality of the movie is silly, when you do that you totally disregard everyone else's contribution to the film, and it is though other things that really bring it down.
But more importantly, where can we see the Film Bitch nominees from past years?! When I click the link online I can only go back to like 2009 :(
@ Nathaniel,
I know I'm going to sound a bit angry, but it's kind of disappointing that in the last few weeks your blog has turned into anti-Meryl-fans space. I've never would have expected that.
Other than that, I like your line-up, except for Viola Davis. Yes, I don't understand the magic of the performance that holds people's attention and yes, I believe you're just going with the flow there. Her performance wasn't bad by any means. Actually it was the most detailed performance of the film, but after all, it was a performance that did what it was expected to do, nothing more. And Viola Davis has turned into the crusade of movie bloggers. But I don't see a great work there. Charlize Theron's performance - I saw it yesterday and she's really a pleasure to watch. Reitman and Cody didn't really know how to handle the last half hour so that the movie doesn't let you rather irritated (and without the sense of the whole 'resolution' being a bit rushed), but Theron and Oswalt were brilliant, especially when together. Yun delivers a nuanced, solid performance and Juliette & Kirsten - my two favorite performances of the past year.
@zooey- What resolution? There really isn't anything that is "solved." *SPOILER* She leaves the exact same person she was when she started, if not with more issues. I thought Reitman and Co. handled it very well. They took what could have been an easy way out and really honed in on how realistically someone can easily fall back into their old ways. The conversation with Sandra is brilliant and probably one of the best scenes in the film... perfect anti-ending to a dark, dark comedy.
With all that said, Charlize delivers the best female performance of the year no doubt. I'm so bummed that she's not a frontrunner. Even if you hate the film, you can't deny the brilliance of her performance. I would say the only 2 equally compelling performances in the "bound to be nominees" category are Viola Davis and Michelle Williams. It pains me to not include Swinton but I felt like most of the heavy lifting in that film was done by Ezra Miller.
Love your list (Yoon! Binoche! Dunst!). It was indeed a great year for actresses.
I'm puzzled why the Streep fans are upset when (1) it's Nathaniel's list and he's certainly entitled to his opinion on his own damn blog; (2) he actually chose her as one of his finalists (she's 6th/7th out of many good 2011 performances).
Any regular reader of The Film Experience knows of his abiding Streep Love. Just because he doesn't think she's the best in every single year, he (or anyone who agrees with him) suddenly gets tarred as a hater or a traitor? Eh.
But I suppose most fandoms gets a little intense 'round this time of the year ^^
@ AD, that's exactly why I put the " ". I don't want to spoil. SPOILER (even though it's kind of expected) I mean the character's decision to go back and have her life and to repeat to herself every f*** morning that she's one happy person who's much more than the others and really doesn't care much about the misfits of the small town. END OF MINOR SPOILER What I didn't really like is how it happened. I needed something more creative there.
meryl streep the iron lady
leila hatami a separation
viola davis the help
michelle williams my week with marylin
Juliette Binoche CERTIFIED COPY
Nat, I totally agree with you about Charlize Theron. In fact, I'm predicting her to get a Best Actress nomination later this morning. (For me, I'm just not feeling any buzz for Tilda, so Chalize knocks her out.)
It certainly was a great year Nathaniel.
My favorites
1. Adepero Oduye, Pariah
2. Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
3. Charlize Theron, Young Adult
4. Juliette Binoche, Certified Copy
5. Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
//I'm puzzled why the Streep fans are upset when (1) it's Nathaniel's list and he's certainly entitled to his opinion on his own damn blog; (2) he actually chose her as one of his finalists (she's 6th/7th out of many good 2011 performances).//
@Yoonah - my thoughts exactly, and thank you for articulating them.
What a great roster, Nathaniel!
I FINALLY saw Poetry and, wow, what a film! And Yun Jung-hee is truly incredible. Charlize gave without a doubt the best performance of the year - male, female, leading, supporting, or otherwise. The way she gets under Mavis's skin is incredible. Second for me would be Kirsten Dunst, who was truly a revelation in Melancholia. And God bless Viola Davis, who really gave that film so much more than it deserved, but gave that character exactly what she needed. Rounding out my five would be Kristen Wiig, who showed heretofore unseen depth and feeling in addition to her obvious comic gifts.
I REALLY need to see Certified Copy. Like, right now. And Tyrannosaur cannot open soon enough.