"Dream Big, Dream Fierce" This Oscar Season
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 11:35PM The SAG Awards are receding in the review mirror, but the afterglow remains. How much power can emotional narratives have within our seasonal awards journey? Viola Davis has been a major actress for a long time within the showbiz community -- this very website first handed her two gold medals way back in early 2003 for her gobsmackingly great single scene in Antwone Fisher and her breakthrough year of smart character work in Far From Heaven and Solaris -- but it's only in the past few years that the mainstream has begun to learn her name and key in to her potent gift. There's nothing like a 'who's that?' Oscar nomination (Doubt), A List friendship (Streep) and a big fat juicy hit (The Help) to boost your profile.
So I wasn't surprised but was definitely delighted to see her receive a standing ovation when she walked up to accept Best Actress for The Help.
Perhaps the standing ovation is an annual occurence and I've merely forgotten.
In some ways our relationship with the awards circus is a long one with deep pockets of memories, held grudges and fond crushes. In other ways it's as if we're goldfish swimming round the bowl and we're surprised by that little plastic castle every time.
But I think the true indicator that Viola Davis is the likely winner of the Best Actress Oscar is not the win itself with SAG, which has a much wider more diverse voting body than Oscar, but the crowd response. Reducing co-stars to tears is probably no great achievement. They were in the trenches with you so naturally Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and Cicely Tyson were crying their eyes out. But making Zoe Saldana and Angelina Jolie all misty? Boosting Dick Van Dyke's mood when he was already high on life?
What is going on here? (More after the jump)
I think what it comes down to is the unruly power of emotion, or "heart" as its sometimes called in movie parlance and awards narratives. The heart wants what it wants and for a lot of people, that means Viola Davis in The Help this season. And why wouldn't it given that performance? Emotions can feel overwhelming with the right variables in place and they can often defy logic or critical evaluation, growing well past their normal proportions if properly fertilized, until they bloom dazzlingly.
[Sidebar: I suspect Charlize Theron's Mavis Gary, a great character performance resigned to the not nominated bin, would be utterly perplexed by all this feeling... which is undoubtedly the reason why she wasn't in the mix.]
Sometimes people feel incredibly silly after a lot of carrying on and crying and cheering (buyer's remorse) but sometimes it feels like great healthy catharsis. It's good for the soul to really let yourself feel something in a big way, as everyone seemed to last night.
But which it is when anyone wins and is greeted very emotionally is for history to sort out. You can't know it in the moment. But I suspect that, should Viola win the Oscar, history will view the win kindly on account of her major talent. And that's independent of whether she gets the opportunities she deserves afterwards: if her career grows, a win now will be seen as early vindication of her worth; if her career stalls, as everyone worries it will (we've seen enough careers flame out to worry), this will be seen as "thank God they gave her the prize then, at the peak of her career!"
That's what I suspect at least, and I suspect it with as much feeling as Jessica Chastain's tears and Octavia's uninhibited physical joy.
It doesn't hurt that Viola can really sell an acceptance speech. A lot of awards show speeches mention the power of chasing personal dreams. But it's not easy to sell a personal triumph as a universal one, and those attempts often feel hemmed in by or disingenuous with pride. Not everyone can be a star, after all. But Viola can make the specific universal. It's part of her gift as an actress. When she tells you to "dream big, dream fierce" you can know that she's referencing her own journey but it will feel generous all the same, like you've dreamt it with her. Like we're all in it together.
That's the power of communal dreams.
Reader Comments (84)
@steve
I don't find you insulting at all. I appreciate the give and take. It's Nick Davis I find insulting, even dismissive, and I sometimes read his blog. I won't make time for that now.
@brandz: I'm sorry if you find my reply insulting, but as Steve points out, you have repeatedly conflated your personal preference for Streep with an out-of-hand dismissal of two appreciably different Davis performances as "the same thing." You also keep asking for people not to take their own positions as the gospel truth (fair enough) while delivering your own gospel about the "only" reason Davis could possibly win. I am all for personal opinions and for your championing of Streep's accomplishment, but I found the reductive tack on Davis to be very insulting to her and to her admirers, and not at all helpful to the point you're trying to make on Streep's behalf.
^ Yeah that...
Go Team Davis!
hee hee....
Streep's loss brings out the worse in some of her devoted fans...sigh. I even think Streep is going to vote for Davis at the Oscars.
I've come to terms with Viola winning this year -- it's not my pick because I find it to be the least challenging role, on paper, that any of the nominated (and virtually all of the considerable, unnominated) performances by other leading actresses this year. But she is extremely forceful, discerning, and tasteful in her work in "The Help."
That being said, I find her speeches to be the most self-aggrandizing, self-righteous, self-congratulatory moments of stage time I've witnessed since...woof. Who knows. It's like the earth has shaken the moment her name is called (c'mon, Viola, you were more genuinely surprised by losing the GG than you were at winning the BFCA or the SAG), and she plants herself to the ground, and projects from the depths of her well-trained diaphragm to espouse some great virtuous speech. You won an award for being an actress -- how about acting with either a little more humility or a little more fun, you take your pick. This seriousness is killing me (as in the snot in the nose in DOUBT moment that showed people "what acting looks like," I'd like a little more restraint at the podium).
As for Meryl in "The Iron Lady," if the picture had been all about the twilight years of Thatcher's life, Meryl would be winning in a landslide. Or, if viewers more receptive to the picture as I myself saw it, and agreed that the strange arch performance in the middle years was an intentional, stylized choice, at how Thatcher was seeing herself, rather than Streep's attempt at a natural performance in those middle years. Her work is so personal, so frightening, so damagingly honest in the contemporary period as Thatcher -- it is an entirely shocking view of older women that is not allowed in plain view.
@ Nick - well said!
(Just to clarify - that Steve just above this post, hatin' on Viola, is not the same Steve who'd been commenting on this post (that would be me... make sense?)).
@ Evil Steve ;-) - oh, come on. She's hardly the first actor to be moved by receiving an award. On top of that, she's 46 years old, and she's been working hard as an under-recognized actress for years. And on top of THAT, she's a black woman he has no doubt either seen or experienced her fair share of racism over the years, and she's in a movie that is literally. about. racism. Why wouldn't she connect to that theme in a profoundly personal way, and why shouldn't that be expressed in her speeches?
Edit: should read "a black woman WHO has no doubt..." Whoops.
Yestarday I watched TIL again, in English. And a couple of weks ago, made the same with The Help. First of all I realized once more time how big is the different between watching a movie in its original language and watching it dubbed. I really don't understand why in Italy they still spend lots of money dubbing movies, when they could simply add subs allowing the audience to catch shades of the performance that otherwise they'd miss.
Anyway, I basically confirmed all my opinions about The Help: nice movie, funny, touching, great cast, great Viola Davis... who is still supporting in my mind.
Instead I had way to appreciate more The Iron Lady, then I did the previous day at the cinema. Yeah the movie is not that great okay... still think they could have done muuuch better with such a powerful carachter... But OMG Meryl Streep is absolutely stratospheric!!!! Now, I'm aware that a person who has such a huge admiration for an artist will never be objective with her. That's probably why I basically love all her film, except maybe Dancing at Lughnasa at other few really boring movies... And that's also why I accept the fact that this year the Oscar could go (again) to another actress, glad if that's Viola... Still have hopes for a 3rd Oscar though. In my mind she has already ten on twelve in her bag ahahah... but yes, the big movie point makes sense. If she's in a movie widely appreciated, it will be easier for her... If the movie is not that great, that you can basically: elevate the movie, for all those who love you and think that your performance is so great that never mind if the screenplay and directors were sleeping while realizing the movie; or for those who are much more detached if the movie is bad than your performance won't be even considered deserving an Oscar noms. I belong to the first group of audience, of course. Meryl's Margareth Tatcher is in my top 5 performance by Streep... both Tatchers... because as someone already said she played basically two persons masterfully, mixing together technical ability and heart. She moved me. And to be the best performance of the year is hers. But again, they are just opinions... =) let's wait for Oscar night and see the Academy ones! =)
I'm all for Viola winning, but I can't stop feeling bad about best actress winner coming from a shitty movie again after the refreshing Portman win. It's just like best actress is always gonna be about people elevating thier movies, and not an harmonic combination of great actress and great movie.
You may love the cast - Viola is great, yes - but this movie is so embarrasing, and it'll remain in history books as the one who gave Viola davis her best actress Oscar.
But what can one do?
@Steve Who's Posted Multiple Times: Thanks!
@Steve Who Likes Viola But Hates Her Speeches, and Loves Meryl: I just want to say that I love your point about Meryl and Iron Lady showing us a "shocking view of older women that is not allowed in plain view." I think that's a great way to phrase what is most special and most daring about her performance, and how in its way, the work Streep is doing is trying to break down demographic barriers and clichés, too. Viola's not the only one with a claim on showing us women we too often look away from or know nothing about. I have to say I disagree about your argument for her Prime Minister scenes. I'm with those who say Streep couldn't help pouring a lot of Streepy warmth, energy, and spontaneity in those scenes, which don't read as Thatcher to me.... and in fact they read even less to me like the idea Thatcher would have had of herself, since there's no evidence, even in the script, that she thought of herself as animated or warm. But I'm interested in your idea.
I get that not everyone is going to jive to how seriously Viola takes her moments at the mic, but from my POV, I see her really, really wanting the platform to encourage other low-income kids, other kids of color, other girls, and especially other low-income girls of color that these dreams really can be theirs, too. She's said a million times that she almost gave up this dream because there were so few role models encouraging her to believe this level of work was possible for a black woman, esp with her socioeconomic background. I see this ALL the time in my line of work, too. Speaking for myself, I appreciate the directness and the conviction of her appeals, and I find the sentiment really refreshing and poignant. But, different strokes, I realize.
I'm not saying Best Actor usually goes for masterpieces, but the movies are way better. It's like, you see Daniel Day Lewis winning for There Will be Blood or PSH for Capote or Brody for The Pianist or Penn for Milk or Mystic River. You may not be a fan of some of this movies, like The King's Speech, but you don't see embarrassingly bad movies like The Help or The Blind Side winning best actor.
Of course, people will always complain about how we don't see many great female-driven movies, but I disagree. We've had a fantastic year in terms of great performances coming from great movies, but they still come with a line-up of The Help, The Iron Lady, Albert Nobbs (that's not as bad as people see it), My Week With Marilyn and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (a minor effort from a great director). Come on.
@Cal Roth: I feel you, especially since I wasn't the biggest fan of Black Swan, either (and I don't think Portman elevated it). I haven't loved a movie that spawned a Best Actress winner since the Monster/Million Dollar Baby peaks in '03/'04. Still, while I'm the first to admit you just have to grumble at aspects of The Help, the fact that it did so well and that Davis's elevating work is being recognized this way makes it a lot more likely that we'll see other award-caliber performances by women (and black women in particular) in vehicles that won't require as many caveats. Davis is already in cahoots with Dee "Pariah" Rees on a project, which is just what the doctor ordered, as far as I'm concerned. And given that the Fences revival she and Denzel won Tonys for was also produced by miracle-worker producer Scott Rudin, who's now got a rock-star female lead to go with his bankable and double-Oscar-winning leading man, I'm thinking we'll finally get some August Wilson up on the silver screen, which will be huge. (And Fences isn't even Wilson's best!)
^ Nick, that sounds amazing! I just hope the wealth gets spread around a bit. There are so many fantastic black actresses; as much as I love Viola, I wouldn't want her getting every good role available. I do feel like this will change the game a lot though, and I'm so happy. :D
@Nick Yes, I'm not a huge fan of Black Swan either, but, you see, it's polarizing, and not something bad bad bad like The Blind Side or The Help. You may not like Black Swan or Portman, but that movie had ambitions. What are the ambitions of The Help?
Cal Roth -- You're so right!
I'm tired of the concept that female-driven movies must be mushy by definition.
And, yes, Nick, I hope at least that The Help brings something good for the world, like better projects for its cast. It's already more than The Blind Side had to offer.
@Nick You've got extra points of greatness for loving Million Dollar Baby! :)
@Cal -- i get your point and it pains me too but it's hardly about Viola since none of the movies nominated with those Best Actress would change the fact that someone from a problematic movie and not a great one is going to win Best Actress.
Part of this problem though doesn't have to do with the quality of female driven films in general but what Oscar --- and even the public and the critics -- want from actresses. I didn't really care for We Need To Talk About Kevin but Tilda Swinton is a perfect example. She's had essentially three straight years of incredible work in what are largely seen as incredible films and she can't get arrested with a nomination. A male actor in those same type of roles and same type of films with the same type of hosannas, might find it a helluva lot easier to get recognition since men aren't required to be warm or comforting somehow to win Oscars.
Charlize Theron was better than most of the nominees and in a much better movie but her character is not warm, uplifting, or technically demanding (ala black swan or many biopic roles) or any of the usual best actress things so she's shut out.
@Steve -- I really appreciate that read of Streep's TIL performance. Really interesting take. Like Nick, I'm not sure that I agree with it (and my problems with the performance, though minor, all relate to that middle years) but it does give me a lot to think about so thank you.
The Help was a comic book movie about good and evil. Rather simple. AMPAS likes that, it makes it easy for them (see Sandra Bullock). I see Davis in about one-third of the film, many say in a supporting role. Her performance is not a far stretch from Mrs Miller in Doubt, IMO. I stand by my position that if Davis wins Oscar it will not be for the performance but for a simple and appealing message movie.
People are free to have their opinions. These are subjective. My belief is that the fading old lady Thatcher performance by Streep (one half of the film) dances circles around any of the other nominees. The performance is breathtaking. I'm not even including the other half of the film where Streep does a middle-aged Thatcher in power. I see Streep playing two entirely different characters for an entire film. For me it is the outstanding performance of the year in any category.
I know Nathaniel doesn't care for biopic performances and doesn't agree with Thatcher politics. Those reasons are a diversion from the overall performance. I voted against Reagan twice and loathe Thatcher politics. But I still champion the Streep PERFORMANCE. And to use the race card against me, as some commentary has done, is ridiculous and insulting. I have contributed money to Obama campaign twice last year, and will do so this year.
I appreciate the Davis shout out to Central Falls, RI. I grew up in the neighboring city of Pawtucket, RI. But in my mind, haed-to-head, Streep delivers the goods with an astonishing performance for the entire film. I don't think I have Streep fever. By now, I have Streep throat!
Coming late to this, I just saw Viola's speech on YouTube and I loved it (hopefully I won't be eviscerated for saying that.) It gave a nod to the ladies who inspired her in the past (and continue to do so - loved the shot of Meryl returning the love), encouragement to the next generation (esp low income and minority), it was eloquent and BRIEF. All good things in a podium speech, IMO.
Going back to the Viola/Meryl love - their mutual respect is obvious; it's funny that some of their fans are in such a rage over the whole thing. I suspect we take it all much more seriously than they do, and we're not the ones getting the awards. At the end of the day, it's just another doorstop, and both women will continue to do great work, and that's OUR reward as moviegoers.
Totally agree Janice...Streep fans should not care about it more than Streep :)
@Nick and @Nat, glad to have your ears and eyes returning back to the performance in TIL. It took me a while to settle into the movie; it is very messy, but when I allowed myself to consider that mess to perhaps be intentional (or at least, a happy accident), my interest and enjoyment in it and its central performance grew exponentially.
@Nick, I really do appreciate your points on the personal nature of Viola's speech. I suppose she has always been (and this is even speaking of knowing her as a stage actress prior to her newly heightened film presence) an actress whom I respect more than love. This awards season has done little to change that, but I'm sure there might be many younger people out there who will find an actress to look to, and that's never something to quibble about.
@ brandz - you're still evading the point, though. If Streep wins, she'll be helped along by as many AMPAS-friendly factors as Viola (she's Meryl, biopic performance). Streep being Streep helps her get nominated every time, and Streep being Streep will help her win again (whenever it happens). I don't see how you can deny that.
You love the performance. Yes, we know. That part is subjective, and it's fine. But to suggest that Meryl's win would be any less about traditional Oscar politics is ridiculous.
Look, I think Viola gave the performance of the year. It has nothing to do with the message of The Help, or anything besides the performance. But I understand that there are some extra factors that helped this particular performance along on its path towards Oscar (there are reasons, not entirely performance-related, that Davis, and not, say, Adepero Aduye, got awards traction this year, for example).
In the same way, there are reasons, not entirely performance-related, that Streep's performance, and not, say, Yun Jeong-hie's in Poetry (another remarkable portrait of fading old age), is getting awards attention this year.
Oh, and I chuckled a bit at your Obama reference, if only because it reminded of Cruel Intentions: "Oh, don't give me any of that racist crap! My Husband and I gave money to Colin Powell!"
You guys, I know the Streep brigade has been a bit much lately, but think about this: Meryl Streep officially has fanboys (and fangirls). Not bad for a 62 year-old actress, right?
Steve -- well put. Streep 4evah!
Speaking of narratives...though... the new one cropping up after SAG is " Viola Davis vs. The Goliath!" Can she beat Streep????" WOW.." Can Viola take down a 2 ton gorilla??? Like Davis is the little engine that could....
Ummm....many, MANY, people have beaten Streep at Oscar! Sadly, honey, it ain't that difficult :)
* on a side note for those who like Streep and Annie Lennox...today on Facebook Lennox is praising Streep's performance in The Iron Lady.....That's all.
My favorite moment of Davis' performance in the Help was at the very beginning when Skeeter asks Aibilene if she ever dreamed of being something other than a maid, her reply was a simple nod. I was moved more by that nod than by anything the other four nominees did in their performances. I think she deserves to win because of those five women, she gave the best performance. I think a win for her gives us the best of both worlds, a great performance triumphs and we get the emotional, feel-good "you so deserve this" life/career changing moment. Yes there's a narrative, but that narrative is backed up by the performance in a way that it wasn't for Bullock or Berry or Winslet.
Annie Lennox knows talent and a great performance when she see one!
Kudos to Davis for winning the SAG, she's a great actress but she still needs to earn more to win the coveted prize (OSCARS), I still feel that the Academy members will give it to Streep one more time and the field will be left open after that.
Goodluck to Streep on a stellar performance.
I turned to The Film Experience because the Streep fans were getting down right ugly in the comments on Awards daily.
Who are these people that they are so stubborn! I guess that is the magic of the great Streep – she gets that same type of rabid fan base as Harry Potter and Avatar – well done honey!
During The Iron Lady I turned to my partner after the first 7 minutes and said “she has the Oscar”. Then the rest of the performance – mainly the younger years – never fully came together for me.
I remain team Davis fully. Her performance stayed with me and I still think about Aibileen nearly 4 months after seeing the film.
This is what is so amazing about art, it’s beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Last year my partner was team Portman – I was firmly team Kidman – yet we manage to still live together.
I also want to thank you Nat for this article. This is one of the first write ups about Davis that has not had to mention the fact she is black – but instead focused on her performance and talent, which is how it should be.
I look forward to your Film Bitch Awards more than the Oscar noms because they come from your personal reaction to the film/performance and not the politics (how very Mo’Nique!) - please finish them!
M
p.s. Reductive = Heeeeeee
@Philip: I totally agree. Up with people! Spread it out! I wouldn't want Viola having first dibs on every part anymore than I think Streep should have first dibs on every part. And I like it that they both seem happier when everyone is working, not just them. I do hope The Help's box office and a likely Viola Oscar opens things up more for a whole lot of Davis's peers and successors.
@Cal: Totally get your point. And you're right that even though <I>Swan wasn't my cuppa, it was a real risk in that category. In fact, beyond the high median of performances in last year's Actress race, I think all five films represented a general uptick in the category's relation to spiky work, esp Winter's Bone and Blue Valentine.