Reader Ranking: Smackdown '03
Saturday, November 2, 2013 at 7:00PM The Year of The Month is 2003, so we'll be sprinkingly a little 10th anniversary Early 'Aughts glitter here and there on our usual blog party for the next few weeks. On December 5th, we'll be celebrating those 10th anniversary Supporting Actress Nominees in the next SMACKDOWN. Since the revival of StinkyLulu's series began (with his blessing and participation), we've covered 1952 (comic landslide), 1980 (super tight race), and 1968 (Happy Halloween!).
And now something presumably all of us actually lived through!
We'll get to discussing Shohreh, Patty, Holly, MarciaMarciaMarcia, and the Zeéeeee as a group on December 5th (The Smackdown!). For now I wanted to let you know that balloting is open. If you'd like your votes counted in the smackdown tally you...
a) rewatch the movies (be suspicious of 10 year old memories!)
b) send us an email with "2003" in the subject line by Sunday December 1st
c) give whichever of the five performances you've seen a rating on a scale of 1 to 5 hearts with or without commentary. (You may only vote on performances you've seen all the way through... no guessing or 'i've seen clips! presumptions'... its unfair to the actors!)
And since we like to build a little "context" for a given year's Smackdown please vote on which of these 2003 movies you'd most like to read about (none of the Supporting Actress nominated pictures are in this poll because those movies will obviously get talked about).
Reader Comments (62)
Can you believe I still haven't seen either "Cold Mountain" nor "House of Sand and Fog"? Never got really interested in these films, for whatever reason. Nice one
@Nathaniel: Yes, I really see Watts as supporting. I think the only lead in that film is the son. But it's not one of those cases where I think it's so wrong to put her as lead. I do see why she's considered a lead.
BTW, my own personal ballot...this is the one I made some years ago, don't know if it would change now. I'd have to re-watch some movies first.
Patricia Clarkson, Pieces of April
Marcia Gay Harden, Mystic River
Holly Hunter, Thirteen
Samantha Morton, In America
Christina Ricci, Monster
Oh, dear. I wonder if Renee will join Ingrid Bergman as the Stinktress.
Cheers for Christina Ricci in Monster, Sad man! :)
I really wanted to like Pieces of April because of the general dearth of good Thanksgiving movies (Hannah and Her Sisters, Home for the Hollidays, and.... Alice's Restaurant?????), but it was just torturous. I found Clarkson so unlikable and not in a compelling Far from Heaven kind of way. It just seemed like such an indie movie.
Re: Cold Mountain, that was when I felt cool on Kidman for the first time in a while. Granted, I felt like the script did not give her very much to do. This was where the all-star cast got distracting (HELLO JACK WHITE). I think the only people who came out of that movie without a scratch was Natalie Portman and Jude Law but with the latter, he was dealing with the fact it was at the beginning of the peak of his ubiquitousness where his agent was working overtime to make him happen as a leading man. It's a shame because he is really good but at a weird stage where people did not quite know how to use him. Soderbergh finally did, thankfully.
And re: Theron, I understand the complaints for the whole 'transformation' being so crucial to the love for her performance but in general I find Aileen Wuornos to be a fascinating character study that I think she nailed. Also, I also just think Hollywood still does not quite know how to use her. It's honestly a mystery. She really should be getting all the BAMF female roles (I was hoping that would be Prometheus but alas, I will just cling to my imagination in thinking she was also a robot) and any of the films set in the 60s-70s period should go straight to her because she has a vintage period look (as she does in the Peter Sellers biopic and That Thing You Do! in which case her part got tremendously cut down in the final cut). There are, of course, silver linings like her turn in Young Adult but what should be the kind of role she gets all the time is just one role. Anyway, that is one transformation role I have no problem with because, oddly, I find Theron at that stage in her career to have gotten short-changed.
I still have to watch Thirteen, I just watched Pieces of April this week in preparation for the Smackdown. God it was awful!
I think I'm going to have to abstain on Cold Mountain since I can't stand Zellweger on the best of days and all I've ever heard is negative on her performance, not hard for me to believe.
I voted for Seabiscuit and In the Cut. Two very different films, but two films that often get ever looked.
Even though I love them both dearly, I really don't need to read about Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Lost and Translation right now. There have been plenty of post about them in the past, and I'm sure will get some in the future. I think it would be cool if these monthly celebrations were used to talk about slightly less visible films(even if they were nominated for major awards) from a given year.
uuugh that fish mouth actress. uuufffff
Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett / Coffee and Cigarettes
Patricia Clarkson / Dogville
Holly Hunter / Thirteen
Anna Faris/ Lost in Translation
Ellen DeGeneres / Finding Nemo
Natalie Portman / Cold Mountain
Marcia Gay Harden / Mystic River
Ludivine Sagnier / Swimming Pool
Annette Benign / Open Range
Shored Agdalasho/ House of Sand and Fog
Chloë Sevigny / Shattered Glass
Daryl Hannah / Kill Bill Volume 1
my 2003 supporting actress rank:
1) SHOHREH
2) PATRICIA (even if it's one of her less interesting role)
3) HOLLY (even if I was sorry Evan was overlooked in Best Actress)
4) MARCIA (even if, I don't know why, I'm not such a great fan of MYSTIC RIVER performances)
5) RENEE (ok, I was sorry for her when she was overlooked for NURSE BETTY despite Globe winning...I was ok with her previous nominations and I'm pretty sure that for another perf I'd have been with her winning, but not for THIS perf!)
This year, and particularly this category, got me into the Oscar game. Love it.
Sad to see all the Pieces of April hate. I'm a sucker for mom movies, but Clarkson is so full of zing and unrelenting to the easy route of showing more of Mom's heart. It's a favorite holiday movie for me, has been for ten years. And as far as The Station Agent fans go, it reminds me of a bad 2000s "indie" trend to glom strange characterizations together in an unbelievable and unidentifiable plot, without interesting visuals or thoughtful storytelling. I hate it.
Also totally agree with Kermit's questions about Linney in Mystic River. That final scene got so much attention, but I also thought it came from total left field. As if they were experimenting with how to approach it in the final filming, had a great take, and went with it, without considering the work throughout the rest of the film.
Steve- I figured there was somebody to stick up for the
That Linney performance was eye-rolling from her first moments when she attacks her stepdaughter not being at work (Cuz she's dead) to that final monologue. You'd think they would have done a better job not letting out all of the Lady Macbeth with Linney's role the first moments of her performance but clearly, Eastwood just let everybody do their thing on screen so it amazes me that MGH's quieter part got recognition. I was honestly surprised Linney was not nominated, not because it was good (it was bad and thankless but so was everybody's role besides Bacon, MGH, and Fishburne in the film) but it was a role just bad enough to get Academy attention. Considering that she got one of the biggest upset nominations in recent memory for Savages (and winning that Emmy for that category fraud performance in the awful The Big C), it is pretty amazing she didn't get attention for it in hindsight.
I really liked Mystic River's first-half and I liked the kid flashbacks but there seemed to be a major jump in who these kids were and who they were in present day (and that includes the Robbins character who was literally sacrificed as a man knee-deep in red herrings). But the final monologue just encapsulated the problems of the movie.
Manuel- Natalie was so good in Cold Mountain that I wish the movie just turn a hard left turn and had Jude start a new life with her character and child. I don't care about no book!