The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1984 is coming your way on Wednesday August 31st with Dame Peggy Ashcroft defending her Oscar from the other side. Will the panel co-sign that Oscar win or throw their votes to Christine Lahti, Lindsay Crouse, or legendary Oscar regulars in the form or either Glenn Close or Geraldine Page. Please remember that readers are the collective sixth panelist so I expect your answers to these questions in the comments (as well as your ballots - details on what to send me here).
MEET THE PANELISTS
Please give a hearty welcome to two first time Smackdowners
NOAH TSIKA
Noah Tsika is the Assistant Professor of Media Studies at Queens College, CUNY. He has also written two books on cinema: Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora and Pink 2.0: Encoding Queer Cinema on the Internet.
Follow Noah on Twitter
SHEILA O'MALLEY
Sheila O'Malley is a regular film critic for Rogerebert.com and other outlets including The Criterion Collection. She wrote the narration (read by Angelina Jolie) for the Gena Rowlands tribute reel played at the 2016 Governors Awards. Her blog is The Sheila Variations.
Follow Sheila on Twitter.
...welcome back two regular Smackdowners
JOE REID
Joe Reid never went to film school, unless you count the film school of hard knocks, which he also didn't go to. That hasn't stopped him from writing about movies. He is currently Senior Writer at Decider.com. One day, he'll have written about his love for The Hours, Go, and Mermaids enough that he can finally close his laptop, satisfied that his work is done.
Follow Joe on Twitter
NICK DAVIS
Nick Davis writes the reviews and features at the website Nick's Flick Picks. The site's unpredictable cycles of frenzied activity and long dormancy have to do with his also being an Associate Professor of English and Gender & Sexuality Studies at Northwestern, where his research and teaching mostly concern narrative film in different eras, genres, and countries.
Follow Nick on Twitter
And, of course, your host with all his needy questions about your favorites this and that...
NATHANIEL R
The creator and owner of The Film Experience, and a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. He is the film columnist for Towleroad, a longtime Oscar pundit (Gurus of Gold) and occassional Oscar talking head guest on podcasts and TV news programs.
Follow Nathaniel on Twitter
Okay, Question time.
Who is your favorite farm wife of 1984?
Joe: My sympathies lie decidedly with Sissy Spacek's character from The River. Not only did she have to put up with constant flooding, but she also had to deal with Mel Gibson throughout.
Noah: Sissy. I don’t do Sally (except in Sybil), and, while I worship Jessica Lange, her performance in Country is far from her best. I love Sissy’s wet-hair look, and the way she wears those raincoats.
Sheila: Sissy Spacek in The River
Nathaniel: Sally Field. I like her. I really really like her... Which, incidentally, was never a joke to me but the god's honest truth from Gidget through Hello, My Name is Doris.
Nick: Stop tripping. There is only one answer to this question: Jessica Lange in Country. I like Sissy in The River, and Sissy in general, and Sally tries in Places, but Jessica's reaction shot when Sally won the Oscar says a lot. All the right things, in fact. God tries to send a tornado Jessica's way in Country. He forgot she's a tornado all by her damn self. And the political quality of her anger is so exciting. People really need to rent this movie.
What does Love Have to Do With It?
Noah: Well, if “it” is my left forearm, then love is what broke it—love for Tina Turner, that is. It was the late 80s, Tina was on MTV, and I was about 5, dancing along, hopping from floor to couch to coffee table, and finally falling and cracking a bone. I don’t remember crying, or even being in pain. I just remember the music—the euphoria of Tina fandom.
Joe: I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many splendored thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all you need is love!
Nathaniel: It has nothing to do with private dancing except for my love for members of the oldest profession (onscreen). In related news: Michelle Pfeiffer's "10 cents a dance" from The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and Tina Turner's mega-hit both make me think of each other.
Sheila: A quote from an Indigo Girls song comes to mind...
"And I wish her insight to battle love's blindness
Strength from the milk of human kindness
A safe place for all the pieces that scatter.
Learn to pretend there's more than love that matters."
Nick: Who needs five hearts when five hearts can be broken?
Name Your Three Favorite Things About 1984
Sheila: Purple Rain movie. Purple Rain soundtrack. The Karate Kid
Joe: Patty Smyth's "The Warrior," a perfect pop song from a year full of them. Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas's scorching chemistry in Romancing the Stone. Watching 'The A-Team' with my dad.
Noah: Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians. Rob Lowe’s cowboy boots in Oxford Blues. The NeverEnding Story.
Nick: Three? I'll divide into three categories. Movie-wise, I'm most loyal to This Is Spinal Tap, The Times of Harvey Milk, What Have I Done to Deserve This? (the rare Almodóvar I unreservedly enjoy, especially among his comedies), and my most recent zealous passion, Purple Rain, which I saw for the first time in theaters this spring and have watched three more times since. Music-wise, I was consumed the whole year by two albums: Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual (especially "She Bop," "Money Changes Everything," and "I'll Kiss You") and Madonna's Like a Virgin (especially "Angel" and "Dress You Up"). Later, the Eurythmics' original song score from the Michael Radford film of 1984 became a personal staple (especially "Greetings from a Dead Man" and "Julia"). And now, of course, the Purple Rain soundtrack has joined them. Personally, this was the year I moved to Quantico, VA, bringing me that much closer to a personal goal of being just like Clarice Starling and Ardelia Mapp, and I remain very proud of being, as a second-grader, the only student in Burrows Elementary School who voted for Mondale-Ferraro in our mock presidential election.
Nathaniel: I'll cheat like Nick. Movie-three (then): Daryl Hannah's crimped hair in Splash, Kathleen Turner's everything, Miss Piggy & Joan River's doing each other's makeup in The Muppets Take Manhattan; Movie-three (now): same give or take The Times of Harvey Milk and the entirety of The Terminator which I have memorized from Michael Biehn's nude time travel straight on to Linda Hamilton's polaroid; Music-three: "She's So Unusual," "Purple Rain" and Madonna's life-changing VMA performance of "Like a Virgin" (yes, yes, it probably changed her life but I was talking about mine). Other-three: Watching Dynasty every Wednesday night, "The Judas Contract" story in the DC comic book The New Teen Titans, and gymnasts Mitch Gaylord and Mary Lou Retton at the Summer Olympics (the first time I remember obsessively watching the Olympics)
YOUR TURN. STOP LURKING AND GET TO ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS.