Top Ten: Annette Bening's Best Performances
Tuesday, May 29, 2018 at 11:43AM The one and only Annette Bening turns 60 today. But, really, she's ageless. And with agelessness comes the superpower of never-peaking. She's been brilliant from the start and, if anything, keeps getting moreso. Herewith our ten favorite performances by The Bening, though should you ask us on another day the films and the order would change.
THE BENING'S 10 BEST
10 Mother and Child (2009/2010)
Released in the early summer of 2010 to little fanfare, and immediately eclipsed by a much bigger summer hit in The Kids Are All Right, she was moving playing an unlikeably negative and guarded woman who'd once given up a child (Naomi Watts) for adoption.
09 The American President (1995, Globe nomination)
The moment mainstream audiences fell in love with her. And to think she was playing someone from that hardly loveable profession: a lobbyist! The film was a hit and the Globe nomination followed.
08 Running With Scissors (2006)
Warren Beatty once called this her best performance. I wonder if he still feels that way or if it was merely said in the heat of awards campaigning? Had the movie (Ryan Murphy's debut feature) around it been less messy perhaps her performance as the drug-addled bad mom to Augusten Burroughs would have excited more awards voters?
07 Valmont (1989)
The movie can't hold a candle to Dangerous Liaisons (1988), adapted from the same material, but she's running circles around it and entirely dazzling as the dangerous Merquise de Merteuil. This one's fascinating to watch since her performance is so diametrically opposed to Glenn Closes's earlier take on the exact same character. It reminds you of what great actresses (plural) can do with their powers of interpretation.
06 Bugsy (1991, Globe nomination)
The film that cost her the Catwoman role but gave her her personal life -- she and Beatty are still going strong. It's strange that this charismatic performance as actress turned gangster's wife Virginia Hill only landed her a Globe nomination because the film was critically well regarded, an Oscar favorite, a minor hit, and the first movie to give her the complete Movie Star treatment in hair, makeup, wardrobe, and cinematography. Oh...the cinematography by Allen Daviau was breathtaking. Daviau sadly never won an Oscar despite 5 nominations for mostly beloved movies. (Does anyone know why he and Spielberg stopped working together?) He appears to have retired when he was only about 58. He's now 75 years old.
05 Being Julia (2004, Globe & NBR win / Oscar, SAG, & Critics Choice noms)
I maintain that had the movie been better she would have won the Oscar. T'was the movie itself that doomed her best chance at a win. (Not that this is the performance of hers that people love best or anything but the Oscar is as much about timing as its about anything)
04 American Beauty (1999, SAG & BAFTA win / Oscar & Globe noms)
Her biggest hit (with The American President and Bugsy as distant seconds and thirds) and still arguably the signature role as uptight bitchy real estate agent Carolyn Burnham. She will sell this house today!
03 The Grifters (1990, NSFC win / Oscar & BAFTA nominations)
Her fourth movie was the breakthrough. It was impossible to miss that star mojo once con-woman Myra Langtry's impish sparkling eyes blinded you.
02 The Kids Are All Right (2010, NYFCC & Globe win / Oscar, BAFTA, SAG, Critics Choice, & Spirit noms)
Her most souful turn as a lesbian mom dealing with a soon to be empty nest and a wayward spouse. That dinner revelation scene - gah! In a year absent a steamrolling choice (that'd be Natalie Portman in Black Swan that particular year) surely she would have won the statue?
01 20th Century Women (2016, Globe, Critics Choice, Gotham & Spirit nominations)
Uff. We were so close to her fifth Oscar nomination for her all time best performance as bohemian iconoclast mom Dorothea Fields. This performance is a masterpiece of warmth, whimsy, and wonder. A24, in one of their rare missteps, didn't get behind this film enough and gave it that oft-doomed last weekend of the year slot.
How would you rank her work?
BONUS TRIVIA: The major prizes she's yet to win are LAFCA (Los Angeles Film Critics Association), the Academy Award (Curse you Hilary Swank!), the Tony (1 nomination) and the Emmy (1 nomination). She's surely going to take some Lifetime Achievement Awards in about a decade's time if she doesn't win those soon.
BONUS TRIVIA 2: I tried to find an actress with the exact same Oscar stats (1 supporting nomination, 3 lead nominations, never winning) but couldn't! Emma Thompson and Jodie Foster both have the same breakdown in acting nominations for supporting/lead, but they've both won (multiple) Oscars. Annette meanwhile still awaits her first.
Reader Comments (57)
Adore Annette!
My favorite line about Bening comes from 'Torch Song.' Not THAT one. The one where Raquel Welch plays an aging, alcoholic movie star who goes to rehab and finds love with a blue collar worker--hmmm, that sounds familiar!
Anyway, after 'taking a meeting' with her agent, drunken diva Rocky laments, "Why does Annette Bening get all the good parts?!'
Added bonus: Alicia Silverstone plays Welch's daughter!
Nicole Kidman also has 3 lead noms and 1 supporting nom. But yeah, she won an Oscar.
1. The Grifters.
2. American Beauty.
3. Being Julia.
4. 20th Century Women.
5. Valmont.
I have never understood the love for The Kids Are Alright.
Should you really include a non-acting Oscar win when discussing actors with multi-wins and nods for acting?
Emma Thompson remains a one out of four because of Amy Adams and her bullshit nod for American Hustle.
You are so right about this actress--she really does just keep getting better. And she started off at a very high peak. She's one of the best we have. I just saw The Seagull, and she has some scenes in this movie that just floored me.
1. 20th Century Women
2. The Grifters
3. The Kids Are Alright
4. Being Julia
5. The American President
6. Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
7. Bugsy
8. American Beauty
9. Mrs. Harris
10. The Seagull
I still need to see Valmont, Running with Scissors, and Mother and Child. Happy Birthday!
Should have won last year or this year. Now we have Emma Snore and an unnecessary second win for Frances.
I'll be honest...I loved her in Running With Scissors. I loved that movie so much despite it's flaws.
I haven't seen a handful of the movies you mentioned, but her role in American Beauty was my favorite performance of hers to date!