This year’s nominees for best actress do not offer much variety. Not in scope and type of role, not in diversity, not in film genre, and certainly not in quality of film. Only two of the five nominated films - Little Women and Marriage Story - have been recognized by the Academy for best picture, and the same two were the only ones to receive a metacritic average above 70. So how did we end up here when there other options that would’ve made the category stronger? Let’s take a look at what the film year offered...
Film Festivals
The major North American festivals offered up plentiful choices. Clemency premiered at Sundance in January. It won the grand jury prize and yet the press coverage for its staggering lead performance by Alfre Woodard was negligible. Many in the press ignored the film in their coverage of the festival, and Woodard was not mentioned as a viable best actress candidate at all. Another breakout at the festival was The Farewell and its lead performance by Awkwafina. She received more press coverage, particularly when the film was released over the summer.
Yet despite these early seen performances, two spots in all prognostication sites were saved for Saoirse Ronan as Jo Marsh in Little Women, and for Charlize Theron as Megan Kelly in Bombshell. Two December releases that unspooled 11 months after The Farewell and Clemency. They both started screening early so let’s say 9 months. Why save those spots? I understand prognosticating is about what people think will happen. But there are critically lauded and seen performances, can’t you talk about them too? You can claim that the distributors, particularly Neon with Clemency, did not support the films as much as they could. But Clemency was available for critics and awards voters by screener, screenings and at a few fall film festivals including TIFF and Mill Valley.
September brought Renee Zellweger in Judy at Telluride but the buzz there was at least based on critics and pundits actually seeing the performance. Toronto offered Cynthia Erivo as Harriet though the reviews were subdued -- it was only when the movie became a box office hit that she became a near-certainty.
Critics Awards
Critics loved Lupita Nyong'o in Us and Mary Kay Place in Diane. Yet for various reasons - genre, size of movie, distributor - neither were taken seriously in most awards coverage. More perplexing is that Nyong’o was in a bonafide box office smash that was released in March and that everyone had plenty of time to see and reflect upon. Still Nyong’o never cracked the top spot in any coverage of best actress candidates.
Perhaps most disappointing in all of this is that the shortlist has little range as far as the roles themselves. These are all positive sympathetic portrayals. Most of them have no edges and are not dealing with complex emotional character arcs. Erivo is commanding and forceful and obviously Harriet Tubman is an iconic American but the film does not give her many notes to play. Megyn Kelly’s dilemma in Bombshell is about making a decision whether or not to testify against Roger Ailes, and the film fails to provide any stakes that make that decision monumental. Nor does the screenplay tackle Kelly’s known anti-Black controversies and her long tenure profiting from working at the divisive Fox News, preventig Theron from digging deeper beyond surface level makeup and voice approximation.
Judy is really about sad Judy Garland at the end of her life. I was moved by Zellweger’s performance but again it’s a very sympathetic part that asks the audience to feel sorry for the character. Jo Marsh is a beloved and well known character but is too familiar despite Greta Gerwig’s modern update of the material. Ronan sells the thesis at the heart of the film with gutso, though, and that's how she secured her nomination. It didn't hurt that she's a name they are familiar with.
Scarlett Johansson has the most complex role within the shortlist as she plays someone who’s still figuring out who they are while being in a nasty divorce fight. Otherwise to find intricate and nuanced character work we have to look outside the of the nominated performances. Nyongo’ plays two complex parts; a family matriarch trying to protect her family and her doppleganger from another dimension who maybe a sociopath... or is she? Woodard is an alcoholic in a midlife marriage crisis who has to deal with being a death administering authority. Yet they were both ignored. Another great performance this year was Julia Stockler in Invisible Life. She plays somebody sensual and sexual, who is not afraid to follow their heart and be alienating and not that sympathetic while having innate goodness. Adèle Haenel in Portrait of a Lady on Fire should’ve been considered on the strength of that close-up ending alone where the depth of feeling she shows is nearly unparalleled.
There were other strong performances - see also Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell and Jodie Turner Smith in Queen & Slim - yet Oscar only looked towards the familiar: Oscar nominees or winners and the type of films they like have always liked to reward. It was an opportunity wasted.
With Sundance starting up again to usher in a new film year, here's to hoping the Academy does better next season.