Fourth Timers: Brad, Kathy, Saoirse, Joaquin, and the Zeéeeee
Wednesday, February 5, 2020 at 1:11PM Four days till Oscar.
This season brings us multiple four-timers. It's round quatro for a full 25% of our acting nominees: Brad Pitt, Renée Zellweger, Saoirse Ronan, Joaquin Phoenix, and Kathy Bates. They're all on their fourth nomination for acting (though Brad has additional nominations for producing).
Let’s rank their 20 nominated performances for fun after the jump, shall we? Yes, let's...
Was this really necessary, Academy?
20 Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain … the stench of this performance lingers for years
19 Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell … the tearful supportive mom with one good clip
18 Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator ...'are you not entertained' by this over the top villain performance?
17 Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button … this man is so pretty but the performance is too blank.
Very solid. Nominations are understandable for various reasons even if we ourselves might not have nominated them…
16 Kathy Bates, About Schmidt - Funny, memorable but over those that were shut out? No way
15 Saoirse Ronan, Little Women - Moving. She’s such a star. But “Best”?
14 Renee Zellweger, Judy - Very good at some parts of the role.... not so strong in others (where is the star magnetism considering you’re playing “the world’s greatest entertainer”?)
13 Brad Pitt, 12 Monkeys -- Very memorable and AMPAS was impressed that he steered clear of his own beauty but is there much here beyond the uninhibited performing and the weird tics?
12 Kathy Bates, Primary Colors - This performance is a distant memory but we remember it being strong. Have any of you seen it recently?
11 Joaquin Phoenix, Joker - Boy is it showy. But does this character cohere? We’d argue not quite.
10 Renee Zellweger, Chicago - A classic case of really selling an “unlikeable” character with aplomb… even if she can’t sing or dance all that well.
Yes please. We bow down. “Best” citations totally deserved.
09 Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line - Reese wasn't the only one nailing this duet.
08 Saoirse Ronan, Atonement -it's not every year that a performance by a child is THIS good AND it's even less common that a performance that good from a child is just them warming up.
07 Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - We're happy he'll finally have an Oscar but it's annoying that it took Category Fraud to do it and that they'd never give something this effortless a leading nomination.
06 Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn - Saoirse forever
05 Joaquin Phoenix, The Master - His best performance?
04 Renee Zellweger, Bridget Jones Diary -is it controversial to say that this is (by far) her best performance? Though we also love her in Nurse Betty and Jerry Maguire.
Win worthy though only one of them did
03 Brad Pitt, Moneyball - The star magnetism comes off this in waves. But he makes it look too easy and the Academy likes to see your effort.
02 Kathy Bates, Misery - One of the all time weirdest Best Actress wins.
01 Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird -If only the Academy could understand the skill and depth of non-biopic style performances and comedic ones, too.
Reader Comments (45)
Bates is a nomination shy of joining your Oscar actress hierarchies. Zellweger defaults into from two wins from four nods.
Your top 6 are all just excellent (and I'd say Pitt should've won for Moneyball, and Ronan should've won for Brooklyn).
And I'm a huge Phoenix fan so take this for what it's worth, but I think his work in Walk the Line is bizarrely underrated, and while I certainly understand others not being big fans of the performance, I like him a good bit in Gladiator - partially for his work, but also because without it the last act of that movie would've been such a heavy, oppressive slog.
Had Rene lost for Cold Mountain, she would have probably got in for her next oscarbait role, which was Cinderella Man and won for that instead.
LOL
Top 3 are just amazing
I love your ranking related posts so much!
And All i want now is updating your ranking of oscar nominated performances of 2010s
I would have enjoyed Kathy Bates's win for 'Misery' more had it not come at the expense of Anjelica Huston's genius work in 'The Grifters.' The latter would make my Best Actress lineup even if the Oscars were held once a decade.
Honestly, I'll take "Commodus" over every other one of Phoenix's nominated roles, but I'll admit my bias against his particular brand of acting.
I think Little Women is Ronan’s best performance and she’s easily the best of the Best Actress nominees. Wish she’d win on Sunday.
I actually just rewatched Chicago and honestly Renée was better than I remembered and I found her terrific in the part. I actually like her singing voice.
As for Saoirse I love her in Lady Bird, but surprisingly I like her performance a little more in Little Women. She finds so many different layers to Jo and manages to explore all of them. Her nomination count is getting up there so I wonder what it’s going to take for them to actually give her a win.
Holy Hell, Kathy Bates didn't get a nomination for Dolores Claiborne?!?!
(I knew this already, but anger is part of coping with such injustices!)
I actually love Cold Mountain (T Bone Burnett keeps pulling me in), but that's despite Renee's performance. Oof.
It's funny how much I like Joaquin Phoenix's performances ... but almost none of his nominated ones. (Walk the Line is good.) Would much rather have him nominated for You Were Never Really Here, To Die For, The Immigrant, Her or even Return to Paradise.
I think Joaquin is amazing in Gladiator and totally elevates the film. Disagree with Renee's Chicago placement and Bates' Schmidt one as well.
Zellweger in Chicago is much better than Kidman in The Hours. Not that either of the two deserved the Oscar that year with Julianne Moore in Far From Heaven delivering her career best work.
Of these twenty I'd probably rank Bates in Misery, Phoenix in The Master and Zellweger in Chicago as the top 3. Ronan's Ladybird missing by a hair. I haven't seen them in forever but I remember thinking Pitt deserved best actor over Dujardin and also really liking his performance in Twelve Monkeys back when it happened. And of course it is fun that Zellweger managed a nom for Bridget Jones.
The worst is obviously Zellweger in Cold Mountain, and she is the best thing about that colossal turd of a movie. Also that she wasn't the worst nominee in that category (that would be Marcia Gay Harden for Mystic River) nor the worst winner of the year (Tim Robbins, again for Mystic River) is a feat of its own.
The rest is a bunch that ranges from solid (like Ronan in Atonement and Bates in About aschmidt) to forgettable meh (Pitt in Button, Ronan in Brooklyn).
And, of course, the best ever performance by Phoenix is not The Master, it is Her.
I love Ms. Bates, but I don't think her work in Misery has aged well. She hadn't yet developed her strong film presence. Too much of Annie Wilkes feels like she is on stage and playing to the balcony. I still wonder what the film would have been had first choice Bette Midler had agreed to play the role.
I think Bates is deserving for all 4 of the nominations and should have won in 98 besides 90.In Primary Colours she has that scene where she realises what a fraud her lifes been following Travolta's character and it's a master class.
Ronan in Atonement is sublime and is my winner in that year and yes showed early promise that she has more than shown esp Lady Bird.
I'm fine with all Joaquin noms but The Master is his best and although Drivers my winner this year i'll be ok with his victory as it's a career capper win.
Renee I totally agree about Cold Mountain she's simply bad in it,I like don't love her in Chicago,her best is still Jerry Maguire and yes Bridget!! she does fine moving work as Judy but the Oscar is a bit much as she never goes deep.
Pitts has been better in Babel,The Assassination of Jesse James,Seven,Burn After Reading and others,Moneyball though is perfect and him in it.
Bette would have probably played it to the Balcony and Beyond.
Sad to report that Primary Colors has not aged well, particularly Kathy's role.
Yes, Bridget Jones is Renée's best work and one of my favourite nominations. Actors always say that comedy is hard but they never include it in their ballots.
The Misery performance is genius because the character is equally terrifying, pathetic, and hilarious. I think most actresses would have stressed one of those three aspects too much -- Bette probably playing her too much for laughs, for example. Lizzie Caplan playing a younger Annie more recently on "Castle Rock" is probably a little too pathetic, although the writing on that show isn't nearly as good as the film.
@ Marsha Mason - Bates is indeed excellent in Dolores Claiborne, but I’m afraid I have to call out for receipts if we’re throwing anyone out of the Best Actress 1995 line-up... not just based on the formidable five performances nominated, but on Nicole Kidman (To Die For), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Georgia) and Toni Collette (Muriel) sitting right there waiting in the wings too. Sometimes doing work worthy of a nomination doesn’t mean you should qualify for getting one in context.
Saorise in Brooklyn is my everything. I love that Kathy Bates won her Oscar for crazy Annie Wilkes!
"even if she can’t sing or dance all that well."
I've always thought that's the point of the character. Roxy is not supposed to be a good singer or dancer, so she played it well.
The description of Renée Zellweger in Chicago is just perfect but i have to agree: Bridget Jones's Diary is her best work. I haven't seen Iris but from the rest of the nominees that year she is definitivelly my favorite.
Nicole Kidman did a great job in Moulin Rouge but i prefer when an actor plays a role who feels totally deep inside the character (with specific manerisms and the way they talk for example) and I couldn't apreciate totally the personality of Satine, specially with that radical change in the tone from goofy slapstick comedy to tragedy drama in wich just Jim Broadbent stills keeps looking as the same Harold Zidler.
Dan - thank you! I love Zellweger (she makes my Top 10 for 2002) - I really like that Roxy is so much weaker a performer than Velma, it hammers home that neither is a “headliner” because of perceived “talent”, simply that whoever plays the system best on the day gets the front pages!
I’m shocked that Phoenix in Gladiator and Pitt in 12 Monkeys are so relatively low - I nominate the former and the latter wins... my only other winner? Bates in Misery.
Kathy Bates was and is excellent in Primary Colors. That film, overall, is great. I dunno where that "not aged well" nonsense is coming from. Especially in this political climate.
Bates is great in primary colors. Don’t know that she would have been on my ballot but she should have won against the competition that year as she was the only one with any business being nominated. I also like her a lot in about Schmidt, after streep she would have been my pick. I prefer both of those performances to misery Fwiw, which I like her in but don’t quite get the love. It’s a fun win though, especially since it’s rare for character actresses to win as a lead. So I don’t begrudge it.
Phoenix is good in Joker and Walk the line but with the exception of the master I don’t think his best work has been nominated.
I’m fond of Renee in Chicago, it’s something of a feat that she puts over the role as well as she does considering her rather obvious failings. I don’t quite get Bridget Jones as Oscar worthy but yes she sells it and is adorable. Her best work (Jerry, Betty, and one true thing) all came before Oscar noticed her. Her Oscar win is of course depressing, leavened only by the fact that tim Robbins won that year and that performance is somehow worse.
Anyone who thinks Marcia Is worse than Renee needs to watch both movies again. Marcia is flawed but her best scenes are wonderful. Renee is like SNL sketch.
How Moneyball didn’t win a single Oscar is beyond me all these years later.
Am I the only one who liked Renee in Cold Mountain? For me, the worst is Pitt in Benjamin Button. That man should not attempt southern accents. But Kathy Bates in Misery tops the others by a very wide margin. Phoenix is Gladiator comes next but a long way down from Bates.
I actually like Renee's performance in COLD MOUNTAIN. I don't understand all the vitriol spewed upon that performance by everyone. I thought she did a great job! She shouldn't have won, that's for sure, but it's not horrific like everyone says it is.
Primary Colors is as dated as The American President. Bates is a mere artifact to reveal the Clinton's ugliness. Never feels like a real person.
I hope this fourth nod for Bates signals the solidifying of her legacy in the latter day like McDormand and Maggie Smith are having now.
Nice list but I would trade Zellweger's Chicago for Pitt's OUATH. Roxie Hart was such a piece of work. She would have been a worthy winner.
With the over the top vile disgusting treatment of Zellweger and her looks back in the day and continuing, the whole honest hate you had for her can’t really be played ironically without a bad taste and a touch of misogyny. Maybe just a “I don’t care for her” disclaimer anytime your (not mere because of history) ‘snark’ cannot be subdued. Like everyone has been saying, she’s the most likely front runner to lose, so calm the farm a bit.
Zellweger got in in 2001 over Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive, so I just can’t laud that performance. That is all
Re #13:
The answer is no.
I sometimes wish Renee had won for Chicago as it would have saved us from Cold Mountain. Yes, that means Nicole Kidman wouldnt have an Oscar but it's not like she should have won for The Hours anyway. (I was Team Diane Lane that year.)
Natahniel, when do you predict Saoirse will win an Oscar? Soon-ish or will she have to wait a bit like Kate Winslet did?
What I will say about Zellweger in Cold Mountain is that she's not as bad as the trailer made her look...but she isn't good either. Phoenix is between over the top and great, but Harris was much better.
And Kathy Bates should have won that Oscar twice for Primary Colors.
LoL at the Harden and especially Robbins criticism.
What are you all watching? Goodness.
Pitt - love that he still has abs, but come on, should have won for Moneyball
Bates - unpopular opinion, but HATED her in Misery, loved her in Primary Colors (was my winner that year)
Zellweger - Bridget Jones truly is her best work and my winner in a very strong Oscar lineup
Phoenix - funny that after all that acclaimed work in indie/auteur movies he's gonna win for box office hit from DC
Ronan - what a talent. Still cannot decide if she deserved to win more for Brooklyn or for Lady Bird.
Andy -- i think once they decide you're going to wait, you're going to wait so I don't think it will happen for Ronan until she's in her 30s. At least its' better than the men having to wait until their 50s or 60s
@andy and @nathaniel -- well, if she does a biopic you know they'll give it to her next year :)
but seriously, it's such a crime she didn't win for lady bird. what a performance--and film. i'm scared that since they / the season skipped her early wonderful performances in brooklyn and lady bird they'll wait for the 5th-7th nomination, like winslet, moore, etc.
For me, Bates is tops for sure...for PRIMARY COLORS. A brilliant combo of hilarity and heartbreak - she absolutely devours Elaine May's delicious screenplay.
What a talent Saoirse is.
I think she'll win soon. It took Kate Winslet 13 years to win on her 6th nomination. Saoirse got her first nomination 13 years ago and is on her 4th now.
It'll be interesting to see who's lead and who's supporting for Ammonite. For Oscar chances I think they'd go Saoirse lead and Kate supporting. Saoirse deserves an Actress win after 3 winner worthy nominations and Kate will more likely win a Supporting Actress than a second Best Actress.
@Nathaniel men having to wait till midlife has everything do with their film careers never being threaten due to a lack of desirability from aging. Stop trying to equivocate these double standards.
/3rtful -- if you think the double standard is only hurtful to women AND that we haven't taken to task the sexist treatment of women and the ageism surrounding them, you simply haven't been paying attention.
1. Joaquin in The Master. Should have won over Lincoln.
2. Bates in Misery
3. Ronan in Lady Bird. Should have won over Frannie.