please welcome new contributor Timothy Lyons
she likes to work
Frances McDormand’s performance in Nomadland was my favourite of the year. Full stop. Both the film itself and McDormand’s work as Fern blew me away with their deceptive simplicity quietly revealing hidden depths of feeling. Why oh why then did I feel such a crushing sense of disappointment when McDormand took her third Best Actress trophy at this year’s Oscars?
I consider myself a proponent of the notion that “the Academy Awards should be about the work and not the narrative”. For example, Glenn Close rightfully lost this year to a superior performance despite receiving her 8th nomination and feeling grossly overdue for the gold. Her narrative was an easy one to get on board with - “Just give Glenn the gold already”, but instead the Academy awarded Youn Yuh-jung for her breakout work in Minari. Perhaps a different narrative did play a part in Youn’s victory but it was deserved wholly for the performance nonetheless.
I could say the same about McDormand’s win, but it just doesn’t sit the same.
Carey Mulligan photographed by Gavin Batty. IMG SRC
Maybe it’s the sense of anticlimax? It does feel like kind of a letdown that for how electric and exciting the uncertainty of the Best Actress category felt going in, the winner was the one that was everyone’s default pick before awards season officially began. A win for ANY of the other nominees definitely would have felt more exciting for it’s audacity (Mulligan), historic significance (Davis and Day) or wild unexpectedness (Kirby). But I agreed with the winner!?! Why should I feel this way?
Perhaps it’s the feeling of overkill? Each of the other nominees (in an unusually strong field) would have won their first Lead Actress trophy had their names been called - voters could have easily spread the wealth by going with someone new. Instead, they gave the award to McDormand, who already had two wins under her belt. But what would I have done if I was a voting member of the Academy looking at my ballot?
Viola Davis for Vanity Fair shot by Quil Lemons
I would probably think about how McDormand’s first Oscar should have gone to Emily Watson despite my loving both Fargo and Marge Gunderson. I would then think about how her second Oscar should have gone to Saoirse Ronan despite my appreciation for Mildred Hayes in spite of the overrated movie that surrounded her (Three Billboards…). Finally, I would put my vote down for ‘Fern’ because she’s the one who in my honest opinion deserves to win based on performance alone. If then Carey Mulligan was announced as the winner I would applaud with genuine joy despite my disagreeing with the outcome - “Fran has enough”.
But then again, maybe I wouldn’t vote for Fran/Fern. If nothing else, my disappointment has shown me how easy it is to get caught up in the narrative: “Fran has enough, why not throw this one to the undervalued Carey? Or to the always superb but yet-to-take-a-lead-gong Viola?” Could I completely take my feelings towards the people behind the performances and their career trajectories out of the equation?
Academy voters are real people with (I presume) a lot of the same doubts and quandaries as I have and; being in the industry, differing feelings towards the people behind the performances. This very human element is what has made and will keep making the Academy a flawed and broken machine. Maybe voters genuinely thought McDormand deserved every one of her wins based on performance alone. Maybe they just like the woman herself. Maybe (on this occasion at least) it was just a matter of heavy vote splitting and the vast majority of votes did go elsewhere. The Oscars don’t exist in a vacuum - there is so much at play.
Whatever the reason, I should applaud the win but; because I can’t go back in time and prevent the first two wins, I can’t shake the sense that the glory should have been shared and I can’t help the deflation; it just feels a little… meh. Maybe I’m alone here (it’s all opinion after all) and my ramblings make no sense but I feel like any lifelong Oscar obsessive is no stranger to the complexity of feeling that comes with the territory - we love the game, treasure the triumphs, and equally love to grumble when things don’t go our way.
This feeling of grumbling when it actually does is definitely new. In that respect it’s nice to know the journey of compulsively following awards season still has a few surprises up its sleeve. On to the 94th Academy Awards!