Amy Madigan and Oscar Horrors Past

by Cláudio Alves

Weapons is the talk of the town and people can't stop obsessing over the movie's villainess supreme, the wicked witch of the suburbs, the pied piper of Pennsylvania – Aunt Gladys. Some have even started dreaming about Amy Madigan's potential as a Best Supporting Actress contender, a Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby for the new millennium. While such speculation seems a bit too hopeful for this horror-loving skeptic, it did remind me that Madigan is already an Oscar nominee. Indeed, she was one of the acting honorees I had yet to see before biting the bullet on Twice in a Lifetime earlier this week.

So, as part of my journey to watch all Oscar-nominated performances, here are my thoughts on Madigan. And, since horror is on the mind, let me mention a couple of the worst films ever graced with an acting Academy Award nomination, too. You better believe that there are things scarier than witches out there…

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"Weapons" Starts the School Year Right

by Nick Taylor

     Have y’all seen Zach Creggar’s new film Weapons, the breakout hit of this past weekend and the most recent evidence this year that Horror Is Back? You and I know both know horror has been back, and arguably never left to begin with. But in a very real, almost metaphysical sense, just because something has always been here doesn’t mean it can’t also be Back. Weapons proves this, not always a fresh or streamlined experience but an endlessly compelling one, especially in a crowded movie theater.

     Weapons begins with the narration of an unnamed, unseen young girl (Scarlett Sher), telling the audience we’re about to be told a story so weird and disturbing it was kept out of the news by the police. You can probably imagine the tone in which the girl says this, like she’s telling you a really crazy secret you gotta promise you’re cool enough to hear about before she gets started. Spoilers follow after the jump, so if you’re a cool cat, come with me into this basement . . . .

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1997: The Ensemble of "Female Perversions"

We're revisiting the 1997 film year in the lead up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternatives to Oscar's ballot.

Women, amirite? You've got the unique expectations foisted upon them to perform their gender by strangers, coworkers (no matter the field), loved ones, and themselves. There’s the generational traumas, both inherited and inflicted. Not to mention the way their psychosexual hang-ups function as ungainly manifestations of their repressed selves desperately seeking some kind of release. You can try reaching out to others for help, but all you’ve really got is yourself, and who trusts that bitch?

This is the territory Female Perversions resides in...

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Smackdown '85: Anjelica, Amy, Meg, Margaret and Oprah

Presenting the Supporting Actresses of '85. It was all scandal all the time at this colorful party. There were three much gossiped about women (a mafia princess, a drunk promiscuous entertainer, and a delusional pregnant nun) and two stubborn women who were just NOT having either the gossip or the abusive and cheating men around them. It was the about appreciating the color purple (Oprah & Margaret), seeing red (Amy & Meg), and embracing jet black comedy (Anjelica).

THE NOMINEES 

from left to right: Avery, Huston, Madigan, Tilly, and Winfrey

Oscar celebrated newcomers in 1985 with a shortlist composed entirely of first timers. All five actresses were relatively inexperienced (as Oscar lists go) having made less than ten films each so no overdue conversations were to be had. One of them (Oprah Winfrey) was even making her film debut though the eventual winner (Anjelica Huston) was already Hollywood royalty, being the daughter of the film titan directing her and the girlfriend of the superstar headlining her Best Picture nominated vehicle.

Notable women who Oscar didn't nominate were Globe nominees Kelly McGillis (Witness) and Sonia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman), BAFTA nominees Judi Dench (Wetherby) and Tracey Ullman (Plenty), and BAFTA winner Rosanna Arquette (Desperately Seeking Susan)... who was very much a leading lady but you know how awards season is! Other key supporting players that attracted critical attention and/or movie fans in 1985 were Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club), Demi Moore and Mare Winningham (St Elmo's Fire), Isabella Rossellini and Helen Mirren (White Nights), Madonna (Desperately Seeking Susan), Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), Laura Dern (Mask), Ann Wedgeworth (Sweet Dreams), and Mieko Harada (Ran).

THIS MONTH'S PANELISTS

from left to right: Zehetner, Virtel, Nathaniel R, Nazemian, Morgan

Here to talk about these five nominated turns, in reverse alphabetical order: Actress Nora Zehetner (Creative Control, Brick), comedian/writer Louis Virtel  (Billy on the Street, Throwing Shade), your host Nathaniel R (The Film Experience), novelist/producer Abdi Nazemian ("The Authentics" and Call Me By Your Name), and writer/director Michelle Morgan (It Happened in LA). And now it's time for the main event... 

1985
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN  

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