DECEMBER 2, 2015
Category fraud. It’s a tough charge to make during an intensely political Oscar race, but it’s one that has applied to many contests, especially this year. It usually happens in the supporting categories, with lead performances often being placed there for strategic reasons in hopes of an easier path to the big prize.
This year on the men’s side, we have Paul Dano being campaigned for Supporting Actor for playing the young Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy,” with his co-star John Cusack being relegated to the much tougher Lead category for playing the older version of the same character. (It’s very common Oscar strategy that, if two actors have about the same size role, the more likely winner is designated to compete in the easier supporting category.)
Similarly, 9 year-old Jacob Tremblay, the co-lead of “Room,” is competing as supporting because there is an Oscar history of placing children in supporting no matter the size of their role. The most notorious example was in 1973 when Tatum O’Neal, unquestionably the lead of Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon,” was bumped to supporting and won, thus preventing the late Madeline Kahn’s career-high truly-supporting performance in the same film from taking the Oscar.
This year, we have two actresses, Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander, who are arguably co-leads in both of their films, strategically sent to supporting, and the questionable category moves have not gone unnoticed. Oscar, though, has a history of occasionally ignoring category campaigns, correctly nominating Keshia Castle Hughes, who campaigned in Supporting, to Lead in “Whale Rider,” and doing the same with Kate Winslet for “The Reader,” and she won! So we’ll see what happens in January.
Meanwhile, as of December 2, here are 10 actresses who stand the best chance of hearing their name read as a nominee in Best Supporting Actress:
JOAN ALLEN (“Room”)
Allen, who has three previous Oscar nominations (“Nixon,” “The Crucible,” “The Contender”), has a plum part in one of this season’s hottest films. As the mother of Brie Larson’s Joy, Allen is a prime player in the second half of the film after Joy escapes from Room and reenters the world. Her initial delight at her daughter’s freedom soon changes to concern and then anger when Joy becomes disillusioned at integrating back into society. Allen has a dilly of an argument scene with Larson that is super Oscar-baity, and if she gets into the Final Five, you’ll be seeing it everywhere.
ELIZABETH BANKS (“Love & Mercy”)
Banks has had an incredible year — as the director and co-star of the huge summer hit “Pitch Perfect 2,” as well as her recurring role in the current “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2″.” But it is her role as Melinda Ledbetter, who is initially perceived as a slick car salesperson but soon becomes the heart and soul of “Love & Mercy” as she tries to pry the vulnerable Brian Wilson (John Cusack) from the clutches of his abusive therapist Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti), that may land her in the Oscar race. In fact, I suspect that if anyone from “Love & Mercy” makes it to the Dolby Theatre in February, it’ll be Banks.
JANE FONDA (“Youth”)
At 78, two-time Oscar winner Fonda is having a huge career resurgence. Having retired from the screen after marrying mogul Ted Turner in 1991, she returned to acting 15 years later, but in recent years, Fonda’s career has been on a tear, with two Emmy nominations playing a Turner-like mogul in Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” as well as starring with Lily Tomlin in Netflix’s hit series “Grace & Frankie.” In Paulo Sorrentino’s “Youth,” Fonda plays aging diva Brenda Morel (I love it already) who travels to the Alps to confer with her longtime screen collaborator, filmmaker Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), on a new project. Fonda’s role is said to be short but powerful, and there’s been much awards talk around her performance since “Youth” premiered at Cannes in May. It’s been 28 years since Fonda’s last Oscar nomination — let’s see if, with all the awards talk, the performance delivers the goods when “Youth” is released Stateside on December 4.
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (“The Hateful Eight”)
Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” is just beginning to screen for critics, but early reports from the Twitterverse indicate that, if there’s an acting standout amidst the starry ensemble, it’s Leigh as Daisy Domergue, a prisoner wanted dead or alive for murder. Tarantino has always had an eye for casting great but overlooked actors (John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction,” Pam Grier in “Jackie Brown”), so his casting of the highly-regarded Leigh (who has confined herself to little-seen indies in recent years) is very exciting for film fans. Tarantino has directed Christoph Waltz to two Supporting Actor Oscars, so it’s about time to see whether he can do the same for a woman.
ROONEY MARA (“Carol”)
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are indisputably the co-leads of Todd Haynes’ “Carol.” When the film first screened to much acclaim at Cannes this spring, the awards panel bypassed the better-known Blanchett to give their Best Actress prize to Mara. Since “Carol” is being distributed domestically by the Weinstein Company, Oscar maven Harvey Weinstein, however, seeing that Mara may have the better awards potential, decided to push her into the supporting category (see paragraph #2 above). Howls of “Category fraud!” were heard all over Hollywood, but Harvey, being Harvey, is sticking to his guns. Whether Mara will split the vote between those who may vote for her for Best Actress and those who say she’s supporting remains to be seen, but this will be one of the most closely-watched stories come nomination day.
RACHEL McADAMS (“Spotlight”)
McAdams is one of those actresses whose good looks often relegate her to girlfriend roles when she’s clearly capable of more. After a fast career start with “Mean Girls,” “The Notebook” and “Wedding Crashers,” McAdams’ career then settled into “girlfriend” mode for several years, and it was not until “Spotlight,” where she plays investigative reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, that McAdams found a role she could sink her teeth into. As the “good cop” of the investigative team, she handles many of the interviews with adults who have to recall their molestation at the hands of Boston priests. Those scenes are emotionally devastating, and McAdams ably handles Sacha’s careful probing of these sensitive victims. McAdams doesn’t have one big Oscar-baity scene, but if “Spotlight” dominates the nominations as I suspect it will, her fine work should not be forgotten.
HELEN MIRREN (“Trumbo”)
If you’re going to play Hedda Hopper, go big or go home. Mirren, who has become an awards magnet of late, seems to be having the time of her life as the flamboyant, Communist-hunting gossip columnist in Jay Roach’s current “Trumbo.” Though she has a refined public image thanks to her Oscar and Tony-winning portrayals of Queen Elizabeth II, Mirren has had a bit of a randy past in her earlier movie career, and her mischievous side comes out in her portrayal of Hopper. Though the role is unlikely to win her another Oscar, Academy voters may be taken enough with seeing another side of the Grande Dame to offer her a fifth nomination.
KRISTEN STEWART (“Clouds of Sils Maria”)
Olivier Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria” was a highly-praised art-house hit last spring, grossing nearly $2 million in the U.S., but that’s chump change when it comes to the Oscar race. In the film, Stewart plays Valentine, an American assistant to international movie star Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche), and Valentine must wrangle her mercurial boss when she is approached to appear in a revival of the same two-character play that made her a star, but she must play the older role this time. I’ve never terribly warmed to Stewart, who seemed to make her PR appearances for her “Twilight” films seem an inconvenient bother. But she is absolutely terrific in this film. For this performance, Stewart became the first American actress ever to win a Cesar Award — France’s equivalent of the Oscar. And just this morning, she was voted the year’s Best Supporting Actress by the New York Film Critics. She’s going to need a few more critics’ citations to move her little-known film to the top of Academy voters’ screener piles, but this morning was a good start.
ALICIA VIKANDER (“The Danish Girl”)
Before “The Danish Girl” was screened, many assumed that it would be Eddie Redmayne’s show with Vikander along for support. But once the film was screened, it became clear that not only was Vikander a co-lead, but many critics felt that it was really her story with Redmayne in support. Like Elizabeth Banks, Vikander has had an amazing year with roles in “Ex Machina,” “Testament of Youth,” “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “Burnt” under her belt, so the category fraud charge may not hurt her as much. On occasion, the Academy likes to honor performers in this category for their body of work that year, and if that’s the case this year, Vikander would be a prime candidate to make the Final Five.
KATE WINSLET (“Steve Jobs”)
By age 33, Kate Winslet had already been nominated for six (!) Academy Awards, so it’s clear that Oscar voters love her. In Danny Boyle’s often-chilly “Steve Jobs,” Winslet plays Joanna Hoffman, Jobs’ right-hand aide and the only person who could tell the often-megalomaniacal executive just where to stick it. Complete with make-up and Polish accent, Winslet roars her way through “Steve Jobs” as the heart and soul of the film, and as long as Oscar voters don’t penalize the film for Universal’s botched wide release of it this fall, Winslet could be on her way to her seventh Oscar nod.
This is a race that could go any which way, and I have the feeling it’s going to be all over the place until the final 5 names are announced on January 14. Can’t wait. See you then!
