The next Supporting Actress Smackdown is just 12 days away. We're on fire this season, aren't we? HERE ARE THE PANELISTS that will be talking about 2002 but we also need your votes. We highly encourage you to rewatch the movies before voting (time can change perspective!). To vote simply email us with "2002" in the subject line by Monday June 15th and include your rating of each of the nominees on a scale of 1 (weak) to 5 (perfect) hearts...
- Kathy Bates, About Schmidt
- Queen Latifah, Chicago
- Julianne Moore, The Hours
- Meryl Streep, Adaptation
- Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
For an extra bit of whistle-wetting fun, let's look at how each of the characters are introduced in the movies. NOTE: Please save comments about the performances themselves for the Smackdown event. For now we're talking about the art of introduction in storytelling. Is the filmmaker tipping his hat to a star's arrival (fairly common practice) or merely introducing a new character...
Keep the change, Joe
[no dialogue]
[Bandleader on the mic] The Onyx Club is proud to present Chicago's hottest dancing duo, jazz babes moving as one: The Kelly Sisters.
1 minute into Chicago... meet "Velma Kelly"
I had COMPLETELY forgotten the opening two minutes of Chicago. I thought it began with Renée watching CZJ perform "All That Jazz" but it begins with the band warming up and the stage manager looking for "The Kelly Sisters" -- they're supposed to be on stage! One minute in we get the first glimpse of Velma, just her legs exiting a cab and then she tears her own promotional poster to remove her sisters name (that's the only blurred image of her face to keep you waiting). For the next frantic minute we track her, never seeing her face as she rushes to get dressed and get on stage (and dispose of a murder weapon!). It's practically a superhero film entrance it so fetishes the act of getting in costume and preparing to do your superpower (in Velma's case, performing). TWO spotlights greet her on stage though she promises she can do this one alone. Boy can she. This is, in every conceivable way, a STAR entrance. There's lots of build up and then a riveting "lights on / start the show" moment when we finally see said stars face in a closeup which fully delivers, her eyes flicking open to sing. Entrance Scene: A+
🎵 Come on babe, why don't we paint the town...
4½ minutes into The Hours... meet "Laura Brown"
Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) gets the opening scene, a 1941 suicide in Sussex, before we cross the ocean and glide 10 years forward to 1951 Los Angeles. A husband is bringing his wife flowers. Alas, she's asleep. This scene (well, it's more of a glimpse than a scene) shouldn't feel ominous -- and doesn't fully -- but there is the lingering ickiness that we just started with a suicide and its broad daylight outside so why is this woman asleep? It's boring to watch people sleep and this camera is on the move and immediately back to England. Entrance Scene: D
Orlean makes orchids so fascinating. Plus her musings on Florida and orchid poaching, Indians -- it's great sprawling New Yorker stuff."
[Writing] John LaRoche is a tall guy, skinny as a stick, pale eyed, slouched shouldered, sharply handsome despite the fact he's missing all his front teeth."
4½ and 6 minutes into Adaptation... meet "Susan Orlean"
It's fitting that in the extreme sweaty chaos of Adaptation's meta-storytelling -- the movie is continually restructuring itself -- Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is introduced twice, in short succession. Once by being described over a copy of her book and then in her own act of description as we jump back in time three years with a dissolve from the cityscape to her at a desk writing. Nifty but it's worth noting that its only half of a traditional star entrance. Showing us Meryl's headshot before she acts would normally qualify as a full star entrance. But the star of this movie is its screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, both figuratively and literally. Entrance Scene: B+
"And now ladies and gentlemen, the keeper of the keys, the countess of the clink, the mistress of murderer's row, Matron Mama Morton."
17 minutes into Chicago... meet "Matron Mama Morton"
Queen Latifah gets a similar entrance to Catherine Zeta-Jones but hers is more sped up and tossed off, so we just gif'ed it for you above. We get a closeup of her ample bosom first (instead of legs as with Velma) followed by her shadow on the wall, and then door opening, dissolve, blow out, color filter, feather shake, and then Queen Latifah's gorgeous mug. And she begins to sing. To paraphrase the song, this entrance is a lot of tat for what she's got to give.
Entrance Scene: A- (but bonus points for giving the original Velma Kelly, Chita Rivera, that close up cameo to warn Roxie/us of Mama's entrance just before it happens. "Ever had Mama before?")
Warren, how grand to see you again!
77½ minutes into About Schmidt... meet "Roberta"
Yes, that's right. Alexander Payne makes us wait an entire feature's running time before Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) even arrives in Colorado where the much-discussed wedding of his daughter is taking place. There's no filmmaking fanfare for Bates entrance. But Payne and his editors do know that we're waiting for this final act of the movie to begin so they take a beat on the door before it swings open to reveal "Roberta," the mother of the groom. After she welcomes the protagonist (no outrageous jokes, yet, just warmth), the door closes on us again. This is definitely more of a visual marker than a traditional star entrance. The filmmakers are saying "We've arrived in Act Three". Once inside the house, though, Bates will let loose to set the tone for the final act which falls under the sub-genre of Awkward Wedding Comedy. Entrance Scene: C+
We hope you enjoy revisiting these movies this week and we'll see you back here on Wednesday, June 17th for the full Supporting Actress Smackdown!