Smackdown '21: Ariana, Aunjanue, Jessie, Judi, and Kirsten
Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at 6:14PM Welcome back to the Supporting Actress Smackdown. Each month we pick an Oscar vintage to explore through the lens of actressing at the edges. This episode, kicking off a new season takes us back to... well, not back at all but to the current Oscar race which will be decided, officially, on March 27th.
THE NOMINEES Dame Judi Dench returns for an incredible 8th nomination while the rest of the field are first timers whether they're near the beginning of their film career (triple threat Ariana DeBose and dramatic powerhouse Jessie Buckley), deep inside it (character actress extraordinare Aunjanue Ellis) or, long past overdue for their first "shrimp" (movie star Kirsten Dunst).
THE PANELISTS: Here to talk about these five performances are (in alpha order) critics Rebecca Alter (Vulture), Cláudio Alves (The Film Experience) Sophia Ciminello (Oscar Wild), Ryan McQuade (Awards Watch / In Session Film), and your host Nathaniel R.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS SMACKDOWN + PODCAST
LET'S BEGIN...
JESSIE BUCKLEY as "Leda" in The Lost Daughter
Synopsis: A grad student struggles with motherhood and her partner, and leaves her children for a smooth-talking professor.
Stats: 32 yrs old, 8th film, 3rd billed. First nomination. 29 minutes of screen time (or 23% of the running time)
Rebecca Alter: Dude I was nervous for those daughters. Don’t make exhausted academia-pilled Jessie Buckley count to three! ♥♥♥♥
Cláudio Alves: Playing the differently-aged version of a movie's lead is an awkward affair. One might be tempted to copy their costar, sacrificing complexity in the name of imitation. However, to go the opposite route can bring its own set of problems. Stray too far from the character's primary interpretation, and you end up feeling like an entirely different person. Jesse Buckley does little to mimic Olivia Colman, playing Leda by her distinct directive. Instead of funny or awkward, she's angry, despondency manifested outward, more pointedly prickly and much less endearing about it. Accent changes may indicate varying environmental influences, while we can find class commentary in the abyss between the two Ledas. For me, Buckley's performance ends up feeling like an array of enticing possibilities that are more thought-provoking than satisfying. All that being said, it's refreshing to see motherhood portrayed in such thorny terms and by such a fearless actress. ♥♥♥
Sophia Ciminello: Buckley once again proves she can make any film stronger, even with limited screen time. She and Olivia Colman are playing the same character at different stages of life, and she makes sure that it doesn’t matter that they aren’t doppelgangers. Buckley’s strength as an actress has always been her inner work—the ability to oscillate between stillness and chaos, with a world of emotion behind her eyes. She found the emotional core of Leda, a character capable of doing both great and terrible things. ♥♥♥♥
Ryan McQuade: While I am not a fan overall of The Lost Daughter, Jessie Buckley is the best performance in the film. Between her frustrations as a mother, and her ability to slip into another personality when she is away from her family is massively impressive. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: Buckley is a gifted actress (please see Wild Rose!) but it was sometimes difficult to separate aggravation with the character, or more accurately all of the flashback narrative, which is much less satisfying than Olivia Colman's herculean multi-faceted performance as an ornery vacationer haunted by her failures as a mother. Buckley is doing good work but she didn't surprise or intrigue or fascinate in quite the way Dakota Johnson and Dagmara Dominyczk managed in smaller roles. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Buckley made Leda's choices and predicament so clear and believable" - Matthew (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 21½ ❤s
ARIANA DEBOSE as "Anita" in West Side Story
Synopsis: A strong-willed seamstress keeps the peace between her hot-tempered boyfriend and his naive sister but tragedy awaits them all
Stats: 31 yrs old, 3rd film, 3rd billed. First nomination. 29 minutes of screentime (or 19% of the running time)
Rebecca Alter: DeBose is the second best thing about Spielberg’s West Side Story, and the first-best thing that got nominated (Mike Faist robbed). Anita is a demanding role and DeBose does it all. She plays casual and funny in early scenes of the movie, woeful and conflicted and forgiving and abused and frightened and righteously furious by the end. These are Big Big operatic swings and a lesser performer simply couldn’t sell them (*cough* Ansel Elgort *cough*). DeBose is a dancer and a Broadway performer and what this means is she acts with her whole body in a way that so many actors hardly consider outside of doing schtick. I wasn’t as taken with WSS as most critics and fans I’ve seen gushing on Film Twitter, except when it comes to DeBose’s lightning in a bottle “America.” If Emma Stone doing “City of Stars” in her yellow dress in La La Land is my personal movie musical nadir, DeBose doing “America” in her yellow dress in West Side Story is a movie musical zenith. DeBose is a fucking movie star and she’s going to win the Oscar. ♥♥♥♥
Cláudio Alves: It’s difficult not to compare Ariana DeBose to Rita Moreno. It may be unfair, but it’s not like Spielberg works against this. Not when he cuts from one actress to the other, juxtaposing them in cross-fade. DeBose isn’t entirely to blame if she can’t sing and dance her way out of Moreno’s shadow. Still, rather than copying her predecessor, one feels the new Anita strives for independence, conspicuously approaching certain scenes from distinct, sometimes antithetical, angles. If “America” was once a satirical number, DeBose plays it as showboating spectacle with scant comedic edge. On the other hand, even if close-up acting isn’t always her strong suit, she exposes the inner turmoil of “A Boy Like That” with an emotional openness Moreno avoided back in 1961. One thing’s for sure, Ariana DeBose has star power and charisma to spare, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. ♥♥♥
Sophia Ciminello: DeBose brings a tremendous amount of confidence to a role that needs it in spades. Her rendition of America is simply electrifying! Sadly, she didn’t quite measure up to Rita Moreno’s bravura performance from the ‘61 adaptation for me. While it’s possible to like both performances (I do), it’s impossible not to compare them. Perhaps if Spielberg and Kushner spun a fresher take on Anita, DeBose’s performance could shine a bit brighter. ♥♥♥
Ryan McQuade: It is not easy to top the original performance from Rita Moreno, but I think DeBose does. She gives Anita a vivacious energy and is the emotional core of the film. Between the "America" sequence and the scene where she identifies Bernardo’s body, you see the range of a superstar actress in the making. ♥♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: Like Buckley this is another case where I respect the performance more than love it. DeBose is a wonderful singer and dancer but in the first half her performance feels tentative. And who can blame her with such a colossal predecessor to live up to (Rita Moreno only gave one of the greatest performances of all time!) In short, Debose falls into the trap you'll sometimes see with green but sensational talents where they're kind of lying in wait to pull out all the stops for their big scenes, rather than finding ways to round out the character in every moment, whether or not the spotlight is theirs. She's particularly strong at detailing her relationship with Bernardo though she doesn't illuminate as much of her feelings for Maria as Rita does in the original and you need that to sell the always problematic about-face in "A Boy Like That" (strange given Rita's tense feelings about Natalie Wood versus Ariana's obviously warm relationship to Rachel Zegler). I hope DeBose is just warming up so this won't be regarded as both breakout AND peak. ♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "It’s just not fair, is it? How can one person have so much damn TALENT." - Ethan (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 21½ ❤s
DAME JUDI DENCH as "Granny" in Belfast
Synopsis: A grandmother tries to support her sick husband and watch over her family during The Troubles in Ireland
Stats: 87 yrs old, 55th film, 5th billed. 8th nomination (1 previous win in this category). 14 minutes of screen time (or 14% of the running time).
Rebecca Alter: She wasn’t even the cutest or most memorable grandparent of the two grandparents! Dench gives a perfectly adequate performance, all steely Christian resolve softened by love and some wist behind the eyes, but she doesn’t do much to make this character feel like anything more than one of Kenneth Branagh’s little nostalgia signifiers, moved around in little tableaux like Buddy’s matchbox cars. And Caitriona Balfe was right there! The past few years have seen some remarkable, deep grandma performances; this isn’t even in the same galaxy as last year’s winner, Youn Yuh-Jung. But every Oscars needs one or two eye roll picks like this, and Dench certainly nails that role. ♥♥
Cláudio Alves: I happily declare Dame Judi Dench the unambiguous MVP of Kenneth Branagh’s latest bid for Oscar glory. That doesn’t mean her nod is a joyous tiding, fit for celebration. She got in over stronger competition, playing a role so textually undefined as to be denied the privilege of a first name. I guess she deserves recognition for sheer chutzpah. After all, after the hate crime against the Irish she perpetrated all over Artemis Fowl, it takes nerve to star in another role which demands this English Rose try her hand at an Irish accent. True, the results aren’t as damnable this time around, but they’re far from excellent. However, Dench does excel at injecting pathos into her anodyne movie, seemingly inventing it out of thin air. Her bus-bound soliloquy has charm to spare, perhaps a faint rueful ring. And then the movie’s ending rests on the actress’ shoulders, her ability to project sorrow with little more than downtrodden posture and an inflexible gaze. ♥♥
Sophia Ciminello: Oh, Judi…why did I doubt that you’d show up here? It’s easy to be critical of this nomination because it feels uninspired, but Dench is hardly bad in this role. She actually brings a little bit of spice and humor to a film that can feel quite pedestrian. While it’s clear that Dench’s character was crucial to Branagh’s journey towards becoming a filmmaker (the color in her glasses is something…), this role doesn’t allow her to stretch or show her capabilities as an actor. She could sit in that chair and look on at Dornan and Hinds in her sleep. ♥♥
Ryan McQuade: I admire this performance from Dench more than most, given that she reminds me a lot of my grandma who took me all the time when I was a kid. But she’s barely in the film and doesn’t make much of an impact for me other than the final shot, but that is more about the family leaving and Hinds passing and her letting go of them than about her actual performance. She’s no Balfe. ♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: It's always a joy to look at Dench's expressive aged face and feel such rich history, a life-lived and a wholly human interior. This adds an emotional gut punch to the ending of Belfast that's mostly all her. But one truly sensational close-up does not (usually) an Oscar worthy performance make. Otherwise she's saddles with the least dramatic adult role in the movie. Among her eight nominations it's unfortunately at the bottom with Chocolat. If only Branagh had given her more to do so she could have earned this! ♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "She delivers the lines" - Nate (Reader average: ♥♥)
Actress earns 13 ❤s
KIRSTEN DUNST as "Rose" in The Power of the Dog
Synopsis: A struggling suicide window marries a wealthy rancher but she and her son are not welcomed into the family by his brother and her despair begins again.
Stats: 39 yrs old, 44th film, 2nd billed. 1st nomination. 37 minutes of screentime (or 29% of the running time.)
Rebecca Alter: This is the shit I love and I live for. Maternal melodrama. Women feeling impossibly trapped in spaces that were not designed with their humanity in mind. An unseemly dressing robe in daytime. An uncomfortably odd relationship between mother and son. Tender soft souls finding each other and giving each other some tiny kindness. Fear and insecurity and being made to feel so small. A sort of shivering female fragility that I think a lot of actors are scared to totally lean into nowadays. I identified with it in my bones. She’s the paper flower, she’s the rabbit, she’s the little cocktail umbrella in Jesse Plemons’s tiki drink, she’s the “Wells for Boys” mom. Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance would be a total nothingburger if it weren’t for Kiki imbuing it with consequence at the other end. (Kodi’s ridiculous Salad Fingers physicality would still carry the whole thing for me though, even if the rest of the cast was Muppets or CGI or CW actors.) I think the trajectory of this role could have been insufferable in someone else’s hands. I just really believe Kirsten is the greatest living girlie in the game and she brings a special sauce that no one else possesses! That’s just my opinion sorry! ♥♥♥♥♥
Cláudio Alves: Of this year's nominees, Kirsten Dunst’s Rose has given me the most trouble. Hers is a complicated role and tricky piece of characterization. Indeed, they require multiple viewings to fully absorb despite looking simple at first glance. Rose is a twisting ball of exhaustion and melancholy, fragile to a fault. A bit of pressure and she shatters into a million pieces, like a bottle of bootleg liquor masquerading as perfume. And yet, there's more to the performance than an inventory of monotonal miseries. Dunst's work is full of canny choices coloring in this sad picture. There’s the petulance of her jealousy, for example, and how motherly assurances vary in hollowness depending on Rose's self-control. Her downfall isn't a straight line either. Instead, it's a mountain range, full of steep ups and downs, often in the course of a single scene. All the agony around the piano is remarkable, but I'm also fond of the tonal variety she can offer. The grimace Rose wears as her cook tells a macabre story always cracks me up. ♥♥♥♥
Sophia Ciminello: Even though Dunst should have a handful of nominations under her belt at this point, this is the perfect role and performance for her first nomination. At first, her character Rose seems like a role we know all too well in this category, a capable mother figure comfortable in domestic spaces. However, due to Campion’s unflinching hand and Dunst’s emotional range, Rose transforms into one of the most heartbreaking, painful characters of the year. Dunst dreamed of working with Campion since she was the young actress we grew up with and their trust in each other shows. ♥♥♥♥♥
Ryan McQuade: When I first saw The Power of the Dog, I thought her performance was good, not great, but oh the power of a rewatch. The way you feel her pain of being manipulated by Phil, and how lonely she is. Some of the best drunk acting you will ever see and should be winning this category. ♥♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: She threads delicate fragility, weary disappointment, social anxiety, and charitable feeling together until you're unsure which has made her most vulnerable to Phil or open to George. This connection and performative observation -- the same things that give us hope can pull us under -- feels like a revelation in her hands. She has many fine moments throughout but I particularly love her outsized reaction to the softness of those gloves she is given. This woman has been through it and can't find enough comfort anywhere. As an added gift from one of out greatest actresses, this performance only improves on rewatches, too. ♥♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Rose’s fragility is her defining quality, and Dunst is expert at making this empathetic rather than merely pathetic." - David (Reader average: ♥♥♥♥¼)
Actress earns 28¼ ❤s
AUNJANUE ELLIS as "Oracene 'Brandy' Williams" in King Richard
Synopsis: The mother of a big family supports her driven husband while fighting for the family dream and training their youngest on the side.
Stats: 53 yrs old, 38th film, 2nd billed. 1st nomination. 39 minutes of screentime (or 27% of the running time)
Rebecca Alter: Aunjanue Ellis is lovely in this classically down-the-middle Oscary “long-suffering wife of the eccentric leading male character” role. We’ve seen these moves before: quiet strength, patience, frustration. But she does them well, making Brandy three-dimensional, lived-in and affecting (that being said, I had to look up the character’s name just now). And it takes talent to give a grounded performance when you’re sharing every scene with Will Smith doing The Most with his character. In a movie that could have just as easily been called As A Father of Daughters…, Ellis ekes out some really nice moments. But she’s not particularly exciting, either. ♥♥♥
Cláudio Alves: How many times have we seen this same role? That of the long-suffering wife and stalwart mother, played to exhaustion in a myriad of by-the-numbers biopics? Sure, she's got a fantastically juicy Oscar clip, but, beyond that, most of her screen-time consists of watching worriedly over her family. And yet, Aunjanue Ellis manages to excavate bottomless depths of humanity in the stock role. All passive observation and peripherical remarks are complicated by the actress - every look a battleground, every line a treasure of insinuated meanings. Long before Oracine Price articulates the compromises that have shaped her life and spousal partnership, Ellis has already made us aware of them, how they hurt, how they fuel her assured demeanor. She reminds me of many a great Old Hollywood character actress, artists who weaved straw into gold and never let textual limitations stop them from delivering masterclass performances. In other words, Ellis gives off major Fay Bainter energy. ♥♥♥♥
Sophia Ciminello: The title of the film and this season’s Oscar buzz might suggest that this is a story about Will Smith, but Ellis steals the movie right out from under him and everyone else in the ensemble. Each year, we get many performances where actors play real people, but this is one of the few cases where the actor made every scene look effortless and natural. Before I saw the film, I didn’t know much about this matriarch, but I felt that Ellis did a phenomenal job bringing her warmth, strength, and resilience to the screen. ♥♥♥♥
Ryan McQuade: Of all the bio-pic performances between the actress categories, Ellis might be my favorite. She takes over the screen every time we see her and goes toe to toe with Will Smith. Her scene in the kitchen is the key to making the whole movie work. And it's the best scene in the film. ♥♥♥♥
Nathaniel R: So fierce, resourceful, natural, and observant that you wish the film didn't keep backgrounding her. Her characterization comes roaring to life anyway, occassionally putting Richard/the film on notice. Woud happily watch and maybe even prefer a concurrent sequel called Queen Brandy. That she accomplishes what she does without much help from the screenplay brings Meryl Streep's Doubt era public boosts of pre-superstardom Viola Davis to mind --someone give this woman a leading role! ♥♥♥♥
Reader Write-Ins: "Delivers big in her Oscar clip scene and gives Will Smith a lot to work with in his scenes." - Lenard (Reader average: ♥♥♥½)
Actress earns 22½ ❤s
OSCAR RESULT: We'll find out on Sunday night though all signs point to new star Ariana DeBose becoming the second actress to win the Oscar as Anita in West Side Story, sixty-one years after the first (Rita Morento.
SMACKDOWN RESULT: It's a decisive win for Kirsten Dunst
Her sad-eyed newlywed, tormented by both her brother-in-law and the bottom of a bottle, won our hearts. She also easily won the Smackdown ballots from readers that were sent in AND currently leads with 51% of the votes on the "who should win" polling on our Oscar charts. All this good will makes us think she'll be a threat to win the Oscar if she ever nabs a second nomination. Aunjanue Ellis proves the runner up for the Smackdown. In reader ballots Ellis was also in second place though by the tiniest of margins over DeBose. Meanwhile on the Oscar chart poll DeBose is in second place. In other words, affections were evenly spread around beyond the collective enthusiasm for Kirsten Dunst.
THE FULL PODCAST CONVERSATION
You can download right here 👇 or listen on Spotify or iTunes or Stitcher to hear the in-depth discussion with our marvelous guests. [All Previous Smackdowns]
UP NEXT: This season on the Smackdown we'll be covering 2004, 1997, 1951 and possibly more. Stay tuned for dates and guest panelist announcements!
Reader Comments (16)
I missed the deadline to vote, though I’m glad the rightful winner prevailed here!
Biggest flex about Dunst’s marvelous performance is that I think everyone involved in POTD is doing the best work of their careers (even Campion and Greenwood), except her, yet it’s a performance so good that it would likely define any other lesser actor.
I sent mine to your old email address, and then forgot to resend it. Ugh.
Ellis
Debose
Dunst
Buckley
Haven't seen Belfast.
Excellent write ups seems like it's a good set of nominees that most of you liked despite no Negga or Plimpton who would've made my ballot along with Ellis,Dunst and an overlooked Nina Arianda,big shout out to Bree Elord,Adriana Lennix,Amy Forsyth and Ann Dowd.
Rankings
Dench 2 hearts pains me to say,I didn't think anyone bar Dornan deserved a nom,funny and casual chemistry with Hinds is spot on and she can quip like a Drag Queen,right at the bottom of her 8 noms.
DeBose 3 hearts memories of Moreno still abound,seems hesitant to break out but gives us a flash of Anita,great chemsitry with all co stars,I wanted a bit more,she was a tad Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls stiff toward the end.
Buckley 3 hearts could not compete with Colman,I like the way she played unwanted motherhood esp the exasperation,I never really got a through line to Colman's character,why so angry?
Ellis 4 hearts a stock role that she breathes huge life into,not only in her big scenes,but any scene she's is theiir doing something worrying,surveying,cajoling,supporting,i'm hoping she gets more oppurtunities
Dunst 4 and a half hearts when I first saw the film she underwhelmed me Kodi took all my focus,I am so used to her being fantastic,how she wasn't nommed in 2010 for All Good Things i'll never know,2nd watch heartbreaking,even her clothes seem to weigh heavy on her,drunks scenes a little overplayed but that glove scene and the dancing a marvel in those 2 specific scenes.
The glove moment truly stood out to me when I saw PotD. I agree that if she gets nominated in the next three years (I could see that happening), she could win.
I loved Judi Dench in Belfast, so her score is far too low for my taste. It's not just the last scene—she has a walloping scene on the bus talking about shangri-la. Just exquisite acting, I don't like the way that performance is being dismissed writ large.
My only gripe was that Branagh hid her under those glasses and that wig—it feels more like a disguise than a costume. As if he really didn't want us to figure out that grandma was Judi Dench.
Enjoyed reading this very much. I missed the deadline, but here are my thoughts:
Buckley: In about 2 scenes I felt I understood what the film was saying about Leda as a young mother. Soon, I kept wanted to return to Colman. 2.5 hearts
Ellis: Her scenes when she is training her daughter and is just giving off such JOY are wonderful. Unfortunately, the movie seems to want to peg her almost as an antagonist- she keeps getting into fights with her husband and the neighbor.
Dunst: I love her voice. It sounds so fragile and during the drunk scenes it almost sounds like a porcelain figurine cracking. 3 hearts
Dench: Is able play the role of memory and real person. Her interactions with Hinds are the best part of the movie. 4 hearts
DeBose: Has enough energy to power the Hoover Dam. But her scenes with Maria broke me. "You can't ever ask me that!" This Anita seriously considers her entire relationship with basically her sister in a small pause of a moment, and it is brilliant. 4.5 hearts
DeBose 4.5 ❤️: I must deduct a half-point for “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” even though I think the problem lies with the directing (and to a lesser extent the writing) of the scene. The actresses were left hanging, and neither was experienced enough to overcome the operatic staging. Otherwise she’s a delight. She glows.
Dunst 4 ❤️: Her drunk acting is not the strongest, but then again neither is the drunken part of her arc itself. I can’t stop thinking that she should have been nominated in this category (and won) at the ceremonies in 1995 and 2005. Still, a strong performance.
Buckley 4 ❤️: I wanted more of her, which is always a good sign. I can’t wait to see her next three (!) projects.
Ellis 4 ❤️: Surprisingly high score, considering how much I dislike the film. But she’s the best thing in it. Thrilled about her current career momentum.
Dench 3 ❤️: “I detest cheap sentiment.” (Margo Channing) But I adore Dench. I wonder how much of her Irish-born mother she put into this perfectly adequate but not particularly award-worthy characterization…
Love these results, they match up perfectly with my votes so naturally I think you all are just brilliant, lol. So glad the Smackdown has returned! I look forward to listening to the podcast and to the future takes on those three past years you didn't get to last season. TBH the Smackdown has become way more fun than the actual Oscars.
Loved this! Very thoughtful conversation.
I am amazed by the praise DeBose's "America" performance is getting, though. She's obviously a very talented and expressive dancer but I just don't see the acting choices in this sequence that anybody else wouldn't make. So tentative and not at all funny. I see why she didn't want to mimic Moreno's jokes/flourishes, but maybe try to add some of your own? Her backup dancers are doing more at moments. The lyrics to the song get lost in the spectacle of Spielberg's staging, and unfortunately so do the characterizations.
I can’t rate the performances myself since I’ve still only seen 3 of them (I know, I’m behind…), but great conversation as always!
Maybe this has already been covered somewhere, but if/when Ariana DeBose wins, that will make Anita the first female character in history to earn Oscars for two different actresses, right? Unless I’m forgetting something. (And third character overall after Vito Corleone and the Joker.)
Very excited to have the smackdown back. This is one of the better lineups of recent years nominated and what I enjoy most about the list is how there isn't a frauded performer to be found.
DeBose is my favourite among the women nominated and the only performer who I'd personally nominate. Dunst is also spectacular and this nomination is so well earned for both the performance and her for her impressive filmography which preceded it. Similar to Dunst Ellis is an actor I'm excited to see this nomination happen for as she's been a hard working actor for decades delivering great work yet very rarely getting the role that everyone wants to talk about.
Buckley is such a fresh talent each time around and while I wouldn't have given her this nom I'm happy she now can be called an Oscar nominee. Dench is the only nomination I question because it feels lazy. If Philomena was going to be Dench's last career nomination I would've been at peace with that and Belfast possibly becoming her last nom feels incorrect.
My personal lineup I would've found space for
Olga Meredith, In the Heights
Ruth Negga, Passing
Vinette Robinson, Boiling Point
Mia Wasikowska, Bergman Island ...to be nominated alongside DeBose
Negga is of course my overall winner for the year.
Very excited to have the smackdown back. This is one of the better lineups of recent years nominated and what I enjoy most about the list is how there isn't a frauded performer to be found.
DeBose is my favourite among the women nominated and the only performer who I'd personally nominate. Dunst is also spectacular and this nomination is so well earned for both the performance and her for her impressive filmography which preceded it. Similar to Dunst Ellis is an actor I'm excited to see this nomination happen for as she's been a hard working actor for decades delivering great work yet very rarely getting the role that everyone wants to talk about.
Buckley is such a fresh talent each time around and while I wouldn't have given her this nom I'm happy she now can be called an Oscar nominee. Dench is the only nomination I question because it feels lazy. If Philomena was going to be Dench's last career nomination I would've been at peace with that and Belfast possibly becoming her last nom feels incorrect.
My personal lineup I would've found space for
Olga Meredith, In the Heights
Ruth Negga, Passing
Vinette Robinson, Boiling Point
Mia Wasikowska, Bergman Island ...to be nominated alongside DeBose
Negga is of course my overall winner for the year.
Agree with Eoin Daly that it's great to see a lineup of supporting actresses that are actually supporting.
Buckley: Going against the Film Experience grain, I very much disliked the older Leda scenes and Colman's misdirected, confused performance in those scenes. But I loved the Buckley flashbacks -- the depth of conflicted feelings, the daring portrayal of the mother who abandons her kids. Why couldn't the movie stay with young Leda? Four stars
Debose: Riveting every moment she's on screen. Equals Moreno's original portrayal, which is a feat I never thought anyone could match. What. A. Performance. Five stars
Dench: I can't hold Balfe's non-nomination against her, in part because I think Balfe could have and should have been nominated in lead (where she could have even won, given the lack of consensus in that category). Dame Judy held my attention in every scene she's in, even when sidelined or backgrounded. I loved the bus scene. There stars
Dunst: Going way against this site's zeitgeist, I just am not feeling the love here. Not her fault, but the character needed an arc beyond mopey to teary to depressed and back. Lots of actresses could have adequately plodded through the sads in all their scenes. Give her the career award for something that merits it. Two stars
Ellis: Just as with Buckley above, I wished the movie were about her and her relationship with her two daughters. I intensely disliked the Will Smith character, and only found the movie watchable when Ellis was onscreen. She the absolute most of the supportive but exasperated wife role, even beyond the kitchen Oscar clip scene. Three stars
No surprise about the winner and deserving as well but I'm team DeBose. Both Dunst and Cumberbatch are just unlucky to be in this lineup, both gave their best performances and I'm afraid they aren't going to top this...
I think this lineup is one of the most inspired in a long time even though I'd replace Buckley with Negga. I like that Dench got in for Belfast and not for something like Victoria and Abdul in hindsight.
Dunst should have been sweeping the season.
Still pulling for her to win in the Oscars.
TPoTD should at least has one acting Oscar, considering all of its leads are nominated.
DeBose just doesn't seem natural in WSS and don't you dare compare the role to Vito or Joker because the winning performances from those roles are from completely different stories. Anita here is literally just a revival of the same story. This is not the Tonys LMFAO
Great Smackdown!
Finally saw KING RICHARD last night and Ellis is as great as advertised, though I am good with Dunst winning (Smackdown, that is - would be lovely if she took the Oscar, but that ain't happening). She was the only one of the nominees to make my own top five of 2021.