Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2021
Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 12:00PM A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano
From one nail-biter year to another, this year presents an interesting set of nominees with an interesting lead-up to Oscar night. Kristen Stewart racked up the majority of critics’ awards. Nicole Kidman won the not-televised Golden Globe. Olivia Colman was riding the waves of The Lost Daughter’s late-breaking hype. Speaking of late breakers, Penélope Cruz was another big critics’ push and enjoyed a last-minute surge for a win leading to Oscar night. Ultimately, Jessica Chastain - after winning SAG - squeaked out and won the award.
Another thing to note is the dominance of biopics in this category - three of the five nominees played real-life figures. However, that is where their similarities end. Their films could not be any further in terms of style and tone. Same goes with the other two remaining nominees - one originated from an acclaimed novel and one an original character from a formidable master of world cinema. But for now, we are going to explore how the five characters of the Best Actress nominees were introduced in their respective films.
Are you ready? The year: 2021...
Jessica Chastain as Tammy Faye Bakker in THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Directed by Michael Showalter / Written by Abe Sylvia
Whether one is familiar with the titular character’s reputation or not, the film does a summation of the contextualizing Tammy Faye’s legacy through the media frenzy surrounding her. A series of archival footage begins the film, showing the response to her televangelism, from adoration to ridicule. At the end of the opening credits, our first glimpse of her is of her distinctive eyes smacked in the middle of that video collage. Iconography, revelation, and the adage “the eyes are the window to your soul” are all infused in this shot that slowly takes out the other footage and slowly zooms out to her face. Tammy Faye is talking to a makeup artist about not changing anything about her eyes, showing her self-aware image curation. This also announces Chastain’s physical transformation as a selling point of the film.
Olivia Colman as Leda Caruso in THE LOST DAUGHTER
Written and Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal
This thorny psychological drama about “unnatural mothers” commences right with this shot - an out-of-focus profile close up of a woman, walking or on the verge of limping, as we hear crashing waves from the sea. Is she drunk? Distraught? Or lost? We are not given a straight answer. We’ll have to wait until the end of the film to fully know what is going on. Even when the focus of this shot becomes clearer, the coverage on her face never changes. It’s an enigmatic beginning to this character study, with visual proximity not always meaning intimacy. Initial unknowability is already weaponized by Gyllenhaal to capture the complexity of this woman which will be unraveled throughout the film.
Penélope Cruz as Janis Martínez Moreno in PARALLEL MOTHERS
Written and Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
We immediately get a closeup of Cruz’s face taking photos right after this, but the first shot of her - a wide shot - is loaded with visual information. Just a bit off-center, Cruz is still the visual focus with how blocking and lighting is set up - the other actors are in the dark, all facing in the direction of the photographer and the subject is also looking at her. But there Cruz is, also doing the act of looking through the lens of the camera. However, look at the bottom left of the screen - a set of decorative skulls, recalling the massacre during Franco’s dictatorial regime that will be crucial in understanding Janis even more. With the brevity of this shot, this might be an easily overlooked detail. However, this visual distillation effectively synthesizes the personal and the political at the crux of this film.
Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball in BEING THE RICARDOS
Written and Directed by Aaron Sorkin
A radio show broadcasting the news while Kidman is “in the foreground--though out of focus” and "sitting on a couch with her bare feet up" - that’s exactly how it was worded in the screenplay. As Bardem (heard off-screen) greets her, Kidman shouts “Where the hell have you been ya Cuban dimwit?”. A fight ensues. Marital melodrama in direct collision with brewing political tension is at the heart of Sorkin’s behind-the-scenes take on the turbulent marriage behind I Love Lucy. But it is curious how Kidman’s introduction in the film is seen through obscured, out-of-focus shots. One sees a clear image of the dynamic between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, but the physical transformations of both Kidman and co-star Javier Bardem are not treated as the main priority in introducing their characters.
Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales in SPENCER
Directed by Pablo Larraín / Written by Steven Knight
While this is not the first shot of the car driving - it is actually the third - this is the first time that we actually see the person driving the said car. And yes, we see Stewart as the royal icon. However, this introduction resides neither direct (like Chastain) nor obscure (like Kidman). Intercuts reveal Princess Diana driving in solitude on a long road while the royal family is comfortably making their way into the Sandringham House, as if she is going down a perilous journey in an impending battle. The lead-up to this moment, coupled with Jonny Greenwood’s looming score and Claire Mathon’s haunting cinematography, even suggest an entrance into a dimension beyond the literal. Larraín and Knight will further double down on this storytelling strategy as the film goes along.
Reader Comments (11)
An interesting race to follow, but one of my least favorite Best Actress years.
Seemed like Hollywood didn’t know what to do with this group—and by process of elimination, it became Chastain’s year at the last minute. It looks hard-fought in hindsight but in reality, I don’t think anybody felt enthusiastic about these movies or performances lol.
It's hard to be super enthusiastic about this group, but at least two of these performances (Cruz and Colman) are complete winners.
Also, if I may, I think this series would benefit of more than one image per performer. Especially when the shots that present the characters are moving. It would be interesting to see the evolution in Kidman's presentation, for example, how we get to her, or Cruz looking through the camera, which seems more like the way Almodóvar wanted us to see her protagonist for the first time.
I'd love to smackdown this quintet.
Cruz 5-I love the movie and I love this performance. It's all so visceral and fleshy. Cruz go though all the pain and the doubt of her character. This would have been a very deserved second Oscar and the movie itself would have deserved more mentions.
Stewart 4-This movie was the very underrated horse of the year. It's not a Diana biopic for me, instead it's a beautiful piece of art that uses Diana's stereotype to tell a story. There's a wonderful work of cinematography, costume and production design. Stewart is totally at the service of the opera and she's so good at imploding.
Colman 4-she's great as usual, but I don't understand all the joy and attention around the movie. All the doll story is very childish and after that the movie presented the two daughters as unbearable I empathized more with the leaving choice than with the regret.
Kidman 3-I didn't excpect it but I enjoyed the movie. It's a sort of well done work where everybody did the job in the right way.
Chastain 2.5?-It's the usual Hollywood biopic functional for the best actor/actress Oscar. Personally I was not so interested in the character and I think that the movie make it also look quite stupid.
I actually kind of loved all 5 of these performances and have long loved 4 of these actresses.
Is it the role I wanted Jessica Chastain to win for? Absolutely not.
Does Penelope Cruz deserve to win for an Almodóvar performance? Absolutely.
Do I love Nicole Kidman regardless of the film she's in? Absolutely.
When there are years Actress/Supporting Actress give me violent nausea based on the winners, this was a year that pleased me.
While Colman's was by far my favorite of these performances, I like the Lucy intro best. Like the Riseborough intro from the previous post, it's an intro I didn't think about at the time but it feels like it fits the story that's to come.
I am not impressed with 2 out of this roster though I am a big fan of all the actresses I just wish 2 of them weren't so miscast as to be barely believable and at times totally laughable and their films are boring beyond belief.
Though not perfect this list sorely missed GaGa and definitely missed my own winner Tessa Thompson in Passing.
Kidman comes in last this is for me her worst nominated performance infact it must be for me one of her worst ever,completely miscast,cerebral reading of Lucy be damned,she never sounds,looks or has any of Lucy in her,this was a woman who was funny in her bones and revolutionsed TV and Kidman captured nothing of that,regarding her face,she doesn't even look like a woman of that period,she just looked odd but maybe the make up was too blame.
Stewart badly written with so much unbelievable non human behaviour,1 or 2 individual scenes sort of work but more often than not the fridge scene,the dancing,the pearls in the soup are just plain bad.
Chastain the make up is poor but she does capture Tammy Faye enough not to take me out of the film,it's fairly rote as a biopic but much more enjoyable than the above 2 films.
Colman some of it didn't work but she's such a good actress she overcomes it,the doll bit was silly but she's got great chemistry and doesn't hog the limelight or steal it.
Cruz she'd get my vote from this line up,I though this was the best from Almodovar in a long time,I believed in the story and her character,clear emotions,honest acting,good with a camera too,should have won in retrospective.
I love this lineup. I actually think it’s the strongest since…idk? These are all terrific performances. I was rooting for Nicole Kidman, an actress I think is often wildly overrated. If I ruled the Oscars, this would be her only Oscar win. She nailed every monologue, every line, every walk and talk.
I would have loved Cruz to win too. She was fantastic.
As for Chastain, I was highly skeptical of her even being in the race because I didn’t see the film until maybe like a week before the Oscars. Everything about the trailer just made it look so terribly bland, cliche and “oh god ANOTHER paint-by-numbers biopic is going to win someone an Oscar???”. And then I saw it and I just couldn’t deny that she is so committed to this role, the singing scenes are all fantastic, and does get to show a lot of range. It’s definitely an elevated biopic. It’s not a bad win. This isn’t Reese in Walk the Line.
I concur with Charlea. This is the best lineup we had since 2014 (Cotillard/Jones/Moore/Pike/Witherspoon), and I'd argue one of the best ever. Really sharp, complex, out-there, inspired performances by five crazy-talented actresses. I personally would have voted for Cruz, but it was the only year in ages where I would have been happy with any of the five winning. We'd be incredibly lucky to get another slate as strong as this again soon!
I would've made room for Alana Haim tbh. But I was just grateful Kristen Stewart got in and Gaga didn't. Penelope was a nice cherry on top too. <3
Definitely not the movie I would've wanted Jessica winning for... Terrible makeup. Can't believe that movie won two Oscars lol. But at least she's not another Glenn Close or Amy Adams!
It actually makes sense how Jessica won... Penelope had passion but not enough traction. Kirsten's win was actually getting nominated. An Oscar for Being the Ricardos? No. And Olivia Colman had just won. Jessica Chastain was on her third nom, with other worthy performances going unnominated over the years. It was her time.
I thought these were good nominees.
My personal favorite of the batch is Coleman, who was exceptional.
I liked Cruz and thought she was deserving of a nod, but I didn't think the film or her performance were nearly as revelatory as others here seem to.
I know Kidman and Stewart's turns were divisive, but I thought they were both sensational. Leaving Haim and Gaga out was definitely the right choice.
And ultimately Chastain was a worthy winner. She was terrific in a decent film, and it was an incredibly committed performance.
I think this might be one of the weakest years because, with the exception of maybe Kristen Stewart, all of these actresses are better in other films. It's like Julianne Moore winning for Still Alice. Is she good in the movie? Sure. But that was clearly a make-up Oscar because she's oh so much better in so many other movies.