Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2013

A series by Juan Carlos Ojano

Deception, isolation, and desperation are just some of the common threads that connect the characters of this year's Best Actress nominees and the narratives in which they are situated. The curious element of the lineup is that, aside from one (Gravity), all of the nominees are featured in films from the comedic genre, whether it be a crime comedy (American Hustle), a cynically humorous character study (Blue Jasmine), a heartwarming dramedy (Philomena), or an acerbic, tragicomic family portrait (August: Osage County). That must be a rarity in any acting category, right?

Are you ready? The year is 2013...

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Who was best dressed? Supporting Actress Edition

Our Best Supporting Actress obsesssion manifests itself in our longest running series, the Smackdown. But we've already covered this season's battle. Kirsten Dunst won the Smackdown but it was Ariana DeBose who took the Oscar as expected? (Wasn't her speech beautiful?) Now who gets your vote for Best Supporting Actress Best Dressed? You know you want to vote! Comments welcome, too. Why'd you choose which gown? 

online polls

Smackdown '21: Ariana, Aunjanue, Jessie, Judi, and Kirsten

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...

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Oscar Volley: It's a Best Supporting Actress lovefest!

Our Oscar Volley series continues with Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor doing a deep dive on a category near and dear to their hearts...

NICK: First, quick introductions! What drew us to this category, you ask? The Supporting Actress category was one of my favorite fields to rummage through when I was initially exploring the Oscars. Tilda Swinton, Lupita Nyong’o, Sandy Dennis, Thelma Ritter, Mo’Nique, Dianne Wiest, Agnes Moorehead - all led me to new ideas about film and performance I hadn’t dreamed of before then. Watching talented actresses carve out whole worlds from the corners of their films became one of my favorite things to search for in movies.

I have a very specific memory of discovering the Supporting Actress Smackdown after watching Kramer vs Kramer for the first time only a few weeks after the podcast on 1979 dropped and listening to the discussion with rapt attention. And then the 1948 episode came out like, the next day! Gave me wild misconceptions on how fast things updated, lemme tell you...

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Macbeth beyond "The Tragedy of Macbeth"

by Cláudio Alves

Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth is a beautiful experiment in bringing German Expressionism to 21st-century digital cinema. I could wax rhapsodic about its minimalist set designs and symbolic costumes, the crystalline black-and-white cinematography and ominous soundscape. Hell, there's a book's worth of material to be written about Kathryn Hunter's merge of avant-garde physical theater and Elizabethan dramaturgy. All that being said, and that Scripter nomination aside, the movie's a rather lousy Shakespeare adaptation. Despite pronouncements about trying to reinvent the Macbeths as a middle-aged couple, going deep into the psychology of two creatures whose youth is long gone, Coen doesn't go deeper than the surface. 

In the end, it's a standard reading of the play that serves as a foundation for all that style. The cinephile in me loved it, while the Shakespeare geek felt dispirited. However, there are enough Macbeth movies out there to please just about everyone. It all depends on what you're looking for… 

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