Taking aim at the best and worst of movies and television.
Leading up to this year's Academy Awards on March 7, critic Christopher Kelly discusses who he thinks deserves to take Oscar gold in the major categories.
Today: Best Supporting Actor and Actress
Best Supporting Actor:
The nominees: Matt Damon (Invictus), Woody Harrelson (The Messenger), Christopher Plummer (The Last Station), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
If Chris chose the winner: Christoph Waltz
So playful. So seductive. So sneaky. So sadistic. If great movie acting is about conjuring up characters whom we can’t takes our eyes off, then Christoph Waltz’s commanding, unabashedly showy performance as the Nazi officer Col. Hans Landa deserves to go down in the history books. Every time the Austrian-born actor appears, he sends a jolt of tense electricity coursing through Quentin Tarantino’s wickedly entertaining movie.
What makes this choice even clearer is that he’s up against a group of actors who were all nominated for the wrong movie: Stanley Tucci was impressive as the perv-next-door in the otherwise deadly dull The Lovely Bones -- but he was far more memorable as Julia Child’s husband in Julie and Julia. Matt Damon barely made an impression as a rugby player in Invictus, but he was unpredictable and funny as the corporate crook in The Informant! Woody Harrelson lent a live wire urgency to the otherwise uneven The Messenger, but I preferred his wily performance in the underrated Zombieland.
As for Christopher Plummer, I haven’t seen The Last Station, but I’m betting this is a make-up nomination for years of having ignored him for decades in the likes of The Sound of Music and The Insider.)
Best Supporting Actress
The nominees: Penelope Cruz (Nine), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Mo’Nique (Precious)
If Chris chose the winner: Mo’Nique
It was more than an hour into a screening of Precious at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival when I even realized that the sociopathic mother I was watching onscreen was played by the comedian Mo’Nique. A half-hour or so later, I sat with my jaw slack and tears streaming down my face, as the actress delivered a devastating confession of sexual and physical abuse – it’s one of the most galvanizing and deeply moving monologues I’ve ever witnessed in a film.
It’s almost a cliché to reward Oscars for performances that humanize demonic figures. But Mo’Nique’s work in Precious goes way beyond simple notions of “hero” or “villain” -- and becomes something profoundly, terrifyingly human. Her Mary is a woman we’ve rarely encountered before in an American film, a ferociously angry, lower-class woman who feels as if everyone is against her. Mo’Nique resorts to neither condescension nor caricature, and allows us to understand her character’s every violent action and misjudged motivation. It’s fearless, unforgettable work.
Props to all of the other nominees (well, maybe not that many props to Penelope Cruz, who mostly replayed her Vicky Cristina Barcelona shtick in Nine), but Mo’Nique is the night’s clearest choice.
Coming up:
Tuesday: Best Animated Film
Wednesday: Best Director
Thursday: Best Actor
Friday: Best Actress
Saturday: Best Picture
