My Ranking of the 94 Best Actress Winners: Vol. 2 (79-60)

Welcome back to the Best Actress Ranking!

Side-note: I wrote this post mostly over the weekend following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade...so a lot of this was written strictly to try to find a way to take my mind off of a truly horrendous and misguided decision that is only the first of potentially truly hideous new goals they may try to push for.

This may not be some of my best work in terms of writing, but I felt compelled to just put something out there and I figured I would focus on this.

We are now about to discuss #79-60 in the ranking. I do feel like some of these performances are actually not that bad. Most of them are even good, but I will go into it a little more throughout the rank and when I speak my final thoughts at the end.

LET THE RANKING CONTINUE!

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#79 - Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady (2011)

As someone who has received more nominations than any other performer in history, Meryl Streep gets a lot of discussion in film circles.

Some deem her the best actress of her generation, some say she is the best actress EVER, some also say she is a very calculating actress who doesn't come across as natural but rather an actress in which you see the wheels turning in her head.

I am not overly critical of Streep. She has given us some truly fantastic performances, but I think she gives one of her most forced and mannered performances in the truly dreadful biopic The Iron Lady, about the life and career of a raging conservative bitch...or Margaret Thatcher, however you want to refer to her.

One thing I do want to quickly state is that I did really like Streep's work in the scenes in which she plays the elderly Thatcher...despite the fact that I loathed the idea of a film trying to get people to garner sympathy for Thatcher.

Despite truly fantastic performances in movies like A Cry in the Dark, The Bridges of Madison County, and Adaptation, it took a mediocre biopic to net Streep her third Oscar.

As for the other nominees, Viola Davis was far more worthy to win for her work, as was Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

However, so many truly remarkable were snubbed that season like Tilda Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Kristen Dunst in Melancholia, Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy May Marlene, and even though it didn't get a true US release, Olivia Colman made a truly magnificent dramatic acting debut in Tyrannosaur.

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#78 - Glenda Jackson, A Touch of Class (1973)

The 1973 Best Actress race was a bit of a free-for-all. It seemed as though most pundits felt any of the nominees could win...except for Glenda Jackson.

Marsha Mason and Ellen Burstyn seemed to have the most momentum, while Barbra Streisand seemed to be the populist fave. Joanne Woodward, along with Jackson, already had an Oscar.

Jackson's performance was seen as something of a departure from the other nominees. While the other performances came from various forms of drama (which is normally what the Oscars go for rather frequently), Jackson came from a rather cynical romantic comedy and it was not only a departure from the contenders, but a departure for her.

There have been similar instances throughout the years of performances winning in close races that seemed to benefit from being a lot different from their peers (i.e. Marisa Tomei winning for My Cousin Vinny over 4 dramatic actress from either the UK or Australia), so it doesn't really shock me here per se.

Although, I do feel a bit mixed on the win. I think Jackson does a fine job but it isn't her strongest work. I feel like Burstyn could've taken this one, freeing up her slot from where she won the following year.

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#77 - Jennifer Lawrence, The Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

When I first watched The Silver Linings Playbook, I was mostly left a bit underwhelmed. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that it was made by David O. Russell, a filmmaker whom I feel lacks a lot of subtlety and has a lot more ego.

Jennifer Lawrence being put into his universe certainly helped her, because it got her an Oscar and a couple of nominations for the succeeding films of his. However, his fascination with her still strikes me as odd. 

She was only 22 when she starred in this film and yet she was cast to play someone older and play opposite Bradley Cooper. Her age is also a lot older in American Hustle as well.

Lawrence does a solid job with her characters, but something about them rings false. I do think we are approaching an era of her career where will we see potentially better things from her. 

Even her performance in Don't Look Up, which features a sort of semi-dramatic/comedic outburst of despair, was done far better than anything she did in an O'Russell film.

Frankly, this Oscar should've gone to either Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty or Emmanuelle Riva in Amour.

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#76 - Emma Stone, La La Land (2016)

I went into La La Land basically expecting the Second Coming of Christ after all of the reviews and Oscar Buzz had been overflowing over the internet.

My response to the film at the time was fairly positive though it has dimmed over time. One thing I did feel was that Emma Stone was the standout (I found Gosling to be unremarkable which makes his Oscar nomination truly one of my least favorite acting nods in quite some time), but the major difference was that I didn't really view it as Oscar worthy. I suspected she would get nominated but there were too many other people around her who gave superior performances: Natalie Portman in Jackie, Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Amy Adams in Arrival...and even someone like Viola Davis who demoted herself to Supporting even though she was the clear winner for me in Lead that year.

When Stone won the SAG award, I was kind of shocked. I wasn't following that season as closely as I had been in the past or have done in the last couple of years. 

I get the Chazelle was going for a more natural and easygoing performance style with these two but I think that it mostly came off as very weak until the end when Stone got to perform "Audition (Here's to the Fools Who Dream") which relied more on the acting than the vocals.

Stone is a good actress, but this was not a role that I viewed as being a remarkable achievement.

I also adore that when La La Land was deemed the improper winner over Moonlight, she seemed more thrilled and happy and supportive of that film than her own.

I hope Stone wins an Oscar for a truly fantastic performance down the line because I know she is capable. She was even better in The Favourite even if her British accent was a bit uneven.  

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#75 - Katharine Hepburn, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967)

This is another win that was considered a bit of a surprise.

While many suspected Dame Edith Evans or Anne Bancroft to pull it off, Hepburn swept in to take it and it is crazy to say this now considering she has 4 Oscars but at that point, this was only her second win and she hadn't won since 1934's Morning Glory (which I already ranked in the previous volume).

This is a good performance. I want to make that clear. 

However, I don't know if there is much there that makes me feel like it is worth an Oscar.

 She does have wonderful moments, mostly when she gets to act opposite her partner Spencer Tracy...and a lot of people suspect that the immense sympathy they felt for her over his death led to this win. 

I do have to admit that the famous final scene (which Spencer Tracy gives a great reading of a monologue to his daughter's pending marriage to Sidney Poitier) has some of the best reaction shots I have seen in a performance from Hepburn. In many ways, this was attributed to the fact that she knew Tracy was dying and it added an extra weight to the scene.

It is worth seeking out!

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#74 - Marlee Matlin, Children of a Lesser God (1986)

Here's another win that was considered something of a mild surprise, as a lot of the buzz was geared towards Kathleen Turner in Peggy Sue Got Married. 

Matlin's win is a historic one in various ways. Aside from being the youngest woman to win the Best Actress Oscar (she was only 21 at the time), she was the first deaf person to win an acting Oscar...something that would not be duplicated until her Coda co-star Troy Kotsur won Supporting Actor.

This is an example of a performance that I admire, but I am not sure if I necessarily deem it worthy of an Oscar.

I actually think this is becoming more and more of a common feeling for me as I go through this ranking. I often bemoan many of the winners, but the truth is, I actually don't hate a lot of these performances. They are good or solid, but I just don't find them Oscar worthy. 

As it stands, Matlin is a wonderful actress and I actually think I should revisit this film because I do think she did an admirable job.

As for who I would've loved to see win, this would've been the perfect opportunity to reward Sigourney Weaver with an Oscar for her iconic Ellen Ripley in Aliens. It is honestly a miracle the Academy even nominated her for an Action/Sci-Fi film.

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#73 - Helen Hunt, As Good as it Gets (1997)

When people often talk about the worst winners in this category, one of the names to frequently pop up is Helen Hunt. 

I actually think she does a nice job in the film and is certainly a lot better than many give her credit for...but it is still a case of me just not viewing it as Oscar caliber work. Nomination sure, but not an Oscar.

She does fare better to me than her co-star Jack Nicholson, whose win for this was rather baffling.

Hunt's Oscar clip from that year where she is crying and yelling at her mother only for it to end with a comedically reisnged "Okay..." was a great selection because it was one of the best scenes of a film that was otherwise rather mawkish and a lesser work from James L. Brooks who actually concocted his best film back in 1987 with Broadcast News.

Dame Judi Dench was up for her work as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown and would've made for a superb winner. Someone who was snubbed that I found to be stellar was Susanne Lothar in Michael Haneke's original interpretation of Funny Games.

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#72 - Luise Rainer, The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Luise Rainer, as I stated when discussing her other win for The Good Earth, was the first performer to win back-to-back Acting Oscars (around the same time Spencer Tracy did it in Lead Actor).

Her first win fares better than her second, but mostly suffers from the fact that it is a Supporting performance in Lead. 

This was the same year that the Academy introduced the Supporting categories, which was an excellent decision...even if nowadays it seems like the fraud people down from Lead so they can have a better chance at a nomination or a win. Don't even get me started on how they put both Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield in Supporting for Judas & The Black Messiah. 

Rainer benefitted from not just immense studio support from MGM but the fact she was in that year's Best Picture winner and was also perhaps the best thing about it.

What really cinched her win though was a scene in which she comes back into the film much later after she left it and congratulates her ex-husband Ziegfeld over the phone for his new marriage...but she realizes she still loves him. We watch her as her voice appears jubilant over the phone, but tears are pouring down her face.

A lot of film historians consider this the first and real definitive example of an "Oscar scene" in which one or two scenes might truly seal the deal for you when a voter is watching your film. 

The scene does play is a sort of stylized manner like most films do from that decade, but Rainer does shine in it. 

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#71 - Ginger Rogers, Kitty Foyle (1940)

No one was more surprised about Ginger Rogers winning for Kitty Foyle than Ginger Rogers herself. 

When she won, she made a comment along the lines of "I don't know how it happened...but I have it!" and then for the rest of her life, she would gladly humble herself to talk about her glorious competition and how she really didn't think she had a chance.

Kitty Foyle was basically a "coming out" party of sorts for Rogers who was coming off her string of films in which she did everything Fred Astaire but backwards and in heels.

*Sidenote, she is stellar in those films, like Swing Time and Top Hat. She and Astaire were easily one of the best duos in film history*

Kitty Foyle was Rogers' dramatic introduction, and the results were...not too bad.

The film itself is pretty typical early 40s melodrama, but Rogers does do a solid job...actually I would say she is very good.

However, this is a case where, yet again, it just doesn't feel like a performance that makes me go "Wow! Give that lady an Oscar!"

The sad truth is that a lot of the expectation from that season is that many voted for Rogers more so because people wouldn't dare vote for the likes of Katharine Hepburn. 

At this time, Hepburn was coming off of her "Box Office Poison" era in which many articles bemoaned what a difficult person she was...although that was simply because she was a woman who would not heed to chauvinistic attitudes...tale as old as time. 

Some people claimed they would refuse to vote for Hepburn because of her demeanor and articles of the time would claim she would never win another Oscar again. 

Jokes on them considering she still holds the all-time record with four wins.

I do think Hepburn winning for The Philadelphia Story would've been a superb win, as would've Joan Fontaine for Rebecca.

I also think Rosalind Russell was robbed of a nom for His Girl Friday.

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#70 - Ingrid Bergman, Anastasia (1956)

Here comes another narrative "We Forgive You!" win.

The truth is that the fact that Hollywood felt that they needed to "forgive" Bergman is a joke. The controversy was that Bergman basically had an affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini.

How dare she. 

It is a truly sexist story. I would recommend watching YouTuber BeKindRewind's video on Bergman to get the full story. It is amazing how sensitive the morals were, especially towards women, back in the 1950s.

Maybe we ought to get used to it since, as of this writing, the Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade so we are being forced back into conservative ideology.

Bergman's win here also benefited from relatively uninteresting competition, like Deborah Kerr in The King and I and Katharine Hepburn in The Rainnmaker, which are both good performances but not among their best.

Bergman has also been better than she was in Anastasia. It is a good performance but one that doesn't exactly draw much passion. 

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#69 - Kate Winslet, The Reader (2008)

In a 2005 episode of Ricky Gervais' HBO show Extras, he and Ashley Jensen work on a Holocaust film that stars Kate Winslet as a nun. There is a scene in which she tells them that the only reason she is doing the film is to net an Oscar since Holocaust movies like Schindler's List, The Pianist, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Sophie's Choice were Oscar magnets.

And in the case of The Reader, it did indeed net Winslet her elusive Oscar.

However, it was not even her best performance from that year.

I much preferred her work in Revolutionary Road opposite her Titanic co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kathy Bates.

The Reader is based on a novel by Bernhard Schlink about a teenaged boy who is seduced by a female Nazi that is twenty years older than him...and eventually, he finds out during the Nuremberg trials that she had a rather...peculiar kink...we can put it that way I suppose.

The film's Best Picture nomination was considered to be something of a controversial selection at the time as it took a spot that many expected would go to The Dark Knight.

It caused such an uproar that even during Hugh Jackman's opening number hosting the Oscars that year, his joke song about The Reader was all about having not seen it because he was watching The Dark Knight.

The nomination also led to the Academy choosing to expand the nomination list from 5 to 10, which was a practice the Academy practiced during the 1930s.

As much as it may have allowed great films to slip in, the next year it gave us nominations like the truly horrendous The Blind Side.

Thanks, The Reader...

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#68 - Jane Fonda, Coming Home (1978)

I have always had a rather mixed opinion on Fonda as an actress. 

When she is good, she is GREAT. 

It isn't that she is bad, per se. She just tends to not always be as emotive, and it gives a lifeless feel to some of her performances. I could sort of compare it to some of the same issues I have with Scarlett Johannsen, who often divides people with her acting.

In the case of Coming Home, Fonda was in the early stages of her comeback after spending a few years in relative obscurity and scorn after her visit to Hanoi.

*Side note: I adore Jane Fonda and her activism. No judgement or hatred here*

This was also one of the first major films (along with that year's Best Picture winner The Deer Hunter) to have a Vietnam-centric theme in which Fonda plays Sally Hyde, a conservative nurse who ends up developing a romantic interest in Luke (Jon Voight), an angry and frustrated vet who was left a paraplegic, while her husband Bob (Bruce Dern) is still deployed.

A lot of the issues with this film due stem from it being rather melodramatic and an example of Hal Ashby's sort of erratic abilities as a director.

I also did not find myself as invested in this love triangle, as I couldn't garner much sympathy for Dern's character, nor did I really find Voight to be that appealing either.

Fonda does sell it the best, but she just isn't quite there. I feel like the movie is nowhere near as radical as wants to be presented as.

Fonda also won over two truly magnificent performances:

Jill Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman is one of the finest performances of the 70s. Vibrant, raw...actually I will let the film's tagline take it from here: "she laughs, she cries, she feels angry, she feels lonely, she feels guilty..." It goes on and on. It is one of the best performances to truly run the gamut of emotions.

Then you have Ingrid Bergman in Autumn Sonata, a truly sterling performance that was actually the finest of her career...but considering she already had 3 Oscars and the Academy was still very stringent about honoring performances and films in a foreign language, she didn't seem to have much of a chance.

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#67 - Halle Berry, Monster's Ball (2001)

As of this writing, Halle Berry remains the only woman of color to win a Best Actress Oscar...and it is shame that it is for a movie that is such a sleazy melodrama in which she plays a trashy character who mainly serves as a redemption piece for the racist character played by Billy Bob Thornton.

Now let's watch them have one of the worst sex scenes ever filmed...

Halle Berry stunned everyone with her lovely performance in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge just a couple years prior to her work in Monster's Ball. 

She has talent...and yet, after this Oscar win, she has struggled for 20 years. She finally had a bit of a comeback with her directorial debut Bruised, but despite a solid acting/directing job, the movie was mostly subpar.

I think Berry does as good as she can in a film this low-brow...but it does just come off as a bit cringeworthy at times.

I am not really happy with any of the Best Actress nominees that year honestly. 

The fact they snubbed Naomi Watts for her dual role (in a sense) in Mulholland Drive is simply criminal. Also, other snubs included Tilda Swinton in The Deep End and Nicole Kidman for her work in The Others...but she was nominated for Moulin Rouge instead.

Even though she wasn't technically eligible until the following year, Isabelle Huppert's work in The Piano Teacher is among the finest of her career.

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#66 - Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins (1964)

I still think this is one of the more interesting wins we've seen in this category.

A lot has been said about the legend of Julie Andrews getting passed over for the film adaptation of My Fair Lady while her stage co-star Rex Harrison still got the reprise his role.

Mary Poppins would be considered the biggest success of Walt Disney in terms of its acclaim and award status, but such widespread acclaim for a Disney film of its kind would never happen again.

Andrews would win the Oscar over competition that was mostly intensely dramatic like Anne Bancroft in The Pumpkin Eater or Kim Stanley in Seance on a Wet Afternoon.

There is no denying the charisma and screen presence of Andrews, but I have always waffled on this win...and I say that as someone who actually adores Mary Poppins. 

It is not that Andrews does anything wrong. In fact, you could say she is "practically perfect in every way" in relation to what the role calls for. The only thing is I am not sure it warrants an Oscar. 

My mood typically changes on the matter more often than it probably should.

At the moment, I am more inclined to think Bancroft deserved this one.

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#65 - Jennifer Jones, The Song of Bernadette (1943)

Jennifer Jones is another actress who doesn't exactly seem to have stood the test of time in terms of discussion and praise. It isn't that she is bad, but I also never found her to be truly distinctive.

While Song of Bernadette might be her best work, it is also not anything particularly strong.

This is also another case of a film that is simply too overlong, and it also gets docked points for being essentially religious propaganda. 

Jones might be the best thing about it, but she is also overshadowed at times by Vincent Price as the prosecutor.

In the end, I am not overly passionate about any of the nominees from that year so I will just let this one slide.

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#64 - Jane Wyman, Johnny Belinda (1948)

I have more positive things to say about Johnny Belinda as opposed to Song of Bernadette, but I do still think that isn't a great film; maybe just a pretty good one.

What really helps the film is the performance by Jane Wyman, who gives a very heartfelt performance as a deaf-mute woman who was raped.

I think for its time, the film does come across a lot better than it could have and I think some of that is a testament to Wyman.

However, I think that the performances by Olivia de Havilland (The Snake Pit) and Irene Dunne (I Remember Mama) would've been more worthy of an Oscar.

Jane Wyman also got a second award of sorts around this same time because she got a divorce from Ronald Reagan. 

I would say great success, but still though, Wyman was a Republican.

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#63 - Julia Roberts, Erin Brockovich (2000)

Coming off a decade of being America's Sweetheart and a Box Office Stalwart, Julia Roberts' success with Erin Brockovich was a prime example of Hollywood just dying to give such a huge star their due with an award.

Roberts does have a lot going for her.

The film has a pretty solid script; she is being directed by Steven Soderberg; her co-stars include the likes of Albert Finney and Aaron Eckhardt. 

She also does rather well, too. I am just not sure it really measures up to being one of the best in the category. 

It's a star turn, but it didn't always feel as earnest or honest...especially in some of her bigger moments.

Of the nominees, I think Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream was an easy call.

Also, it never would've happened but Maggie Cheung's beautiful work in In The Mood for Love would've been lovely to see here.

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#62 - Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment (1983)

"I'm gonna cry because this show has been as long as my career!" 

The perfect comment from MacClaine when she won her overdue Oscar that many, including me, felt she deserved nearly 25 years earlier for The Apartment...and also the fact that the 1984 Academy Awards were, at the time, the longest ceremony until the truly horrid stretch of ceremonies from the late 90s/early 00s.

MacLaine winning here wasn't a surprise and I do think she gives a performance with a lot of bravado and great chemistry with all of her co-stars...but I also found myself more drawn to that of Debra Winger in the same film. How she reacts to her mother, played by MacLaine, always struck me as the better acting masterclass.

I do think MacClaine's outbursts don't seem as compelling as many may make them out to be, whether it be her not being happy about being a grandmother or telling the nurses to "Give my daughter the shot!!!!" 

It comes across as a performance trying too hard for an Oscar. 

That actually opens up a whole other discussion of sorts because there are most definitely performances that I have loved which contain a lot of yelling and screaming. However, it is interesting how some strike us as stunning while others strike us as over-the-top.

Art is subjective after all.

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#61 - Renee Zellweger, Judy (2019)

Talk about a comeback story.

After Zellweger won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Cold Mountain, her career seemed to promptly decline. It is kind of crazy because between 2000-2004, it was as if Zellweger was pretty much everywhere you turned.

She undeniably came close to winning a Lead Oscar for her work as Roxie Hart in Chicago, but lost to Nicole Kidman.

After over a decade of mostly forgotten flops and eccentric behavior that became fodder for the press...not to mention the shock at her plastic surgery a few years ago...it was a surprise to many, including myself, when it was announced that Renee Zellweger would be starring as Judy Garland in a biopic set during the final year of her life.

This became one of those topics where people seemed to feel like this would either be a surprising success or a massive flop that would further tarnish her career.

Obviously, we know now that it was a success for her.

Do I think she was a success?

I am mixed, as evidenced by my placement for her.

I do commend her highly for doing her own singing (even if she sounds nothing like Garland) and I do think she nails a lot of Garland's physical mannerisms...but I also think this is a performance that is actually too polished.

This was supposed to be Garland during the final year of her life, in which she was extremely frail. I don't think the film truly portrayed the extremities of how worn out she was...and, not to mention, it took liberties which only made the film a little peppier than it had any right to be.

Zellweger has talent and I think the performance mostly worked based on what she did, but it was still not what it needed to be to make me feel like it was a successful Judy Garland biopic vehicle.

I think the best performances by lead actresses from that year were: 

Lupita Nyong'o, US

Adele Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Florence Pugh, Midsommar

Alfre Woodard, Clemency

Awkwafina, The Farewell

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#60 - Jodie Foster, The Accused (1988)

A movie like The Accused is a bit of a slippery slope.

On one hand, it is important to show a story about how sexist it is for society to say that a woman is asking to be raped simply based on how she dresses or acts.

On the other hand, I feel like the film was maybe a step above an average TV movie in terms of quality.

Jodie Foster's performance is what saves the film, but it is another case where the film's script and direction mostly bring her down as a lot of is presented in such a one-note manner.

However...the performance certainly warrants significant praise when it comes to Foster's truly heartbreaking work in the infamous gang rape scene, in which 3 men rape her up against a pinball machine while others cheer it on.

It is a very uncomfortable scene...to say the least. I almost wonder if it was even necessary to even have it go on for the entire amount of time it did, but I have to really commend the film for that. 

It is almost as if to say "We are forcing you to watch this so you can understand that a woman is not always asking for it!"

Foster shines in certain moments, particularly that infamous scene which no doubt netted her the Oscar.

However, I would be more inclined to have given this award to either Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons or Meryl Streep in A Cry in the Dark.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

As I finish this volume, I still find myself rather amazed at how I don't dislike a lot of these performances. 

Whereas the Best Picture ranking had me going on a rampage well into the second volume at least, I think this one just simply comes down to me just not preferring these performances when comparing them to the others...or even if they won over a better candidate, I might just think they were good but only worthy of a nomination.

One thing is for sure, and that is once I get to my top 20, I am going to be sorting through some truly magnificent performances...even if some of them may not have been my personal choice in their given year.

Cringe at its Finest: The Brilliance of NATHAN FOR YOU

 With the recent announcement of Nathan Fielder's new show The Rehearsal premiering on HBOMax next month (July 15th, 2022), I felt compelled to revisit the series that originally put him on the map: Comedy Central's Nathan For You.

For those of you who aren't familiar, Nathan For You was modeled to be a bit similar to any kind of show where an expert comes to a place of business to try to help the owner be able to find success.

Think Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or Jon Taffer's Bar Rescue.

Here, Nathan Fielder presents himself as a Canadian Business School grad "with very good grades" who will come to your business and help you succeed.

The catch is that he isn't legit. In fact, in order to help make you succeed, he will suggest an outlandish marketing ploy and then we watch it unfold in all of its cringeworthy glory. 

Nathan Fielder comes from the same mold of comedian as Sacha Baron Cohen...and it comes as no surprise that Nathan Fielder was put on staff for Sacha Baron Cohen's Showtime series Who is America? 

Fielder doesn't try to attempt to really do characters like Cohen does, but instead, his character is a very awkward version of himself.

As a television personality, Fielder is a fascinating figure. He is the image of what one might call a "nerd"...and it even becomes a point of contention when one of his frequent guests, a PI named Brian, repeatedly calls him a nerd.

However, it isn't the fact that he is a geeky type that is so fascinating. The fact that he not only truly owns it, but he also has no real shame is where I find a certain sense of empowerment.

Fielder seems to intentionally put himself into very awkward situations and doesn't care how he comes across. His confidence (under such an awkward demeanor) makes for such a hilarious and brilliant dichotomy.

First, let's go over some examples so you can get a taste of what his show is like if you aren't familiar.

In this clip, Fielder talks about the difficulty of meeting women, and he puts himself in such a strange scenario in hopes of trying to get women to notice him.

The idea of trying to pose as a worker pawning off smoothies when the actual business comes out and tries to force him away is hilarious...but it only becomes more hilarious when he creates a fake reality show a la The Bachelor in hopes to find love.

In one special episode, he puts himself at the mercy of a robot that only has one mission: to pants him on television and in front of a group of young children. The catch? He willingly lets it be known that if he fails, he knows he would be at risk of exposing these children and he would get arrested.

A clip of that episode is below:

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He is willing to do whatever it takes to milk the awkward atmosphere and on top of that, he is willing to take the situation wherever it leads.

In one episode, he goes to help out an LA gas station that is having trouble competing with bigger name chains. Fielder suggests that he should charge significantly less for gas and offer a rebate. The owner understandably balks, but Fielder says in order to claim it, they will have to go to the top of a mountain that is only accessible by hiking. 

He ends up getting several people actually willing to commute to the top of the mountain and even after some leave, a couple remain behind, and they end up camping overnight. 

Fielder wasn't expecting this...but he concocted the plan and he had to go along with it.

Some of Nathan's bits even went above and beyond what he could've possibly imagined.

-In order to help a petting zoo, he staged a video in which a pig saves a goat from drowning in a pond.

The video went viral and was featured on many news programs as a puff piece.

Even more insane, he invoked parody law by opening a coffee shop named Dumb Starbucks by using all of their logos and designs simply by adding "dumb" in front of it. 

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In the third season, he decides he wants to try to help out someone who feels is down on their luck, so he creates an elaborate plan where he chooses a guy, puts them in a remote trailer in the middle of the desert, assumes their identity, finds them a girlfriend, and stages a heroic act in their name and likeness...only to then give complete credit to the guy after the fact. 

This episode is also interesting in that it plays into Nathan's (as a character) own insecurities. He comments how he feels so awkward in life, but when he poses as this other guy, his confidence and his wit are off the charts.

Two other specific segments I want to address are one that I consider my personal favorite and one other that might be the most famous due to the acclaim it got for its bittersweet nature.

In season 2, Nathan goes to help Sue Stanford, a realtor who is not having as much luck selling her properties. You can watch the bulk of her segment below:

Nathan For You - The Ghost Realtor - YouTube

Fielder's idea is that she needs to have a psychic on hand to confirm if any of her homes have demonic entities and if they do, she should ensure her clients that the homes will undergo an exorcism. 

This leads to one such home having not just a demonic entity, but an incubus, which is an entity that will rape and possess you until your own death.

Sue claims she experienced something like this while traveling in Europe, and you can tell Nathan is doing his best to hide the fact that this may go somewhere more intriguing than he expected.

The other bit I wanted to discuss is the 90-minute episode that was called Finding Frances. One of the quirkier characters to cross paths with Nathan was an actor named Bill Heath, who claimed to earn a living as an impersonator...but not of anyone you'd expect. Heath is an impersonator of Bill Gates...and not really a good one at that.

Heath eventually reveals that he has a long-lost love from high school that he desperately wants to find and with Nathan's help, they go on a vast search which takes on a rather serious and bittersweet tone at times. 

I would say seek this one out to watch, because the first time I saw it, it was a pleasant surprise and became a journey that I didn't realize I would be that invested in.

So yes, Nathan for You is a very eclectic journey to go on.

I actually think that aside from the obvious hilarious segments that never get old however many times I have viewed them (at least a few by this point), the main aspect that impresses me at how well this show nails "the cringe factor".

People talk about The Office as being a show that really nails the cringe and, don't get me wrong, it has those moments, but Nathan for You might be the best example of a show that manages to make me laugh while also make me literally turn my head away from the screen because I can't bear how awkward it is.

And this happens even after multiple viewings when I do tend to recall what comes next.

If you have Hulu, I recommend checking this one out if you haven't already. There are only 31 episodes and one sort of recap/revisit special that is also worth your time.

Nathan Fielder, as I mentioned, has a new show coming out called The Rehearsal on HBOMax and I am very intrigued as to what it is going to be like.

He also has a project that was announced in which he will be playing opposite Emma Stone in a dysfunctional marriage, and he is also a lead producer on the truly delightful HBO Docu-Comedy series How To...with John Wilson. 

I have to give props to this guy. He is one of the great comedic minds working today.

Seek out his stuff!

My Ranking of All 94 Winners of the Best Actress Oscar - Vol. 1 (94-80)

Well, I wasn't exactly sure I would attempt to tackle this. 

While it is easier to focus on films, the idea of comparing 94 different acting portrayals seems a lot more daunting. I did decide to challenge myself with this, especially since my rankings of the 94 films to win Best Picture was rather successful.

So, here we are.

I will be ranking all of the 94 winners of the Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actress, which is normally the one acting category that gets the most passionate attention and debate.

Just like I did with the Best Picture ranking, I will split these up into 5 volumes:

94-80

79-60

59-40

39-21

20-1

To clarify, I am ranking these strictly based on how the performances compare with the other winning performances. I may reference better performances that I would've preferred to the winner, but that is more just to state my personal opinion and isn't exactly a tipping point in why that particular winner was placed in a certain position.

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#94 - Mary Pickford, Coquette (1929)

Let us begin the ranking with the second performance to win this award.

Or maybe I should say "win" the award.

With the concept of Oscar campaigning becoming a far more exhaustive and despicable affair in the last 30 years thanks to the framework created by the likes of Harvey Weinstein/Miramax, the truth is that the early years of the Oscars were just as heinous with the practice.

In the late 20s up through the 50s, a lot of the Academy choices were influenced strongly by the movie studios throughout Hollywood and the industry as a whole.

Mary Pickford had been one of the biggest and most recognizable stars throughout the Silent Film era and she, along with her husband Douglas Fairbanks, were among the 36 founders of the Motion Picture Academy which would become The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In case it hasn't hit you yet, this is the organization that would put together the ceremony that would go on to be the Academy Awards.

Pickford and Fairbanks were arguably the biggest and most influential Hollywood couple of that era and when Pickford's career was starting to decline with the talkies, she hoped to reinvent herself as a more serious actress who could succeed beyond Silent films. She cut her famous curly hair in favor of a 20s flapper bob and took a part in Coquette, in which she plays a southern belle who takes in an interest in a blue-collar worker.

The film was a box office success and at the time, it was received relatively warmly by critics.

The truth is the film definitely a product of its time: very short but it feels a lot longer, poorly staged direction, and performances that feel either very wooden or too melodramatic.

Pickford, whose talents were not up to par compared to her contemporaries such as Greta Garbo or Norma Shearer, comes off as shrill and lacks any real sense of confidence. 

As much as it has been said that the award was won out of merit, I don't believe it for a second. Pickford lobbied very hard for it and even invited all of the members of the Academy to her famed mansion, Pickfair, for a luncheon.

Campaigning was born and it gave us a win for a truly horrid performance.

Of the nominees, I would've given the win to the posthumous nominee: Jeanne Eagles for The Letter.

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#93 - Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side (2010)

While Pickford may have been the first avid campaigner, Sandra Bullock is part of another truly horrible example: the narrative winner.

Bullock even said when she won "Did I earn this, or did I just wear you all down?"

 I can recall when The Blind Side came out that there was a surprising amount of awards buzz and it seemed that most of the film forum community was baffled by this, especially when other performances from even better films were so obviously superior to Bullock's work.

This isn't to say Bullock was bad necessarily, but it just wasn't anything remarkable. It also goes without saying...though screw it, I will say it anyway, that The Blind Side is a horrendous movie that is the perfect example of "The White Savior film". This may have been based on a true story, but a lot of the story was changed for the film to shine more of a heroic light onto the white family and less onto Michael Orr, the young black man who was the catalyst to the story.

I simply think The Blind Side is an offensive film that is so treacly and manipulative in its approach and within the confines of the film, I simply don't think Bullock can overcome that.

Not surprisingly, I think Bullock was surpassed by the other four nominees though my favorite was easily Carey Mulligan in An Education.

However, my favorite acting performance by an actress that year was from Kim Hye-ja, who starred in Bong Joon-ho's Mother (no relation to the Aronofsky film). She won the LA Film Critics Circle Award so she was certainly in the discussion but...of course...no such luck with the more mainstream awards circuit.

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#92 - Elizabeth Taylor, Butterfield 8 (1960)

"I lost to a tracheotomy".

You sure did, Shirley MacLaine!

You sure as hell did!

No one else would agree with such a placement than Elizabeth Taylor herself, who viewed this film and her performance as trash or, as she herself had said in interviews "a piece of shit".

Butterfield 8 truly is pulpy trash, and it is remarkable that Taylor even got nominated for it.

However, there was yet another narrative here: one based on health and forgiveness.

Taylor had been under a lot of fire for basically stealing Eddie Fisher from his wife, Debbie Reynolds and as the fire kept coming, she came very close to succumbing from a severe bout of Pneumonia which led to her getting an emergency tracheotomy. 

This narrative cost Shirley MacLaine what would've been one of the most deserving wins in history for her performance as Fran Kubelik in Billy Wilder's perfect Romantic Dramedy, The Apartment.

Taylor was a great actress as evidenced by her work in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Suddenly Last Summer, and for her second Oscar winning performance in Who's Afraid of Virgnia Woolf? which, just to sort of spoil it, you will not be seeing until the final volume of this ranking.

With one of the worst death scenes ever filmed in a supposed "prestigious" film and with dialogue like, "I was the slut of all time!", you can't help but sort of try to view this film in a fun campy lens. It is just hard to do it when you know they actually felt it was wise to give Taylor an award for it.

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#91 - Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Considering this was one of the first Oscar seasons I can distinctly remember following, I have a lot of opinions about this selection...as do a lot of people who follow this kind of thing.

A lot has been said about Shakespeare in Love, particularly with how it won Best Picture in an upset over the very popular and acclaimed Spielberg WWII epic Saving Private Ryan. A lot of the reasoning behind this was that of Harvey Weinstein, a man whose campaigning tactics were nothing short of diabolical. That Best Picture win is frequently considered to be his magnum opus, but going along for that ride was Gwyneth Paltrow.

Paltrow was seen as a promising young actress at the time, coming off roles in films like Emma and Sliding Doors plus there seemed to be an overwhelming obsession with her in terms of how she epitomized old-style Hollywood glamour.

The lovely YouTube channel BeKindRewind made a video on this topic and she nailed this point on how news outlets were giving Paltrow titles such as "the new Audrey Hepburn" or "the new Grace Kelly". 

Paltrow's win seemed like such a coronation, but the remarkable thing was how toxic the opinion towards her win changed. It also didn't help that her acceptance speech was quite possibly the most made fun of since Sally Field's 1985 win as she seemed to go on for an eternity and was blathering and crying to the point you could barely understand her. My favorite moment is when she can barely get out the thanks to her mother, Blythe Danner, and when it cuts to Danner in the audience, she almost seems put off by the display.

But that is me just being a bit snippy. As for the performance itself, it's fine. Nothing less, nothing more. It is not that remarkable in the slightest.

If you want remarkable, there were two nominees right there who gave stellar performances: Cate Blanchett's breakout role in Elizabeth and particularly Fernanda Montenegro, the Queen of Brazillian Theatre, in Central Station.

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#90 - Loretta Young, The Farmer's Daughter (1947)

In what was considered one of the biggest acting upsets in Oscar history, Loretta Young won for her role as Swedish maid in the 1947 comedy The Farmer's Daughter.

Young managed to best Rosalind Russell, who had been considered the odds-on favorite for her intensely dramatic work in the Eugene O'Neill film adaptation of Mourning Becomes Electra.

Also nominated were Dorothy Maguire for Gentleman's Agreement (that year's Best Picture winner), Susan Hayward for her first career nomination, and Joan Crawford, fresh off her first win for Mildred Pierce.

Young had been a dependable character actress for many years but never really had a true break. She only even got this role because Ingrid Bergman had been let go after suspicions were brought to light that she may have been having an affair with co-star Joseph Cotton. 

Ah yes, Hollywood treating women like trash. You'll hear a lot of that from this time period.

At any rate, Young may have stood out in this race as coming from a drastically different kind of film as the other four actresses, but the truth is, despite its charm, it is a very uneven performance.

Despite being a Swedish character, her accent often slips in places, and my focus in scenes would often not even be her. Like I said, there is an undeniable charm with Young, but this still remains one of the more baffling acting wins in Oscar history.

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#89 - Katharine Hepburn, Morning Glory (1933)

Prior to becoming "Box Office Poison", Katharine Hepburn managed to strike gold for a year with her performances in Little Women and her Oscar winning work in Morning Glory, a film no one talks about anymore unless referencing Hepburn. 

I have referenced the following quote various times throughout my blog because there is a lot of truth to it, particularly with that of Hepburn herself. She was quoted as saying "The right actors win Oscars, but often for the wrong roles".

Hepburn fits this to a tee. She has won more acting Oscars than any other performer: 4. 

Of those four, I would say she only deserved one...I won't say which one to reserve some suspense, but chances are if you are a film person, you already know.

Her work as Eve Lovelace in Morning Glory is a prime example of how stiff and wooden some performances could be in these early films. A lot of the acting trademarks that would define Hepburn's truly illustrious career are oddly missing with this performance. 

Of the nominees, character actress Mary Robson was my favorite from Lady for a Day but even she suffers a lot from the film around her.

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#88 - Joan Fontaine, Suspicion (1941)

With Joan Fontaine, we have our first example of an actress winning an Oscar not long after losing for a far superior performance. In fact, this was just a year after she lost for the most memorable role of her career in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca.

Conveniently enough, she wins the next year for a performance in a rather forgotten about Hitchcock effort, Suspicion, which revolves around a meek and relatively naive woman who marries a playboy type only to discover he is not the man he says he is...and on top of that, he might be a murderer. 

Fontaine fits the ever-present blonde damsel in distress motif that pops up constantly in Hitchcock's films, but here, her portrayal as Lina feels far more lifeless than that of the previous years' "The 2nd Mrs. DeWinter". 

Is it just subtlety or is it simply a lack of solid characterization? I am more inclined to agree with the latter. 

Fontaine would've been a far more worthy winner in 1940 as opposed to 1941. If I were to opt for a candidate amongst the 1941 nominees, I would've opted for Bette Davis in The Little Foxes though I also wouldn't have minded Barbara Stanwyck for Ball of Fire.

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#87 - Luise Rainer, The Good Earth (1937)

Are you ready for a heaping dose of YELLOWFACE?!

The Good Earth was based on a novel by Pearl S. Buck about Chinese farmers in pre-WWI China who struggling terribly to survive.

Paul Muni and Luise Rainer were both cast as the lead couple and in case the point didn't get across, they were lily white. 

Anna Mae Wong had lobbied hard for the role seeing it as her big chance to have a dramatic breakthrough role only for it to be denied as they cast Paul Muni in the husband role. In those days, the dreaded Hays Code forbid any kind of interracial couple pairings in films and thus, the role was given to Luise Rainer, who had just won an Oscar the year prior for The Great Ziegfeld.

Rainer was something of a pet project for MGM head Louis B. Meyer. For years, he had loathed the actress that had been his biggest star simply because she protested the fact that she made less than her male co-stars or that she felt it wasn't necessary to devote all her time to Hollywood hobnobbing.

That was Greta Garbo.

And Meyer hoped that getting another actress from Europe could somehow duplicate Garbo's success but have an actress that was willing to go along with the game plan.

Hilariously, it backfired. Despite winning two back-to-back Actress Oscars, Rainer's star would dim fast, and she would leave Hollywood by 1940. 

Rainer couldn't stand the Hollywood game even more than Garbo. When Rainer won this particular Oscar, she hadn't even planned on attending the ceremony until Meyer sent someone to her home only to find her in pajamas. They forced her to get ready for the ceremony and videos clearly show Rainer trying to appear happy while Meyer forces her repeatedly to show off her Oscar.

I feel bad for Rainer...and while I do think she was a woman of talent (which I will address more when I discuss Great Ziegfeld), I think this is a performance where it isn't just hard to separate the Yellowface angle, but also the fact that she tends to rely too much on stereotypes with the accent and a nearly constant wide-eyed facial expression.

Meyer lobbied hard for Rainer to win and the power of the film studios (as I have stated before) were too strong in those days...and he lobbied at the expense of Greta Garbo who was up for her truly iconic work in Camille. 

However, in addition to Garbo, you also had these stellar women:

Irene Dunne, The Awful Truth

Janet Gaynor, A Star is Born

Barbara Stanwyck, Stella Dallas

Gaynor was the very recipient of a Best Actress Oscar, and we will discuss her eventually. She would've placed a solid fourth here but Dunne, Garbo, and Stanwyck were all worthy to win this for some of the best work of their respective careers. 

The win for Rainer seemed like a wasted opportunity, especially those three women never won an Oscar.

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#86 - Jessica Lange, Blue Sky (1994)

I adore Jessica Lange.

I think that she gives herself over to a character in ways that are unrelenting and surprising.

The downside to this is that it doesn't always come across as smoothly, so while I commend the effort and the boldness, I would just to follow it with "See you on the next film!"

Lange's win for Blue Sky happened during a year that still, to this day, gets a lot of flak for being a horrible year for women in film. 

It also happened to be a for a film that bombed at the Box Office when it was released after having been shelved for 3 years due to the bankruptcy of its original distributor, Orion. 

Her role of Carly Marshall is a suffering housewife who has frequent outbursts brought on by mental illness. So yes, it is a challenging and demanding role that requires a lot of extensive care and preparation. 

In the end, I don't think she fully succeeded nor does the film around her help in any way.

Her competition was incredibly weak as well, but I would probably give the win to Winona Ryder, who made for a truly wonderful Jo in Little Women. 

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#85 - Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line (2005)

An actress like Reese Witherspoon deserves an Oscar, and she was stellar in movies like Election in which she was snubbed for even a nomination.

Walk the Line is one of those standard musical biopic films that really do nothing to advance the art of filmmaking but as it stands, Witherspoon does a nice job. 

However, it is really more of a Supporting performance that doesn't get much of a chance to shine. It is kind of crazy to think that she won for this role while her co-star, Joquin Phoenix, did not.

Although in his case, he had very stiff competition against Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, and David Strathairn while Witherspoon's was a little weaker.

As problematic as it is, Felicity Huffman did do a great job in Transamerica even if the idea of a cis woman playing a trans woman doesn't fly these days. 

They did snub some truly wonderful performances like:

Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger

Natasha Richardson, The White Countess

Joan Plowright, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale (although she could also be Supporting)

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#84 - Bette Davis, Dangerous (1935)

We have another entry in the "Someone wins Oscar soon after losing for a much superior similar performance" category.

Bette Davis burst onto the scene in 1934 with her performances as the miserable and grating Mildred in Of Human Bondage, a character she sought to play because she knew it was a chance to show Hollywood what she was capable of in a role that most actresses would be afraid to tackle.

While the film did end up losing money, she herself caused quite the sensation and the public loved her commitment to the character. Controversy then arose when she was snubbed of an Oscar nomination which seemed to be due to the fact that RKO didn't want to spend a lot of money on a film that lost them money while Davis' own studio, Warner Bros., didn't want to put money up on an actress of theirs who made a film for a competing studio AND that they found difficult (i.e. she wouldn't put up with sexist and hypocritical BS...for the record, Bette Davis is awesome!)

Dangerous was a film Davis originally turned down, but she was persuaded to accept it when she was told it was inspired by Jeanne Eagles, the late actress who suffered from drug and alcohol abuse despite her immense acting promise. Eagels was an idol of Davis' and she wanted to try to tackle the role in her honor.

The results were essentially a disaster. Davis manages to find enough good moments, but the film itself is the real disaster and a lot of the scenes play as retreads of Davis' outbursts from Of Human Bondage...even down to having a monologue she foams out of her mouth to Franchot Tone (with whom she has no chemistry even though it was rumored they had an affair) that feels like a watered-down version of her "Wipe my mouth!" monologue she screams at Leslie Howard.

Davis knew that Dangerous was mostly a failure and talks about it extensively in her very candid autobiography.

This win cost Katharine Hepburn an Oscar for one of her best performances, which was for Alice Adams. 

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#83 - Grace Kelly, The Country Girl (1954)

Hollywood, especially of the supposed Golden Age, is petty as hell.

Despite a glorious comeback in which she gave the performance of her career, Judy Garland was cast aside due to her erratic behavior and controversial work ethic in favor of the glamorous Grace Kelly who did something that is also quite the popular favorite style in this category: "de-glamming" yourself.

Grace Kelly had talent, there is no question about that. However, her solid work in The Country Girl never left any kind of significant impression on me. It really truly read like an early example of Hollywood wanting to crown a new princess (pardon the pun) who had a pretty strong year with multiple hit films by singling out what was her biggest dramatic success in which she dared to present herself as looking rather plain.

All at the expense of Judy Garland, someone whose erratic and unhealthy tendencies were brought upon by Hollywood themselves.

Kelly would soon leave Hollywood to become a literal princess when she married Prince Rainier of Monaco. 

I think it is a fine performance, but this is one of those cases where I can't help but sit here and think how laughable and petty it is that Garland lost this.

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#82 - Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby (2004)

After winning a richly deserved (yet another spoiler for the ranking ahead) Oscar for her portrayal of trans man Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry, Swank's career didn't really seem to be going anywhere for a couple of years. Then, out of nowhere, she came back with Million Dollar Baby, won a second Lead Oscar (putting her in very prestigious company), and then promptly went back to not sustaining a great career.

I didn't like this win at the time, and I still don't like it now.

I think a lot of the buzz for this performance came more from the film's rapturous praise (and it did win Best Picture, undeservedly as well) and the fact that her character meets a tragic end. 

It was a solid performance that I mostly forgot about not long after watching it, aside from a couple of dramatic moments between her and Eastwood. 

When you have the likes of Kate Winslet from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Imelda Staunton from Vera Drake in your category, it is kind of hard to drum up a lot of excitement for many other performances. Even if I am a strictly basing it off of all of the 94 winners, I just can't rank her any higher even based on that.

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#81 - Sally Field, Places of the Heart (1984)

The Best Actress race in 1984 was sort of seen as a bit of a mess at first. Not a lot of pundits were sure which direction it would go, but when Sally Field won the Golden Globe, it seemed clear that she might be able to squeak out a second Oscar only 5 years after her first.

This second Oscar would lead to her infamous "You like me!" speech, but I am not going to knock her for that.

Sally Field is a wonderful actress who always exudes such warmth and strength in whatever she is given. She is also a trailblazer for being one of the earliest examples of a star being known primarily for fluffy TV roles being able to crossover to films and become a serious and respected actress.

Places of the Heart is part of a genre of film that seemed to be very popular in 1984: the "Farm is in Trouble!" movie which also included Country with Jessica Lange and The River with Sissy Spacek. 

Of the three movies, Places in the Heart is the better film but that isn't saying much.

Field gives a solid performance, but it doesn't seem to reach a level of anything remotely close to making me think "Yes! This performance needs an Oscar!".

The sad truth is I am not even sure who of the nominees would've deserved it...and those include Lange and Spacek from the movies mentioned above. I actually think Lange did better in the lesser film, but I think they should've bumped up Supporting Actress winner Peggy Ashcroft to Lead and have her win here.

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#80 - Norma Shearer, The Divorcee (1930)

Time has not been kind to Norma Shearer. If you were to go back and look at the least of nominees in the 1930s, you will see that Norma Shearer managed to net 6 nominations and one win between 1930-1938. This was briefly the nomination record until Bette Davis would steal it a couple of years later...and now Meryl Streep has like 4,594 nominations...or 21...something like that.

Norma Shearer never really gets discussed anymore, but a lot of her legend comes from the fact that she was married to producer Irving Thalberg and that the clout managed to get her a lot of roles that she may not have been overly right for.

However, Shearer is a fascinating actress and over the 1930s, she would grow more polished as a performer. This is simply a case where I find her more melodramatic acting style to be a bit much and that it just doesn't measure up when comparing it to the other winners.

San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle is a premier expert on the pre-Code era of Hollywood, so he has had a lot to say about the likes of Shearer.

"Shearer is the exemplar of 1930s sophisticated womanhood...the first American actress to make it chic and acceptable to be single and a virgin onscreen".

Shearer was definitely more of a pioneer for strong women than many give her credit for. She would go on to give better performances in movies like Marie Antoinette, but despite the low ranking for this performance, I do admire what she could accomplish at a time when women were even more discriminated against. 

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

In this first volume, I did find it interesting how some of these performances almost seemed too good to rank as low as I was. This isn't to say that I think super highly of them...but I did realize that some of these choices were mildly more admirable than their Best Picture choices.

This is also going to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated.

I have already shifted around and changed several names on this bottom ranking a few times before officially posting this...so I have no doubt that this list would change again if I were to view some of these performances back-to-back again.

I do stand firm with my lowest choices. Winners like Pickford, Bullock, and Taylor (Butterfield 8) are truly shameful.

Next up will be my choices for 79-60.

As of my exact writing of this, I haven't officially started the ranking like I had with the Best Picture series, so I am going to be building it as I go along.

I suppose the distraction will be fun for me!