NOT JUST ANY DAY AT THE BEACH: My Quick Review of Park Chan-wook's DECISION TO LEAVE

An article from Esquire that was just published a couple of days prior to me writing this review had the headline: "Decision to Leave Is Too Good for the Oscars".

It wasn't presented as a question, but a fact. 

When Decision to Leave managed to not gain any traction in the major categories and then got snubbed from the Internation Feature nominee list, it did come as a bit of a surprise.

Instead, All Quiet on the Western Front managed to usurp a lot of the "foreign film" buzz and that isn't exactly surprising considering war films are more palatable to voters.

However, I think there is certainly room for both. I also say that as someone who has been relatively underwhelmed by a lot of the film output I have seen from 2022. 

There are only a small handful of films I have seen this year that I think deserve to be mentioned as a worthy selection for my top 10 list of best films.

Decision to Leave will be on my list...and probably on the higher side. 

It does kind of surprise me how this film didn't manage to gain as much traction as, say, Drive My Car. I say this as someone who really did love Drive My Car, but it was a very slow moving and quiet 3-hour film. 

You could argue that it had a layer of pretention as it heavily featured the concepts of grief and philosophy and the works of Chekhov. Whereas Decision to Leave is a detective story layered with a sensual undercurrent. While watching it, I was definitely reminded of a lot of neo-noir films of the 70s/80s.

The film definitely feels a lot like the work of Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden, the Sympathy movies), but you can clearly see his influences here.

Before delving into the neo-noir inspirations, you can clearly see Hitchcock elements in the film...particularly that of Vertigo. A lot of the sensual elements feel straight out of the works of Brian de Palma or something like Body Heat, and these were films that never seemed popular in terms of "prestige awards" but they often linger on the fringes.

I also felt like the way that Park framed a lot of his actors' faces was frequently reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman, who wasn't one for detective dramas but a director who was keen into tapping into stories of human obsession.

The film begins with a Busan detective named Hae-jun (Park Hae-il) who suffers from insomnia and only commutes home to see his wife Jung-an (Lee Jung-hyun) once a week in Ipo.

Hae-jun and his partner Soo-Wan (Go Kyung-pyo) come upon a case where the dead body of a retired immigration officer is found at the bottom of a mountain he was frequently known to climb.

He was married to a much younger Chinese woman named Seo-rae (Tang Wei), who works as a caretaker for senior citizens. She instantly becomes the main suspect due to her lack of emotional response and certain markings on her body, such as scratches, that may show an effort/struggle might've occurred. 

Hae-jun does multiple interviews with her and does frequent stake-outs outside her apartment and soon develops a deeper interest and fascination. The intrigue that Hae-jun feels for Seo-rae is where the film starts to take on something of a Vertigo-esque vibe, but I just marveled at a lot of the quick twists and turns that came forth within the plot.

I am choosing not to go into spoilers with this review, as I would hope more people will check out this film...and to be fair, I think a seductive detective story is the kind of film that could pull in filmgoers who are less susceptible to wanting to read subtitles.

I will state right off the bat that the film doesn't quite hit the same heights as a lot of Park's previous work or even some of the other famous Korean works of recent years like Burning and especially Parasite, but a lot of these films are of a pretty high standard. I still think despite that marker, Decision to Leave is of a very high standard as well. 

This film feels so vibrant and alive, which is sort of impressive considering it is a detective story. With the romance angle, it also reminded me a little of Wong Kar-wai's In the Mood for Love with how the two leads were frequently filmed. 

When I mentioned certain similarities to Bergman earlier, I often noticed this within the cinematography. Beach scenes felt reminiscent of The Seventh Seal while the mirrors in many of the interrogation scenes made for creative framing shots that screamed Bergman.

Performance wise, the two leads are definitely splendid together and their chemistry is certainly palpable. Park Hae-il does a wonderful job as the sleep-deprived obsessive detective, but as the femme-fatale/romantic interest, Tang Wei steals the show and it is a truly a shame that she was never even close to being in the running for a nomination (even though Cate Blanchett has brought her up in speeches multiple times along with the likes of Andrea Riseborough...and of course, she managed to cinch the nomination). 

This is a truly handsome film to look at. Everything about it feels so strategic, but it is also very playful and oblique one second, and bleak and heartbreaking in others.

I think that it is sort of an unfortunate thing that this film ended up slipping through the cracks in terms of major attention, but I get the sense that it will find its audience over time.

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RATING: ****1/2 out of *****

My Ranking of the 87 Best Supporting Actress Winners - Vol. 2 (65 - 45)

While maybe not as severe as the struggle I had with ranking and discussing a lot of the Best Actress winners at this point in the series, I did find myself having a similar response when putting my thoughts down for this batch. 

With the upcoming performances, I still see a lot of the same issues (though not as negative) that I did with many of the winners in the first volume. I would say the biggest positive we get with many of these winners ranked from 65-45 are that a lot of them have good or even very strong qualities in their work...it is just they also suffer from having portions of their performances containing bad choices/direction or weak characters/scripts and they either do all they can with what they are given or not enough.

I just think that last statement, "not enough", is more or less objective. I also know that a lot of times that many of the winners won an Oscar for reasons that didn't strictly just involve their performance. It is far too political to ignore such a thing.

And we will begin this volume with a performance that sort of steamrolled its way through award season.

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#65 - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

When they called Jennifer Hudson's name on Oscar night, it was a foregone conclusion. The gal who got voted off American Idol a lot earlier than many expected managed to have the last laugh.

When a film adaptation of the beloved 1981 Broadway musical Dreamgirls was first announced, many who knew it felt that whoever would play the role of Effie White would probably win the Oscar.

And they truly needed someone who could do this role justice...like, imagine if they watered down the role of Effie like they did for Madonna when she played Eva Peron?

Jennifer Hudson can sing the Effie track...there is no denying that.

I am just not sure she nailed the acting. This was another case where I feel like we have a performer who just didn't really give the role the emotional depth it needed...and sure, Hudson was able to sell the songs, but I still don't think she excelled when just strictly acting.

At best, she was maybe a little above average at getting the point across. Not a disaster by any means, but just sort of a lot of brass with not much weight.

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#64 - Judi Dench, Shakespeare in Love

I have already brought up the case of Judi Dench, and it is a shame. It just goes to show how much a "makeup" mentality and getting swept up in the coattails of your film can lead you to win for a performance that is not remarkable.

I don't think I have to prove to anyone that Judi Dench is a stellar actress...and I think that she should've won the Oscar the year before for Mrs. Brown, in which she played Queen Victoria.

A lot was said at the time about the brevity of Dench's performance, including Dench herself when she won, and this may be a slight paraphrase: "I feel for 8 minutes I'm on the screen; I think I should get a little bit of him".

The 8 minute role was that of Queen Elizabeth I, and she gets three scenes and provides moments of dry wit and wisdom. I particularly do love the moment when she leaves one of Shakespeare's plays and encounters a puddle. The men around her are too busy bowing to notice she wants them to cover the puddle...but she plows through it: "Too late, too late..."

It is a role that does require great presence...which goes without saying...and Dench certainly provides that. Still though, there just isn't that much there. Just because Dench was able to make the most of a decently written role shouldn't be warranting the placement of an Oscar on your mantle.

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#63 - Dorothy Malone, Written on the Wind

Starting with Dorothy Malone, we are about to get a stretch of three winners all from the 1950s.

Of these three, Dorothy Malone falls under the "soapy melodrama" category...and a movie like Written on the Wind is a prime example of why I often struggle with Hollywood films of this era.

I do have a certain admiration for the films of Douglas Sirk, but I can't say that I always love his films in terms of high artistic merit. Within the confines of the film, Dorothy Malone gives exactly the kind of performance that the film needs. When you are playing a nymphomaniac who is constantly stepping out on their husband, chances are it is going to be played with abandon if you're in a soapy Sirk film.

I just find myself taking a campy enjoyment in Malone, but I also find that a lot her choices don't exactly translate well to the screen. She is just too broad, but that was also a style for the time.

In some ways, she reminds me a lot of Susan Hayward, but even Hayward was able to find some intricate layers from time to time in her melodramatic roles.

I recall one online blogger referring to Malone in this film as an ultimate example of "so bad, it's good"...and even if that could be legit, I am still not sure I would give an Oscar to such a performance.

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#62 - Donna Reed, From Here to Eternity

Now we have Donna Reed, the epitome of what many consider the template of a classic 50s sitcom housewife...and she is a playing (even if the censors wouldn't allow it to be said) "a hooker with a heart of gold".

We see this character trope time and time again, and you certainly don't expect to see an actress like Donna Reed in such a role...and it isn't the last time we will see it here. In fact, we will see another "hooker with a heart of gold" trope in this very volume.

Reed is an interesting case here because she isn't exactly the biggest standout in From Here to Eternity, nor do I feel like her role is that compelling. 

I do think she is able to take some of her more wholesome attributes as a person/performer and imbue the role with a rather surprising warm touch. 

Hence the whole "heart of gold" comment.

I just think that in the grand scheme, Reed does come off as a little unnatural in this performance; that it feels a little calculated and over-rehearsed.

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#61 - Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden

And completely the trio of middling winners from the 50s is Jo Van Fleet. 

Van Fleet falls into a similar trap as 1952 winner Gloria Grahame in that she made an impression in 3 films of 1955, but I would argue she won for a lesser performance in the grand scheme.

I feel like Kate is one of those characters that seems juicy on paper as woman who leaves her family behinds to open a brothel...you know, the typical Steinbeck fare...but she is a character that does feel shrouded in some mystery and because of that distance, I feel like it is hard to connect with the character in any way.

 

I think Van Fleet manages to give a performance that feels very lived in, and I do feel she has great chemistry with James Dean...but what she also suffers from are moments where she almost seems to try too hard to find moments of flourish; this could be even something as simple as how she chooses to move her head and look at another character. 

Add Jo Van Fleet to the list of actresses who were worthy to win an Oscar but perhaps maybe won for the wrong role.

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#60 - Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind

After being one of the best highlights in Requiem for a Dream, Jennifer Connelly came back the following year and got lots of attention for a stereotypical Supporting Actress role: the long-suffering but supportive wife.

I am not the biggest fan of A Beautiful Mind and wish that the script had a rewrite and that it had a different director other than Ron Howard. 

    In a similar vein to that of Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist, you come into this movie knowing that Connelly's Alicia will become an important and crucial fixture in John Nash's life. However, the character we meet feels so lifeless and droll. Connelly often seems to whisper her lines in such a way that it did remind me of the surprisingly lethargic energy that Davis had in her winning performance.

However, something does click once the trauma of John Nash's illness come into play. When this happens, Connelly comes to life and thankfully this portion of the performance does feel like something that would be worthy of Oscar recognition. Her anguish, her terror, her love all seem believable and you finally can see why someone might love this performance.

It is just a shame that the first half of it affects her so negatively.

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#59 - Whoopi Goldberg, Ghost

Here is a truly horrendous fact: when Whoopi Goldberg won the Oscar for Ghost, she became only the SECOND African-American woman to win an acting Oscar. The male stat wasn't much better as they had only just hit THREE the year prior to that.

I don't think Goldberg winning for Ghost is a horrible win, but I do feel like she had competition that simply had better and meatier material.

The sad truth is that Goldberg probably should've won for her magnificent debut in The Color Purple five years prior...and if that had happened, she would've become the first woman of color to win a Lead Actress Oscar. 

The thing about Ghost is that I do consider it to be an entertaining film, but I do get the sense that its surge towards the Oscars was more due to its high visibility and Box Office numbers....which managed to knock out far more viable potential nominees like The Grifters and Reversal of Fortune.

I still think the fact it even won Best Original Screenplay is truly one of the most hilarious wins in Oscar history.

Goldberg manages to be the person who steals the movie, and it did feel great for her to have this moment, but it just felt like the role simply wasn't a stretch for her. She was great comic relief but it just didn't feel like an Oscar winning performance.

Of the nominees, I wish we could've seen a win for either Annette Bening in The Grifters or Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas. 

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#58 - Goldie Hawn, Cactus Flower

I have often heard this being considered one of the worst wins in Oscar history, and I do have to disagree. I think that aside from the fact that she is essentially a co-lead in the film, the only real struggle with Hahn's Toni is that the role is very one-note until the end when she discovers the secret that her lover lied to her about being married in order to try to prevent her from wanting the same thing from him.

A lot of the ditsy qualities of this role played into the "dumb blonde" trope that Hahn was frequently lampooning on the TV show Laugh In...so it doesn't feel like a stretch for her.

Still though, she does a good job with the material. I just don't know if she was my first choice for the award, but I certainly don't begrudge the selection.

One of her fellow nominees was Catherine Burns in Last Summer, a film that is not widely known or able to be seen that frequently.

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#57 - Mira Sorvino, Mighty Aphrodite

These days, a lot of the reason we've learned that Mira Sorvino never took off in such a manner after her Oscar win is due to the fact that her career was frequently sabotaged by Harvey Weinstein.

I find that Sorvino is actually a great actress and I think she deserves a lot more attention and better roles. I do think her winning for the character of Linda Ash in Mighty Aphrodite is an interesting selection on the Academy's part. 

Sorvino is another contender who fell under the "hooker with a heart of gold" trope...and I have to say that she does entertain with the role.

I also think she mostly suffers from her script, because even Woody Allen seemed to TRY to not demean this character, I feel like the subtext shines through that we basically laugh at this woman with her airhead demeanor, her squeaky voice that came from the same school of timbre as Vivian Blaine or Judy Holliday, and how she is so blatantly willing to talk about her porno career.

I think Sorvino actually does manage to overcome this by giving her a sense of dignity, even when Allen has her scripted to talk about extremely sexually explicit acts she would have to do for her porn work.

So in some ways, I do commend Sorvino for what she was able to bring to the role...but sadly it was the role I had issues with. 

I do want to give a shout-out to one of her fellow nominees. Joan Allen made a wonderful impression as Pat Nixon in Nixon...and as fascinating a man as Richard Nixon was, I think the hold that his wife had over him was one of the more compelling aspects...especially since she had little patience for the game compared to someone like, say, Nancy Reagan would.

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#56 - Wendy Hiller, Separate Tables

This is a performance that managed to win over a weak field of nominees, but I think what is truly remarkable about that fact is how it isn't normally the kind of performance that wins awards.

Subtle performances have obviously won Oscars, but this is one of those performances where I actually have to commend the voters for noticing that there was something...well...THERE.

Hiller is such a stoic presence and is able to enhance what could be considered a thankless role with a lot of efficiency and dignity.

I am not even sure I have as much to say about this performance...and admittedly, it has been a while since I have seen it. I do think that Hiller's performance style was very refreshing for its time as it was an era that was dominated by the likes of more melodramatic and flashy efforts.

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#55 - Eileen Heckert, Butterflies are Free

When I think of Eileen Heckert, I think of her rather bombastic performance in the truly campy and wince-worthy film adaptation of the play The Bad Seed. 

Heckert came from the theater world. In fact, she originated this role on the stage, but lost the Tony to her young co-star Blythe Danner (who was replaced in the film by Goldie Hawn).

Heckert winning seemed like a mild upset, but I suppose some weren't eager to give Shelley Winters a THIRD Supporting Actress Oscar for her memorable performance in, perhaps, the best of the cheesy 70s Disaster films, The Poseidon Adventure.

*Sidenote: How on earth did Airport and The Towering Inferno get lucky with Best Picture nominations while The Poseidon Adventure got snubbed despite being far better than either of those? Every year is just different I guess*

Anyway, Heckert gets to play the doting mother to Edward Albert's Donnie, a blind man.

Considering the fact he is blind, Heckert's Florence seems very unwilling to accept that maybe he is able to function as an adult without her doting guidance...but is still in a way where we don't necessarily see her as a villain; she is simply a mother figure who loves her son, but will need to just gradually learn that he is ready to truly have his independence.

Heckert does dominate the film and her dry wit is particularly used to great effect when she has scenes with Goldie Hawn, but I think the only real thing about Heckert that bothers me is that her film work still slightly suffers from not translating too well from the stage to the screen.

I feel like she could've been reigned in a little bit at times, but despite that, I think she was able to give a relatively middling film a lot of life and compassion and wit.

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#54 - Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona

And like Mira Sorvino, we have another Supporting Actress performance coming from a Woody Allen movie.

I still remember the buzz that Vicky Christina Barcelona got when it came out. There was certainly a sense that Woody Allen struck gold...or maybe silver would be a better term here...actually maybe bronze.

I have always been of the belief that Woody Allen has not made a truly great film since 1989's Crimes Misdemeanors...and sure, he has made some okay-to-good films in the years since but even some of those good films have issues.

I would say Vicky Christina Barcelona falls under the "good" category from a basic entertainment standpoint, but it is also a film that is very lazy. The random narrator trope it has feels so unnecessary and intrusive, but as characters, they all feel very superficial and not particularly people we want to invest time in.

I do think Penelope Cruz, along with Rebecca Hall, are the two to make the most of their roles. Cruz started off her career in the US as being mocked for not being that great of an actress. It wasn't until many saw her in Pedro Almodovar's Volver that some were like "Okay, she is actually good".

Cruz IS good...and she did a good job here, but it really feels like a role that falls under "all flash, no real substance".

Of the actual nominees, Viola Davis made such a powerful impression with her brief screentime in Doubt while Marisa Tomei proved that she is still a better actress than many give her credit for in The Wrestler.

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#53 - Anjelica Huston, Prizzi's Honor

This is an Oscar win I have actually sort of dimmed on a little bit.

I think everyone in my generation will always think of Anjelica Huston as Morticia Addams, but Huston is far more than that.

I will take this opportunity now to recommend her work in Paul Mazursky's Enemies: A Love Story and especially in Stephen Frears' The Grifters.

As for her Oscar winning performance in Prizzi's Honor, she is easily the best thing about the movie and a great example of taking a character with relatively minimal screentime and making a meal out of it. She literally steals every scene she is in, and manages to practically erase Jack Nicholson (her former real life lover) off the screen. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of her performance is her delicious accent, which only adds to her appeal.

I don't consider ranking her here as necessarily a bad thing, but more a testament that she took a mostly nothing role and made it a lot more. 

Having said that, I don't think a win for Oprah Winfrey in The Color Purple would've been unreasonable either...and I say that as someone who isn't a big fan of that film either. 

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#52 - Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener

I might have ranked Anjelica Huston a little lower than I anticipated, but I am ranking Rachel Weisz a little higher than I originally intended.

When this win originally happened, I was not a fan of it at all. This was even coming from someone who actually really liked The Constant Gardener and would've nominated it for Best Picture.

I just felt this was a performance that was just...there. It just sat there and did what it needed to do and helped drive the plot and Ralph Fiennes' character.

Even if I still would've given the Oscar to Amy Adams in Junebug (a film I actually did not like but she was simply radiant in it), I can't help but acknowledge that there was a certain energy to Weisz in this film that has stayed with me in hindsight. 

Although completely unrelated to her performance, I do want to address the idea that has been expressed online over the years that Weisz should've been nominated in Lead for this performance.

While she technically was the female lead of the film, I think she is totally Supporting. She only has about 25 minutes of screentime and most of that is within the first half of the film. 

Then again, I suppose if Anthony Hopkins can be in Lead (and win) for The Silence of the Lambs then the same could be said for Rachel Weisz.

I am still in the supporting camp, though...and I would say she deserved a nomination.

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#51 - Anne Baxter, The Razor's Edge 

Anne Baxter gets a lot of flack from some historians for fighting to be campaigned for Lead in All About Eve. Those same historians also think the vote-splitting led to Bette Davis losing what would've been her then record-breaking 3rd Oscar win for Lead.

Honestly, I don't think Baxter was strong enough in All About Eve to be a threat...and frankly, I would've voted for Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard.

Baxter is another actress who falls into a similar category with Dorothy Malone and Susan Hayward; she is just very expressive and exaggerated...and often to her detriment. 

I think The Razor's Edge gives her a chance to play to her strengths, but because the film itself is so weak, it doesn't help much.

I feel like as Sophie, she manages to shine and steal the entire movie, but it is just that erratic nature of the time period where I just can't get over some of the more melodramatic tendencies.

However, the scene in which she sees her old friends in a Parisian bar is perhaps enough to make me forgive her for some of the lesser moments in the film. That moment alone helped me boost her up a few slots.

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#50 - Beatrice Straight, Network

I have talked a lot about performances that suffer do brevity in screen time, which often coincides with the role being underwritten.

In the case of Beatrice Straight, I think we need to give credit where credit is due.

And despite her performance's brevity, I will be giving it a little bit more of a discussion.

Ms. Straight holds the distinction of giving the shortest performance ever to win an Oscar: 5 minutes and two seconds. Within that brief screen time, she only has three scenes. 

The second scene is inconsequential as we only see the back of her head and she speaks one line. The first scene is slightly more involved where we see her walking around the apartment searching for Howard Beale (Peter Finch) only to wake up her husband (William Holden) to tell him Howard left. While not much, this scene does manage to convey a certain warmth that makes her stand out...especially considering this has been a movie filled with a lot of sociopathic people up to this point.

It really all comes down to her third scene which is when Holden's Max confesses to Straight's Louise that he has been sleeping with Faye Dunaway's Diana and that he has fallen in love with her. 

Keep in mind, this is a woman who has been married to this man for 25 years and she has been faithful and loyal to him...we've seen this kind of story many times both on film and in life. We also barely spend anytime with her character in the film so why should we really care that much about her?

Well...Beatrice Straight makes us care. Or at least she made me care.

While I am still not sure it is enough for me to think she necessarily deserved the Oscar, I still think this is a very prime example of how to truly make an impression with such a brief monologue. It also truly helps that the passion Straight shows makes us far more sympathetic to her plight than the rest of the yahoos around her.

One final thing: a few years ago, director Ivo van Hove and writer Lee Hall adapted Network for the stage starring Bryan Cranston as Howard Beale. One thing I was curious about before seeing the production was if it would include Louise Schumacher. Despite her Oscar win, some TV broadcasts actually cut out most, if not ALL, of her performance because frankly, the film does flow fine without it...but it does add something nonetheless.

As harsh as this might seem, I feel like the actress that portrayed her on Broadway proved how remarkable Straight was in this role. Her interpretation of the monologue was...bizarre to say the least and it also showed how it didn't even serve much of a purpose.

Beatrice Straight gave it purpose.

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#49 - Fay Bainter, Jezebel

Jezebel was sort of seen as a film to give Bette Davis a chance to play a Southern Belle after having lost the chance to play Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. 

The gambit paid off as Davis managed to win her second Oscar in 3 years AND managed to squeak in a year before Gone with the Wind opened in theaters.

I can't say I like Jezebel more than Gone with the Wind, but I also find the latter to be immensely overrated...and to reiterate, I have always thought that even before the film managed to face more scrutiny.

I think Jezebel is a solid watch and I do think that Fay Bainter is a rather interesting aspect of the film...especially considering it is not that flashy of a role.

This is a movie that is truly all about Bette Davis, but in a true supporting role fashion, Bainter is there as her Aunt who never exactly steals the show from Davis, but still provides a rather compelling screen presence.

She isn't necessarily remarkable, but it is a good example of how sneakily effective a sterling supporting performance can be to a film.

#48 - Jessica Lange, Tootsie

Lange went into Oscar night being considered pretty locked in to win Best Supporting Actress for Tootsie...and it seemed like a great way to acknowledge her as she was going to lose her Best Actress bid for Frances. 

As a film, I actually have to admit that I love Tootsie...despite some of the aspects of it that have not aged well. I also think it contains one of the best performances of Dustin Hoffman's career and I do think he works extremely well with Lange in this.

For modern audiences who are used to seeing Lange portray characters who are often unhinged, it might be a bit of a surprise to see her in such a subdued role...and frankly, she does it very well.

After finishing work on Frances, her co-star Kim Stanley strongly encouraged her to tackle a comedy to counterbalance the intense dramatic work in their film.

Lange, however, isn't the funny part of Tootsie. Sure, she may get a line or two here and there that elicit a smile or slight chuckle, but Lange is essentially the straight man.

She does do well in not making her character seem like a fool for being fooled by Hoffman. Her final scene when he finally talks to her again as Michael and not Dorothy is mostly owned by Lange even though she barely speaks. I actually chose an image from that scene for the photo above.

I think when she finally responds with "I miss Dorothy", you truly feel how sincere she is about that friendship...and that you might end up buying that she is willing to give Michael a chance since it WAS him.

It isn't a bad performance...I am just not sure it necessarily stood out even in her own film.

Lange was nominated against her co-star Teri Garr. While Garr's role was written for her, it still could've come off as relatively bland had it gone to someone else. Garr did wonders with Sandy and her brief snippets in the film are a prime example of a true Supporting performance that steals every second she is on screen.

This was also a stellar category if I was willing to rank Lange last of the five.

She was nominated against Glenn Close for her film debut in The World According to Garp, her Frances co-star Kim Stanley, Garr, and in another comic gem of a performance that I find truly unforgettable, Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria.

It is one of the best lineups this category ever had.

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#47 - Mary Steenburgen, Melvin & Howard

The 1980 Award Season was all about domination within the acting categories.

Both Lead Actor and Actress had Robert DeNiro and Sissy Spacek sweeping through the whole season, while Mary Steenburgen had won every single Supporting Actress award except for the National Board of Review.

I feel like a lot of us these days tend to forget that Steenburgen is even an Oscar winner. It isn't that she is some obscure actress because she has popped up in so many movies and TV shows, but she has never really had another role that seemed to bring her anywhere close to Oscar glory again.

I do mostly support her win if only for the fact that her competition wasn't exactly the strongest. I also have to add that I think Melvin & Howard as a film is rather strange.

While it didn't get a Best Picture nomination, it certainly seems like it was in the 6th slot with this win and its win in Best Original Screenplay. I know the film is based on a true story but there is such a disjointed and aloof quality to it that I found it often hard to connect to the film in any way. 

I do think Steenburgen suffers a little from that and it does seem a little strange that she swept in such a capacity, but then again, her category was very weak. 

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#46 - Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Even Anne Hathaway has admitted that this award season period was perhaps the most difficult time in her career as the internet seemed ready to pounce on her every opportunity that she appeared anywhere.

It does seem like that vitriol has since died down, but there certainly was a sense at the time that Hathaway was practically begging for an Oscar. 

The moment the trailer came out for Les Miserables, people were like "Well there is your winner". In truth, the role of Fantine in the stage production isn't necessarily an awards magnet. Sure, it may have netted Patti LuPone a win at the Olivier Awards (which was also for her work in The Cradle Will Rock) but I grew up always thinking of the role of Eponine being the awards magnet. 

I think what strongly benefitted Hathaway in this case was how the role was restructured. In the stage production, Fantine's big solo "I Dreamed a Dream" is placed right after she is ostracized from the factory...but in the movie, it occurs after she sells her hair and teeth and prostitutes herself, so the emotions are...well...understandably high at her bleakest moment. 

I feel like this is one of those performances where I didn't exactly hate it or even hate the fact that she won...but I also find myself feeling that despite the intense emotion, something about it still feels so brash and very forced.

Nevertheless, she still comes off as a highlight to the movie, which I still consider to be rather horrid as a whole. 

Hathaway should've been strongly considered for an Oscar for her lovely dramatic turn in Rachel Getting Married whereas in this race, I would've been inclined to vote for the still Oscar-less (as of this writing) Amy Adams for The Master.

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#45 - Claire Trevor, Key Largo

With Claire Trevor, we get another example of an actress who took a role that is essentially thin and one-note and made as much out of it as they possibly could.

This is also another prime example of a supporting performance that somehow manages to be the best thing about the movie. Key Largo is a rather forgettable film and it is so weak that we somehow get the most lifeless and uninteresting performance out of Lauren Bacall.

Claire Trevor spends most of the movie just begging to have another drink and she essentially has no dignity...but considering how one-note the role is, Trevor does the absolute best she can with it. I actually originally had her ranked at #57 and then moved her up to #45.

There is just something about her in this role that I find to be impressive considering the limitations that are there. Maybe I will consider moving her a little higher in the future, but for her to get a 12-point jump is still nothing to scoff at.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

As I stated before, this was another volume where I kind of struggled. 

I think that despite some of the issues I had with these performances and even many of the films in which they were contained, I found myself finding better qualities in a lot of their work compared to some of the Best Actress winners.

The variety here just feels a lot more refreshing, but I still think the biggest problem is that a lot of the issues with these winners are mostly due to the nature of how their roles are written. 

In the last volume, a lot of my complaints stemmed from the fact that so many of the actresses just didn't do enough with the material they were given. 

Here, I found myself commended a lot of these actresses for doing more than what the roles may have given them on the page. It also doesn't hurt that so many of these actresses were actually the best aspect of their respective movies.

We still have two more volumes to go, but I will go ahead and say now that there will be a more positive shift in tone with a lot of these upcoming performances.

A lot of them would not have been my first choice for the win...or even would've been nominated. However, on their own terms, I find many of these to be commendable works. As we inch close to the top 30, it is going to become a little bit more of a bloodbath where I actually feel weird ranking some of the performances as low as I did. 

I am actually expecting to shift around a lot of my ranking as I write about the next 44 performances. I even shifted one performance just now after glancing at the list!

Stay tuned for the next volume! As it goes with my blog, you may see the post tomorrow or a week from now or a month from now...

My Ranking of the 87 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Winners (Vol. 1 - #87 - 66)

 

It is time for yet another ranking!

Due to the surge in readership as I finished up my Best Actress ranking series, I felt compelled to tackle the other remaining acting categories as well. 

I decided to do Best Supporting Actress next, followed by Supporting Actor, and ending with Best Actor. I have also already done a ranking for Best Picture as well.

Here is the first volume of the Best Picture series, which will also contain links to the additional volumes:

Best Picture Ranking: #94 - 80

Best Picture Ranking: #79 - 60

Best Picture Ranking: #59 - 40

Best Picture Ranking: #39 - 21

Best Picture Ranking: #20 - 1

And to go with that, here is the same for Best Actress:

Best Actress Ranking: #94 - 80

Best Actress Ranking: #79 - 60

Best Actress Ranking: #59 - 40

Best Actress Ranking: #39 - 21

Best Actress Ranking: #20 - 1

Unlike Best Actress (and Best Actor), the two Supporting categories were not created until the 9th Academy Awards but they often yielded a wide array of fascinating performances which should make these rankings a little more exciting...but check back with me at the end to see if that still feels true to me.

The true downside in the last two decades is that the Supporting categories have frequently become the place where the "co-leads" are demoted. If one co-star has slightly lesser screen time, you can almost tell which one will get the boot from Lead.

However, this does lead to some rather weird examples. Even though Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are both clearly lead in Carol, the latter got bumped to Supporting presumably because she was not as big a star as two-time winner Blanchett...and despite the fact she technically had more screen time than Blanchett.

So yes, I will be dealing with some category fraud when discussing some of these winners...but I am not really going to factor that into my selections in any negative way.

Just like with my Actress and Best Picture rankings, these will simply be based on the performance itself when compared against the other winners.

I will be doing this ranking split up into 4 volumes. The first three will be a lot larger and then the final volume will be the top 20.

It will be:

87-66

65-45

44-21

20-1

So let us begin...

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#87 - Gloria Grahame, The Bad & The Beautiful (1952)

Does it help a performer when they are in multiple films in a single year? 

They do say that variety is the spice of life and when you show your range in multiple films in a year, it could mean that you'll end up getting singled out for one if it stands out considerably more than the others.

Some actors, like Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects, won multiple critics awards for multiple films...though major voting bodies force voters to narrow it down to one performance only. I could be here a lot longer if I try to think about other examples in every category so I will just stop myself.

In the case of Gloria Grahame, she had a role in three films in 1952 which included Sudden Fear, a film that netted a Best Actress nod for Joan Crawford; The Greatest Show on Earth, which was that year's (awful) Best Picture winner; and The Bad & The Beautiful, for which she won.

If I am being honest, I think she was the best thing about The Greatest Show on Earth and if she were to get a nomination, it should've been for that film.

Before I go any further, I want to get the massive white circus elephant out of the way...

I always say I am going to try to refrain from venting my frustration over performances that I feel were robbed of the win or even robbed of a nomination.

But...considering this is the winner I am ranking dead last, I figure I should shine a light on a performance that has managed to become iconic and pretty much universally agreed upon to be the rightful choice.

Jean Hagen as Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain. A truly fantastic comic villain performance that is even more amazing when you realize that she ended up dubbing the voice of Debbie Reynolds which ironically meant that Jean Hagen was dubbing herself.

I rank Gloria Grahame simply for the fact that there is nothing to her performance. The Bad & The Beautiful is a film that tells the story of three different people: a producer, a director, and a writer.

Gloria Grahame plays Rosemary Bartlow, the wife of the writer. Considering the writer portion doesn't into play until an hour or so into the film, Grahame comes in with only about 10-12 minutes of screen time and then leaves.

This isn't to say the brevity is the reason I rank her so low (because, spoiler alert, Beatrice Straight will not be on this first volume), but it is simply the fact that she is not given much to do and instead of making the character charming to watch (she is supposed to be sort of a annoying-cutesy-kid like character), she comes off as sort of mildly annoying and doesn't really give the character that much depth. She just feels so hollow and it was one of those performances where I watched it and truly wondered how they even got considered for the nod...and then they gave her the win to boot!

I do think the popularity of her film (which won 5 Oscars that night despite getting snubbed for a Best Picture nomination) certainly helped, but this is just one of those wins where I simply do not understand it even though Grahame has been much better in other films...including THAT SAME YEAR...and she beat freaking Jean Hagen!

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#86 - Laura Dern, Marriage Story (2019)

This one hurts me to rank.

As a David Lynch fan, I have always been drawn to Laura Dern. For the longest time, I used to say that I would absolutely love to be able to add the title of "Academy Award Winner" in front of Laura Dern's name...and yeah, I now get to do that. I also try to imagine it was a win for Inland Empire and not Marriage Story, but that is a whole other issue.

By the time Marriage Story had come out, we were in the midst of a "Dernaissance". She had made a splash on Big Little Lies, was featured in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and became the face of a well-known faceless character on the Twin Peaks reboot: Diane. 

Buzz began early that Dern was going to be a strong contender for the film and that she would be the one to beat. I also want to add that a lot of this buzz was centered around a particular monologue which was going to be considered her "Oscar clip".

When I finally saw the film, I was kind of amazed by what I saw...both in a good and bad way.

As a film, I really liked Marriage Story and think Adam Driver did a truly great job plus Scarlett Johannsen gave one of her best performances.

What I was really amazed by was how much I was not impressed with Laura Dern. Sure, she did add little touches to her role her in there that were very much of the "Dern aesthetic" but I feel like everything she did just made her feel like a watered down version of her Big Little Lies character Renata Klein. She also wasn't a character you could connect to in any way; she was just a vain divorce lawyer and while I think Dern did almost as much as she could with such a weak role, it just feels like it was a case of the actress winning because people wanted to honor Laura Dern.

A career Oscar in its purest form. 

Also, that monologue that was supposed to be the scene that cinches her an Oscar? I actually didn't like it at all. I feel she comes off as too mannered and performative here in what should've been a scene where we really see passion within Nora.

While I would've voted for Florence Pugh in Little Women, the category was mostly a joke because of the simple fact that none of the actresses from Parasite gained serious traction for awards.

Cho Yeo-jeong (my favorite), Park So-dam, and Lee Jung-eun in particular were all far more worthy than any of the nominees...and that isn't even factoring another actress from Parasite: Jang Hye-jin or the lovely Zhao Shuzhen who played Nai Nai in The Farewell. 

Even when a foreign film like Parasite breaks that high a glass ceiling, it STILL got zero attention for its actors (aside from that SAG Ensemble win and the occasional critics award).

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#85 - Ingrid Bergman, Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

"Thank you. It's always nice to get an Oscar" - Ingrid Bergman upon winning her THIRD Oscar for Murder on the Orient Express

At that moment, Bergman became only the third performer to win 3 Acting Oscars following Walter Brennan and Katharine Hepburn. 

I guess you could say that Bergman benefitted from weak competition in a sense. It seemed unlikely they would give the Oscar to a comedic performance (Madeline Kahn) plus I still say that the nomination of Talia Shire from The Godfather Part II is baffling...especially when Diane Keaton gets one of the best acted scenes in the film...and then you have a foreign-language performance by Valentina Cortese.

You could say that the fact it was a foreign language performance hurt her, but they ended up giving Supporting Actor to Robert DeNiro that night who only spoke Italian in the film. 

But he was also in Godfather Part II, that year's Best Picture winner and a film that was mostly in English. Cortese was in the French film Day for Night.

Bergman even stated when she won that she was shocked she beat Cortese...and it was pure class...especially because she was right.

I think Bergman does a fine job with what she was given to play with the character of Greta, but there just isn't much there. It feels like some kind of veteran win that wasn't necessarily needed.

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#84 - Margaret Rutherford, The V.I.P.s (1962)

 Ingrid Bergman won for playing an Agatha Christie character, and while this particular performance isn't from an Agatha Christie adaptation, Margaret Rutherford is mostly remembered for portraying one of Agatha Christie's most famous detectives: Miss Marple.

However, in this film, her character is mostly there to provide a few laughs and then tug at your heartstrings by the end...with not much depth otherwise.

The V.I.P.s is not the greatest movie and while Rutherford's brief interjections are enjoyable, they are mostly inconsequential.

The film takes place at London's Heathrow Airport during an intense fog that has grounded every single flight. Rutherford's character, The Duchess of Brighton, is actually flying to America to obtain a job in Florida in order to keep her castle. 

Like I mentioned before, she does manage to give the film a bit of a sentimental edge towards the end, but the role just feels too slight. Rutherford did all she really could, but that doesn't mean an Oscar should've been sent her way. At the very least, it is nice to see an actress like her have an Oscar.

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#83 - Helen Hayes, Airport (1970)

Ah, yes...the movie that began the disaster genre craze of the 1970s.

Airport is pure melodrama and I can't even say it is melodrama at its finest. While her nominated co-star Maureen Stapleton gave what would arguably be the film's standout dramatic performance, Hayes was the film's much needed comic relief.

A lot is said about how the Oscars don't tend to honor comedies, and yet I feel like a lot of the winners that tend to be comedic are ones that get the most vitriol.

I think a lot of that just has to do with certain comedic elements and styles not aging well or maybe the simple fact that comedy tastes do wildly vary.

This isn't even necessarily the best performance to even talk about that topic with as it isn't exactly a broadly comedic role. Hayes' Ada is actually caught as a stowaway on a flight and while she gets to play up the "sneaky cute little old lady" vibe, I guess the scene that really helped her look good was when she helped stage a scene to try to combat a bomber on the flight.

Still though, it felt like a very slight performance and a chance to give an acting legend a second Oscar.

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#82 - Melissa Leo, The Fighter (2011)

Loud, crass, and crude.

That is Melissa Leo as Alice from The Fighter.

And there isn't much else to say.

When Melissa Leo managed to slip into the Lead Actress race with Frozen River in 2009, it felt like a great moment for an actress who had been struggling on the fringes for years. It was also a very lovely and quiet performance.

Here though, I think Leo just got sucked into the overbearing and melodramatic sledgehammer world of David O. Russell. I had made a comment in my Best Actress ranking at one point about actresses throwing plates and how that seems to be prime for awards attention.

Actresses for nominated performances like Sissy Spacek in In the Bedroom fit that bill, but Leo totally has a scene where she goes all out on some plates... and it is the definition of an over-the-top caricature. 

It is nice to see a character actress like Leo have an Oscar, but dear lord, why can't people actually win for worthy work?!

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#81 - Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Another loud and "in your face" performance that seemed so prime to be an awards magnet, but I feel like it is yet another example of a performance that also seemed very one-note. Sure, Jolie gets to play a gamut of emotions but none of it ever felt like it was coming from any kind of natural place. 

Jolie is not a bad actress, and you can clearly tell that in her performance...and prior to this, Jolie had made a splash in two TV movies where she stole the show: George Wallace and Gia. 

I just think it is a performance where everything is simply surface level and that Jolie doesn't truly grasp the character in any deep way. A lot of that can be blamed on director James Mangold as well in this case, but he has also grown as a director in recent years. 

As for Jolie's competition, I have to say this is a case where I tend to like so many of the other contenders more like Toni Collette in The Sixth Sense, Chloe Sevigny in Boys Don't Cry, Catherine Keener in Being John Malkovich, or the snubbed Cameron Diaz in Being John Malkovich.

All of them were far more worthy performances.

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#80 - Mary Astor, The Great Lie (1941)

When I picture Mary Astor, I think of her as Marmee opposite June Allyson in the 1949 adaptation of Little Women. She was an actress that tended to exude great warmth and compassion.

This could be why I feel like she was somewhat miscast in The Great Lie, one of those overbearing 40s melodramas that has aged like a fine glass of Egg Nog.

Astor is supposed to be playing a rich diva and while she gets the chance to play opposite Bette Davis, the results of this are surprisingly...odd.

Astor comes off as brash and shrill and like she is trying so hard to play this demanding diva while Davis, who normally excels in a role like Astor's, is so bland and dull as the wife of a woman who lost her husband in a plane crash only to discover that Astor's character is his mistress and she is carrying his child. 

It is a juicy plot straight out of a soap opera but as was often the case with many Hollywood films in the 40s, it isn't exactly handled with a lot of grace.

Astor does have her good moments...mainly when she goes for the subtlety...but she just does not do too well at finding a great balance here.

She does far better in Maltese Falcon that same year and was worthy for multiple nominations for other performances, but once again, an actress manages to win for some of her weakest work. Tale as old as time...

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#79 - Alice Brady, In Old Chicago (1937)

Alice Brady was the second winner of this category but she should've been the first. 

The year before, she was up for My Man Godfrey and she would've made a delightful winner but here, I feel like this was an early example of someone winning an Oscar very quickly after losing for a superior performance.

Think Judi Dench losing for Mrs. Brown and then winning the next year for her 8 minute cameo in Shakespeare in Love.

Brady plays Mrs. O'Leary, the woman whose cow manages to set off the Great Chicago Fire.

Despite such a silly topic, the film manages to be rather droll and not overly compelling.

Brady does fine with what she is given, but it isn't overly remarkable. However, what really ends up making me rank her so low is her rather unfortunate final scene.

After the fire, O'Leary gives a big speech about how she and her family will persevere despite the fact they are responsible for the city burning down. As a monologue, it is written extremely poorly. As a staged scene, it was like Brady received no direction and she was trying so hard to remember the monologue from memory. 

It has to be one of the worst scenes ever in an Oscar nominated film and especially for an Oscar winning performance.

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#78 - Shelley Winters, A Patch of Blue (1965)

This is one of those performances that tends to divide people, but I feel like I have heard more people be positive about her as of late compared to negative.

Much like Mo'Nique would do decades later in Precious, Winters gets to play a vicious and vindictive mother who puts her daughter through hell.

In this case, the daughter Selina (Elizabeth Hartman) is blind and she ends up attracting a suitor who just so happens to be a black man (Sidney Poitier). Considering this is the 60s and before the Loving Supreme Court case, the pairing of a white woman and a black man would certainly be considered...well...abominable in the eyes probably half the country at that point.

Winters' character Rose Ann is obviously not too pleased with a black man trying to get with her daughter, but that isn't a surprise to us.

Winters had said that this was the hardest role in her career because she simply could not fathom how this woman was the way that she was...and perhaps that is where the disconnect is a little bit.

She is certainly brash and intimidating but this is where I think writer/director Guy Green struggled too because we have another case of a role being written as being nothing more than the villain. Winters does what she can, but at its worst, it becomes unintentionally funny and borderline camp.

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#77 - Renee Zellweger, Cold Mountain (2003)

This win stands out to me so much for one big reason.

It felt like Hollywood was just DYING to give it to Zellweger...and the buzz and passion was so strong that the moment she lost Best Actress for Chicago the year prior, people said she was the frontrunner to win for Cold Mountain. 

And that remained the case all through award season where she just kept sweeping through each award to the point that after that season was over, her descent into obscurity occurred until she had her big comeback with Judy. 

As a film, Cold Mountain was a bloated epic that thankfully got snubbed for a Best Picture nomination...and it was a chore to sit through aside for some nice images and a solid performance by Jude Law...and a small supporting turn by Natalie Portman that was perhaps the most memorable scene in the film.

Zellweger gets to be the film's comic relief and she launches into the role with abandon...which only made me want to abandon watching the film within a matter of minutes.

I actually do really like Zellweger as an actress. I think she has given us some great performances and despite how much I think her work in Judy was too polished and refined to be Judy Garland at THAT stage of her life, she still managed to find some great moments within the role.

I just think this is just a case of another broad performance that seemed like a great choice to reward considering they snubbed Zellweger for two better performances the prior years. 

Meanwhile, say hi to Shohreh Aghdashloo from House of Sand & Fog because she was royally robbed for her work in that underrated film.

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#76 - Geena Davis, The Accidental Tourist (1988)

Considered something of an upset, the win of Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist doesn't seem too bizarre on paper. She is a quirky and irreverent character who manages to help bring joy to the movie's leading man AND she is a co-lead on top of that.

The only issue is that the performance as it reads on paper is not the one that is onscreen.

The Accidental Tourist is a movie that I find to have one of the most bizarre energies I have seen in a film. Sure, it is a bleak film about a man who is mourning the end of his marriage after the death of his young son but it is also supposed to be a film where he finds light and love in his life again.

And yet, the film just feels so lethargic. 

They make Davis' Muriel Pritchett out to be a total kook with how she dresses and how she has her hair done, but it feels like the idea was to let the aesthetic do all the work and Davis would just supply the bare minimum.

I say this as someone who does like Geena Davis and I also say this as someone who wasn't even necessarily pushing for Sigourney Weaver to take the win for Working Girl. This is just a performance where I feel like so much potential was there and yet nothing seemed to be done to truly make it pop...and they STILL gave it an Oscar!

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#75 - Lee Grant, Shampoo (1975)

Yet another comedic winner and as much as I love Lee Grant, I just don't think this was a performance that warranted an Oscar.

After having been blacklisted and making a comeback in the 1970 film The Landlord, which would've been a better film for her to win for, Grant finally got the Oscar and the gratification that all of the blacklisting turmoil she went through was now a blight on the past.

*Sidenote, The Landlord is about a guy who obtains a property in a Brooklyn neighborhood and is an early example of the concept of gentrification. Even more hilarious, the neighborhood is Park Slope.

PARK. SLOPE.

This is the neighborhood just north to where I live now, and let me tell you...it has a lot of white there.*

Anyway, Grant plays Felicia Carr, a wife of a politician who is mostly unhappy and bored with her life so she starts sleeping with her hairdresser, played by Warren Beatty.

She manages to make the most of her role, ringing out the juice of every line and stealing every moment she is in...but it still just doesn't feel like there is much to the role. 

She gets some nice moments and is, perhaps, the best thing about the movie but it still just doesn't feel like there is much to really connect with.

I am kind of amazed how many of the performances so far just feel like surface-level pieces that don't offer much depth in any way. 

At any rate, I am glad Lee Grant nabbed an Oscar...but let us take a moment to acknowledge Ronee Blakley in Nashville. Although, if I am being honest, they should've put Louise Fletcher here for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and given her the win.

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#74 - Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential (1997)

One of the first Oscar ceremonies I ever watched was the 70th Annual Academy Awards, which was the year Titanic swept. 

However, that film managed to build up its haul thanks to the tech categories. The acting and screenplay categories belonged to the other BP nominees such as As Good as It Gets, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential.

Going into the ceremony, I feel like there was a lot of buzz around honoring Gloria Stuart for Titanic for sentimental reasons. However, all people had to do was look at the year prior when supposed "lock for the ages" Lauren Bacall lost the Oscar to Juliette Binoche.

In this case, they gave it to Kim Basinger...even though Julianne Moore and Joan Cusack were right there.

Come on, THEY WERE RIGHT THERE!!

Basinger's win does seem a little strange in hindsight, but I suppose it was a way to honor the movie. I do think Basinger gives off an alluring screen presence, but at the same time, it just feels like something is missing.

I have never exactly considered Basinger to be a great actress, and I have to wonder what this role would've been with a different actress?

Then again, apparently my desires are not valid since it was enough to net her an Oscar meanwhile Julianne Moore is killing at as Amber Waves and Joan Cusack is outside a bar wearing a wedding dress screaming "Is everybody gay?!?!"

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#73 - Teresa Wright, Mrs. Miniver (1942)

As a film, Mrs. Miniver feels like such a product for its time. A lot of people still do love the film, but I have always considered it to be just on the brink of being another soapy 40s melodrama but a lot of it is held together by the wonderful leading performance of Greer Garson.

I think Teresa Wright, who became the first performer to receive a Lead and Supporting nomination in the same year and winning for this role, is a good actress but she is yet another performer who I feel can come across as very surface level. 

A lot of her heightened emotions feel incredibly forced and it only becomes more apparent when acting opposite Greer Garson.

I don't know if I add much to add regarding her though. I find myself lacking a certain passion or interest in discussing them compared to others...which I suppose sort of makes sense. I guess it does come down to varying factors.

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#72 - Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara (1957)

I feel bad ranking this performance so low because of its historical importance, but it is just yet another case where I don't think the role really had enough to it to make for a great showcase.

Having said that, what Umeki does have going for her is the emotional impact. Due to the tragic ending of her character, she certainly does linger with you. Plus, she does have two small moments that stand out, like when she is crying to her husband (played by Red Buttons) over wanting to get surgery on her eyes or while she watches a play with him and she gets taken in by the story. 

It is just a very brief performance, but somehow, she manages to stand out and become the best aspect of the film. It just isn't necessarily enough for me to consider it an Oscar worthy performance. 

I still love that the win happened because it was such a huge push towards rewarding performers of color...granted no other Asian actress would win until Youn Yuh-jung 63 years later...and spoiler alert...her win won't be discussed on here for a little while.

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#71 - Ethel Barrymore, None but the Lonely Heart (1944)

Nowadays, when you hear the surname "Barrymore", your mind immediately goes to Drew.

There was a time when the name "Barrymore" was attached to a family of actors who were highly renowned in the world of theater.

Ethel Barrymore is the one who seems to have the biggest legacy today, if not for her small filmography but she does at least have some name recognition in the theater community as the namesake of her own Broadway theater.

So much has been said about the legend of Ethel Barrymore. Many historians have referred to her as "The First Lady of the American Theatre" (which is also a title that has been given to Helen Hayes), and even if you watch the clip of her as the Mystery Guest on the old game show What's My Line?, you can clearly see the reverence held for her. Host John Daly even says she might have "the most recognizable voice in America". 

When it comes to her film work, I always got the impression that she was always on auto pilot. Keep in mind, it was a very consistent and sturdy and well-oiled auto pilot, but it just always felt the same in how she would approach every role. 

You could say it is an early example of a performer relying a lot on her name and larger than life charisma and personality...which does feel a little cheap, but I wish that Barrymore had the chance to really show us what she was capable of in films because it truly does seem as if us in the modern day are missing out on what "they" of the 40s knew about her caliber of work in the theatre.

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#70 - Shelley Winters, The Diary of Anne Frank, (1959)

Sorry to rank you so low again, Ms. Winters...but alas, here we are.

This is just an example of another performance where I am little surprised that it got singled out for this kind of recognition.

It isn't that Winters was bad, but I just feel there wasn't as much for her to do. She did have a couple of key moments, like when she lashes out at Anne calling her a "clumsy fool" for ruining her coat and also her response to when the Frank family discovers Hans has been stealing food and she has to defend him.

Petronella is a character who is also kind of unsympathetic at times and seems to be far more willing to take advantage of the Franks despite the truly dangerous and risky arrangement they are currently in. I think Winters DOES excel well at playing these types of characters, but unlike her work in A Patch of Blue, I think Petronella is a more of a fleshed-out character...and yes, she did actually exist but as written in film form, she does work and I think Winters does all she can with her.

It is just simply another case where I can't say the work is particularly Oscar worthy.

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#69 - Gale Sondegaard, Anthony Adverse (1936)

Two little facts: Gale Sondegaard is perhaps best known these days as being the original actress they approached to play The Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. The first approach with that role was they wanted to model the character after the Queen in Snow White & the Seven Dwarves, but then after decision was made to make her ugly, Sondegaard did not want to do "ugly" onscreen and that led us to get the legendary Margaret Hamilton.

The second fact: Sondegaard was the first person to win this award...and much like the many actresses around her on this ranking, I think she falls into a lot of the same traps.

In many ways, this performance is truly a supporting one. This isn't some co-lead poser who got demoted to this category for an easy win; it was exactly the kind of performance that the category was meant to honor.

However, the problem with the role all falls back onto the whole "underwritten" aspect that I have gone into time and time again.

Anthony Adverse is a bloated epic of a film and within its 2 and a half hours of screen time, Sondegaard may appear for about 15-20 minutes. Her character of Faith is another one of those bitchy divas and she is gold-digger to the nth degree...and it is only made all the more catty when you realize she is the MAID. 

When Sondegaard is onscreen, she is deliciously evil and can be very fun to watch but it just feels like that is all we get. Pure evil bitchiness with no layers yet again. 

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#68 - Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

In order to win an Oscar, sometimes you just have to play the game...and it is the game of schmoozing and campaigning. 

When Everything Everywhere All at Once came out in the spring of 2022, there was a lot of debate at the time as to whether or not this truly zany and bombastic film would actually get the attention of Oscar.

Spoiler alert: Oscar noticed...he REALLY noticed.

While my reaction to the film was more muted compared to seemingly 90% of the rest of the world, I did recall enjoying Jamie Lee Curtis' work in the film. 

Curtis is known for being a very beloved and popular figure in Hollywood, but she never often starred in Oscar-bait films. She often came close for roles in genre films like Trading Places and True Lies or, like in the start of her career, she was known for being a "scream queen" in slasher films of the late 70s/early 80s. 

Curtis basically put herself out there talking about how much she loves the recognition and acknowledgment to the point that a lot of pundits viewed it simply as Curtis as blatantly saying "I want an Oscar nomination" and Hollywood decided to give it to her.

Once she did get the nomination, her social media exploded in a fury of campaigning although it wasn't just for herself, she was a big champion for her film and her co-stars and the crew.

This win has already been declared the worst by many online (FilmTwitter, other film forums), but I wouldn't go THAT far.

I still think Curtis is enjoyable, but I can't really deny that it seems a bit strange that this ended up being an Oscar winning performance...especially when many felt her co-star Stephanie Hsu was far superior.

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#67 - Octavia Spencer, The Help (2011)

I think what made this win by Octavia Spencer so exhilarating at the time was that it was that it was a character actress who had been working and struggling for so long FINALLY getting her due.

What does sort of dampen it is that she plays a maid and the movie just so happens to be The Help...sigh...

Spencer's co-star Viola Davis got bumped to the Lead Actress race even though she herself was borderline supporting...and that path cleared up a victory for Spencer even though her great co-star Jessica Chastain was also in the mix (and had a huge splash in a few films that year).

Davis had the performance, but I am not so sure that I really even remember much about Spencer in the film aside from the infamous pie scene. 

If there is anything I do love about this win, it is that it has allowed her career to blossom and she has since received multiple Oscar nominations...though shockingly not for a performance that was better than all of her nominated performances: Luce.

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#66 - Anne Revere, National Velvet (1945)

Someone like Anne Revere was very adept at playing the warm and supportive wife and mother...and I feel like no better role captured that warmth better than in National Velvet.

The only reason I am ranking her so low is that it is yet another example of the role not really having enough meat on the bone...but she does do well with what she is given. 

I think my biggest issue is that her character of Mrs. Brown is presented in such a saintly way that she seems like she is almost the poster-child of the perfect mother. She plays it very well, but it leaves the role feeling lack it is...once again...lacking a lot of depth.

In the end though, Revere was an underrated character actress of that era and it was nice to see her get this kind of attention.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:

I really was not expecting to have the kind of reaction I did to ranking this first batch of performances. The majority of these women are wonderful actresses who either took a hammy role and gave it no layers OR they didn't do enough to make a slight role very effective...even if they might've won an Oscar for it. 

You do get those cases where the role is simply the problem and the actress does about as great as one could do with the material...which I think Anne Revere really fits that description.

However, now I am curious to see how easily I can rank the rest of the performances. With the Best Actress ranking, I struggled a lot once I got towards the 40s-60s because I found myself not really knowing what to say about many of those performances.

I sort of feel like the Supporting performances often provide a lot more variety, which do make them seem a little more fun to discuss.

As of this exact moment, I sort of feel like I know who I am going to choose as #1 but I am battling out several others for the rest of the top 10. It is going to be a very delicate selection process!

Hopefully you will see the next volume by this weekend!