Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (WINNER)
I just can’t muster any enthusiasm about this category. Jodie Foster’s return to the spotlight and America Ferrera’s semi-surprise nomination are the best of a very thin slate, but this shouldn’t take away from their achievements. Foster’s warm, storied history with Annette Bening is Nyad’s best asset, and we love when lesbians getting recognized for playing lesbians. Ferrera’s front-and-center monologue obscures how much heavy lifting she’s doing for Barbie elsewhere, making the mother-daughter and child-doll relationships sing despite a slightly abridged role. All good things to both actresses, and yet, I have a hard time imagining either of these women getting much flowers in a more crowded year. Then again, I had a hard time imagining Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s titanic sweep for a film, character, and performance which seems fundamentally barred from becoming a three-dimensional human person, so what do I know. Randolph and Brooks occasionally enliven their misbegotten projects, but most of the time they’re happy to go along with their director’s wishes. Blunt’s nomination for Oppenheimer is the most tedious culmination to almost twenty years of being overlooked for such a generically varied portfolio, though some snubs (Devil Wears Prada, Sicario) are more tragic than others (Girl on the Train, A Quiet Place). But with Randolph so firmly in the Oscar conversation the minute The Holdovers was released, the real question is how critics failed to rally around . . . . anyone? No love for Rachel McAdams, or Hong Chau, or the banner year Erika Alexander had? Previous nominees and also-rans Julianne Moore and Penelope Cruz offer far more delicious fireworks than any of the nominees, and even if many of the category’s luminaries for 2023 tread closer to the Lead half of the lead-supporting line (Moore, Huller, Binoche, Saavedra), I think I’d rather argue about what to do with good performances than try to find out if anyone in Oscar’s lineup has the beef.
My Vote:
America Ferrera, Barbie –
Jodie Foster, Nyad –
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers –
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple –
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer –
It's Just Like The Movies 