2016 Oscar Preview: Best Supporting Actress

THE NOMINEES:

- Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight)
- Rooney Mara (Carol)
- Rachel McAdams (Spotlight)
- Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)
- Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)

WHO SHOULD BE HERE: Daisy Ridley (Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)

I was not as big on The Force Awakens as the vast majority of the country was since I felt like much of the film was just a rehash of Episode IV. However, the film did have plenty of redeeming qualities, including everything new and original this go around. One of those new and original aspects was Finn and Rey. While they were mainly an amalgam of characters in the original trilogy, they were still their own, unique thing. That in turn made them the best part of Episode VII. Daisy Ridley’s portrayal of Rey was particular exciting as we got to see a female protagonist actually have some agency and be a bad ass. Ridley brought instant likeability to Rey while also convincing you of her journey towards being this new trilogies version of Luke Skywalker.

THOUGHTS AND MUSINGS ON THE NOMINATIONS:

2015 Oscar Preview: Best Supporting Actress

THE NOMINEES:

- Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
- Laura Dern (Wild)
- Kiera Knightly (The Imitation Game)
- Meryl Streep (Into The Woods)
- Emma Stone (Birdman)

WHO SHOULD BE HERE: Tilda Swinton (Snowpiercer)

I really want to nominate Missi Pyle for her Nancy Grace-esque portrayal in Gone Girl and her personification of everything wrong with the 24/7 news media nowadays, but it's tough to justify a nomination for a role as small as hers. So instead, I'll go with the great Tilda Swinton. Snowpiercer is a science fiction dystopian action piece from South Korea helmed by a first time director. Despite the individual city critics praising the film and Swinton (and rightfully so), I can easily see why The Academy didn't nominate Swinton. I wonder if they even saw the film. If films like Foxcatcher and Nightcrawler can't get a Best Picture nomination, then there is just no way a film like Snowpiercer would garner any nominations from an elderly trending Academy. However, if Oscar voters would have seen Snowpiercer, then they would have seen a tremendous performance by an Oscar winning actress. Swinton plays a politician in charge of keeping down the poor, and her job of both being a master of propaganda as well as saying what she can to stay alive after the poor revolt is the work of a true master.

Click here to read my full review of Gone Girl

Predicting The 2014 Emmy Winners: Best Supporting Actress

DRAMA

THE NOMINEES:

* Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad)
* Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
* Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
* Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey)
* Lena Headey (Game of Thrones)

* Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)

SURPRISED SHE'S NOT NOMINATED: Michelle Monaghan (True Detective)

It's not that Michelle Monaghan is a good actress (she's not) or that she was good in the 8 episodes of True Detective (she wasn't), but she did have a solid Emmy submission episode. Plus, this is a weak field and it was a widely held belief that a rising True Detective tide would lift Monaghan's boat. 

SHOULD BE NOMINATED: Molly Parker (House of Cards)

Out of the ten million undeserved House of Cards nominations the Netflix show received this year, a nomination for Parker would have given the show at least one deserving nomination. 

MY THOUGHTS ON THE ACTUAL NOMINEES:

2014 Emmy Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Supporting Actress

Recently, the Emmy's released every person and show eligible in all of their categories for the 2014 Primetime Emmy's for their nomination ballot. This post is dedicated to everything related to Outstanding Supporting Actress in both the comedy and drama series categories. It will be both who I think will actually earn a nomination as well as who I think deserves to earn a nomination. However, there is one main ground rule- I have to go off of the actual Emmy nomination ballot. Which means that if the actress isn't actually eligible to earn a nomination in real life, she's not eligible to be mentioned in this post. Makes sense, doesn't it? Let's begin!

DRAMA

WHO I THINK WILL GET AN EMMY NOMINATION:

- Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad)
- Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)

- Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
- Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey)

- Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)

- Michelle Monaghan (True Detective)

The 15 Best Oscar Winning Performances of The Past 15 Years

15) Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator)

Category: Best Actor
Year: 2001
Reasoning: Maximus' most memorable line from the film is after he has slain another opponent in the Colosseum and he screams, "Are you not entertained?!" We were all entertained by Crowe's performance, and the Academy was as well. Crowe plays a war hero who gets captured as a slave and is forced to win the hearts and minds of the people by winning in "cage matches" in the Colosseum in order to take down the Emperor Commodus played by Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix.

14) Reese Witherspoon as June Carter (Walk The Line)

Category: Best Actress
Year: 2006
Reasoning: Joaquin Phoenix was really good as Johnny Cash, but Reese Witherspoon was amazing as June Carter. I think Phoenix is an incredible, incredible actor, but Witherspoon blew him off of the screen every time they appeared together. It also helped that Phoenix was doing an imitation of Johnny Cash, whereas Witherspoon WAS June Carter. Who knew the ditz from Legally Blonde had it in her?

2014 Oscar Preview: Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress

Nick Davis tweeted recently:

This year's Best Picture nominees covered 16 of the 20 acting nods, the most since 1943. Pic, Dir, Acting races comprise of only 11 titles.

This inspired's Grantland's Oscar expert Mark Harris to write an excellent article about how expanding the Best Picture race has hurt the chances of outsider nominations. As a casual movie goer, I do my best to see all the Oscar nominated films that I can, but as a result, I fall victim  to what Harris talked about in the article- I really only see the films that "I have to see". As a result, when I'm searching through films to watch between January and March, I really only watch films that have multiple Oscar nominations.

Films like Blue Jasmine and August: Osage County make up 40% of these two categories, but they have only one other Oscar nominee among them outside of these categories. Needless to say, I missed both films because I feel I could (and both look boring anyways).

Basically what I'm trying to say, is that I have not seen many of these nominations, and for that, I apologize. Every year the Female Acting categories are easily my weakest category to write about, and this year is no exception. 

BEST ACTRESS

NOMINEES:

- Amy Adams (American Hustle)

- Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

- Judy Dench (Philomena)

- Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

- Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

SHOULD BE HERE: Scarlett Johansson (Her)

Screw Hollywood and their pompous attitude against solely voice acting. Her falls apart without Johansson's terrific performance. And if Hollywood thinks anyone can do voice acting, think again. Johansson actually replaced Samantha Morton after director Spike Jonze realized Morton was not right for the part. What Scarlett Johansson did with her voice alone was better than what most actors did with their entire body in 2013.

2013 Emmy Week: Best Supporting Actresses

DRAMA

ACTUAL NOMINEES:

- Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart (The Good Wife)
- Morena Baccarin as Jessica Brody (Homeland)
- Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen (Game Of Thrones)
- Anna Gunn as Skylar White (Breaking Bad)
- Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris (Mad Men)
- Dame Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)

SURPRISED SHE'S NOT NOMINATED: Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma (The Good Wife)

SHOULD BE NOMINATED: Kate Mara as Zoe Barnes (House Of Cards)

How Well Did I Do On My 2013 Emmy Predictions?

Last Thursday, the 2013 Primetime Emmy nominations were announced. Of course the Emmys got a bunch of things right, they also got a whole lot of things wrong. Just like me. Even though awards and stupid and meaningless, I love to argue about them until I'm blue in the face. Over the past month or so, I've been predicting who I think will get a nomination, as well as who I think deserved a nomination. This recap post is more about the former and less about the latter. Although it's still fun to complain about the latter.

2013 Emmy Nomination Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Supporting Actress (Comedy)

WHO I THINK WILL GET A NOMINATION:

- Jessica Walter (Arrested Development)
- Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
- Merritt Weaver (Nurse Jackie)
- Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory)
- Sarah Hyland (Modern Family)
- Sophia Vergara (Modern Family)

2013 Emmy Nomination Predictions and Hopefuls: Best Supporting Actress (Drama)

WHO I THINK WILL GET A NOMINATION:

- Anna Gunn (Breaking Bad)
- Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
- Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
- Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
- Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire)
- Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey)

2013 Oscar Preview: Best Supporting Actress

Click here for my introduction

NOMINEES

• Amy Adams (The Master)
• Sally Field (Lincoln)
• Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
• Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)
• Helen Hunt (The Sessions)

MY THOUGHTS

2012 Emmy Predictions: Best Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

And the nominees are:

- Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris) in Mad Men
- Anna Gunn (Skylar White) in Breaking Bad
- Maggie Smith (Violet Crowley) in Downton Abbey
- Joanne Froggatt (Anna Smith) Downton Abbey
- Archie Panjabi (Kalinda Sharma) in The Good Wife
- Christina Baranski (Dianne Lockhart) in The Good Wife

MY REACTION TO THE NOMINATIONS:

I hate Skyler White. I hate her so much. I hate her face, I hate her personality, and I hate that she is trying to stop Walter White. I'm pretty sure that means that Anna Gunn is a great actress but it's hard for me to even root for Anna Gunn because I hate Skylar so much... Maggie Smith is amazing at everything she does and in a huge cast that (to me) doesn't distinguish themselves from one another, Maggie Smith is one of the few people who actually deserves a nomination for her role on the show. She's great... Sticking with Downton Abbey let's talk about Joanne Froggatt. I feel the same way about her as I did about Jim Carter's portrayal of Carson's, I have nothing against it but I feel like it didn't stick out either... Now on to the last of the performance whose performance I have actually seen and that's Christina Hendricks as Joannie. God, I love Joannie. Who doesn't? Hendricks is great against anyone who she is playing off of and in Season Five of Mad Men we got the rare Don Draper/Joan Harris scene where they drunkenly flirt together. Joan was a major part of Mad Men's 5th season and she was excellent dealing with both her terrible marriage as well as doing some terrible things at work... I don't watch The Good Wife or pretend to know anything about it.

If I Had An Emmy Vote:

- Christina Hendricks (Joan Harris) in Mad Men
- Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper) in Mad Men
- Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) in Game of Thrones
- Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) in Game of Thrones
- Morena Baccarin (Jessica Brody) in Homeland
- Jennifer Carpenter (Debra Morgan) in Dexter

MAJOR SNUBS:

I don't know if there are major snubs this year but if I had to pick one I'd pick Kiernan Shipka. The conventional view is that Lena Headey is the biggest snub and I wouldn't fight you to hard on that but for the sake of talking about someone no one is talking about, I'll go with Sally Draper. Nothing against Headey and she was excellent in Season Two of Game of Thrones going from wildly deceitful, plotting, and mean to being surprisingly thoughtful and generous and pulling off both. That being said, the emphasis on Sally Draper and how a youth is being affected by the changing and wild 1960's was some of the best stuff on an average season of Mad Men. Shipka's been great since becoming a full time Mad Men regular and I think she deserves to get praised for her great work.

WHO WILL WIN / WHO SHOULD WIN:

Who Will Win: Anna Gunn
Who Should Win (Nominated): Christina Hendricks
Who Should Win (Not Nominated): Morena Baccarin

This is probably the pick I feel weakest about. Margo Martindale won this award last year but she neither was nominated nor eligible to win for her amazing performance of Mags Bennett in Justified this year. Archie Panjabi won this award two years ago so that would lead one to believe she's a favorite to win it this year but with Emmy voters shocking everyone by bucking their own trend of consistency and actually mixing things up with the nominations, I think voters will mix things up as well by awarding this award to Gunn. This is surprisingly Gunn's first Emmy nomination and with Season 4 of Breaking Bad being as amazing as it is (the season Gunn is nominated for) and with BB coming off of an amazing Season Five I think the support goes to Anna Gunn.

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2012 Emmy Predictions: Best Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

And the nominees are:

- Julie Bowen (Claire Dunphy) in Modern Family
- Sophia Vergara (Gloria Delgado-Pritchett) in Modern Family
- Mayim Bialik (Amy Farrah-Fowler) in The Big Bang Theory
- Kathryn Joosten (Karen McCluskey) in Desperate Housewives
- Merritt Wever (Zoey Barkow) in Nurse Jackie
- Kristen Wiig (Various Characters) in Saturday Night Live

MY REACTION TO THE NOMINATIONS:

The same feeling I had about the four males dominating the Best Supporting Actor category is the same feeling I have about the two Modern Family ladies here. What really separates Julie Bowen from Sophia Vergara expect that Vergara is hotter and more famous? Also, what makes the adults "better" than Sarah Hyland (Haley Dunphy) or Ariel Winter (Alex Dunphy)?... I hate, hate, hate Bialik's character on The Big Bang Theory. I think I'm alone on an island on this one but I can not stand her. I really dislike the relationship she has with Penny and I was never a big fan of Sheldon to begin with so having a female Sheldon really annoys me... Friend of the blog Dan Bennett *hates* Kristen Wiig with a passion and hates her so much that he even refused to see Bridesmaids. I can see where he is coming from because Wiig's over-the-top, larger-than-life characters can really get annoying but Wiig is supremely talented and when gets a low key role or a toned down role (like her character in Bridesmaids) she can be really good and really funny. Despite the fact that she is considered SNL's leading lady I don't think she is the most talented female cast member on her own show (see below)... I don't claim to watch Desperate Housewives and I wouldn't be caught dead watching it. Also, I don't watch Nurse Jackie. I make no apologies for either.

If I Has An Emmy Vote:

- Aubrey Plaza (April Ludgate) in Parks and Recreation
- Alison Brie (Annie Edison) in Community
- Vanessa Bayer (Various Characters) in Saturday Night Live
- Kaitlin Olson (Dee Reynolds) in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
- Naya Rivera (Santana) in Glee
- Jane Krakowski (Jenna Maroney) in 30 Rock

MAJOR SNUBS:

Again, I don't think any of my picks are "major" snubs and MUST be selected but I am, as always, disappointed by the anti Parks and Rec and Community bias.

WHO WILL WIN / WHO SHOULD WIN:

Who Will Win: Mayim Bialik
Who Should Win (Nominated): Sophia Vergara
Who Should Win (Not Nominated): Aubrey Plaza

The Big Bang Theory and Mayim Bialik have swept this country by storm. The Big Bang Theory is one of, if not THE, most popular comedy in American right now and the people love Sheldon as well as female Sheldon. It also helps Bialik that she is not a complete newcomer considering she was the star of Blossom a few years back as the Emmy's seem to feel you have to "earn" your way into stardom before winning an Emmy (see: Eva Longoria's Emmy nomination snub during the first season of Desperate Housewives when Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman ALL got nominations but Longoria did not)

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