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| Patricia Arquette is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Boyhood. |
Each day as we make
our way to the Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 22, Last Cinema Standing will take
an in-depth look at each of the categories, sorting out the highs, the lows,
and everything in between. Check back right here for analysis, predictions, and
gripes as we inch toward the Dolby Theater and that world-famous red carpet.
Best Supporting Actress
The nominees are:
Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Emma Stone for Birdman
Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game
Meryl Streep for Into
the Woods
Laura Dern for Wild
Three mothers, a daughter, and a colleague – those are the
characters portrayed by the five women nominated for Best Supporting Actress,
not exactly a full range of human experiences, but look closer. Among those you
have an all-powerful witch, a strong, resilient teacher, and a brilliant
mathematician. Now things are starting to look a little better.
With good reason, the topic of quality roles for women comes
up constantly in the Oscar season and beyond. Undoubtedly, there are too few
female-led films, too few stories told about the great women throughout history
– or even the not-so-great women. More roles, however, do not necessarily mean
better roles. What we need are more parts for women that are as deep, complex,
and emotionally rich as their male counterparts. That will be progress.
Not all of the nominees for Best Supporting Actress this
year fit that mold, which is a shame, considering how many great performances
were left on the sidelines in favor of these. However, the two roles here that
do require depth and soul are two of the best characters of the year and
feature two of the best performances. These are all great actresses, and with
the right material, each is capable of delivering stunning work, as proven by
the two actresses here who were given some of the best material of the year.
Hopefully, the best material keeps coming to all of them.
Patricia Arquette for
Boyhood – There is a way of
reading Boyhood wherein Arquette is
the film’s lead, and I do not think anyone would have blinked had she been
nominated in the Best Actress category. While the film ostensibly concerns the
coming of age of a young Texas boy, Arquette plays the woman who raises that
boy while at the same time figuring out the person she wants to be. Most
parents who see the film instantly identify with Arquette’s struggle as she
bounces around from being a single mother to an abused wife to a single mother
again, all while striving to do what is best for her children.
Arquette comes from an acting family, and she has been in
the Hollywood game almost 30 years. She spent 12 of those years making Boyhood. The dedication alone is enough
to impress, but the awards success she has already seen for the film goes
deeper than that. Reflecting back on Boyhood,
it is her character and her journey that stand out as pivotal to the film.
Writer-director Richard Linklater and Arquette collaborate
to make the character more than a mom. She is a wife, a lover, a student, and a
teacher. She is a real person with real regrets and real fears about where her
choices in life are taking her and where they have brought her. When she
wonders aloud toward the end of the film what dedicating her life to her children
has brought her, we cannot shame her for feeling that. We can only empathize
with a woman who has given so much in life and received so little.
Emma Stone for Birdman – Sam, as played by Stone,
is the voice of her generation, but it is not meant to be a flattering
portrayal. As washed-up actor Riggan Thompson’s (Michael Keaton) daughter, Sam
is all self-absorption and self-importance. She has an answer for questions she
has not yet been asked and opinions on topics about which she knows nothing.
She is the social media culture incarnate and a dire warning for where a
generation raised on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube may be headed.
Stone is perfect in the role, bringing the energy and anger
of youth with a hint of deeply buried vulnerability. About midway through the
film, Stone delivers a monologue so brutal and so cutting that it threatens to
take the character beyond the point of redemption, but with the subtlest change
in her facial expression, Stone brings us back around, if not to her side, then
to the middle. Wordlessly, she expresses regret about her tirade but resolutely
refuses to admit she may have been wrong. It is a moment that relies entirely
on the actress’ face, and Stone nails it.
Meryl Streep for Into the Woods – You all know Meryl
Streep. You know what she has accomplished – three Academy Awards and 19
nominations, more than any other actor in history. She has tried everything and
been everybody – a factory worker, a prime minister, a singer, a druggie, an
adventurer, and a nun, among countless other roles. She is a legend who could
show up to work and earn a nomination for her safe driving, if such an
organization existed to hand out awards. Ultimately, that is part of the
problem.
Streep is good in the part of the witch. There is no denying
it, but the kneejerk reaction to Streep piling on the makeup or putting on an
accent is to nominate her for an award. I am saying that should probably stop. If
Academy members really think this performance, this year, is one of the five
best performances by an actress in a supporting role, they need to see more
movies. Royalty is royalty. The prize is being such. We do not need to weigh
her down with more accolades just for showing up, donning a wig, and belting
out a few songs, however ably. Let’s think outside the box once in a while.
Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game – Not yet 30
years old, Knightley is a two-time nominee who has shown a facility for
transitioning from epic blockbusters to period dramas to low-budget indies.
In 2014 alone, she appeared in Jack Ryan:
Shadow Recruit, The Imitation Game,
and Begin Again. She is an immensely
talented actresses with many years of strong characters and great performances
ahead of her. The Imitation Game,
however, will hopefully be just a footnote to her career.
As capable as Knightley is, she is given little to do as Joan
Clarke, Alan Turing’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) colleague, wife, and confidante.
Though we are briefly shown Clark’s talent for mathematics and code breaking,
the film serves as an ode to the greatness of Turing. As such, Clark is written
merely as another character to stand in awe of Turing and bear witness to his
greatness. Knightley does her best, but she is hamstrung by a part that as
written, lacks complexity or emotional depth.
Laura Dern for Wild – Speaking of good actresses with
minimal characters to play, Dern makes little more than a couple cameo
appearances in Wild, despite being
the whole reason for the story. Dern plays Bobbi, Cheryl Strayed’s (Reese
Witherspoon) mother. We see her only in flashbacks as Strayed hikes up the
Pacific Crest Trail. We learn more about Bobbi from Strayed’s voiceovers and
conversations with other people than we do in the precious little screen time
Dern actually has.
Some of this is due to the script and some is due to
director Jean-Marc Vallée’s impressionistic style, which requires that actors
in small roles have a big impact. Vallée has cast the right actress for the
task in Dern, but her passivity only serves to undercut any strength Dern would
have brought to the part. The character mostly serves as a sounding board for
Witherspoon’s more assertive Strayed. None of this is to say Dern’s performance
is bad, but awards worthy it is not.
The final analysis
When it comes to the win, there is Arquette and no one else.
She has won every conceivable precursor award, including from the Screen Actors
Guild, the Golden Globes, and the British Academy of Film and Television. She
will win the Oscar in a walk, and it will be as much for her performance in Boyhood as for a lifetime of turning in
strong work in film and on television. She is a deserving actress, and I look
forward to her acceptance speech.
Will win:
Patricia Arquette for Boyhood
Should win: Emma
Stone for Birdman
Wish she had been
here: Katherine Waterston for Inherent Vice
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