End of 2012: 10 Favourite Female Performances of 2012

Continuing with my lists to wrap 2012 up, I give you third and the last post looking at some of my favourite performances from 2012 by Actresses in leading or supporting role. I know many of us, including me, do believe that 2012 was a great year for cinema. But I also believe that it was even a better year for the actresses. We had so many amazing performances throughout this year that limiting this list to 10 was considerably difficult task than my previous list of Actors. The fact that only one of the two Oscar winners made the list and that too as an honourable mention should be an indication enough of it. 

Starting the list off with honourable mentions who very well could have made the list but missed:  Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook, Kareena Kapoor in Talaash, Juno Temple in Killer Joe, Quvenzhane Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Helen Hunt in The Sessions.

Off to the main list, which is once again listed in an alphabetical order as I did in the last list since I find it so much easier this way to focus on things that matter, like their acting.

Amy Adams in The Master: I LOVE Amy Adams. Best way to get me excited about a movie is to cast her in it. Now you know what to expect next, right? If I remember correctly, Disney's Enchanted(2007) was the first time I saw an actress named Amy Adams. She has certainly come a long way since then, even by becoming my favourite contemporary actress. I have not only seen every movie she did since then, I have plowed my way through most of her filmography before it as well. Even if we try to find, I don't think we will find someone who can go from Enchanted to The Master or from Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day(2008) to The Fighter(2010) or Junebug(2005), one of earlier roles to Doubt(2008) or... I can go on, but I guess you get my point. If you are wondering, the reason I am not talking about her role in The Master specifically is because I've said it time and again - off course, she was amazing. How can she not be?

Vidya Balan in Kahaani: Over the last few years, Vidya Balan has successfully established herself as the go-to actress for more woman-centric, serious and challenging roles. Starting off with Parineeta in 2005, she has tackled wide variety of roles in her career so far. The reason this becomes a significant achievement is even now, majority of actresses in Hindi industry are essentially caught playing the role of love-interest. Even Kahaani as a movie deserves special mention as movies with strong female lead with almost no male actor in much significant role is almost never heard of in Indian scenario. The fact that they not only made such a movie but did it well and got Balan for it who skillfully handles all the ups and downs of this character is just a cherry on top.

Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty: 'Miss 2011' had a kinda quiet 2012. Off course by her 2011 standards, almost anything would be quiet but even by normal standards, 2012 wouldn't be called great. Off course, that was until she started making waves with Kathryn Bigelow directed Zero Dark Thirty which got many rave reviews for her performance. Even though I would say I quite loved ZDT, I have had my problems with it. And so did I with Maya as well but I guess that comes with the trade. Despite my reservation with the character, there is no denying that this was a praiseworthy performance. Determination and perseverance of the character really reflects through her performance. Maybe the die-hard Homeland(2011) fanatic in me has something to do with it because her character here is very similar to Carrie but I really admire them both despite their flaws.

Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone: In many ways, this was my real introduction to Marion Cotillard. Not that I had not seen any of her movies before but most of what I had seen includes her in the supporting cast. Midnight in Paris(2011) was probably the biggest role of her I had seen prior. So this was my first powerful Marion Cotillard performance and she did prove herself worthy of all the praises. Rust and Bone not so much, I found it hard to really connect to Mathias Schoenaerts' Alain until the last 15 minutes, which did give him some gravity but not much. Cotillard, on the other hand, was really amazing. Her independent fierce nature before her accident, her defeated, lost demeanour after loosing her legs but her slow transformation back into the world with the help of Alain is projected very ably by Cotillard. I honestly think if they focused more on her, Rust and Bone would have been a better movie.

Rosemarie DeWitt in Your Sister's Sister: If you know me, if you have been following this blog for some time, you would probably know that this role has been my soft spot this whole award season. I even did a post making case for her.The thing about Your Sister's Sister is Emily Blunt was the only person related to this movie that I can say I had any previous knowledge of. I had only seen DeWitt in Rachel Getting Married(2008), Mark Duplass and Lynn Ramsey pretty much nowhere. So, you can say I did not have much expectations of it and it really surprised me but Rosemarie DeWitt has to be the most pleasant surprise of them all. She was smart, funny, extremely subtle and very genuine in her role letting her eyes and her expressions doing most of the talking. She was so natural, so comfortable in her role that she had me completely won over by the end of it.

Ann Dowd in Compliance: I spent half of Compliance screaming 'Really?', 'Are you really going to do that?' or 'How can you be so stupid?' at the screen to Dowd's Sandy. The other half was spent in utter disbelief of her stupidity. But when I calmed down a bit after the movie and thought objectively about the movie and performances in it, I have to say that Compliance would not have been half as good as it was without performance of this gullible manager of fast food chain restaurant from Ann Dowd and then she just hits it out of the park in that last scene of her interview. Her submissiveness, willingness to comply to the apparent authority figure was the biggest selling point of the movie and from my reactions, I have to say they more than succeeded in it. Giving the credit where it's due - Ann Dowd, you have successfully gotten under my skin.

Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises: I know I said only one Oscar winner made my list and that was in honourable mentions. Even though Hathaway is second winner this year, she didn't win it for this role right? Now, I haven't seen Michelle Pfeiffer's Cat-woman in Batman Returns(1992). I have seen a lot of people praising her and maybe they are right, maybe she is really great, maybe she is even better than Hathaway in this role. But from the day this casting news was made public, almost everyone dismissed Hathaway. 'She will never hold a candle to Pfeiffer', 'Nolan should leave Cat-woman alone' they said. I'll admit that was mainly because 'In Nolan we Trust', a fan-boy motto and even though I do not have anything against her, I ain't exactly a Hathaway fan either but still I thought this was highly unfair. If I had one expectation from Rises, it was for Hathaway to kick some major ass. And Boy, did she deliver? Even beyond my wildest expectation.

Emmanuelle Riva in Amour: Of all the nominees for Best Actress this year, Riva was my choice. I am not exactly saying that she was the best of the lot but more like, I wanted her to win regardless of whether she was better than others or not. It was more emotional than logical though she was indeed really great. Amour was my 'movie of the year' as well and none of he other four movies made it to my top 15, so I guess that was the catalyst. This movie is all about the slow deterioration of her health after her stroke up until her eventual death and her relationship with her husband. Amour is painstakingly real, maybe even a little too real and Riva's portrayal of every stage of her deterioration gets a lot of credit for that. However, at the same time she also provides some of the rare lighter moments of the movie like running her husband over with her new wheelchair. What Riva does with moments like these was one of the very important reasons for making it my favourite movie of the year.

Sridevi in English Vinglish: To those unaware of who Sridevi is, she was one of the most popular actresses in the Hindi film industry in '80s and '90s however she hasn't really worked much since then. So in a way, this also marks her return to her glory days though I have no idea if it is for just this one film or she is thinking seriously about it but either ways, this is quite a return. I've always had issues with her voice and the manner in which she speaks which was really distracting. It didn't magically vanish in English Vinglish but by making her housewife considered insignificant by her own family director Gauri Shinde managed to use it to her advantage. To Sridevi's credit, she brings out the vulnerabilities of her character beautifully which makes her overall journey even more remarkable. Her sweet mannerisms make us like her character and genuinely care for her, quite an achievement for someone who would very easily annoy me.

Rachel Weisz in The Deep Blue Sea: When I saw The Deep Blue Sea, I did not know that this is a remake. After watching this, I checked out the older 1955 movie. When I saw Vivien Leigh played the part that Weisz plays, of Hester in original, I smiled to myself. Knowing what I know about Leigh, it made me a little sad but I thought Vivien Leigh would have been perfect for this role. Hester's love is self-destructing. I don't mean to get too philosophical but after something like the underground train station scene in this movie, I feel like nobody should love anyone so much that it hurts if you aren't loved as much in return. Cinematography and more importantly background score of this movie deserve good part of credit for it but every time you see Weisz on screen, there is so much yearning, there is so much pining, it wrenches your heart. My heart sinks a little even thinking of her now.

And with this, I am done with you 2012!! So what did you think of them? Are they really as worthy as I think? Did I miss someone?  Please let me know in the comments.

And the Oscar Goes to...

It is that time of the year again !! With last night's Oscar, this is time to officially wrap-up 2012 and look forward to everything else. Starting with this post and with few more to come in early March, I am ready to do just that. For various reasons, I chose to be absent from all the predictions and other games prior to the Oscars. All I did was few tweets on some of the categories below but I loved the certain uncertainly about many categories. I think it made the actual ceremony a little more interesting. But after skipping on so called mandatory post on these predictions, I am not skipping the second mandatory post. As always, I am only concentrating on the categories that I have some knowledge of. So, only Film, Writing, Directing and Acting and here is the list the winners and my brief thoughts on these categories.

Results: I am not exactly saying that ManFarlane's opening sequence wasn't funny but I am also not saying it was. One, it was offensive, even though he tried to make it up for it afterwards. I mean who wants to listen to 'I have seen your Boobs' on Oscar stage? Really? And more important than that, it went on forever. I might have had little different opinion of it, itf it was half its length. 17 Minutes? and then they cut off Visual Effects Winners. Not Cool, Academy !!

Best Picture: Argo
Argo did built a strong momentum in its favour winning almost every single major award in last month or two. Going into the ceremony, it was pretty much sure that it's Argo's to lose. I am not any kind of Oscar pundit and I am not going into any stats, but it was staggering to see people dive onto them and literally finding reasons for it not to win. I loved this movie when I first saw it, I love it even now and I do not have any problem with it taking the big one. Of the 9 nominees, it wouldn't be my first choice but I will choose it over any one of the rest of the nominees.
 
Best Director: Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Lack of nomination to Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow made this category a little lackluster but to put it mildly, intriguing. Predictions were all over the place, from Spielberg to Ang Lee to Russell and even to some rare, bold, dreamer minds, even Haneke. Eventually, it looked like it will be a pick between Spielberg and Lee. Personally, I wasn't a big fan of either of the movie but I would have picked Spielberg. Academy went the other way and picked Lee, who did a good job of adapting what was considered unfilmable novel.

Best Actress in Lead Role: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Riva would have been my choice in this category but initially I had no hope for her. Well, until few days back when out of nowhere, I saw almost everyone standing behind her. I mean, I had no problem with it. After all, she's the one I wanted to win but what happened to Chastain? Or Lawrence? Didn't they win almost every single award there was to win? I was surprised to see that. In the end, Lawrence took the momentum with her and went till the end.

Best Actor In Lead Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln
I don't have anything against DDL but I wasn't much keen on Lincoln or even him in it. It is a good performance but it just didn't feel anything special to me. In my opinion, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington were better. But that doesn't matter since I would be fool not to believe DDL was going to win this. Probably only Meryl Streep would've beat him this year.

Best Actress in Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Miserables.
Again, Nothing agains Anne Hathaway or Les Miserables. She was excellent in that role and obviously was going to win this Oscar and she did. Good for her. However, I was getting rather tired of her over-dramatic, over-ecstatic acceptance speeches. I like Hathaway as an actress and I want to keep liking her but it just was a little too much. I am glad that she didn't act too surprised and gave much more composed and heartfelt speech. Not Bad.

Best Actor In Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained
I don't know if it makes it more interesting or frustrating but If ever there was a race more uncertain than this, I have not known it. I have seen people predicting practically every nominee in this race and it wasn't for nothing. Jones, Waltz and De Niro all had something going in there favour. I probably wouldn't have any problem with any of them winning though my favourite of 5 was Hoffman. But you have to choose one and I went with Waltz. And I was right. Waltz was awesome in Django, actually he was my favourite part of the movie. So, I am happy for his second Oscar.

Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
WOW!! QUENTIN TARANTINO !! It wasn't what I expected. I thought that Academy will go with the WGA and give it to Mark Boal for ZDT. But Tarantino took it home. Why am I even trying to justify my excitement? It's Tarantino and I am happy he won, despite having few problems with Django. I am ecstatic for proving my guess wrong Academy! If only, you would give us few more of such awesome surprises.

Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo

I know I sound like a brooked record when I say I ain't complaining and go on to do just that but Argo can not win the big prize and not win anything else, right? It didn't have any chance in any of the other categories. So, this award automatically belonged to Argo. The reason I say I am not complaining is, even though it would have been nominate in every damn category, I would have chosen this category for it to win. Argo's screenplay was the strongest aspect of the movie in my opinion. So, I am happy that it won.

Animated Feature: Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman for Brave
I haven't seen all the nominated movies but from what I have seen Brave was the best. Wasn't big fan of ParaNoramn and I haven't seen anything else yet. So I am probably not the right person to judge this but still I can be happy for Brave right?  

Foreign Language: Michael Haneke for Amour (Austria)
Well, that wasn't a surprise at all. I am yet to see two of the other four nominees

but Amour is my favourite movie of the year. So, I basically want it to win everything it can. But in reality, this was the only one award I was almost sure it will win. So, Team Haneke !! For once, I have seen the Best Foreign Film winner before it won the Oscar.

And we are Done with Life of Pi leading with 4, including Best Director, Les Miserables takes home 3, and today's big winner Argo taking home 3 as well. There were few surprises to keep it interesting for all of us - Ang Lee, Waltz, Tarantino and should I also say, Jennifer Lawrence? Not the best Oscars I have seen - I wasn't a big fan of Seth MacFarlane and his jokes, many of which seemed inappropriate to me but not to shabby either. I guess we will have to settle for that. Night hosted a lot of musical performances, most of which were quite decent actually. However, the highlight for me was Shirley Bassey. She was awesome. Michelle Obama introducing best picture nominee was a cool idea too. See you next year, Oscars !! I, for one, can not wait to officially close off 2012 and look forward to getting into all the other movies I have been stalling for past few months.

Best Supporting Actress for LAMB Devours the Oscars

Note: This Post was originally published on LAMB site on 29th January as a part of 32-Post series 'LAMB Devours the Oscar' where 32 different LAMB members wrote about 32 different posts covering different categories of Oscars. I am posting it again here after some edits. You can have a look at all the other entries that have been published so far in the series, here.

With multitude of awards going in every which possible way, this award season has successfully kept us guessing till today. There are very few categories this year that have even clear frontrunners, let alone locks. With the recent surge of Argo(2012) winning a whole bunch of awards and Affleck being not nominated for Directors Category in Oscars, there is still a room for speculation about will Argo be able to pull it off at Oscars? And if it does, what about Director? Even Best actress race, even though down to Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain with Lawrence little ahead with her SAG win, is still interesting. Remember right around this time last year, almost all the nominations were more or less down to 2 horse races. We may agree or disagree with the decisions but at least it has kept most of us interested in the races. However, probably along with the Best Actor category, today’s category in question – Best Actress in Supporting Role, is the only category that does have a clear frontrunner, and dare I say even a lock. Let’s dig a little deeper, shall we?

Nominations for the Best Actress in Supporting Role in 2013 Oscars are

Amy Adams, The Master

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Sally Field, Lincoln

Let me go through all the nominations one by one and we will discuss their role, their Oscar history and most importantly, their chances of winning come Sunday, 24th February.

First in line is Amy Adams playing the role of Peggy Dowd, Master’s wife in The Master(2012). This is her 4th Nomination though she has never won one yet. The Master has had fair share of its fervent supporters as well as distractors. I for one, happen to fall on the good side of it. There are also fair share of people who believe Amy Adams wasn’t there enough or wasn’t good enough to deserve this nomination.  I also happen to fall on the other side of this argument. I agree that she had very few moments to show her worth but she grabbed every single one of them with both hands and even when she was just in the background, not really doing much, she made her presence felt. However, if we look at the chances of her winning this year, I am pretty sure she will have to wait yet another year to get her hands on that statuette. It really pains me to say that as I am a BIG Adams fan – I woke up on the day of nominations at 5:30 in the morning and only thing I really hoped for was they don’t snub Amy Adams. I would have gone berserk if they did – but her chances of winning remain slim to none.

Next in the line-up is Anne Hathaway for playing the role of Fantine in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic Les Miserable(2012). It is her second nomination following the Best Actress nom for Rachel Getting Married in 2009. She hasn’t won an Oscar yet either but this year might as well be her chance. Talking about not being in the movie enough, Hathaway is in this movie for like 15 minutes but as she has said in the every interview she has given for last few months, she does get the most powerful song of the movie and I will be honest, with her voice, with her body language, with everything she’s got, she Kills that song. And her role. She started off this year with a scene stealer role of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises(2012) and capped it off with this heartfelt and devastating performance which leaves us wishing she should have been there longer. At this moment, carrying the momentum from multiple wins including Critics Choice and Globes, I would call her the frontrunner.

Next is Helen Hunt for The Sessions(2012) in which she is in the role of Cheryl, a professional Sex surrogate who helps Mark O’Brian who is on iron lung loose his virginity. She is also a second time nominee and a past winner of Best Actress Oscar for As Good As It Gets(1997). First of all, this is a remarkable story. Very touching, sentimental but not unnecessarily melodramatic, lovely and since it is about sex, even a little embarrassing but never icky or uncomfortable. Helen Hunt and John Hawkes playing Mark get majority of the credit to carry the emotional weight of this movie on their shoulders. Helen Hunt handles her role with a great honesty and maturity. Now if we look at her chances in this Oscar race, there is a lot of similarity between her and Amy Adams. Both were considered viable candidates long before their movies were released. After they did and they both promptly delivered as per the expectations, everyone started calling them virtual locks for the nomination. But after landing that nom unfortunately, for both of them, buck stops here.

Fourth actress to get nominated is Jacki Weaver in the role of Bradley Cooper’s mother Dolores in Silver Linings Playbook(2012). This is her second nomination following the 2010 nomination for Animal Kingdom(2009). This movie is a success story of this year’s nominations getting nominated in every single category it can in Top 8(Acting, Directing, Writing and Film). However, out of all the seven nominations film got, Jacki Weaver’s nomination is probably the least anticipated. She does a great job of playing this kind of lynchpin of a character trying to do what she thinks is best for holding all the relations together. I loved her in that role and I am really happy that she got nominated but I really do not see her anywhere within miles of winning this Oscar. Even though this is a supporting category where these characters are not supposed to steal the thunder, almost all the nominees have at least one shining moment in their film. Jacki Weaver doesn’t even have her moment of glory which makes it a through and through supporting character. If she did, I would have made a much stronger case for her.

Last nominee in this field is Sally Field playing the role of Mary Todd Lincoln, President Abraham Lincoln’s wife in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln(2012). This is third nomination for Sally Field and she has won both the time she was nominated before. Though overall I had a lukewarm response to the movie, I did think that it had some great performances. However, Sally Field wasn’t one of them. Personally, I did not feel like there was an enough conviction in her role to reinforce the emotions her character goes through in the movie. But that’s just non-American me who doesn’t really know anything about Lincoln’s personal life and besides I don’t get to vote to decide who wins this award. So considering those who do *obligatory joke on Oscar Voter’s demographic* I am still not ready to discount off Sally Field completely. Even though over the last few years this has been the category where Academy tries to show it has a broader range, because of the role she is playing, I still believe Sally Field is a viable candidate to take home that coveted third Oscar.

So to wrap it up, I think Anne Hathaway pretty much has both her hands around this Oscar. Sally Field is the dark horse of this race and if they announce her as the winner on the Oscar Sunday, it will not surprise me but personally, it will definitely disappoint me. You can do better than that Academy!! At least, I hope you can. Everyone else should enjoy the Red Carpet and work on their poker face.