2.02.2010

Best Supporting Actress Nominees 2009

Anne Hathaway has spoken. The Oscar gauntlet has fallen. And we're off...
A month of Supporting Actress profiles will commence this Sunday, each attending to the golden boy's favorite actresses at the edge in...


Supporting Actress Smackdown for 2009:
Sunday, February 28.
Featuring an excellent panel of Smackdowners, including:
Nathaniel @ The Film Experience,
Criticlasm,
Jakey On, Brooks 4 Media,
Encore Entertainment, Silver Screening Room
,
Awkward Is What We Aim For & Alex in Movieland...
and, of course, yours truly
STINKYLULU

Very quick analysis from StinkyLulu:
If there is a "shocker" this morning, it's Maggie Gyllenhaal's presence among the nominess, especially in the absence of Samantha Morton or Mélanie Laurent (though Nathaniel called Maggie's "coasting" in a week or so ago).

What's perhaps most notable about this field is that, with the exception of Cruz, they're Oscar newbies. This morning marks the first nominations for critical faves Vera Farmiga and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and first time attention for breakthrough performances by Mo'Nique and Anna Kendrick. That said, the roles for which these women are nominated are classic Oscar. We've got the Heartbreaking Harlot, The Mouthy Broad, The Girl, The Precocious Princess, and The Monstrous Mother. New nominees playing the same old roles that Oscar loves to actresses at the edges playing in. Not the most thrilling field, on some levels, but not embarrassing either.

But what's most clear: this year's Best Supporting Actress Oscar is Mo'Nique's trophy, with none of her worthy colleagues really poised for an upset.
What are you thoughts, lovely reader?
Spill, please, in comments.

13 comments:

Sam Brooks said...

If anybody told me that Penelope Cruz would be a triple Oscar nominee in 2001, I would've slapped them. And yet, here she is, the veteran in this field.

Bizarro.

Walter L. Hollmann said...

How soon can we claim spots in this year's Smackdown? Haven't seen Crazy Heart yet, but excited that my girl Maggie finally caught up to her brother!

Unknown said...

I'm with Walter. This is one of the few races I'm actually excited about even though well all know what the outcome will be. The inclusion of Mags does make it a tad more interesting.

Middento said...

I haven't seen any of these -- and yet even I might be on for this year's Smackdown. Just to get myself out to the movies. Heh heh.

(Bummed about no Julianne Moore, alas.)

StinkyLulu said...

Regarding this year's Smackdown:

Just shoot me an email expressing your interest, and by this weekend I'll figure it out. I am going to limit it to 8 folks, so there are five open slots.

coffeefortwo said...

A week ago, I had Maggie Gyllenhaal in my predictions, sure she'd get a spot for providing the person for the obvious Best Actor winner to play against, much the same way Ethan Hawke got nominated for "Training Day" seemingly because he provided fine support to allow Denzel Washington to shine. Then I chickened out, unable to cut either Diane Kruger or Julianne Moore from my list (it was easy to cut Penelope Cruz--I thought sure Oscar voters would ignore "Nine" as much as possible). You can tell how well that worked out for me.

jakey said...

I'm inexplicably disappointed by Maggie's nomination. My mind might change once I see her film. Glad that both the "Up in the Air" girls made it, as I saw that film last night.

StinkyLulu said...

MG's the bummer for me, too. It's quite simply an unremarkable performance. What's worse is that role has the potential of being amazing but, on my first look, she seemed to just phone it in.

:(

Alex Constantin said...

thanks for including me in the Smackdown again :D


about the noms:
I can't believe I'm not seeing at least one of the Inglourious girls... the actors seemed to love it, especially judging by the SAG win and all... I actually believe both Kruger and especially Laurent were nomination-worthy

Ready For My Close-Up said...

The lack of Julianne Moore saddens me. I thought her brief performance was heartbreaking and memorable, and resonated with me more than any other supporting performance I've seen this year. A truly haunting, complex, characterization from one of the greats.

Anna Kendrick was competent, Farmiga charming, and Cruz fun, but none of them ignited my imagination (Haven't seen Gyllenhaal yet). Mo'Nique is the clear winner of the group, for her moving and difficult (if somewhat overenthusiastically received) work in Precious.

poz pig said...

Have to say that the Weinstein's really mucked up by trying to shoe-horn Cotillard into Best Actress for Nine. She would have been a powerful nominee for Supporting Actress (where she truly belongs).

Of the two Inglorious Girls, I would have killed to see Diane Kruger there, who gets my award for Most-Astonishing-Performance-from-An-Actress-I-Had-Completely-Written-Off. The way she held the basement scene in Basterds was just masterful.

Annoyingly, Crazy Heart hasn't been released in London yet, and Precious only last weekend so I haven't seen either. But my heart goes to Kendrick on the list. She had to play a lot of quite complicated shades in that role and I thought she did an incredible job.

Zev Valancy said...

Agreed wholeheartedly on Cotillard--she was by far the best thing about NINE, and it would have been nice for her to be recognized.

Anonymous said...

I do not get if there was to be a NINE slot in this category why Marion Cotillard was not the one. She knocked it out of the park. And Maggie was not remarkable in a role that was not remarkable. And I have always loved Vera Farmiga, but I do not see this role as worthy either.