The 2016 Academy Awards has a slew of drama this year for the first time in many years. Sure, certain categories don’t have much mystery… such as Best Actor. But when it comes to who could win Best Supporting Actress, it’s anyone’s ballgame right now as the February 28 awards show inches closer.
Today, The Movie Mensch’s Oscar Watch dives into that highly competitive pool of talented women that finds four of them playing real life subjects, and a fifth serving as the rare female voice in the boys’ club of Quentin Tarantino’s latest western, The Hateful Eight.
After that Tarantino film debuted back in December, many considered Jennifer Jason Leigh a front-runner. But, the race has changed and a new leader has emerged in our minds. So… who will win?
Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
McAdams was a ray of sunshine in the bleakest of canvases in Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight. The film that chronicled the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize winning expose of the Catholic Church and its pedophile scandal. Her character’s compassion was captured by the beloved actress with such a pitch perfect tone. McAdams was the sole female member of the Spotlight team and as such, brought a true heart to the group that anchored it, and also drove it towards the astounding accomplished it achieved in its year-long investigation.
McAdams will someday win an Oscar, but sadly, 2016 will not be the year.
Rooney Mara, Carol
First of all, Mara should be nominated for Best Actress for Carol. There is nothing supporting about her role as the love interest of Cate Blanchett in the 1950s set Todd Haynes stunner. Mara captures an innocence and passion that chronicles her discovery of her true self and sexuality during a time period where that type of exploration of one’s self was not only looked down upon, but incredibly prejudiced against.
Mara embodied so much with just her face. It is a stunning turn and a career best for the actress probably best known for the David Fincher directed American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I suppose the winner of the “it’s an honor to be nominated” category this year has to be Mara. Even though it is utterly bizarre that they think of her as supporting Blanchett.
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Jason Leigh should be giving her fellow nominees a run for their Oscar gold. But, it appears the buzz for her grasping her first Academy Award has waned. At this point, she and her writer-director, Tarantino, have to be thrilled with the Best Supporting Actress nomination in that it brought a whole lot of attention to the latest western drama from the auteur.
Jason Leigh not only played crazy brilliantly, but showed us heaps of sisterly love that helps explain all the mystery behind the entire The Hateful Eight story. It is a hurricane of a performance that also has enough pause (i.e. the eye of the hurricane), so that the dramatic effect of her full character arc will storm the audience at the conclusion of the film and leave them with their jaws dropped.
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
If there is a should win versus who will win, Winslet’s performance as Steve Jobs’ longtime PR manager should be the one that gives her her latest Academy Award. She just picked up the BAFTA Award for the stunning turn in Steve Jobs, but sadly, another British Isles resident is going to win the award for Best Actress this year. The momentum is too hard to ignore.
Winslet captured her character at three very different times in her professional life with Jobs. Each product launch provided its own set of unique challenges, personally and professionally for everyone involved in telling the tale. The Oscar winner (for The Reader) uttered Aaron Sorkin’s word with such skill, she should forever add the talent of “wordsmith balance beam artist” to her resume.
And the Oscar goes to…
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Vikander is another who should not be in this category. But, she will win it.
Vikander went toe-to-toe with Eddie Redmayne (a Best Actor nominee for The Danish Girl) in the true story period piece. Therefore, she is a Best Actress contender, not a Best Supporting Actress candidate. But, when the night is done, she will now forever be known as an Oscar winner. So, semantics, right?!
In many circles, it is believed that the Academy also got it wrong on this one on another level. Vikander should be a nominee (and a winner) for her stunning and profound turn as an AI-hatched being in the wildly entertaining and powerful Ex Machina. Instead, she will win for The Danish Girl in a role that truly has her leading, not supporting. Guess that a win is a win.