Yay, another “Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot”! The Hollywood Reporter speaks to various Oscar voters under the condition of anonymity as those voters fill out their ballots, and THR publishes their comments and reasoning for how they voted. It’s honestly one of my favorite annual Oscar traditions. THR has already released ballot #1 and ballot #2, and they published ballot #3 this weekend. This voter is a member of the acting branch and the voter has STRONG opinions about just about everyone and everything. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Best Picture nominees: “Mad Max: [Fury Road] was really remarkable — it’s a movie I would not want to see again, but I have to say that he [George Miller] really made a ride on an intense rollercoaster and it was jaw-dropping. The Martian was entertaining but predictable. The Revenant was the most overblown, over-hyped piece of crap ever — I mean, honestly. I think it’s gonna win, sadly, because people buy into all the PR about how hard it was to make, but I don’t care. There was something anti-human about this movie; there was no humanity and I didn’t like anybody. Room was kind of amazing — just telling a complex story so well. I liked Spotlight but I didn’t love it — I think it was more about glorifying the journalists than about what happened to the victims, which bothered me — and they patted themselves on the back so much about this movie that it really turned me off. I put Big Short at number one and left the other lines blank — mathematically, I don’t want to throw things off and help another movie. They really should have just one line.
Best Actor, gossip about Leo DiCaprio: “First, let me say that [Mr. Holmes’] Ian McKellen should have been nominated. But, of the five people who were, I immediately ruled out [The Revenant’s] Leonardo DiCaprio. I know he’s gonna win, but I thought his performance was all environment acting — if you put somebody in the cold, they’re gonna shake and shiver — and I thought he played the whole thing one-note. I really didn’t see any change from beginning to end — nothing was revealed that was unexpected. Also, I’ve gotta tell you that a lot of Academy members were bothered by him showing up at Academy events with two bodyguards.” My vote: Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)
Best Actress: “I ruled out [Joy’s] Jennifer Lawrence — she’s a fabulous young actress, she’s beautiful, she’s very charming, I love her, but she should take a break for a year or two before she does another movie because she’s doing the same thing over and over. She’s on repeat. Next out is the Irish girl [Brooklyn’s Saoirse Ronan] — she’s really lovely and terrific, and without her that film would have really sucked, but even with her it was pretty weak. I think she was let down by her director [John Crowley]. Cate Blanchett is always wonderful, and she was fine in [Carol], but she was even better as the step-mother in Cinderella. It was very hard for me to choose between [Room’s] Brie Larson and [45 Years’ Charlotte Rampling]. I liked Brie very much — she did a fabulous job — but I ultimately went with Charlotte because her part was harder to do, since the marks that she had to hit to make her movie work were less clear. She gave such a subtle performance, and I know it left some people I know bored, but I was with her — and Tom Courtenay — every step of the way. My vote: Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
Best Supporting Actress, Rooney Mara shade: “I think category fraud is disgusting, and it is blatant category fraud for [Carol’s] Rooney Mara and [The Danish Girl’s] Alicia Vikander to be in this category — they were clearly stars of their movies and they should not have been allowed in this category. Even though I liked Alicia’s performance a lot, I will not vote for anybody who is the star of their movie but competes in a supporting category — I’m really angry that they do that. Now, even if Rooney Mara had been nominated in the leading category, I wouldn’t have voted for her because I thought her performance was dreadful — that part needed an Audrey Hepburn, an enchanting, alive, beautiful young woman, instead of this depressed person who I never believed Cate Blanchett would have fallen in love with.
More thoughts on Best Supporting Actress: “I didn’t like [Spotlight’s Rachel] McAdams’ performance. I thought of the entire ensemble she was the weakest because she didn’t reveal anything about her character — even in her scenes with her grandmother she felt flat. I also eliminated [The Hateful Eight’s] Jennifer Jason Leigh, who basically just spat and cursed and got punched. I think she’s a wonderful actress — I’ve nominated her before — but this was not her finest moment. I voted for [Steve Jobs’] Kate Winslet because I didn’t even recognize her! I thought, “Who is this actress? She’s really terrific!” She created a character and she pulled it off, so hats off to her. My vote: Kate Winslet (Steve Jobs)
The voter had all of these horrible things to say about Steve Jobs, then ends up voting for Kate Winslet because she dared to wear a brown wig and speak in one of the WORST MOVIE ACCENTS OF ALL TIME? I’m sorry, but Winslet is the reason why Steve Jobs didn’t work. This is what I’ve said for months now: imagine Lizzy Caplan in that role and tell me Winslet isn’t the worst part. I didn’t include this voter’s lengthy thoughts on Brooklyn, which this voter hated because it wasn’t realistic in its portrayal of how immigration really was in the 1950s, because apparently Brooklyn was supposed to be a documentary? The voter also had a lot to say about Best Supporting Actor, but they eventually voted for Mark Rylance in Bridge of Spies.
And, as always, I’m loving all the shade for The Revenant. It’s amazing. And I agree that Ian McKellen should have been nominated for Mr. Holmes. His performance was amazing in that little gem of a movie.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
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