The following is my Oscars ballot for this category, Best Actress in a Supporting Role:
WINNER: Emma Stone (The Favourite)
The Favourite is a film, set in England in the early 18th century, that follows the struggle between Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail Masham (Emma Stone) as they jockey for the attention and adoration of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Spoiler alert: You are going to hear a lot from me about The Favourite over the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to the Oscars – it was truly a pitch-perfect movie. And for all of director Yorgos Lanthimos’s stylistic vision and Deborah Davis’s and Tony McNamara’s snappy script, what makes this film truly sing is its three-headed monster of a cast – Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz. Both Stone and Weisz received nominations for Best Supporting Actress (beyond deservedly so), and their performances were my two favorite on the year – Stone breaks the tie in my mind, which is why she’s pegged as my pick in this category (although I would be perfectly okay with either actress taking home the gold). While Weisz’s Sarah is the established figure in Queen Anne’s inner circle, Abigail is the newcomer – Stone was born to embody this role within the film’s dynamic, as she adeptly navigates the precise contrast between Abigail’s simultaneous innocence and cunningness. Stone has always thrived with comedic material, and in The Favourite, that experience is too obvious to ignore – she is simply at her very best!
2. Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)
As mentioned above, if Rachel Weisz finds herself giving an acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress on Oscars night, I will not be displeased in the least – her performance as Sarah Churchill in The Favourite is just as flawless as Stone’s. While Stone’s Abigail is the rookie in the castle, Weisz’s Sarah is Queen Anne’s recognized confidante and advisor, as well as her trusted lover. When Abigail comes along and tries to steal Sarah’s cushy position right out from under her, Sarah resorts to psychological mind games out of uncompromising devotion to Queen Anne in an effort to retake her number-one spot (*Ludacris voice*) from Abigail. These characteristics are vastly different than Abigail’s, and Weisz (a seasoned actress with prior experience mastering the art of Yorgos Lanthimos’s idiosyncratic vision – i.e., The Lobster) is the perfect person to take on the challenge. Weisz emotes steeliness in a manner that sends chills up your spine, and her ability to effectively portray Sarah’s undying commitment to Queen Anne with shrewd resolve highlights a performance to be remembered.
3. Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk)
Set in Harlem in the 1970s, If Beale Street Could Talk tells the complicated love story of its two African-American leads, Clementine “Tish” Rivers (KiKi Layne) and Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James), as Tish (newly pregnant) and her family fight to prove Fonny’s innocence after he is arrested and wrongfully charged with sexual assault. I had very high hopes for this movie, but Barry Jenkins’s follow-up to Moonlight did not quite hit the mark for me. Notwithstanding that fact, it is undeniable that Beale Street was chock-full of supreme acting performances – Layne and James were splendid as the two protagonist lovers, Teyonah Parris is stunning as Tish’s sister Ernestine, and Brian Tyree Henry is brilliant in his limited screen time as Fonny’s friend Danny. However, it is patently obvious that King steals the show as Tish’s mother Sharon. In a career that spans nearly 30 years (commencing with a staggering performance in 1991’s Boyz n the Hood), King has made her mark as one of the better actresses in Hollywood, and in this film, she accomplishes her greatest feat. Sharon is supportive of her daughter’s pregnancy and relationship with Fonny, but as that relationship is progressively threatened by Fonny’s arrest, King’s Sharon masters her position as a mother fighting for her family. In the scene where Sharon travels to Puerto Rico to question Fonny’s accuser, King’s acting prowess is on full display. She is determined, yet apprehensive, throughout the scene, desperate to prove Fonny’s innocence, but as the confrontation unravels, King captures the heartbreaking emotion of the scene with great ease and undeniable resonance.
4. Marina de Tavira (Roma)
In Roma, a film set in the early 1970s in the Colonia Roma district of Mexico City that follows Cleodegaria “Cleo” Gutiérrez (Yalitza Aparicio), a live-in domestic worker, Marina de Tavira plays Sofía, the mother of the family that employs Cleo. Early in the film, the patriarch of the family, Antonio (Fernando Grediaga) leaves the family as his marriage to Sofía crumbles. Throughout the remainder of the film, she struggles to keep it together as she battles her heartbreak and loneliness (including a powerful scene where she gets angry with her kids as she desperately instructs them to write letters to their father about how much they love him and miss him). Although Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma is most definitely a film about Cleo, Sofía’s character arc marvelously adds to the substance of Cleo’s journey, epitomized by this quote from Sofía to Cleo: “No matter what they tell you—women, we are always alone.” Marina de Tavira handles this delicate role – one that requires a wide range of emotions, from pure bliss to unbridled misery – with dexterity and immense vulnerability. She is definitely a major part of the reason Roma is such a great film.
5. Amy Adams (Vice)
In Adam McKay’s film Vice, Amy Adams plays the role of former First Lady Lynne Cheney, the wife of the lead character, former Vice President Dick Cheney. As I have waxed about on this blog many times before, Amy Adams is one of my very favorite actresses in the industry, and I am not confident I have ever seen a performance by her that wasn’t laced with quality of the highest order – in Vice, that adage rings true once more. The film is clearly about Bale’s Dick Cheney, but Lynne plays a crucial role just beneath the surface. When Dick gets kicked out of Yale and begins to lead a drunken life as a lineman, it is Lynne that gives him an ultimatum that then shapes the remainder of his career. And after one of Dick’s heart attacks, it is Lynne that hits the campaign trail in an effort to secure Dick the U.S. House of Representatives seat for Wyoming. Lynne is ambitious in her own right, and Adams portrays that unmerciful desire masterfully. Bale turns in the most transformative performance in the film, but Adams also plays an important part in keeping the Vice boat afloat at all times.
The Reel Countdown 