Super Late 2012 Retrospective: Top 10 Female Performances

I must admit that 2012 wasn't my favourite year for female performances. In fact, I had a lot of trouble compiling this list, since there was only one person who really really impressed me (as you'll see later in this list). Alas, at least there was no Meryl Streep breaking another Oscar record or that many towering biopics to contend with, and we were left with actresses in indie films getting some great notices. This may be a strange little list, but it was a strange little year for ladies in film.

Honourable mentions: Vanessa Redgrave - Coriolanus, Andrea Riseborough - W.E., Rosemarie DeWitt - Your Sister's Sister, Rashida Jones - Celeste and Jesse Forever, Melanie Lynskey - Hello I Must Be Going, Emily Blunt - Looper, Kelly Reilly - Flight, Alicia Vikander - Anna Karenina, Samantha Barks - Les Miserables

10. Dreama Walker as Becky in Compliance
I remember that there was all this buzz surrounding Ann Dowd's performance in Craig Zobel's uncomfortable Compliance. To be honest, I never understood that buzz. I found that the best in show was actually Dreama Walker, who was the one at the centre of all of the film's controversy. She was the one that had to go through all of the horribly uncomfortable stuff. This was really her film. And she carries it without being alienated by the source material, and instead with a certain sort of maturity in confronting it. I hold a lot of hope for this young actress - it is certainly different from the more mainstream image she's created for herself in Don't Trust the B---- from Apartment 23.

9. Naomi Watts as Maria in The Impossible
One thing that I really admire (as you will see later on in this list) is when somebody actually uses their body in a performance. This can work in one or two ways: have it trained to do glorious things like Natalie Portman's rigorous work in Black Swan, or when the actors have to take their body's ability away. Such is the case with Naomi Watts in The Impossible, who spends much of the film on the brink of exhaustive death. It's a great paradox, but I find that when the body's ability is limited, this is where the acting really shines through. Naomi is a classic example of this, and her utterance of the words "thank you so much" is one of the most devastating, heart-wrenching yet relieving thing that happened in 2012 cinema.

8. Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook
Again, Bradley Cooper is my favourite performer in Silver Linings Playbook, and even though I'm still a little annoyed with Jennifer's extremely premature Oscar win, there's no denying that she had a special sort of energy in this film. She was this strange blend of kinetic and magnetic energy, happy one minute and boiling with anger the next. Jennifer plays the part with wisdom and charisma far beyond her years, which makes me realise that this is just another stepping stone in what is shaping up to be a brilliant career.

7. Rachel Weisz at Hester Collyer in The Deep Blue Sea
I didn't really like this movie all that much, but if there was one thing I took away from it, it was how scarily similar Rachel Weisz was to Vivien Leigh. Not just in looks, or poise, but in the tragic way she carries her character. I guess that's testimony to Vivien Leigh being the originator of this role, but Weisz embodies this film and her character in a way that few actresses in period pieces can. She doesn't get lost in the time, she just belongs in it. Such a strange beauty to this performance, but if anyone is brave enough to make a Vivien Leigh biopic, I'll be campaigning for her.

6. Amy Adams as Peggy Dodd in The Master
Joaquin Phoenix is best in show in this film (I couldn't fit him into my unbelievably strong actor's list unfortunately), but Amy Adams was brilliant in every scene she was in. Yes, she's in very few scenes, but she's just so...different. I wouldn't say that she plays all the same kind of role - there was plenty of difference between her roles in Trouble with the Curve and On the Road last year - but this role was pretty special. I felt a little bit frightened by her. And to be frightened by Amy Adams, the sweetest woman in the world...I think that kinda deserves an Oscar.

5. Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild
I wasn't the hugest fan of this film (I really should watch it again when I'm not so saddened by the fact that I had to leave Japan), but there's no denying little Quvenzhane Wallis' immense talent. She commands the screen like people five times her age can't even manage. And I can't even begin to process how she does it with such panache, like she's been acting for more years than she's even been alive. Which is a little bit intimidating.

4. Emmanuelle Riva as Anne in Amour
This is just the same as Naomi Watts - this is a performance that requires the actress to limit her body, and that counteracts into an amazing performance. I felt absolutely paralysed by Riva's performance, mainly because she can command so many emotions through a single look. This isn't Riva "acting her age", because what I've seen she's still full of vitality, and I find it so brave that she confronted her age in such a brutally honest way. She was robbed of that Oscar, pure and simple.

3. Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises
I'm one of the few people who was cheering with delight when Anne Hathaway won her Oscar for Les Miserables, and have stuck by her through all of this strange Anne hate. She deserved that Oscar, because she literally ripped my soul out and made me cry every time she was on screen. However, this wasn't my favourite performance from Annie in 2012. There's her ferocious, smooth, unyielding performance as Selina Kyle (or Catwoman, as she isn't called in this movie) in The Dark Knight Rises, who steals every single scene she's in. Her voice literally purrs, she moves around so smoothly, and the best thing is that we're never really aware of what her agenda is. This is barely the energetic, beaming Anne Hathaway that we've seen grow up over the past decade. She embodies Selina Kyle, with such athleticism in both the way she moves and the way she acts. And she certainly runs rings around poor old Marion Cotillard, who definitely disappointed in a role that could've been so much more.

2. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Kate Hannah in Smashed
I always find a certain sense of pride when an actress I've admired for a while - even if they haven't had the most amazing roles in the most amazing films - suddenly breaks through with this amazing performance in an amazing indie film. Such is the case with Mary Elizabeth Winstead's incredible breakthrough in James Ponsdolt's brilliant Smashed. She's had some mildly good supporting roles, but here we see something completely different: an actress playing a normal human being as natural as possible. Which is quite an impressive feat considering this is a film about alcoholism, which gives anyone the assumption that they can just go crazy. Winstead keeps it frighteningly real, and this is a raw, heart-wrenching performance. One that certainly deserved a whole lot more recognition than it got, that's for sure.

1. Jessica Chastain as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty
This will come as little surprise to anyone, but in fact I was surprised to find out why this performance resonated with me so much when I watched it a second time a few weeks back. Maya is probably the closest thing I'll ever get to a character who is like me. Sure, I'm not off trying to find Bin Laden, but her scary determination is something that I connected with all too well. You can say that Maya isn't a character with a huge backstory - she just turns up, is determined and finds Bin Laden - but it doesn't really matter than she doesn't have an emotional monologue detailing every single reason she has behind her determination. The most amazing thing is that Jessica doesn't need that emotional monologue to convince us of anything. She yells sometimes, but her overall presence just commands conviction. My favourite part is when she looks up from identifying Bin Laden and just nods every so slightly to confirm that it is him. Her face is so exhausted and wounded. And then there's the tears at the end. Which really devastated me. I just felt everything in this performance. I can see why it polarises, but from one Maya to another, this is probably the best female performance I've seen in a long while.

What do you think of my choices? Who were your favourite female performances?

AAN: Where the Awards Stand After the Guilds and BAFTAs

I haven't really covered this year's awards season as much as I would have liked - hell, I just haven't found the time to review Silver Linings Playbook even though I saw it over a week ago - but I've found it a little hard to keep up to the minute with this stuff. So I've waited until after the BAFTAs to throw in my two cents on how the season is going as we head into the final straight. Here's my simple guide to what has been happening...

Best Picture - Well Argo pretty much has this one in the bag. With the Golden Globe, SAG, PGA, DGA and BAFTA under it's belt, there's pretty much no stopping it. I do think there is a little leeway for a spoiler from Lincoln or Zero Dark Thirty or even Amour. I mean, I won't be surprised if it doesn't win.

Best Actor - Yeah, Daniel Day-Lewis has pretty much got this as well. I haven't seen Lincoln but I still get so angry about the fact that he is winning over Hugh Jackman and Bradley Cooper who were both brilliant. Ah well. There's literally no room for anyone else to win in this category.

Best Actress - As has been said, this is pretty much a race between Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. I mean, the media is now making up rumours that they hate each other but let's be honest - it isn't a big deal if neither of them win it, and I'm sure they're beyond catty behaviour. I like Jessica Chastain's performance 1000x more than Jennifer Lawrence's (that's not because I love J-Chas more than life itself), but they both have a million more chances to win in the future. However, Emmanuelle Riva won the BAFTA tonight and I think this could happen again come Oscar night. Like really. But I still hope that J-Chas wins.

Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz has won the Golden Globe and the BAFTA, with Tommy Lee Jones winning the SAG, probably because Waltz wasn't nominated. Another Oscar for Waltz? Bet on it.

Best Supporting Actress - Biggest plot twist ever: Anne Hathaway doesn't win.
Not in this lifetime.

Best Director - This whole category makes me LOL so hard. "Oh look, Ben Affleck just won another award - oh wait, he's not even nominated for the Oscar". Neither is Kathryn Bigelow, who would be my other guess. So really, this race is going to be down to the wire. I'm thinking Michael Haneke will win (I have this thing that Amour is going to win literally everything, like including Best Animated Film). None of the directors who have been nominated for the rest - Ang Lee, Steven Spielberg or David O. Russell - seem to stand out, though Ang Lee seems to be the sensible bet. This is mind boggling stuff, which makes it all the more exciting.

Other little notes:
-Django Unchained's screenplay is getting lots of love. The WGA's can't provide much more clarity on that but I think QT has it in the bag.
-Skyfall seems to be all the rage. Even though it isn't nominated for much that isn't on the technical side, I'd see it taking a few of those awards. Specifically Best Score, which it seems to be doing rather well with.
-Brave is the front runner for the Animated section? Who knows. I hope it is.
-On a BAFTA related note, so happy that Juno Temple got the Rising Star award. She's amazing.
-I actually can't wait for the Indie Spirits this year. Matthew McConaughey as a double nominee? That's how it should be done!

What are you thinking now? Got any front-runners/favourites sorted?

AAN: What We've Learned From the Past Week's Awards

This past week has been extremely busy. Critics group after critics group has been announcing their favourites, providing the building blocks for what we can expect come the Golden Globes/SAG nominations later on in this week. Instead of going through all of the awards one by one, I'll link them all here (by now you're probably sick to death of hearing about them) and then show how the categories are changing. (NOTE: sorry for the lack of pictures - Blogger is being a MASSIVE asshole and I'm about to smash my computer so I'll give up trying to upload them)

New York Film Critics Online / Boston Society of Film Critics / Los Angeles Film Critics Association / Boston Online Film Critics Association / New York Film Critics Circle / National Board of Review

What we've learned about the Best Picture race:
Zero Dark Thirty topped everything apart from the LA Film Critics awards, so I think it is safe to say that this is pretty much a lock for a nomination, and perhaps a certainty for the win. We'll just wait to see how everything pans out in its wide release and for the Golden Globes to be sure. However, let's not rule out the possibility that either Argo, Les Miserables or Lincoln could win. The LAFCA chose Amour as their winner and The Master as their runner up. They gave The Master a huge boost, which means that it could be a lot more prominent in awards season than originally thought. Amour was also given a boost, so I wouldn't be surprised if it gets given a spot in the Best Picture race.
Other than that, the NBR did give us some alternative picks in their top ten with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Promised Land making the cut. I'm not entirely sure about the latter since practically nothing has been said about it and I doubt it'll have any traction. Django Unchained was also included, meaning that it could figure into the race, but I'm doubting it will be a major player. And I was definitely surprised and happy to see Looper included!

Dipping My Toes in French New Wave: Hiroshima Mon Amour and Jules and Jim

It has been a fun month of getting into French New Wave, but I must admit, it kinda ended with less power than it did when I started. Hiroshima Mon Amour and Jules and Jim, the last films I watched for the series, were unfortunately the worst of the selection that I'd seen. That's not to say that they were bad, they just finished last. Anyway, my (brief) takes on the two, followed by my evaluation here...

The last time I saw a film by Alain Resnais, I was scarred for life. In fact, I watched Night and Fog a whole year ago and every time I think of it, my skin crawls. So I was a little weary about Hiroshima Mon Amour, one of the earliest New Wave films, but thankfully there was little scarring on this movie's part. Instead, this is a film about a French actress (Emmanuelle Riva, who is currently gracing screens in Michael Haneke's acclaimed Amour) and a married Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) who have an affair, but no that they'll have to part ways in a very short amount of time. The film is basically a compilation of the conversations they have over the 36 hours that they are together, which are mostly based around the idea of the limits of memory. While I am a self-confessed fan of hearing people talk, this film, for some reason or another, frustrated me. I'm not sure why that was, as the words said were beautiful - I guess it was either the fact that I was exhausted or I just couldn't really connect to what was going on. Aside from that, it was beautifully made (which I think is just a given because all New Wave films have such brilliant ways of expressing themselves). Also, the opening was great - even though it is different from Night and Fog, I could see how Resnais was building on what he'd done there with a mix of clips revolving around the terrible events of Hiroshima. Certainly something that I wasn't expecting, but Resnais does that sort of thing well.