Vanity Fair contributor Mark Harris has decided to go back his overtly-woke ways, hitting the Gold Derby pundits on their Best Actress predictions. Why, you may ask? Partly because they’re currently favoring four white actors and one Asian actor — Judy‘s Renée Zellweger, Marriage Story‘s Scarlett Johansson, Little Women‘s Saoirse Ronan, Bombshell‘s Charlize Theron, and The Farewell‘s Awkwafina. But more specifically because they’ve relegated Harriet‘s Cynthia Erivo, Clemency‘s Alfre Woodard and Us‘s Lupita Nyong’o to slots #6, #7 and #8.
“This is how a narrative gets entrenched,” Harris complains. “There are those who are in, and those who are fighting to get in, and the implicit notion of a quota — the idea that there is one spot for ‘diversity’ — becomes a way of not looking at the performances.”
I’ve used this analogy before but here goes: a good movie is a good movie is a good movie, or, in this case, replace the word “movie” with “performance.”
Woodard’s performance in “Clemency” is good, but the movie is a snoozer. It finds a way to make the already cliche-ridden capital punishment genre duller than it’s ever been before. I’ll get around to a review, which I’ve been dreading writing because there is nothing worth citing in this film.
I panned “Harriet” at TIFF, but the film has gotten mixed reviews and Erivo’s performance, although very good, is not nomination-worthy.
I really liked Jordan Peele‘s “Us” up until its final strenuous twist which kind of makes the deck of cards fall. Lupita Nypng’o IS the movie. What a great Doppelganger performance, but Oscar-worthy? Uhh, no.