One Category at a Time: Best Actress

Another year, another super competitive crunch for Best Actress nominations. Things were so tight this year it prompted Viola Davis to jump ship to the Supporting race, saw Amy Adams miss for a complex Best-Picture-headlining turn and Annette Bening get passed over for some of the best work of her career. And yet as tough as it's been to crack the Best Actress lineup these last few years, eventual winners have been easy to call.

My Award Nominations: Leading Actress

Yesterday I bit the bullet and committed to five nominees for Best Supporting Actress. Trying to do the same for the leading ladies was even more brutal. Forget five to ten Best Picture nominees... Let's apply that rule to Best Actress instead!

Oscar Noms 2016-17

Today has been too busy for me to provide any kind of in-depth response to the announcement of 2016's Oscar nominees, but here's an oversimplified rundown of The Good and The Bad (we'll hold off on The Ugly since most of these nominees are beauts). I'll have time to analyze each of the 24 races when "One Category at a Time" returns in a few weeks.

Until then, some off-the-top reactions:

THE GOOD

My Award nominations: Supporting Actress

The field hasn't been as competitive as it has in past years, but I'm still quite satisfied with the five (well, four actually) actresses I settled on. My picks for Best Supporting Actress after the cut.

Review - Amour

Finally got to see this recently, and despite having to endure months of hype from critics and privileged festival-goers, the film more than met expectations. Michael Haneke has never made a more moving and emotionally honest picture than this celebrated Palme d'Or winner; a heartrending study of what love really means.

Set almost entirely in the apartment of George and Anne, an elderly couple whose life together requires significant readjustment when Anne suffers a mild stroke, Amour effectively imposes a sensation of being trapped by a hopeless situation; a revelant thematic undercurrent to the piece. Haneke's often static camera rarely cuts to different angles within a single scene, allowing us to fully absorb his actors' unbroken performances, and yet it never feels like a play put on film. Using efficient vignettes to evoke the gradual decline of Anne's condition keeps the film's stillness from boring the viewer, and with a pair of such soulful performances on display, it's hard to look away.

Emmanuelle Riva is getting the most notice from awards bodies for her incredibly nuanced embodiment of a woman becoming increasingly trapped by her own body, exhibiting remarkable control over her physicality throughout. Jean-Louis Trintignant is equally refined in his ability to tap into deep emotions through quiet gestures and minimalist expression. As the couple's frustrated daughter, Isabelle Huppert conveys in just a handful of scenes all the pain and anguish of being truly powerless over the inevitable.

**** out of ****