Best Actress 1984: Jessica Lange in Country

Jessica Lange received her third Oscar nomination for playing Jewell Ivy, a a woman who is struggling to keep her farm from foreclosure and to hold her family together (Yes, the third one in this category) in Country.



Country is actually surprisingly good. It might be something you've seen before, but it's well made and well-written for the most part and the acting is pretty good. I'd say it's worth seeing. But it's Jessica Lange we're talking about here and she does do a good job in the part. Country and the role of Jewell Ivy is very similar to The River and Sissy Spacek's role, but Jessica Lange's acting skills and the fact that Country is a much better movie help Jessica elevate the roles into something pretty good. In the beginning, the character of Jewell is pretty two-dimensional, simply a woman who seems to live for her husband, her kids, and her family, but Lange plays it so well she seems to override the fact that her part is underwritten. She has a certain radiance to her that sparks up the movie, and it's really her that's doing the lifting here, which leads me to a problem. Sam Shepard is very mediocre, and neither actors have much presence or chemistry on screen together, but I don't blame Jessica to much, because at least she put in an effort to make they're scenes work. Another problem is that her big scenes are played a little melodramatic and fake.


But during the 2nd half of the film, Jewell's character gets some development and here's where Lange really succeeds, making us feel her struggles and carrying her scenes with strength and dignity. If only the film story had been a little more exciting or interesting the performance would have been great all the way through. But still, Jessica Lange delivers a strong, competent performance that could have been flat and boring and is able to standout in a flawed, but very good film. She gets

Best Actress 1984: Judy Davis in A Passage To India

Judy Davis received her first Oscar nomination for playing Adela Questad, an engaged woman traveling with her future mother-in law Ms. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) in A Passage To India.


A Passage To India is a movie that is mixed for me, on the one hand, it's beautifully made and the acting is overall great. My father is a huge fan of the novel, and he says that it's a good story, but it's really how it's written that makes the book so good. I myself haven't read the book, but I can see how that could be true. The story often lacks that special spark that can really make an engaging, absorbing movie. But it's still worth seeing. Anyway, Judy Davis plays Adela Questad, a young woman who is engaged to the city magistrate of a city in India, and is rather bored by all the stuffy, english people who are making a living/taking over the country, and is slowly starting to see how appalling the British, her own people, are to to the Indians, and is starting to realize she doesn't really love her future-husband at all. in these scenes, Davis does a terrific job of subtly developing this character. She doesn't say much, but Davis does do very well in showing a change in her character, and her scenes with the doctor Aziaz are excellent, as are her scenes with her fiancee, and with doctor Aziaz.. Her scenes with Ms. Moore though are often stealed by Ashcroft, though Davis still is able to do a good job,maybe it's because Adela is not a very showy character.

During the 2nd half though, her performance changes. She accuses the doctor of raping her in they're expedition in the caves, and she disappears from the movie for a little while, until the trial. Her scenes here are fantastic, she really gives her all to these scenes, powerfully showing her guilt and fear, and eventual shame. Her testimony in the courtroom is brilliantly executed by her. And her performance continues to be overall strong throughout the rest of the film.

But my issue here is that the role of Adela Questad is underwhelming, we've seen this character before, and although Davis is up to the part, she's never amazing except during the court scenes. And also I found Adela' character arc somewhat frustrating: Why does she disappear from the 2nd half for like 20 minutes or so? Why doesn't the movie clearly address why she accused the doctor (Spoiler Alert!)if he wasn't guilty? I think the whole 2nd half could have been much better executed. Still, Judy Davis excels with her part, and is able to give an excellent performance in the end. I give her a solid

Best Actress 1984: Sissy Spacek in The River

Sissy Spcek received her third Oscar nomination for playing Mae Garvie, a woman who is in financial and marital troubles with her husband Tom Garvey (Mel Gibson) in The River.


The River is a well made, at times beautiful (Imagery-wise) movie, but is very boring, and like Places In The Heart, has little point to it. Some good moments, but a lot of it didn't make sense to me, partly because I spaced out in parts. But anyway, Sissy Spacek plays Mae Garvey, a woman with two children living in a very poor, town in the middle of nowhere. She loves her husband, she takes care of the kids, and is under a lot of stress due to the fact that they might have to sell they're land. And basically, this all of Sissy's performance. Mae is such a one-dimensional, dull role that any actress could have played, and despite the fact that Sissy is well cast, she adds nothing special to this part. But really, no actress could make a great performance out of this part, so I don't really blame her, but she could have tried harder to make it memorable and really work against her clunker of a movie, but unfortunately Sissy never does that. But she does have some moments of beautiful subtlety that help her performance. Her facial expressions are sometimes quite impressive, Sissy did know how to get across certain feelings to the audience . Her best scene is when her husband's enemy is making a move on her, and she pushes him away, saying that they ended up with the spouses they have. She plays it just right, and makes us see that maybe Mae had wanted a better life, and this is probably the only thing Sissy shows in Mae, apart from being a loyal wife to her husband and kids. Which leads me to the fact that she and Mel Gibson have zero chemistry, I never believed that they loved each other, and they''re scenes are mostly boring, just like pretty much all of the movie. But their scene together in a hotel after they haven't seen one another for about a month (due to that he worked on a mine because they can't get any other job) is pretty good, and as I've said, Sissy's face shines with emotion here. but it's ruined by the fact we see nothing much from her, except that she's a loyal housewife. This also ruins a scene where her daughter's
favorite cow has just died, and she, crying, tells them she tried her hardest to save them, but as I've said, it's ruined by the fact that Mae is such a caricature.
Sissy Spacek may have a couple good moments, but mostly she is boring, and un-believable, trapped in a mediocre movie. She gets

Best Actress 1984: Sally Field in Places In The Heart

Sally Field received her 2nd Oscar nomination and won her 2nd Oscar for playing Edna Spalding, a widow during the mid-depression struggling to make ends meet, in Places In The Heart.



First of all, I'd like to point out some strange similiarities between Field and another two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank: Both won they're first Oscars on they're first nominations for performances that are largely considered some of the best Oscar-winning performances in this category in both 9-digit number years (Field in 79 for Norma Rae, and Swank in 99 for Boys Don't Cry), and both received they're only 2nd nominations and won for performances that are considered mediocre and undesrving, and both won in 4-digit number years, both five years after they're first wins (Field in 84 for Places In The Heart and Swank in 04 for Million Dollar Baby). And neither have gotten another Oscar nomination since. Weird isn't it? I know I read about this somewhere , but I caught on to most of these myself.


Anyway, Places In The Heart is a movie I hated at first, but now my feelings have changed. It's not really terrible, but it's very boring and there really is no point in making this movie. It says nothing, it's not entertaining, sure, there's some good moments, but really it's nothing special. And the ending still makes no sense to me. Sally Field as I said, plays Edna Spalding, and surprisingly, her performance wasn't as bad as I thought it was the first time. She's actually very good in many scenes. In the beginning, Field does a good job of showing Edna's grief for her husband, and she does create a character out of Edna. She makes us know Edna does not know how to live the kind of life she has to lead after her husband's death, but finds the determination inside to accomplish her goal of being able to keep her house and making her children happy. Her best moment is when John Malkovich is asking her what she looks like: It's a powerful moment, and Field plays it wonderfully. Another great moment is when she, after both John Malkovich and the man Moses tell her there is no hope to her i business idea about her cotton planting, snaps at them and tells them that she WILL make sure the business works. You suddenly see the fire and life she brought so well to Norma Rae five years previously. But this performance never is great though, she's very good, but Field does not put enough life or energy into Edna, and sometimes I felt she played her too naive, or meek. Some of her moments are also a bit flat and unconvincing.

But I can't really blame Field for not being up to giving a great performance. She tried the best she could I guess, but the film is very mediocre, and she can't save it. Still, this performance is good, but not Oscar-worthy. She gets

Best Actress 1984

Given how frustrated I am about not posting nearly anything and how slow my Rabbit Hole link is going, I've decided to put Best Actress 2010 on hold until April , and instead start another Best Actress year.


The next Best Actress year (and perhaps final Best Actress year I'll be doing before my B.SA project begin) that I'll be doing a profile/ranking on is 1984 and the nominees were:


Judy Davis in Passage To India

Sally Field in Places Of Heart

Jessica Lange in Country

Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians

Sissy Spacek in The River






I chose this year because, like 1994, it is considered extremely weak, but unlike, 1994, none of the nominees are ever really discussed, besides Sally Field, and ocasionally Judy Davis. Anyway, who are you rooting for? What's your ranking/predictions?

Best Suupporting Actress project

Hey everyone, I'm just gonna publish this now, since my links to Rabbit Hole are going too slow right now, and I'm dying to post SOMETHING. So, I've decided to, after I'm done with a couple more Best Actress years, to try to see all of the Best Supporting Actress winners and do a ranking of them, like Fritz is doing right now with the Best Picture winners and Sage has done in the past. I've decided on Best Supporting Actress because I've seen very few winners, I need to re-watch the winners I've already seen, and despite the fact it would be fun to a Best Actress ranking like this, I like doing the profiles for that category more. Which is why I'm still going to continue doing them, yes, even when I'm trying to watch all of these movies. See, I'll publish reviews of some of the winner's performances to keep things going and to give you an idea of what my ranking will be, but not all, because that would defeat the purpose of doing the ranking. So, I'll still continue with my Best Actress profiles, but I probably will try to choose years where one of the nominees or the winner is from the same film as a Supporting Actress winner.


So, here are the winners I've seen so far, though,as I said, I will rewatch them all:



1939: Hatte MacDaniel in Gone With The Wind


1951: Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire


1954: Eva Marie Saint in On The Watefront


1957: Miyoshi Umeki in Sayonara (Though I haven't seen her in the context of the movie)


1960: Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry


1961: Rita Moreno in West Side Story

1962: Patty Duke in The Miracle Work

1966: Sandy Denniss in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?

1967: Estelle Parsons in Bonnie And Clyde

1968: Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby (Though not in context of the film)

1971: Cloris Leachman in The Last Picture Show

1972: Eileen Heckhart in Butterflies Are Free

1974: Ingrid Bergman in Murder On The Orient Express (Though YEARS ago, so don't remember her)

1975: Lee Grant in Shampoo (Though not in context of the film)

1976: Beatrice Straight in Network

1977: Vanessa Redgrave in Julia

1982: Jessica Lange in Tootsie

1985: Anjelica Huston in Prizzi's Honor (Though not in context of film)

1986: Dianne Weist in Hannah And Her Sisters

1987: Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck


1990: Whooi Goldberg in Ghost

1992: Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny

1993: Anna Paquin in The Piano

1994: Diane Weist in Bullets Over Broadway

1995: Mira Sorvino in Mighty Aphrodite

1996: Juliette Binoche in The English Patient '

1997: Kim Basinger in L.A Confidential

1998: Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love

1999: Angelina Jole in Girl Interrupted

2000: Judi Dench in Shakespeare In Love

2001: Jenniffer Conelly in A Beautiful Mind

2002: Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago

2003: Renee Zellweger in Cold Mountain

2004: Cate Blanchett in the Aviator

2005: Rachel Weisz in The Constant Gardener

2006: Jenniffer Hudson in Dreamgirls

2007: Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton

2008: Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barecelona

2009: Monique in Precious

2010: Melissa Leo in The Fighter

So, that's it! Any requests for performances you want me to see first? Any Best Actress years requests?

Help!/Open Thread

As you've probably noticed, I've been going slow on here again. Anyway, I wouldn't be if I could find a link to Rabbit Hole. It left my movie theatre, and the site I usualy watch movies on the internet is strangely updated, so I can't seem to watch it, without having to upload or pay to sign up for the links it gives me. I'm waiting on an email I sent asking for one, but if anyone has a link right now, tell me! If I can't find one, I might delay Best Actress 2010 till April, which is when Rabbit Hole comes out. It's your choice, really:
Do you have a link to Rabbit Hole so I won't have to delay? Or if not, would you rather me continue with B.A 2010 with Lawrence's profile and then delay Kidman's profile and the ranking till April? Or I could just delay all the unfinished aspects of B.A 2010 till April, and do some other Best Actress years I have in mind. I have to admit the latter one is tempting. I really want to do some other Best Actress years.




Anyway, how have you been? Are you sad the Oscars are over? Talk to me about ANYTHING! This is a semi-open thread. I'm willing to talk!