Paul Giamatti for Sideways was kind of an oddly baffling omission. (not that I love the performance so much but the film was so popular in other categories.)

Desperately Seeking Susan and Smithereens (another more obscure film from the same director. Sadly she didn’t have that great of a subsequent career)

I kind of disagree. Back then Paltrow was considered an up and coming major talent. She had Emma and Sliding Doors as acclaimed lead roles plus a bunch of films (Flesh and Bones, Moonlight and Valentino, Hard Eight) where she had supporting roles but stole the film and got the best reviews. So by the time of Shakespeare in Love it seemed like…[Read more]

She said something like Paltrow only won because she was young, pretty and had good skin. I can remember Dennis Miller on some show laying into Montengra for her not giving Paltrow her due.

Baxter never really had much of a film career after Eve. Anyone know why? Did she get typecast?

I thought she richly deserved her Oscar for The Razor’s Edge. Great performance. (and Eve was a really bold move to play someone so unlikable. Did that backfire and people thought she was unlikable?)

I guess Heath Ledger remains the only person ever nominated for an acting award for a superhero film. (correct?)

I always wonder if Michelle Pfeiffer would have been nominated for her take on Catwoman had they not rushed Love Field into theaters due to all the talk about how few Best Actress candidates there were.

Montengro was a sore loser though. I remember her making obnoxious comments about Paltrow afterwards. That didn’t seem classy.

Coleman will never be able to top that Oscar speech. I think it came from the shear shock of her winning. She probably was not really that rehearsed since I’m sure she didn’t think she’d win.

That is one thing that all these precursor awards have ruined for the Oscars. People are so practiced by the time they get up there. But Coleman was pretty…[Read more]

When does Hillbilly Elegy come out? IMDb says it is already in post-production. Could it come out this year?

More of a thriller I’d say.

Best Supporting Actor 1980s

1980 Levon Helm, Coal Miner’s Daughter
1981 Jerry Orbach, Prince of the City
1982 Henry Thomas, ET
1983 Mandy Patinkin, Yentl
1984 Jeffrey Jones, Amadeus
1985 Eric Stoltz, Mask
1986 Ray Liotta, Something Wild
1987 R. Lee Ermy, Full Metal Jacket
1988 Tim Robbins, Bull Durham
1989 Armin Mueller-Stahl, Music Box

Supporting Actress 1980s

1980 Beverly D’Angelo, Coal Miner’s Daughter
1981 Kristy McNichol, Only When I Laugh
1982 Lanie Kazan, My Favorite Year
1983 Tess Harper, Tender Mercies (but should have been Sandra Bernhard in The King of Comedy)
1984 Melanie Griffith, Body Double
1985 Kelly McGillis, Witness
1986 Barbara Hershey, Hannah and Her…[Read more]

I don’t think Field was really in contention in 85 for Murphy’s Romance. James Garner was kind of a shocking unexpected nomination. Cher was expected to be nominated since she’d won Cannes.

In 1988 MacLaine could have been sixth. I’d say she and Lahti were neck and neck for sixth and seventh. Jamie Lee Curtis not so much. Curtis probably…[Read more]

I don’t remember this one having a clear front runner. It was between Hanks and Crowe but then when the ceremony started and Marcia Gay Harden won from seemingly out of nowhere it started to look like Ed Harris could take it.

Best Actor 1980s

1980 Donald Sutherland, Ordinary People
1981 Treat Williams, Prince of the City
1982 Richard Gere, An Officer and a Gentlemen
1983 Eric Roberts, Star 80
1984 Steve Martin, All of Me
1985 Gene Hackman, Twice in a Lifetime
1986 Harrison Ford, The Mosquito Coast
1987 Steve Martin, Roxanne
1988 William Hurt, The Accidental…[Read more]

I’ll try the 80s Best Actress first

1980 Nastassja Kinski, Tess
1981 Sally Field, Absence of Malice
1982 Diane Keaton, Shoot the Moon
1983 Mary Steenburgen, Cross Creek
1984 Kathleen Turner, Romancing the Stone
1985 Cher, Mask
1986 Farrah Fawcett, Extremeties
1987 Barbra Streisand, Nuts
1988 Christine Lahti, Running on Empty
1989 Sally Field,…[Read more]

Timothy Hutton’s placement doesn’t really bother me. If he hadn’t won Joe Pesci probably would have and that performance is borderline lead too. Pesci then won 10 years later so they both were honored. (I’ve heard him say this too. He liked Hutton’s work and said he eventually won so it all worked out.)

Plus Ordinary People kind of seems like an…[Read more]

1. Jodie Foster (brilliant work playing a mostly reactive character)
2. Kathy Bates (scary and menacing but with some fun mixed in)
3. Jessica Lange (great in her tantrum scenes)
4. Holly Hunter
5. Emma Thompson
6. Frances McDormand
7. Hilary Swank
8. Gwyneth Paltrow
9. Helen Hunt (tries too hard, goes in and out of her accent)
10. Susan…[Read more]