Who Will Win … Best Supporting Actress?

This week I’m planning (schedule willing) to post my predictions for each of the major categories at this year’s Oscars.  I’ll be weighing in on where each nominee stands and predicting who will take home the gold.  Let’s start off with this year’s Best Supporting Actress race.

And the nominees are…

Berenice Bejo, The Artist

Argentine-French actress Bejo may be The Artist director Michel Hazanavicius’s wife, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t give a great performance as Peppy Miller, the extra-turned-star in this year’s silent love letter to Hollywood.  While her charisma and heart were enchanting and impressive in a physically expressive performance, the Artist spotlight belongs to Best Actor nominee Jean Dujardin, and if either of them gets Oscar gold this weekend, it’ll be him.

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Chastain broke onto the scene this past year as 2011’s It Girl.  Starring in critical darlings The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Help, Chastain’s star rose from “Who’s she?” to “Where can I see more of her?” status.  I was blown away by her comical yet heart-breaking performance as The Help‘s social outcast Celia Foote.  While I’m not sure she has a chance to win the gold, I’m definitely rooting for her this Sunday.

Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Oh, Melissa McCarthy.  I loved you on Gilmore Girls.  I loved you in what I’ve seen of Samantha Who?, and I cheered when you won the Emmy for Mike and Molly, even though I’ve never watched the show.  But I don’t want you to be nominated for an Oscar this year.  Not for such an offensive and humiliating performance.  Not for a film as grossly overrated as Bridesmaids.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Bridesmaids does not deserve Oscar attention.  While I admire most of the cast, the film was basically a gross-out comedy a la The Hangover, only recast with women.  Not only are extended diarrhea jokes and endless references to genitalia not original, but they’ve never been worthy of an Oscar nomination.  Just because you put women in a gross-out comedy does not mean it’s good.  And commending an actress for a role in such a comedy does not make the Academy rebellious or hip.  If anyone from The Hangover had been nominated, I’m sure most people would object, no matter how hard they laughed when they saw it.

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

McTeer has received the second Oscar nomination of her career for her role alongside Glenn Close in the gender-bending period drama Albert Nobbs.  I haven’t seen the film, although I hope to soon, but I can say quite confidently that McTeer is not a frontrunner for the Oscar gold.

And the Oscar goes to…

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Spencer, a character actress whose IMDb page cites countless television and film appearances, has finally found her place in Oscar history as Minny Jackson, a maid in 1960s Mississippi.  Spencer brings humor and heart to her performance, and her Golden Globe and SAG Award wins point to Oscar gold for her come this Sunday.  While I can’t argue that The Help‘s ensemble cast of women is full of fantastic performances, Spencer included, Jessica Chastain’s performance personally resonated with me more, so I’m rooting for her.  Nevertheless, I don’t think there’s much doubt that Spencer will pull out a win at this weekend’s ceremony.

 

Review: Bridesmaids is NOT a chick flick — in all the worst ways

“Bridesmaids proves that chick flicks don’t have to suck.” – Jen Yamato, Movieline.

There are so many things wrong with the above statement. 

1.) Who says “chick flicks” universally suck?

2.) Bridesmaids is not a chick flick — just because it happens to have a mostly female cast doesn’t mean it’s a chick flick.  By that logic, The Lord of the Rings films are guy flicks because their cast is mostly male.  Oh, and that Dead Poets Society is such a guy flick!

3.) Even if Bridesmaids were a chick flick, the only thing that supposedly would make it not suck — what sets it apart from other “chick flicks” — would be the fact that it’s full of stereotypical “guy” humor.  That’s how a chick flick breaks the glass ceiling nowadays?

Bridesmaids is not a chick flick.  The only thing that could possibly make it a chick flick is the fact that most of the cast is female and the plot revolves around a stereotypically feminine event — a wedding.  Bridesmaids is a gross-out comedy with foul language strewn throughout and a crude sex joke in practically every scene. 

The movie’s about a woman named Annie (Kristen Wiig) who’s feeling down about her love life and career.  Her friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) gets engaged and asks her to be her maid of honor.  Annie then meets the bridesmaids and discovers that Lillian’s newfound friend Helen (Rose Byrne) is eager to sabotage the wedding plans — and Annie’s lifelong friendship.  A battle ensues between them while they plan the event with Lillian’s other bridesmaids, an eccentric cast of characters.

I have to admit that my expectations were high going into an early screening of the film.  I’d watched the trailer, which displayed some clever dialogue and quirky characters.  Please watch below for an idea of what I’m talking about.

In fact, half the funny lines/moments in that trailer didn’t actually make it into the film.  Usually I’m annoyed when the trailer gives away all the funniest moments.  I’m especially annoyed when those moments aren’t even in the movie.

I was also pretty excited about this movie because Paul Feig is associated with it.  Feig created the unbelievably awesome but sadly short-lived series Freaks and Geeks, which served as an honest and funny portrayal of teenage life and gave a bunch of famous actors their big break.  That show’s charm and wit is barely discernable in this film.  It peeks through every once in a while, mostly in the scenes between Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph, whose friendship is goofy and believable.  Their interactions often reminded me of the ways my friends and I interact — acting silly for no reason at all, saying and doing things other people wouldn’t understand.  They had great chemistry.  Too bad they were barely in the movie together.

One of the worst things about Bridesmaids is that not only are most of the jokes flat-out gross, but the gags never seem to end.  The scene in the dress shop is absolutely disgusting and full of over-used toilet humor.  And it lasts FOREVER.  Same with Kristen Wiig’s various fits of rage, in which she screams and acts like an idiot.  It took her initially funny and likable character and turned her into a petty, short-tempered little girl.

The cast is so promising, but they’re not given strong enough characters to work with.  Wiig and Rudolph are two of the funniest women to be featured on Saturday Night Live in recent years.  Sadly, their characters aren’t allowed to interact enough.  Ellie Kemper is adorable and hilarious on The Office.  She’s barely featured.  Melissa McCarthy has been lovable and witty on shows like Gilmore Girls and Samantha Who?, but in this she’s simplified down to a stereotype.

I must say that Rose Byrne was an unexpected addition to the cast.  I know her from mostly dramatic work, so it was surprising to see her assoiciated with a comedy.  She was one of the highlights of the movie.  She played the snobby friend well, but she wasn’t so bitchy that she couldn’t be sympathetic.

Another majorly disappointing aspect of the film is that is was that it was co-written by Wiig herself, but that weird humor that she’s known for on SNL doesn’t really translate well as a writer.  It was unusual to me that  a screenplay written by two women about women could be so stereotypically “guy.”  What I mean by that is that the humor is so far on one end of the spectrum — not to say that only guys enjoy it.  But it’s on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from, say, a sappy romantic comedy, which stereotypically would attract mostly women.  Is the only way for female comedies to break through the so-called glass ceiling to travel completely to one extreme and utilize stereotypically male humor?  Can there be no happy medium, no films written by women that depict women truthfully through humor that all genders can relate to and appreciate?

Oh, yeah.  There can.  They’re called Mean Girls.  And Clueless.  And even Legally Blonde.  All three written by women and featuring women and women’s issues.  And all funny in a way that doesn’t exclude either gender.  I’m pretty much obsessed with Tina Fey.  I think she’s one of the funniest, smartest, coolest women people in show business.  And her screenplay for Mean Girls is quoted constantly by people my age — male and female.

Bow down to this woman.

So, yeah. Bridesmaids disappointed me.  If you like the kind of humor in the above trailer, it might not be the movie for you.  If you like toilet jokes and pervasive references to sex, then go ahead — you might like it.