Every year the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences nominates movies, actors, directors, writers and just about every job in the movie industry to receive the prestigious Academy Award. Like most award shows, no one really cares about the behind-the-scenes stuff. The talk-of-the-town are the actors nominated for outstanding achievement. But perhaps most talked about are those who didn’t receive a nomination but sure as hell deserved one. While everyone has an opinion on who on what should or shouldn’t have been nominated, here are some performances I feel truly deserved to be recognized.
The Best Actress category is (disputably) the most talked about category after the Best Picture. Which actress deserved the nomination? Which one was only nominated for her looks? Who is she? Just some of the questions asked during the months between the release of the nominations and the award show itself. Traditionally the Academy is rather fond of nominating actresses from movies that were hits with the general public. Marion Cotillard’s win for portraying Édith Piaf in the 2007 French film La Vie En Rose marks the only time in the last 15 years an actress has come out of left field to win Best Actress in a Leading Role.
Unfortunately, this means that every year a lot of actresses from “indie” films get overlooked. And 2012 is no different. First, let’s talk about Tilda Swinton. The general public would probably best know her as the weird looking pale lady who always wears bizarre dresses on the red carpet or as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia movies. But she’s also an incredible actress. Her turn in Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin as the mother of a teenage boy who massacred his high school classmates was absolutely harrowing. Her face remains emotionless throughout the film, yet still someone portrays that turmoil inside.
Admittedly, the reason for this next actress’ snub is a little more apparent. While being interviewed at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, director Lars von Tier make a few distasteful Nazi jokes that he related to Hitler and that he himself was a Nazi. Unfortunately, those remarks created a monstrous black cloud around his movie, which probably killed Kirsten Dunst’s chances at what could have been a well-deserved Academy Award nomination. In Melancholia, Dunst plays a low functioning, clinically depressed woman at the end of the world. Beautiful, calm and painfully real, Dunst gave the performance of her career and earned the Best Actress award at Cannes. The general consensus among critics is that even if the movie itself were utter crap, it would be worth seeing due to Dunst’s performance.
Next there’s Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I know what you’re thinking: there is no way an Olsen could ever be nominated for an acting award, but it’s true. In Martha Marcy May Marlene, Elizabeth Olsen plays a young woman who’s recently run away from a cult. Her performance is impressive for a few reasons. First, she effortlessly portrays the emotional stages of her character, from the “seduction” into the cult, the questioning of the cult and the strain of reconnecting with her estranged sister while adjusting to life outside of a cult. Second, she handles the material like a seasoned actress. Though it’s her first film, she commands the role with a raw confidence not seen in many new actresses. And lastly, it’s a pretty ballsy part to successfully tackle for your first go at acting. Usually these types of psychologically damaged roles appeal to established actresses who want to push themselves, not newbies. It’s a shame that the Academy failed to recognize such a breakout role.
The last actress snubbed played another emotionally damaged female. Chalize Theron played the conniving prom queen psycho variety in Young Adult. While the pretty blonde lunatic isn’t exactly a novel character concept, nor are there a lack of actresses to play the part, very few performances come off as natural. However, Theron was everything and more: narcissistic, cruel, full of self-pity and superficial beyond comprehension. What sets her apart is her ability to take what should be a supporting character role and carry the entire movie on her shoulders. Traditionally, the Academy is reluctant to acknowledge comedies as legitimate movies. Though they do nominate a handful of comedic excellence every year, it’s rare that a comedy receives an Oscar and when they do, they’re more dramedy’s rather than straight up comedic films. Though if Melissa McCartney could be nominated for her antics in Bridesmaids, Theron should most certainly have been nominated as well.
For whatever reason, it seems that there are less actors than actresses in Hollywood. Of course that’s not true, but it sure does feel like it. Perhaps it’s because the media are so fixated with famous women and don’t profile the men as much? Whatever the case, it seems like the same crop of actors are up for an Oscar every year. It’s like they all gather in a room one night and decide the five who’ll be nominated for Lead Actor and the five for Supporting Actor. Thankfully, that cycle was broken this year. In both the Lead and Supporting Actor categories there are lots of fresh faces. Yes, Clooney is nominated again, but I’ve accepted the fact that the Academy will always nominate their best friend. Anyway, I feel that the Academy did overlook a few exceptional performances.
If you went to the movies in 2011, there’s a strong possibility that Michael Fassbender was one of the actors. It felt like he was in literally every single movie to premiere this year. But his performance in Shame was by far a career highlight and one of the best performances given by a male actor in 2011. Fassbender completely stripped himself both emotionally and physically to play an obsessive-compulsive sex addict.
Expertly portraying an insatiable need for sexual gratification, the shame brought on by his liasons and the torment of being emotionally emotionless, Fassbender was thought to be a sure thing for a Best Actor nom and was even heralded as a front–runner to take home the Oscar. His unfortunate omission from the nominee list has led many to joke that the many full frontal scenes in Shame gave the Academy’s male voters an inferiority complex.
The everyman is America’s favorite hero: a faithful husband, doting father, loyal friend and hard worker. But what happens when the everyman is plagued by violent nightmares of an apocalyptic storm? In Take Shelter, Michael Shannon portrays an average Joe who can’t decide if he’s slowly losing his mind or receiving visions of impending doom. His determination to get treatment is only matched by his determination to expand the storm shelter in his backyard. Expertly displaying a decent into obsessive behavior while keeping a calm façade makes, Shannon’s heartbreaking performance is probably the most grounded portrayal of a mental illness in a film. It’s not glamorous or exaggerated; it’s real and subdued. You can’t help but feel bad for the guy while wanting to get as far away from him as possible. The film’s limited release leads me to think that much of the Academy didn’t see the film, because Michael Shannon is absolute gold in it. I know most people went to see Drive because of Ryan Gosling and there’s no shame in that. Gosling is the current girl and man crush of America. We just can’t get enough of that special snowflake. But I can’t bring myself to say that he deserved a nomination for his role.
He did a good job with it, but it wasn’t anything fantastic. However, I due think he should have been nominated for Blue Valentine, but that was a 2010 film and therefore not relevant. On the other hand, his costar Albert Brooks deserved a Support Actor nom. Brooks’ voice is more recognizable than his face. He’s a voice actor for The Simpsons and provided the vocals for Marlin in Pixar’s Finding Nemo, which makes his turn as a mobster surprisingly impressive. Delightfully ruthless and unpredictably psychotic, Brooks scared the crap out of moviegoers everywhere.
I can’t really think of a reason for why he wasn’t nominated, but Brooks did tweet, “You don’t like me. You really don’t like me,” to the Academy. So there’s that.
Of course, this is all just my opinion. Since I’m not a member of the Academy, my thoughts on the matter don’t mean squat and if they did, there’s nothing I can do about it now. Thankfully these thespians aren’t fading into obscurity yet and will have a chance at getting a prestigious Academy Award nomination in the 2012 season for one of the projects they have lined up.
Evan Birsic can be reached at evanbirsic@gmail.com.