{random film-ness} A Netflix Queue Inspired by the Best Actress Nominees
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Do you have a favorite? If you’ve been reading the blog at all, you can probably guess who I’m cheering for in the Best Actress in a Leading Role race. Go ahead. Guess.
Did the picture give it away? Yep, my vote is on Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty, and the Golden Globes agree. To be fair, I haven’t seen Emmanuelle Riva in Amour or Naomi Watts in The Impossible yet, so I’m operating with less-than-complete information. It’s just hard to imagine anybody who could be better than Chastain as Maya. Unless it’s the born-to-do-this Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s child powerhouse) in a few years. Also wonderful was Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Lining’s Playbook…but Chastain gave the too-beat performance this year, in my opinion.
As for supporting actress, I think Helen Hunt deserves the win for her compassionate and natural portrayal of a sex surrogate therapist in The Sessions. She’ll be in for a fight, though with three actresses in Best Pic films (Sally Field in Lincoln, Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables, and Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook) and Amy Adams’s strong (and scary) turn in The Master.
Need to do some background research before you make up your mind? First, enter to to win 6-months of free Netflix streaming (you can enter every day until January 31st)! Then check out which of the actresses’ past films are available on Netflix to watch right this minute. No time like the present for getting your movie on.
Jessica Chastain
Jennifer Lawrence
Naomi Watts
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (I was not expecting this one.)
Amy Adams
Sally Field
Brothers and Sisters (Five seasons)
Anne Hathaway
Helen Hunt
Jackie Weaver
Don’t forget to check out the Netflix queues based on the Best Picture and Best Director nominees!
SPOILER ALERTS. I GUESS…IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHETHER OR NOT THE U.S. KILLED BIN LADEN.
Finally saw Zero Dark Thirty last night. I gotta say, I wasn’t amazed by her performance. I thought she did great, but there were moments where I actually didn’t buy her in the situation. I also didn’t like her flashes of childishness. For example, as the countdown of days wore on, her writing the #s on the office window digressed from determination to petulance. And her line in the meeting with James Gandolfini was just silly. Her climbing the ladder and getting the meeting was awesome. Then she cheapened it with the 7th-grade-locker-room one-liner.
I love films with strong female leads, and unfortunately they’re terribly difficult to get made. What I don’t understand is why filmmakers tend to make them a bit, I don’t know, bratty. It reminded me of Merida in Brave. She’s such a brat. Why can’t she just be a strong character with an honorable desire. Why couldn’t that movie just be about her defending her land against an overwhelming evil that’s descending upon it? Why did it have to be about marriage? Because she’s a girl? I mean, the movie’s called “Brave.” I’m so glad Maya’s character wasn’t a mom or a wife. She didn’t get pregnant. There was no romance forced into the story. There was so much going for her that it magnified those few moments for me I guess.
Don’t get me wrong, Maya also had moments of brilliance. And I totally get that she’s fighting for respect in a testosterone-riddled circumstance. I just think there were too many unnecessary scenes, and it gave me time to be critical of other stuff. The fim could’ve easily been 115 mins instead of 150 or whatever it ended up running. I kept thinking, “Ok. It was hard to find him. I get it. Now let’s get to the part where we kill him.” I checked my watch way too many times.
Then when we finally kill him, it was a bit of a letdown. I felt weird. I suddenly felt like this shouldn’t be a movie at all and a bit sad that this is what much of our world devotes its time, energy, and passion to – killing lots of people or killing one person. I wasn’t happy for anyone, and I’m not sure Maya was fulfilled either. Which is a choice, but then I wonder why make the movie at all. It was a tragedy that started it and a tragedy that ended it. It was an odd experience.
Whoa. That was a long comment. Sorry.
No apologies! I’m sorry I haven’t replied until now…been distracted with some moving stuff instead of movie stuff for once…
I think your take on some of Maya’s, well, weaker moments is interesting. I took them as just proof she’s human. She’s not a superwoman who is perfect…she gets annoying sometimes. But I can see if compounded with Brave (which I still haven’t seen), it might look like a trend that equate strong women with a certain attitude, when there are a lot of ways to be strong.
I think the feeling you got at the end of the movie was very intentional. I think that was their point to show that revenge doesn’t satisfy. If that was the goal, then the movie was worth making for that reason alone: To help people realize that it was a tragedy from one end to the other…that more violence does not heal the (horrific, unfair) violence. Which is why I loved that it ended on the question, “Where do you want to go?” We have a choice as a country…at least that was what I thought Bigelow was trying to say.