Best Performances of the "00s": Supporting Actress

Onward with my look back at the past decade. Here are my favorite Supporting Actress performances of the decade. Once again, lots of clips to go with my posts, so you may want to go over to my blog if you're reading this on Facebook.

Amy Adams, Junebug (2005)

In this family drama, one of my favorite movies of the decade, Amy Adams stole the show as Ashley, a young Southern wife and expectant mother who is obsessed with her big city relatives. Adams crafts a hilarious and heartbreaking portrait, and became a star..

Cate Blanchett, The Aviator (2004)

I seriously deliberated whether to award Blanchett for her portrait of Katharine Hepburn in Scorsese's biopic, or as one of the versions of Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes' sort-of biopic, I'm Not There. Blanchett is never better than when doing real-life portraits with heart (see Elizabeth, her breakout role). In The Aviator, Blanchett stole every scene she was in and was a true highlight of the film.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Patricia Clarkson, Far From Heaven (2002)

I think might vote for Clarkson as MVP of supporting actresses. She always shines without being showy, and she always puts her all into her roles, whether they be supporting or lead. In one of my favorite movies of the decade, Clarkson plays Eleanor, a loyal best friend to Cathy Whitaker until she finds out about an interracial romance.

-Clarkson was so great in many movies this decade, but particularly her supporting roles in Dogville (2003) and Pieces of April (2003) and her lead role in The Station Agent (2003). All in one year!

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

Remember when we mostly knew Cruz as Tom Cruise's girlfriend. In her bilingual role as fiery artist Maria Elena, Cruz was absolutely hilarious in Woody Allen's very enjoyable European comedy-drama. Her vitriol toward Scarlett Johannson in the following clip is hilarious....

-Also tremendous (not to mention stunningly beautiful) in the Almodovar films Volver (2006) and Broken Embraces (2009)

Viola Davis, Doubt (2008)

Davis has a very brief role, as Mrs. Miller, the mother of a boy who Sister Aloysius suspects is being abused by a priest, but man does she make the most of it. It's hard to steal a movie from Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but there's no doubt (pardon the pun) that Davis does it. She even allows her nose to get snotty in the process.

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air (2009)

As Alex, the female counterpart to Clooney's Ryan Bingham, Farmiga brings a grown-up sexiness to her role. I watched the movie a second time, and I felt that her performance even deepened knowing more about her character the whole way through. I'm hoping Hollywood finds more great roles for Farmiga, because she's a true treasure. I even wrote a blog post just on her performance.

-Also did excellent supporting work among all the boys in The Departed (2006)

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Catherine Keener, Capote (2006)

As Harper Lee, best friend to eccentric author Truman Capote, Keener creates the soul of this great film and matches the masterful performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Keener can create all kinds of characters, from very good (such as here) to very mean (see Being John Malkovich)

-This indie queen was excellent in so much this decade. I particularly liked her troubled housewife in Lovely and Amazing (2001) and her surrogate mother in Into the Wild (2007).

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Mo'nique, Precious (2009)

As a true mother from hell, Mo'nique puts her full heart and soul into her performance as Mary Jones, the abusive mother to a troubled teen. Many fine actresses could create a monster, but Mo'nique manages to show us flashes of humanity beneath the surface.

Movie Videos & Movie Scenes at MOVIECLIPS.com

Meryl Streep, Adaptation (2002)

Streep, who is of course one of our greatest actresses, gives one of her top 2 or 3 performances in this movie. She's so simultaneously funny and poignant as a fictionalized version of author Susan Orlean. The scene where she gets stoned is absolutely hilarious.

-Streep was of course almost always amazing this decade. I particularly liked her forays into comedic performances, The Devil Wears Prada (2006), A Prairie Home Companion (2006), and Julie & Julia (2009). Looking back, who knew this master of the accent could be so damned funny.

Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton (2007)

Swinton is a strange and terrific actress, and her performance as Karen Crowder, an opposing lawyer to Clooney's Clayton, is truly unique. She truly digs into the skin of her itchy, corrupt, insecure character and makes her so much more than a typical corporate villain. Major spoiler alert if you watch the clip.

-Swinton also turned in great leading performances this decade in The Deep End (2001) and Julia (2009).

Once again, Oscar did a not bad job with their awards this decade. Four of these women won the award (Blanchett, Cruz, Mo'nique, Swinton), and all except Patricia Clarkson were nominated (and even she got a nomination for Pieces of April).

It's very interesting to see how many of these women switch between supporting and lead roles. Blanchett, Cruz, Streep, Keener, and Adams are all more than able to carry movies on their own, yet have no problems lending their support in great roles.

Favorites of the "00s": 41-50

If I fell in love with the movies in my teenage years in the 90s, it was definitely the 00s (the oughts?) when I became a voracious consumer of film. I saw most of the Oscar nominees, most of the critically acclaimed films, and most things by my favorite directors. Looking back on my many happy hours on the couch or in the theaters, I've come up with a list of my favorite 50 movies of the past decade. I'll be gradually revealing them, all the way to #1!

First, a caveat. I could easily fill this list with 100 movies. I'm also not calling this a "best" list for many reasons. I don't necessarily think every movie on this list is a greater or better-made movie than those that didn't make the list. They are just the ones that spoke to me and that I remember fondly. Some I've seen many times, some only once. If I rewatched them all, I'm sure my rankings would change. On to the first part of the list..... And yes, for my purposes, I'm calling 2000-2009 a decade.

50. Crash (2005). After beating Brokeback Mountain for the Oscar, this movie was pretty widely scorned in many corners of the film community. While not without its flaws, I think it is a deeply humanistic, well-acted, engaging, and well-crafted movie about modern race relations.

49. Wendy and Lucy (2008). So real you are there. Understated, contemplative, mysterious, and oh so heartbreaking. This story about a drifter (Michelle Williams) searching for her lost dog has a lot to say about alienation and modern America.

48. The Constant Gardener (2005). Great performances by Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz (who took home the Supporting Actress Oscar) in this movie about a diplomat discovering evil deeds by a drug company in Africa. Director Fernando Meirelles (look for him higher up on the list) knows how to craft a great political thriller that engages you with the emotional lives of its characters.

47. In the Bedroom (2001). A portrait of a crime and its affect on the marriage and lives of the parents involved. Director Todd Field's debut was stunning. He portrays the emotional loss of his characters so beautifully. Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek give two of the best performances of the decade as the central couple.

46. Little Miss Sunshine (2006). Indie quirk done right. The whole cast is terrific (I vote Steve Carrell and Toni Colette as best in show), and the story is just so much fun to watch. I think it loses a little of its novelty on repeat viewings, but the first time I saw it was some of the most fun I had at the theater this decade.

45. Goodbye Solo (2009). Indie director Ramin Bahrani's movie of a Senegalese cab driver and his friendship with a man at the end of his life. Bahrani's movies have a similar naturalistic vibe to those of Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy) that I love.

44. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). Later in the decade, when the quirk of The Life Acquatic and The Darjeeling Limited became tiresome, I kind of soured on Wes Anderson. But this movie was so well put together. It's like a charming storybook of a dysfunctional family. It's designed beautifully and this time he gets some authentic emotion into the strange characters.

43. Ratatouille (2007). One of Pixar's triumphs of the decade. Remy, a rat who can cook, leads this charming tale set in France. The scenes of restaurant critic Anton Ego's flashback and subsequent review of Remy's cooking are some of my favorite scenes of the decade.

42. Pan's Labyrinth (2006). Truly frightening and truly original. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro helms a movie where Alice in Wonderland meets real-world political violence. The result is fascinating.

41. Little Children (2006). Director Todd Field has made 2 movies (this and In the Bedroom), and they both make my list. For everyone who thinks American Beauty is a great movie, try this one. It has similar themes of suburban alienation, but it doesn't condescend to its characters in the same way. Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley, both nominated for Oscars, are superb.

Clockers/ The Best of Spike Lee

Clockers (1995)

I checked out Clockers after finishing Richard Price's novel of the same name. Price was one of the lead writers on The Wire, my favorite show of all time by a large margin. His book covered many of the same complexities of the cop/drug dealer world as the show. As excited as I was by the book and by much of Lee's work, I couldn't wait to check out the movie.

Unfortunately, I found it to be one of Lee's weakest movies. The novel is a sprawling 700 pages. The movie follows Rocco, a New York City cop investigating a murder, and Strike, a young drug dealer under the sway of a drug kingpin who is involved with the murder. In order to condense the plot, the characters complexities are greatly reduced and several are turned into caricatures. Lee tries to put so much into this movie. The same material would have been covered in 6 or 7 episodes of The Wire and, thus, given the viewers a much deeper understanding of the characters. Nevertheless, Lee does prove an able director. There are some beautiful camera shots, and Mekhi Phifer is excellent as the young dealer. Nevertheless, on the whole it felt a little sketched in and incomplete. Perhaps The Wire has ruined other cop movies for me.

Grade: C+

The Best of Spike Lee

While Clockers was somewhat disappointing, I do usually admire (and sometimes love) Spike Lee as a director. While his ambition can get the better of him, at his best he is an expert and providing electric, thought-provoking entertainment. Here are my "Top 5" Lee movies. If you haven't seen any of them, I recommend checking them out right away.

1. Do the Right Thing (1989): 20 years later, and Lee's tale of racial dynamics and unrest in Brookyn still packs a thought-provoking wallop. He provides a vibrant mix of actors and characters and serves up no easy answers. The fact that this movie was denied a Best Picture nomination (the year that Driving Miss Daisy won) ranks as one of the most egregious Oscar mistakes of all time.

2. Malcolm X (1992): Lee's soaring biopic of Malcolm X is important filmmaking that is never boring, a frequent fault of screen biographies. Denzel Washington losing the Best Actor Oscar ranks as another awful oversight.

3. 25th Hour (2002): This is a great film that I think was unjustly ignored by many critics. This movie follows Monty Brogan (Edward Norton), a drug dealer in his last night in New York before going to prison. Lee produces an elegiac and mournful movie. While this movie mostly addresses race only tangentially, its most powerful scene involves Norton's tirade against his city. Its a great scene, one that shows Norton's profane rage and (ultimately) love for his city.



4. Get on the Bus (1996): Lee's movie of a group of men traveling across the county to the Million Man March allows him to explore the complexity of black males and their relationship to one another and America. Fascinating stuff.

5. Inside Man (2006): Hugely entertaining heist film. Lee lets loose and provides two hours of clever fun, along with some social commentary (but not too much). The great cast is led by Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, and Christopher Plummer.

Runners-Up: Crooklyn, He Got Game, Summer of Sam

Best Performances of 2008: Supporting Actor and Actress

As a follow-up to my Top 10 of 2008, here are my favorite performances of the year, or the performances I would have nominated for Oscars. I find supporting performances fascinating. At their best, they make me want to watch a new movie with them as a protagonist. These are the performances where they light up the screen each time they are on and elevate the movie to another level (Heath Ledger, Viola Davis). Other supporting performances are great because they play a perfect role in a great ensemble (Eddie Marsan, Rosemarie Dewitt). However their roles play in their movies, here are 10 supporting performances I found compelling.....

Supporting Actor:

Josh Brolin, Milk: Takes the villainous role of Dan White, which could be played as a cliched bigot, and turns it into a fascinating character study. Lets you see the internal struggles he goes through which leads him to his ultimate act.

Bill Irwin, Rachel Getting Married: Probably the most sympathetic role in the movie, the father trying to hold his family together. Natural, endearing, and responsive to the actors around him. I wasn't familiar with Irwin before this movie, but I hope he gets more roles after this movie.

Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight: While I found The Dark Knight entertaining but slightly overhyped, there's no denying that Ledger's swansong is the most fascinating part of the movie. Finds the uneasy evil place inside his character and puts past superhero villains to shame. I wonder if Jack Nicholson feels angry?

Eddie Marsan, Happy-Go-Lucky: If Ledger is the evil side to Batman, Eddie Marsan's driving instructor is the negative worldview in opposition to Sally Hawkins' Poppy. He expertly goes head-to-head with Hawkins' performance and is one-half of what feels like the emotional and intellectual core of the movie.

Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading: As a dim-witted gym instructor, Pitt manages to stand out in a cast that includes Frances McDormand, George Clooney, and John Malkovich. Made me laugh every moment he was on screen.



My favorite: Bill Irwin
Runner-Up: Josh Brolin

Supporting Actress:

Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona: The Oscar-winning performance was terrific. Brings a huge dose of European humor and energy to Woody Allen's movie when she enters halfway through.

Viola Davis, Doubt: A performance that truly elevates the movie. In a few short minutes, Davis' turn as the mother of a possibly abused student adds countless layers of intellectual and emotional complexity to a movie that, before, risked being a "did-he-or-didn't-he" style mystery. Astounding.

Rosemarie Dewitt, Rachel Getting Married: As the title character, Dewitt does a beautiful job playing the counterpoint to Anne Hathaway's performance as drug addict Kym. The two do a beautiful job of showing the good and bad qualities of both sisters, so that as an audience our sympathies switch depending on the scene.

Hannah Schygulla, The Edge of Heaven: A beautifully understated performance of a somewhat distant mother who must deal with real emotions after a tragic event.

Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler: Tomei takes a somewhat underwritten "stripper with a heart of gold" role and takes it new places. Moments that would seem cliched in the hands of other actresses feel emotionally truthful and beautiful.



My favorite: Viola Davis
Runner-Up: Penelope Cruz

It's March 2009..... Time for "Best of 2008"

OK, so I know that it is several months past the end of '08, but I think I am ready to complete my "Top 10 of 2008" list. Because of the late-year Oscar glut, it took me awhile to catch up with movies I would like to see.

These are my (very) personal opinions of what I found most interesting, enjoyable, well-made of 2008's films. Please feel free to comment or argue with my picks! I'm also the kind of person that tends to go back to movies and find very different things (both positive and negative), so I see my top 10 list as a living list that may change.

A few critically-acclaimed films I have not yet seen (and thus, have no chance of making this list):
Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Synecdoche NY, Wendy & Lucy, Waltz with Bashir, Gran Torino.

Runners Up (movies that I felt pained to leave out):

Happy-Go-Lucky: Sally Hawkins gives an absolutely incredible performance in Mike Leigh's highly enjoyable and thought-provoking comedic drama (or dramatic comedy?).

The Visitor: Another movie anchored by a great lead performance (Oscar-nominated Richard Jenkins). A quiet and poignant movie about global connections and finding joy.

The Wrestler: I really wrestled (sorry) with whether to put this movie on the list. Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei were terrific and its a movie I've thought about a lot since I've seen it. If the script had been up to the level of their performances, and the movie had reveled a little less in the violence, it would have made the cut. Still, definitely a powerful film.

And now to the list..... in descending order.


10: Slumdog Millionaire: While I do think this movie was over-awarded, there is no denying its energy and charm. Kudos to director Danny Boyle for creating a moving and enjoyable crowd-pleaser.

9. Chop Shop: In many ways, a response to the energy and color of Slumdog Millionaire. A quiet and realistic account of a young teenager and his sister surviving in a Queens slum. It has the power and truthfulness of a great documentary.

8. The Edge of Heaven: A German-Turkish film about the ways in which we make connections across ages, races, and nationalities. The kind of movie where you come to care about the characters so much, you almost wish for a sequel.

7. Revolutionary Road: Certainly not without its flaws, but its great moments are among the best moments of the year. Leonardo and (especially) Kate give fantastic performances as a 50s couple in a meltdown.


6. Vicky Christina Barcelona: In my mind, Woody's best since Husbands and Wives (1992). I love Woody at his best, and this is both a return to form and a new direction. He takes his camera to Barcelona and comes up with a sexy, breezy, melancholy look at love and desire. Penelope Cruz is rightfully heralded for her great performance. Rebecca Hall, a British actress who I was unfamiliar with, is also wonderful.

5. Trouble the Water: Extremely powerful documentary showing the struggle by Katrina survivors. Once you see this movie, I guarantee you will not forget Kimberly Rivers.

4. Milk: Enthralling biopic chronicling Harvey Milk's political birth and career. Sean Penn justly won the Oscar for his incredible performance.

3. The Class: The French nominee for Best Foreign Film. The documentary-like account of a year with a teacher and his students. Puts almost all American teacher movies to shame.

2. Wall-E: Instant classic. A mix of Chaplin-style slapstick, sweet romance, and sharp satire, it truly creates a world of its own.

1. Rachel Getting Married: This movie was somewhat divisive, and didn't get nearly the awards traction I think it deserved, and if you don't connect with it, it may surprise you to see it as my number 1. I love well-made slice-of-life movies. The kind of movies where the camera wanders, you meet many characters, and there are no easy resolutions. This is one of the best. The ensemble cast does an amazing job of inhabiting very specific characters that you alternately want to hug and slap in the face. With a great script by Jenny Lumet and direction by Jonathan Demme, its truly something special. I can't wait to watch it again.

Hope you enjoyed the list. Give me your thoughts (or your tops of the year) in the comments!

Coming soon- Ben's favorite performances of the year!