Oscar Thoughts III

The Best Actress category is the most competitive one this year. Unfortunately, my favorite for the award, Lady Gaga for “House of Gucci”, wasn’t even nominated. She gave a flawless performance. Instead here are the nominees.

Jessica Chastain for “The Eyes of Tammy Fay”. Chastain has become one of the best actresses in film. She’s given a number of great performances. This one is one of them. She went from an innocent, religious college student to a corrupted televangelist. Chastain makes this surreal person human. It is a great performance.

Olivia Colman for “The Lost Daughter”. Colman has become the Oscar “IT” Girl since her performance in “The Favorite” a few years ago. She was nominated last year for “The Father”, but didn’t win. I thought her performance in this film was unemotional and boring. For some reason the film and her performance are getting raves. I don’t get it.

Penelope Cruz for “Parallel Mothers”. Cruz stars in another Pedro Almodóvar film and she does a very good job, but it’s the plot and its twists that really make the film.

Nicole Kidman for “Being the Ricardos”. Kidman has become more beautiful and a better actress as she has grown older. Playing Lucille Ball is a daunting task and she carries it off. A masterful performance, showing how serious Ball was about her work and how she transformed herself when in front of the camera.

Kristen Stewart for “Spencer”. I have always thought that Kristen Stewart was a one-note actress, someone who moped her way through performances. Playing Princess Diana toward the end of her marriage, Stewart is spot on. What impressed me was her accent and how she pulled off the character. Like Kidman and Chastain, she played a well known person and made us forget that she was an actress, not just playing the character.

Like I said this is a very competitive category. Chastain, Kidman or Stewart are all deserving of the award, but from the awards and nominations so far, it’s seems to be between Chastain and Kidman. The former won the Screen Actors Guild award. It would be her first Oscar. I would give her the edge right now.

If I was voting, I would vote for Nicole Kidman. The fact that she pulled off playing Lucille Ball, one of the most familiar faces in media, is impressive,.