Rolling Stone: Best Actress Oscar Winners Since 2000, Ranked Worst to Best

Absolute insanity. There should be about 15 of them tied for worst, and Meryl (while not great) isn't one of them. Clickbait bullshit making her be the worst- oooh, how edgy, RS is dissing Streep! Meanwhile, Julianne Moore's career Oscar for a terrible performance in an even worse film is ranked as best? GTFO.

About the only thing that article got right is Bullock's totally bullshit Oscar.

2000? That’s about when I stopped paying attention to them.

I haven't clicked on the list, but if the profoundly mediocre Julia Roberts isn't ranked the worst on this list, something's off.

R14 She's no. 4. No. 1 ranking is Julianne Moore, seriously. Jennifer Lawrence is ranked higher than Charlize Theron and Marion Cotillard. lol.

So in other words, the list is in order of fuckable women.

I think it would be more interesting to rank the movies they were in, because there were some stinkers, including both the Streep and the Moore. Seriously.

Meryl really does give the worst performance on that list. It's the one performance that I think is legitimately terrible.

Still Alice was very good, it was a standard lower-budget indie that someone put some real work into, plus it had good performances. Sally Field's Hello, My Name is Doris was similar but too light for the Academy to care about.

Still Alice was a steaming pile of horseshit.

Before I looked at the list, I chose The Five Best Performances: 1. Blanchett. 2. Theron 3. Colman 4. McDormand (Billboards) 5. McDormand (Nomadland) (I haven't seen Cotillard's work)

And, The Four Worst Performances/Wins: The worst: 18. Lawrence 19. Larsen 20. Streep 21. Swank (Million Dollar Baby)

I actually liked Bullock's win even though Sidibe and Mulligan were better. I don't mind their Top 5, though. However, I am befuddled by the love people have for Helen Mirren in The Queen. I will never understand.

Meryl gets panned for that performance yet when Gillian Anderson did the same thing people thought it was great. To me Anderson seemed more like a stroke victim than Thatcher.

Meryl's performance wasn't bad, it's just that the film was rotten and because she was the highest-profile person in it and won an Oscar, she gets the blame.

Julia should be in top 2. Idiots put her at #4.

“It’s another Hollywood tale of how a privileged white character learns valuable lessons by helping a poor black youth.”

Jesus Christ. This type of race-obsessed reportage is both smug and boring at this point. The first sign of the writer’s inanity.

In other news, they still publish Rolling Stone

When you look at commercial success, Bullock's film blew all the others out of the water (as did her followup nomination). Is it a great performance? No. But, she glams it up and is fun and iconic.

Sadly, G didn't make the list. And we all know why.

r17 Erin Brokovich was a pretty big hit. So was Silver Lining Playbook.

La La Land was the biggest hit of all. Blind Side was no where to La La Land.

Worthy to varying degrees and in no order: Blanchett, McDormand (Nomadland), Swank, Moore, Mirren, Stone, Colman, Roberts.

Just no: Berry, Larson, Portman, Theron, Zellweger, Kidman, Streep, Bullock, Cotillard, Witherspoon, Winslet, Lawrence.

Underwhelming slightly wins out but its reflective of cinema in general so fair enough.

Sadly, M doesn't have two performances/films and range which live up to G's work in Dangerous Liaisons and Fatal Attraction, R18. But, keep doing those accents! They're fun!

R19, not as big as The Blind Side. That film still did nearly double the domestic grosses of those two.

Julia at #4 over Marion Cotillard.....Reese Witherspoon in IWTL better than Kate Winslet in The Reader.....

I genuinely did not think RS could fail at anything as badly as they do in their music lists.....boy was I wrong.

I recently watched Still Alice again, and I agree with this #1. I also rewatched The Favourite, and I think I’d put Colman at #2.

I echo R5. Charlize Theron is no. 14? She gave the performance of the last 20 years? Marion Cotillard a close second. This poll has them among the bottom 8. They rank JLaw, Bree Larson and Julia above them. Fucking hell.

Everyone was swept away with the lie Portman did most of her own dancing in Black Swan and she won. Then the truth came out. Her acting alone in that movie without all the impressive dancing would have not even merited a nomination. Poor Annette Bening should have won.

Dumb lists. Most of the winners didn't deserve to win. That's the Oscars.

The Iron Lady is crap, but it is a fitting tribute to the last fifteen years of Streep's career, which have been nothing more than a mix of grotesque impersonations and mannered tic filled performances. All that overpraise was bound to backfire sooner and later, and I think within the last couple of years, people have realized that other veteran actresses have been greatly taken for granted at the expense of one.

Plus, Streep kissing Thatcher's ass was repulsive in itself.

Should have won:

2002 - Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven

2004 - Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake

2005 - Felicity Huffman, Transamerica

2006 - Judi Dench, Notes On A Scandal

2008 - Meryl Streep, Doubt

2009 - Gabi Sidibe, Precious

2010 - Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

2011 - Charlize Theron, Young Adult (criminally not nominated)

2012 - Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

2014 - Reese Witherspoon, Wild

2015 - Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years

2016 - Isabelle Huppert, Elle

2017 - Sally Hawkins, The Shape Of Water

Streep was terrific as Thatcher, her performance deserved a better Writer and Director.

[quote]Streep was terrific as Thatcher, her performance deserved a better Writer and Director.

A great actress can make bad writing work.

Face it, she stunk

Julianne Moore, no. Rosamund Pike should have won for Gone Girl.

R28, I like your list. One of my favorite books is “Alternate Oscars”…I re-read it every few years. I wish the author had updated it, but it ends with 1992. Like me, he agrees with the Academy sometimes.

2000 Laura Linney, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME

2001 Sissy Spacek, IN THE BEDROOM

2002 Julianne Moore, FAR FROM HEAVEN

2003 Charlize Theron, MONSTER

2004 Hillary Swank, MILLION DOLLAR BABY (really weak year) * should have been Uma Thurman, KILL BILL, vol. 2–not nominated

2005 Felicity Huffman, TRANSAMERICA

2006 M, DEVIL WEARS PRADA

2007 Marion Cottilard, LE VIE EN ROSE

2008 Winslet, I guess, another weak year

2009 Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS

2010 Annette Bening, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

2011 G, ALBERT NOBBS

2012 Naomi Watts, THE IMPOSSIBLE (I fucking loved this performance)

2013 Judi Dench, PHILOMENA

2014 Julianne Moore, STILL ALICE

2015 Brie Larson, ROOM

2016 Isabelle Huppert, ELLE

2017 Frances McDormand, 3 BILLBOARDS..

2018 Olivia Colman, THE FAVOURITE

2019 Renee Zellwegger, JUDY (another weak year)

2020 Carey Mulligan, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Renee should have won in 2001 for Bridget's Jones Diary. Monsters Ball and In the Bedroom were chores to sit through.

Diane Lane in 2002. Nicole Kidman was ok. Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid overacted in a wildly uneven movie that didn't seem to know whether it wanted to be satire or drama.

Worst should've been Emma Stone because it's a performance that didn't even deserve a nomination in a movie that also didn't deserve a nomination. Bullock and Roberts both gave crappy performances in which all the annoying things about their "acting" was turned up to 11 in those movies.

R32's ridiculous choice for 2011 shows that her taste and judgment are suspect, despite some of her picks being adequate perhaps by the laws of chance.

2011 should have gone to Viola Davis. She had some stinky garbage in the writing and directing, but she was superb.

My picks, since we're playing

2000- Julia Roberts, EB

2001- Thora Birch, Ghost World

2002- CZJ for Chicago (it was a lead performance)

2003- Oksana Akinshina for Lilya 4 Ever

2004- Nicole Kidman for Dogville

2005- Vera Farmiga for Down to the Bone

2006- Helen Mirren for The Queen

2007- TIE- Julie Christie for Away From Her, Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose

2008- Meryl Streep for Doubt

2009- Gaborey Sidibe for Precious

2010- Natalie Portman for Black Swan

2011- Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin

2012- Ann Dowd for Compliance (one could also argue this was supporting, but I thought lead)

2013- Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

2014- Agata Kulezsa for Ida

2015- Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years

2016- Rebecca Hall for Christine

2017- Florence Pugh for Lady Macbeth

2018- Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me

2019- Mary Kay Place for Diane

2020- Diane Lane for Let Him Go

2021- Renate Reinsve for The Worst Person in the World

[quote]I actually liked Bullock's win even though Sidibe and Mulligan were better.

Bullock obviously won because she was well liked and it was, in general, in appreciation of her career a whole.

Sidibe and Mulligan were much better and both bothered to act and create characters outside of doing a southern accent.

I remember Sidibe doing interviews and talking like, as someone described her, "a sarcastic valley girl" and I realized how much acting she actually did.

R35, I agree with you. I was just trying to get a rise out of the G, M trolls. Viola was magnificent in a shitty movie.

If I had gone back to the 80s I would have given Glenn the Oscar for Fatal Attraction or Dangerous Liaisons so we’d have been spared this Susan Lucci-ish drama about her not having an Oscar all these years.

Viola did nothing in The Help that we haven't seen every black actress who's played a maid do since back in the GWTW days. She is a completely overrated actress.

Annette Bening has long been overdue. Glenn Close and Sigourney Weaver even longer than her.

It's a shame we live in a world where Jennifer Lawrence can have an Oscar but not these women.

Close getting an Oscar for Dangerous Liaisons makes so many other Oscars so much better. Cher has her Oscar for Moonstruck. Holly Hunter has her Oscar for Piano (I thought 1987 had three worthy winners). Jodie Foster still has her Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs. I liked Melanie Griffith in Working Girl as much as Close for Liaisons, but Glenn getting it for 1988 makes everything right in the world.

The Academy really fucked up!

Also, give Tandy's to Pfeiffer. Give Matlin's to Kathleen Turner or Sigourney Weaver (or give Geena Davis' to Weaver). Give Swank's first one to Bening.

R41 I'd actually give Swank's second Oscar to Bening instead. Bening was good in American Beauty but absolutely superb in Being Julia. And Swank was great in Boys Don't Cry but there was no need to give her a 2nd Oscar after that.

[quote]Holly Hunter has her Oscar for Piano

The Piano was pretentious garbage. That should have been Angela's oscar for What's Love Got to do with it?

Shit, I would have given Madonna the oscar for Dangerous Game over Hunter.

Sandra had a pretty dress.

Meryl dressed like a fat-hipped Oscar. She knew she was getting it and wore her gold dress for the occasion. She didn't care that the movie stunk. She was terrible in it.

Julie Roberts was gorgeous and deserving. Hers was a star personality performance like Audrey Hepburn or Diane Keaton or Katherine Hepburn used to win for. But with a better script and more range. They come around every now and then. It was Julia's turn. She's been even better in other things. Bitch can act. Don't lie.

Halle Berry DESERVED her Oscar too. There's nothing to fault in her performance. She just makes some people uncomfortable.

Cotillard and Theron deserve higher placements. WTF?

Winslet and Julianne and Kidman won for the wrong films in the wrong years.

Cate Blanchett is exactly right and where she should be. Blue Jasmine is nothing if not a showcase for a great actress acting while still being effective in character. Streep wishes she could still do that AND inhabit a character.

McDormand. Ebbings yes, Nomadland -who cares?

I like Witherspoon better in Wild but the day I saw Walk The Line in theatre, I said to my boyfriend - she's going to win the Academy Award. She was so rooted and real and unaffected in that performance - the exact opposite of Joaquim.

Helen Mirren was perfection. Her performance is a poem. Don't mistake your disinterest in the subject for lack or artistry on her part.

Glenn could have gotten nominated and possibly won for 101 Dalmatians had the academy not had such a stick up its ass that year and nominated performances that people had actually seen and liked.

That whole 1996 Best Actress lineup was a fucking mess. Supporting wasn't much better either.

Should have won:

2000: Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr 2003: Nicole Kidman, Dogville 2005: Carice van Houten, Black Book/Zwartboek

Nicole should have won for Moulin Rouge instead of Halle Berry. Then Julianne Moore could have won the next year for Far From Heaven.

Halle Berry was terrible. I agree with Angela Bassett, the original choice for Monster's Ball who rejected it finding it offensive, that there was nothing empowering about Halle flashing her tits.

I absolutely hate that Sigourney doesn’t have an Oscar.

Charlize Theron in Monster has to be the most overrated "great" performance of all fucking time. Had a woman even slightly less conventionally attractive than Charlize done the exact same performance she wouldn't have gotten showered with all that praise. That role deserved an Oscar for Best Makeup, maybe! Monster is just crap a movie as The Iron Lady.

Generally bad winners over the last twenty years. Cate Blanchett and Olivia Colman were the only two wins I felt were fully deserved. Julianne Moore and Frances McDormand are both good actresses but are getting their recent acclaim for mediocre performances. The rest are bad to slightly above average actresses (or old good ones past their prime like M) getting rewarded because of Harvey campaigns or media narratives.

Emma Stone in the POS La La Land winning over Isabelle Huppert in Elle is one of the two Oscar losses of the last decade I actually got pissed about. The other is Sam Rockwell (who unlike Stone, is a great actor) in the hackish Three Billboards winning over Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project.

Halle Berry's performance had very little to do with "flashing her tits" R47. Most of the actresses on this list have flashed their tits - many times.

[quote] Halle Berry DESERVED her Oscar too. There's nothing to fault in her performance. She just makes some people uncomfortable.

Not a surprising take considering you think Ginger Minj has talent.

R50 It's not about whether an actress has flashed her tits onscreen before or not. It's about winning an Oscar for specifically flashing her tits. There's a reason Angela Bassett and Vanessa Williams both turned it down. Bassett said she's happy for Halle Berry for winning, but she personally wouldn't have been able to sleep at night winning an Oscar for that role. She felt it stereotyped black women by making them appear to be prostitutes.

Was Natalie Portman one of the Weinstein wins?

No, Fox put Black Swan out.

Angela Bassett is a professional and personal fraud. She's a pious liar. Her acting consists of lowering her voice, trembling her jaw, narrowing her eyes while sucking in her cheeks.

And being a brutal leather fist fucked lesbian married to a sissy gay man IRL. She loves the LORD!!

R51 is insane. And a famous DL stalker.

Meh. I prefer the rankings the other way with Streep at #1

R54 Glad to hear that. I always liked Natalie.

[quote] And being a brutal leather fist fucked lesbian married to a sissy gay man IRL. She loves the LORD!!

LOON ALERT!

R51, R58.

Insane poster of note. Hundreds of times a day.

After the Weinstein scandal the only fair thing to do is retroactively take away the Oscars his actresses won, all in the name of female empowerment of course. I can't see anyone missing Gwyneth, JLaw, or Renee as Oscar winners.

I don't necessarily think Blanchett deserved the Oscar for Elizabeth, but had she won it over Paltrow, it would have saved us from enduring her win for The Aviator, which was a dreadful performance.

This is a giant troll list. Theron for instance is easily top 3.

Theron was good, but not that good. She's not even remembered very much now. She's not that old, but her career is pretty much dead. She gave a very good performance and was once pretty in an East German swimmer kind of way - but she's not very easy to like. She's not as popular as Halle Berry.

I still remember that Theron never once mentioned Wuornos in any of her acceptance speeches that year. She should have had something to say about Eileen or playing her life. She had no feeling about it at all. Very strange for tackling such a deeply complex and troubled woman. Theron just thanked the director and writers, costars etc. Charlize was very carefully managed to the OSCAR platform. She's talented and gives the impression of being badass - but she's one of the toughest inside players of them all.

You wanted her to thank a serial killer?

Shoutout to Aileen Wuornos for killing all those dudes! Lainey, half this Oscar is yours, babe!

What a fucking moron.

R63 Lol in what world has Halle Berry been relevant? Are you referring to that mega-flop Moonfall? The biggest flop of the year?

I was always dismissive of Theron’s Monster performance, because circa 2003 any beautiful actress who gained weight to play a serial killer/hooker would have won the Oscar, assuming even a basic level of competence. Kate Hudson would have won the Oscar had she played Wuornos instead, and probably just as easily.

But I watched it again recently, and while I don’t think it’s one of the greatest performances of all time like Ebert proclaimed, I found it more nuanced than I did initially. It holds up a lot better than I expected. Her best performance, though, is Young Adult.

[quote]You wanted her to thank a serial killer?

I wasn't talking about you R64.

Agreed, r67. Along with FURY ROAD.

Charlize is dull and passable. Only gets hyped because of her traditional model looks.

The only person who deserved to win an Oscar for "Monster's Ball" was Heath Ledger. Halle Berry's performance was shit.

Here's one critic's view about "Monster's Ball" and Halle Berry's performance.:

Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in this, and it is anybody's guess why. Of course, it is anybody's guess why Gwyneth beat four far more talented Brits for Shakespeare In Love. In the end, the ridiculously overpraised Monster's Ball is hamstrung by a ludicrous plot line and a wearying mood of claustrophobic self-importance. "You know when you feel like you can't breathe?" Hank asks at one point. Yes, I do. It happens whenever I see movies like this. *

[quote]why Gwyneth beat four far more talented Brits for Shakespeare In Love.

brits? there was only one nominated (Emily Watson)

The others were M, Fernanda Montenegra and Cate.

R73, that critic probably confused Gwyneth with Helen Hunt, who did beat four British actresses (Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Christie, Judi Dench, Kate Winslet) and didn’t deserve her Oscar either.

[quote]"Monster's Ball" is about a black woman and a white man who find, for a time anyway, solace in each other for their pain. But their pain remains separate and so do they; this is not a message movie about interracial relationships, but the specific story of two desperate people whose lives are shaken by violent deaths, and how in the days right after that they turn to each other because there is no place else to turn. The movie has the complexity of great fiction, and requires our empathy as we interpret the decisions that are made--especially at the end, when the movie avoids an obligatory scene that would have been conventional and forces us to cut straight to the point.

[quote] Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry star as Hank and Leticia, in two performances that are so powerful because they observe the specific natures of these two characters, and avoid the pitfalls of racial cliches. What a shock to find these two characters freed from the conventions of political correctness, and allowed to be who they are: weak, flawed, needful, with good hearts tested by lifetimes of compromise. They live in a Georgia town, circa 1990; Leticia works the night shift in a diner, has a fat little son and an ex-husband on Death Row; Hank works as a guard on Death Row, has a mean, racist father and a browbeaten son, and will be involved in Leticia's ex-husband's execution. ("Monster's Ball" is an old English term for a condemned man's last night on earth.) At first, Hank and Leticia do not realize the connection they have through the condemned man. For another movie that would be enough plot. We can imagine the scenes of discovery and revelation. How this movie handles that disclosure is one of its great strengths; how both characters deal with it (or don't deal with it) internally, so that the movie blessedly proceeds according to exactly who they are, what they need, what they must do, and the choices open to them.

[quote] The screenplay by Milo Addica and Will Rokos is subtle and observant; one is reminded of short fiction by Andre Dubus, William Trevor, Eudora Welty, Raymond Carver. It specifically does not tell "their" story, but focuses on two separate lives. The characters are given equal weight, and have individual story arcs, which do not intersect but simply, inevitably, meet. There is an overlay of racism in the story; Hank's father Buck (Peter Boyle) is a hateful racist, and Hank mirrors his attitudes. But the movie is not about redemption, not about how Hank overcomes his attitudes, but about how they fall away from him like a dead skin because his other feelings are so much more urgent. The movie then is not about overcoming prejudice, but sidestepping it because it comes to seem monstrously irrelevant.

[quote] Hank is an abused son and an abusive father. His old man Buck, confined to a wheelchair and a stroller, still exercises an iron will over the family. All three generations live under his roof, and when Hank's son Sonny (Heath Ledger) opts out of the family sickness, Buck's judgment is cruel: "He was weak." We do not learn much about Leticia's parents, but she is a bad mother, alternately smothering her son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) with love, and screaming at him that he's a "fat little piggy." She drinks too much, has been served with an eviction notice, sees herself as a loser. She has no affection at all for Tyrell's father Lawrence (Sean Combs), on Death Row, and makes it clear during a visitation that she is there strictly for her son. There is no side story to paint Lawrence as a victim; "I'm a bad man," he tells Tyrell. "You're the best of me."

[quote]"You're the best of me." Leticia is all messed up. She sustains a loss that derails her, and it happens, by coincidence, that Hank is there when he can perform a service. This makes them visible to each other. It is safe to say that no one else in the community is visible, in terms of human need, to either one. Hank's shy, slow courtship is so tentative, it's like he's sleepwalking toward her. Her response is dictated by the fact that she has nowhere else to turn. They have a key conversation in which the bodies of both characters are tilted away from each other, as if fearful of being any closer. And notice another conversation, when she's been drinking, and she waves her hands, and one hand keeps falling on Hank's lap; she doesn't seem to notice and, here is the point, he doesn't seem willing to.

Their intimate scenes are ordinary and simple, a contrast to Hank's cold mercenary arrangement with a local hooker. The film's only flaw is the way Marc Forster allows his camera to linger on Berry's half-clothed beauty; this story is not about sex appeal, and if the camera sees her that way, we are pretty sure that Hank doesn't. What he sees, what she sees, is defined not by desire but by need.

Students of screenwriting should study the way the film handles the crucial passages at the end, when she discovers some drawings and understands their meaning. Here is where a lesser movie would have supplied an obligatory confrontation. Leticia never mentions the drawings to Hank. Why not? Because it is time to move on? Because she understands why he withheld information? Because she has no alternative? Because she senses that the drawings would not exist if the artist hated his subject? Because she is too tired and this is just one more nail on the cross? Because she forgives? What? The movie cannot say. The characters have disappeared into the mysteries of the heart. "Monster's Ball" demonstrates that to explain all its mysteries, a movie would have to limit itself to mysteries that can be explained. As for myself, as Leticia rejoined Hank in the last shot of the movie, I was thinking about her as deeply and urgently as about any movie character I can remember.

⭐ ⭐⭐⭐

^Who’s got time to read all that

"Monster's Ball is a powerful and poignant motion picture not about racism and redemption, as one might initially suppose, but about one of the most urgent and universal of human needs - that of finding solace for pain and loneliness. Though it has some of the trappings of an interracial romance, Monster's Ball is not that, either. The sex in this movie is not a precursor to love; it is a means by which two people can find temporary refuge from their otherwise bleak existences. An orgasm is an effective way to wipe away everything else, if only for a few moments.

Coincidence forms the fulcrum of Monster's Ball's storyline. In some movies, this coincidence would become a major source of plot complications, but the screenplay, by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, is smart enough to confound our expectations. Thus, though we may be expecting a big, emotional confrontation, it never comes. The principle male character is Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a corrections officer who is greatly respected at work, but whose home life is a disaster. It's hard to say whether he has a worse relationship with his surly, racist father (Peter Boyle) or his soft-hearted son (Heath Ledger). Hank is charged with supervising the execution of death-row inmate Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs), a cop killer who has exhausted 11 years' worth of appeals. Lawrence has a son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun), who idolizes him, and a wife, Leticia (Halle Berry), who can't stand him. Following the execution, both Hank and Leticia suffer shocking, unexpected tragedies, and, in the wake of one of these, they are thrown together. And, because they happen to be there, they turn to each other.

These characters are far more real than the average motion picture constructs. Most movies are so concerned with plot and visual style that they lose sight of the men and women inhabiting the screenplay. Not so here. Monster's Ball is all about these two people and the forces that push them into a relationship that, under any other circumstances, would not occur. But there are no easy answers here. Leticia and Hank do not profess (or experience) undying love for one another, nor do they ride happily off into the sunset. In fact, the movie ends on a beautiful note of ambiguity, and, perhaps of hope.

A mixture of pain, grief, and guilt - one of the most bitter cocktails the human experience offers - can cause people to do unexpected things in the quest for surcease. When trapped in the midst of raging rapids, the drowning victim will grasp at any lifeline, no matter how tenuous it is. The characters in Monster's Ball are looking for release. "Make me feel good!" cries Leticia. It's a momentary thing. Hank and Leticia never truly feel good, but they do feel better. In each other, they discover something that, in its own way, is more potent than mere love: comfort. When they are together, they don't hurt as much or as often.

This is a brave movie requiring courageous performances. With this role, Halle Berry sheds years of lightweight baggage. Her performance is an odds-on favorite to garner a deserved Oscar nomination. Billy Bob Thornton matches her intensity pace-for-pace. These two radiate neediness and anguish. We can see their inner torment mirrored in their eyes and faces. The hand of Job is upon them both. Much has been made of Berry's baring of her body for the camera, but what's even more impressive is the way she bares her soul. The chemistry between Berry and Thornton is strong, but it's not of the romantic variety. Instead, it's something more primal - something that movies rarely depict for fear of alienating audiences who want shallow screenplays with hollow characters. This isn't anyone's fantasy.

Hank is, in many ways, an ugly individual. He is a racist who has inherited his feelings from his father. As the film wears on, his tolerance for blacks grows. This is not the result of some sudden enlightenment, but because the passion necessary to sustain prejudice has drained out of him.

...

....

"Hank also perhaps experiences a moment of clarity when he looks at himself and sees the man he most despises - his father. That doesn't prompt his change, but it certainly contributes to it. Leticia is no angel, either. She abuses her son, both verbally and physically, because he eats too much. She has trouble keeping her job and is on the verge of being evicted from her home.

There are two sex scenes between Hank and Leticia. The first, which is the more graphic of the two, is so raw and intense that it is more likely to disturb than to arouse. These individuals are using one another to assuage guilt and pain; it's an outpouring of need and grief. There's no kissing, just sweaty physical contact. By the time the second encounter occurs, Hank and Leticia have developed a bond. There are hints of tenderness and affection in their relationship, and it shows during a scene that comes as close to playful as anything in Monster's Ball. But the movie still has one more obstacle to throw in our path, and many unanswered questions to pose.

This is the second feature from director Marc Forster, whose debut, Everything Put Together, was never widely seen outside of the film festival circuit. Thus, Monster's Ball has become Forster's calling card, and it makes a bold statement. This is as anti-Hollywood a film as I have seen in recent months, one which takes conventional plot ideas and uses them not to season a melodrama, but to enrich fully three-dimensional characters and create a forceful motion picture. Hank and Leticia do not let go of you, even once the end credits have rolled."

⭐ ⭐⭐⭐

Why is this person simping Halle Berry so hard?

Controversial list. I take umbrage with all the choices above 15. I would’ve definitely put Swank in the top 5. Below Witherspoon and Captain Marvel?? C’mon!!

Halle won for one reason, and we all know what it was.

Wow even 20 plus years later Halle Berry's performance is flies on shit.

Stay presssssed.

Imo i's pretty disgraceful that the first black woman to win for Best Actress was Halle Berry. I know Viola wasn't really on the scene then but there were much better choices than Halle.

Such as, R84? I'm not being sarcastic, I'm asking who you think.

R85 Angela Bassett. Or they could have waited a few years and given it to Viola for The Help instead of Streep. The Help is still an iconic movie whereas all of Streep's wacky accents and costume roles are interchangeable for the public.

I still find Helen Mirren's performance in The Queen massively overrated. The obsession Americans have with the royal family and the Anglophilia of the Academy voters probably played a huge part. They always seem to love even average performances from British actors, especially the ones with posh accents. The Queen is an average TV movie at best and a dozen other actresses could have played the part just as well.

Was the over the top praise for Mirren simply because she chose not to do any nude scenes in the movie and was playing what the voters would consider a "classy" woman?

I thought both Judi and M were far more deserving that year over Mirren.

Charlize should be #1

R87 I think Helen was overdue at that point so they were ready to just give it to her for anything. Although that standard has clearly not applied to Glenn Close.

Charlize Theron Jennifer Lawrence Halle Berry Brie Larson Hilary Swank Natalie Portman Frances McDormand (Three Billboards) Julianne Moore Cate Blanchett Nicole Kidman Olivia Colman Renee Zellweger Kate Winslet Marion Cotillard Meryl Streep Julia Roberts Sandra Bullock Reese Witherspoon Frances McDormand (Nomadland) Helen Mirren Emma Stone

The Help is hardly an iconic movie. It's pretty much forgotten. Unless you're using the word iconic in a Gen Z definition, as in "OMG, this Grape Red Bull is iconic!" "Have you heard Olivia Rodrigo's new song, she's so iconic!" "I gave my bf the most iconic blowjob, but like, I'm still non-binary, okeh?"

St Viola is another overrated performer. She is one note and every role is played with the same noble, self-righteous, patronizing demeanor because it is a TEACHING MOMENT! And the inevitable snot crying. She is the Phylicia Rashad of film, who isn't just acting, she is plying her CRAFT.

The only performance of Viola's I have liked was when she played James Brown's mother in Get On Up. Otherwise, she's mediocre.

Poor Viola

Please, Viola was so startling in Doubt. Incredible performance. I remember seeing her in small parts in Antwone Fisher, World Trade Center, Far From Heaven and being like “Who the fuck is THAT?!” She does do the holier than thou a lot and needs to cut that shit out but in Ma Rainey she was a slob and a loser, very different than usual.

I was robbed!

She was horrible in Ma Rainey.

Julia Roberts should have won her second Oscar for August Osage but she was R-O-B-B-E-D

R84 Its a shame Tina, What's Love Got To Do With It wasn't released in 1994 because Angela Bassett would have won hands done and with a great timeless performance. She had the bad luck to be up against Holly Hunter in top form.

We also probably would have been spared Berry's ridiculous win.

Had Miss Ross won when she was supposed to, for the luminous Lady Sings the Blues instead of Liza doing the same fucking thing she did until her hips crumbled, then we would have been spared Berry's ridiculous win.

That's a good point, R99.

I also found this: [quote]Angela Bassett auditioned for the role in October 1992 and was chosen only a month before production began in December. During that time she had to learn not only how to talk like Turner but to dance and move like her. She would have been willing to try to do the singing as well, but 'not in the time we had,' she said. 'I did think about it for a second, though.' Instead, she lip syncs to soundtracks recorded by Tina Turner and Fishburne.

It was released in June 1993! What a turnover!

R91 I love someone who makes me laugh, like you!

Viola was Supporting in "The Help", I don't know how she was campaigned in Lead. She would have won. Octavia Spencer (whom I prefer) should have won for Fruitville Station.

Viola was Lead in Fences but went Supporting as she got her fingers burned in 2012. If V hadn't won before she may well have beat Emma Stone.

Diana Ross did not deserve it over our Liza. Whoopi should have won in 1986 over Geri Page who took her shoes off during the broadcast and stank the place up!

I think Whoopi was wonderful in TCP, but Page was also fantastic and ALSO deserved it for career. Even Whoopi knew Gerry deserved it and was going to get it.

R103 Geraldine Page was way overdue at that point and deserved it. That was her 8th nomination at that point, 4 for best actress and 4 for best supporting actress.

I think the best performances were Cate Blanchett, Charlize Theron, Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman, Brie Larson, Olivia Colman, and both of Frances McDormand's roles.

The least deserving were Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Hilary Swank (speaking about her 2nd win specifically), and especially Jennifer Lawrence who really tainted the prestige of the Oscars with that calculated fall on the steps. Her shtick of being relatable for liking pizza had worn off by then so she needed new material.

Geri "smelly feet" Page should have won for one of her Supporting performances.

Helen Mirren should have won in Supporting for Gosford Park, sparing a pointless Jennifer Connelly win. Then Judi could have won in 06 for playing wicked Barbara Covett.

[quote] The Help is hardly an iconic movie. It's pretty much forgotten

"The Help" was, well, shit. A critic wrote a piece about it entitled "Scatological Cinema, or Why The Help Stinks", saying "The Help has got to be the most scatological movie in Hollywood history. I've never seen so many references to bodily waste and toilets in one mainstream film" and "Only white Hollywood would make a mainstream movie where toilets and shit are used as significant tropes to tell a story of black-white relations, as if the topic is right up black folks' alley — which it just may be if you're a white filmmaker who consciously or unconsciously regards blacks as some sort of raw, primitive species."

I think the only things remembered about "The Help" are the shit pie scene (a pie contaminated with feces is given to a "bad" woman, who gobbles it with relish, finding it absolutely scrumptious) and the scene where the wise black maid teaches her little white girl charge to say "I is smart. I is kind. I is important." Ugh.

Holy shit, the Jennifer Connelly Oscar was a joke. Actually, if you go back and look at the past three decades of Supp Actress winners, there are very few deserving winners. If you start AFTER Dianne Wiest in Bullets Over Broadway, then maybe two actresses since have really deserved the award (CZJ for what was really a lead role, and Mo'nique, giving perhaps the finest supporting performance ever.)

I would have given Page three Oscars, one for Bountiful, and two supporting- For Interiors, which should have been a supporting nomination (and I think she would have gotten it over Maggie Smith's ridiculous win) and The Pope of Greenwich Village, in which she took a one scene performance and turned it into a Shakespearean Master Class. When the woman dropped her tics, she could be devastating.

What's interesting isn't necessarily nitpicking the best performance, but recalling the most memorable. The one you still think about.

For me? Oddly? It's Swank in Million Dollar Baby.

I would never call it the best performance on the list. But I still think about her and her character more than I really should!

Marion would be second.

My pick is Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine. I watch it again every couple of years, and notice nuances I hadn't previously. She's devastating! Seemingly over-the-top on the first viewing, but so many subtle shadings appear upon each re-viewing.

R109, my second choice is Hilary. No one plays beaten-to-death better than Ms. Swank! And she's got two!! Oscars to show for it.

I'm glad that people are realizing that Brie Larson and Jennifer Lawrence are better actresses than Meryl and Nicole.

I always think Theron's fine but overrated performance gets too much love on Datalounge, while Mirren's and Moore's genuinely phenomenal performances get too little, so I am glad to see this poll correct that. Mirren sadly fussing with the pillow at the end of the scene in her meeting with Blair, where she says she's never been hated before like the way she she was after Diana's death, was genuinely moving, and so was her understated encounter with the little girl presenting her with flowers outside the gates of the palace.

I do think the best of all of them is Blanchett's. That was really phenomenal. That final scene of the film where she's sitting alone outside, completely destroyed and with nowhere to go, was unforgettable.

Stupid stupid article- clickbait really.

"Iconic" is overused, but, I would argue that "You is smart enough," etc and Minnie's shit pie make The Help iconic. Even if it is a shit film.

Mo'nique is another inexplicably overly lauded performance by DL. She's great in the way Gina Gershon is great in Showgirls. Precious perhaps set black film back numerous decades.

Mo'nique was exceptional and Precious didn't set back anything. 12 Years a Slave won BP 4 years later. Moonlight won BP 3 years after that. Black Panther was nominated for BP, as well as Selma, Fences, Get Out, BlacKkKlansman, Judas and the Black Messiah, King Richard.

Just hyperbolic caca. No thank you, R115.

R116 Precious is a fucking minstrel show of a movie. An American remake of Dancer in the Dark without any of the pathos.

And the vast majority of the movies you listed hinge on race baiting identity politics crap that white liberals gobble up like candy. It's not earnestly challenging or innovative. Girls Trip was probably the best black film of the 2010s in terms of how it didn't rely on the fetish white people have towards watching black suffering.

[quote]Girls Trip was probably the best black film of the 2010s in terms of how it didn't rely on the fetish white people have towards watching black suffering.

No, you only had Tiffany Haddish who relies on black stereotype humor to endear herself to white audiences.

[quote]Girls Trip was probably the best black film of the 2010s

I love Girls Trip!

[quote]Precious is a fucking minstrel show of a movie. An American remake of Dancer in the Dark without any of the pathos.

Black novelist, Ramona Lofton/Sapphire wrote "Push," which was later renamed "Precious" when the film version was made. She based the story upon her experiences with the obese girls she met when she was teaching. They have hopes and dreams like everyone else but there's something that keeps them from achieving them beyond the skin color; their weight and their education. She allowed Lee Daniels to make it because she liked his work and because she felt like it could be made at a time in history when there were positive portrayals of black people (the Obamas) in the media.

While I hated the fact that they put that character through every hell imaginable, I do buy Sapphire's story that girls like that really do exist.

I think the novel is a long way from being something like, "The Help" and I wouldn't call the movie a "minstrel show" even if I thought it was a bit too much.

The fraus on this thread that think Lee Daniels is anything but a hack who pimps out black suffering to lowbrow white liberals is proof DL is over.....

The author who wrote "Push" wrote a sequel to it called 'The Kid." It follows the life of Precious's incest son Abdul from the age of nine to 19. He's a child molester but redeems himself through creative endeavor; in his case it's dancing not writing that saves his soul. A critic called it "tragedy porn", which could aptly describe "Precious", too. I wonder if "The Kid" will ever be made into a movie. Maybe, but it might be hard for an audience to feel sympathy for a protagonist who is a child molester. t

R118 please do not group Halle with Angela and Viola. They never had to undress just to win an Oscar and respect from their peers.

"Make my pussy feel goooood"

Precious is more of a remake of John Waters' Female Trouble than Dancer in the Dark.

[quote] Precious is more of a remake of John Waters' Female Trouble than Dancer in the Dark.

I thought "Precious" was very derivative of "The Color Purple"; unattractive poor black girl who is the victim of extreme abuse finds hope thorough writing and the love of a beautiful black lesbian.

R98 The words “Julia Roberts” and “robbed of Oscar” are logical impossibilities in the same sentence.

Roberts was fantastic in August Osage County. Beautiful mature work. She blew Meryl off the screen. She WAS robbed of the Supporting Actress Oscar. Live with it, R127.

I’d put Emma Stone dead last. I didn’t feel a thing.

Emma Stone's performance is not bad. It's pointless.

Now - Kidman's, Winslet's, Lawrence's....

Winslet won for her weakest nominated performance. She should have won in 95 for "Sense And Sensibility" over that turd Mira Sorvino (who claimed winning for a Woody film ruined her career!).

Theron's performance in Monster is all in her eyes. It's brilliant. Winslet is also tremendous in The Reader

[quote] Theron's performance in Monster is all in her false teeth.

Fixed that for you

Where does Jessie Chastain rank y'all?

R134 Round the middle. She doesn't really give an Oscar worthy performance but she is fine in the film and the best think (along with the make-up) about it.

She was okay. I wouldn't have nominated her, even in a super fucking weak year such as this.

Yeah, I agree. She probably rates on my upper half/middle. I kind of liked her performance, possibly more than the other four. And I like that she finally has an Oscar. It doesn't hurt that she was in a unique and solid dress, as well as delivered a touching speech. She rose to the occasion and earned her statue in a lot of ways.

I'd rate her above Berry, Swank, Witherspoon, Streep, Lawrence, Larson, and Zellweger. I also liked her performance more than Mirren's and Winslet's. She was also better than Bullock.