If there’s one award you can bet on this Oscars, it has to be this one. The Oscar surely and clearly belongs to the actress who has smartly been nominated in the Best Actress in a Supporting Role category for a role that goes beyond a supporting part. You know who we are talking about. But here’s a closer look at the nominees.
Patricia Arquette
(Boyhood)
She already won at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild for a role she lent 12 years of her life to. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but there are very few films like Boyhood . As Olivia, the mother of the titular boy who comes of age, she plays a nomadic mother jinxed with dysfunctional, abusive relationships maturing into a picture of grace. We bet they printed her name on the slip in the envelope the day the nominations were announced.
Laura Dern
(Wild)
In a role too brief to win an award, Laura Dern, like Patricia Arquette, plays a mother who walks out of an abusive relationship. The veteran actress shines during the bursts of flashbacks during Cheryl’s hike, but the nomination is both an acknowledgment and reward for the extended guest role.
Keira Knightley
(The Imitation Game)
How good is Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game ! Playing the foil to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Alan Turing, Knightley is superb as the crossword puzzle-solving genius responsible for making Turing a team player. Hers is a performance impossible to dislike and we are glad she got nominated.
Emma Stone
(Birdman)
In an alternate universe where Patricia Arquette hadn’t been nominated, Emma Stone would have deserved to win. In what’s clearly a second-best performance among the lot, Emma Stone is the voice of reason in Birdman and turns in one of the best monologues we saw last year with spunk, spirit and fire.
Meryl Streep
(Into The Woods)
To be honest, we didn’t even bother watching this one. The Oscar nomination list is Meryl Streep’s attendance register. This is her 19th nomination and this time, she is nominated for a heavily made-up part in a fairytale musical. Get over your Streep obsession, Academy.
