So we are now well into the third month of 2013 and now
comes my list for best and worst of 2012? – Well no one would ever say I was
predictable.
The first category to be announced is that for best
supporting actress – these are titles all released either theatrically, at
festivals or on home entertainment for the first time in Australia for the calendar
year beginning January 1, 2012 and concluding December 31, 2012.
- Amy Adams, The Master (2012, Paul Thomas Anderson) & On the Road (2012, Walter Salles)
Is there anything Amy Adams can't do? she's played a pregnant lonely southerner (
Junebug, 2005), a Disney princess (
Enchanted, 2007), a conflicted nun (
Doubt, 2008) and a tough as nails barmaid (
The Fighter, 2010) amongst other performances and in two 2012 films she gave equally brilliant performances in diverse roles both set in the 1950s.
In Paul Thomas Anderson's
The Master (a role which earned her a fourth Oscar nomination) she played the seemingly loyal wife of cult leader Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who is mentoring a sex-obsessed marine Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix) while the towering performances of both Hoffman and Phoenix are potent it's Adams' as the manipulative and secretly domineering Peggy Dodd that is the film's sinister core and proves who holds the real power and it gives Adams a role unlike any she has had before.
In Walter Salles' adaptation of 1957 Jack Kerouac's iconic beatnik novel Adams appeared for precious few scenes as Jane (based on real-life beatnik Joan Volmer) married to Old Bull Lee (Viggo Mortensen) both as drug addicts - in just a few key scenes Adams manages to nail her role with emotions range from depression to induced happiness that is all to believable.
- Samantha Barks, Les Misérables (2012, Tom Hooper)
Sure Anne Hathaway might have won the Oscar for her performance in the pop-opera musical
Les Misérables but newcomer Samantha Barks gave an equally memorable performance as Éponine one of the film's most believable and haunting performances as the ragged and tragic daughter of shifty inn-owners (Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen) and the would be romantic interest of revolutionary Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who just happens to be in love with Cosette (Amanda Seyfried). Barks inner struggle when she is overlooked in favour of Cosette is one of the film's most poignant moments and her rendition of the soulful
On My Own soaked in run and walking the deserted streets of Paris unforgettable. Barks was the only cast member to have starred in the role on stage.
- Sareh Bayat, A Separation (2011, Asghar Farhadi)
The Iranian social drama
A Separation proved to be one of the best reviewed films of the year when released and a large part of that was the realistic performances by the four central characters - but it was Sareh Bayat playing Razieh, a hard-working pregnant woman and devout Muslim who comes to work as a healthcare worker for the father of a couple who is in the process of divorce. The heavily pregnant Razieh comes into conflict with Nader (Peyman Moaadi) when she leaves her patient alone and suffers a miscarriage when thrown out of the house leading to an inquiry into the incident which brings about headache and deep seated secrets. Bayat could have overplayed her character but we believe in her from beginning to end and she is the heart of the film - her inner conflict is all to painfully human that it's hard not to feel something for her despite the secret that is ultimately revealed even then it's hard to feel hatred for her.
- Richa Chadda, Gangs of Wasseypur (2012, Anurag Kashyap)
Anurag Kashyap's gangster magnum opus
Gangs of Wasseypur is split into two parts and combined runs for 320 minutes - a true epic if ever there was and in it characters are crazy, aggressive and dangerous but the real surprise here is that the lead female character Nagma is just as strong, aggressive and dangerous as she plays her character from teenage years to motherhood and well into her 60s as the matriach of a crime family in the Indian state of Bihar without any sign of softening as she gets older. Richa Chadda was only 21 when she played what many mainstream Bollywood actresses would have deemed to risky and antagonistic to play - but in Chadda's hands the role is utterly unforgettable whether chasing her husband out of a brothel to beating the shit out of anyone who gets in her way . It's one of the most complicated and complex characters of the year and by far a step forward to tougher, more dynamic female roles in Bollywood.
- J. Smith-Cameron, Margaret (2011, Kenneth Longeran)
It took Kenneth Lonergan's
Margaret over five years to get released with lawsuits and the assistance of Martin Scorsese for the final edit and what we got was a flawed but fascinating ensemble drama about high school girl Lisa (Anna Paquin) and the ups and downs her life takes when she witnesses a tragic accident and all the characters that enter her life. Playing Lisa's stage actress mother, J. Smith-Cameron adds just the right amount of concern and anger at her rapidly unraveling daughter as well as balancing her own life with a new found success in her career and a promising new relationship - but it's the confrontational scenes between both Paquin and herself that are harrowing to watch and an all to familiar poignancy.
- Gina Gershon, Killer Joe (2011, William Friedkin)
As the opportuntistic, foul mouthed trailer trash mama Sharla Smith in William Friedkin's insidious but brilliant crime black comedy about a dysfunctional family who hires a contract killer to take out the evil mother of Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) - Gina Gershon devours her scenes ranging from playing slutty, bold, brassy to terrified and scared and steals the show anyway from a well cast ensemble - you'll certainly think twice before looking at fried chicken again. It may be impossible to like Sharla but at least she's an unforgettable character perfectly played without cliche.
- Eva Green, Dark Shadows (2012, Tim Burton)
Tim Burton's uneven homage to the cult 1960-70s gothic soap opera of the same name is largely saved by Eva Green's dynamic performance as the vindictive, power hungry and scorned Angelique Bouchard who just happens to be a witch - a witch who it happens when rejected by aristocratic Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) in the 17th century turns him into a vampire and looks him in a coffin until he is awakened in 1972. Green anchors the role and goes for broke playing Angelique as seductive, grotesque and scary all at the same time and in addition is the only cast member who doesn't seem to be sleepwalking through their role.
- Anne Hathaway,
The Dark Knight Rises (2012, Christopher Nolan) & Les Misérables (2012, Tom Hooper)
You wouldn't think there would be a connection between Christopher Nolan's superhero action-thriller
The Dark Knight Rises and Tom Hooper's adaptation of the much loved musical tragedy
Les Misérables but both focus on a society at a violent crossroads and star Anne Hathaway and characters both worlds apart and at their soul quiet similar.
In The
Dark Knight Rises, Hathaway plays Selina Kyle (who is never credited as Catwoman) not just as a feisty minx but as a conflicted young cat burglar who does what she has to survive in the corrupt Gotham City trying to get her hands on a software called Clean Slate in order to wipe her past and pave a future for herself she sides with hulking villain Bane (Tom Hardy) and sells out Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale). Hathaway infuses Selina with moral ambiguity and a beating heart all whilst wearing an outrageous costume and spiked heels and being able to kick arse with the best of them. She gives the most consistent performance in the entire film.
Les Misérables has a running time of 158 yet Anne Hathaway appears for less than 20 minutes in the role of Fantine, a seamstress turned prostitute by tragic circumstance who is forced to sell her teeth and hair in order to pay for her young daughter to be raised by innkeepers - Hathaway delivers on the role belting out a powerful rendition of
I Dreamed a Dream her face covered in dirt and with tears rolling down her cheeks it's the type of visage that hasn't been seen since Maria Falconetti played the titular character in Dreyer's
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - despite the your opinion of the film there's no doubting Hathaway's powerhouse performance.
- Allison Janney, Liberal Arts (2012, Josh Radnor) & Margaret (2011, Kenneth Lonergan)
Allison Janney has had a long career of great roles on TV and film from the
West Wing (1999-2006) to
Juno (2007) and
The Help (2011) she gives each of characters something that we haven't seen of her before and the same can be said of two of her performances last year.
In Josh Radnor's (who also stars in the lead role) love letter to the college years
Liberal Arts, Janney plays one of Jesse's (Radnor) former lecturers on romantic literature - 20 years on she's embittered, drinks to much and is an all-round bitch who has some killer one-liners and practically steals the entire film - even when she has a one nighter with him she is nothing but cruel and mocks and ridicules him it's hard to feel either hatred or pity for her possibly because her character mirrors people we've known ourselves.
In Kenneth Lonergan's long gestating
Margaret (see J. Smith-Cameron, above) Janney appears for roughly five minutes as the woman who is hit by a rogue bus driver (Mark Ruffalo) and throws Lisa's (Anna Paquin) life into chaos as she tries to unravel who she was. In her one extended scene Janney plays the woman after she has been hit by the bus covered in blood - she's unsure of where she is or what has happened, and rapidly dying in Lisa's arms Janney gives what can only be called one of the most realistic and unsettling death scenes in cinematic history.
- Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice (2011, Zal Batmanglij)
Brit Marling is one American Independent cinema's most intriguing stars at the moment ever since she wrote and starred in the meditative art-house science fiction drama
Another Earth (2011) she has been on everyone's radar. Even better than that is her performance as cult leader Maggie who claims to have returned from the future to lead a group of believers - it sounds like a predictable character but it's anything but and like Another Earth it answers little and asks a lot but that's what makes it so interesting. Marling in particular is enigmatic and mysterious handling the role of Maggie with elegance and warmth, she's imposing with her words and confidence right to that equally head scracher of a finale and begs to ask the question is she really from the future or was it all a lie. Marling also wrote and produced the film.
Honourable Mentions:
Edith Scob, Holy Motors (2012, Leos Carax)
Sophie Nélisse, Monsieur Lazhar (2011, Phillippe Falradeau)
Shirley MacLaine, Bernie (2011, Richard Linklater)
Collette Wolfe, Young Adult (2011, Jason Reitman)
Helen Hunt, The Sessions (2012, Ben Lewin)
Bryce Dallas Howard, 50/50 (2011, Jonathan Levine)
Susan Sarandon, Arbitrage (2012, Nicholas Jarecki)
Miranda Tapsell, The Sapphires (2012, Wayne Blair)
Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011, John Madden)
Coming Soon: Best Supporting Actor of 2012
