Ladies first.... So on to the Best Actress in a Leading Role category.

Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right

 What can really be said about her. She's rather wooden, which works out great for her in most films. She can be quite sprightly which works out even better, think Bugsy. Her deployment here, albeit a little William Hurt-ish, works to utter perfection... but in my opinion, she does not deserve the Oscar (TM). But I'm not the one to look to for your betting pools... I'm just telling the "truf". And the "truf" is that she can be shrill. But in her shrillness lies a truth that belies anything we've faced before in the filmic world. Something that speaks honestly and with value, regardless of it's sexual orientation. Part of me wants to just give her all the gold in Hollywood for being brave. But then I'm reminded that she's married to Warren Beatty and she really has nothing to lose. She could play whatever she damn well pleases and still come home, cook up some fixins' (or order in, or drive down Coldwater) and be one of the sexiest things around. The bottom line is, she can do whatever the damn well she pleases, and that's the tits. So go win some shit, bitch. Because you are a goddamn gem, on a lot of levels. Just turn down the vocals.

Nicole Kidman - Rabbit Hole

 Shut up. Stop getting injections of any sort. Stop trying to prove yourself. We KNOW you can do anything. Why don't you go out on a limb. I, and every intelligent person in the filmmaking universe is tired of this crap. Either be a Chanel icon or just make more movies like To Die For. That's the best shit you ever did. And you were a goddamn genius in Moulin Rouge, too. And a lot of other things. Just stop with the injections.


Jennifer Lawrence - Winter's Bone

 This is always a strange thing. An out-of-nowhere lovely gets nominated for a performance that no one knows if it came from the heart, the soul or a beating from the director. Usually, if it were in the Supporting Actress category, we'd all say Done Deal - bitch has it. I mean who'd have known, that despite her Vampiric success, Anna Paquin, who was so wondrous and deserving in The Piano would turn out to be such an utterly REPULSIVE actress. Sorry, just an example, by no means a comparison to Miss Lawrence. It's just that Jennifer's performance requires more than hardness, brutality and a modicum of hard brutal sweetness to her younger siblings - but, whoa does she succeed, wherever it comes from. This just has that Oscar stench of... "we love your little movie, we love your work... but really we all know who this award is going to..."

Umm..


Natalie Portman - Black Swan

Which leads me to the lovely N.P. And I can only imagine the brutality she was put through in the face of this particular director and the requirements of this film. All I can really say is... as much as I deplore the film, I admire N. Portman's work. She put every ounce of being into it. And as I once sat in that mid-town Manhattan (gross) theatre, lo so many years ago, watching The Professional thinking that this little bitch has TRULY got something... now, please reward her. Because she's worked every which way in the scale of this industry and always done an inarguably solid job. But Nina Sayers will go down in the books as a true work of conviction. Undergraduates from here to eternity will struggle to make their own versions. But it will all be for naught. The utterly exquisite Miss Portman has transcended a film not worthy of her performance, but entirely retrieved by it. And if this little pregnant nymph doesn't leave with that leaden crack pipe of a trophy, I'll throw my body on the Gold Line (but it doesn't run that often).


Michelle Williams - Blue Valentine

 Once again I'm forced to bring up the nature of the Oscars and the desire, if not need, to showcase truly brilliant performances. And if not those, then at least performances done by actors who are so long over due that it's utterly shameful that they do not leave with gold in their paws. So, I'm sorry Miss Williams, Sunday will not be your night. But think of yourself as Meryl, gather many noms... keep doing the work you are so good at. So valiant and brave with. And your day will come. Soon, H.L. will be forgotten, and B.M. will be but a memory... and you will be considered the actress you truly are. This film is phenomenal. Because this performance is phenomenal. No doubt partly owed to R.G., the give and go you were so tightly wound up in, and the rigor that Derek Cianfrance put everyone through. So.... please, may more films be made like this. With convicted talent signing on (way early) and seeing through the development process. Because if Blue Valentine is the result - I want to go to that island.