Continuing to wrap up 1990 after the Top Ten and Day One of 1990 Retro Hollmann Awards. Three acting categories lie ahead, let's go:
Best Ensemble
1. Metropolitan
Aren't they all great? Edward Clements as the well-read lower-middle-class who finds himself among the privileged, Carolyn Farina as the genuinely nice girl who also just happens to be among her people but is no snob, Chris Eigemann as the asshole who commands the group and is desperate to stay in power, Will Kempe as the Old Money aristocrat who poses the biggest threat, Dylan Hundley as the girl who gives the group their "clubhouse" but is otherwise uninvolved, Taylor Nichols as the argumentative one, Bryan Leder as the young alcoholic? Aren't they all terrific?
2. GoodFellas
casting by Ellen Lewis
Yes, yes, Liotta and De Niro and Pesci and Bracco. But what about Paul Sorvino as dignified Paulie? Micvhael Imperioli as the irritating Spider? Frank Vincent as a taste of real old-school mafioso "charm" in Billy Batts. Debi Mazar as Henry's talk-a-minute mistress? Frank Sivero as the, uh, icy Frankie? Anthony Powers as Jimmy Two Times, immortalizing a character in just one line? Chuck Low as the whining Morrie? Welker White as the babysitter who's too involved with her clients?
3. Cinema Paradiso
The three Salvatores: Salvatore Cascio, his interest in cinema newly sparked; Marco Leonardi, his interest in women freshly sparked; Jacques Perrin, jaded by it all. Enzo Cannavale as the man who lucks into becoming a big financier. Antonello Attili (young) and Pupella Maggio (old) as Salvatore's mother, one waiting for the return of her husband, the other waiting for the return of her son. Philippe Noiret as the projectionist who changes a young life. Leopoldo Trieste as the priest whose censorship ignites desire.
4. Edward Scissorhands
casting by Victoria Thomas
Let's talk about those neighbors: O-Lan Jones with her stiff but expressive hands as she wields religious disapproval; Conchata Farrell as a voice of sardonic reason; Kathy Baker as the housewife who's not into the fidelity thing; Stuart Lancaster's one-legged veteran who is sympathetic until he isn't. And the rest of the town: Dick Anthony Williams' cop, perhaps the most well-rounded member of this ensemble; Aaron Lustig's psychologist, incapable of a direct answer; the audience of the local TV chat show, intrigued and titillated and presumptuous. And then, of course: Depp, Ryder, Wiest, Hall, Price, Arkin.
5. Miller's Crossing
casting by Donna Isaacson / John Lyons
A cavalcade of character actors: Jon Polito as crime boss Johnny Caspar; John Turturro as weaselly bookie Bernie Bernbaum; J.E. Freeman as the bodyguard torn between love and ambition; Steve Buscemi as another underworld weasel, boyfriend of the bodyguard; Mike Starr as a henchman with a bizarre ability to separate business from the personal; Richard Woods and Tom Toner as the Mayor and the Law, respectively, ready for their handouts.
Best Original Screenplay
1. Metropolitan
Whit Stillman
"Playing strip poker with an exhibitionist somehow takes the challenge away." "You don't have to have read a book to have an opinion on it." "Well, if Lionel Trilling thought that, he's an idiot." "Anybody who writes me who expects to become famous should keep carbons." "I haven't had anything amusing to say since I stopped drinking. ...it seemed amusing. Now it doesn't." I do try to lean toward scripts I can actually read and have access to, and I haven't read this one, but god, that dialogue. I know it's not all there is in a movie script, but my God.
2. Edward Scissorhands
Caroline Thompson
story by Tim Burton & Caroline Thompson
A beautifully written fairy tale. Consider the difference between the description of the neighborhood from its establishment ("The streets form a dull, undeviating grid") to Edward's first experience in it ("To him, it is beautiful"). Consider Kim when she first meets Edward ("(appalled; loudly): 'Shake hands?'") to the famous ice dance ("Unabashed glee and a kind of majestic·gracefulness have been set
free -- bursting from depths we could barely have suspected were
there. Whirling, she is like some released animal, almost
perfect. She grins so wide her face looks as if it might split
in two."). It gives everyone involved what they need to work, what's on the page is on the screen, it's perfect.
3. Ghost
Bruce Joel Robin
The full story itself, of course, is magic, an old-fashioned love story updated to its era, it's the kind of thing you could see, well, Robert Montgomery doing. But talk about what's on the page getting on the screen! From Sam realizing the betrayal ("freezes as [blank] addresses Willie by name") to establishing the physical chemistry between the leads ("Sam eyes her moonlit form as she strokes his chest..."). From Oda Mae's first encounter with a genuine spirit ("Oda Mae screams and jumps up thrashing at the air.") to the last ("Oda Mae smiles warmly."). Every bear for every character, witty and otherwise, is there to be explored.
4. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Peter Greenaway
This is a spoiler alert, do not read this paragraph if you have not seen this movie, ok? I'm about to spoil part of it. Ready? All right, then: it is a clever, strong script indeed that can not only make such a title make sense with only four sets, but make climactic cannibalism both genuinely shocking yet read as inevitable. And just when one thinks that's because it's a director's movie, consider the screenplay itself (albeit also written by the director), with its full cast list, statement of purpose and execution, and thorough descriptions ("INT. TOILET. NIGHT ... It's white - blindingly white. So white - it momentarily stings the eyes.").
5. Miller's Crossing
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Always impressive how close a Coens film adheres to the original script, but why mess with perfection? Every pause, every stutter, every "uh" is accounted for. We see these gangsters with their women ("It's the first time we have ever seen compassion from him") and at work ("He shrugs again"). And it's one of the few convoluted noir plots that actually makes a lot of sense: everyone's double-crossing everyone else, so don't worry about loyalties.
Best Actress
1. Winona Ryder as Charlotte Flax
Mermaids
She is hilarious, her huffy, broad expressions matched to the desperate voiceovers, breathless in their desire to make sense of her feelings, her family, the world. Close enough to the character's age to know just how to play both the certainty and the doubt, with both measured in such extremes they can only be described as Martyr and Horrible Person.
2. Helen Mirren as Georgina
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
She can communicate so much with a single look: defiance, confidence, arousal. She literally puts her entire body into hitting the big moments: sexual abandon, the simultaneous shock-withdrawal of physical abuse, devastation at loss. And when she's come to seek vengeance, body, face, and delivery are all ramrod straight, drained of heat, full of...inevitability. This is screen acting, baby!
3. Joanne Woodward as India Bridge
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
I was already fond of this performance when I first watched it; the second time, I found even more depth, more grace notes to appreciate as she socialized, soaked in her friendship with Blythe Danner's Grace, traveled the world once while acting as her husband's perfect mate and appeaser, yet finding small ways to express an independent soul waiting to break out. She's content with her life, but she wants to add to it.
4. Mia Farrow as Alice
Alice
As Alice experiments with the supernatural herbal remedies, Farrow must convincingly chart a journey from meek society wife with unspoken frustrations and desires, through the "magic" "supplements" that make her progressively confident, ending on a note of spiritual fulfillment and a peaceful freedom to allow the chaos of life to do its thing. She does it all, making that arc while still hitting the romantic moments and the comic beats, relatable throughout.
5. Meryl Streep as Suzanne Vale
Postcards from the Edge
A grounded comic performance, what more can I say other than that she's touching, funny, relatable, and overall aces? Streep, you won't believe me, can be underrated for how effortless she makes these sort of performances (I saw someone online say comedy just isn't her strong suit, a sentiment echoed by many critics of the time), but this is her wheelhouse.
Best Supporting Actress
1. Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown
Ghost
Screamingly funny ("I put the wrong name"), understandably reluctant, surprisingly tender ("They're waiting for you, Sam"). She steals the movie without intentionally pulling focus. There is a reason why line readings like "Molly, you in danger, girl," are iconic: she makes them her own. All-timer work here.
2. Shirley MacLaine as Doris Mann
Postcards from the Edge
"It TWIRRRRLED UP!" A fascinating, funny portrait of a woman who can't help being the star attraction of not only her life but the lives of all around her. She cares for her daughter, yes, but she is also frustrated with this cycle, in denial over her own substance issues, and harder in her delivery than she needs to be. MacLaine gives you a sense that this is the only relationship she has trouble navigating: everyone else is business, but this is family. One of only two performances
3. Kathy Baker as Joyce Monroe
Edward Scissorhands
Conspicuously the only resident with a Southern accent, one that gets thicker the breathier and more seductive she gets. There is a sense of anticipation touched with dread when she appears, a cringe factor in her obvious overtures towards Edward, the repairman, any man in her orbit: the girlish scurrying she does in her heels, the ways she rounds her mouth, somehow always looking up at them through fluttering eyelids even when she's standing over them. Quick to sour though, her anger is frightening, her payback cold. Can't get over how she clicks her acrylics on the doorjamb.
4. Glenne Headly as Tess Trueheart
Dick Tracy
Effortlessly meets the material at its stylized level, her words and bearing a perfect echo of Old Hollywood women who were as loyal as they were witty. An easy chemistry with Beatty's Tracy, she gives a sense of comfort, she doesn't mind their routine, the constant interruptions don't bother her, she knew what she was getting into with him. She's confident in her man, which makes her leeriness over Breathless Mahoney all the more heartbreaking: the most dependable, incorruptible part of her life doesn't realize how hooked he is. Headley makes a real person out of this cartoon. Great repartee with Charlie Korsmo's Kid, too.
5. Annie Potts as Karla Jackson
Texasville
Disappointment and determination. Just because life isn't what you thought it was doesn't mean you give up or get up and leave; just because your husband's first love is spending more time with the family doesn't mean you can't be friends...maybe even best friends! Full of surprising warmth and conspiratorial winks, Potts shows how she caught Duane's eye and why they're still together.
Best Supporting Actor
1. Armin Mueller-Stahl as Sam Krichinsky
Avalon
Almost could consider him a lead but, I won't! There's a glint in his eye, pride in his voice, the master storyteller's hushed excitement as he regales the grandchildren with Tales of the Old Days. Through him, we see the triumph and tragedy of assimilation, for what does it profit a man, if he conquers the new world yet leaves family and identity behind? The aforementioned glint said this would be a story of hope of promise; the final, sunken gaze says this is a tale of loss. Frankly, he is the movie.
2. Jon Polito as Johnny Caspar
Miller's Crossing
A role and performance that this category was created to highlight, one of our most reliable character actors given a showcase role of a character who is menacing and ridiculous, a blowhard who seems too buffoonish to be so powerful until he demonstrates the kind of brutal self-preservation that has kept him in power (and everyone else in line). Physically, it's like he's damming himself up, and when that dam breaks, blood spurts - not flows, spurts. Love his scene with his son.
3. Larry Fishburne as Jimmy Jump
King of New York
Lot of psycho gunmen this year, but Fishburne's is my personal favorite. Jimmy Jump rarely has a moment where he's not having the time of his life, smiling, laughing, licking his lips with pleasure. It's exciting to watch, his energy is infectious, even when you recoil at the level of violence he perpetrates - with relish. One of those "force of nature" performances.
4. Al Pacino as "Big Boy" Caprice
Dick Tracy
Irresistible. His unraveling at the end, wildly spinning between negotiations, threats, and fear, is probably my favorite sequence in the movie: it feels spontaneous, it's hilarious, it's over-the-top, and it's perfect. Measure every other comic villain by this performance, it wears the camp crown.
5. Christopher Eigeman as Nick Smith
Metropolitan
This is the performance that, to me, is the movie's rosetta stone. Who are these people? What is the tone? How does the rhythm of the dialogue work? It's all in Eigemann's performance of a self-satisfied, privileged prick who knows how things are and how they should be, if everyone wasn't so stupid. He delivers the most egregious lines without self-consciousness ("It's a tiny bit arrogant to go around worrying about those less fortunate"). A performance that finds delight in his own words and dismissiveness in anyone else's.
Best Costume Design
1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Jean-Paul Gaultier
2. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Emi Wasa
3. Dick Tracy
Milena Canonero
4. Santa Sangre
Tolita Figueroa
5. Edward Scissorhands
Colleen Atwood
So, after twelve categories, Edward Scissorhands leads in nominations (7) while The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover leads in wins (3). There are still six categories left, including Score, Actor, and Best Picture. That's next time...
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