The Muriels: Best Supporting Performance (Female)
By Craig Kennedy - February 16th, 2009; 9:12 pm
Tonight’s Muriel is awarded to the actress who gave the best supporting performance in 2008.
My vote:
- Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Rebecca Hall – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
- Samantha Morton – Synecdoche, New York
- Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
And the winner…
Good to see these names up there Craig. I think Hall is someone to watch.
I do miss seeing Amy Adams, though.
If Muriel did best cameo I’d like to plug Kathy Bates in Rev Road.
Good choices. Unlike Oscar Muriel is unpredictable and doesn’t give in to the hype.
Awesome choices, Craig. I don’t think I could have voted much better although I might have leaned to Muriel’s thinking here and put DeWitt at the top of the list.
However, this begs a thorny question: Is Rebecca Hall actually a supporting performance in VCB? Because if she is, who is the female lead? Scarlett? Because I thought Hall was the female lead.
Anyway, I like your choices and I had a hearty chuckle when I saw that 2 people voted for Amy Poehler in BABY MAMA! HAHAHAHAHA! It’s become your nemesis movie, Craig…BABY MAMA won’t stop until you’ve seen it.
All of my picks were the favorites here with my outlier being Danai Jekesai Guerra from The Visitor. I thought she was great.
Also, surprised to see only one vote for Oscar nominee Taraji Henson!
It’s the sink peeing, Joel.
I tagged Hall with supporting because it was an ensemble. In a sense, they were all supporting to me.
Thes best performance in this category this year in my opinion was given by Hanna Schygulla in THE EDGE OF HEAVEN.
This veteran Fassbinder luminary, is one of the great German actresses, and her wrenching performance, showcased in one scene of expressed grief, is a master class of acting.
Dan, i salute you for mentioning Ms. Guerra there. I quite agree that she was terrific.
It goes without saying though, that Craig’s five choices are above are excellent.
My five picks were:
1. Penelope Cruz
2. Samantha Morton (Synecdoche)
3. Marisa Tomei
4. Viola Davis
5. Dianne Wiest (Synecdoche)
Rosemarie DeWitt was a strong runner-up.
Sam, Schygulla has a good couple of scenes, but I didn’t feel that it was quite enough to outmatch the other performances on my list.
Fair enough Jeff, but all of the actresses you name have either a “few goods scenes” or in the case of your Number 4 choice, Viola Davis a single good scene and a few minutes of screen time. Truthfully, Schygulla was in THE EDGE OF HEAVEN longer than than any of the others on your list, save for Cruz in running time. Ms. Schygulla is one of the world’s great actresses, as her work for Fassbinder can attest, and several weeks ago she received what was perhaps the most significant of all the critics’ awards, the one from the National Society of Film Critics for this very turn we are discussing. This performance to these eyes is one of her greatest ever, and surely the best of any supporting actress this year.
But I respect your position as always, and you have some excellent choices on your list, all of which I have nothing but the highest praise for.
It’s partially that I didn’t like the movie as a whole nearly as much as you did, Sam. And Schygulla’s past performances don’t really bear on our 2008 comparisons.
“And Schygulla’s past performances don’t really bear on our 2008 comparisons.”
Jeff, I agree. That’s why I said this:
“This performance to these eyes is one of her greatest ever, and surely the best of any supporting actress this year.”
But I agree with the gist of your argument, that those who really like the film was most impressed with Schygulla, while those who were less impressed won’t immediately bring her up.