Best Supporting Actress, or How Desire is the Word

A Blog Next Door's Oscar coverage 2009: for the lit theory junkine in me and the Oscar watcher in you.

Best Supporting Actress 2009: 'Lacanian Desire' 

Okay so we dealt with the crazy supporting boys, the 'manly' leading men and the motherly leading ladies... so what is left? Well, we have a lovely bunch of supporting ladies (don't they make a gorgeous lineup?) who exemplify to one extent or another the different models of desire that (just like 'motherhood' in the leading ladies) these characters exemplify. 

And so here we have a mother, a nun, a stripper mother, a foster mother and a power of nature:

Viola Davis is "Mrs Miller" in Doubt

'I just want what's best for my son.'

&

Amy Adams is "Sister James" in Doubt

'You just want your simplicity, back.'

If I'm lumping the two Doubt girls it is not because of any attempt at diminishing the individual impact but because they both showcase (I think) a similar drive: to keep things as they are (or were, as it may). Both Sister James and Mrs Miller function in the film as character who don't wish to face (or can't fathom to face) the revelation which Sister Aloysius wants to bear on those involved. While one appears more troubled than the other, they both show us women whose desire is for the 'status quo.'  Interesting because this desire for not-change as a model of a world outlook comes at once from a place of faith (Sister James) and a place of social inequality (Mrs Miller), yet it hinges on their role as women pit against men. Our desire contains.

Marisa Tomei is "Cassidy" in The Wrestler

I elicit desire.

Here is a woman who makes money off of men's desire. Cassidy sells the image of her body and is able to make dance that fine line between harnessing desire and letting it out of control. Indeed, her relationship with 'The Ram' suggests that she can only apprehend relationships within a policed desiring structure (client-stripper) and has a hard time figuring out how that desire can either transcend or be turned into something else. My desire titillates.

Taraji P. Henson is "Queenie" in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I desire to be a mother.

Here is a woman whose desires seem to be unconvincingly selfless. I say that because Queenie seems to not have any desire that is not directed/aimed at someone else (she wants to care for Benjamin, she devotes her life to helping older folks - all, it would seem at her own expense). The film (indeed the premise) cannot empower Queenie with any desire other than to be Benjamin's mother. My desire is muted.

Penelope Cruz is "Maria Elena" in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

I am desire.

Here is a whirlwind of desire - unstoppable, misdirected and at times violent (but then, aren't all warm-blooded European female artists like this?) If there's one thing that Maria Elena epitomizes is the temptation (and curiously dangerous allure) of unbridled desire - be it sexual (with Juan Antonio), artistic (with Cristina) or both (with both!) Whether Woody presents us with a prescription or a warning is up to the audience, but compared to the pale (and might we even go as far as say 'frigid' and 'clinical'?) Vicky and Cristina, we can't fault the camera and the characters from being so seduced by Maria Elena's "ge-nee-uss" which stems from and is projected within her desiring/able body. My desire disturbs.

Best Lead Actor, or How 'Man' is the Word

A Blog Next Door's Oscar coverage 2009: for the lit theory junkie in me and the Oscar watcher in you.

Best Lead Actor: 'Masculinity Crisis'

A Nominated Leading Man is a Nominated Leading Man is a Nominated Leading Man. Bored yet? Well, that's what Leading Men tend to be for me. Maybe it is because 'Men' are so boring but lumping them into one theoretical framework is much easier than with the ladies: how else to describe the Leading Men but to explore the lineup as a continuum of masculinity? Or better yet, as experiments in different models of (albeit, American) masculinity?

Nixon, Randy, Harvey, Benjamin and Walter are all models of contemporary masculinity. Oscar seems to be asking: which one are you?

Frank Langella - "Richard Nixon" in Frost/Nixon

I am a political man.

Where else to start? Here is a man's man - only not a fighting debonair one, but a political bureaucrat (he doesn't even dare try and wear loafers - in Kevin Bacon's words, they're very effeminate). Nonetheless he sees most things as a duel - as a fight. Add to that the fact that Mr Nixon cannot distance himself from his political image (as a strong anti-Communist man, all the time brushing a chip off his shoulder in being compared to the 1960s political beau: Kennedy) and that he is put in a position of always needing to prove himself and it is hard to see Langella's Nixon as anything other than a man in crisis.

Mickey Rourke - "Randy the Ram" in The Wrestler

I am a fighting man.

Randy is a man's man: he fights, he fucks. Here is the brass, American masculine ideal taken to the ultimate degree (and subsequently mauled and aged accordingly). What to say of a man who we seldom meet outside of a strip bar or a fighting ring, who is utterly uncomfortable playing the subdued, 'domestic' role of a grocery store aid and whose last moments are a gasping for air and bravery to seemingly face his death in what can only be described as a coming together of hubris and catharsis - though ultimately engineered by notions of 'masculine' roles? Exactly.

Brad Pitt - "Benjamin Button" in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I am a passively young-ing man.

But probably the most controversial of the models presented by this lineup is Ben Button. He is the epitome of passivity - indifference would be too strong a word, but appropriate nonetheless. Benjamin is an observer of life, love and even sex (at least he finds a tutoress in Ms Swinton) who seems to have no agency: he inherits, he travels, he sails; but never do we experience that Benjamin is capable of any action. This is the model of a man whose life is a series of events that pass him by and willingly submit to them. Indeed, the film seems to exult this to the degree that the film itself is so captivating and visually lush that it suggests Fincher, Miranda and Roth have concocted a vibrant world for Benjamin only to have him inhabit it without ever doing anything with it.

Sean Penn - "Harvey Milk" in Milk

I am a gay man.

How captivating that if we were to pick out the most wholly practical and praise-worthy masculine model we go to the 'gay man': Harvey is a late bloomer who finds his footing well into his life and when seeing imperfection in the world around him all he can think to do is act. If Benjamin is a model of passive agency (so seldom revered in masculine figures), Harvey is a man who can't stand still when faced with the world around him. He's like an action hero; or like an activist hero.

Richard Jenkins - "Walter Vale" in The Visitor

I am a frustrated man.

Throughout our cinematic encounter with Walter, we find that he is living an unfulfilling life - his book is nowhere near completion, he's seemingly detached from his work. In a way we could Walter as an academic version of Randy; here is what every want would want (a job, economic stability) but we have none of the satisfaction.

See? Even the write up bristles with dull and boring language and little or no deep analysis; these boys just don't do it for me...

Next up: Desire and the Supporting Ladies

Best Lead Actress, or How Mum's the Word

A Blog Next Door's Oscar coverage 2009: for the lit theory junkie in me and the Oscar watcher in you.

Best Lead Actress 2009: 'The Freudian Mum'

AMPAS loves them some actresses. Or maybe I love me some actresses which is why I find the Actress categories much more interesting than the Actor ones (I mean, Kate and Meryl and Anne in one category easily trumps any lineup with Sean, Brad and Mickey, no?). Sadly when you think about it, the roles that AMPAS singles out in the actress categories are usually obscenely narrow (nuns! mums! whores! - did I miss any? I kid, I kid!) That said, to take the list of women that make up this list is to be immersed in a world of familial ties, exploring the tenuous relationship between women and children. Freud 101 if you will.

Kym, Christine, Sister Aloysius, Ray & Hannah are a motley crew of women that represent different ways in which society models motherhood and the care for children.

Anne Hathaway - "Kym" in Rachel Getting Married

Why didn't you take care of the child? Kym decries.

Of course at the heart of Demme's film there's an absent mother and a lost child. There's always an absent mother and/or a lost child when families are so fractured and seemingly happy but actually imbalanced as we have here. Kym is a wounded girl because she carries with her both the burden of her [SPOILERS - but not if you saw The SAGs clips for Best Actress] brother's death and of her mother's absence. The former is what gets the dramatic push, but the latter is what stays with you (bless you Debra Winger). Kym is a motherless young woman and it is that loss which resonates throughout her behaviour and which gets oddly displaced in the form of alcoholism and a drug addiction, showcasing a broken familial unit because of the inability of one woman to maintain her 'Mother' role. A 'mother' is all Kym wants, is all Kym needs/ed.

Angelina Jolie - "Christine MY!SON!BACK! Collins" in Changeling

I just want to take care of MY son! screams Christine.

If there is a prototypical 'woman' in this lineup, it is Ms Collins who lives and breathes (and works, and skates, and yells, and breaks plates) for her son. This is the 'Mother' par excellence - no wonder the characters around her can't seem to understand why she wouldn't just nurture a kid who's the closest thing to her son (aren't they exchangeable?). Make what you will of potential arguments about patience, willpower or even conviction in Christine but beneath it all here we have a tale of a woman who's incomplete without motherhood, without her child even when the possibility of reconstructing the familial structure she had before is beyond her reach. A 'mother' is all Christine knows what to be, is all we expect her to be.

Meryl Streep - "Sister Aloysius" in Doubt

I WILL take care of children - whatever it takes, Sister Aloysius says to herself.

While Father Flynn construes her as a 'hungry dragon,' Sister Aloysius is the nurturing figure of the schoolyard. Whether it'd be with her fellow (at times blind) nuns, or with a particular black boy in class and church, Sister Aloysius takes it upon herself to be the earthly Mother Mary to those around her. Fixated on a rigid structure of what mothers should and should not do (roughly matching her static and somewhat 'traditional' mores and values), Sister Aloysius cannot understand the pragmatism and (alleged) indifference when encountering Donald Miller's mother. A 'mother' is all Sister Aloysius expects from women with children,

Melissa Leo - "Ray" in Frozen River

I make the decisions that need to be made to take care of my kids, Ray needs to tell herself.

Working in the same vein as Christine, Ray is a woman whose socio-economic circumstances thrust her into a world where what she is and how she needs to survive is underscored by her duty to her children and her family. The man leaves, but it is the woman who cannot escape the familial ties to her children and who takes the reigns of her life and job (yeah, let's call it a 'job') in order to be able to provide for her children. Out of all the women in this lineup it is she who most mirrors the type of woman we should admire. Courtney Hunt does my work for me stating that in making this film she wanted to 'break down audiences' cultural assumptions through the universal language of a mother's love' [src]. A 'loving mother' is what Ray exemplifies.

Kate Winslet - "Hannah" in The Reader

Come in, I'll take care of you, kid, Hannah says.

And then we come to the ex-Nazi prison guard. (I tell ya, had they nominated Winslet for her turn as April Wheeler in Revolutionary Road, this mini-essay would write itself: for what is April but the prime example of a woman actively refusing the 'motherhood' label society springs on women?) But Hannah - she becomes a sexually active nurturing figure in Michael's life - not so much a mother as a sexual mentress (yes, I'm making up words today). But hidden within the ambiguities of the film and the moral minefields of the narrative is the hidden assumption of shame in the relationship between a mature woman and a younger boy. This of course derives from both 'traditional' relational models between young men and older women (usually recasting a mother-son relationship - hey, even among males and females of the same age!) and yet Hannah never succumbs to treating Michael as anything other than a 'reader' and a lover. A 'mother' is what we might expect from Hannah but she escapes such 'paint by the numbers' relation with Michael.

Next Up: Leading Men and American Masculinity

Best Supporting Actor 2009 or How 'Madness' is the Word

A Blog Next Door's Oscar coverage 2009: For the lit theory junkie in me and the Oscar watcher in you.

Best Supporting Actor 2009: 'Madness and Civilization'

We all know that Oscars are about many things, least of 'em being anointing what is 'actually' the Best of the Year. They celebrate 'careers' (LMS's Alan Arkin), achievements (NCFOM's Javier Bardem), a wonderful year (S's George Clooney). But mostly they also celebrate great characters and in any given year we could ask: what is it about these characters that gets AMPAS all riled up? To take the list of men vying for Heath's er... I mean the Supporting Actor Oscar is to be immersed in a Foucaultian World. (I told ya I'd be tapping into my inner Academic; y'know, what I actually do for a living!)

The Joker, John Givings, Dan White, Father Flynn and the 'dude playing the dude disguised as another dude' are all men at the fringes who explore and enact what it means to inhabit a body that is over and over branded as Other.

Heath Ledger - "The Joker" in The Dark Knight

You are what we are not, Gotham declares.

Gotham's scariest villain is as much a product as he is a symptom of the ailing world that Batman is trying to salvage. Where Batman is order, The Joker is chaos. Heis himself the fringe, the limit and with his scars, his cackle and his relentless cruelty he showcases everything we seemingly purge from society but by his very being Heath's Joker reminds us that we have never escaped our own bruised society. He may seem like a force of nature, but he's ultimately the suppressed culture coming back to claim the center of society from which he has been banished. 

Michael Shannon - "John Givings" in Revolutionary Road

You are not what we want to be, Suburbia pronounces.

Suburbia's most threatening force finds it's home in the mental patient John Givings who spouts truth wherever he goes but because society (pristine, pure and orderly as April's dresses, Mrs Givings yard and Milly's snacks) has decided it is unseemly to say sun things, John's words are lost in the deluded void that is his father's hearing aid and his mother's natural deafness to truth. His mental health is as much a lie and a construction as April and Frank's ideal home, but while a 'normal' society sees the Wheelers as a necessary aspect of life, John and his kin are labelled and discarded into the 'Mental Institution' where they're words can be sanitized with the language of Science. 

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Father Flynn" in Doubt

You are not what we are about, sentences Sister Aloysius.

Father Flynn is a curious case becuae of the relentless ambiguity of Shanley's script (though sadly not his direction). Here is a man conflicted by the accusations headed his way and potentially by a sexuality that his own Church deems deviant an therefore imperfect. It is thus why we get the sermons on Doubt and Gossip and why sideway glances at young boys are so suspect even for us as an audience. But in a religious world that requires moral certainty, Father Flynn has no place. But more importantly thy Sister Aloysius cracks Father Flynn's facade with hollow accusations and a made up phone call only bring to the forefront the double world of Father Flynn. This is a world that does not take him for who he is, nor for who he fashions himself to be. 

Josh Brolin - "Dan White" in Milk

You are what I am not, says Dan to Harvey with a couple of shots to the chest.

Dan White is also a curious character because just as Father Flynn he has internalized a set of rules and 'Thou Shall Not's that disable him from full-fledge happiness. In Harvey he sees everything he wishes banished from his own body (remember that sad moment of him naked and desolate). As Harvey's self-apointed foil he cannot function without seeing what he could (have) be(en). And so begins a cruel derailment into violence - the only way he sees as an escape from that cultural iron cage which society has built and nourished for him. 

Robert Downey Jr - "Kirk Lazarus" in Tropic Thunder

You are not what we are, but we'll gladly watch it and award you for it, says Kirk's audience.

And then we have the performer of the crowd: Kirk Lazarus playing Sgt Lincoln Osiris. But compared to the deranged and damaged souls of Gotham, Suburbia, the Church and (hetero)Society, what to make of this ironic blackface performance? In a way it returns us to a more racially tinged version of the other characters. Physically transforming himself into Osiris, Lazarus is at once enacting and commenting on the hierarchical race relations of America. All the actors in Tropic Thunder to an extent shine a light on the way the 'fringes' of society are easily sanitized and commodified (I'm looking at you Simple Jack), churning out Hollywood Oscar-bait flick after Hollywood Oscar-bait film. It isno wonder that the 'performer' in the crowd offers the meta commentary on the Foucauldian project that I see (quite glibly) taking shape in the Best Supporting Actor Category. 

Next: Freud and the Leading Ladies