Five performances that deserve Oscar nominations and won't get them

Some straightforward thoughts for once

Hi all; it’s been a while and my thoughts this time around aren’t particularly heavy or maudlin for a change, I’m just caught up in the magic of Da Movies in spite of myself; a lot of my favorites (Barbie, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon) are in the mix this year, but it also seems like a handful of movies have things mostly locked up, with the least sense that it’s anyone’s game than I can remember in years. Here, then, are several of my personal favorites that (probably) don’t have a shot in hell and why I wish they did.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Rachel McAdams, “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret

In Judy Blume’s influential novel, Margaret’s mother isn’t particularly fleshed-out—not because of any negligence by Blume as a writer, but because we see everything through Margaret’s eyes by design. Not so with the keenly empathetic film adaptation, in which McAdams makes Margaret’s mother Barbara a fully realized character and arguably the film’s co-protagonist.

In addition to wonderful mother-daughter chemistry with Abby Ryder Fortson, McAdams masterfully articulates the pain Barbara feels at her estrangement from her evangelical parents over her mixed-faith marriage, and her decision to give Margaret a secular upbringing. It’s no wonder Blume, who resisted selling the film rrights for nearly half a century, gave the adaptation her blessing—it not only finds her book’s emotional fulcrum, it creates a second one.

BEST ACTOR: Joel Edgerton, “Master Gardener”

This is the third in a rough thematic trilogy from “Taxi Driver” scribe Paul Schrader, following “First Reformed” in 2018 and “The Card Counter” in 2021. All three are stories of haunted men unsure they can ever be redeemed, and all three feature Best Actor-worthy lead performances (Ethan Hawke and Oscar Isaac in the latter two cases). In “Master Gardener,” Edgerton stars as the titular horticulturist, who maintains the vast, beautiful estates of Sigourney Weaver’s wealthy dowager.

Like Hawke and Isaac, Edgerton’s Narvel Roth narrates his routine in a way that conceals a dark past—in this case, a former life as a neo-Nazi thug now living in witness protection. Edgerton’s hangdog solemnity, and the tenderness he allows to seep in as he and Weaver’s mixed-race grand-niece fall in love, give us a look into the soul of a man who’d be completely beyond sympathy if a less-skilled actor, or writer, brought him to life.

BEST ACTRESS: Teyana Taylor, “A Thousand and One”

Sometimes the worst thing going against a movie is its release date. Other times it’s just too small. In the case of this heartfelt, small-scale drama, it’s probably a little of both, as heavy hitters like Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, Alexander Payne and Yorgos Lanthimos crowded the end of the year. That’s a shame, because Paris is revelatory as Inez, an ex-con single mother in 90s New York.

A more cliche movie would make Inez a saint, but she’s a complicated person with her own flaws and struggles. These can make her frustrating to watch, but they never make her hard to root for. It’s an incredible, confident performance from Taylor, and it’s difficult to believe it’s her first lead role. Although the movie takes place over an 11-year period, Taylor’s expressive face sells that timespan in a way that makes her fully plausible as againg a decade without showy makeup.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ariela Barer, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”

Despite the tricky moral and social issues this year’s frontrunners explore, perhaps it’s not a huge surprise that awards haven’t taken to “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” a deliberately complicated exploration of when and if ecoterrorism is morally justifiable. Like any good caper film, the titular act of sabotage involves a diverse crew, from a couple of crust punks who see the whole thing as a romantic adventure to a MAGA-coded good old boy who’s facing the loss of his home due to eminent domain.

But the film’s thorny moral core is mastermind Xochitl (Barer), radicalized by her mother’s death during a heat wave and her friend and collaborator Theo’s late-stage cancer. While the movie itself is far more about neutrally observing how the bombing takes place, Xochitl is the one who actually articulates the case for it within the film, giving us a sort of ecoterrorist version of America Ferrera’s “Barbie” monologue, running down heroes of history considered terrorists in their day. Done wrong, it would ruin the film’s tension and refusal to take sides; done right, well, it’s Oscar-worthy.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Glenn Howerton, “Blackberry”

It feels weird to complain about the Oscars’ anti-comedy bias when you consider that this award will likely go to a performance that contains the line “My job is just beach.” Regardless, it’s likely that despite universal acclaim, the story of the rise and fall of the eponymous device was a little too silly, and too Canadian, for the Academy. That’s a shame, because Howerton is a force of nature as Jim Balsillie, the devil on the shoulder of Blackberry developers Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson).

Howerton draws on a lot of the same dark magic that makes his performance as Dennis Reynolds one of the best on TV, combining similar sociopathic intensity and pathetic, pathological need for validation, but makes Balsillie an entirely new character, and not just because of his male-pattern baldness. Balsillie’s determined to dominate any room he enters with his rage and his shark eyes, but at the end of the day has no idea what to do if that doesn’t work.