Best Performances from Oscar Nominees – The Supporting Actress

Continuing our look at the best films from this year’s Oscar nominees, here are the best performances from this year’s Best Supporting Actress nominees.

JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (Nominated for The Hateful Eight)

BEST PERFORMANCE – THE HATEFUL EIGHT (2015)

• I am not really knowledgable with Jennifer Jason Leigh’s filmography.  I remember her in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), The Machinist (2004), and her spectacular voice work in 2015’s Anomalisa, among some others.  But her role as Daisy Domergue in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is the first performance that really blew me away.  In a large cast dominated by men, Leigh stands on her own, especially in the second act, where she dominates the film.  She’s a vile, rude, terrifying murderer filled with secrets that grabs the audience and takes them on a wild ride.  Tarantino writes great women in his films and Leigh takes the opportunity and runs with it.

ROONEY MARA (Nominated for Carol)

BEST PERFORMANCE – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011)

• Making a good remake is hard to do.  But David Fincher made it look easy in 2011 with his tense remake of the Swedish film The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Much of the film’s success lies in the performance of Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander.  Mara loses herself in the role as the pierced up, mohawked Salander and has never been better.  She brings an intensity and vulnerability to the tortured hacker, giving a fully realized and humanized performance.  This is the performance that made Mara a star.

RACHEL MCADAMS (Nominated for Spotlight)

BEST PERFORMANCE – MEAN GIRLS (2004)

• McAdams has been putting in some great work for over a decade now.  I feel she gets a bad rap and people only focus on her roles in romantic films like The Notebook (2004) and The Vow (2012), when she’s given solid performances in such films as Wedding Crashers (2005), State of Play (2009), and Midnight in Paris (2011).  I actually had a hard time making this choice, as she gives an excellent, subdued performance in Spotlight.  But, I couldn’t pass up the first performance that made me fall in love with McAdams in Mean Girls (2004).  Playing the baddest bitch in the whole school, her interpretation of Regina George is perfect.  Anybody who has gone through high school has met a Regina George.  It’s a quotable and funny performance and a character you love to hate.

ALICIA VIKANDER (Nominated for The Danish Girl)

BEST PERFORMANCE – EX-MACHINA (2015)

• Alicia Vikander had one hell of a 2015.  She starred in four films, won a slew of awards, and is now the current frontrunner for an Oscar for her performance in The Danish Girl.  My introduction to Vikander was in 2015 in Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina and it is a debut I will never forget.  Playing a robot with artificial intelligence, Vikander is mysterious, haunting, and captivating.  We never know what she is thinking or what her motives are and it keeps us on edge.  When you leave Ex-Machina, you remember Vikander above everything else.  This is a breakout performance and the role Vikander should win the Oscar for.

KATE WINSLET (Nominated for Steve Jobs)

BEST PERFORMANCE – REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (2008)

• Kate Winslet is a Hollywood treasure.  Every movie she does, she is great in.  Whether it’s a bug budget blockbuster like Titanic (1997), an Oscar period piece like The Reader (2008), or a tween action film like Divergent (2014), Winslet always delivers.  However, her performance in Sam Mendes underrated masterpiece Revolutionary Road (2008) is her career best.  Playing a depressed housewife trying to find happiness with her husband (played perfectly by Leonardo DiCaprio), Winslet is heartbreakingly authentic.  Her and DiCaprio show the decline of a marriage so well, it makes me question whether I want to get married.  It is a powerful, searing, masterful performance that stands as the best Winslet has ever done.

What are your favorite performances from this year’s Best Supporting Actress nominees?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.

Images courtesy of YouTube.

Collage made at fotor.com.