Acting- Oscar-level performances from starring actresses in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "Misery", "Blue Jasmine", and "Triangle"

Acting. Like in any other aspect of a good film (Cinematography, Screenwriting, Scoring, Special Effects), the members of the team have to be both hardworking and absolutely committed to the job. They not only have to memorize lines and set spots, but they have to make you believe that they are a made-up person, someone who they are not. The have to be smart, intuitive, able to think on their feet, and have total control over their emotions. There are nine elements that make up an actor's ability: Character Development, Relationships, Believability, Voice, Physicalisation, Facial Expression, Improvisation, Interpretation, and Objective.

The film "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" is a timeless 1966 classic starring our first nominee, Elizabeth Taylor. An American actress, she was born in London in 1932 while her parents were on business. Always renowned for her beauty, she was cast in many films from as early as 10 years old, but she was not only a pretty face. She proved in this film that she possessed astounding acting ability, and she won an Oscar award for her performance. From the beginning, she does her character, Martha, proud. She plays the part beautifully, in the most ugly way. Martha is stubborn, brash, loud, standoffish, inappropriate, rude, and not a very good hostess, and Taylor plays the part very believably. Also, her Facial Expressions, Voice, And Physicalisation are perfect. She plays Martha's crazy emotional roller coaster to a tee, as they say. In a scene about 80 minutes in, she uses her emotional control to its fullest ability, switching between four or five different emotions with facial expressions to match (The scene is a fight between Martha and her husband George, played by Richard Burton, who deserves an honorable mention for this film, as he was positively brilliant). She goes from sadness to anger to envy to sarcasm, all without a seam to show! Her vocal range and facial manipulation is so believable that it made me feel like I was being fought with (And Martha fights dirty). Her physicalisation is great too. She uses hand gestures and walking patterns to an advantage as she rants all around the scene. This film also does a great job of establishing character Relationships and History, while all taking place within a few hours of the wee morning through the use of dialogue between George and Martha, showcasing their bitter marriage, troubled pasts, and most of all their mysterious son...


In overview of the film, it is a phenomenal representation of a life in general, from the colossal fights to the meltdowns, and the games that we, as humans, must play with ourselves sometimes to make both shattered relationships and bitter, hateful lives, bearable. And I can proudly say that I am definitely afraid of Virginia Woolf (Whoever she is). Both Taylor and Burton's performances give this critic cause to rate it 4.5/5 glasses of bourbon, because God knows there were many more than that downed in the film.
 




The next film is "Misery", a 1990 thriller based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. It follows the story of author Paul Sheldon (played by James Caan) and his meeting with our next nominee, Kathy Bates, playing his "Number One Fan",  Annie Wilkes, the Dragon Lady. Through the conveyors of a snowstorm and a casual stalking, Sheldon ends up injured in a car crash, from which Annie rescues him and takes him back to her home in a remote, snowy town. He soon realizes that he is a prisoner, and through a series of unfortunate events, she comes to know the fate of her favorite character from his books, and makes him write a new ending in which she lives. Bates' performance as the Dragon Lady won her an Oscar, and what a performance it was. First of all, her believability as a serial baby killer, homicidal maniac type is OFF THE CHARTS! Its as if she was born to play the role (cliche alert). Secondly, her ability for Physicalisation, Voice, and Facial Expression, much like Elizabeth Taylor's, is very impressive, although different. Whereas Taylor was channeling anger, sadness, and maybe a little crazy here and there, Bates channels all of those, mixed with what smells like pure, unfiltered insanity. She first shows these chops when Annie first flaunts her crazy stripes, a scene about 17 minutes in. She goes from innocent criticism to (tension mounts) a full-on crazy, yelling, electric boogaloo, in seconds only! That kind of emotional fluctuation can only be found in a serious, gifted actor/actress. And when she's done ranting, raving, and spilling tomato soup, she goes right back to "normal" (?) ...until later when she gets a little crazy with the lighter fluid.

Overall, the Oscar-level acting, thrilling plot, and startling cinematography earn this film 4.5/5 hobblings, for a painfully enjoyable flick.

The third film is a new 2013 comedy/drama with an Oscar-winning performance from the stunning Cate Blanchett, our next nominee. She plays a lonely New York socialite, moving in with her underachieving sister in San Francisco after the arrest and eventual suicide of her filthy rich, charming, smooth-criminal type husband Hal (Alec Baldwin). It is here that we find our lead, Jasmine, who has developed a little habit of talking to herself as if she were having a past conversation (the flashbacks are intermingled PERFECT in this film, I loved it) so she seems a little crazy. She has nervous breakdowns, psychotic episodes, and angst-filled crying sessions in short time throughout the film, and Blanchett plays them all... just... stunningly.

She changes her emotions better than any of our previous nominees, able to go from normal seeming to crazy and back in the blink of an eye, but I think that the predominant emotion that Blanchett carries beautifully for Jasmine throughout the entire film is sort of an aloof insensitivity. From her posture to her tone of voice to her oh-so-subtle facial expressions, she plays that socialite attitude perfectly. My favorite scene is right at the end, when the dominant themes come to fruition. Ginger is in another dead-end relationship with a loser, Cate blew one herself and has started talking to herself again, with fervor, and the theme, ladies and gentlemen, is that people never change, especially Jasmine. Sitting on a park bench, hair wet, playing "Blue Moon" in her head for the umpteenth time, talking herself through the first time she met Hal, she makes herself look perfectly crazy, without any flaws in conveyance anywhere. She is believably insane, in a way that is just a step up from some other forms of crazy we've looked at.

Overall, this is a flawless Woody Allen film that has all that this hopeless romantic wants and needs, and the acting is, needless to say, phenomenal. This critic says 5/5 extramarital affairs, because Hal had like eight bunches of them in the film.

The last film is a Direct-to-Video thriller called "Triangle", starring our final nominee, Melissa George. This thrilling horror follows the story of Jess, a single mom who goes on a yachting trip which doesn't turn out too well. After the yacht crashes, the group finds refuge on a passing ship, the Aeolus. Jess becomes involved in a series of unfortunate events, and gets stuck in a time loop eventually, where the only answer to her problem is to kill everyone on board. This begins an emotional trip for the already unstable Jess, and her startling descent into madness is quite believable. Her face emotes fear, panic, disturbance, and best of all, pain, throughout the entire film. In one scene, around the midpoint, she is guiding a wounded Sally around the boat. As they go around a corner, and Sally starts to fade, they see a horrific sight; hundreds of dead Sallys from past time loops lay on the deck, and both Sally and Jess snap, and become completely insane. Jess' facial expressions emote complete horror, and its hard to duplicate that kind of talent for fear.

In overview, Triangle is a great horror film that I actually wouldn't mind watching again, despite my fear of horror. I rate it 4/5 things to kill people with, because there were quite a few :)


And, without further guilding the lily, and with no more ado, the Oscar goes to.........







                                                  CATE BLANCHETT


For her brilliant performance as the Leading Actress in Blue Jasmine

Thanks for reading!