Confessions of a SAG Voter: The 2017 Edition

[NUguy514]

After binging the nominees over the last ten days or so, I submitted my votes last night. What an odd year. Of the film categories, I'd say the strongest category was a tie between Lead Actor (what a refreshing change from recent years) and Actress and the weakest was Supporting Actor. In the TV categories, my choices were exceptionally easy because two shows I love, one drama and one comedy, got all my votes over a bunch of stuff I either don't watch or just don't like as much.

OUTSTANDING CAST: Minari. This was an easy, easy choice. I thought the entire cast of Minari was just stellar, not a false performance in the bunch. I thought the cast of Da 5 Bloods was pretty great as well, although Spike Lee's style often obfuscates the performances for me, and that was very true of this film. I liked most of the cast of One Night in Miami, but I thought Kingsley Ben-Adir and Eli Goree were bad and really bad, respectively. The cast of The Trial of the Chicago 7 was generally good, but I just disliked the movie. The cast of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was struggling mightily against the staginess of the film and the overly operatic dialogue (more glaring here than it was in Fences four years ago); even though Wilson is just transcendent onstage, his work is just tough onscreen. I actually thought the supporting actors did a better job with the dialogue than either Davis or Boseman. There really wasn't a glaringly bad choice here; I just would've nominated a few other casts instead.

Rankings:
1. Minari
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2. Da 5 Bloods
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3. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
4. One Night in Miami
5. The Trial of the Chicago 7
(3-5 are interchangeable, honestly.)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR: Anthony Hopkins. I haven't thought this much about a vote in I don't know how long. It took me fifteen minutes of deliberation to decide to vote for Hopkins over Riz Ahmed. Both are absolutely phenomenal, and there was no wrong choice between the two. Hopkins' final scene is just devastating, and Ahmed's final scene is just quietly stunning. Everything before in both performances is also incredible, so how did I decide? Neither has a SAG Award (my go-to when I'm deadlocked is to go with the actor who doesn't have a SAG Award), but Hopkins is 83 and Ahmed 38; this may be the last chance to reward the former, so that's what I did. I doubt either will win, though. Steven Yeun was also fabulous; had Minari been a 2019 release, he would've been my easy choice. I thought Chadwick Boseman, as I said above, struggled with the operatic dialogue his character had; he was good, but not even close to my top three. And Gary Oldman was fucking awful.

Rankings:
1. Anthony Hopkins
2. Riz Ahmed (interchangeable order, really)
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3. Steven Yeun
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4. Chadwick Boseman
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(infinity)
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5. Gary Oldman

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS: Carey Mulligan. I had to think about this vote since Mulligan and Frances McDormand were both so sensational. As I said in another thread, Mulligan just impacted me a bit more. I also might make a tiny argument that Nomadland is really more of a directorial achievement than an acting achievement, but that's splitting hairs. Also, not for nothing, I'm still pissed about McDormand's sweep three years ago, and she already has four SAG Awards to Mulligan's zero. As with Actor, though, there is no wrong choice here. I thought Vanessa Kirby was so much better than her movie deserved; she brought a lot of focus and nuance to a really trite, messy script. I love Viola Davis, but she seemed supporting in her film and seemed to be ACTING the entire movie – just not a very lived-in, believable performance to me. And Amy Adams just did not deserve the abuse Ron Howard inflicted on her.

Rankings:
1. Carey Mulligan
2. Frances McDormand (pretty interchangeable)
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3. Vanessa Kirby
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4. Viola Davis
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5. Amy Adams

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR: Leslie Odom, Jr. As I said, this category was the weakest. I went back and forth between Odom and Daniel Kaluuya, and I think the end of One Night in Miami tipped me enough toward Odom. Both of them were great, though – very magnetic performances by both. Unfortunately, Paul Raci really should be winning this award, so I'm not that enthused by the choices here. Chadwick Boseman was good in Da 5 Bloods, but he was in the movie for about ten minutes and didn't really leave much of an impression. Sacha Baron Cohen really wasn't very good, if for no other reason than his terrible, inconsistent accent. It felt like his discomfort with Abbie Hoffman's accent affected his entire performance, and it all felt artificial. It is...offensive on a cellular level that Jared Leto was nominated for an acting award for one of the worst performances I've seen in recent years over Paul Raci. If I ever come across Leto in life, I will kill him with my bare hands. Ugh, I just hate him. This really is a pretty terrible category this year.

Rankings:
1. Leslie Odom, Jr.
2. Daniel Kaluuya
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3. Chadwick Boseman
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4. Sacha Baron Cohen
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(everything evil in the entire world)
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5. Dickhead

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Yuh-jung Youn. This was a tough choice between Youn and Olivia Colman. I haven't really seen a character/performance quite like Youn's, though, so I ended up going with her. All I can say is that Youn made such unexpected choices, and those ended up making what happens at the end of the film pretty shattering. Colman, though, was typically exquisite in a really great film, and she'd make a fabulous winner as well. Helena Zengel was good enough, especially in her penultimate scene, but I'm not sure why she (or the other two nominees) is here over Amanda Seyfried (the only really great part of Mank). I don't view the performances in movies like Borat as examples of good acting. I find the acting to be rather amateurish, actually, because the point is to create a cartoon of a character in order to make fun of real people (just because I think those people deserve to be ridiculed doesn't mean it's not malicious and wouldn't bother me if the people ridiculed were on the left). Yes, they have to stay in character no matter what the real people they're pranking do, but that's not an acting achievement. Thus, I don't really think much of Maria Bakalova's performance here; neither she nor Cohen felt authentic at all, and that's a real issue for me when I'm judging acting. And Glenn Close: no, ma'am. Hell no.

Rankings:
1. Yuh-jung Youn
2. Olivia Colman
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3. Helena Zengel
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4. Maria Bakalova
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(diffuse yellow filter to signify past decrepitude with a discordant wistfulness)
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5. Glenn Close

OUTSTANDING FILM STUNT ENSEMBLE: Da 5 Bloods

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE/MINISERIES ACTOR AND ACTRESS: Daveed Diggs and Anya Taylor-Joy. Diggs is probably cheating, but he was nominated, I'm a Hamilton fanatic, and I don't give a shit if it's cheating. Taylor-Joy was absolutely phenomenal throughout The Queen's Gambit.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ENSEMBLE: Ozark. It's the only nominated show I watch, and I think the acting is uniformly fantastic.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTOR: Jason Bateman. I finally gave up on This Is Us and don't watch the other three (although I've heard René-Jean Page is a glaring weak link in Bridgerton), but I do think Bateman is wonderful.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTRESS: Laura Linney. Linney gets my vote over Julia Garner, who is amazing, for "Fire Pink" alone. I have no doubt the ladies of The Crown are really good, but Linney is an absolute beast.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ENSEMBLE: Schitt's Creek. This was the single easiest vote of all as this is probably my favorite comedy series of all time.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ACTOR: Dan Levy. Between the two Levys, I went with Junior because I thought David had more of an arc during the final season than Johnny did. I don't care which of them wins, though; I love both tremendously.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ACTRESS: Annie Murphy. As with Comedy Actor, I went with Murphy over universal treasure Catherine O'Hara because I thought Alexis had a more dynamic arc the final season than Moira did. Also, Murphy is really my series MVP, so she gets my vote. I expect O'Hara will win, but even if someone else wins over both, I do think the ensemble will win, PLEASE GOD PLEASE.

OUTSTANDING TV STUNT ENSEMBLE: Cobra Kai.