Confessions of a SAG Voter: The 2017 Edition

[NUguy514]

For the first time in my years as a SAG/SAG-AFTRA member (this is my fourteenth year), I voted before January 1st. I voted Saturday night after marathoning the final five movies I needed to see in three days. I don’t feel like there are any truly oddball inclusions among the film nominees this year, which is a nice change. I didn’t like every performance, but I liked the majority; in fact, there were very few changes I'd make. Annual disclaimer: while I’ll try to keep things circumspect, there will be spoilers below, so read on at your own risk!

OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE: Moonlight. I didn’t like Manchester by the Sea. My friends who’ve liked it have found it soul-crushing but fantastic in its depiction of grief; I found it boring as shit, and I wasn’t moved at all by it. I really wasn’t given a reason to care about any of these people, so I didn’t; that makes for an unengaging viewing experience. I don’t fault the actors really, as I think that the script made all the characters one-dimensional and that the direction hamstrung the actors into not being able to find any particularly interesting shadings. I think Kenneth Lonergan covered the exploration of grief much more effectively in You Can Count on Me. Captain Fantastic was also not a film I liked, but that had everything to do with the script’s message; the acting was good by all involved and great by a few of the cast (Viggo Mortensen, Kathryn Hahn, and Frank Langella, in particular), but there were casts I enjoyed more among these five. I thought Hidden Figures was really enjoyable, and the acting was really good by most everyone. I particularly loved the central trio of Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monaé, as well as Kevin Costner. I think the main issue is that aside from the central trio, none of the other characters were given any dimension; some of the actors tried, but the other two films didn’t have that issue. I was very leery about Fences; film adaptations of plays can go very wrong, especially when the play’s language is as theatrical (in the best sense) as Fences’ language. Indeed, there were some issues with the language just not translating to film, but it’s a pretty great film nonetheless. Denzel Washington and Russell Hornsby were the two who seemed to me to struggle the most with selling the theatrical language in the more realistic medium of film, but they weren’t bad in any way; in fact, both were very good. The other actors in the cast were really fantastic, and this would be a deserving winner in this category. This vote was a very easy one for me, though. Moonlight is just a brilliant film from top to bottom. The acting is just exquisite by everyone. I saw a Q&A with a few of the producers and cast, and the most incredible revelation to me was that Barry Jenkins kept the three Chiron actors and the three Kevin actors from meeting each other during the film’s shoot. I would never have guessed that because those actors, especially the three Chiron actors, created two characters at three different ages seamlessly. The various actors don’t look alike, but because they were so keyed into their characters, they were all absolutely playing only two characters, not six. I am really sad that Alex Hibbert and Jaden Piner weren’t included, but SAG has some unfortunate rules. The other members of the ensemble – Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, and Janelle Monaé – were phenomenal in their own right, two of whom I’ll address later. I will just say that this was such a moving filmgoing experience for me; this and La La Land were easily my favorite films of 2016. Since La La Land doesn’t really have an ensemble, I wasn’t surprised that it wasn’t nominated; even if it had been, though, Moonlight would've gotten my vote. I’m thrilled to be able to vote for this ensemble, and I can only hope that it wins.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR: Andrew Garfield. This was my least favorite category, or maybe it’s more correct to say that I wasn’t really passionate about any of these five actors. This was a difficult category for me, and I considered voting for four of the nominees, all of whom I thought were great. Casey Affleck is the only one for whom I didn’t consider voting, so of course he’s the one winning everything. My issue is that Lee is basically the world’s biggest asshole, and I didn't get anything from Affleck other than that. The script gave a “reason” for his misery, but it was so ridiculously over-the-top that I couldn’t take it seriously and ultimately didn’t care for this guy who was a dick before and after that incident. Essentially, Lee doesn’t change at all over the course of the film, and I wasn’t given any reason to care about him; while Affleck may have been constrained by the script’s devotion to Lee’s intransigence, he didn’t do anything else to make me care. Honestly, I'd have rather seen, as unrealistic as it would have been, Ryan Reynolds nominated in Affleck’s place. I thought Viggo Mortensen was typically great in his performance in Captain Fantastic, even though I thought Ben was the world’s most self-righteous dick for most of the film. In contrast to Affleck, though, Mortensen at least piqued my interest. He showed Ben’s devotion to his children, but he also didn’t shy away from the fact that Ben’s parenting choices are borderline abusive. I hated what I perceived as the film’s moral conclusion, but I thought Mortensen was great throughout and toyed with voting for him. I toyed with voting for Ryan Gosling, too. He was so great in La La Land. I think Gosling is an extremely charismatic actor, and Sebastian played to that really well. Sebastian is such a dick in a lot of ways. Honestly, anyone who is that devoted to jazz has to be the most insufferable person ever. (I kid!) (Not really.) Gosling certainly didn’t shy away from that aspect of Sebastian, but he was also able to balance that out with a true passion and devotion to creativity and to the pursuit of his and Mia’s dreams. That laser focus can be both obnoxious and magnetic as hell, which was true of Sebastian. Gosling also allowed us to see the subtle doubt Sebastian has after he, in so many words, sells out a bit for the money, which was also a nice shading. Ultimately, though, I don’t think La La Land is truly about Sebastian, as he doesn’t really transform as much over the course of the film; it’s Mia’s story, and I’ll touch on that in due course. Denzel Washington was wonderful in Fences, and I debated pretty hard about voting for him. Troy is the worst. Truly. He’s a shitty husband, an abusive father, and an all-around awful human being. However, because August Wilson was one of our truly great playwrights and a genius with language, Troy is absolutely enthralling to watch, and Washington captured that duality really well. The one thing he couldn’t quite overcome was the innate theatricality of Wilson’s language; Troy, in particular, is the character who has the most poetic language of the play’s characters and has multiple speeches that are beautifully written but extremely operatic in a way that works amazingly on stage but not quite as well in the more verisimilitudinous milieu of film. Washington did a good job with them, but it still felt a little mannered in places. Still, this was great work from him. Ultimately, I went with Andrew Garfield because he did a fantastic job of playing a character who could easily be read as a simpleton as a man with intelligence, conviction, and complexity; I think I was also a bit swayed by the fact that Desmond is the only character of these five who is wholly likable and the only character who made me cry. I actually thought Hacksaw Ridge was a very good film, even though everyone but Garfield and an exceptionally miscast Vince Vaughn was Australian, which showed in a few of the accent slips. Still, Garfield himself was fantastic. Desmond truly embodies the ideal of having the courage of one’s convictions. It would be so easy to play that kind of character as an imbecile or a zealot, and Garfield instead played him as a man who truly wants to do good and sees no way that can happen with a gun in his hand. Garfield also allowed these moments of doubt to seep through in subtle and unexpected places, and that really helped give his performance so much complexity that maybe wasn’t in the script. It’s a really wonderful performance. He doesn’t have a shot in hell of winning, but he would be exceptionally deserving.

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS: Emma Stone. In stark contrast to Lead Actor, Lead Actress took absolutely no thought whatsoever. Meryl Streep had some nice moments in Florence Foster Jenkins, particularly in the scene between Florence and Cosmé in the latter’s apartment and a scene near the end between Florence and St. Clair; however, there’s no getting around the fact that most of the performance is comprised of Streep singing terribly for almost two hours. Also, while it’s not Streep’s fault, it’s utterly ridiculous to me that any person could be that unaware of how shitty his/her singing is. I imagine the real Florence was that idiotic, but it’s just unbelievable to me. If Natalie Portman is Emma Stone’s biggest competition for all these awards, then Stone is going to run away with everything. I don’t understand the critical hosannas for Portman’s performance in Jackie at all. I don’t care if that’s how Jackie really talked, and I don’t care if she was an aloof person in real life. This movie was basically ninety-five minutes of Portman looking tragic. There was nothing else to her performance, and the movie was absolutely stultifying. Biopics are hard to make, and this one was just so boring and elicited a boring performance from Portman. I will be extremely pissed if she wins this award and/or the Oscar. Emily Blunt was actually really good in The Girl on the Train. I haven’t read the book, but I actually was entertained by this film in a soapy way. Blunt, though, dove headlong into Rachel’s insanity and addiction with total abandon. Rachel is about the most miserable film heroine of all time, and Blunt conveyed that really well. However, she also showed me the heart, the intelligence, and the desire to change somehow beneath all the muck. She is the reason why I was interested in the film, and it would’ve been a total mess without her very accomplished performance. Amy Adams was terrific in Arrival, a movie I liked a lot when I saw it and have thought less of the more distance I have from it; I don’t think the movie earned its ending at all, but that’s not Adams’ fault. Louise is an interesting character in that we don’t know or find out much about her background over the course of the movie, which could make her an easy character to simplify. However, Adams did a great job as an actor of giving Louise a past, even if it was just for Adams herself as an actor, that fueled Louise’s drive in the present of the movie. There’s this sadness emanating from Louise, and Adams used that sadness as motivation for Louise’s pursuit of her work: it was how she was going to find a connection to something, and it was very compelling to watch. When that connection happens, Adams makes it such a beautiful moment. I’d love for Adams to win eventually, but I don’t think it’s happening this year because of Emma Stone. La La Land is Mia’s story, and it’s an absolute showcase for Stone. I’ve seen the movie twice, and I loved it more the second time. It’s a love letter to this crazy city I’ve called home my entire adult life, and it’s a love letter to us artists who are fighting the good fight in pursuit of our dreams. I cannot accurately express how much I identify with Mia, aside from not having had a passionate affair with someone who looks like Ryan Gosling, but that wouldn’t matter in the slightest bit if she were played by an average actress. Stone’s facial expressions were magnificent in the little moments of this film. In one of the first scenes of the film, you see Mia at an audition giving a wonderful read and then see her interrupted in the middle of the read by the callous casting director. Oh my GOD!! First of all, every single actor in Los Angeles can relate to that shit; it makes you feel absolutely subhuman. However, the little details in Stone’s reaction to that interruption are magical because they capture that sense of total worthlessness and incredulity perfectly. It’s funny and heartbreaking all at once, and that encapsulates her performance. Stone also exhibits so much patience as Mia: during a fight with Sebastian, he says something really shitty to Mia, and Stone allows that moment to land and affect her. She doesn’t rush the moment or overplay it; she just lets it land. I haven’t even mentioned her “Audition” number, which is the emotional high point of the film for me: it's simply everything – all of the yearning, all of the hope, all of the trepidation, all of the fun, all of the fearlessness we actors have when we're auditioning, especially when we're having our best auditions. Here’s to the dreamers, indeed. I could go scene by scene and slather praise all over Stone, but I’ll just say that La La Land is Mia’s fairy tale (more even than Mia and Sebastian’s fairy tale) and Stone’s ascension. She has never been better, and this is the performance that showed me how gifted an actor she really is.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mahershala Ali. This one was also no contest. No one in this category gave a bad performance, but I didn’t have to think twice about my vote. While I said at the beginning that I'd make very few changes to the nominees, you could have filled this category with the men from Moonlight, and I wouldn't argue with you. Jeff Bridges was perfectly good in Hell or High Water, but it’s nothing I haven’t seen him do before and better. Much of his performance consisted of these long, rambling speeches filled with racist comments, and that just wasn’t super interesting after a while. He did have some really nice moments, though, during the last twenty minutes or so of the film; he was able to bring some urgency and tenacity towards the end because of something pretty major that happens, and there was a lot of spark and interest in those scenes for me. Lucas Hedges probably gives my favorite performance in Manchester by the Sea, but that isn’t saying too terribly much. Patrick is the only character whom the script kind of allows to have a few levels, and I think Hedges did a good job of showing a bit of the pain underneath Patrick’s flippant exterior; he gets one breakdown scene, which is pretty good. However, I think the scene with his mother is really his best scene because Patrick is allowed to have multiple conflicting feelings at once; Hedges does a good job of subtly conveying Patrick’s fear of disappointment and his hope simultaneously. My main issue, though, is that I thought Patrick was kind of an unapologetic dick in his own way, and I didn’t really care too terribly much about him. Hugh Grant was the best part of Florence Foster Jenkins. It would be really easy for St. Clair to come across as a gold digger or a callow cheater, but Grant made him extremely sympathetic; honestly, I had a lot more sympathy for him than I did for anyone else in the film. He showcased how truly devoted to Florence St. Clair was, and the lengths St. Clair went to to protect Florence were both genuine and fierce in Grant’s hands. The storyline with his mistress was pointless, although I guess it served to showcase St. Clair’s genuine love for Florence; still, Grant was great throughout that silly movie. I liked Dev Patel a lot in Slumdog Millionaire, although I don’t know that I would consider that a great performance; it was more a serviceable performance that was enhanced by a great director. Since that film, I have found him to be kind of terrible. Well, that was not the case in Lion, much to my happy surprise. He was fantastic in the film, even if he did have a very few occasional accent slips. It would be easy to portray Saroo’s choices as an adult as callous and self-centered; however, Patel was able to imbue Saroo with such a sincere desire to fill in the holes and find his family that his seeming rejection of his adopted family and girlfriend was rooted in something very meaningful and ended up being less a rejection and more of an inability to know how to share his burden with them. There was surprising depth in this performance, and I frankly didn’t know Patel had it in him. Still, this category is all about Mahershala Ali. Moonlight is full of surprising characters and moments, but I don’t know that any character was more surprising to me than Juan. From the first scene of the film, you knew that Juan was in charge and not to be trifled with, but the very next scene shows him going out of his way to check in on Chiron and make sure he is safe. This is not your average drug dealer/drug lord. In fact, we never see Juan act in a violent way; he is only ever compassionate and measured in his dealings with the other characters in the film. In that, he embodies the father figure Chiron so desperately needs, and Juan gives Chiron so much support and love, whether it’s in teaching him to swim, speaking compassionately about homosexuality, or trying to reach out to Paula. All of these qualities mesh so perfectly because Ali takes the outer dichotomy of the loving drug dealer and amalgamates all these dissonant qualities perfectly and, in doing so, makes Juan into a fully formed and utterly relatable human being. The performance is simply mesmerizing to watch, and there is nothing showy about it. Nothing. Ali just exudes all of this humanity in this inimitable, magnetic way, and I just absolutely fell in love with him. I honestly don’t see how anyone could vote for anyone else in this category.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Viola Davis. This category definitely took some thought, and I ended up having the hardest time choosing between two incredible performances. I love Michelle Williams and think she is usually aces. Well, that wasn’t the case in Manchester by the Sea. Her big scene didn’t really work for me; a big part of the reason for that was that I didn’t believe the writing in the scene (a problem I had with several aspects of the script, most glaringly that I don’t believe that Joe, portrayed as exceptionally thorough and responsible, would’ve chosen Lee as Patrick’s guardian without telling Lee). I think Williams tried to sell Randi’s desire to reconnect with Lee, but I just didn’t really buy it, especially since she had traded up to a more stable and attractive guy and since she was justifiably bothered by Lee’s disrespect for her in a few of the film’s earlier scenes. Octavia Spencer is very good in Hidden Figures; I find it interesting that she’s received the award nominations among her, Monaé, and Henson, though, because Spencer’s performance is the least showy of the three. Of course, I find that not to be a bad thing at all. The script is nothing if not heavy-handed about the difficulty that these three women (and women of color, in general) face; however, there is a moment where Dorothy pointedly calls a white colleague out on the latter’s casual and unconscious racism. It’s one of the movie’s best moments because it’s not loud and in your face, and that has everything to do with how subtly Spencer plays the moment. Because of her subtlety, the moment has more resonance than the rest of the heavy-handed symbols and moments. Because Spencer is able to imbue Dorothy with a quiet dignity and intelligence, it is perhaps more moving when Dorothy finally is rewarded with what she’s deserved all along. Nicole Kidman is fantastic in Lion. She doesn’t have a big role, but she has a vital one. When Sue meets her newly adopted son for the first time, she is utter joy personified, her heart is absolutely bursting out of her chest, and it just broke my heart. That’s all due to Kidman. Sue is given a few really wonderful scenes where Kidman is able to explore the depths of Sue’s goodness and the toll her willing sacrifices have taken on her, but Kidman never loses sight of Sue’s dignity, strength, and compassion and never cheapens Sue’s experiences by playing them as self-pitying. I wouldn’t say Sue is written as a particularly dimensional character, but Kidman does a terrific job of making her multidimensional. The choice here, though, was between two very different kinds of mothers. Naomie Harris in Moonlight is phenomenal. Paula is a monster, but that’s also an extremely simplistic, reductive, and unfair categorization. Paula is an addict and a victim of the circumstances life has given her. She is a poor and single mother of a child she loves but doesn’t wholly understand, and the weight of the pressures of her life eventually leads her into crack addiction. When Paula is in the throes of her addiction, she is an absolute monster to Chiron; however, because of the script’s compassion for her and Harris’s empathic performance, I do not see Paula as a simple monster. She is as much a victim as Chiron. Harris is absolutely fearless in her portrayal of Paula; she is terrifying and cruel, lost and helpless, abuser and victim. I never once felt Harris try to soften Paula or go over the top; she had a difficult line to walk, and she walked it perfectly. Her final scene is really where I saw how innately Harris understood Paula. It’s in this scene where Paula is talking to the adult Chiron that I saw how much love Paula has for her son, how much regret she has for her failings as a mother, and how much acceptance she has come to have for her son; because of this scene and Harris’ quiet inner turmoil of emotions, I knew I was watching an actress who could make the worst of mothers indelibly human. I ended up going with Viola Davis in Fences because she, more than anyone else in that cast, was able to take August Wilson’s titanic, mythic, and epic language and make it sound realistic and normal. In the world of film, especially a film with a realistic, everyday setting, that is important, but to do it with language like Wilson’s is exceptionally difficult. Davis never had a false moment or any sort of struggle to keep that language from being anything more or less than human, and that is both a minor miracle and evidence of an actor who understands and is committed to her character with every single fiber of her being. Rose is the wife, Troy’s wife, but Davis doesn’t reduce her to that; indeed, Davis suffuses Rose with an inner life and an agency that is her own, quite distinct from that of her husband. Rose is afraid of Troy, but she is also in control of him in certain ways; that dichotomy is seamless in Davis’ hands. There is also a mutual passion between the two of them, and Davis ably captures the sensuality necessary for us to believe Troy would’ve picked her to (try to) settle down with. When Rose finds out about Troy’s betrayal, she doesn’t immediately go to histrionics. Quite the opposite, Davis slowly builds the tension so that when Rose finally does let loose, it’s a volcanic eruption; because of Davis’ power, we see in that scene how unworthy Troy is of Rose, and that’s not as easy an accomplishment as it seems. Nonetheless, because of Davis, you also see that Rose brings out the best in Troy because of how good and strong she is. All of this is accomplished by Davis without making Rose larger than life; she is the most human character in the movie because Davis has such humanity for her. I’ll be thrilled if either Harris or Davis wins; it’s pretty clearly going to be Davis, and it’ll be richly deserved.

OUTSTANDING FILM STUNT ENSEMBLE: Captain America: Civil War.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ENSEMBLE: Stranger Things. I was torn between this and Westworld, but I decided the ensemble of Stranger Things truly had no weak links.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTOR: Sterling K. Brown. I decided to vote for Brown here so that I could vote for both him and Courtney B. Vance, but Brown is actually awesome in This Is Us.

OUTSTANDING DRAMA ACTRESS: Thandie Newton. Maeve is the best, thanks to Newton. Because I voted for Stranger Things in the ensemble category, I chose Newton here over Millie Bobby Brown.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ENSEMBLE: Black-ish. FINALLY! I’m so happy this ensemble was nominated, and I really, REALLY hope these actors win because they are so deserving; freaking Orange Is the New Black will probably win again, though.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ACTOR: Jeffrey Tambor. He’s peerless.

OUTSTANDING COMEDY ACTRESS: Ellie Kemper. I watch none of these shows, so I don’t really give a shit who wins and threw a vote to Kemper because the other four actors have been variously rewarded enough. Honestly, the lack of Tracee Ellis Ross, Gina Rodriguez, and Rachel Bloom makes this a worthless category to me.

OUTSTANDING TV MOVIE/MINISERIES ACTOR AND ACTRESS: Courtney B. Vance and Sarah Paulson. Since I couldn’t vote for both Vance and Sterling K. Brown here, I split the difference and voted for Vance here and Brown for Actor in a Drama. Paulson was a no-brainer; she gave possibly the television performance of 2016.

OUTSTANDING TV STUNT ENSEMBLE: Westworld

[NGL]

Does SAG send you free screeners?

[NUguy514]

We've only received a screener for Manchester by the Sea, but we're supposed to get a handful more (La La Land, Moonlight, Fences, and a few more). I had already seen most of the films for which the studios are sending screeners; most of the rest were available to be screened online. The only two that didn't have either screening option available were Hell or High Water, which I rented on Amazon Prime, and Hacksaw Ridge, which I saw at a theater using a Fandango coupon I had been given; I'm sure there would be actual screenings for both of those films, but I didn't feel like waiting to see about that.

[eurocheese]

Always love reading this. Thanks for posting.

[NUguy514]

I don't have the energy to do as in-depth writeup this year as I usually do, but I did vote a week ago and can at least tell you guys for whom I voted with some notes:

Film Ensemble: Lady Bird. I was really torn between Lady Bird and Get Out for this one and ended up going with the former because everyone except Lucas Hedges was absolutely pitch perfect (I think he tends to overdo it in his emotional scenes) and because Lil Rey Howery (who was so much fun) was inexplicably omitted from the latter's ensemble. I hated Three Billboards so goddamn much; and even though I liked much of the acting, the cast couldn't overcome that terrible script, and there was no way I was voting for anyone from this film. The Big Sick's ensemble was really good, except for Kumail Nanjiani, who I thought was pretty bad; I was also bothered by the script's treatment of Kumail's family (I don't care if that's his experience of them in real life, they were caricatures; Hybrid's post a few weeks ago about the film was really illuminating). Mudbound was a boring, pointless movie and gave us a lot of fairly unexceptional performances. No thanks. I will say that I'd have voted for The Shape of Water's ensemble if it had been nominated; I thought everyone was incredible.

Lead Actor: Timothée Chalamet. This was no contest. The awareness Chalamet had of his body was breathtaking: the inability to sit still, the gawkiness, it was all so incisively calibrated for Elio. Everything he did in this movie was just breathtaking; he captured that teenage sexual awakening and obsession and emotional turmoil so perfectly. My real issues with the movie have zero to do with him and his incredible performance, and it's too bad he won't win the big awards because he's a young guy; he gave by far the best performance by a leading actor I've seen this year. I loved Daniel Kaluuya, thought James Franco was surprisingly great, found Gary Oldman very good but in a too-typical-Oscar-bait kind of way, and thought Denzel Washington was pretty terrible. Really, though, none of that matters because Chalamet was so far ahead of the pack.

Lead Actress: Saoirse Ronan. I kept going back and forth between Ronan and Sally Hawkins (and also thought for a second about voting for Margot Robbie). Both had real acting challenges: Hawkins had to make you believe, without words, that she and a merman-monster-thing fall in love, and Ronan had to play that faux-rebel teenage stereotype and make her interesting and sympathetic. Both succeeded for me so incredibly, and I think I went with Ronan because I think it's harder to play a real, rather ordinary, definitely bitchy character and make him/her/them so compelling. Also, I wanted Ronan to win everything for Brooklyn (no shade directed at Brie Larson, who was phenomenal in her own right), so that might have been the tipping point (stupid, I know, but there you go). Hawkins, though, is just as terrific and gives Elisa more depth and shading than I think was in the script; she was truly great. Robbie was an absolute blast as Tonya Harding; I loved her performance so much. I just never forgot she was Margot Robbie, although I don't know that that's her fault as an actress as much as it is her parents' fault for creating such an ungodly beautiful child. Frances McDormand was typically strong, but a lot of the speeches she had to say were just not believable speeches for her character, and it was just off. Judi Dench was typically delightful, but her movie was pretty lame; I might have given her spot to Emma Stone.

Supporting Actor: Richard Jenkins. I just loved Jenkins' soft touch with his character. He just seemed so present in every moment he was onscreen, and he truly seemed to be reacting to everything completely in the moment. The Billboards boys both did a nice job, although I thought Woody Harrelson was the true standout of the cast. He was able more than the other actors to rise above the overly theatrical dialogue and create sympathy for his character, which I did not have for any other character in the film. Sam Rockwell was doing his Sam Rockwell thing with all of the tics and jitters, and all of that mostly worked; I just wanted to crucify his character and the truly unbelievable shift his character goes through towards the end of the film. Steve Carell was great as Bobby Riggs, and he was less mannered in this performance than he was in Foxcatcher, to good effect. Willem Dafoe is the one whose success with the critics awards absolutely baffles me; I didn't like The Florida Project, which wasn't a narrative film so much as a tedious exercise in watching kids be kids with a side of poverty porn, and found Dafoe kind of just there. He wasn't bad or anything, but his character didn't really do anything interesting for the entire film, save for one scene where he protects the kids from an old pedophile. Otherwise, his character didn't really go on any journey, and it was all just kind of boring. I'd have voted for Michael Stuhlbarg if he had been nominated.

Supporting Actress: Laurie Metcalf. I really didn't intend to vote for Lady Bird and its actors three times, but Metcalf was phenomenal. She inhabited Marion so exceptionally; there was all of this inner life she gave to Marion that would've been completely missing in the hands of a lesser actor and that was essential in giving the film the balance it had because Marion is not a villain. She's just a mom doing her best in the world; she treats Lady Bird pretty terribly, but it does come from a place of maternal concern and fear. That mother-daughter relationship reminded me more than any other fictional mother-daughter relationship of the relationship between my mom and sister. I adored Hong Chau and thought pretty hard about voting for her, in part because I thought she was so much better than everything else in the movie and in part because Asian actors never get recognized. However, her character was basically a caricature (which I thought she did a great job of deepening), and I can't really ignore that. Allison Janney was a blast in I, Tonya, but her character ends exactly where she began; there's no evolution, so, even though I loved her, I went with a more three-dimensional performance. Holly Hunter was wonderful, as usual, and Mary J. Blige was...there. I'd have replaced Blige with Octavia Spencer.

Film Stunt Ensemble: Wonder Woman.

TV Movie/Miniseries Actor and Actress: Alexander Skarsgård and Nicole Kidman. No contest here. Both were phenomenal, and I say that as someone who's never been a huge Kidman fan. She was everything in Big Little Lies.

TV Drama Actor and Actress: Sterling K. Brown (a/k/a my future husband) and Elisabeth Moss.

TV Drama Ensemble: The Handmaid's Tale.

TV Comedy Actor and Actress: Aziz Ansari and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I wish I could've voted for a different actress, but I watch none of the other nominated women's shows, and JL-D is always fantastic.

TV Comedy Ensemble: Black-ish. I'm so excited to be able to vote for this one! If The Good Place had been nominated, though...possibly a different story.

TV Stunt Ensemble: Stranger Things

[Dr.ciski77]

Thanks for posting this!

[dws1982]

Always like to read this. I wish Veep would've won Ensemble at some point, but with the way they had so much of the cast apart from each other this past season, I doubt it would get my vote this time.

[NUguy514]

I'm slipping this in while ciski is on a Globes high...

I don't really feel like doing a whole writeup this year. However, I voted Christmas Eve after seeing everything, and here are my votes:

Ensemble: Black Panther. I would've voted for The Favourite, If Beale Street Could Talk, or Roma, but they weren't nominated. I was between BP, BlacKkKlansman, and Crazy Rich Asians here, but BP was a fantastic ensemble and very deserving. I didn't like the other two films at all.

Actor: John David Washington. Bale was truly terrific, but he's won before. I loved Washington just as much, and I wanted to spread my votes around and give BlacKkKlansman something since I loved it so much. The only scene where I felt Cooper was not Acting was the scene where he made amends to Gaga; otherwise, it was a very superficial performance by an actor who hasn't been able, in my opinion, to give an authentic performance. Malek was...fine. Mortensen was...having fun.

Actress: Melissa McCarthy. I know I just lost a friend by admitting that (I'm sorry, ciski!!!!), but I thought McCarthy was revelatory. Everything about this performance felt real and effortless; McCarthy just never hit a false note. I almost voted for Olivia Colman, who was faaaaaaaabulous (I would've voted for her in supporting); I don't know, I think I just was more surprised by McCarthy, and that's why I voted for her over Colman. Close was great, but the movie was such a slog for me to get through; I didn't get the dynamism from her that I got from McCarthy and Colman. Having said that, I will not be upset if and when she wins the SAG and Oscar; it's kind of like 2009/2010 where I wanted Sandra Bullock to win but voted for Mulligan because I thought the latter's performance was genuinely the best. I understand that I've broken ciski's trust irrevocably, and I have only myself to blame for it. I didn't think Blunt was very good at all, and Gaga was not terrible but not great either (at least when she wasn't singing; she was great while singing).

Supporting Actor: Timothée Chalamet. I was between Chalamet and Driver, and I think I voted for the former because he didn't win last year, and I have residual bitterness. He was terrific, though, at capturing that awful, mercurial, unpredictable nature that addicts have (I'm related to multiple addicts, and he nailed it). Driver was really terrific, and I'm not normally a fan. I don't know why Elliott was nominated, Ali was fine but was really let down by his film's script, and I found Grant to be good but overly hammy at times (wonderful final scene, though).

Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz. I was between Weisz and Stone, both of whom should be in Lead. Ultimately, I decided that I'd vote for Weisz here because I could vote for Stone elsewhere. Both women were fucking stellar. Honestly, I'd be fine having Best Actress be awarded to the three ladies from The Favourite, kind of like how the Billy Elliot boys won the Tony together some years ago; the three of them are so linked to each other for me and work in beautiful harmony. I liked Blunt a lot better in A Quiet Place, but she's the obvious lead. Adams was a fantastic Lynne Cheney, but I think she's unfortunately going to have to wait some more for her Oscar. Robbie was actually really good as Elizabeth I, but, like, why isn't Regina King here? (Honestly, even if King had been nominated, I'd still vote for Weisz or Stone; King is winning the Oscar, though, and I'll be beyond ecstatic for her.)

Film Stunt Ensemble: Black Panther

Actor in a TV Movie/Miniseries: Anthony Hopkins

Actress in a TV Movie/Miniseries: Emma Stone

Actor in a Drama Series: Bob Odenkirk

Actress in a Drama Series: Sandra Oh

Drama Ensemble: The Americans

Actor in a Comedy Series: Bill Hader

Actress in a Comedy Series: Alison Brie

Comedy Ensemble: GLOW

I almost didn't vote in the comedy categories because I watch none of those shows (aside from the first two episodes of Mrs. Maisel, which I hated the fuck out of); fuck those nominations.

TV Stunt Ensemble: Westworld

[NUguy514]

OK, as I think I've posted elsewhere, I'm on the SAG Nominating Committee this year, and I just submitted my nominees! (By the way, a few of my choices could be nominated for performances in more than one film, so I specified which film.)

Outstanding Ensemble

Bombshell
Dolemite Is My Name
The Farewell
Little Women
Parasite

Outstanding Actor

Antonio Banderas
Michael B. Jordan
George MacKay
Eddie Murphy
Jonathan Pryce (for The Two Popes)

Outstanding Actress

Awkwafina
Beanie Feldstein
Lupita Nyong'o (for Us)
Saoirse Ronan
Charlize Theron (for Bombshell)

Outstanding Supporting Actor

Choi Woo-sik
Rob Morgan
Wesley Snipes
Song Kang-ho
Taika Waititi

Outstanding Supporting Actress

Thomasin McKenzie (for Jojo Rabbit)
Park So-dam
Florence Pugh
Margot Robbie (for Bombshell)
Zhao Shuzhen

Outstanding Stunt Ensemble (these were not very informed votes, honestly)

Avengers: Endgame
Captain Marvel
Dolemite Is My Name
Ford v Ferrari
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I have no doubt that the vast majority of these choices have no shot at actual nominations (let alone wins), and I didn't watch a few movies that are very possible nominees (I'm thinking of Joaquin Phoenix, Taron Egerton, and the cast of Downton Abbey) because I just don't care at all about those films. Lead Actress was the easiest category to figure out because there were only six options I really loved (Kaitlyn Dever was the other), and the two supporting categories were the hardest (actress, in particular, for which I'd have nominated probably eight women).

[eurocheese]

*applauds

Eddie Murphy, Awkwafina and all the Ensemble nominees - love it. Beanie and Park So-dam - inspired choices.