At this point Amy Adams will be winning an Oscar next year. As a five-time Oscar nominee, if she follows in the footsteps of Leo and Kate (who were each nominated five times before winning) it’s sure to happen. But not this year because, despite a breathtaking performance in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, she wasn’t given a nod. Well that’s not entirely true. For a hot second on the morning the nominations were announced, Adams was mistakenly listed as a nominee for Best Actress on ABC’s website before the error was quickly corrected.
What a shame. I am not a sci-fi fan, but Amy Adams and her portrayal of Louise Banks converted me. (Check out my review of Arrival #shamelessplug). She carries Arrival, as arguably the strongest actor as well as the ONLY woman in the entire movie. (The only woman, watch it again if you don’t believe me, and no I don’t count her daughter, the college students at beginning, or the reporters on TV). Amongst a sea of men in a military camp in the middle of rural Montana, Adams portrays a tough, intelligent woman who holds her own. Unlike so many sci-fi movies, where men with guns and explosives save the day, in Arrival an intuitive linguist is the hero instead. And her path to becoming the hero is breathtaking to watch. I find it hard to think of another actress who can express the sheer quality of emotion that Amy Adams can solely in her facial expressions. Her acting prowess shone through as Louise stared wide-eyed ascending into the unknown of the alien spaceship, joyfully played with her young daughter in the grass, and then held her dying daughter in her arms as she struggled to hold back tears (really not a spoiler I promise).
No one was more disappointed than me to not see Adams rewarded for her talent and hard work, especially because it seems like a natural result seeing that Arrival was nominated in so many other categories including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also, if we’re on the subject of Arrival being swindled, I was equally saddened to hear that Jóhann Jóhannsson’s brilliantly strange score was disqualified from the Best Original Score category. Though a majority of the music was crafted by Jóhannsson, mainly from human vocal sounds curiously enough, Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight”, a song used in many other films, was used briefly at the beginning and end of the movie. I guess Amy and Jóhann can console each other.
That’s not to say that the Best Actress list was complete garbage. Amy Adams mistakenly replaced Ruth Negga in the botched nominee list debacle. Negga expertly portrayed the determined, sweet-natured Mildred Loving, who, with her white husband, challenged the Supreme Court for the right to marry in Loving v. Virginia. Having seen Loving, Negga is more than deserving of the nomination. And I commend the Academy for progressing past last year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy and nominating Negga along with Viola Davis and Denzel Washington for Fences, Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris for Moonlight, and Octavia Spencer for Hidden Figures. It represents a conscious effort on the part of the Academy to make themselves aware of the volume of diverse talent in Hollywood and recognizing it. This year black actors are nominated in every acting category, with a record six black actors nominated. Also up for the Best Actress Oscar are veteran Meryl Streep for Florence Foster Jenkins, surprise contender Isabelle Huppert for Elle, Natalie Portman for her jarring portrayal of Jackie Kennedy in Jackie, and Emma Stone’s delightful performance in La La Land (which, let’s be honest, will probably win Best Picture because it made 2016 a little brighter for all of us). I’m still sad about Amy, but I can’t wait to see the final results and Jimmy Kimmel’s first time hosting the Oscars on February 26th.
