Oscar Talk: “I Love Lesbians”

Before their romantic liaison in The Kids Are All Right Julianne Moore and Annette Bening were already women that you thought of (at least tangentially) similar. They’re both from the same age bracket, both Oscar-less but celebrated and both with that certain tenacity that’s made them able to be just as luminous at fifty as they were at thirty. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for hoping that The Kids Are All Right would signal Oscar glory for at least one of the two because even if I’m aware of the general unimportance of Oscar today I’ll admit that I love it when someone I care for wins. The Oscar race is always one bit of strangeness after another now and they’re really no telling if either of the two could hope for success come February.

There’s the most obvious issue of category placement, I’m a bit too quick to think of The Kids Are All Right in the same way that I do think of Thelma & Louise. They’re the same in the sense of having two leading ladies, but The Kids Are All Right and its ensemble nature makes the division more difficult to make and Julianne Moore is probably going to end up being tossed back and forth between the supporting and leading category ultimately ending up with no nomination (a la Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed). Obviously she should be in the leading category, but though I do love Julianne there’s not that sense of urgency when we consider her quest for Oscar. Julianne has lost the prize four times, and the last two times she was nominated the eventual winners were worthy. I’m not going to enter the Swank/Bening argument again – but there’s the distinct sense that Bening should have been feted by now (let’s not even think of the terrible snub in 2006).

Julianne and Annette have both made it onto the list of Golden Satellites nominees, but that doesn’t say much when they’ve nominated in excess of 15 women in their two Actress categories. Annette's up for a Spirit Award , Julianne freakishly is not. I like the NBR, even though I don’t put much credence in them as far as Oscar prognostics go. I still respect them for giving Bening their actress award in 2004 and HBC in 1997. I haven’t seen Another Year yet, so I can’t comment on Lesley Manville’s win but it’s weird that The Kids Are All Right didn’t even the top ten. There really is no telling at this point what the Actress race will end up looking like. Thus far Annette and Julianne are would be somewhere at the top for me. It’s difficult to think of them as individual performances because Nic and Jules work so well as a single unit, I’ve no idea if Oscar is going to remember them as a duo or split them up. I’m wondering now if they’ll even give The Kids Are All Right any of the love it deserves...we’ll see, I suppose.

        

Does either trump the other? Who do you hope gets nominated?