Angela Bassett secured the first ever acting nomination for the Marvel Cinematic Universe reprising her role as Queen Ramonda in the Black Panther sequel. They had the unenviable task of pivoting
Wakanda Forever after the death of Chadwick Boseman and while Bassett has a couple powerful scenes - for a comic book movie - it is nothing especially memorable. The two comic book performances to win Oscar gold so far are Heath and Joaquin’s two Jokers, and Ramonda is simply nowhere near that level of wow. Bassett’s only other nomination came at the 1994 ceremony as Best Actress for her Tina Turner in
What’s Love Got to Do with It, the year Holly Hunter won for
The Piano. I don’t think she has an overwhelming chance this time, but it has opened the door for the MCU.
Half of
Wakanda Forever was spent underwater, but despite the title none of
Hong Chau’s work in
The Whale is wet, except with tears. As the caregiver to Brendan Fraser’s morbidly obese character she has some nice moments, and Chau was also a part of last year’s
The Menu so her profile is continuing to rise after her spotlight in Alexander Payne’s flawed
Downsizing. Fraser’s nomination was inevitable and his win may be, too, but
The Whale missed out on the big categories like Best Picture and Best Director. Hong Chau will miss out on a win, but this should be a nice calling card for her.
Kerry Condon has been at this for over twenty years now, and while she hasn’t had many outstanding roles she certainly makes her mark in
The Banshees of Inisherin. Her Siobhán Súilleabháin is probably the smartest person on the small Irish island, and watching her frustration as she must care for and deal with her brother and the small-minded gossipy nature of her fellow citizens is both delightful and sad. Her character explodes a few times at the goings on, including the sudden break between her brother and Colm, but mostly she suffers silently, wondering how much longer she can stay in this situation. She is tender and tough and played to perfection by Condon. She’d get my vote.
As with Best Supporting Actor, here again are two co-stars going for the same award with
Jamie Lee Curtis and
Stephanie Hsu both representing
Everything Everywhere All at Once in this dimension. For all of Jamie Lee’s longevity she has never really been close to an Oscar nomination before. With her specialties being Horror and Comedy I suppose that’s not too surprising, but she has done a little bit of everything over the decades and her saying yes to this weird, fun little movie has netted her an Oscar nomination. Hsu’s best previous roles were on television in Hulu’s
”The Path” and Amazon’s
”The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” as well as MTV’s
”Girl Code”. She had a small part in Marvel’s
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings but she took a huge leap as Joy Wang/Jobu Tupaki. As the veteran Curtis has a much better chance at actually winning, acknowledging her work here and her whole career.