Oscars 2018: 5 Awards The Academy Got Right (And 8 They Got Wrong)
5-2. All The Acting Categories
Who Should've Won: Daniel Day-Lewis / Margot Robbie / Willem Dafoe / Laurie Metcalf
All four of the acting categories appeared to be locked in heading into the Oscars, and there were no surprises on the night, with Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Allison Janney all adding to their considerable awards season hauls.
Oldman is good, rather than truly great, in Darkest Hour, with the prosthetics doing a lot of the heavy lifting and it being an impersonation of a real person, and the movie itself being the weakest of the Best Picture bunch. Day-Lewis is far more understated in Phantom Thread, and it's a more subtle performance than he typically gives overall, which has likely cost him the win but makes it all the better. He shows genuine vulnerability, a great deal of emotional maturity, and has a number of tics and affectations that are key to the character and help make him so memorable, rather than for show.
McDormand and Rockwell are both great in Three Billboards, so it's slightly harder to contest those, but it would've been nice to see Robbie and Dafoe take the prizes. While McDormand is a fiery ball of rage in Billboards, Robbie conveys an astonishing range of strength and vulnerability in I, Tonya; she's at times unlikable, and yet you can't help but root for her. Dafoe, meanwhile, gives a quietly powerful performance - he's the rock of the broken world in The Florida Project, with a performance of wonderful authenticity that only occasionally flickers towards the kind of showiness that landed Rockwell the win.
Janney in I, Tonya does an excellent job playing against type with the brash, acerbic mother who'll do whatever it takes to drive her daughter to glory. Laurie Metcalf, however, does all that just as well, but balances it with great nuance; there's a warmth and sense of compassion to the character, and a much stronger bond formed with her daughter, that makes it that much more a varied and appealing performance.