Celebrating OSCAR's Best Actress

Marion, Reese, Julianne, Rosamund and Felicity

All year there's been talk that this is a very weak for the best actress category at the Oscars. Bullshit! There were many fantastic performances, most of them in many movies not considered by Academy members but even the 5 Oscar agreed on are a worthy bunch. Give or take a Jones. Let's look at why this is a fantastic lineup:

Marion Cotillard as Sandra 

 A performance for the ages from an actress at her peak at exactly the time when she's starting to be acknowledged as best of her generation.

Rosamund Pike as Amazing Amy

A star making performance and a character that we will be talking about for years in Amazing Amy.

Julianne Moore as Alice Howland

Another arguable best of her generation capping off years of fantastic character work and finally winning awards that have eluded her so far.

Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed

 A major star cementing her comeback with a critical and commercial hit that announces her as an influential producer.

Felicity Jones as Jane Hawking

Oh and one more. While I didn't like the movie or the performance it is not an embarrassing inclusion as would have been with that other one we avoided. Ahem Aniston.

The top 2 two in this list are my favorite of the year. All hail the continued reign of Cotillard as the best screen actress nowadays and Pike coming into full movie stardom. And I liked Moore and Witherspoon and would be so happy when as expected Moore wins on February 22. The woman behind Cathy Whitaker, Laura Brown and Amber Waves deserves to be an Oscar winner. 

As for other performances I liked, maybe Scarlett Johnasson (Under the Skin), Emily Blunt (Edge of Tomorrow/Into the Woods), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Beyond the Lights) and Essie Davis (The Babadook) will be nominees one day.