Third place:
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina [120 points / 19 votes]
Second place:
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight [142 points / 21 votes]
And this year’s first Muriel winner…
Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria [171 points / 24 votes]
“I’ve been starting to think that Kristen Stewart gets a bad rap.
“The Actress Formerly Known as Bella has been rubbing people the wrong way ever since she was anointed as an It Girl while starring in those Twilight movies. (Remember a couple of weeks ago when people were ready to call her a racist for a misidentified interview clip?) It’s a tag she’s never been comfortable with. Unlike her other ingenue contemporaries, she doesn’t exude movie-star poise or radiance. She’s awkward, but not in that goofy, endearing, Jennifer Lawrence kind of way. She’s always seemed like having all this attention unnerves her to the point where she would much rather be in the background than out in front.
“With that said, it’s no surprise seeing Stewart nail her performance in Clouds of Sils Maria. As the intriguingly-named Valentine, she’s technically a background player. As the assistant/caretaker to Juliette Binoche’s fading movie star Maria, she’s always right behind her boss, scheduling meetings, appointments and appearances, taking calls, making sure she gets from one place to another on time. It’s like Stewart is self-reflexively hipping audiences to how much bullshit movie stars have to go through, and why she would prefer to go unnoticed.
“But Valentine is not just someone who properly organizes Maria’s life. She’s a smart, insightful gal who also keeps her Luddite of an employer linked to the contemporary world. Maria relies on Valentine not only to keep her in tune with the times, but also to keep her on her toes as an actress. Most of the movie has the ladies holed up in a home, located in the movie’s titular Swiss locale, acting out scenes from a play where Maria will portray an older woman manipulated by a young lesbian. (Maria played the lesbian once upon a time.)
“These scenes not-so-subtly lay out their complicated relationship, as the lines often echo the resentment and even sexual tension that are always bubbling beneath the surface between these two. But it’s also in these scenes where we see how Valentine, who’s apparently just as riveting and dedicated at acting as Maria is, pushes Maria in accepting not only her role in the play, but where she currently is in her life – not as valuable as she once was, but still capable of pulling off the work. It’s something Maria has to come to terms with, especially once Valentine bows out of the movie. (I won’t tell you how it happens, but it’s definitely a head-scratcher.)
“Writer-director Olivier Assayas knew what he was doing when he cast Stewart as the youthful, open-minded yin to Binoche’s aging, stubborn yang. Stewart has always been an actress with a knack for effectively displaying pragmatism in her characters. Although she’s been in many fantastical, over-the-top productions, Stewart often plays women who are usually the most sensible, level-headed people in the room. Even when she was torn between a vampire and a werewolf in those gotdamn Twilight movies, she did her damnedest to convince you she could legitimately have feelings for both those muhfuckas.
“Stewart won a well-deserved César Award (aka the French Oscar) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. The National Society of Film Critics, the New York Film Critics Circle and a few other crtiics’ groups around here bestowed her with the same honor. Unfortunately, Hollywood and the Academy of Old, White People still see her as that weird, standoffish girl from all the vampire movies. So, no major awards for her over in that area. Hopefully, with a few years and several more performances like this under her belt, people will finally recognize her as the amazing character actress she should’ve been seen as in the first place.” ~ Craig D. Lindsey
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