In the past, this has usually been a pretty competitive category most years. Not this year. You can probably guess who won- indeed, this year's winner received the most votes of any winner outside of the anniversary categories. However, our voters stumped for some interesting choices among the runners-up. And really, it's hard to argue with who won, I'd say.
Third place:
Tilda Swinton, Snowpiercer [128 points / 22 votes]
Second place:
Elisabeth Moss, Listen Up Philip [154 points / 22 votes]
And the Muriel Award goes to...
Patricia Arquette, Boyhood [252 points / 37 votes]
"Had Richard Linklater titled his 12-year project Motherhood and changed nothing else about it, would Patricia Arquette have ended up an Oscar front-runner for Best Actress instead of being relegated to the supporting category? A title is a powerful shaper of perception, but there’s a case to be made that Boyhood belongs as much to Arquette’s Olivia as to Ellar Coltrane’s Mason. It’s Arquette who carries what minimal plot the movie contains via her character’s series of unfortunate relationship choices and slow but steady evolution into a self-sufficient woman who has raised two bright, promising children to adulthood despite the many challenges along the way.
"Because there has to be a backlash to everything these days, we hear from some quarters that Linklater’s film is simply a clever stunt, as if Arquette’s performance amounts to little more than showing up for a few days each year and letting the natural aging process do the acting for her. While it’s probably true that many in Hollywood wouldn’t sign up for the prospect of letting an audience watch their transformation from youth to middle-age in a single sitting, Arquette’s lack of vanity is only one component of her strong work here. With all due respect to Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, and Lorelei Linklater, Arquette is the primary conduit of the film’s cumulative emotional power. 'They grow up so fast' may be the oldest and moldiest cliché about childhood, but Arquette makes us feel the truth within the platitude, particular in her powerhouse final scene, when the weight of time and the accumulation of life’s little moments is almost too much for Olivia to bear." ~ Scott von Doviak
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