I Was Disappointed By The Razzies

Cafe Society
1

Every year they hand out the Razzies, the “worst of” counter to the Oscars. For the most part they usually do pick truly horrendous films.

I was let down, however, that the Razzies went the easy route and picked a bunch of people in terrible movies as the worst actor nominees. It’s easy to do that. They never pick truly dreadful performances in movies that might otherwise be good or at least not really terrible.

This year featured the worst performance by an actress I have ever seen: Rebecca Pidgeon in “Heist.” She has got to be the worst honest-to-God professional actress in the history of cinema, and she’s even worse than some fashion models. She’s at least as bad an actress as Mariah Carey, and maybe worse.

But she didn’t even get a nomination.

2

I agree. It takes no brains or guts to pick Mariah Carey and Tom Green. You aren’t thumbing your nose at any establishment by doing so.

3

. . . or maybe you don’t get what Mamet is trying to do. She’s about the perfect Mamet actor, and plays her characters exactly as he writes them for her. Watch some earlier Mamer–House of Games, Oleanna, etc.–and notice how most of the actors give the same kind of highly stylized, stagey performance. Mamet is Mamet; you can’t blame the actors.

4

I think that Joe Mantegna is the only actor who can read Mamet’s lines and make them sound realistic.