Oscars: The Case of Emma Stone in Poor Things

As we do every year on this here blog, Oscar nominations lead to my Case Of series. What are they? Glad you asked. These are 35 posts covering the nominees for Picture, Director, and the four acting contests. For each one, I give you the case for the movie/director/actor winning and the case against it with a verdict tidying it up. It’s like a trial, but no one goes to prison.

It began with the ten BP contenders and now it alternates alphabetically between the hopefuls in the five other big races. Today we arrive at our fifth performer in Best Actress and that’s Emma Stone in Poor Things. Let’s get to it!

Previous Oscar Acting Nominations:

Birdman (Supporting Actress, 2014); La La Land (Actress, 2016, WON); The Favourite (Supporting Actress, 2019)

The Case for Emma Stone:

Stone has posted significant wins this season with the Globes for Musical/Comedy, BAFTA, and Critics Choice. As Bella in Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest multi-genre concoction, she leads the picture with the second most overall nominations after Oppenheimer.

The Case Against Emma Stone:

Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) has key victories of her own at the Globes (Drama) and, most notably, SAG last weekend. Voters may opt to honor her in what would be a history making win over Stone’s second statue in seven years.

The Verdict:

This appears to be the one acting derby coming down to the wire. Between Stone and Gladstone, I’ll be pondering it all the way to final predictions in the coming days.

My Case Of posts will continue with Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction…

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