Individual Performance Reviews
Grouped by:   Order of Composition | Decade | Name | Star Ranking
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Jun '10: I have reviewed 45 of 408 nominees, or 11%.
Most recent addition: Judy Garland (54)

June 2010
54  Judy Garland, A Star Is Born - "Carries musical drama to the cathartic, precarious plane of opera"
54  Grace Kelly, The Country Girl - "Merges the compulsively watchable with the plainly inadequate"
54  Audrey Hepburn, Sabrina - "Turns an uneven, ambivalent lark into a modest but real pleasure"
72  Liv Ullmann, The Emigrants - "An amazing knack for profound but unshowy distillation of emotion"
58  Susan Hayward, I Want to Live! - "A victim of radical miscasting that only looks like no-brainer casting"
29  Jeanne Eagels, The Letter - "Delicious, weird... A tough and daringly embroidered performance"
61  Natalie Wood, Splendor in the Grass - "Ambitious, careful, magnetic, touching, and memorable"
48  Barbara Stanwyck, Sorry, Wrong Number - "Holds back from connecting all the notes supplied to her"
56  Ingrid Bergman, Anastasia - "Doesn't look like she's made nearly enough of her own decisions"

May 2010
39  Irene Dunne, Love Affair - "Banks on sharp, clear, modest phrasing to signal concealed depths"
46  Olivia de Havilland, To Each His Own - "There's ability but not a surfeit of fire, and even less of mystery"
43  Joan Fontaine, The Constant Nymph - "Feels most of the time like a credible girl, not an angelic savant"
67  Edith Evans, The Whisperers - "Confounds any stable borders among madness, indigence, and solitude"
73  Joanne Woodward, Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams - "From moment to moment, full of surprises"
29  Corinne Griffith, The Divine Lady - "A fine, energetic, but dispiritingly superficial vessel"
53  Ava Gardner, Mogambo - "Vibrant, sensational... the salvaging figure in this dispiriting roster"
63  Rachel Roberts, This Sporting Life - "Adds shades and layers that enrich the film as it plays"
63  Leslie Caron, The L-Shaped Room - "Nicely rewrites it as a film about a woman who is thinking"
69  Geneviève Bujold, Anne of the Thousand Days - "Impetuous and unwilling to be cast aside"
35  Elisabeth Bergner, Escape Me Never - "Organizes multiple vectors like a skilled pro"
35  Miriam Hopkins, Becky Sharp - "Relentless gales of hubris and energy... Hard-driving slapstick"
62  Lee Remick, Days of Wine and Roses - "Smart, affecting, even gutsy... Traces a humbling arc"
65  Simone Signoret, Ship of Fools - "Keeps a tight leash on any form of sentimental self-congratulation"
60  Melina Mercouri, Never on Sunday - "More of a prop here for Dassin's schtick than a credible actress"
60  Deborah Kerr, The Sundowners - "Warm... Limber... Relaxed and ready to spring into spry action"
76  Marie-Christine Barrault, Cousin cousine - "A breezy, smiling equanimity... Agreeable unfussiness"
55  Eleanor Parker, Interrupted Melody - "Eschews a dewy or a garish approach to Reynolds's hardships"
55  Katharine Hepburn, Summertime - "We perceive a host of stories that Jane/Hepburn performs for herself"
53  Maggie McNamara, The Moon Is Blue - "Eerily close to Shelley Duvall in 3 Women, minus the ironies"
73  Marsha Mason, Cinderella Liberty - "Sticks to broad emotional states... Intriguing but half-full"
59  Audrey Hepburn, The Nun's Story - "Vigilant... A miracle... A portrait of complex thought"
57  Anna Magnani, Wild Is the Wind - "Dislodges other actors from settling into their own cadences"
52  Julie Harris, The Member of the Wedding - "A very emphatic performance, laudable for its energy"
57  Elizabeth Taylor, Raintree County - "A quandary... Hard to parse into categories like 'good' and 'bad'"

April 2010
79  Jill Clayburgh, Starting Over - "Just fine... Clayburgh pushes, but only in small ways"
70  Sarah Miles, Ryan's Daughter - "Personalizing stamps are a recurring problem for this actress"
75  Ann-Margret, Tommy - "A kind of secret genius for getting the audience to root for her"
46  Jane Wyman, The Yearling - "A solid, unexpectedly formidable person, but not invulnerable"
72  Maggie Smith, Travels with My Aunt - "Laborious... A constant burlesque of unnecessary ironization"
76  Talia Shire, Rocky - "Charismatic without being generically strong or generically sweet"
63  Shirley MacLaine, Irma La Douce - "Slim and coasty... Builds no reserves of emotion or personality"
84  Judy Davis, A Passage to India - "Turns Adela into the crypt-keeper of her own feelings"
69  Jean Simmons, The Happy Ending - "A gradual sense of conviction and surprising specificity"
29  Betty Compson, The Barker - "Midlevel work... Has so much more vitality when she's seething"
29  Mary Pickford, Coquette - "Creaky... Plays an already specious character as 18-going-on-7"

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