Smackdown

The category is Best Actress and the year is 1982 and let me tell you this was the easiest pick I have ever had to do. So:

1.MERYL STREEP IN SOPHIE'S CHOICE: Not really surprised, huh? Well, Meryl Streep easily put on the best performance by a female actor with this one, if you ask me. The role itself screams: OSCAR! It has everything: romance, drama, grief, sadness, desperation, holocaust, accent, everything the Academy goes for. It's simply so terrific, it's still in my mind and I can recall it very easily, even though I saw it four years ago. The choice scene again is alone worthy of an Oscar, but before watching that, prepare yourself, because it's a traumatizing experience. Along with Sophia Loren, the best winner of this category ever. Meryl should have received three Oscars for it.
Grade:**********

2.Jessica Lange in Frances: And there's Lange also giving one of the greatest acting performances ever. In ANY I mean ANY other year she would have been the rightful and deserving winner. I'm so sad that Frances wasn't released in 1981 and Lange easily would have won and would not have won for Tootsie. About her acting: her meltdowns are thrilling, her character is heartbreaking, her scenes at the asylum are chilling. Easily the best work of the great Jessica Lange, which really should have had an Oscar attached to it, but unfortunately she was nominated with Meryl.
Grade:*****

3.Debra Winger in An Officer and a Gentleman: Well, I liked this role, even though it was so limited and I considered it a supporting one. And a very good one at that. I like the acting style of Winger, I loved her performance in Terms of Endearment (one of my favorite movies) and she managed to create a warm and lovable character here, but it is not enough for me. Although An Officer and a Gentleman was very disappointing, Winger gives some depth to a shallowly-written character, so she deserves some recognition for this role.
Grade:***

4.Sissy Spacek in Missing: Well, I saw this movie not so long ago, but I can much more easily recall Jack Lemmon's heartwrenching turn as the father that Spacek's performance. It's very good and I really liked it, just like Spacek and I feel that the nomination was deserved. She was just nothing very memorable and I feel very neutral about her, so I guess I'm just not going to bother to say much about it.
Grade:**

5.Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria: Hmmmm.... I loved this performance until she started playing a man. I really expected a perfect comedy performance because I read everywhere that she Andrews was brilliant in this. But I think she did not have to do anything really. I always felt that something was missing from the character, which is obviously not her fault and of course the fact that the movie is a bad drag comedy does not help her. But her scenes in the restaurant with Robert Preston was hilarious so for that she deserves a better grade. The Sound of Music remains her best work.
Grade:**

There's such a huge gap between the first two ladies and the remaining three. Streep and Lange gave career-best works, but the other nominees are simply good. But Streep and Lange are simply MINDBLOWING.