Part 3/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)
Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Female)
CHILD (female)
Most Compelling:
Kaitlyn
Dias voicing 10-12 yr old Riley a little girl who's "growing
up" from was born in Minnesota but
recently moved to San Francisco
in
Inside Out [2015]
Honorable Mentions:
Iranian film-maker
Jafar Panahi's "niece"
in
Taxi Tehran [2014] who'd like to
be a film-maker when she grows up as well, but has all kinds of questions about
what (current Iranian law) would make for a "screenable film."
Güneş Nezihe Şensoy as Lale (whose
name means Tulip), the narrator / youngest of five sisters in the Turkish
Repunzel-like horror fairytale
Mustang [2015]
TEEN (female)
Most Compelling:
Raini Rodriguez as Maya, Paul
Blart's _ever cheerful_ teenage daughter (even if she could have had any number
of reasons to be unhappy if she chose to) in
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 [2015]
Honorable Mentions:
Britt Robertson as Casey Newton,
the optimistic teenager in
Tomorrowland [2015], who despite
dire predictions of climate change / environmental destruction challenges her
teachers / adults to "not just give up"
Karidja
Touré as Marieme, a French 15-16 y/o of West African heritage
growing-up with her BFFs in a concrete and not much grass "project"
at the outskirts of Paris in
Girlhood (orig. Bande de Filles) [2014]
Maisie Williams as Abbey, an Irish
teenager growing-up at the outskirts of Dublin
today, trying _really hard_ (perhaps _too hard_) in difficult circumstances to
be a good kid to all in
Gold [2014]
Daisy Ridley as Rey, a de facto
orphaned teenager, in
Star
Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] who's been waiting for years for her
parents to come back for her. Instead "the Force" /
"Universe" gently tells her that her waiting (in the Desert) is over
and hurls her off on her own adventure.
Madison
Davenport as Beth, a random teenager from Evanston, IL
who finds herself taking care of / arguably parenting her manic-depressive
mother in
A Light Beneath Their Feet [2015].
Darya Saveleva as Sveta in
The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда»
/ Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] who was growing-up in the
Russian north-Siberian city of Norisk
(originally built by Stalin's GULAG), and just wanted to get out of
there.
Hunter King as Avery Keller, the
"popular girl" / bully (but also with a story) in
A Girl Like Her [2015]
Abigail Breslin as the title
character in
Maggie [2015] a beloved teenage
daughter of a Midwestern farmer, who after she was bitten by a Zombie was
slowly turning into one herself.
Joséphine
Japy as Charlie (Charléne) a random French teenager from a random
provincial town somewhere in Southern France who has her life turned upside
down when a new girl Sarah (played by
Lou
de Laâge), who turns out to be something of a bully, moves into town in
Breathe (orig. Respire) [2014]
İlayda
Akdoğan,
Tuğba Sunguroğlu,
Elit
İşcan and
Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu who play the
four older (teenage) sisters of Lale (above) in the Turkish contemporary
Repunzel-like teenage fairy-tale / horror tale
Mustang [2015].
YOUNG ADULT (female)
Most Compelling:
Shiela Vand as the quiet / demure
/ chador covered "Girl" that nobody pays much attention to in the
Iranian-exile made Vampire destined-to-be classic
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2015]
;-).
Honorable Mentions:
Anne
Hathaway as Jules, a 20-something entrepreneur in
The Intern [2015] who's worked
very hard and succeeded in what she's done, but to take things to the next
level, she realizes (and proves open) to taking some sage advice.
Saoirse
Ronan as Ellis an early 20-something immigrant from Ireland to the United
States in the early 1950s in the immigrant drama
Brooklyn [2015].
Lesliana Pereira in the title role
of
Njinga
Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] who, still in
late 1500s-early 1600s, taking-over after her father's death (her older brother
wasn't of much use ...) using her wits kept the Portuguese and Dutch colonizers
(and slave traders...) at bay during her lifetime.
Jennifer Lawrence as the heroine
Katniss in the final episode of
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2
[2015], who never signed-up to do any of what she had to do, but kept
her integrity through the whole of the extended story.
Svetlana Ivanova as Marina a
university student in contemporary St.
Petersburg, who "never really fit in" (but
that's because ...) in an inspired Russian "LOTR meets the Twilight
Saga" mash-up called
Dark World (orig. Темный мир / Temnyy Mir)
[2010]. There's some pretty good fodder for some pretty
compelling stories "out there" in the forests of Karelian Tiaga ;-)
Deepika
Padukone as
Mastani in
Bajirao
Mastani [2015] a 1/2 Muslim warrior princess in 16th century
pre-colonial India
and the second wife of a general
(Bajirao I played in the film by
Ranveer Singh) from a neighboring
(Hindu) state. Despite much prejudice against her because of her heritage
she remained nice to everyone even her enemies throughout, and gained respect /
love as a result.
Shu
Qi in the title role in the Chinese/Taiwanese film
The
Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015]. Growing-up in late Tang
Dynasty China
(600-700s AD), she was handed over to a "warrior nun" by her family
after boy to whom she was engaged "found a better deal."
Trained then as an assassin by said "nun" she's eventually tasked
with killing the boy now man (with a family...) to whom she had been
engaged. Could she do it ...?
Kangana Ranuat as the "always
was good girl" Rani in
Queen [2014] until she was dumped
by her fiance just before their (would have been beautiful) Bollywood-style
wedding (the dancing in this film comes at its beginning ;-). Depressed
for a couple of days, she decides to "take her honeymoon" if alone
(it's already been paid for ...) anyway.
Aislinn Derbez as Maria Laura
(MaLa) in
A la Mala [2015] a struggling
actress in Mexico City
who finds herself with a rather odd / interesting business that pays her bills:
She finds herself being hired by young women to "hit on" their
boyfriends to see if they would cheat.
Amy
Schumer as "Amy" in
Trainwreck [2015] as a
"promiscuous to the point of boredom" no-nonsense blue-collarish
20-30 y/o young adult,, her character proves far kinder and wiser than her
"tough exterior" would perhaps suggest.
Louisa
Krause as "Streak" in
The Abandoned [2015] a
20-something single mom who takes an awful job as a night-time security guard
at a never-completed "luxury hotel" just so that she could keep her
kid.
ADULT (female)
Most Compelling:
Diane Lane as Cleo the wife of
blacklisted Academy Award winning screenwriter
Dalton Trumbo in
Trumbo [2016]. She did not
leave him when he was black-listed and even jailed (for Contempt of Congress)
during the McCarthy Era even though their standard of living _dropped_
precipitously as a result.
Honorable
Mentions:
Jennifer Lawrence as the title
character
Joy Mongano in
Joy [2015] the QVC entrepreneur /
inventor of "the miracle mop" who despite modest beginnings and all
kinds of reasons to accept failure / quit, nonetheless _succeeded_ AND _REMAINED
NICE_ to all her loved ones in the process.
Sareh Bayat in the title role of
Nahid [2015], a tough, kind and
competent divorcing 30-something year old Iranian woman from a mid-sized Iran
town on the Caspian Sea with an 8 year old boy who'd just like to be given a
chance to "make it own her own."
Cate Blanchett as
the title character in the 1950s era lesbian love-story
Carol [2015] as a 40 something divorcing woman who’s sincerely
even tried to be(come) straight, but simply could not.
Juliette
Binoche as Maria Elena as an ex-wife of one of
The 33 [2015] miners trapped in a
Chilean mine back in 2010 who did let the authorities to "just let them
die."
Carey
Mulligan as Maud Watts a working class woman in London
in turn of the 20th century England
in
Suffragette [2015] who reluctantly
finds herself entering into battle for women's rights.
Elizabeth
Banks as Melinda Ledbetter who eventually became often depressed / even
troubled Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson's second wife in
Love & Mercy [2014]. Her
performance is wonderful as one can empathize with her situation: "OMG, I
could be dating one of the Beach Boys! OMG, there are some real issues
with him / his family..."
Sharon
Leal as the "still learning" late-20 / early-30 something
African American mom raising a precocious 7-8 year old boy (Michael) during the
Segregation Era when the boy got it into his head that he'd _really_ like to
drink "the white people's water" in
White Water [2015[
Gemma
Arterton in the title role as
Gemma Bovary [2015], one somewhat
bored late-30-something / 40-something woman with a cursed name who proved way
too attractive for her own good.
Essie Davis as Amelia the harried
single-mom of a 7-8 year old boy (Samuel) "with some issues" in the
children's scary-movie
Babadook [2014]
ELDER (female)
Most Compelling:
Helen
Mirren as Maria Altman in
Woman in Gold [2015] who in her
70s decided to take-on the Austrian government for return of a beautiful
painting of her aunt that had hung in her home when she was a child. The
painting had been confiscated by the Nazis and was being exhibited,
prominently, at a Vienna Museum and had come to be considered "Austria's Mona
Lisa." Yet, that wasn't any "Mona Lisa." At the end
of the day, it was a painting of Altman's aunt ...
Honorable Mentions:
Laura Bonaparte* as herself in
Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido)
[2015] a documentary about
her life. In the 1970s she was
a human rights activist in Argentina
and had to flee the country as a result. Her ex-husband as well as every
one of her children died in custody during the Argentina's "Dirty War"
at the time. She survived. But that was 30-40 years ago. Now
in her last years, she was coming down with Alzheimers...
HERO / VILLAIN (female)
Most Compelling:
Daisy
Ridley as Rey, a de facto orphaned teenager, in
Star
Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] who after years of waiting "in the
Desert" is hurled off her planet to an adventure / destiny that she does
not yet understand.
Honorable Mentions:
Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, the
indomitably optimistic teenager in
Tomorrowland [2015]
Jennifer
Lawrence as Katniss in the final episode of
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2
[2015], who never asked / wanted to be a hero, but repeatedly
"stepped-up" for the sake of others / justice until she saw the whole
revolution against the social structures that she lived in through.
Lesliana Pereira in the title role
of
Njinga
Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] who really was,
in her life-time able to keep her people safe.
Deepika
Padukone as
Mastani in
Bajirao
Mastani [2015] a 1/2 Muslim warrior princess in 16th century India whose
bravery and _kindness_ could give a wonderful example to all people, Muslim and
non, today.
Shiela
Vand as the quiet / demure / chador covered (Iranian) "girl"
that nobody pays much attention to but has more power than most could ever
imagine in
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2015]
;-).
Kaitlyn Dias voicing 10-12 yr old
Riley in
Inside Out [2015] about the
"whole drama" of "growing up" ;-)
Güneş
Nezihe Şensoy as Lale (meaning Tulip) who narrates a "different
kind of drama" about growing up in a different part of the world in
Mustang [2015]
Laura Bonaparte* as herself in
Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido)
[2015] an Argentine human rights activist who really gave an enormous
amount of her life, and suffered unimaginable losses (not unlike Katniss above
...) in striving to make the world a better more just place.
Carey Mulligan as Maud Watts a
working class woman in London in turn of the
20th century England
in
Suffragette [2015] who reluctantly
finds herself entering into battle for women's rights.
* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found
by viewing them through Google's
Chrome browser.
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