What constitutes a best actress is what constitutes a best actor as I said in list #7, one who acts and acts well. But, also, what makes an actress noteworthy, is one who keeps her clothes on and minimizes the gyrating and cleavage shots on screen because she doesn’t need to (there’s a thought). Many actresses these day “perform” rather than act as if on a cabaret stage. Not to say I’m a prude and against sexuality, and in a perfect world I wouldn’t give it a second thought. But really, I’d just like to concentrate on the film without feeling annoyed and uncomfortable while the camera zooms in or pans across the naked back side or jiggling boobs in a scene that doesn’t call for either. Sometimes it’s alright, but usually it’s not. Anywho, despite all that, a great actress is a great actress, clothes on or off.

Here are my nominees for today’s best film actresses (in no particular order):

• Hilary Swank
  (Boy’s Don’t Cry, Million Dollar Baby and The Black Dahlia)
  I’d forgotten just how good Swank is when I saw Black Dahlia a couple of weeks ago. I was skeptical that she could pull of the femme fatale ’cause she has a more masculine countenance. But, boy was I wrong. She was strong and feminine and like any good actress worth her salt, Swank made me forget she was Swank and I just watched her character, Madeleine Linscott be the seemingly sweet but ultimately fatal femme fatale she is. Of course I remember Swank in The Next Karate Kid and she was also in a few episodes of 90210, but she’s come a long way since. She was stellar in Boys Don’t Cry. So convincing as the painfully naive Brandon Teena, I felt uncomfortable but very much moved by the character. I didn’t much care for Million Dollar Baby as a whole, but was again moved by Swank’s portrayal of Maggie Fitzgerald, a very determined woman boxer. Look for Swank in The Reaping out later this year and Freedom Writers in 2007.
• Glenn Close
  (Dangerous Liasons, The Stepford Wives and Fatal Attraction)
  Glenn Close is both a star and an actress. She dominates but never outshines her co-stars with bravado or ego. In Dangerous Liasons, her portrayal of the villanous Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil was simpl stellar. So subtle and with such bite she portrayed a character both venemous and inspiring on many levels. In her most well known films, Close played a fabulous femme fatale in Fatal Attraction. She was strong, crazy and inspired empathy. Though the remake of Stepford Wives was a laugh (unintentionally) she was great too watch. Look for Close in a much anticipated remake of Sunset Blvd in 2008 (as Norma Desmond, of course!) and Therese Raquin with Giovanni Ribisi out later this year.
• Julianne Moore
  (Far from Heaven, Boogie Nights, The End of the Affair, The Hours and The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio)
  There’s something about Julianne Moore that I just love. I’d watch her in anything. I saw her first in Safe, a bizarre and thoroughly unsatisfying film about a woman with severe germaphobia. Of course she was great, the film was not. But more noteworthy were her roles in Far From Heaven, The Hours and The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio. Granted in all three she played a 1950s housewive in all three films, but they all dealt with heavy burdens: racism (Heaven), feminism (Hours) and raising a large family with very little money (Defiance). Her portrayal as Amber Waves in Boogie Nights was stellar. Also notable was her portrayal as Sarah Miles in the film adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair with Ralph Fiennes. Look for Moore in Savage Grace 2007 and Freedomland with Samuel L Jackson out later this year.
• Thandie Newton
  (Flirting, Interview with the Vampire and Crash)
  She’s stunning and a great actress. I wish she were in more films. Thandie Newton was perfect as Nicole Kidman’s pseudo-nemesis in the 1991 coming of age film Flirting. Though she has a smal role as Lestat’s (Cruise) maid in Interview with the Vampire, it was memorable. Perhaps ’cause her accent was convincingly Creole and not the slurry exaggerated intonations most actresses who attempt French make. Newton was stellar in Crash. I frankly, I liked her very much in Mission Impossible 2. I hated the film ’cause I hate Tom Cruise. I only saw it for her. Look for Newton along side Will Smith in Pursuit of Happiness out later this year.
• Michelle Wiliams
  (Me Without You, If These Walls Could Talk 2 and Brokeback Mountain)
  Michelle Williams is a success story in that she successfully transitioned from TV to film without too much of a mess unlike most other stars (namely SNL stars) because she chose her films wisely. She went Indie or abroad. That’s how to go about it. Anyway, namely, Williams was absolutely fabulous in Me Without You where she plays a woman growing up in the outskirts of 1970s and 1980s London. Her accent was great too. She was also memorable in The Station Agent. Her role was small and subtle but so was the film. Most recently, Williams played the wife of a in-the-closet cowboy in 1963 Wyoming in Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain. She was just so good in this role, made me forget all about her Dawson Creek days. Then again, she was the best actor on that show, hands down. Look for Williams in Bronte with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in 2007 and I’m Not There also starring Cate Blanchette and Christian Bale due out later this year.
• Cate Blanchett
  (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Oscar and Lucinda, Elizabeth, The Aviator and An Ideal Husband)
  Cate Blanchett is a remarkable actress and she proved so in Elizabeth. In the 1998 Academy Awards Gwyneth Paltrow beat out Blanchett for the best actress in a leading role Oscar, which made me sick. Blanchett’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I was far better and more convincing than Paltrow’s portrayal of Shakespeare’s supposed love interest. Nonetheless, Blanchett was also wonderful as Meredith Logue, Matt Damon’s character’s would be love interest (if his character weren’t crazy and gay). Blanchett’s American 1950s accent was on par and her acting engaging. Both Oscar & Lucinda and An Ideal Husband were so-so films, but Blanchett helped bring them to life. But she was absolutely perfect as Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. Absolutely convincing and the accent was so dead on. Look for Blanchett in the following interesting array of films: I’m Not There and the much anticipated Babel both coming out later this year, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Jason Flemyng, Tilda Swinton and Brad Pitt in 2007, The Good German directed by Soderberg out later this year, Notes on a Scandal also out later this year, and The Golden Age where she reprises her role as Queen Elizabeth I (but who has an affair with Sir Walter Raleigh played by Clive Owen).
• Nicole Kidman
  (The Others, To Die For, The Hours)
  Nicole Kidman is a very underrater actress. Granted, some of her film choices are questionable like The Stepforwives, Birth and Human Stain, but she’s a great no matter what role she plays. I first watched Kidman in Far and Away with her soon to husband and so0on to be exhusband Tom Cruise. But I first “noticed” her as an exceptional actress in Gus Van Sant’s To Die For where she plays the non-fictitious Suzanne Stone Moretto, an overzealous aspiring news woman who has her teenage lover kill her husband who stood in the way of her goal of being famous. The character was a bit crazy, but always in control. I’d say a step abpve Gloria Swanson’s portrayal of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Soon after, I saw Flirting where she co-starred with Thandie Newton (see above) as a popular and seemnigly cold student in an Australian women’s boarding school. She played the role very well and it’s obvious in this movie (one year after Days of Thunder) that she had real talent and was not just another pretty foreign face. In The Others Kidman played a mother living a haunted home whose children suffer from some sort of sunlight immunity. The movie itself is exceptional, but Kidman’s performance is what gets it at least half way there. (The directing and story being the other components). Her performance as Virginia Wolf for which she won best supporting actress was a testament to her acting capability indeed. Look for Kidman in Fur (out in limited release now) and Australia co-starring Hugh Jackman out in 2008.