Judy

Just give Renée Zellweger all the awards and the Oscar already. She was phenomenal and utterly riveting. It was a transformative and truly lived-in performance. Zellweger found the heart and soul in an otherwise histrionic and excessively melodramatic figure and film. And therein laid the film’s biggest fault. It was directed to a melodramatic excess by Rupert Goold, and truly some of the best moments were the quieter scenes where Zellweger was allowed to simmer and stew and smoulder. Regardless, the melodrama of it all paid off in the end as the emotional manipulation reached its peak and the audience’s heartstrings get inevitably tugged. Of the supporting cast, Jessie Buckley stood out, as always. Finn Wittrock as fifth husband Mickey Dean was an uninspiring love interest that was blandly written; as was Rufus Sewell’s Sidney Luft. Kudos also to Zellweger for performing her own songs. That added to authenticity of her role and helped to sell the dramatics of it all. Like I said, just give her the awards already (Sorry, Scarlett Johansson!). Unfortunately, that may be the only category “Judy” gets nominated in for the Oscar.