【Experimental eroticism】

If any category this award season seemed locked,Experimental eroticism it was Best Supporting Actress. Da'Vine Joy Randolph has absolutely dominated, winning a cascade of critics' guild honors — including the Critics Choice Award— as well as a Golden Globeand BAFTA. And tonight, she has won her first Academy Award. 

Tonight's win was well-deserved and puts Randolph in a company of only 10 other Black women who have won a competitive Oscar since the Academy of Arts and Sciences' inception, beginning with Hattie McDaniel. She joins the ranks of Jennifer Hudson, Octavia Spencer, Lupita Nyong’o, and Viola Davis. (Notably, after a surprising upset at last year's Oscars, Angela Bassett was awarded an honorary Oscarearlier this year at the Academy's Governors Awards.) 

Randolph is no stranger to accolades. In 2012, she earned a Tony nomination for her moving performance as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost: The Musical on Broadway. In 2020, her scene-stealing turn in the comedic biopic Dolemite Is My Namehad film critics taking notice, scoring her Best Supporting Actress winsand Breakthrough Performance awards from a variety of groups. Then in 2022, she scored nominations for her guest turn as a no-nonsense detective in the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building. But The Holdovers launched her to a new level of stardom. 

Directed by Alexander Payne, The Holdovers centers on an unlikely trio of near-strangers who are stuck together over the Christmas holiday at New England prep school. Paul Giamatti stars as a gruff, insult-slinging professor forced to chaperone a glowering student (Dominic Sessa) whose holiday plans get canceled at the last minute. Randolph plays Mary Lamb, the school's chain-smoking head cook; Mary provides hearty meals for the men while nursing a broken heart for the son she lost in the Vietnam War.

As I wrote in our review of the film, "Far from a tearful Oscar-baiting performance, Randolph (who won much critical acclaim for her supporting role in Dolemite Is My Name) delivers a nuanced performance of muted agony and trembling joy. It's a portrait of grief so real it gives goosebumps."

How to watch:The Holdoversis now streaming on Peacock.