Jessica Chastain loses a photo finish to wind up in second place in Best Actress. If there is any positive to take from this turn of events, I suggest that it is Chastain’s voting quantity. She receives 10 more votes than the third and fourth place performances combined. In fact, Lawrence and Chastain almost earned as many votes as the rest of the top ten combined. I do not think of this as a second place finish but rather the 1A acting job relative to Lawrence’s 1.

Why do we love Chastain? After largely coming out of nowhere to act in every fourth film over the past two years, Chastain has finally found the perfect role. In Zero Dark Thirty, she is generally identified as The Girl, although her actual name of Maya is used on occasion. Maya has one task in the world. She will find Osama bin Laden and when she does, she will insure that he is held accountable for the atrocities he inflicted upon innocent people in New York City.

Maya has no social life, no other desires in life. She is laser-focused on the assignment at hand. This personality trait is what distinguishes her from a cadre of government-employed spooks and suits all ostensibly assigned the same task. Chastain sinks into this role as if it is her second skin.

In refusing to overplay the role, she crafts an identity of a headstrong woman who is heard not because she shouts but instead because she is the smartest person in the room. People want to hear her speak. For this reason, they listen intently even as they oftentimes hate what she has to say. In a movie chock-full of hulking men with alpha male tendencies, Maya possesses the most dangerous mind. It is a tour de force acting performance from someone we did not even know two years ago. In any other year, Chastain would have handily won this category. For the current year, she will have to settle for the narrowest possible loss.

Quvenzhané Wallis of Beasts of the Southern Wild finishes far behind Lawrence and Chastain in third place. Only six-years-old when she played the role of Hushpuppy, Wallis delivers a heart-breaking performance as an adolescent unaware of the tragedy surrounding her existence. All she wants to do is see her mommy again. If she has to set a fire or two along the way or maybe punch her father so hard that he has a heart attack, so be it. Hushpuppy is a singularly determined young woman. Our staff realizes that rewarding a six-year-old for her performance is largely giving credit to the production team for placing her in the best position to succeed. So, when we say we love the work of Wallis as Hushpuppy, what we really mean is that Beasts of the Southern Wild is a hallmark achievement in filmmaking.

Rounding out our top five are Aubrey Plaza for Safety Not Guaranteed and Naomi Watts for The Impossible. Plaza’s untraditional look and abrasive sense of humor have prevented her from being cast as a romantic lead. With Safety Not Guaranteed, she found the perfect story to demonstrate her breathtaking talent. If Hollywood casting agents would look beyond the American Apparel Ad mentality, they would notice that the pretty people are a dime a dozen in Los Angeles. Plaza is singularly unique.

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