Brie Larson as Joy Newsome in Room

Best Actress at the 88th Annual Oscars (2015)

Notable Quote:

“Jack is nobody’s but mine.”

Synopsis:

Eggsnake and Meltedy Spoon go on an adventure through the mythical land of Room! Okay, fine … Joy Newsome (Brie Larson) is imprisoned in a shed along with her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay), who was born there. The two have to escape their captor and then, even more challenging, readjust to the world. (Imagine if you got locked up in 2013, came out in 2020, and were informed that Donald Trump was president, there’s a worldwide pandemic, and we’re cancelling the police. I’d go back to Room!).

The character:

Joy Newsome is the definition of a “strong female character”. And not in the way the term is often thrown around to mean a bold woman who shuts shit down and effortlessly conquers her foes, but in that she’s super complicated and dynamic. I mean, she is a fucking badass, don’t get me wrong. Remember when she’s training Jack on how to wiggle out of the rug, knowing it could be their one chance of escape!? When she makes herself puke to add to the illusion that Jack is deathly ill!?!? When she casually rips her bad tooth out of her head and then just HANDS it to her son!?!?!

But Joy is also deeply damaged. Sometimes, she leaves Jack to pour himself a bowl of cereal because she can’t get out of bed. She’s a really great Ma (the woman literally figures out how her kid can run track in a ten-by-ten shed!) but she’s not perfect. She’s constantly impatient with Jack (to be fair, the kid is annoying as hell), and she lies to him to make things easier and then has to undo her own lies. It’s a nice counter to this weird cultural moment that we’re currently in, which acknowledges that it’s hard to be a mom, but then shows imperfection in a goofy, “I hate my kids and I wanna drink wine” way, rather than as, “I’m somehow supposed to manage my own trauma AND still parent my kid, and that’s hard.”

I also love the shift that Joy has to go through halfway through the movie, once they (SPOILER) get out of Room. Instead of just surviving and keeping Jack alive and happy, she has to actually be a person again, which is made even more difficult by the fact that she got kidnapped when she herself was a teenager, so she never got to grow up normally. (I love the moment when she shows Jack a picture of her high school track friends and is like, these bitches just got to keep doing them, like, fuck you ERIKA!). And obviously she gets to deal with, ya know, the trauma that you’d develop if you were kept in sexual slavery for seven years. It’s intense, and, sneak peek at next section, Larson plays it beautifully.

The performance:

Now this is what I’m talking about! I’ve never had particular feelings on Brie Larson, but this performance single-handedly won me over to her team. (Maybe we’re called the Brie Team? Like Glee Team? Or Brielievers? Still workshopping). It’s easier to discuss bad performances than good ones: with a bad performance, you can pull out the individual elements that sucked and discuss. But good performances are more than a sum of their parts. It’s hard to point to any one piece of Larson’s acting because I was so absorbed by the whole of it. But if I had to, I would highlight Larson’s hard job in this movie. She has to convey so much emotion to the audience, but since this is first and foremost Jack’s story, has to do it without ever stealing the spotlight completely. She navigates this balance really nicely: she makes room for her co-star, but doesn’t just hand the stage over to him (omg, like a good Ma!).

I also love how many emotions Larson gets to show off. At various times, she’s guilty, depressed, frustrated, resigned, and warm. Plus, she’s often trying to conceal her emotions from Jack, so she has to convey her feelings to the audience, but also keep them restrained (well, except for when she screams at her mom that it was basically her fault she got kidnapped, ooof). And then, just like her character, she has to access one set of emotions while she’s in Room and then a second set after she’s out. Larson pulls all of this off beautifully.

A quick aside before I move on: can we talk about how often the Best Actress winner doesn’t wear makeup? I’m sure I’m not the first person to soapbox on this, but there’s something interesting about how the Oscars can only take a woman seriously when she’s at her least glamorous. I don’t know, it’s like women are subject to an insane conundrum where they’re treated poorly if they’re ugly OR if they’re pretty!? Couldn’t be.

The movie:

Umm, Jacob Tremblay was incredible as Jack!?! I was not expecting this. Why was he not even nominated for Best Actor?!? Child actors are very much Not My Thing™ but he does good work as alternately endearing and frustrating. In general, Room is just a great movie about parenting: how much to protect your kids from the world around them, how to deal with your choices as a parent, and how to recognize that your child is a separate person from you. I cried essentially the whole time, but not because it’s bleak: it’s intense and emotional, but doesn’t feel draaaaining to watch.

Was the Oscar deserved?

Yes. This is the one of the best examples of what a Best Actress performance can be.