And not in a "the movie gets all of the hate much later sort of way". It needs the actor to have put all the effort in and is possibly the only good thing in it. Baring that, it just happens to be a great performance and worthy but the film itself is fine.
(Man, this word count restriction is nuttier than squirrel turds.)
Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Pérez hands down. I think Zoe is a fantastic actress, but her performance in that was forgettable and the movie itself is one of the worst things I've ever watched. The filmmaker set out to make a film that celebrates Mexican culture and trans people, but ended up creating something offensive to both. And worst of all it's boring. As a film, it's bad. As a musical, it is horrendous. Very little choreography and most of the cast can't even sing. I'm still amazed that it won the Golden globe for Best musical/comedy over Wicked Part 1 which was the superior musical in literally every conceivable way.
8
petalbambiMar 24, 2026
+4
The Blind Side. Sandra Bullock won but the movie has aged terribly. Her performance is great but the rest is just white savior nonsense.
4
StillStanding_96Mar 24, 2026
+3
If Best Supporting Actress counts, then Emilia Pérez
3
everythingbeepsMar 24, 2026
+5
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.
All time bad.
As an aside, they also gave a Supporting Oscar to Judi Dench for that movie, and she had less than six minutes of screen time.
5
GwendychickMar 24, 2026
+1
Eyes of Tammy Faye
1
pauldid_Mar 24, 2026
+1
[Bohemian Rhapsody](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/) seems to be a good candidate, Rami Malek won Best Actor for a very average movie (49 metascore). He beat Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Viggo Mortensen that year too.
1
kneeco28Mar 24, 2026
Joker
0
AnonymousFriend80Mar 24, 2026
I tried to watch that a couple years ago and only got about fifteen to twenty minutes in.
0
luxmesaMar 24, 2026
On a quick pass through the list of the winners, maybe Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”. She won best actress and that movie has a 51% on rotten tomatoes.
0
oldspice75Mar 25, 2026
+1
Very hard to believe that anyone has watched it since its Oscar season
1
oldspice75Mar 25, 2026
+1
Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri comes to mind
11 Comments