OVP: Supporting Actor (2004)

OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2004)

The Nominees Were...

Alan Alda, The Aviator

Thomas Haden Church, Sideways

Jamie Foxx, Collateral

Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby

Clive Owen, Closer

My Thoughts: We move into the acting category today, and a weird reminder that the Best Supporting Actor race of 2004 hardly features a slew of unknowns, but it's a strange field.  Four of these men were getting their first nominations in 2004 (only Morgan Freeman had been nominated before this), and while Jamie Foxx double-dipped in 2004 (winning the lead actor Oscar for Ray), the only person in this field who would (to date) be nominated for an Oscar again would be, well, Morgan Freeman.  All of these performers are still living & working (Alda even appeared in a Best Picture nominee in 2019), so I'm not sure why we haven't seen more success here, but other than Freeman, this is only year we'll get to discuss these performers in the context of this series.

Let's begin, then, with Morgan Freeman.  Freeman's career (and his work in Million Dollar Baby) is sometimes hard to track because his time as a star is so atypical.  An actor who didn't come onto people's radar until he was in his fifties (with 1987's Cry Freedom), his signature work in Shawshank Redemption was nominated in 1994 but didn't gain its ardent fanbase until years later after near constant reruns on TNT (if you are too young to remember this, there was a time when you literally couldn't flip through your cable package on the weekend and not see Shawshank playing).  As a result, Freeman getting a career Oscar for Baby feels unusual since he'd only been famous for twenty years, but his age probably necessitated it.  He is not expanding his skill set here-his weathered gym assistant is totally in his wheelhouse, and this isn't stretching what we expect from Freeman.  That isn't a knock, though-Freeman is very good at knowing scripts that will work with him, and under the eye of longtime friend-and-collaborator Clint Eastwood, he brings a sturdiness to this role that other actors might have lacked.  Still, this isn't his best work & it's not particularly challenging.

Jamie Foxx is giving the best performance of his career in Collateral.  We'll get into the Ray discussion next week, but I am ripping the bandaid off now-he is better in Collateral.  Playing a man who is stuck above-his-head, but learns as the movie continues that he is more-than-capable of taking on Tom Cruise's Vincent, he brings an everyman appeal to this role that other actors might have confused with bravado (in fact, it's hard to imagine Foxx himself would've played this in the same way just a few years later, his latter work too focused on Foxx's offscreen persona).  That being said, Foxx is 100% a lead here, one of the more egregious cases of category fraud of the 2000's, and for that I must dock a point (we do that with any supporting performance I deem lead to even the playing field).  But know that I was a fan, and really wish this was his Oscar nomination rather than Ray.

You could maybe claim that Clive Owen's role in Closer is also lead, as Closer is the kind of film where you could sincerely argue that all of the characters are leads, but when there's a grey area I tend to just base on the performance (rather than taking a star away).  What isn't in debate is his how good Owen is here.  He plays this character's cruel, predatory charm with such an ease that this would become the performance that would define much of his later career.  It helps that he's got a great overall cast to play off (no one is slouching in this bunch), but he is the one actor who finds the most malice in Patrick Marber's play.

Thomas Haden Church still stands out to me as one of the oddest actors to score a nomination for the Oscars in the past twenty years.  An actor who struggled in forgettable sitcoms (his most noted work being his decade on Wings), Church shows that great actors are oftentimes just in search of a great script.  His Jack is a tough role-he is meant to not only be likable, but also believable as Miles' longtime friend.  He plays him so well, infusing him with the heat of a man who was once able to win the world based on his implied promise (and is watching as that slips away from him with age), and represents a form of jovial toxic masculinity that is commonplace in real life, but very hard to put into a movie without it totally upending the character.  That he pulls this off is one of Sideways more impressive tricks.

This leaves us with Alan Alda.  Alda, like Church, has most of his fame in television, but unlike Church, that fame was incredibly successful (particularly MASH), and accompanied by frequent film acting including working with Woody Allen & David O. Russell.  It's hard to begrudge the affable Alda a career nomination, but if we take this performance on its merits, it's a throwaway part that's basically just one great soliloquy in an otherwise inconsequential moment in the film.  Cameos (which is basically what this is given the run time) can still be great, but this is one-note & makes virtually no impression beyond "hey, look, it's Alan Alda!"  It's fun that Alda got a nomination, but the OVP focuses on just the work-at-hand and not a performer's full career, and in that context...this is a bit silly.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Clive Owen, with all of this lineup save for Alan Alda getting nominated (instead, the HFPA picked David Carradine for Kill Bill Volume 2).  The BAFTA Awards also went with Owen (home field advantage), and here skipped both Freeman & Church (if I recall correctly Million Dollar Baby wasn't eligible for the BAFTA's due to release date timing) in favor of Phil Davis (Vera Drake) and Rodrigo de la Serna (The Motorcycle Diaries).  The SAG Awards also skipped Alda and (perhaps kneecapping his Oscar chances) Owen, giving their trophy to Freeman and picking Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) and James Garner (The Notebook).  We're still recent enough that I lived through these Oscar seasons (when we hit the early 1990's, my sixth place guesses will get a little bit more stretched or I might only mention them selectively), so I know that Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey) was actually a much bigger threat than any of the names I listed just now, give or take Highmore, and one of those two was the sixth place finisher.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: I know some might scoff, but just because a film is genre doesn't mean that it can't have great acting, and I've long felt that David Thewlis' anguished Professor Lupin in Prisoner of Azkaban is one of the series' more underrated performances.  I'd also find room for David Carradine in Kill Bill, another actor proving that he was far more than the parts that were given to him during his heyday.

Oscar’s Choice: This was a pretty easy win for Freeman, even if Owen dominated the early precursor awards, as Million Dollar Baby's heat came late in the race.

My Choice: I'm going to give it to Owen-it's the best performance overall, and a superb star turn from an actor who never really got his due in later work.  I'll follow him with Church, Foxx, Freeman, & Alda, a lineup I wouldn't have agreed with during 2004 (which goes to show how your tastes change as you age).

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Are you with the Academy in deciding it was Morgan Freeman's time, or do you want to come over to Team Clive Owen?  Who is an actor like Thomas Haden Church you think should go from sitcom sidekick to Oscar nominee?  And Sarsgaard or Highmore-who was your bet for sixth place?  Share your thoughts below in the comments!

Also in 2004: Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2004

Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

OVP: Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Film: Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Stars: Casey Affleck, Michelle Monaghan, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, John Ashton, Amy Ryan

Director: Ben Affleck

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Supporting Actress-Amy Ryan)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

I never really thought about Ben Affleck until he became a director.  I always thought he was a bit of a bore.  His acting was a bit of a dud, never really rising above semi-serious.  He was cute, but Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio were far cuter.  And his role as a celebrity was always a bit baffling, as he was never particularly compelling (we all went hog-wild for Bennifer, Part 1 because we were obsessed with Jennifer Lopez, who might not be a great actor but is an AMAZING celebrity).  So when he took the director's chair, I wasn't really expecting much, certainly not a chillingly-wonderful movie like Argo or the avalanche of Oscar nominations that his film would elicit, putting him in the company of people like Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood who were arguably more intriguing behind the camera than in front of it.  However, I went backward on the whole Affleck-directed film thing, so that his first directing effort was actually the most recent one that I've seen, and unlike most other chapters in his career, I was genuinely curious to see what would come out of this first effort-would it be a rudimentary take on a story or would it be Citizen Kane?

(Spoilers Ahead) What I found out was that it was a lot more similar to The Town than Argo in terms of my enjoyment.  The movie finds a voice, for certain, and has occasionally strong performances, but it never quite elevates to the point of greatness that I think we would expect from Affleck after the popcorn thriller take of Argo (Argo is, to use the slight edges of simile differentiation, a great movie but not necessarily a great film).  The movie, set in South Boston, follows a Private Detective named Patrick Kenzie (Affleck) and his girlfriend named Angie (Monahan), though you'd be forgiven for not knowing her name as Affleck is not great at getting scripts with compelling female love interests.  They are trying to find the missing daughter of Helene McCready (Ryan), a drugged-out woman far more caught up in her own personal drama than in her daughter's welfare.

The film tries really hard to make a lot of strong points, and it's not a particularly bad movie even if it misses most of them entirely.  Casey Affleck is really well-cast.  He's a fine actor (better than Ben, it's true), and he has the look down pat-he's the sort of guy that's pretty enough that both men and women find him attractive (which factors into a weirdly homo-erotically charged scene in a bar), and his cough-cold voice and giant eyes make his occasional bad-assery all the more shocking, and as a result, convincing.  The rest of the male roles, though, find themselves in pretty blase territory.  Ed Harris' character is too convoluted and the script does him no favors (you never really get to know his motives), but Harris himself doesn't help matters by remaining too much of a mystery, even when he's supposed to be revealing.  Morgan Freeman isn't playing exactly the sort of role that we've come to expect from him, but his stature as a movie star sort of gives away the "twist" ending (there's no way an Oscar-winner of his prestige would sign up for such an inconsequential role unless something was coming later), and Freeman trades more on his voice and intense eyes than he does on making this a rounded human being.

As I indicated above, the film has serious script issues.  Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane (which I haven't read, so I don't know if that's where the root of these problems lies or not), the movie rushes certain scenes too much and the mid-movie fakeout (it sure feels like an ending) is arduous considering the fact that we know there's still an hour to go and this can't be the end of this chapter of the story.  The finale also glosses over certain things (Ed Harris' motivations being critical), and feels weirdly paced for a film that generally seems pretty deliberate (or again, that might just be Affleck's delivery distracting us).

The film received one Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actress, and in a nice twist it's a genuine supporting performance (2007's Supporting Actress lineup stands out in this way, as none of the women nominated are co-leads pretending to be supporting).  Amy Ryan won her only Oscar nomination (to date) for Helene, a plum assignment for an actress as she gets to be loud, bawdy, troubled, and strung out.  The performance is never bad, and occasionally strong (Ryan knocks the ambivalence toward her daughter in the final scene out of the park, and clearly got the nomination at that moment), but I would have loved to have seen a little more layering.  What were her actual thoughts about her daughter leaving-she gives a peak of herself, the way that she wants to be noticed, through in that final scene that intrigued me more than anything else in the film (it's a good finale), but otherwise she's going through the motions of a BAIT-y part.  Ryan's a strong actor-I would have liked to see her play a little bit more with this character considering its prominence in her filmography.

Those were my thoughts on this 2007 Oscar nominee (expect to see a lot more from this year in the next few weeks).  In the meantime, what were yours?  Where does Amy Ryan sit in your Best Supporting Actress lineup (I still have one more nominee to go!)?  And where does Gone Baby Gone rank in your personal Ben Affleck favorites list?  Share in the comments!

OVP: Wanted (2008)

Film: Wanted (2008)
Stars: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Thomas Kretschmann, Common, Terence Stamp, Chris Pratt
Director: Timu Bekmambetov
Oscar History: 2 nominations (Best Sound Mixing, Sound Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

Well, that streak just took a huge hit in the head.  After a weirdly long spell of good to wonderful movies, I got my first clunker in a while this morning when I was watching Wanted, a film that you vaguely remember seeing seven years ago, and are surprised to find out Chris Pratt was in (and is naked in for you Andy Dwyer enthusiasts, for the record).  It's a film that you remember being kind of cool, with lots of shifting and angled bullets, plus Angelina Jolie holding a gun, which is always exciting, right?  The answer is decidedly wrong, as this movie is a joke, frequently relying on boring twists, ridiculous plots, and an oddly bad lead performance from the usually reliable James McAvoy.  It also got two Oscar nominations, which is why it's on this blog, but we'll get into that soon enough.  First, though, let's tackle that pesky thing called the plot (a word, perhaps, the screenwriters should have looked up in the dictionary prior than sitting front of their keyboards).

(Spoilers Ahead) The film follows Wesley Gibson (McAvoy), a cubicle drone who lives his life on autopilot, constantly being berated by his boss and watching as his best friend Barry (Pratt) consistently one-ups him and has sex with his girlfriend.  The characters on this end of Wesley's life are meant to be nothing more than tropes, and that's really what they are.  Pratt is always watchable, and elevates what could be an even bigger loser role (the way he seems impressed with Wesley later in the film for punching him is vintage Andy Dwyer), but being cute only gets you so far in a movie, and the female roles are out of a classic straight-dude manual on female cliches.  Wesley is brought into a fraternity of assassins who want him to track down the man who killed his father named Cross (Kretschmann), being mentored by the gorgeous Fox (Jolie...get it, because she's a fox...my god this movie is opaque) and being watched over by Sloan (Freeman) who serves as his boss and shows him the magical loom that spins out whom the assassins are going to kill.

This presents the first of many problems, because you see Morgan Freeman's Sloan is actually the bad guy.  This is obvious because Thomas Kretschmann has no scenes showing him to be the bad guy and never actually seems to want to kill James McAvoy.  Kretschmann is bordering on the "little too young" to be McAvoy's actual father, for the record, but that's where the film points him in the plot.  As a result of this, we sort of have to question the intelligence of every other assassin in the group for never questioning exactly what happens with the loom and whether vigilante justice is a good idea.  A thousand years is a long time for some common skepticism to not rear its thoughtful head, and it's hard to believe a random desk jockey is the one to take down a thousand years of training.

There are other problems with the film of course.  There's the obvious weirdness about McAvoy's skills being genetic enough so that he can shoot the wings off a fly instantaneously but he can't just get out into the field.  There's also the fact that every character other than Wesley is woefully underwritten, to the point where when Angelina Jolie pulls out the dead father card, you feel like she's borrowing the speech from another of her movies.  Jolie is watchable in a movie-star-sort-of-way in every action movie you can think of, but between Wanted and Salt, I get the sense that she really doesn't know how to pick out a decent action adventure and am hoping that she sticks to dramas going forward, or at least has whomever picked Mr. and Mrs. Smith on-board to help select the film.  Morgan Freeman, the only other big name actor at the time, has a gravitas in everything he does, but this is really underwritten and he doesn't get too much juiciness, particularly since we don't get a moment of questioning why he would be so foolish as to, in the film's final scene, go into Wesley's place-of-work to kill him, knowing full well that it could be a trap.

This final scene, however, illustrates the worst part of the movie: Wesley is a jackass.  I can't recall seeing an action movie with a less likable protagonist.  At the beginning of the film he's wasting his life, somehow trying to seem like not only everyone at home, but also a common man, but he's a lot less than the common man.  He's someone that doesn't even care that his girlfriend is cheating on him, that he works a job that he's not good at and where his boss treats him like garbage.  Then he's impetuous about being an assassin, a job he only has because of his DNA.  And finally, in the film's final fourth-wall breaking scene he condescendingly asks the audience what "they have done lately," never having enough self-awareness to realize everything he did was because it was handed to him.  McAvoy doesn't modulate any of this jerk-like nature, he exacerbates it, perhaps because the ambitious young Scot doesn't relate to such a loser.  I generally like McAvoy in pretty much everything, but this is a bad performance, coupled with a pretty lousy American accent (note to British actors: don't just flatten your accent when you move here, you have to have some sort of regional dialect to go with your voice), and shows that he's just not meant to play someone unlikable and make them at least relatable.  He looks wicked hot, but like so many women in Transformers movies have found out, that's not really enough to carry a movie.

The film received two Oscar nominations, both in the sound categories.  I have a feeling it gained both nominations due to the whooshing of the bullets, an admittedly eye-catching (if ludicrously over-produced) effect, as well as for the bevy of Oscar friendly names associated with the film's sound-work (2-time winner Chris Jenkins, along with 7-time nominees Wylie Stateman and Frank Montano), as the rest of the sound is mostly music and crashing trains, nothing particularly noteworthy or special going on here.

All-in-all, with just one film left before we kick off the 2008 OVP, I'm feeling like I might have chosen duds to end the race with, but what do you think?  Anyone want to stick up for Wanted (it was a hit back in the day, so someone must like it)?  Where does this rank on your personal James McAvoy favorites list?  And when compared to the likes of The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, Iron Man, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where does the sound-work in this picture rank?

Everybody's Linking for the Weekend

Anyone else just have a ridiculously long week?  I sure did-that took forever to get done!  Let's take a look at some of the stories we haven't discussed yet on the blog that have been making headlines!

On Entertainment...

-It's of course Avengers weekend (I won't be reviewing this weekend-I'm saving my watch of the film for a Mother's Day present so I will be behind the collective internet on this one), and as a result everyone's ranking the Marvel movies, including IndieWire.  I will fully admit that I haven't loved all of the movies in the series, but they got the top film right of the ones I have seen (still haven't caught Thor 2 and obviously Avengers 2).

-Oscar winner Morgan Freeman gained a lot of headlines this past week for his comment "F&#^ the media" in regard to the protests in Baltimore.  While I don't condone violence, I do kind of see his point.  The media wasn't remotely covering this story in nearly as much depth when it was simply Freddie Gray's death, but they sure as hell do when a CVS is on fire.  Every time I watch this sort of media coverage, I am reminded of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and the reaction its ending (I won't spoil it, but you must see this movie if you haven't) got from white versus black audiences.

-Darren Criss broke the internet with his saucy photos from the Hedwig premiere, where he spends a good deal rocking glam makeup and sporting not much more than a black speedo.  If you didn't already know this, however, you should probably be following my Tumblr, which has devolved from random photos of my life to random men I find attractive, admittedly, but you get some substance on the blog and some fluffiness at the Tumblr-it seems only appropriate to have balance in life.

-Michelle Pfeiffer may or may not be in the next American Horror Story-I can't really tell.  While Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, and Lady Gaga all got huge headlines when they were announced for the cast, it seems like Pfeiffer's announcement has been shoveled under the rug.  I don't know if this is because she'll just be in one episode or because it hasn't been substantiated.  Either way, you'd think that a 3-time Oscar nominee who was one of the biggest actresses of the 1990's would get more of a media scurry for a return to television, especially if this is a regular role of some sort.

On Politics...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

-This past week saw Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) enter the Democratic primary for president, giving Sec. Hillary Clinton her first reputable challenger for the nomination (what?, I've seen his hair, but he is a two-term U.S. senator).  Honestly-my biggest problem with Sanders might be the fact that he's still an independent.  I get that the country has a supposed anathema to the two-party system and Bernie running as a third party candidate would be probably the worst thing in the world for the Democrats, but shouldn't he suck-it-up and become a proper Democrat if he wants our nomination?  Other than that, this is nothing but good news for Hillary, who probably avoids Elizabeth Warren (who might actually beat her), but ensures that Democratic issues and her race continue to make headlines.  This is why she tweeted Sanders earlier this week, which you can bet she wouldn't have been so cordial if Warren had gotten into the race.

-Gov. Chris Christie's year just continues to get worse and worse.  The New Jersey governor whom I feel is going to turn down a presidential bid any day now had a former official at port authority (David Wildstein) plead guilty to conspiracy in the Fort Lee lane closure and had two aides (Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni) get indicted on nine counts.  Perhaps most fascinating is that Wildstein's lawyer said that Christie knew about the lane closures and he has evidence of such.  While this isn't proof, if it is Christie would probably have to resign at this point considering the depths of scandal he's put himself in as a result of saying he had no knowledge of what occurred.  Either way, I cannot see a fathomable way he recovers from this and his severely weakened stance in the presidential race-it's pretty obvious that Rubio, Walker, and Bush have all moved on from him and are going after each other.

-The Daily Mail takes a look at why the new Princess of Cambridge (it's a girl!!!!) is going to be Prince George's best friend.  The new young "spare heir" will be getting her own post in the next couple of days, as soon as the family announces the name, but I figured I would share this link in the meantime as I have royal fever!

-If you're into statistics and rankings, this link may just eat up your weekend-it's a mathematical look at which states are "the best."  My native Minnesota usually does well in these contests, and this is definitely true here (Mississippi, not so much).

Shameless Self-Promotion of the Week...

-Scott Hoying and I are going to be very happy together.

YouTube Video of the Week...

-Shane Dawson meeting his queen Hilary Duff is wonderful-I love his epic ramble after meeting her:

Just One More...

-I get that they end the article with some pragmatic solutions to solve this problem and that promoting a healthier lifestyle is always a good thing, but seriously CNN?  "Sitting is the new smoking?"  This is why Jon Stewart constantly mocks you.

OVP: Actor (2009)

OVP: Best Actor (2009)

The Nominees Were...

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

My Thoughts: We now move into the Big 4, and we’ll see if I continue my Academy-matching ways (we’ve yet to have all four of the acting winners match up with Oscar…and oddly enough I’ve yet to agree with the Academy in a lead race).  The men of 2009 are kind of titans of acting-all but one have picked up an Oscar, and he’s the youngest of the bunch so it could still happen.  In fact, since I’m always on the hunt for a segway and whom to start with, we’ll go with the guy still hunting for that first Oscar: Jeremy Renner.

Renner’s work as Sergeant First Class William James is the sort of acting that feels like an acquired taste.  There’s a dominant force in film criticism that seems to value this sort of he-man higher than most-the brooding tough guy, driven to the brink of madness (or perhaps over the edge into its abyss), operating within his own spiraling inferno.  To say this is Renner’s finest work is both obvious and insulting, since he’s never really done anything since that was remotely as important or as riveting.  I love the way that he interacts with himself in the film, the inner demons that he is constantly addressing.  Renner isn’t quite as good when he’s trying to find connections with his fellow actors-he falls far into clichéd machismo and male-bonding, but that’s not to say there isn’t something very worthwhile in what he’s doing.

Colin Firth also excels in his own personal demons in A Single Man.  A stylish gay period piece, the film is at first glance more about actors-as-props, but Firth finds something within his character that shows it’s more than the sum-of-its-parts, and brings that out in two of his key costars (a splashy and fabulous Julianne Moore and an unnervingly sexy Nic Hoult).  You don’t have to have him address his deeply inhibited sexuality to understand that he’s become a master of control, and this break in his life (the death of his partner) is a life-changing shot.  The vein of suicide runs through the film, but Firth’s performance is also informed with the sense of what-to-do-next.  That’s the real thing that frightens him, that his life could go on without his Jim.  I love the way that that’s the thing that starts to push Firth’s George toward the end of the film.  That combination of stuffy, period-informed repression and deeply conflicted emotion that he dare not speak of-that’s the stuff of great acting, and that’s what Firth is giving here (he, too, gives his best performance in this movie, and that’s a slightly more complimentary statement considering the breadth of his body of work).

I’m not quite sure if George Clooney is also doing career best (I really need to re-view Michael Clayton before we get into 2007), but his Ryan Bingham is definitely one of his ballsier creations.  I remember people talking about how Clooney plays himself in every movie, and in some ways that’s true (he’s frequently the dapper man-with-a-twinkle), but Ryan Bingham is an inverted, darker version of Clooney, and probably his ballsiest role choice to date.  In some ways he’s similar to George, in the way that he has to encounter a part of his life that he’s long since avoided, but here it’s his impending age.  Because that’s what rings through Up in the Air-the threat of missed opportunities.  Clooney makes his Ryan a man confident that he made the decisions he should have made, and yet smart enough to know when to drop his guard and self-assuredness.  There are no great epiphany moments like we’re used to in a movie with his mistress Alex, but Clooney knows to put them in the way he cuts words at her and restrains his face.  It’s a truly marvelous piece of work from an actor that, even in his over-celebrated current Academy state, doesn’t often get enough credit for his ability to escape into a role.

Jeff Bridges is an actor that is celebrated as a chameleon, however, and he gets to that point in Crazy Heart, where he plays yet another hang loose personality.  Bridges is one of those actors (in some similar ways to Brad Pitt) that makes relaxed look easy onscreen, and I think some people assume that’s the actor behind the performance.  However, there’s clearly an artistry in the way that he pushes Bad Blake through all of these scenes.  Most actors would have had his drinking seem over-the-top and exaggerated, but Bridges holds back in some scenes, only having his later moments, when he’s just slipping, be truly informed by the wild swings within his character.  Bridges understands that this is a man consumed by decades of alcohol, not just two hours worth, and doesn’t give us everything the character has been through.  He also finds a hope within the way that he sings, and pines for the dream career that has long since passed him by that is now given to the younger Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell…another actor who makes it all look easy).  Bridges is hampered by something that Clooney and Firth don’t have to deal with (he’s not in a good movie), but that doesn’t keep his Bad Blake down-being the best in his film doesn’t stop him from being one of the best of the year.

Finally, there’s Morgan Freeman in Invictus.  I feel I do myself a disservice by discussing this too harshly.  I mean, it’s perfect casting.  Morgan Freeman was born to play Nelson Mandela, and this is a film that had to be made.  I just wish he’d been given a better movie to do it in, to be honest.  Freeman hits all of the right notes, and though he does some of the things that people accuse George Clooney of (relying on his persona, which he does to help sell some of the schmaltzier moments in the script), there’s still an informed light behind his eyes.  I think there’s something to be said for being the right person for the right role at the right time, even if I don’t think this is as great as either Freeman or Eastwood could have delivered (the film relies too heavily on pushing the point of harmony and less on selling the actual script).

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes found room for all but Renner in their lineup, skipping him in the drama race in favor of Tobey Maguire in Brothers (the Globes didn’t really go for The Hurt Locker), a nomination I don’t think anyone assumed was possible (Bridges won).  The Comedy/Musical nominees included Robert Downey Jr. for Sherlock Holmes (the winner), Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine, Matt Damon in The Informant!, Michael Stuhlberg in A Serious Man, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in (500) Days of Summer.  The SAG Awards found a carbon copy of the Oscar list, both in terms of nominees and the winners.  The BAFTA went to Colin Firth (country pride), and skipped Freeman (huh?) for Andy Serkis in Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll (double huh).  As far as sixth place, I have no clue.  This was clearly the list that was getting nominated (I would assume sixth place was extremely distant).  Perhaps Viggo Mortenson in The Road or Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine?  That’s my best bet.

Actors I Would Have Nominated: This is, all things considered, a very strong list, particularly considering the field.  I would have probably included Gordon-Levitt and I admittedly have never seen The Road, but there’s not a lot to quibble with.

Oscar’s Choice: Feeling the insane pressure to finally honor a well-respected industry veteran, Jeff Bridges took out George Clooney and Colin Firth, in that order.

My Choice: I’m going to go with Firth, with Clooney a closer-than-expected second.  I will put Bridges in third, followed by Renner, and then Freeman, though I don’t want that to sound like Freeman is last as I still think that was a worthwhile performance to be had.

Those are my thoughts-how about yours?  Are you  with myself and Colin Firth, or the consensus around Bad Blake?  What are people’s thoughts on Invictus (since it missed the Best Picture race, this is our last shot with it)?  Who was 2009’s sixth place (I’m going with Day-Lewis, but would love to discuss others)?  And which man had the best lead actor performance of 2009?  Share in the comments below!

Also in 2009: Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Film, Animated Feature, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2009

Past Best Actor Contests: 2010, 2011, 2012

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

Film: The Dark Knight Rises
Stars: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Marion Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Director: Christopher Nolan
Oscar History: In an absolute stunner, it didn't get a single Oscar nomination in the tech categories
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Typically when I write a review I know an approach that I want to start with, but here, I have so many thoughts racing through my head about the film it's hard to know where to begin.  My first thoughts, and I think most of our first thoughts, are on the senseless tragedy that took place in Aurora, CO.  It's hard to imagine, even years later, that we won't think of the movie and the incident as intertwined.  My second thought is on the Batman films that preceded it, and whether it's fair to compare and contrast the films.  And my final thought is on Nolan himself, the magician who has every fanboy in the country clamoring for his every cinematic thought and nuance.  I'm going to comment right now on the latter two.

The Dark Knight Rises, for those of you who have been living under a rock on Mars (and even if you are living there, you've probably still seen the movie and also skipped John Carter), is the third installment of Christopher Nolan's epic Batman trilogy, and indeed, epic is the optimal word here.  Spoilers are coming, so avert your eyes if you haven't yet caught the latest Caped Crusader flick.  It's been years since I've seen the first film in this trilogy, but I still remember a handsome, sturdy production with a charismatic and shadow-y villain in the Sandman (ably played by Cillian Murphy).  The film opens with a darker, more sinister Batman than even Tim Burton could have imagined.  Despite some silliness (Katie Holmes does not have the acting chops of Maggie Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, and what is with the bad Clint Eastwood impression for Batman's voice?), it was a strong, if slightly vacant, superhero film.

The second film, on the other hand, I get the hype around.  While I'm not one of those blind Nolan fans who will praise his every decision (I thought the Two-Face arc was a bit forced and a bit too quick for my tastes), that doesn't stop me from enjoying a truly spectacular film.  Nolan knows how to make some truly stunning and awe-inspiring visuals, and the opening scene, with a descending camera zooming in on a bank robbery that's about to get a little...stranger-it's just deliriously good cinema.  It's easily the best scene in the entire series, possibly one of the best scenes of the past decade.  And Nolan went for the top of the heap with Heath Ledger's Joker, a carnal and live-wire performance by a gone-far-too-soon actor who still managed to give us two of the finest performances I've ever seen on film (for those who are confused, the other one is in Brokeback Mountain, not 10 Things I Hate About You).

All this is to say that I came into this with expectations that couldn't possibly be met, but I was aware they weren't going to be met, so I was expecting to be underwhelmed when I knew I would be overwhelmed (only Chris Nolan himself would be able to understand that sentence, so let's move on).  The opening plane-hijacking scene is strong, though it's a teensy bit been-there/done-that compared to the Bank Robbery in The Dark Knight, and it gives us the new "haunt-our-dreams" villain, Bane.  I'd start to compare him to the Joker, but I think if we spend this entire review comparing the previous films to this one, it's going to get dull, but let's just say that this was a promising choice of villain, even though I don't particularly agree with having the gorgeous Tom Hardy's mug covered the entire movie (yes, I'm aware that's what the character looks like, but the double standard comes in here-when was the last time a female super villain didn't look like she'd wandered out of Victoria's Secret catalog?).

I'm not going to detail every inch of the movie (that's what the entire rest of the internet is for, apparently), but I will highlight some of my best and worst moments in the movie.  I loved the first half of the film's Bane, a menacing, physical brute whose crusade against the 1% (I made it five paragraphs before mentioning Occupy Wall Street-I think that deserves a freaking medal) gives a shade of grey to his character that I found rather remarkable for a big-screen movie (since most summer action films deal so exclusively in strong levels of black-and-white never allowing for a complicated villain).  I also adored Catwoman, as Anne Hathaway plays her as a woman who doesn't know what she wants for her future, she just knows she doesn't want her past.  And while much has been said about JGL's "right place, right time" character coincidences, I think his strong, morally upright cop is a great counterweight to Batman's more fluid code-of-ethics (similar to Gary Oldman's outstanding work in The Dark Knight...dang it, I compared again).

However, I think that the latter half had some messiness.  While the snow-coated Gotham was a rather sharp and clear visual (many things can be said of Nolan, but a lack of vision is not one of them), the late twist of Talia al Ghul's secret identity was a slap in the face to the entire idea of Bane.  Instead of him being a man with a mission gone too far, he is simply a gun-for-hire at the mercy of a madwoman with daddy issues.  By throwing this in, the shades of grey are now gone, and Nolan has taken the most interesting aspect of his movie away.  And did we really need the entire cave sequence?  Come on-we all know that Batman's going to get out of that prison.  And how the hell did he survive a nuclear blast when he's five feet above the bomb-this isn't Superman we're dealing with?

And what about you-have you seen The Dark Knight Rises?  Where does it rank in your personal Batman list?  Did you like the choices of Bane, Talia, and Catwoman, or were you (like me) hoping more for a Riddler and Harley Quinn duo?  And what about Nolan-the next David Lean or simply the next Michael Bay?

94. Morgan Freeman and 95. Tim Robbins both for The Shawshank Redemption

94 & 95. If you were wondering who I meant yesterday when I said Tom Hanks should have lost to someone else for Best Actor in 1994, it would be these two fellas. Had they both been rightfully nominated at the Academy (instead of just the deserving Freeman), I think it would have been one of those great coin flip scenarios for me in the voting booths. For each inhabit their characters like well-worn pairs of jeans.

This is also my favorite performance from both of these accomplished actors, despite their subsequent back-to-back Oscars. It's probably because Shawshank itself is such a startling triumph. Remember the first time you saw it, before it was overplayed so much on TNT that you could swear it was Jaws? That quiet desperation, that slight uplift at the end, that score (omg-what a score!), all of it would have been impossibly unfulfilling if it weren't for these two men.

Robbins's Andy is the classic innocent-man-found-guilty, but he doesn't always play to that stereotype. You can tell that he knows he's innocent, but he doesn't let that wear him down. He doesn't mope around, he's not out for some grand scheme of justice (at least not at the beginning), there is no piety that we're feeling for him (I'm talking about you Mr. Hanks, and your horrid Green Mile). Instead, the greatness in his role is that he makes this a character that we can all relate to-and therefore terrify us into realizing we could just as easily be the man on the big screen. He keeps to his quiet self, he spends the twenty some years in prison (it has to be close, Rita Hayworth to Raquel Welch?), but ultimately he lets little out. He remains the perfect introvert, only letting us know the vitals, leaving us to fill in the blanks.

It's the sort of minimalist acting that made Morgan Freeman famous. Unlike Robbins, who, outside of Shawshank, I don't really have strong feelings for, I love me some Morgan Freeman (which is why Freeman is 94 and Robbins 95). My one qualm with him is that he does the same sort schtick in each film. Playing off of his unbearably smooth baritone, he spouts wisdom and worldly knowingness, all the while keeping that emotion bottled deep within his tall, gaunt frame. Shawshank is perhaps the film where he does this most effectively, since, unlike flicks like Million Dollar Baby or Bruce Almighty, he has a fellow introvert to console with. The scenes with the two actors contain great wordplay and bright chemistry, and all they have to do is throw around a baseball. Freeman does well on his own, but it is with Robbins that he pulls off the great movie magic. The reason I place them both together in this countdown is, without one, the other one would not be on this list. Shawshank is a film that needs both of its talented leading men to prove its metal. And I, in turn, could not pick one over the other-and that's why they take up two of the hundred slots.

For a good marathon with these two fine gentleman, I'd spice it up with some comedy (a Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Shawshank Redemption marathon might have you heading for the noose). Instead, I'd suggest hitting Robbins in The Hudsucker Proxy, a fast-talking spin on films like His Girl Friday, and turn around and watch Bruce Almight, a pleasant enough film where Jim Carrey is funny and watchable, and Jennifer Aniston is great without having to be called Rachel (and Morgan Freeman plays God, one of my favorite casting choices of all time).