Best Actor 1999

[Big Magilla]

For those who haven't seen this. we are now chornologically at the point where you may want to participate.

[OscarGuy]

Sorry, I'm new to the board and I had no idea there were (possibly unwritten) rules on posting. This is just one of the categories I'm most interested in and I hardly find any Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories up so I figured I'd throw this one up.

It isn't a problem. Magilla has been posting a series of polls asking people to vote on every Oscar race in the past. He's currently working his way through the Best Actor lineup. And not knowing he was doing that, it's understandable that you would have posted a poll yourself. It's always nice to see new blood and new initiative.

[ksrymy]

Sorry, I'm new to the board and I had no idea there were (possibly unwritten) rules on posting. This is just one of the categories I'm most interested in and I hardly find any Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor categories up so I figured I'd throw this one up.

[Big Magilla]

Jumping the gun about two and a half decades, aren't we?

Yes, but it's OK. Someone has to keep the board alive. Don't wait for me to get my computer setup in my new house, which won't be until 7/19 at the earliest. I tried posting 1975 from my Droid, but I accidentally deleted it instead.

[The Original BJ]

Jumping the gun about two and a half decades, aren't we?

[ksrymy]

1999 was a very strong year for male leads and one could have a very tough time choosing a winner here.

One could debate whether or not Richard Farnsworth's nomination was one of merit or a last-ditch chance to give the man a career Oscar (à la Paul Newman in The Color of Money). I think it was a great performance but is far outshined by the others on the list.

Russell Crowe was stellar in The Insider but I feel like I've seen him perform the Wigand character in other movies and that really detracts from the originality of the character however original it may be.

Denzel gives maybe his second or third best performance in The Hurricane (because, let's face it, nothing can beat his Malcolm X) but I have major reservations on anything Denzel does because he's virtually the same character in nearly every movie he's in. His Rubin Carter is far more original than the majority of his other roles but I still can't get myself to vote for him because of this.

Sean Penn gives maybe not his best but definitely his funniest (and my favorite of his) performance so far in Sweet and Lowdown (forget Jeff Spicoli). His Emmet Ray is easily in my top five favorite Woody Allen characters. The role was very original, very well-acted. Sean Penn is the only actor I could see in this role. He's a masculine, fast-talking primadonna who works well with Samantha Morton (to whom I voted for in the supporting actress category this year).

However, I'm giving this to Kevin Spacey. I largely attribute my near-obsession with American Beauty to Spacey and Bening's performances. Spacey's Lester Burnham is easily one of my favorite performances on film. Spacey is able to show Lester's desperation to find an escape from his midlife crisis yet, once he comes to his epiphany, is able to blend in his sarcastic humor in contrast to Bening's straightforwardness. He turned lines that could have (and most likely would have) been delivered angrily into hilarious lines of a monotonous man in a monotonous life speaking rather drolly and matter-of-factly (i.e. "...you bloodless, money-grubbing freak."). The complete transformation of Spacey's character is also something I didn't see in most of the other characters although I'm not denying that they are all static characters.

My own personal nominees that year would have been
_____________________________________________
Jim Carrey - Man on the Moon
Richard Farnsworth - The Straight Story
Bob Hoskins - Felicia's Journey
Sean Penn - Sweet and Lowdown
KEVIN SPACEY - AMERICAN BEAUTY