Best Supporting Actor 2000

1998 through 2007

Best Supporting Actor 2000

Jeff Bridges - The Contender
0
No votes
Willem Dafoe - Shadow of the Vampire
11
33%
Benicio del Toro - Traffic
14
42%
Albert Finney - Erin Brockovich
5
15%
Joaquin Phoenix - Gladiator
3
9%
 
Total votes: 33

bizarre
Assistant
Posts: 566
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:35 am

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by bizarre »

I've only seen Finney and Dafoe of this lineup. Finney is fine in a decent film, Dafoe is interesting and the only reason to watch a dreadful film.

My nominees:

1. Gustaf Hammarsten ... Together
2. Ben Kingsley ... Sexy Beast
3. Jean-Nicolas Verreault ... Maelström
4. Willem Dafoe ... Shadow of the Vampire
5. Michael Nyqvist ... Together
Reza
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10031
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 11:14 am
Location: Islamabad, Pakistan

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Reza »

My picks for 2000:

1. Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich
2. Benicio Del Toro, Traffic
3. Robert Downey Jr., Wonder Boys
4. Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire
5. Tobey Maguire, Wonder Boys

The 6th Spot: Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator
Last edited by Reza on Mon Jul 09, 2012 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
bizarre
Assistant
Posts: 566
Joined: Sat Sep 03, 2011 9:35 am

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by bizarre »

ksrymy wrote:See, I consider her a lot like Viola Davis in The Help. Both actresses resort to crying when all else fails. And while, yes, crying was inevitable in both roles, I didn't see the need for their entire roles to be one giant sobfest. You can easily give an effective performance without crying. Unnecessary crying in film tries to bring emotion that isn't there. Michelle Williams could have sobbed her entire way through the behind-the-scenes parts of My Week with Marilyn, but she gave a good performance.
This is the most bizarre logic.
Bog
Assistant
Posts: 878
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:39 am
Location: United States

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Bog »

Mark that up to a big FAIL...my bad
Mister Tee
Tenured Laureate
Posts: 8637
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
Location: NYC
Contact:

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Mister Tee »

I have nothing fresh to say; pretty much everything I think about this slate and its possible alternatives has already been articulated. So, to do it quickly...

Tobey Maguire in Wonder Boys is the most deserving omittee. (Which surprised me because, based on the book, I'd have expected Robert Downey Jr. to have run away with the film)

Gladiator was a summer action movie masquerading as history. Not once from the time of its debut to late in the year did I view it as a best picture nominee, let alone winner. But Almost Famous tanked commercially, the other plausible possibilities were, respectively, in Mandarin Chinese and (erroneously) viewed as midnight-dark, and the vaccuum was somehow filled by this triviality (carrying along with it the silliest best actor choice since Charlton Heston). Joaquin Phoenix wasn't the worst thing about Gladiator, but a nomination for Quills would have made infinitely greater sense.

As Sabin more or less said, if you wonder why Jeff Bridges won his Oscar for a borderline role, take a look at the others ones that got him nominated. The Contender, despite pretensions to Political Significance, is a silly potboiler, with a twist out of a paperback mystery you'd buy at the airport. Bridges is amusing enough, but to what end?

I'm afraid I'm one who doesn't rate Willem Dafoe's performance as even second best here. Shadow of the Vampire sounded like a great idea for a movie, but I found it so indifferently executed that I forgot it almost the moment I left the theatre. Sadly, Dafoe's performance is among those things that have totally left my memory.

Albert Finney is lively and enjoyable throughout Erin Brockovich. It wasn't quite the role for which one would have envisioned such an illustrious actor winning an Oscar, but, had there not been a major alternative (as there wasn't at SAG), I imagine he might have been a popular choice.

But in Oscar world, there was Benicio del Toro, giving a beautiful, canny, restrained performance at the heart of Traffic. He alone among the players seems to have a goal that goes beyond amassing money for money's sake; the final shot of him tells us he had something redemptive as part of his plan all along. And his performance has told us the same throughout, even during his sleazier moments. del Toro is an odd actor, and can be too recessive for his own good. But here he serves the film perfectly, and deserved his Oscar fully.
ITALIANO
Emeritus
Posts: 4076
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 1:58 pm
Location: MILAN

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by ITALIANO »

Reza wrote:
ITALIANO wrote:The Academy did the right thing.
Picture or Supporting Actor?

Oh. Supporting Actor of course!
Reza
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10031
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 11:14 am
Location: Islamabad, Pakistan

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Reza »

ITALIANO wrote:The Academy did the right thing.
Picture or Supporting Actor?
ITALIANO
Emeritus
Posts: 4076
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 1:58 pm
Location: MILAN

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by ITALIANO »

The Academy did the right thing.
Sabin
Laureate Emeritus
Posts: 10747
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:52 am
Contact:

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Sabin »

The only thing that could have made the 2000 Oscars better is if you cared about the movies.
"How's the despair?"
mlrg
Associate
Posts: 1747
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:19 am
Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by mlrg »

Bog wrote:
mlrg wrote: Curiously, Michael Douglas was the best picture presenter in both years and I clearly recall his entrance on stage to present the best picture of 2000 and he looked quite anxious probably thinking Traffic could win
Surely you remember it was Liz with her near miss, half-cocked, incoherent, oft-replayed announcement of "Glaaaaaaadiator" that ended that Oscar evening.
That was the Golden Globes
Greg
Tenured
Posts: 3285
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 1:12 pm
Location: Greg
Contact:

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Greg »

ksrymy wrote:I've literally dodged a punch from a drunk acquaintance when I said Crouching Tiger was leagues better than Gladiator.
I would have been so tempted to say, "Now that is an eloquent way to defend a movie. Normally, I would never want someone to be drunk; but, your being like this sober would be even worse."
The Original BJ
Emeritus
Posts: 4312
Joined: Mon Apr 28, 2003 8:49 pm

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by The Original BJ »

Bog wrote:
mlrg wrote: Curiously, Michael Douglas was the best picture presenter in both years and I clearly recall his entrance on stage to present the best picture of 2000 and he looked quite anxious probably thinking Traffic could win
Surely you remember it was Liz with her near miss, half-cocked, incoherent, oft-replayed announcement of "Glaaaaaaadiator" that ended that Oscar evening.
Nope, that was the Golden Globes.
Bog
Assistant
Posts: 878
Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 12:39 am
Location: United States

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Bog »

mlrg wrote: Curiously, Michael Douglas was the best picture presenter in both years and I clearly recall his entrance on stage to present the best picture of 2000 and he looked quite anxious probably thinking Traffic could win
Surely you remember it was Liz with her near miss, half-cocked, incoherent, oft-replayed announcement of "Glaaaaaaadiator" that ended that Oscar evening.
Big Magilla
Site Admin
Posts: 19318
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
Location: Jersey Shore

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by Big Magilla »

Sabin wrote:
ksrymy wrote
See, I consider her a lot like Viola Davis in The Help. Both actresses resort to crying when all else fails. And while, yes, crying was inevitable in both roles, I didn't see the need for their entire roles to be one giant sobfest. You can easily give an effective performance without crying. Unnecessary crying in film tries to bring emotion that isn't there. Michelle Williams could have sobbed her entire way through the behind-the-scenes parts of My Week with Marilyn, but she gave a good performance...I may have been a bit soapbox-y in saying Mo'Nique gives a one-note performance, but her role is nothing special. I feel though they gave it to her for the "Look! A standup comedian who made Fat Gurlz didn't do something terrible in the year's favorite sob story." Gabourey Sidibe was much more effective in a role that required almost constant tears, but she overcame that to give a fantastic performance.
What I find confusing about this statement is that it implies that it's the actor's choice to "resort" to crying. When an actor cries on screen, it's a marriage between the written character arc, the performer's strengths, and what the director tells them to do. I really don't think that Viola Davis looked at the script and said "This is a perfect opportunity for me to cry." I think it just made sense for her. I know that you're not saying that Viola Davis always does that but that is interesting because for years beforehand, Viola Davis did the opposite. She was mostly known for taking on thankless supporting roles devoid of that kind of emotional payoff.

W/r/t Monique, I actually think she's the one who survived Precious and not Gabourey Sidibe, who admittedly is good in a performance that is absolutely hobbled by Lee Daniels' over-directing. Armond White has an excellent essay he wrote a ways back about roles that win African-Americans Oscars and how they essentially always play victims or monsters. Nothing really in between. I think Mo'Nique is very good in Precious. I'm not sure she's quite good enough to warrant a nomination because in much of the film she is fairly one note...and then we get to the penultimate scene in the film and Ho...lee...cow. On one level, yes, it's a brilliantly acted scene. On another level, after enduring an hour-forty of miserablist exploitation, suddenly we are granted a portal into this woman's head...and it's fascinating! All of her rationalizations are placed out before us, and suddenly the film becomes a nuanced, interesting place to be. And then credits. It's not just that she has an arc, it's that she has one that the filmmakers had no idea what to do with.

For more than this reason, Mo'Nique is really the only reason to see the film, and I would say opposite actually to your assertions that they were just glad that she wasn't in a terrible movie, not simply because I think Precious is worse than your usual Mo'Nique film. If that was the case, then shouldn't Jim Carrey have an Oscar by now? Just as with Octavia Spencer and Jamie Foxx (hmm...), the question of whether or not this actor truly is an Oscar-worthy actor doesn't seem to enter the minds of the voters. They seem to just be taken by her work in the film, so much so that her much-maligned conduct during the awards stretch didn't seem to matter.

I was Team Farmiga all the way.
Sometimes crying is in the script, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes the director will tell the actor to cry. Sometimes the actor will do it on his or her own. I have no idea whose choice it was to cry in either of these two films. I thought the brilliance of Mo'Nique's performance in Precious was that her big emoitonal scene did nothing to persuade you that the character was misunderstood, she remained a total bitch to the end. Viola Davis' performance in The Help was very subtle. It's a co-lead rather than an out-and-out lead, which probably cost her a few votes. More likely, though, she lost because of the "isn't it about time Meryl had a third Oscar" sentiment. I thouhgt Michelle williams was good in My Week with Marilyn but the story was so slight I doubt she was ever eally in the race. Of course the same thing can be said for the Thatcher film, but Michelle isn't Meryl, at least not yet.
mlrg
Associate
Posts: 1747
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:19 am
Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Re: Best Supporting Actor 2000

Post by mlrg »

Sabin wrote: Yeah, those of us who were here at the time of the awards had the same opinion going into the race. I forget who first started to voice murmurs that Gladiator was probably gonna make it into the race, but it seemed inconceivable. And then it happened. Ultimately, there was nothing else they could align around. Not the Asian alternative. Not Steven Soderbergh's timely narcotics panorama. I recall for a bit that Philip Kaufman's Quills was highly anticipated as a sure-fire nominee at one point. I'm pretty sure I predicted Crouching Tiger... on Oscar night, but clearly Gladiator was the movie that Hollywood decided they were most proud of that night, which makes a certain degree of sense.
Much like what happened two years later in the Chicago vs. The Pianist, I think most of us went into the 2000 awards show thinking we had a surefire winner but before the last award of the evening we were very close in having a big surprise.

Traffic won all the awards nominated for up to best best picture and Soderberg’s win was a huge surprise, so in the end I think Gladiator won due to the technical branches vote and was not the movie everyone decided that should win

Curiously, Michael Douglas was the best picture presenter in both years and I clearly recall his entrance on stage to present the best picture of 2000 and he looked quite anxious probably thinking Traffic could win
Post Reply

Return to “The 8th Decade”