Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by flipp525 »

Do you think that Barkad Abdi could be the surprise win of the night?
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by FilmFan720 »

I know both Harold Russell and Haing S. Ngor both won...has a non-professional actor/actress ever been nominated and lost?
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by ITALIANO »

I rarely agree with Ed Gonzalez or more generally with his colleagues at Slant. But he may be right on Jared Leto's performance in Dallas Buyers Club.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by Eric »

The Oscar blog I'd been looking forward to all season.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by flipp525 »

SLANT
Oscar 2014 Winner Predictions: Supporting Actor
By Ed Gonzalez on February 26, 2014 in Awards

Dear Jared:

I don't expect you to read this, and you have every right not to. After all, I did refuse to receive the note you wished to send me, by way of your publicist, in response to my admittedly bitchy Village Voice review of Chapter 27. But given the patience and urgency with which you've responded to those who've taken umbrage with your flat-at-best, grossly-oblivious-at-worst performances on the awards circuit this year, suggesting that your ears are very much open to the concerns of the ostracized group that you represent in Dallas Buyers Club, perhaps you'll drape those fabulous arms of yours around my neck and let me try and clear the air.

Lest I give you the wrong impression, I'm not a member of the Church of Vito Russo of Latter Day Saints. Maybe I would feel differently if Dallas Buyers Club were more than just Lifetime-grade pablum, and as such worth the trouble, but you shouldn't feel any compulsion toward ambassadorship during this journey toward the Oscar podium. After all, as an actor, you're not jockeying for a position within the United Nations. And to anyone, straight and un-straight alike, who absurdly tells you that Rayon should've been played by someone who's transgender, remind them that, again, you're an actor—then flash them your "tiny Brazilian bubble butt."

While I don't doubt your sensitivity toward the issues that plague the transgender community, that you face a backlash regarding your performance as Rayon speaks to my long-standing belief that you treat the profession of acting like you do your music: as stunt work. Maybe I've allowed my bemused ambivalence to the dull straight camp of Thirty Seconds to Mars, makers of the most egomaniacal-as-to-seem-overcompensating music video in the history of the medium, to cloud my judgment, or maybe I just have eyes and recognize that, on a very fundamental level, your performance reveals that you lack the insight into the real lived experience of the character you play. (As if this ironically objectifying photo you took prior to shooting the film wasn't already an indication.) In Dallas Buyers Club, you deliver a passable performance as a drag artist, but only someone who's never known a transgender person would say you convincingly play one.

So, while I may agree with this bozo in regard to your performance and the false impression it gives of transgender experience, and with who should really take the award for Supporting Actor, in the the grand scheme of things, there have been many actors who've won Oscars for giving far more dubious performances than yours. No hard feelings, then? Let your corny freak fly on Sunday night. Enjoy the booze, hope the body hair is growing back okay, and may your Oscar serve as incentive to move on to much greater and more substantial things.

Best,
Ed Gonzalez

Will Win: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Could Win: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Should Win: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by FilmFan720 »

I've finally seen all five of these, so can make a comment.

I honestly believe that Jared Leto might give the weakest performance of this slate. He looks very nice in the part, and brings a lot of warmth to the character (and this is overcoming such a pencil-thin script). But throughout the entire film, he is playing AT being a transsexual, not playing a transsexual. The first rule of acting is not to comment on your character, yet there wasn't a moment where I couldn't see the wheels turning in Leto's head asking himself "what would a transsexual do right now?" It's not insulting, it's just not very interesting or very successful. But after watching it last night, there is no question in my mind that it will win.

Bradley Cooper is an actor that I like a lot, but boy does he try really hard in American Hustle. Whereas the complexity of these characters and the plot comes very easy to Bale and Adams, you see the actor pushing a lot of these moments throughout the film (that scene with his mom is especially "actorly"). He has some nice moments, but in the end he can't quite grapple with the character in a natural way.

Knowing Barkhad Abdi's story makes his performance seem much stronger than I think it really is. Granted, it is very tough playing opposite Tom Hanks when he is more committed as an actor than he has been in a decade, but I feel like there is a lot of complexity to Muse than Abdi is able to tap into. It is a very nice debut, and it doesn't take anything away from the film, but there was more to be added that a first-time actor just can't hit upon.

Jonah Hill is a lot of fun in The Wolf of Wall Street, and even if I wouldn't have nominated him, I don't begrudge this nomination (I think he is probably doing the most interesting work in the film). I also give him credit for doing something very new...No, this is nothing like what he has done in Superbad or various other films (or even Moneyball). For the first time, I am excited to see what exactly he does next.

This would shock me a year ago, but my vote would go to Michael Fassbender. Fassbender has never been an actor I've much cared for, finding so much of what he does lifeless and stilted. Like Christian Bale, he is always an actor who is thinking too much and not giving himself over completely. So, I was shocked throughout the second half of 12 Years a Slave how natural, passionate and loose he was. For the first time I have seen, he was playing a real, complex human being and letting that character breathe and develop. It is a dark performance, but I loved watching him on screen at every moment and found him surprising and original.

But Leto will win.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by mojoe92 »

So this is another category along with Supporting Actress where it is truly a weak year. Jared Leto is the only one who deserves to be in this category and win

Barkhad Abdi- Now, this is on par with Sally Hawkins' nomination, I cannot see what so ever what he did to garner a nomination, let alone win the BAFTA this past week. He shows up to do his job and that's that. There is not one singular scene or the performance as a whole that should garner a nomination

Jonah Hill- Well talk about coming from nowhere, I didn't like WOWS, and I didn't particularly hate it either. I'm very "meh" on the movie as a whole. And I cannot bear it when a film like Titanic seems shorter in length of time than this did. They could have easily cut out an hour of the film and it would have been fine.. Now, Jonah's nomination I feel is silly, he was nominated for the same role, just this time on crack ( no pun intended) as Superbad, dude looking to have a good time, and it goes too far, only this time with Scorsesse behind the camera and not Judd Apatow he was able to garner a nomination. There were no redeeming qualities of his character.

Michael Fassbender- This nomination is an apology nomination for his snub on Shame. Shame should have been his first nomination and win but the academy has a stick up their asses when it comes to NC-17, horror, comedy, etc. Fassbender was good in 12 years but I never felt anything personal towards his character so again I cannot figure out if this was a worthy performance or an apology nomination

Bradley Cooper- No... ( refer to my Jennifer Lawrence rant in the Supporting Actress category)

Jared Leto- Now here is a guy who hasn't had a good movie come out since Requiem for a Dream, and an actor who in all honesty has been forgotten for almost 8 years. Here he comes with a tour de force performance that in all cheesieness was born to play. He was spectacular and he will win and rightfully so

My line up would have been

Jared Leto- Dallas Buyers Club
Alan Arkin- Grudge Match
Josh Gad- JOBS
Colin Farrell- Saving Mr. Banks
Jean Dujardin- The Wolf of Wall Street
Last edited by mojoe92 on Tue Feb 25, 2014 12:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by ksrymy »

rolotomasi99 wrote:With Ellen Page coming out and starring in the adaptation of the Oscar winning documentary FREEHELD, we may finally see that final hurdle cleared.
I could absolutely see this happening. It's a recent(-ish) topic, and Julianne Moore is also attached to the project. That's Oscar-bait right there. Zach Galifianakis (groan, sigh, puke) is also attached, and, if the Academy loves the film enough, I could, sadly, see him earning a Jonah Hill-type nod as well.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by rolotomasi99 »

With Leto pretty much assured a win, he will become the eighth actor to earn an Oscar for playing an LGBT character (Plummer, Portman, Penn, Cruz, Hoffman, Theron, and Kidman) from this century alone. Prior to 2000, only three actors (Hurt, Hank, and Swank) had won for playing LGBT characters, and it was considered a risk. Clearly there is no risk these days. Still, out of all those winners, only Cruz (who barely counts) and Hoffman do not die at the end. The Academy likes their LGBT characters tragic. Perhaps some day an LGBT actor will win for playing an LGBT character. With Ellen Page coming out and starring in the adaptation of the Oscar winning documentary FREEHELD, we may finally see that final hurdle cleared.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by Sabin »

I've been trying to put my finger on why this race feels so different. It's not that everyone is so young although it must come close to setting some record. I think it's that except for Jared Leto, this cast is replete with performances of men behaving badly, of men with selfish wants. Michael Fassbender is a hypocrite who use religion as justification for his exercising his marital frustrations elsewhere. Jonah Hill is a loathsome drunk, drug-addict, public masturbator. Bradley Cooper cheats on his fiancée but his true nature is toddler in psychosexual anal stage. And Barkhad Abdi may be a sympathetic pirate, but he's a pirate. Jared Leto may be a drug addict, but he's a tragic drug addict who dies so that Ron Woodruff may live a fuller life. Rayon is also the only character who humbles herself, she goes to see her father and beg for money. Woodruff is a drunk as well, and yet Rayon suffers his slings and arrows. As with Emily Watson's Bess at the end of Breaking the Waves, Rayon is "good", which is to say that Dallas Buyers Club views Rayon much as a Jared Leto has described her in his acceptance speeches: as a beautiful creature.

Best Supporting Actor has been on a fantastic hot streak following Arkin's win for Little Miss Sunshine. And Jared Leto will be another good winner, but watching Dallas Buyers Club again, I realized how much of what I perceived as Leto's greatness comes from initial visual impression and how natural Leto is in the role. Like Christopher Plummer in Beginners (who is also quite good, quite deserving but perhaps not great), it's a role that fits like a glove. Everyone is quite good but more and more I find myself most impressed with Bradley Cooper, who might be David O. Russell's finest collaborator. Daniel Day-Lewis' all-but preordained sweep for Lincoln rendered Cooper an also-ran for his terrifically funny performance and in American Hustle he taps into an unhinged romanticism that Bale and Adams never quite lock down. In fact, I think had Bradley Cooper played Irvin Rosenfeld the film might have connected on a more emotional scale, but as Richie DiMaso he's a storm of twisted logics.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by Eric »

James Franco should've taken this year in a walk.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by Big Magilla »

Leto's quietly effective performance should take it over Fassbender and Abdi. I don't see Cooper or Hill in the race at all.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by dws1982 »

I'd vote for Fassbender quite easily, but Leto has been ordained as the winner ever since the New York Film Critics voted. I don't get the Leto acclaim. I'll grant that he's perfectly cast, but I don't really see a lot of great acting going on there. If anyone could've sabotaged their Oscar chances through lousy acceptance speeches at the precursor awards, I think Leto would've done it, but he's kept trucking along, so he'll get the Oscar as well, no doubt.

In another year, I think it might come down to Cooper vs. Fassbender, and I think Cooper would end up on top as the recognition that American Hustle may not be able to find elsewhere. (Especially since Fassbender hasn't been campaigning at all.) Better luck next time, Bradley… (And I think there will be a next time.)
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Categories One-by-One: Supporting Actor

Post by Mister Tee »

Let’s take a breather from the “lots to think about” categories and knock off one of the apparently easy ones.

The Nominees:

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

I’ll admit: the main reason I wanted to do this today is to repeat the amazing stat I read earlier: Every single nominee in this category is younger than every single nominee in the category last year. And the senior citizen of the group? Jared freakin’ Leto, at the ripe old age of 42.

Though I’d like to have seen James Gandolfini get a farewell wave here, I have to say I’m thoroughly good with this selection. All the candidates match to a best picture nominee, but all were singled out on a performance basis; nobody’s filler.

Remember, in the 1966 supporting actor thread, how we all marveled that the Academy had singled out Mako for The Sand Pebbles, and lamented they never did anything like that these days? Well, Barkhad Abdi comes pretty close – a guy who was driving a taxi when cast, playing a character foreign to most voters, of an ethnicity more commonly overlooked than cited. Yet, there he is, making the rounds, having a great time of it (maybe too much: we’re thisclose to “I’m the captain, now” turning into “Show me the money!”) I presume his ride ends on Oscar night – were he to win, it would be an upset of Juliette Binoche calibre – but it’s been wonderful fun to have him along.

The next three are of about equal likelihood to pull out a victory – which is to say, they barely have a prayer, but no one rates being placed ahead of any other. Jonah Hill, despite the second nomination, still isn’t taken seriously enough for a win (and, in fact, this role might run a bit too close to his Moneyball work, making one wonder if he’s something of a one-trick pony). Michael Fassbender, on the other hand, is taken hugely seriously – so much so that I think most everyone expects he’ll be back in even more impressive roles, meaning there’s no great rush to honor him now. Bradley Cooper might be a bit closer to the Academy sweet spot – following up his breakthrough-to-seriousness with another, different but still impressive piece of work. Were there not an overwhelming favorite on board, he might have been able to cash in.

But there is such an overwhelming favorite, though I confess I’m a tiny bit surprised at how dominant Leto has been this post-season. I went into his film knowing he’d been heavily singled out for praise, and was quite impressed: I mentioned, when speaking about the film, that he wasn’t just a likely nominee, but could actually WIN. But I’d assumed he’d be just one of several candidates for that win –Fassbender, his film already open at the time, seemed sure to take his share of prizes as well. But the critics -- not just those lemmings from Southeast Ohio; the legit, traditional critics – fell in behind Leto with a startling near-unanimity, to the point the TV phase of the season was almost as irrelevant for him as it was for Blanchett.

So, Leto it will be, unless the voters decide to play a practical joke on him. I’m fine with the choice.
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