Categories One by One: Best Actor

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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by CalWilliam »

It's hilarious indeed! And it's difficult to get it, I don't want to break my keyboard :D
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by anonymous1980 »

The whole Leo wants to win an Oscar meme has inspired this online game: http://redcarpetrampage.com/. It's hilarious and fun.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by OscarGuy »

My choice would have been for The Aviator.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Sabin »

2006 for The Departed.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by FilmFan720 »

flipp525 wrote:It's too bad they couldn't have given it to him for The Wolf of Wall Street a couple of years ago. That performance was great.
Ugh, he was horrible in that film! By far my least favorite Leo performance (although I haven't subjected myself to The Revenant yet).

Instead, it's too bad they couldn't ignore the idea of someone being "due" and instead voted for the best performance of the bunch...although with this lineup, I have no idea who that would be.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by flipp525 »

DiCaprio's entire performance in The Revenant is a finely curated collection of grunts. I think I'd rather even Eddie Redmayne win over him. I can't believe that this performance and the movie itself are on the road to win the top honors of Hollywood for this year. Whoever compared this pair of wins to when Russell Crowe and Gladiator won Best Actor and Best Picture, respectively, hit the nail right on the head. Truly embarrassing, especially considering the fact there there are better films (and male lead performances) from which to choose.

It's too bad they couldn't have given it to him for The Wolf of Wall Street a couple of years ago. That performance was great.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Bog »

Okri wrote:
Bog wrote:
Okri wrote: with an eye on the rest in the future, particularly Cranston.
I'd place a solid futures wager Michael Caine might utter those same words in a couple years about Matt Damon. He is the other nominee this year most likely to have a "due" online insanity push in the near future. He has an Alexander Payne vehicle upcoming, whom I'm fairly certain has an undefeated record at bringing along his lead actor to nomination
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Mister Tee »

Okri wrote:
Okri wrote:Remember the biopic logjam at TIFF? We had Phillipe Petit, Trumbo, Hank Aaron, Lance Armstrong and Miles Davis (or was that NY?)
Or, you know, Hank Williams.
Thanks for updating that. I was wracking my brain trying to figure who you had confused with Hank Aaron.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Okri »

Bog wrote:
Okri wrote: with an eye on the rest in the future, particularly Cranston.
I'd place a solid futures wager Michael Caine might utter those same words in a couple years about Matt Damon. He is the other nominee this year most likely to have a "due" online insanity push in the near future. He has an Alexander Payne vehicle upcoming, whom I'm fairly certain has an undefeated record at bringing along his lead actor to nomination
Paul GIammatti is weeping in the corner.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Okri »

Okri wrote:Remember the biopic logjam at TIFF? We had Phillipe Petit, Trumbo, Hank Aaron, Lance Armstrong and Miles Davis (or was that NY?)
Or, you know, Hank Williams.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by taki15 »

Bog wrote:
Okri wrote: with an eye on the rest in the future, particularly Cranston.
I'd place a solid futures wager Michael Caine might utter those same words in a couple years about Matt Damon. He is the other nominee this year most likely to have a "due" online insanity push in the near future. He has an Alexander Payne vehicle upcoming, whom I'm fairly certain has an undefeated record at bringing along his lead actor to nominations. This gets him in the door for "due", nevermind the performance, that never mattered for Leo this year either.

Everyone starts to realize exactly what Okri stated, they nominated him 20 years ago and only Invictus in between, overlooking The The Departed, Informant!, Ripley, Good Shepherd, True Grit among others, his almost definite 4th other nomination if Soderbergh had gotten Candelabra on Netflix and not HBO, how could the Academy have been so wrong (gasp)? Thank god the Sashas of the blogosphere brought this to the Academy's attention!
Maybe the fact that Damon already has an Oscar made the Academy not too keen to reward him again.
Granted, it's for writing, not acting. But it's an Oscar nonetheless.
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Re: Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Bog »

Okri wrote: with an eye on the rest in the future, particularly Cranston.
I'd place a solid futures wager Michael Caine might utter those same words in a couple years about Matt Damon. He is the other nominee this year most likely to have a "due" online insanity push in the near future. He has an Alexander Payne vehicle upcoming, whom I'm fairly certain has an undefeated record at bringing along his lead actor to nominations. This gets him in the door for "due", nevermind the performance, that never mattered for Leo this year either.

Everyone starts to realize exactly what Okri stated, they nominated him 20 years ago and only Invictus in between, overlooking The The Departed, Informant!, Ripley, Good Shepherd, True Grit among others, his almost definite 4th other nomination if Soderbergh had gotten Candelabra on Netflix and not HBO, how could the Academy have been so wrong (gasp)? Thank god the Sashas of the blogosphere brought this to the Academy's attention!
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Categories One by One: Best Actor

Post by Okri »

Michael Caine spoke about how happy he was not to have to go to the Oscars because it was a pre-ordained conclusion for Leonardo DiCaprio. So it’s an easy one to predict. But I think it’s still a category with things to discuss beyond who’s going to win. I’m missing three nominees from my viewing, but at the same time, that doesn’t seem necessary to comment on this particular race.

I’ve always wondered if there is a nominee getting zero votes. If there ever was a nominee, I’d predict that would be Redmayne. Because I participated in the narrative with this one, I can’t cast stones, but this was a nomination that felt both locked in but utterly irrelevant to the actual Oscar discussion. He was doing the circuit being his ever so charming self, but the film barely got a release and arguably underperformed (Hooper’s trend – 12 nominations for The King’s Speech, 8 nominations for Les Miserables, 4 for The Danish Girl.) Anyway, the reviews weren’t there and the momentum certainly not.

Matt Damon’s in a strange position. He seems to enjoy a fair bit of respect (though his boneheaded comments on diversity and sexuality certainly prefigured this insane debate) and three acting nominations is certainly not a bad total for his career. But then you realize those nominations are for Invictus and not The Informant! or The Talented Mr. Ripley or The Departed and you wonder how he hasn’t been able to get in for his truly great efforts. The Martian is a nice star turn and I’m happy to applaud the nomination, but I’m rather surprised that he didn’t get more from this race.

Though Michael Fassbender is the king of that category. He missed out on a nomination in 2011 when he had a really interesting group of films. He then gets a nomination two years later, but falls victim to the Jared Leto critical sweep (it got to the point where the television prizes were a mere formality, which wasn’t what I expected then). And now, when he has a truly acclaimed performance that seems poised to dominate, his film utterly tanks. The tanking of Steve Jobs really surprised me and the way the media seemed to be almost gleeful was disdainful (yay, serious, strong adult filmmaking suffers another box office blow). Given that he really doesn’t seem interested in campaigning, it’s doubtful he would’ve overcome that in any year to make a claim to win, but definitely not this year.

Remember the biopic logjam at TIFF? We had Phillipe Petit, Trumbo, Hank Aaron, Lance Armstrong and Miles Davis (or was that NY?) The reviews were so mediocre that the films were either pushed back or released to little fanfare. And yet Cranston still made it through. His career renaissance has been pretty cool to watch. He’s clearly well liked and he’s an awards magnet. He rather cruised to a nomination very few gave him a shot at getting post-reviews, but it’s definitely a film for the olds. I think he’d be the biggest threat to DiCaprio in another race, another time. But not this year.

Earlier in the season flipp posted a quote from Awards Daily (?) that DiCaprio was a lock to win and anyone who didn’t think so was an idiot (paraphrasing). It’s proving to be the case. And in figuring out why, I think you have to take a look at DiCaprio’s career and place in Hollywood. Tee once said that AMPAS’ sweet spot is mainstream with an auteurist sensibility. In that case, DiCaprio is probably their ideal actor. He steers well clear of the franchises that make up Hollywood and works almost exclusively with auteurs. And then he gets people to see their movies who would otherwise not going. Do you realize that he’s starred in the Martin Scorsese’s biggest hit? Ditto Innaritu. Ditto Luhrman. Ditto Tarantino. There are many performers like him who will gift auteurs with their more mainstream presence (Clooney, Pitt, Damon) but none of them get butts-in-the-seats like DiCaprio. It’s remarkable and when AMPAS is getting concerned about their own legacy and relevance, only helps him. The campaign smartly shifted the discussion from “the set was hell and Innaritu is an asshole” (I may have added that last part) to “I suffered for my art.” The film was an AMPAS success through and through and will end the season in the hit column (though that budget might prevent it from being too profitable). It might fit the blogger narrative too neatly, but this wasn’t a case where bloggers invented something from whole cloth.

So, DiCaprio in an easy cantor, with an eye on the rest in the future, particularly Cranston.
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