Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

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Franz Ferdinand
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by Franz Ferdinand »

A pretty balanced essay that has some spoilers so I didn't read portions of it.

"Washington has a slim shot at winning Oscar gold this weekend. Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour is positioned at the front-runner with a narrative about his win being long overdue. If there will be an upset, it will likely be Timothée Chalamet’s tender performance in Call Me by Your Name. A recent Hollywood Reporter article framed Washington’s nomination as a “knee-jerk response” to a “great career,” an emblem of the old guard the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences needs to move away from. This does a disservice to Washington’s immense performance, which is tender, heartfelt, and layered. It’s fascinating watching Washington operating at such a different tenor than the rest of his career — reveling in a sloppy awkwardness that reveals the intimately human dimensions of civil-rights activism, criminal justice, and the desire to fit in a world that refuses to understand you."

http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/denzel-w ... mance.html
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

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Mister Tee wrote:The nominees:

What a disappointing follow-up to Gilroy’s Nightcrawler! I found the story borderline incoherent, though part of that may be my misreading elements -- I either didn’t hear, or the film didn’t make clear, how Roman got the information that led to his key, narrative-changing action at mid-film
It's mentioned dialogue later in the film.

Just saw Roman J. Israel Esq. and was impressed with it and Washington's performance. I have never been a fan of Washington. I like his work in Flight and to some degree Malcolm X but he completely ate up this part with such natural relish. I also thought the film was better than Gilroy's first film Nightcrawler, less forced and freer, something of a throwback to a bygone era of filmmaking.

Anyway as we are all predicting and all know Gary Oldman is going to win. Like the inevitable Allison Janney win it will be a bitter sweet victory for me. The good side because he has given a number of Oscar worthy performances over the years and bad side being for one of the very worst he has ever given.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by criddic3 »

Fair enough.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by Big Magilla »

You can go all the way back to Dickens and beyond to find literary works that deal with the hypocrisy and wheeling-dealing within the legal profession, but this is the only film I've seen in which the all-pervasive problems associated with plea bargaining are shown to be the main culprit. As of 2013, 94% of federal convictions were done through plea bargaining. It's a problem that has escalated in recent years.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

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Big Magilla wrote:
No other film or TV show, not even Law & Order, shows the legal system the way it works now in the U.S. Plea bargaining is the name of the game. It doesn't matter if you're guilty or innocent. Admit to a lesser crime to avoid the possibility of losing big time. I was recently involved in such a situation. It was traffic court, so it wasn't a matter of life or death or even the possibility of going to jail, but it was demeaning.
This isn't a new concept at all. Go all way back to -- say 1979 with "...And Justice for All" -- and you find plenty of films that point out the hypocrisy and wheeling-dealing that often goes on in the legal system.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

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Greg wrote:
dws1982 wrote:
anonymous1980 wrote:I'd like to point out that in Lead Actress, this is not much of a factor. Jennifer Lawrence was Timothee Chalamet's age when she won her Oscar over Emmanuelle Riva, who was the "overdue" veteran of that year.
Tough to call someone an overdue veteran for an American film award when they never appeared in a single American film.
She had spent decades making films that were shown in the United States.
After the early 60's, she only made about three movies that got any substantial distribution in the United States. I just don't think Hollywood is so in-tune with film history that they would consider someone overdue for an Oscar when that person quite literally never made an English-language film.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by Greg »

dws1982 wrote:
anonymous1980 wrote:I'd like to point out that in Lead Actress, this is not much of a factor. Jennifer Lawrence was Timothee Chalamet's age when she won her Oscar over Emmanuelle Riva, who was the "overdue" veteran of that year.
Tough to call someone an overdue veteran for an American film award when they never appeared in a single American film.
She had spent decades making films that were shown in the United States.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by dws1982 »

anonymous1980 wrote:I'd like to point out that in Lead Actress, this is not much of a factor. Jennifer Lawrence was Timothee Chalamet's age when she won her Oscar over Emmanuelle Riva, who was the "overdue" veteran of that year.
Tough to call someone an overdue veteran for an American film award when they never appeared in a single American film.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by anonymous1980 »

Mister Tee wrote: Chalamet’s youth – his corresponding “he’s got decades ahead to win” narrative – obviously works against him, the same way it did with Dustin Hoffman vs. John Wayne
I'd like to point out that in Lead Actress, this is not much of a factor. Jennifer Lawrence was Timothee Chalamet's age when she won her Oscar over Emmanuelle Riva, who was the "overdue" veteran of that year.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by Big Magilla »

I, too, finally caught up with Roman J. Israel and found to my surprise based on all the badmouthing the film has gotten, that I liked it. I found the first half riveting. I didn't like the direction it took in the second half, but I didn't find it confusing. I thought this was Denzel Washington's best performance since Malcolm X and richly deserving of all the nominations he's gotten for it.

No other film or TV show, not even Law & Order, shows the legal system the way it works now in the U.S. Plea bargaining is the name of the game. It doesn't matter if you're guilty or innocent. Admit to a lesser crime to avoid the possibility of losing big time. I was recently involved in such a situation. It was traffic court, so it wasn't a matter of life or death or even the possibility of going to jail, but it was demeaning.

Last August, I was driving on the most dangerous road in Southern New Jersey on the way to visit a cousin. The only other vehicle on the road at the time was a Mack truck about four or five car lengths behind me. As I slowed down to make a right turn, I heard a horn so loud it had to mean the truck was right behind me. I had to get out of there fast. The quickest thing to do was to make a wide turn left even though it was in the opposite direction than the one I was headed in. As I turned left, I hit the front of the truck which was now beside me. I crossed the intersection and pulled over to a grassy spot on the right. He kept going for at least a quarter mile. My car was totaled. The truck didn't have a scratch on it. He lied to the cop who came, saying I was stopped in the middle of the intersection, which of course, I vehemently denied. The cop did not issue any tickets at the scene, but several days later I recieved two tickets and a summons to appear. The tickets were for careless driving (2 points) and delaying traffic (no points). I had to hire a lawyer. Six weeks later we went to court. I agreed to accept the lesser charge of delaying traffic, which was absurd but better than having to spend another six weeks waiting to go to trial on the more serious charge. My insurance company sided with me, his insurance company sided with him. It's now with lawyers and will probably go to arbitration. In the meantime I had to buy a new car, but my insurance didn't go up except for the change in value of a new car vs. one that was fourteen years old. I just received a renewal and it has gone up by $115 for the next six-month period. It seems that there's a clause I didn't see in the small print that says if you have two accidents in a five-year period they can lower your "premier" status and take away discounts regardless of fault. I had had an accident four years ago in which I was rear-ended so this made it two. I call this the accident that keeps on giving.

Anyway, if Washington didn't already have two Oscars, he might have a shot, but with his two Oscars and Day-Lewis' three, neither is going to win regardless of merit. It's between Chalamet who should win on merit, and Oldman who will win because he's considered due and he's playing Winston freaking Churchill for crying out loud.
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Re: Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

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Mister Tee wrote: Put it this way: if, early in the evening, Darkest Hour loses make-up to Wonder, will you be fully confident the same sort of brush-off isn’t in the works? Not saying it’s going to happen. But putting that possibility out there.
It would be wonderful if Timothée Chalamet could pull off an unexpected win but as well all know this is Oldman's to (justifiably) loose.

I do get annoyed at the 'he'll have other chances' in relation to nominations but it ain't going away anytime soon. There are so many actors who never get more than one great role, Adrien Brody being a case in point. And thankfully he won because he has never come anywhere near a nomination since.
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Categories One-by-One: Best Actor

Post by Mister Tee »

The nominees:

Timothee Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

This is most likely an easy one, but let’s go through it anyway.

I had to wait to get Roman J. Israel, Esq. under my belt before I could comment with confidence. What a disappointing follow-up to Gilroy’s Nightcrawler! I found the story borderline incoherent, though part of that may be my misreading elements -- I either didn’t hear, or the film didn’t make clear, how Roman got the information that led to his key, narrative-changing action at mid-film (I thought he’d used his savant abilities, in some unexplained way, to figure it out – so, I had no idea it would become such a plot point). Beyond that, I didn’t really get WHY Roman did it…the film seemed to suggest he just suddenly decided, after all these years, he wanted to live large. And then, soon, he changed back – all with no logic (except, apparently, as a way to improve Colin Farrell’s character). I’m not sure any actor could have made sense of those herky-jerky transitions, but Denzel definitely didn’t; the best you can say for him is, his work feels slightly more grounded than Colin Farrell’s (his character makes no sense at all). Probably Denzel’s worst nominated performance – it’s different from his usual, but that doesn’t make it good.

Daniel Kaluuya carries Get Out well enough, but I don’t see anything exceptional in his work that would have got him cited in a competitive year like 2013. For Kaluuya, getting a nomination was itself the prize (as it would have been for James Franco, had he made the cut). His chances, like Denzel’s, sit at zero.

Daniel Day-Lewis presumably has no chance, either, though he deserves stronger consideration. His Woodcock is a very impressive creation, quite different from his more character-driven work. But, clearly, with three Oscar wins in only five previous nominations, he’d have to have parted the Red Sea to get voters to pick him again.

I guess there are people who genuinely think Gary Oldman was great in Darkest Hour – I read them on the Internet all the time – but, in real life, everyone I know thinks Timothee Chalamet gave the best performance and it isn’t close. However, the it’s-Oldman’s-time narrative, promoted online literally since Oldman was cast, seems like it’s carrying the day. Chalamet’s youth – his corresponding “he’s got decades ahead to win” narrative – obviously works against him, the same way it did with Dustin Hoffman vs. John Wayne. Chalamet would seem to need some sort of showing with a precursor to feel like a legitimate challenger, and at this point he’s reduced to hoping BAFTA grants it. Oddly, the London Film Critics, who sometimes foretell BAFTA outcomes, DID pick Chalamet. Would it be hilarious – to everybody but Gary Oldman -- if the Brittest of Brit precursors were the one to go against him?

But, no, it’s probably going to be Oldman – you’d be a fool to bet against him. Yet, I have this nagging sense it’s all being done out of duty rather than enthusiasm, which makes it feel more vulnerable to upset. It reminds me a bit of when Scorsese was being pushed for Gangs of New York. Scorsese was similarly thought of as crazy-overdue, and he had the king of the Oscar-wars backing him (much as Oldman does now: the people at Focus recently carried McConaughey & Redmayne home). So, a campaign was launched, despite the film being seen as sort of disappointing. Scorsese clearly wanted it, badly – William Goldman openly mocked him for his award-lust. And he seemed to have a great shot: the Globes bought into his quest, giving him best director for the first time; his film did surprisingly strong business (almost 200 million worldwide); and Gangs scored a better-than-anticipated 10 Oscar nominations. He did lose DGA, but much of Hollywood still expected/predicted him to win the big prize (part of a package for his film, that might include best actor, art direction and song); it felt like it’d be cruel to deny Marty after such a build-up.

On Oscar night, though, it was a goose egg for the film: Day-Lewis lost to Brody, Bono to Eminem, Dante Ferretti to the Chicago folk – and, while Academy voters did take the rare step of contradicting the DGA choice, it was expatriate Roman Polanski, not Marty, who took the statue.

Put it this way: if, early in the evening, Darkest Hour loses make-up to Wonder, will you be fully confident the same sort of brush-off isn’t in the works? Not saying it’s going to happen. But putting that possibility out there.
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