Best Actor 2017

[bizarre]

Oldman had this in the bag as soon as the project was announced - notwithstanding the strange anachronism of awarding a hagiographic portrayal of Winston Churchill at a time when anti-colonial narratives are entering the public sphere like never before, Oldman's performance is as loud and superficial as you'd expect. But he has an Oscar now, so hopefully he'll start giving good, interesting performances again.

Chalamet, perhaps his truest competition, made good on a real breakthrough year sullied somewhat by his involvement with the wrong person (Woody Allen) at the wrong time (#MeToo). But as irritating as I found him on the campaign trail and despite my reservations about the film, he's brilliant here, a true breakout and a historic anomaly as a nominee under the age of 25 in this category.

Kaluuya's film was already being touted as a Best Picture lock in the year's first quarter, but despite high confidence in its Pic/Dir/Scr chances his strength as the lead was ignored in Oscar discussions until he, somewhat surprisingly, started being nominated for everything in precursor season. Richly deserved, too - the reactive nature of the role is a bit limiting, but he's a shrewd actor with limpid emotional expression and shoulders the film marvelously.

Day-Lewis' film made a last-minute surge, but perhaps his (sure to be reneged upon) announcement of retirement kept him in the conversation all year despite arguably being the least interesting of Phantom Thread's three principal actors.

Washington's nomination was brought in to clean up the mess surrounding former-"lock" James Franco's sexual assault allegations. He made an easy default pick, a legendary actor doing something "different", for better or worse, though his film was critically panned and little-seen.

I was expecting that Jake Gyllenhaal's Academy Award Winner box-ticking in Stronger might have brought him the Franco (or Kaluuya) slot, but perhaps that project always seemed too desperate to resonate with voters.

The field beyond Franco and Gyllenhaal was 'strong' in a sense - many contenders with small films and small fan clubs, but few that ever posed a real threat for a nomination. I expected some kind of posthumous campaign for Harry Dean Stanton, raved for his final role in Lucky, but it never happened - perhaps he was too niche of a performer. Tom Hanks did his job in The Post and at one point it looked like he may have been rewarded for it, but those hopes faded by the end of December.

Talked about as possibilities (or shouldabeens) throughout the year were Robert Pattinson (Good Time), Jeremy Renner (Wind River), Sam Elliott (The Hero), Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), James McAvoy (Split), Jacob Tremblay (Wonder), Ryan Gosling (Blade Runner 2049), Donald Sutherland (The Leisure Seeker), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman or, after that film's middling reception, Logan), Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes), Christian Bale (Hostiles, which probably could have made some waves with a better distributor), Colin Farrell (The Killing of a Sacred Deer) and Oscar-bait-flops Andrew Garfield (Breathe) and Steve Carell (Last Flag Flying).

I'll finish the acting polls a little bit later.