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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:06 pm
by Zahveed
I'd chose Pitt over Eastwood. Pitt's performance is a lot more subtle than the over-the-top grump Eastwood played (and to characters that might as well have been trees). Rourke and Penn may seem like the front-runners at this point, but a surprise win from Langella or Jenkins seems very possible.
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 12:21 pm
by kaytodd
Love the nom for Richard Jenkins. I do not see anything Oscar worthy about Pitt's performance. I would have preferred to see that spot go to Eastwood.
Of the five nominated performances, my initial reaction is to give the Oscar to Langella, with Penn a very close second.
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:04 am
by Franz Ferdinand
I guess it was a pipe dream anyway. Rourke gets to enjoy his Globe, Penn will win his second Oscar in half a decade.
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:04 am
by FilmFan720
So, does the lack of love this morning for The Wrestler hurt Mickey Rourke? And the surprising love for Milk help Sean Penn? I'll say so.
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:09 am
by dylanfan23
Couldn't agree more with you sabin....i thought he was good but nowhere near nomination worthy espesially when your competing against dicaprio's turn in rev road. It would just be a shame if the wrong one gets the nod tomorrow morning.
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 2:27 pm
by Sabin
I certainly hope they're right about Pitt being out of the race. This decade, the only lead male actors to receive Globe and SAG nods and miss out are Richard Gere, Paul Giamatti, Russell Crowe for Cinderella Man, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed (weird case), and Ryan Gosling for Lars and the Real Girl. Brad Pitt outwardly does not seem Best Actor-worthy in Benjamin Button.
Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2009 10:05 am
by Franz Ferdinand
Oscar Race 2009: Nomination Predictions - Actor
By: Eric Henderson On: 01/19/2009 14:09:16
You can write Brad Pitt off right now—not because his performance presumably owes some debt to the wizardry of makeup and hexadecimal code (let's face it, actors frequently flat-out win this category thanks to wonton latex appliqué), but instead because this category is owned by the assholes. Make that old assholes, otherwise Leonardo DiCaprio's devolution in Revolutionary Road from smooth but sensitive breadwinner to sniveling, tantrum prone boy-in-man's-body would probably be every bit the contender Kate Winslet is. DiCaprio's still got a shot, but we prefer the odds on Richard Jenkins (who underplays his crusty role to the extent that The Visitor becomes less an example of white liberal guilt and more an endorsement of well-timed white liberal rage), Frank Langella (whose Richard Nixon resembles the former president only in the same sense that Joan Crawford resembled Medea), and Clint Eastwood. Granted, Eastwood's probably got the toughest obstacles to surmount because, though his character (potential spoiler alert) achieves a dignified and easy moment of total redemption, and even though he coughs up more blood than Camille, Satine, and Ratso Rizzo combined, there is the small matter of how delicately Eastwood the director allows Eastwood the scowling matinee idol to walk the line between absolving him of his grumpy-old-coot racism and valorizing him for it. But we can easily imagine there's a big enough bloc of Academy members who now stroke their own cocked fingers while glaring at their minority of choice.
That all said, the category's two undeniable frontrunners—Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke—are admittedly not so much assholes as they are calculating and callous, respectively. Rourke's biggest dick move (forgetting to go out for dinner with his estranged daughter) would normally be forgiven in the second act of a family sitcom. And Sean Penn's ruthlessness as a politician is easily rectified by the film's firm knowledge that he's in the right; in other words, slightly dirty politics are A-OK if they light the fire under the asses of the well-meaning do-nothing-ers. Like Nixon said, when Harvey Milk stabs Dan White in the back and all but blackmails George Moscone, it's not illegal.
Will Be Nominated: Clint Eastwood for Gran Torino, Richard Jenkins for The Visitor, Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn for Milk, and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler
Should Be Nominated: Chiwetel Ejiofor for Redbelt, Michael Fassbender for Hunger, Ben Kingsley for Elegy, Sean Penn for Milk, and Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler