Sulmoney’s Oscar Prediction – Best Supporting Actor

Viola Davis packs quite the wallop in her sole scene in Doubt, and is deserving of the nomination. However, it appears that the Penelope Cruz train is too strong, and we both agree will carry her to Oscar gold a week from now. 

Now, on to a category with perhaps the least amount of suspense, but will most likely be the most emotional award of the night, Best Supporting Actor. The nominees are Josh Brolin (Milk), Robert Downey Jr. (Tropic Thunder), Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight), and Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road).

Who Will Win

 

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

If there was ever a sure fire, money in the bank winner, it has to be Heath Ledger in his last completed role before his unfortunate death as the diabolic villain, The Joker in the second highest grossing film of all time, The Dark Knight. While the whole of Christopher Nolan’s epic was amazing and elevated a comic book film above its genre, it was Ledger’s performance that ensured The Dark Knight would go down in the annals of film history.

Who Should Win

 

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Ledger should win. But, for the sake of argument (and just so I can write a little bit more because I need a study break and am a huge fan of this guy), the winner (in any other year) should be…

 

Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder

It is not very often that an actor in a comedy (especially one directed by Ben Stiller) gets nominated for an Academy Award, but Downey’s performance in Tropic Thunder as Kirk Lazarus, the Australian method actor to put all other method actors to shame, was simply transcendent, and cemented Downey as an actor who could pull off anything thrown at him.

Who Was Snubbed

 

Eddie Marsan in Happy Go Lucky

There were many great actors in supporting roles this year, but Eddie Marsan in Mike Leigh’s quirky Happy-Go-Lucky was quite simply amazing. Playing a driving instructor who simply could not deal with the optimistic attitude of his student, played by the in fine star making form Sally Hawkins, Marsan is nearly as terrifying as Heath Ledger’s Joker, and literally looks like he will explode at any moment whenever he is on screen. En Ra Ha.

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Hans’s Oscar Predictions – Best Supporting Actress

Who Will Win

Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

Couldn't they just trade places for 30 Rock?

When I was a young lad, I had a crush on Salma Hayek so large it rivalled the size of her ample… talent? And by talent I mean boobs, if you know what I mean. It’s been some years, and Salma has since shown us many more awkward, stilted performances and even fell victim to pregnancy for a short while, both of which have irrevocably tainted the love we once shared. Luckily, her semi-lesbian, fully-awesome relationship with Penelope turned me on to a beauty with the talent to back it up. Her boobs aren’t bad either, if you catch my drift. She’s 80% of the reason to watch Vicky Cristina Barcelona, she’s been working her way up to this kind of recognition for a little while now, and she’s gonna take home the naked golden man very soon. And by naked golden man I mean hopefully me, if you follow where I’m going with this.

Who Should Win

Viola Davis (Doubt)

They must've photoshopped out the snot for the marketing promo.

It’s true that Taraji P. Henson, Sulmoney’s favorite in this category, was unquestionably the best part about Benjamin Button, but being the classier gentleman, I’m gonna go with the black actress who gave us something a little deeper than the borderline-racist Aunt Jemima mammy figure. It’s almost an insult that Amy Adams’s name is anywhere near Viola Davis’s in the nominations for this category. Ms. Davis has precisely one scene in the entire film, but in less than 15 minutes of screen time she delivers an incredibly complex, emotionally-challenging performance, leaving an impression that will stay with me much longer than the performance Amy Adams cobbled together from the deleted scenes of Enchanted. And she did it all with snot running down her face the whole time.

Who Got Snubbed

Well I haven’t yet seen Rachel Getting Married, so I can’t comment on Sulmoney’s choice, but on the whole I’m gonna say this category looks pretty snub-free to me. I haven’t seen everything out there, so it’s entirely possible that I missed something, but to me it looks like the men pretty much stole the spotlight this year. Damn you, paternalistic society with your glass ceilings and whatnot!

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Sulmoney’s Oscar Predictions – Best Supporting Actress

As we have recently finished up our top 10 lists of 2008, and the end of the award season coming up in just over one week, The Feature Preachers embark on prognosticating the major Academy Awards categories. We will make sure to belittle each other’s poor selections and life choices in true FP tradition. In our quest to bring something new to critiquing the films, we will not only be predicting who we feel will go home with those little golden naked men on February 22, but who we feel should win, and who was snubbed from receiving a nomination. To kick it off, we start with perhaps the most fiercely debated acting category, Best Supporting Actress. The nominations are Amy Adams (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Viola Davis (Doubt), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler).

Who Will Win

 

Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona

While I disagreed with Hans on the greatness of Woody Allen’s latest, I will give credit where credit is due: Penelope Cruz chews up the screen and brings a saving energy to the film. As soon as she enters the film in the second act of the film in her dramatic and fiery welcome, the entire film becomes better. She has perhaps the biggest supporting role compared to her competitions, and far and away the most flashy and loud, and will probably be why she wins. The frontrunner since its summer release, Cruz has rode the crest of momentum and should be soon able to append Academy Award winner to her name. 

Who Should Win

 

Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Forrest Gump comparisons aside, and the fact that critics were split on the film just as Hans and I were, I hope that we can at least agree that Taraji P. Henson gives a career defining performance as Benjamin Button’s adoptive mother. While Brad Pitt’s performance may have been cold, distant, and hard to relate to for some, we all could feel for Queenie and her desire to be a mother and subsequent unconditional love for her son born under unusual circumstances. She was the human core of the film, and was a touch of reality in an unbelievable story. 

Who Was Snubbed

 

Rosemarie DeWitt in Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married is a wonderful movie…but there is about 30 minutes of extraneous material that should have been cut, and the handheld camera photography was about 0% necessary, and about 100% unwelcome. There are some incredibly raw and human performances from Anne Hathaway (more on her in a future post) and the relatively unknown Rosemarie DeWitt. Playing the one getting married, DeWitt embodies the role of a seemingly forgotten about because of her normalcy sister and daughter to perfection, and personifies the roller coaster  of emotions of a bride masterfully. Though this may be the first time you have heard of Rosemarie DeWitt, I am sure it will not be the last.

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Sulmoney’s #8 – Ne Le Dis A Personne (Tell No One)

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a solid choice at #8. I enjoyed the latest offering from Woody Allen as well, but not as much as Hans. Woody’s best film since 2005’s Match Point (a vastly superior film), VCB (as I affectionately call it) is making the rounds and on numerous top 10 lists, and of all the wonderful actors and actresses on display, Penelope Cruz is getting all the attention. Like a good sheep (baa), and finally, no longer a Woody Allen virgin (shocking!), Hans followed suit. For me though, the real scene stealer was relative new comer Rebecca Hall, in a star making performance.

As for Revolutionary Road, well, I liked that much better when it was called American Beauty. Watch it for the performances, but as for comparing the two, I begrudgingly agree with your choice. Now, my turn…

Ne Le Dis A Personne (Tell No One)

I am a huge fan of foreign cinema. However, 2008 was a bit of a disappointment for me and my love of non-english films. Universally acclaimed films like Let The Right One In and Gomorrah left very bitter tastes in my mouth, and my faith in critics’ choices in the cinema of Europe wavering. However, there was one stand out European film for me, and that was Ne Le Dis A Personne. A French thriller based on an American novel, this little spur of the moment “I’m bored, let’s go to the arthouse theatre and see what’s playing” turned out to be one of my favorite films of the year.

8 years after the brutal murder of his beautiful and loving wife, Dr. Alex Beck (played skillfully by Francois Cluzet) receives an email from (guess who!) his wife. This email sets off a long chain of events that lead the usually docile pediatrician on a path to be reunited with his love (if she is in fact alive), which includes a thrilling run from the police through traffic, and fights with gang members, through a web of lies and conspiracies, with murder, adultery, and general tomfoolery thrown in for good measure.

Run, French boy, run

While an imperfect film (especially having to resort to the two men in a room talking about what happened for a finale), I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Cluzet makes a great protagonist that we can all sympathize with; the questions and self doubt surrounding his predicamant can easily be read on his face in his, at times, subdued and subtle performance. However, when the time for action comes, Cluzet shows that he can hang with the big boys. The rest of the cast merits mention as well, especially the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas as his sister’s lover. Guillaume Canet is a young director on the rise, and I will make sure to look out for his next film.

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Hans’s #8 – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

So, Sulmoney, I’ve stumped you on 2 picks already, and we’re only getting started. Obviously my level of professionalism and knowledge vastly outshines your own, but that’s to be expected when dealing with a self-proclaimed “long time fan” of professional wrestling. Here’s a spoiler for you: It’s all fake. And the Easter Bunny isn’t real, either.

To be honest, I thought The Wrestler was a fantastic piece of filmmaking that just didn’t connect with me on any personal level. Rourke’s performance was certainly impressive, but let’s be real, how much of a stretch is it for him to play a washed up star of the 1980s struggling to jumpstart his career again? Expect me to out Wrestler his Wrestler in an upcoming pick. For now, though, I present:

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

It’s with great shame that I admit this is the first and only Woody Allen movie I’ve ever seen, but honestly I think that’s for the best, because as far back as a year ago I don’t think I would’ve gotten as much out of this kind of relationship story as I did a few weeks ago. Putting together this list, I was really torn between this film and Sam Mendes‘s (of American Beauty fame) Revolutionary Road for the #8 spot. As a young, virile, incredibly manly twenty-something, there’s only so much room in my top 10 list for relationship dramas without seriously jeopardizing my street cred, but here we go anyway.

I'll do whatever you want, just don't kill me afterwards.

Thematically, the two are somewhat similar. At their cores, both films are cynical of our ability to temper our perceptions and expectations of the perfect relationship or the ideal lifestyle. Objectively, Revolutionary Road is probably the better film on most levels: direction, acting, and especially cinematography (thanks mostly to the phenomenal work of Roger Deakins). The first 40 or so minutes of Vicky Cristina Barcelona  are bogged down by some clumsy voice-over narration and cliched character set-ups with Vicky and Cristina, but once Penelope Cruz hits the screen, everything else disappeared for me. Her performance is funny, sexy, crazy, and above all, fierce, and it leads into one of the most interesting and alluring relationships captured on film all year (it’s a 3-way! And not the devil’s kind). Thanks largely to the Oscar-deserving work of Penelope (as only her most intimate acquaintances know her), in addition to the absolute pimpness of Javier Bardem (following up last year’s total badassery in No Country for Old Men) and the charming Spanish backdrop, this film has an energy and a distinctly exotic taste that gave it that slight edge in my book over Kate and Leo’s latest.

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