Oscars 2012 Category Breakdown: Best Actor & Best Actress
I’m in the middle of breaking down and analyzing all of the Oscar categories for this year.
Today, we go over Best Actor and Best Actress.
There’s never really anything to say about these categories — we know what they are and we know how they work. This year seems pretty cut and dry. That is to say — they’re not tight races. One of them was locked up before nominations were announced and another one is basically going to come down between two people (or so the narrative is trying to say).
There’s really not much to say in the way of preface for these two, since these aren’t ones you can’t really take as a whole and have to look at individually to analyze.
So we’ll start with Best Actor and move onto Best Actress: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: The Weakest Best Actor Nominees
Again I’ll stress that I’m talking about all-time.
I’ll also stress that half this list could easily have been swapped out for other nominees that aren’t on here. Mostly I’m just talking about really weak nominees that you just look at now and go, “Really?” Most people haven’t even heard of half of these movies. Or you just look at the films and the performances and go, “Wow, that hasn’t held up at all,” or, “That was really a popularity nomination.” Or some of them — some of them nobody can figure out. There’s one on this list that you look at and go, “Where the fuck did that come from?”
So that’s mostly what this is. People always talk about what the weakest winners were, but no one ever really talks about the weak nominees. Because there’s some weak ass shit populating a lot of these Oscar categories. We tend to forget about them, because in a given Oscar year there are at least 30 (this year there are 34) new nominees in the six major categories, but there’s a lot of shit out there that nobody mentions.
So, today, I’m gonna talk about what I think (some of) the weakest Best Actor nominees are. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Six Months Later. Thoughts, Changes, etc.
(Note: This article isn’t finished yet. I got way behind on shit, and decided to post it as-is. Half an article is better than no article, and it’s not like anyone will know after a few days anyway. If you haven’t read it yet, you should probably wait until tomorrow, since I’ll have it done by then.)
Well, those “My Nominations” articles became a mess. I pretty much gave up on those after the first category. Which is my fault. I rushed them out because I figured, “How hard could they be?” and didn’t really set up what my criteria were going to be and very quickly strayed from what my original intention was. And by the end I basically said fuck it and just went through the motions. I was pretty much doing stuff that’ll start going up tomorrow anyway, so I actually put zero effort into them and had no idea what was actually being written. I was really only concerned with making sure stuff went up to fill the gap between the Disney stuff and this next set of articles. At some point I’ll go back and do those for real.
Mostly what this article is going to be is an update on the Oscar Quest now that I haven’t really thought about it for six months. The final article went up on July 4th, and I was done writing them back in April. So I haven’t really thought about anything on this blog other than Disney stuff since July. The idea was to go back and just look at all the categories and go, “Okay, so how do I feel about all of the categories now that I’ve had time to think about them, separate from the blog and all that?” So that’s what I’m going to do.
I’ve already updated the Oscar Quest: Viewer’s Guide and the Oscar Quest: Rankings articles to reflect the changes that are being made. I’m also not really tracking the changes I’m making. I’m just sort of making them and writing what my current opinion is on the categories. It’s all up on the blog, so my changes can be seen if you go chronologically. I will say, flat out, these will be my completely unvarnished opinions on everything, unrelated to all the other stuff. Since I’m sure at some point during all those articles I was either more diplomatic than my opinion is or harsher than my opinion is, depending on the situation. (That’s really the problem with writing shit online. People just sort of read it and assume that’s your set opinion. Meanwhile I’m just writing shit and not even thinking about it. I don’t even know half the shit I say.) So let’s update the Oscar Quest. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Actor (1927/1928-1949)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Actor (1950-1969)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Actor (1970-1989)
This is part of a series of articles where I’m putting forth my opinions about what I’d nominate in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress). Normally I take the categories as they are, but I thought it would be fun to figure out what I’d vote for if I had a ballot each year. Keep in mind, this is only for NOMINATIONS and nothing else.
My only problem with this is that I knew if I did it, too many people, were they doing the same thing, would put on movies that just didn’t belong on an Oscar ballot. (I would too, in some cases. We just like what we like.) My problem was that people would take this exercise as an opportunity to really just go off the rails with stuff (which, if you read through all these articles, you’ll see me call people out for it, since I know exactly which films and which performances people would put on). So my way around this was by creating what I call a “Compromise List” — after I tell you what was actually nominated and what I’d put on my ballot, I’m making a list whereby I try to make everyone happy and keep it mostly close to what would be there, Academy-wise. You’ll see. My lists usually end up being better and not crazy.
The things to take into account with the performance categories — I can only nominate what I’ve seen. So me not seeing something will be a big reason why some stuff doesn’t appear. And, as always, I tell people not to bother me with one random person in one random category, since I have everything to think about. If you want to say something, wait until you’ve seen all the films/tried this yourself before you do it. And I don’t care about foreign performances, for the most part. There’s a long and complicated answer there, but — I don’t. And the big rule for anyone doing this — if someone won a category, YOU CAN’T LEAVE THEM OFF THE COMPROMISE LIST. Can’t do it.
Otherwise — here’s the next set of categories. (more…)
The Oscar Quest: My Oscar Nominations — Best Actor (1990-2011)
These performance articles are going to be tougher than the Best Picture ones. But before we get into that, let me explain:
I’m doing a series of articles where I sort of mediate my opinions about what should have been nominated in all of the Oscar Quest categories (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress), all time (1927-1928 to present), next to what the actual nominees were. I’ve never actually gone on record about what I think should have been nominated, mostly because I treat the Oscars as something that’s just a thing. I have opinions each year about what should or shouldn’t be nominated, but once a category is in place I (unlike many other people), have respect for the category as an entity. I don’t fuck with them, and treat everything as, “Okay, it’s there. Now how do I vote?”
But I figured I could accomplish two things by actually telling people what I’d nominate. First, I figured I could use my opinions to create what I’m calling a Compromise List, which is basically a mixture of what actually happened and what I think should have happened, which, to most rational people who like movies (and respect the Oscars), actually ends up being something that perfectly mediates the two. I feel like these Compromise Lists give everyone the best of both worlds — we get to nominate shit that was ignored, and the films that the Academy clearly liked get to stay. And (hopefully) everyone’s happy. (more…)
The Abridged Oscar Quest: Best Actor
I got the idea for this shortly after all the articles went up. (You can find the articles here.) I was thinking — “What would it be like if circumstances didn’t matter? If I just voted based solely on the category and what was nominated?” Naturally that led to, “Well that can become a nice series of articles.” So that’s what they’re becoming.
I’m calling it my Abridged Oscar Quest. I’m going to go through every year of every category, and simply pick winners based solely on the category. I will not take into account what won before, what is the “classy choice,” what never had a shot. Just — here are the nominees, here’s what I would vote for if I had a ballot. I’m taking into account nothing but the films.
I’m going to star (*) the film I’d vote for.
Today, we do Best Actor: (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1929-1930
1929-1930 is the first great Best Picture winner. Sure, Wings and Sunrise are great, but they were the first ones, and the fact that they were separate kind of detracts from them. But All Quiet on the Western Front is really the first great Best Picture winner. It also won Best Director for Lewis Milestone. You can read my way too in depth analysis of why it’s an amazing decision here.
Best Actress for this year was Norma Shearer for The Divorcee (talked about here). It seems to have been the best decision in the category. Most people think Garbo should have won, her being the bigger star, but I think Shearer was the more respected actress. Honestly, I just accept that Shearer won and leave it at that.
Since there are no Supporting categories in the early years, they’re mainly judged by their Best Picture choices. This is a particularly great one. As for this category — this is actually a good choice. Sure, we all love Maurice Chevalier, but the biopic performance has been a standard Oscar winner for years and years. It’s nice to see one in the early years.
BEST ACTOR – 1929-1930
And the nominees were…
George Arliss, Disraeli & The Green Goddess
Wallace Beery, The Big House
Maurice Chevalier, The Big Pond & The Love Parade
Ronald Colman, Bulldog Drummond & Condemned
Lawrence Tibbett, The Rogue Song (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1927-1928
(Note: THIS CATEGORY IS NOT FINISHED. I still need to watch one of the nominees. I still have not been able to find The Noose in any cheap/acceptable format. If anyone has it or knows where it can be procured, let me know, so this category can be finished.)
Ah, the very first Best Actor category. Talk about a completely different set of rules than normal. These were the first Oscars ever. The winners were announced in advance and the awards were given at a small dinner event. And there were only like three nominees in each category! Two here! It’s crazy.
Anyway, the Best Picture for this year was — well, there were two. The “Outstanding Picture, Production” award, went to Wings, and the “Unique and Artistic Production” award went to Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (I love using that subtitle). Most people call Wings the first Best Picture winner, mostly because — between art and business, Hollywood always chooses business.
Best Director this year was split into two categories as well. First was for Comedy, which went to Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Knights, and the other was for Dramatic, which went to Frank Borzage, for Seventh Heaven. And then Best Actress went to Janet Gaynor, for Seventh Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise (talked about here). I rank that decision a top ten decision for all time.
So then we have this one. This was a no-brainer, because Emil Jannings was considered the best silent film actor working (remember, actor and comedian are two different things in 1928). Of course he was gonna get the first Best Actor Oscar. It’s like if they created a “Most Universally Liked” actor award today, and your top finishers would be Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr. and George Clooney. What a surprise.
BEST ACTOR – 1927-1928
And the nominees were…
Richard Barthelmess, The Noose & The Patent Leather Kid
Emil Jannings, The Last Command & The Way of All Flesh (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1935
I’m not the biggest fan of 1935. It’s strange to me how the Academy could choose a film for so many awards and not give it Best Picture. The Informer wins Best Director for John Ford (talked about here), Band this category (and even Best Screenplay), and yet, Mutiny on the Bounty wins Best Picture. It’s the only film to only win Best Picture and nothing else despite being nominated for other awards. That’s what makes it so strange.
The other award — remember, no Supporting categories yet. That’s the year after this — was Best Actress, which went to Bette Davis for Dangerous (talked about here). That’s largely a blatant makeup Oscar of Jimmy Stewart proportions. It’s acceptable, because it didn’t interrupt all that much, but I hate the decision. It’s far too blatant and short-sighted.
Which brings us to this category. I love it. I love it so much. Thank god Laughton had an Oscar already, because otherwise this might not have happened. And it deserved to happen. McLaglen was amazing.
BEST ACTOR – 1935
And the nominees were…
Clark Gable, Mutiny on the Bounty
Charles Laughton, Mutiny on the Bounty
Victor McLaglen, The Informer
Paul Muni, Black Fury
Franchot Tone, Mutiny on the Bounty (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1983
1983 is one of the not dull spots of the 80s. It’s not particularly bright, but it’s — cheap fluorescent. I’ll take that.
Terms of Endearment wins Best Picture, which is not a terrible choice (though I loved The Right Stuff so much more), considering the weak set of nominees, but it is a weak Best Picture choice, considering many of the films that won the award. It also won Best Director for James L. Brooks (talked about here), which makes sense, since Phillip Kaufman inexplicably wasn’t nominated, Best Actress for Shirley MacLaine (talked about here), which was 23 years overdue, and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson (talked about here), which I don’t understand past, “It’s Jack, we have to vote for him.” I go Sam Shepard all the way there.
The other non-Endearment winner this year, besides this category was Best Supporting Actress, which went to Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously (talked about here). In case you don’t know or haven’t seen the film — she plays a man! And nobody notices!
Okay, that brings us to this category. It had to happen. I don’t love the performance (much the way I didn’t love Jeff Bridges’ country singer Oscar winner performance (you know you loved those rhymes)), but (more so than the Bridges one) this had to happen because — Duvall’s snub in 1979 was so bad, so horrible, that he should have won for any performance he gave this year, whatever it was. (Sorry Michael Caine, but, blame the Academy. Though he got two awards later on, so he came out all right.)
BEST ACTOR – 1983
And the nominees were…
Michael Caine, Educating Rita
Tom Conti, Reuben, Reuben
Tom Courtenay, The Dresser
Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies
Albert Finney, The Dresser (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1961
1961 is one of those years that’s so good that you can afford to get upset with it. I sometimes go off about how much I think I don’t like it, and then I realize, “Shit, I’m arguing between two or even three great films.”
West Side Story wins Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins (talked about here), Best Supporting Actor for George Chakiris (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress for Rita Moreno (talked about here). All would be perfect decisions in almost any year but this one. This one, however, has at least two other strong nominees in all the categories, which leads to situations where you think the winners weren’t good decisions.
Best Actress this year was Sophia Loren for Two Women (talked about here). I won’t get into it too much, but — I just don’t like it. I don’t.
And this category — the other one I really don’t like. This, to me, is one of the top five worst Best Actor decisions of all time. It’s horrible. Sure, they sort of made up for it, but the snub in and of itself is Unforgivable.
BEST ACTOR – 1961
And the nominees were…
Charles Boyer, Fanny
Paul Newman, The Hustler
Maximilian Schell, Judgment at Nuremberg
Spencer Tracy, Judgment at Nuremberg
Stuart Whitman, The Mark (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1998
I deliberately held back on this one. This is a major category that a lot of people have strong opinions on. So of course I was gonna hold back on it. Anticipation is key.
As for 1998 — Shakespeare in Love wins Best Picture, Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow (talked about here) and Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench (talked about here). Steven Spielberg wins Best Director for Saving Private Ryan (talked about here), and James Coburn wins Best Supporting Actor for Affliction (talked about here). I think everyone knows these categories pretty well. No need to editorialize in this intro.
Now this one. Obviously a sore spot for many people. I think we all understand that Roberto Benigni was one of the worst choices ever in this category. That’s not really the part people argue over. The part people argue over is who should have won instead. Some people say Edward Norton, some say Ian McKellen. Which do I take? You’ll have to keep reading to find out…
Look at me, mysterious fucker.
BEST ACTOR – 1998
And the nominees were…
Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful
Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan
Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters
Nick Nolte, Affliction
Edward Norton, American History X (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1967
I love 1967, but I don’t necessarily love all the choices they made, Oscar-wise. At least in the sense of what people see. And what do people see when they look at 1967? In the Heat of the Night wins Best Picture. Which I feel is a bad choice, among a field of nominees that includes Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Fortunately, though, the rest of the year is spread out pretty well. Katharine Hepburn wins Best Actress for Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (talked about here), George Kennedy wins Best Supporting Actor for Cool Hand Luke (talked about here), Estelle Parsons wins Best Supporting Actress for Bonnie and Clyde (talked about here), and Mike Nichols wins Best Director for The Graduate (talked about here). Nice way of spreading the wealth. Still, though, I’m not sure it makes up for the fact that the figurehead decision for the year is weak.
And then this category — a lot of people might have problems with it. And I understand that. But actually this is a very solid decision, and one that’s backed up by history (a bit). It also helps to lessen (slightly) the blow of the film winning Best Picture. So I’m actually okay with it (which I didn’t think would be the case).
BEST ACTOR – 1967
And the nominees were…
Warren Beatty, Bonnie and Clyde
Dustin Hoffman, The Graduate
Paul Newman, Cool Hand Luke
Rod Steiger, In the Heat of the Night
Spencer Tracy, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1980
God, I hate 1980. And that hate can be summed up in two words: Ordinary People. Or, more appropriately, “Fucking Academy…”
Ordinary People wins Best Picture and Best Director for Robert Redford (talked about here) over Raging Bull. Yeah…
Timothy Hutton also won Best Supporting Actor for the film (talked about here), which is actually a good decision, all thing’s considered. Sissy Spacek wins Best Actress for Coal Miner’s Daughter (talked about here), which I’m all for. And Mary Steenburgen wins Best Supporting Actress for Melvin and Howard (talked about here), which I guess is acceptable, even though I have my reservations.
And then there’s this category. Do I even need to say anything?
BEST ACTOR – 1980
And the nominees were…
Robert De Niro, Raging Bull
Robert Duvall, The Great Santini
John Hurt, The Elephant Man
Jack Lemmon, Tribute
Peter O’Toole, The Stunt Man (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1957
I love 1957. It begins and ends with The Bridge on the River Kwai. It’s a Lean year.
The film wins Best Picture, Best Director for David Lean (talked about here), and this category. Terrific all around. And you have 12 Angry Men also up for Picture and Director to keep it interesting (and honest). I like that.
Best Actress was Joanne Woodward for The Three Faces of Eve (talked about here). Probably a top ten decision of all time in that category. Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were Red Buttons (talked about here) and Miyoshi Umeki (talked about here) for Sayonara. I am on the record about despising both decisions.
And then we’re left with this category, which to me is an open and shut case. Go Alec!
BEST ACTOR – 1957
And the nominees were…
Marlon Brando, Sayonara
Anthony Franciosa, A Hatful of Rain
Alec Guinness, The Bridge on the River Kwai
Charles Laughton, Witness for the Prosecution
Anthony Quinn, Wild is the Wind (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1928-1929
1928-1929. The second year of the Oscars. This is the only year that didn’t have any official nominees. That is, people were just given ballots and voted, and whoever won, won. And I think the nominees that were listed were based off of who got the most votes. There are also a couple of issues to deal with for this year, but let’s recap first before we get into that. There were no Supporting categories, so it’ll be quick.
The Broadway Melody wins Best Picture. The first talkie to win, and the first musical to win. Of the nominated films, it was the one that did the most. That is, it used sound to its full effect, and, the industry being in the state that it was, that’s all it took to win. Obviously it wasn’t a particularly strong winner, but it makes sense. They needed to have a sound film win. Best Actress this year was Mary Pickford for Coquette, which — she’s Mary Pickford. She was the biggest female star in the business. Of course they’d give her an Oscar. So that’s fine. And Best Director was Frank Lloyd for The Divine Lady, which seems like a weak choice.
Okay, so now we’re at this category. The problem that gets posed with this one is — The Patriot is a lost film. All we have are some clips from a trailer and stuff that survived. So we have to go in blind on that. That makes it slightly tougher, since — none of the nominees seemed particularly Best Actor-worthy. So, this is one of those where concessions need to be made.
BEST ACTOR – 1928-1929
And the nominees were…
George Bancroft, Thunderbolt
Warner Baxter, In Old Arizona
Chester Morris, Alibi
Paul Muni, The Valiant
Lewis Stone, The Patriot (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1954
1954 is a real easy year to recap.
On the Waterfront wins Best Picture, Best Director for Elia Kazan (talked about here), Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint (talked about here), and this category. All perfect decisions, obviously.
The two non-Waterfront winners were, first, Grace Kelly as Best Actress for The Country Girl. This is perhaps the most hotly contested Oscar category of all time, so you can read my thoughts on the matter here. And the other was Best Supporting Actor, which went to Edmond O’Brien for The Barefoot Contessa (talked about here). I’d have preferred a Waterfront nominee, but O’Brien was definitely worth an Oscar, so the decision works.
And then here — it’s Brando, it’s Waterfront. That “contender” speech alone gives him this Oscar.
BEST ACTOR – 1954
And the nominees were…
Humphrey Bogart, The Caine Mutiny
Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
Bing Crosby, The Country Girl
James Mason, A Star is Born
Dan O’Herlihy, Robinson Crusoe (more…)
The Oscar Quest: Best Actor – 1936
1936 is a year I feel was the first real Academy decision. You know? Typically, when I say “Academy decision,” I mean one of those films that — of course it won Best Picture. From Here to Eternity, The Sound of Music, Forrest Gump, Titanic – films that you know were gonna win Best Picture no matter their quality. The English Patient. That’s an Academy decision. It’s big, expensive, and it has all the things the Academy likes in their films.
The Great Ziegfeld, to me, is the first obvious Best Picture winner. Strange though, that its director didn’t also win Best Director. That went to Frank Capra for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (talked about here). That decision makes no sense to me at all. Best Actress was Luise Rainer for Ziegfeld (talked about here), which I think was a bad decision, but one I can sort of understand based on the category. It’s worse, though, that she won the year after this as well. It highlights all the reasons she shouldn’t have won here. Best Supporting Actor (the first in the category’s history) was Walter Brennan for Come and Get It. If anyone should have won the first Best Supporting Actor Oscar, it was Walter Brennan. And Best Supporting Actress was Gale Sondergaard for Anthony Adverse (talked about here). I do not understand this decision at all, and I feel Alice Brady was a much better decision in almost every way.
Which brings us to this category. Paul Muni was gonna win an Oscar at some point. It was only a matter of time. Here’s a dude who just bled Oscar. Everything he did, it seemed, was worth a nomination. He’s the only guy to have his very first performance (The Valiant) and his last performance (The Last Angry Man) be nominated for Oscars. Thing is, though — I don’t think he should have won here. He deserved it, but I don’t think this should have been his year.
BEST ACTOR – 1936
And the nominees were…
Gary Cooper, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Walter Huston, Dodsworth
Paul Muni, The Story of Louis Pasteur
William Powell, My Man Godfrey
Spencer Tracy, San Francisco (more…)
Guessing the 2011 Oscar Clips
This is always a fun thing to do. Guessing what clips they’re gonna show for each of the acting nominees. Seems pretty obvious. I’m very familiar with most of the performances, so I should be able to guess specifically for all but like, two of them:
Best Actor
Demián Bichir — almost definitely that speech he has at the end to his kid. Or one of the scenes with the kid in the truck, telling him how he works hard so he can have (insert title here).
George Clooney — him talking to his wife at the end and crying, right? Or do they want to mix it up and not have all tears?
Jean Dujardin — you’d think the clip of him on the stage, goofing around, but I’m really hoping one of their clips is the dance-off behind the screen. Or maybe it’ll be him quitting the studio. But honestly probably his first scene. (more…)
Oscars By Statistics
Here’s something I thought would be interesting to do…
I don’t really know how much I’m into the whole statistical thing. Generally I like having all information at my disposal and then doing what feels right. Statistics to me feel more like rationalization than playing the odds. You know?
That said, I got this idea from playing the ponies. Every year, before the Kentucky Derby and the other Triple Crown Races, my hometown newspaper (that’s the New York Daily News. My family is middle class. We’re not sophisticated enough to get (or care about half the stuff written in) the Times and we’re not low enough to bother with the Post) prints a big section where they go over all the horses in the race and writes a little something and all that. It’s mostly useless. My father always says, “Let me lose my own money.” It’s all luck, anyway. Unless you know what you’re doing.
But, there is one thing at the bottom I always found interesting, which is — they show you all the post positions that the horses start from (usually 20), and then they tell you, based on the number of Derbies there have been, which post positions have won the race the most. Not the most helpful of information, since, a lot of it has to do with context. Yet, if you wanted to, you could probably make a case, saying, “Well, this position has won the most times, so why not?” It’s as good a system as any. It really comes down to how much you want to believe in it. (more…)
Oscars 2011 Breakdown: Best Actor & Best Actress
There’s really not much history with these categories — it’s Best Actor and Best Actress. It’s supposed to be the best lead performances of the year, but there’s also politics and all that to take into account. They vote for the person over the performance, sometimes someone is overdue, sometimes it’s just “their time” — there’s a whole bunch of stuff.
All things considered, I only really disagree with a handful of the winners. Most of the time, the person who won did deserve a statue. I can quibble about the year and the performance, and this and that, but for the most part, most of them are okay, in the objective sense. So that’s nice. Still — the acting categories, above almost everything else, are prone to “right now” thinking. That is, they’ll give someone a statue because they feel as though it’s their time, and it’s almost inevitable that person ends up giving a better performance not long after that, creating a whole monkey wrench scenario. Almost never fails.
But, it’s Best Actor and Best Actress. We know the drill. This is by far the most situational of the categories. You can’t just look at the nominee and go, “This one.” You have to take into account all these logistics. Especially Best Actress. That one is just — it’s funny when you look at it on paper.
Anyway, let’s just get into them. We’ll start with Best Actor. (more…)
If I Got To Change the Oscars…
I love what-if scenarios. This is one of those experiments where I asked myself: if given the chance to change the outcome of a certain number of categories in the history of the Academy Awards, which ones would I change?
It sounds easy. I thought it would be, too. It’s very easy to come up with a list of poor choices when you think about what the “worst” Oscars are. But when you get into it, and actually start looking, you’d be surprised at which ones you’d actually allow to be kept and where you really want to make the changes. I was a bit surprised at how it turned out. Here’s how the whole thing works:
If I got to change any ten results in the history of the Academy Awards, in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director, which ones would I choose?
That’s it. Not why, no justification required, just — change from one result, to another result. Simple as that. Which would I change? Here are my answers, as well as some observations about them afterwards. Also, just in case, I feel I should point out that these answers are in no particular order at all. There’s nothing to read into there. It’s just, how it turned out. So here are the ones I decided to change: (more…)
