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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Posted Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 - 7 Comments »
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20W20: Best Actor Chart, Oct 23, 2011

10/23/11 Charts
Picture | Actor | Supporting Actor | Actress | Supporting Actress

BEST ACTOR
Picture
Comment
The Field
Jean Dujardin
The Artist		 One of France’s biggest stars is about to become one of Hollywood’s favorite stars. A win could be dependent on his ability to charm in English this January.
George Clooney
The Descendents		 He’s Clooney.  Nice performance.  Nothing very new… except a couple of lines on his face.
Michael Fassbender
Shame		 How do you follow up a legendary performance like Hunger?  With the Oscar nomination he deserved and deserves?  The film will challenge Academy members, but could it be a badge of honor for them to be sophisticated enough to embrace it, a ;a Last Tango?
Leonardo DiCaprio
J Edgar		 Ads have gotten the aging issue out of the way.  DiCaprio is actually an underrated actor.
Gary Oldman
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy		 It’s a(nother) great performance, but it’s an ensemble film and he’s still not 100% out of the doghouse.
Michael Shannon
Take Shelter		 If you thought he was something in Revolutionary Road, see this film.  And thanks to Sony Classics putting the DVD out to voters early, people do seem to be seeing it.
Daniel Craig
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo		 This one really depends on the film’s success.  In the first incarnation of this material, this role was well played, but kind of the expositional character.  We’ll see.
Jeremy Irvine
War Horse		 As the movie goes, so goes this loveable newcomer.
Ryan Gosling
Drive		 Apparently, RG’s going to throw all of his weight into this one.  But last year, with Blue Valentine, that still meant a lot of hide and go seek.  He can have an Oscar nod and be a mega-star.  Does he want it?
Tom Hanks
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close		 He’s Hanks. Will he jerk our tears?  Could, from what I hear, be in Supporting… but will probably stay away to give Von Sydow room.
Matt Damon
We Bought A Zoo		 Always excellent… never rewarded enough.  Depends on the film.
Brad Pitt
The Tree of Life		 He was terrific.  But not likely to happen in a very crowded field.
Brad Pitt
Moneyball		 And he’s crowding himself here too.  It was really the first big awards movie to open this year.  And he was perfect. But will it linger?
Woody Harrelson
Rampart 		He’s chewing the scenery so hard that he’s worn down his bicuspids, but somehow, he makes it look smooth and effortless.  One of our most underrated actors… but this will be a hard row to hoe.
Viggo Mortensen
A Dangerous Method		 Viggo as The Uber-Mensch Jew.  But he digs right in and brings all the muscle to it that Cronenberg and Hampton were looking for.  But not sure he can overcome the field.
Tom Hardy
Warrior		 One of the rising greats… a real man… completely Brandoesque, but you;d never know it from Tinker Tailor and other roles.  Amazing work here with very few words and a ton of feelings.  It shoulda been a contender.
Ryan Gosling
The Ides of March		 The Great Gosling holds the room next to some of the best in the game.  But soft reviews and business may have killed this one’s Oscar dreams.
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7 Comments »

7 Responses to “20W20: Best Actor Chart, Oct 23, 2011”

  1. Gustavo says:
    October 24, 2011 at 5:47 am

    Are they really gonna push Pitt in Lead for Tree Of Life?

  2. tc says:
    October 24, 2011 at 8:37 am

    Anton Yelchin is being forgotten for his rolein Like Crazy and has a better shot than Craig has for DragonTattoo- miniscule but possible

  3. Jason says:
    October 24, 2011 at 9:29 am

    For Oldman, what does “he’s not 100% out of the doghouse” mean? Just wondering the context/story.

  4. chris says:
    October 24, 2011 at 11:55 am

    Unless the movie is significantly different from the book, it’s hard to imagine how Hanks could be a lead — it’s not even a Marge Gunderson-sized lead. And Jason: Conservative, mouthy, blah blah.

  5. BA says:
    October 24, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Is Gosling really putting all his weight for Drive (a big hit in France!)? Where have you hear that I am just curious. Does he campaign or did he campaign in the past? I have heard both yes and no?

    Dujardin is a well known comic, not so much of a serious actor in France. The Artist just opened in France and it’s doing well. But he’s sure to charm the academy members no?

  6. Jason says:
    October 24, 2011 at 5:34 pm

    @Chris, thanks.

  7. Danny says:
    October 25, 2011 at 10:06 pm

    Tom Hanks doesn’t have the screen time in EL&IC to be considered for Best Actor. He has less screen time than Von Sydow, who is definitely EL&IC’s best chance in Supporting contention.

    I also thought the studio is pushing Brad Pitt for supporting in Tree of Life.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon