OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2016)
The Nominees Were...
Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel, Lion
Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals
My Thoughts: We have reached the acting races of our 2016 review, with just six contests to go. I hope you've been enjoying the brisk two-a-week pace of these, as I'm now sitting on two more years that I'll be able to review once this is over, and with me trying my best to #FlattenTheCurve over the coronavirus (good lord I hope I don't get that reference a year from now when I randomly re-link this article), I suspect that I'l be getting through a few more years in the not-so-distant-future since I'm house-bound. But first we have to get through the nominations, this year filled with a mix of old-and-new (both winners past, and already, future) listed. We'll start with, for no particular reason, Dev Patel.
Patel's work here is fascinating for a couple of reasons. For starters, it's kind of hard to tell if this is a lead or supporting performance (in a way to combat category fraud, I generally will dock one star from a performance if they're in the wrong category), as the film is entirely about his character, but it does an almost entirely even job of balancing his performance with that of Sunny Pawar, his younger half. Patel is the best part of Lion, in my opinion, giving his strongest work-to-date, though it's odd looking back on the hoopla surrounding this performance because it more closely resembles the sort of hullabaloo we'd expect for a female supporting performance. That is, almost every article seems to comment about Patel's appearance in the film rather than just his acting ability (including, you can click the link and I'm not going to change it to save face, my own). Patel's work here is good though-he doesn't quite have chemistry with Rooney Mara (not someone you'd associate with a role like this), but he finds some of the inner-demons that this character has to face, frequently in a way that the script doesn't.
Michael Shannon has become the rare person to have been cited for two performances without a single nomination at the Globes or BAFTA Awards for those same films (weirdly he missed at the Oscars for 99 Homes, which by-far got his most precursor love...Shannon's filmography is odd in this way). His work in Nocturnal Animals is a lot of the reasons I'm lukewarm on him as a performer. This is an odd movie, and one that occasionally is fascinating, and at other times richly problematic, but Shannon doesn't expound enough on his detective, perhaps because he's playing a character in a novel that's supposed to be a "hit" but in reality isn't all that well-made. The film is sloppy but watchable, but Shannon's overacting doesn't do anything to ground the picture in the way it's supposed to do.
Lucas Hedges kind of exploded as a result of his work in Manchester by the Sea (becoming a must-watch performer with later work in Lady Bird and Boy Erased). Here, he's daunting in the hardest role in the film to carry off without cliche. A child from a home that is broken, struggling with his new life & his guardian is awards catnip, but it's also rife for cliche. He doesn't do that-his Patrick is selfish in the way actual teenagers are, even when they're in the position of losing someone close to them, and he finds a sense of "not understanding" that feels authentic to the character. The big scenes, the fights with Lee, he goes head-to-head with the older Affleck with the confidence of someone who knows he's "right," but doesn't have the maturity to realize that he is, in fact right. It's this kind of subtle nuance that adds rich layers to Manchester, and kind of makes the movie. Definitely a star-is-born moment that the Oscars were smart to catch.
The same could be said for Mahershala Ali in Moonlight. This is a short performance, and a tricky one. He has to find a way to immediately connect with not just Chiron, but also with the audience in a way that we'll understand the hold he'll have on this young man in the later chapters of his life, particularly the final third where we see Chiron try to emulate what he remembers about this man who changed his life. Ali does that, through thoughtful introversion & making sure every piece of dialogue counts. This is a staggering work-play it wrong, and he'll either feel like a loser trying to create his own mini-me or a sainted figure that will pull you out of this tale. Ali finds that balance, and has moments of humor & heart in his interactions with Chiron (and Janelle Monae's Teresa) that add layers and hang on the film in the exact way the script wants them to. Bravura work from an actor who truly supports.
The final nominee is our only past winner in the bunch, as Jeff Bridges adds a seventh Oscar nomination to his resumé. Here he's back into supporting roles like how he kicked off his career, and it's an odd one to consider thinking about the renaissance the actor has been on in recent years, not only with his Oscar win for Crazy Heart but the general love-in around his "dude-ness" as a great actor of his generation. Bridges could play a role like Hamilton in his sleep; it's the sort of folksy, bumbling detective role that he was born to do, in the same way Judi Dench can always play a certain kind of kind old lady without batting an eye. However, this isn't Mrs. Henderson Presents-as the film goes by and we see Hamilton lose more than he initially bargained from this showdown, suddenly Bridges goes into high-gear, making the final standoff between he and Pine so riveting. This is good acting, from an actor who is always good, so you only notice if you step back and compare him to the rest of a field of actors. Just because Jeff Bridges is generally better than everybody doesn't mean we shouldn't still respect.
Patel's work here is fascinating for a couple of reasons. For starters, it's kind of hard to tell if this is a lead or supporting performance (in a way to combat category fraud, I generally will dock one star from a performance if they're in the wrong category), as the film is entirely about his character, but it does an almost entirely even job of balancing his performance with that of Sunny Pawar, his younger half. Patel is the best part of Lion, in my opinion, giving his strongest work-to-date, though it's odd looking back on the hoopla surrounding this performance because it more closely resembles the sort of hullabaloo we'd expect for a female supporting performance. That is, almost every article seems to comment about Patel's appearance in the film rather than just his acting ability (including, you can click the link and I'm not going to change it to save face, my own). Patel's work here is good though-he doesn't quite have chemistry with Rooney Mara (not someone you'd associate with a role like this), but he finds some of the inner-demons that this character has to face, frequently in a way that the script doesn't.
Michael Shannon has become the rare person to have been cited for two performances without a single nomination at the Globes or BAFTA Awards for those same films (weirdly he missed at the Oscars for 99 Homes, which by-far got his most precursor love...Shannon's filmography is odd in this way). His work in Nocturnal Animals is a lot of the reasons I'm lukewarm on him as a performer. This is an odd movie, and one that occasionally is fascinating, and at other times richly problematic, but Shannon doesn't expound enough on his detective, perhaps because he's playing a character in a novel that's supposed to be a "hit" but in reality isn't all that well-made. The film is sloppy but watchable, but Shannon's overacting doesn't do anything to ground the picture in the way it's supposed to do.
Lucas Hedges kind of exploded as a result of his work in Manchester by the Sea (becoming a must-watch performer with later work in Lady Bird and Boy Erased). Here, he's daunting in the hardest role in the film to carry off without cliche. A child from a home that is broken, struggling with his new life & his guardian is awards catnip, but it's also rife for cliche. He doesn't do that-his Patrick is selfish in the way actual teenagers are, even when they're in the position of losing someone close to them, and he finds a sense of "not understanding" that feels authentic to the character. The big scenes, the fights with Lee, he goes head-to-head with the older Affleck with the confidence of someone who knows he's "right," but doesn't have the maturity to realize that he is, in fact right. It's this kind of subtle nuance that adds rich layers to Manchester, and kind of makes the movie. Definitely a star-is-born moment that the Oscars were smart to catch.
The same could be said for Mahershala Ali in Moonlight. This is a short performance, and a tricky one. He has to find a way to immediately connect with not just Chiron, but also with the audience in a way that we'll understand the hold he'll have on this young man in the later chapters of his life, particularly the final third where we see Chiron try to emulate what he remembers about this man who changed his life. Ali does that, through thoughtful introversion & making sure every piece of dialogue counts. This is a staggering work-play it wrong, and he'll either feel like a loser trying to create his own mini-me or a sainted figure that will pull you out of this tale. Ali finds that balance, and has moments of humor & heart in his interactions with Chiron (and Janelle Monae's Teresa) that add layers and hang on the film in the exact way the script wants them to. Bravura work from an actor who truly supports.
The final nominee is our only past winner in the bunch, as Jeff Bridges adds a seventh Oscar nomination to his resumé. Here he's back into supporting roles like how he kicked off his career, and it's an odd one to consider thinking about the renaissance the actor has been on in recent years, not only with his Oscar win for Crazy Heart but the general love-in around his "dude-ness" as a great actor of his generation. Bridges could play a role like Hamilton in his sleep; it's the sort of folksy, bumbling detective role that he was born to do, in the same way Judi Dench can always play a certain kind of kind old lady without batting an eye. However, this isn't Mrs. Henderson Presents-as the film goes by and we see Hamilton lose more than he initially bargained from this showdown, suddenly Bridges goes into high-gear, making the final standoff between he and Pine so riveting. This is good acting, from an actor who is always good, so you only notice if you step back and compare him to the rest of a field of actors. Just because Jeff Bridges is generally better than everybody doesn't mean we shouldn't still respect.
Other Precursor Contenders: You may have forgotten, but the Globes went truly out of their way this year to be unusual. They nominated Patel, Bridges, & Ali, but instead of Hedges they went with Simon Helberg's closeted pianist in Florence Foster Jenkins and Shannon's costar Aaron Taylor-Johnson...who won. This is the first time since Richard Benjamin in The Sunshine Boys that an actor has won the Globe for Supporting Actor and not been nominated for an Oscar. SAG skipped Shannon only, giving their trophy to Ali, and instead picking Helberg's costar Hugh Grant (proper category fraud there) for the fifth slot. BAFTA bumped both Hedges & Shannon, here again going with Grant and Taylor-Johnson, though their victor was Patel. All-in-all, at the time I was so stunned that Taylor-Johnson's performance was in contention (it's such an odd piece of work to site from that film), that I was sure he was sixth, but I'll buy an argument that it was Grant considering he also dominated the precursors. Suffice it to say, at the time both Hedges & Shannon were nomination shocks.
Performances I Would Have Nominated: I would surely have found time for at least a couple of the guys from Everybody Wants Some!, particularly Glen Powell's wise-cracking Finn and Tyler Hoechlin's sex-on-a-stick McReynolds. And one has to wonder what it's going to take for Ralph Fiennes to finally get his well-overdue third Oscar nomination. I mean, he puts in yet another triumph with his bizarre, twisted music promoter in A Bigger Splash just two years after his divine turn in Grand Budapest Hotel, and somehow Oscar continues to ignore. Travesty.
Oscar’s Choice: Ali felt at the time like an easy way to give Moonlight a trophy while it missed for Best Picture...little did we know that it was going to have a better night than pundits assumed. Patel, I'm guessing, was a distant second?
My Choice: This is Ali's trophy-this is one of my favorite performances from this decade and an easy call for the win. In a different year I might have fallen for Hedges, but not with Ali's great presence in Moonlight. Coming in behind them is Bridges, Patel, and Shannon, respectively.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Is everyone kind of on board that this was Mahershala Ali's trophy to lose, or does someone else want to make a case here? Is Hedges going to be like John Travolta and not get another nomination for decades after he strangely broke the curse of young men with Oscar? And who was sixth place-Taylor-Johnson or Grant? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
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