OVP: Best Actor (2018)
The Nominees Were...
Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
My Thoughts: Oscar should always be a starting point when it comes to film & an appreciation of it. Many classic movie fans use Oscar as a guide into this world, as he presents an overview of what the public & the industry thought was work worth highlighting in a given year. But he shouldn't be taken as a grand authority on film itself, because there are times that he gets it so wrong as to be flabbergasted. 2018's Best Actor lineup is, for me, potentially the worst acting lineup in the history of the Academy. With one exception, none of these are even good performances, much less award-worthy, and I have spent much of our 2018 OVP dreading having to get into these men & the ridiculousness of a lineup which could've been exponentially better.
We're going to start with Willem Dafoe not because he's noteworthy, but because he's the easiest of the quartet of lackluster performances to forgive. That's partially because no one really thought this nomination would happen-Dafoe was cited by the Globes, but that felt like a "we love a celebrity" scenario more than anything. Dafoe's work is rudimentary. He plays van Gogh sensitively, but is lost in a gimmicky movie that had just had its gimmick utilized better in the animated Loving Vincent. As a result, you leave wanting more from Dafoe, a terrific actor who otherwise has had solid runs with Oscar in terms of his nominations. Let's just forget this even happened (I suspect Dafoe has).
It's harder to forget Christian Bale in Vice. Bale as Cheney is a weird decision. Obviously the handsome Bale doesn't resemble the Mr. Potter-villain that is Dick Cheney one physical iota, so you'd hope that Adam McKay would have seen something in Bale's persona that would lift Cheney, rather than just being a second nomination for the makeup team. That's not the case. Cheney feels like a cartoon, never really admitting the reasoning behind his ruthlessness, just that he happens to be ruthless-Vice is a sloppy movie, and Bale as its main player should hold a bunch of the blame there. I still think this is mostly the fault of the writers, but he couldn't find a way to use his deep introversion onscreen to more impressive affect, and so I left lost as to the celebration of this man.
Viggo Mortensen, like Willem Dafoe, would probably prefer to forget this nomination even happened. Eastern Promises and Captain Fantastic are both movies that I was middling on, but at least they are movies that have pockets of support around the internet. Mortensen brings some physicality to his Tony, but there's not enough going on underneath, which is strange because Mortensen (like Bale) has made a career out of well-playing the strong, silent type into three-dimensionality. If you know me at all, you know I'm not impressed by physicality as a rule, and that's not enough for me to get behind Mortensen even though he brings something to his character in a way a few of these nominees don't.
Bradley Cooper is the one performance in this lineup that is going to encounter "but what about's..." from anyone reading who sees "worst lineup ever" and protests. Cooper is solid in A Star is Born, much better than his costars. He does such intricate character work with mirroring the mannerisms of Sam Elliott (the true younger brother, trying to be his own idealized version of his hero), and the way that he plays Jackson as a man who has been famous for so long it takes genuine work for him to understand what is real & what is mirage as the movie continues. He also, especially in the film's first half, has solid chemistry with Lady Gaga. This is Cooper's best performance to date, and it's probably the performance that will win him an Oscar someday (even though it would've been easier had AMPAS just given him the Oscar here for the actual performance).
But instead they gave it to Rami Malek, a man who I wonder if he'd have preferred to have just lost at this point. Malek's win is so maligned that it's easy to risk hyperbole, but I'll be honest-other than make George Arliss in Disraeli, you'd be hard-pressed to find a worse lead actor winner. Malek doesn't do his own singing, so he starts out with a deficit, and then takes it from there. A movie that seems hell-bent on condemning Malek's character despite him being the assumed hero, Malek can't ground him in anything-there's no understanding of Freddie Mercury's sexuality, of his drive, of his vanity. Malek uses his expressive eyes as often as he can, but getting a look right doesn't give your character a soul. The film is offensive, long, & gross...Malek's work as Freddie might not always cause those descriptors, but it adds another one: boring.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes of course break out their nominees between Drama and Comedy/Musical, so we have ten names from their ceremony. Drama gave us the victorious Malek, beating out Cooper, Dafoe, Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased), and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), while Comedy/Musical went to Bale over Mortensen, Lin-Manuel Miranda (Mary Poppins Returns), Robert Redford (The Old Man & the Gun), and John C. Reilly (Stan & Ollie). SAG also favored Malek, with an exact replica of the Oscar lineup except Dafoe is ousted for Washington, while BAFTA did a similar trick, having Malek on top and Dafoe beaten for Steve Coogan of Stan & Ollie. In terms of sixth place, you have to assume it was John David Washington, inexplicably missing for BlacKkKlansman, though I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Ethan Hawke in First Reformed, which had a lot of buzz throughout the season even if it went nowhere.
Actors I Would Have Nominated: We will get to "My Ballot" next week, so I'm not giving away anything quite yet, other than to tell you to stay tuned, as I pick an entirely different lineup from Oscar (all five new names coming).
Oscar’s Choice: Malek won in a landslide, a win that even on the night looked like it would age poorly. In a different universe they would've realized the error of their ways sooner & gotten Cooper the trophy they'll eventually be forced to give him.
My Choice: Cooper, and it's not a close contest (Cooper, for the record, will be my seventh place for 2018 showing just how far off I am from Oscar). Follow him with Mortensen, Dafoe, Bale, & Malek, though really everyone other than Cooper has just earned embarrassment.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Are you joining me on Team Bradley Cooper, or does Malek still have his defenders? Anyone have any explanation how Dafoe ended up here for a movie so few people saw? And is this Oscar's weakest lineup ever? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 2018: Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2018
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