OVP: Supporting Actor (2003)

OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2003)

The Nominees Were...

Alec Baldwin, The Cooler

Benicio del Toro, 21 Grams

Djimon Hounsou, In America

Tim Robbins, Mystic River

Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai

My Thoughts: Okay, we are in the home stretch now with the acting trophies for 2003 being awarded, and as always we will start with Best Supporting Actor.  This is a category that gets a bum rap from Oscar, partially because Oscar's tastes are a bit stodgy (generally awarding men in near-lead performances in their 40's & 50's for mentor roles in biopics), but it's worth noting that while some of these figures are inspired by real-life people, none of them are based on particularly commonplace celebrity names.  So before I get to the bad news, I want to commend Oscar on giving us a lineup that is "biopic" free.

That being said, this is one of the worst lineups in this category, mostly because it's just so damned boring.  A good personification of that is Alec Baldwin's nomination for The Cooler.  Baldwin is a bit of a controversial celebrity, sometimes for reasons outside his control (it seems clear that the Halyna Hutchins death was, at the very least, not his fault since he wasn't the prop-master) and some within it (his famously violent temper), but he has acting chops (his work on 30 Rock being the true highlight of his long career).  The Cooler is his sole Oscar nomination, so I wouldn't normally complain as I tend to not get too mad when longtime actors get their only nod, but this is a dull movie & it's not a knowing performance.  He gets some solid monologues, and it kind of changed the trajectory of Baldwin's career from struggling leading man into successful character actor, but it's blasé.  There's nothing special in this.

The same can be said for Benicio del Toro, who at least is the best in cast of 21 Grams (pity poor Naomi Watts who we'll get to in the next week).  Del Toro's work here as a born-again Christian who accidentally kills two people in a car accident is definitely one that seems the most embedded into a script that feels more focused on depression & histrionics than fleshing out the cast.  But it's more a performance in theory-the writing doesn't allow for you to see much beyond Del Toro's actions, wanting instead to just torture him further as the film progresses.  It becomes, therefore, more promise than delivery and it's hard to give too much credit for something akin to Schrodinger's Performance.

Ken Watanabe does better, mostly because his character is given a proper arch in The Last Samurai.  This is the film that led US audiences to know who Watanabe was, and this is because he generally delivers, going toe-to-toe with Tom Cruise, which at least at this point in his career was something you should brag about, and giving some fantastic monologues.  The Last Samurai is not a great movie, and there are moments where Watanabe can't escape either the cringeworthy imperialism of the script (the white savior angle is inescapable in this movie), nor can he get past some of the hokier moments toward the end.  But this is not a bad performance, even if it's suspect if it should've been nominated for an Oscar.

The same can be said for Tim Robbins, a very fine actor who got his only acting nomination (to date) for Mystic River (he was cited for Best Director in 1995, so we'll eventually discuss him again).  Robbins' work here isn't as subtle or as mesmerizing as some of his costars (either his leading man Penn or his onscreen wife Harden), but it's still sturdy work.  Robbins is given the showiest role (a victim of sexual abuse that is slowly losing his mind), but in some of the later moments of the film, this becomes a bit of his downfall (Robbins as an actor is prone to overdoing it, and can't match Penn's rage with his own blubbering fear).  Still, not a bad performance, and unlike Watanabe, he gets a good movie to cover his tracks.

Which brings us to Djimon Hounsou.  I have yet to see Hounsou's first major role in Amistad, the one prestige Oscar role he didn't get nominated for, but I will admit that he is not an actor I have enjoyed so far in our OVP discussions.  His work as a gay man falls flat, with it frequently feeling like they're playing this dying, eccentric man's pain for laughs or for a way to further normalize the central couple, and it feels icky (even for 2003).  Hounsou, like Robbins, does not handle big moments well, being prone to overacting, and that is a big deal as the movie progresses & his plotline becomes less tethered to reality.  I'm hopeful that we'll end on a high note with Amistad, but so far his Oscar nominated roles were amongst my least favorites Oscar nominated in the Aughts.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Tim Robbins as their winner, beating out Baldwin, Watanabe, Albert Finney (Big Fish), William H. Macy (Seabiscuit), & Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass).  SAG also went for Robbins, besting Baldwin, Cooper (Seabiscuit), del Toro, & Watanabe, while BAFTA went a completely different path choosing Bill Nighy (Love Actually) as their winner against Finney, Robbins, Paul Bettany (Master and Commander), & Ian McKellen (The Return of the King).  If I had to guess (I did live through this Oscar season), I think the Seabiscuit actors split (Jeff Bridges was also an option, and we know Oscar loves Jeff Bridges), so it was probably either Sarsgaard or Bettany, and I think I'd go with the former because Oscar was less averse to nominating a film solely for an acting contender in 2003 than he is now.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: We are probably a little over a week away from the My Ballot, so I'm not going to share too much in the next few articles to save that for a grand finale, but Oscar's genre bias was truly showing in not nominating its Best Picture nominee Return of the King, which is teaming with great supporting work, for anything here.  I mean, come on.

Oscar’s Choice: Robbins, never awarded after a relatively impressive 1990's that featured a few classics, was an easy choice, not only because he was from a major Best Picture contender, but also because at the time the idea of "his-and-hers" Oscars for he & then-partner Susan Sarandon was a cute idea.

My Choice: Only Watanabe & Robbins really work for me in this group, and I think I favor Watanabe ever-so-slightly against Robbins, given he does less with more, and doesn't have the crutch of a good film to get him there.  Following these two I'll do del Toro, Baldwin, & Hounsou.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Do you join most everyone in going for Robbins or are you willing to stay in my corner with Watanabe?  What is genuinely the best performance of Alec Baldwin's film career (i.e. if you don't like him in The Cooler, is there a point he should've been nominated)?  And which Return of the King role are you most mad didn't get in here?  Share your thoughts below in the comments!

Also in 2003: Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2003

Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 

John's Worst Films of 2017

Tonight, I will officially be announcing in my real life my favorites of the year (I do a teensy little awards show every year), and you’ll be getting my Top 10 best films list of the 2017 tomorrow on the blog.  However, in a year that was such a disaster in terms of the news, it has to be said that it wasn’t just politics that was causing anguish: it was also the movies.

While there was no egregiously-bad film like Stonewall that I managed to catch this year, there were surely a lot of bad movies that came out in 2017, or perhaps more damning, bland films.  Movies in 2017 were consistently “fine” or “okay” and rarely fascinating in a daring way, making going to the movies dull.  For that reason you’re not going to see movies that I thought took risks (like, say, mother!) mostly because I want filmmakers to take these kinds of chances, even if they aren’t always successful (it’s also because mother! is still better than all of these pictures, and that Razzy nomination for Lawrence in particular is just horrendous, as she’s good in the picture and not a little bit “the worst of the year”).  Instead, we go with the below failures, all of which I count as the last pleasant of the year (listed alphabetically):

Beauty and the Beast (dir. Bill Condon)

How do you ruin one of my all-time favorite movies?  Perhaps by draining it of humor, panache, or singers who can properly sing (sorry Emma, I love you but no, just no).  The film is underwhelming from the original in literally every way, and the sets look less like an organic castle and more like something you’d see in a Disneyland theme ride.  The cash grab clearly worked, but must Disney destroy everything special it makes with heinous duplication?

The Disaster Artist (dir. James Franco)

Franco’s last minute miss at the Oscars was almost certainly due to the sexual harassment allegations against him.  It should have been because he plays his role as Tommy Wiseau as a joke, a comic look at a man who has no understanding of himself.  He’s mysterious because Franco doesn’t do any homework, claiming “it’s just Tommy!” in a cheeky frat-boy move that cruelly tries to be a message movie about people without talent succeeding, but instead is a passionless, dull affair that feels less like talent letting loose and more like actors tricking their fans into paying for a bad film.  Also, Dave Franco gives arguably the most listless performance I recall seeing all year.

Downsizing (dir. Alexander Payne)

Stuffed to the brim with interesting ideas, Payne’s script ignores all of them, giving the audience just “passage of time” jumps when the picture itself could be at its most fascinating.  Weighed down by Matt Damon as a character that clearly has never had an original thought in his life, the movie meanders around major questions of the purpose of life, the foolishness of man, and the selfishness of “sacrifice,” but it doesn’t have a point-of-view on any of them.

The Greatest Showman (dir. Michael Gracey)

Though the music is occasionally fun (I liked “Never Enough” and “Rewrite the Stars” in particular), but this is a terrible actual movie.  No one is bringing their A-Game with the acting, with particularly awful performances from Jackman and Zendaya, both weakly connecting to their costars and in Jackman’s case, being in strained voice.  And that “This is Me” number might sound great coming out of Keala Settle, but the lyrics and back-half of the plot is so hackneyed it would have been cast out as too syrupy even in the fourth season of Glee.

Marjorie Prime (dir. Michael Almereyda)

Like Downsizing, this is not short on ideas or fine actors in the cast, but it has few answers for these questions.  It’s hard to criticize a film that finally gives Lois Smith a leading role, but her supporting cast does her no favors, with Jon Hamm playing his character as merely a plot device, and Geena Davis/Tim Robbins phoning in their roles with little care.  Coupled with a bizarre ending that feels so toss-away it’s difficult to figure out not only the purpose of this film, but also the point.

Marjorie Prime (2017)

Film: Marjorie Prime (2017)
Stars: Lois Smith, Jon Hamm, Tim Robbins, Geena Davis
Director: Michael Almereyda
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 1/5 stars

One of my favorite moments in all of cinema, perhaps my favorite moment in any Steven Spielberg film, features Lois Smith.  In Minority Report there's a terrific scene where she and Tom Cruise are in a greenhouse, surrounded by animated plants, and Smith is giving Cruise a lesson in the pre-cog system.  In the hands of a less capable actor, this would come across as lazy writing, using an unlikely meeting to unload a host of world-building expositional dialogue onto the audience, but Smith doesn't play it that way.  She creates a fascinating, brilliant but creepy scientist who infuses the action-adventure, already smart and well-structured to this point, with a sense of danger and a bit of malice.  You leave wanting more for her, assured she knows even more than what she's telling Cruise's befuddled John Anderton. Smith's ability here is a trademark skill of a longtime character actor, and I was fascinated by someone wanting to put her in the center of a film, rather than on its periphery.  Sadly Smith's acting ability is not able to help this long, draggy sci-fi film encumbered with ideas and "how smart are we's" but never actually connecting with the audience.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film centers around a woman named Marjorie (Smith), who is in her 80's and battling dementia.  The film is set in 2050, and she lives in a posh seaside house where her daughter Tess (Davis), with whom she has a complicated relationship, has purchased a holographic projector that simulates her late husband Walter (Hamm).  The movie is almost entirely a series of conversations between two different people, in the first half Walter talking to Marjorie and her son-in-law Jon (Robbins).  The back half looks into the future with Marjorie and then Tess dying and becoming holographic "primes."

The film's premise is interesting, perhaps looking at how we sacrifice our current situation so fully by living in the past, or how we never really resolve conflicts with loved ones, or the loss we experience when they leave us.  But Marjorie Prime is more intent on thinking it's interesting than actually becoming so.  Central to the story's plot is a family secret, about how Marjorie's son Damien committed suicide 40 years prior, but this feels so tacked on and never properly addressed.  The idea of a family skirting around the same unspoken horror as the death of a child tearing them asunder has made dozens of great movies in the past, but Marjorie Prime treats it almost with the same importance as a forgotten first date.

This "great idea, poor execution" is consistent throughout the film.  We never really understand why Tess and Marjorie dislike each other, nor what Jon's opinion on his wife's family is, or really anything knowable about Walter.  Smith is the centerpiece, and too compelling to make this a complete failure, but Davis & Robbins add little to these roles, including understanding; both were actors who once sung onscreen, but years of inactivity or minor roles have left them unable to coast off of their once formidable onscreen personas and there's nothing "new" at play here.  Hamm has the hardest role, but is a complete miss as a robotic presence trying to find his programmed self.  I know it's become fashionable to diss January Jones whenever she's not Betty Draper, but honestly-has Hamm done anything worthwhile outside of Mad Men?  He's wooden and does little other than be handsome in Marjorie Prime.  The movie is a slog as a result, boring when it should be thrilling, and without enough central conflict to get anything out of its concept.

Oscar Trivia: Can Angelina Jolie Make History?

It doesn't take a genius to realize that Angelina Jolie is a pioneer.  A movie star par excellence, she's a figure recognized the world over for her incredible commitment to humanitarian causes, her beauty and style, and of course her many contributions to the world of cinema.  This year, that includes only her third directorial achievement, following the documentary A Place in Time and her Golden Globe-nominated In the Land of Blood and Honey.  With this movie (Unbroken, for those of you who don't live night and day for the Oscars), she is positioning herself to potentially win the Best Director prize at the Oscars, becoming the first woman to be nominated for both acting and directing, and the second woman potentially to win an Oscar for Best Director after Kathryn Bigelow a few years back.

Note above that I said first woman nominated for acting and directing, because Jolie, ever the trendsetter, were she to win the Best Director prize, would become the first person to ever win Oscars for both directing and acting (she won in 1999 for Best Supporting Actress in Girl, Interrupted).  While there are actors who have won for producing and acting (Michael Douglas comes to mind) and writing and acting (Emma Thompson comes to mind), no person has ever won both an acting Oscar and a directing Oscar.  This could change this year, and in honor of Ms. Jolie and her potential achievement, I thought it would be worth going through the thirteen men who have tried before her and failed.  Below I'll list the thirteen multi-hyphenate entertainers who have enjoyed nominations for both acting and directing (in chronological order of hitting this distinction).

Honorable Mentions: Before we begin, it's worth noting that there are a number of famous actors who have been nominated for Oscars for performances that also direct, amongst them (and this is completely off the top of my head) Barbra Streisand, Jodie Foster, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Laughton, and Dennis Hopper.  On the flip side are a number of actors that have been nominated for directing but never for acting, including Sydney Pollack, Mel Gibson, Sofia Coppola, Richard Attenborough, and Ron Howard.  And then of course there's the bizarre case of Ben Affleck, who is most known as an actor-director, and yet has been nominated for neither and still won two Oscars (for producing and writing).

1. Lionel Barrymore (1878-1954)

Acting Nominations: A Free Soul (1931), for which he won.
Directing Nominations: Madame X (1929)
Other Nominations: Mr. Barrymore was only nominated for acting and directing.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Barrymore is most noted today for his work in It's a Wonderful Life as Mr. Potter, but was quite the Oscar enthusiast in other Best Picture nominees, and directed won of the most significant lost films of the 1930's, The Rogue Song.  The film features one of the only Oscar-nominated performances to be considered "lost," from famed Oscar singer Lawrence Tibbett. Barrymore's sister Ethel would go on to have a pretty robust career with AMPAS, winning an Oscar in 1944, but his brother John would have to settle for being "The Great Profile" rather than an Oscar nominee.  His grand niece Drew is still a major star and feels like she'll someday be nominated, but so far no luck.

2. Orson Welles (1915-1985)

Acting Nominations: Citizen Kane (1941)
Directing Nominations: Citizen Kane (1941)
Other Nominations: Welles received an Oscar nomination for writing Citizen Kane, lucking out and winning for this particular citation.  He also went on to win an Honorary Oscar in 1970 for career achievement.  Funny story-Welles claimed at the time that he was filming The Other Side of Wind (his still unfinished last directorial work), but in fact was in his home in Hollywood at the time.  John Huston, another actor-director, would pick up the trophy from the Academy and give it to Welles after the ceremony.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Welles spent most of his career as a director "in the wilderness," working outside of Hollywood.  He did, however manage to have a successful follow-up to Citizen Kane with The Magnificent Ambersons which won a Best Picture nomination and is heralded as one of the greatest films of all-time, though Welles was locked out of the editing room and so the public didn't get to see his intended vision of the classic Booth Tarkington novel.

3. Laurence Olivier (1907-1989)

Acting Nominations: A titan of acting, Olivier received ten nominations for acting in his career for Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), Henry V (1945), Hamlet (1948), Richard III (1955), The Entertainer (1960), Othello (1965), Sleuth (1972), Marathon Man (1976), and The Boys from Brazil (1978); he won for Hamlet
Directing Nominations: Olivier directed himself as the forlorn Danish prince in Hamlet and was Oscar-nominated for it.
Other Nominations: While he received no other nominations, Olivier did win two Honorary Oscars, one in 1945 specifically for writing, directing, and acting in Henry V, and then one in 1978 for his life achievement.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Despite an assumption that I had made that Olivier was in control of most of his later projects, he only directed three of his Oscar-nominated works.  In addition to Henry V and Hamlet, Olivier also directed Richard III.  Olivier would actually only direct two more films after Richard III: The Prince and the Showgirl with Marilyn Monroe (chronicled in the Oscar-nominated My Week with Marilyn) and Three Sisters (where he directed his wife, Oscar-nominee Joan Plowright).

4.  John Huston (1906-1987)

Acting Nominations: One of the rare men on this list that is more known for directing than acting, Huston nonetheless had a brief career as an actor, most notably as the evil Noah Cross in Chinatown.  He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963).
Directing Nominations: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The African Queen (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), and late in his career Prizzi's Honor (1985).  He won for Treasure of the Sierra Madre.
Other Nominations: Mr. Huston was nominated for producing for Moulin Rouge and for writing Treasure of the Sierra Madre (which won him his other Oscar), The Asphalt Jungle, and The African Queen, as well as Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), Sergeant York (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).
A Random Bit of Trivia: Huston is the only person to ever direct both a parent and a child to an Oscar.  His father Walter won the Best Supporting Actor trophy for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre while his daughter Anjelica won for Best Supporting Actress in Prizzi's Honor.

5. Woody Allen (1935-Present)

Acting Nominations: Woody received his sole acting nomination for 1977's Annie Hall.
Directing Nominations: Annie Hall (1977), Interiors (1978), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Bullets Over Broadway (1994), and Midnight in Paris (2011).  Mr. Allen won for Annie Hall.
Other Nominations: Allen's biggest claim to fame with Oscar is with his writing.  He received screenplay nominations for all of the films he was nominated for for directing, as well as Manhattan (1979), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Radio Days (1988), Alice (1990), Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Match Point (2006), and Blue Jasmine (2013).  He won for Annie Hall, Hannah, and Midnight in Paris.
A Random Bit of Trivia: In addition to being the most nominated screenwriter of all time (beating one of his heroes, Billy Wilder), Allen is a good luck charm for actors when it comes to Oscar-seventeen actors have been nominated for their work in his films (though bizarrely never Mia Farrow).

6. Warren Beatty (1937-Present)

Acting Nominations: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Heaven Can Wait (1978), Reds (1981), and Bugsy (1991), making him one of those rare actors to have been nominated in four separate decades.
Directing Nominations: Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981).  Mr. Beatty won for Reds.
Other Nominations: In addition to the Thalberg Award he won in 1999 (the same year his wife was starring in Best Picture winner American Beauty), Beatty has been nominated for producing Bonnie and Clyde, Heaven Can Wait, Reds, and Bugsy, as well as for writing Shampoo (1975), Heaven Can Wait, Reds, and Bulworth (1998).
A Random Bit of Trivia: Beatty kind of wrote the book on multi-hyphenate trivia.  He is one of only two actors to have been nominated for acting/directing in two separate movies (the other one is Number 10 on this list), and is the only person to be nominated for writing, directing, producing, and acting all for one film, twice (for Heaven Can Wait and Reds).  Beatty also has a bit of a history of turning down Oscar-nominated roles, including Rocky Balboa, Gorden Gekko, Richard Nixon (in Oliver Stone's Nixon), and Jack Horner in Boogie Nights.

7. Robert Redford (1936-Present)

Acting Nominations: Despite being a matinee idol for decades now, Mr. Redford has only received one acting nomination so far in his career, for 1973's The Sting.
Directing Nominations: Ordinary People (1980) and Quiz Show (1994); he won for Ordinary People
Other Nominations: Redford was also nominated for producing Quiz Show, and was given an Honorary Award in 2001 for his career, particularly for his role in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Despite the Sundance Film Festival being one of the great Meccas of independent filmmakers and the event featuring a host of future writing and acting nominees with AMPAS, only a handful of movies from the festival have competed for Best Picture: Little Miss Sunshine, Winter's Bone, The Kids Are All Right, and Beasts of the Southern Wild (none of them ended up winning).  However, if you want a guide to what documentaries will be nominated for the Oscar next year, just look at the Sundance lineup, as they almost always play there.

8. Kenneth Branagh (1960-Present)

Acting Nominations: Henry V (1989) and My Week with Marilyn (2011)
Directing Nominations: Henry V (1989)
Other Nominations: Sir Kenneth (he was knighted in 2012) has a bizarre history with AMPAS, having been nominated five times in five different categories (the only person ever to do that without doubling up...so far).  In addition to the above nominations, he was also nominated for Best Live Action Short Film for Swan Song and in an odd situation (considering it was exactly the same as the Shakespearean text and hardly adapted at all) Hamlet in 1996.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Branagh is the only person on this list to never have won an Academy Award.  All of Branagh's nominations relate either directly or tangentially to Laurence Olivier: Hamlet and Henry V were both roles that Olivier played earlier in his career to Oscar-nominated success, Swan Song stars Olivier's fiercest rival on the Shakespearean stage John Gielgud, and in My Week with Marilyn Branagh actually plays Olivier.  Perhaps to keep with the symmetry of one nomination per category he should make a documentary about Olivier and see if that can finally land him a trophy.

9. Kevin Costner (1955-Present)

Acting Nominations: Dances with Wolves (1990)
Directing Nominations: Dances with Wolves (1990), for which he won.
Other Nominations: Mr. Costner was also nominated for producing Dances with Wolves, which also won him an Oscar.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Costner is one of only two men on this list to get their nominations to warrant inclusion in this list for only one film.  Costner did star in Best Picture nominees both the year before and the year after Dances with Wolves, however: 1989's Field of Dreams and 1991's JFK (it might be hard to fathom now for younger audiences who only know him from random baseball films you see on cable, but Kevin Costner was once one of the biggest movie stars on the planet).  Also, despite the general apathy with which it was received by critics and the public, Waterworld is a part of the OVP (I've never seen it-it'll be something to look forward to), getting a nod for Sound Mixing.

10. Clint Eastwood (1930-Present)

Acting Nominations: Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Directing Nominations: Unforgiven, Mystic River (2003), Million Dollar Baby, and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)-he won for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby
Other Nominations: Clint was also nominated for producing Unforgiven, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, and Letters from Iwo Jima, winning for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby.  He won the Thalberg Award in 1994.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Clint had to temporarily host the 44th Academy Awards when his buddy Charlton Heston was stuck in traffic.  Eastwood, not a comedian by nature, was not good at improvising and the material that was written for Heston made no sense for him.  Eastwood swore he wouldn't return to the Oscars again unless he was nominated, and he stuck to his word, not showing up again until Unforgiven.

11. Roberto Benigni (1952-Present)

Acting Nominations: Life is Beautiful (1998), for which he won
Directing Nominations: Life is Beautiful
Other Nominations: Benigni was also nominated for writing Life is Beautiful, but lost.  The film did win Best Foreign Language film, but since that honor technically goes to the country rather than the director Benigni's technical Oscar count stands at one even though you saw him win two (I have always felt this was a stupid rule, and think all directors of Foreign Language film nominees and winners should get to use their Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning titles).
A Random Bit of Trivia: Both he and Kevin Costner are the only men on this list to get all of their Oscar nominations out of one film.  Coincidentally, they share a far more dubious honor: they're the only two men to have directed themselves to Oscar nominations AND Razzie Awards (Costner for The Postman and Benigni for Pinocchio).

12. Tim Robbins (1958-Present)

Acting Nominations: Mystic River (2003), for which he won Best Supporting Actor
Directing Nominations: Dead Man Walking (1995), one of those extremely rare films that gets nominated for both lead performances, directing, and writing and doesn't get a Best Picture nomination.  Oddly enough, Leaving Las Vegas in the same year managed to do the same thing.  Also, Robbins ended up losing to a fellow actor in Mel Gibson, one of the very rare times where two actor/directors competed against each other at the Oscars.
Other Nominations: Robbins has had a long career with Oscar-nominated films, but those are his only two nominations to date.
A Random Bit of Trivia: Despite the men on this list being married to the likes of Vivien Leigh, Annette Bening, and Emma Thompson, Robbins is one of only two to have their longtime romantic partners win an Oscar for a role they directed, with Susan Sarandon in Dead Man Walking (the other was Woody with Diane Keaton in Annie Hall).  Clearly Brad Pitt should have waited until he had his trophy before he and Angelina got hitched.

13. George Clooney (1961-Present)

Acting Nominations: Syriana (2005), Michael Clayton (2007), Up in the Air (2009), and The Descendants (2011), with Clooney winning for Syriana
Directing Nominations: Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)
Other Nominations: Clooney was also nominated for writing Good Night, and Good Luck as well as The Ides of March (2011), and was nominated for producing Argo (2012), which won him his second Oscar.
A Random Bit of Trivia: I'll go with two for the quintessential movie star of our era.  First, he isn't the only Oscar winner in the family: his uncle was Jose Ferrer, Best Actor of 1950 for Cyrano de Bergerac.  Secondly, Clooney is the only person in Oscar history (to date) that has been nominated in six different categories: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, and Adapted Screenplay.  $20 says he tries to get into one of the shorts categories before the decade is over.

And those are the thirteen gentlemen that Angelina Jolie could well be in the company of by January.  Do you think she'll do it?  Can she be the first to actually win the big prize?  And which of these men got the closest/should have sealed the deal?  Share in the comments!

OVP: The Player (1992)

Film: The Player (1992)
Stars: Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Gallagher, Lyle Lovett, Vincent D'Onofrio (and more cameos than you can count)
Director: Robert Altman
Oscar History: 3 nominations (Best Director, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Robert Altman's movies rarely are what they seem.  Better than anyone else, he manages to find things for every actor, big and small, to do in his films and regularly uses his platform as a great auteur to shape a more meaningful conversation out of his film.  In the early 1990's, Altman enjoyed a major career renaissance that resulted in back-to-back Best Director nominations at the Oscars.  This was the first of those two.

(Spoilers Ahead) The film from the very beginning is vintage Altman.  The movie starts with a terrific extended shot, one not unlike Touch of Evil's classic opening (which, as will become the film's raison d'etre, is referenced during the opening moments).  We are introduced to a host of different pitch meetings and studio executives all hearing potential scripts and movie ideas.  At the center of this is a man named Griffin Mill (Robbins).  Mill is a jaded man, one who has clearly worked his way to the top but can't quite figure out why yet, and has been taken over by the business end of Hollywood.  Mill is getting death threats in the form of vintage Hollywood postcards, however, from a writer who pitched him a script that he never called back about and has clearly forgotten.

The film follows Griffin as he finds a writer he suspects of being the culprit named David Kahane (D'Onofrio) and tries to woo him into stopping the postcards and that he'll give him a shot at a career (Griffin cannot go to the police for fear of it hurting his career, which is in a precarious position due to another man gunning to take him on at the studio).  Kahane rejects the idea and says instead he's going to go out to ruin Griffin's career, so in a fit of rage, Griffin drowns Kahane in a shallow pool of water in an alley.

The film's darkly comic tone doesn't let up here, though, as Griffin soon finds himself in love with Kahane's girlfriend June (Scacchi), and is being tracked by both a detective (Goldberg) and a mysterious man (Lovett).  The movie continues on a rapid pace, with the postcard-writer not letting up (and beginning to blackmail Griffin about the murder) and Griffin's career slowly going on the skids just as he dangerously falls for June.

In the end, though, because this is Altman and not some hackneyed script (like the ones being portrayed in the film), we get a better ending than Griffin confessing and getting caught.  In the end, thanks to a botched eyewitness, Griffin not only gets away with murder, he becomes the head of the studio and marries his victim's girlfriend.  The final scene of the movie is Griffin on the phone with the man who has been writing the postcards (who is never identified throughout the entire movie), cutting a deal for the plot of what has just happened, and then titling the film The Player.  It's wickedly tongue-in-cheek, and tres smart, and works well within the sharply-structured film.

The movie occasionally runs a tad long, but it's never without a plethora of ideas.  The way that everyone in Hollywood acts seems roughly how we as lay people assume they do.  A recurring theme through the movie is an idealistic young writer and a desperate-for-a-hit schmoozer trying to sell Griffin on a heart-wrenching tale about a young woman unjustly sentenced to death.  The writer wants no stars, wants an unhappy ending, and especially doesn't want Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis to star in the film.  In a great show of Altman's stature amongst actors, not only does the film (which we see a scene of during a screening) end up hackneyed and with a happy ending, Altman got the real life Roberts and Willis to star in the scene.

The movie, in fact, gets its best message from the galaxy of big-name actors who show up in the film.  The movie is packed to the brim with actors as diverse as Burt Reynolds, Cher, Andie MacDowell, and Joel Grey all showing up in random scenes playing themselves.  It's probably the neatest trick that Altman pulls in the movie-the way he makes these iconic, gargantuan stars seem so run-of-the-mill and constant.  You see pitch meetings where an actress like Julia Roberts is suggested for virtually every single young female role as a selling point (you could substitute a name like Jennifer Lawrence in today and see this film hasn't remotely aged).  You see how worshipful people are to these celebrities and how catered their egos are.  The stars all seem in on the joke, but it's a great portrayal of how reliant the business and the art side of filmmaking can be on each other, and in particular, how they have melded so strongly.

The film's three Oscar nominations all seem about right, particularly the editing, which takes a lot of great leaps (not just the spectacular opening shot but a number of other extended takes), and though it could have chopped a couple of middle scenes, is aces when it comes to splicing together actors in every scene.

Those are my thoughts on this well-done movie-what are yours?  Where does The Player rank in your personal Altman pantheon?  Did you have a favorite supporting role in the film?  And who was your fave cameo?  Share in the comments!