OVP: Supporting Actor (2000)

OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2000)

The Nominees Were...

Jeff Bridges, The Contender

Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire

Benicio del Toro, Traffic

Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich

Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator

My Thoughts: And we are back again today with 2000, moving into the acting categories today.  At the time in 2000, none of these men had won Academy Awards, but while we're writing it today, three of them have taken Oscars, one sadly died without one (not that he would've shown up for it), and the fifth probably just missed a nomination this year by inches.  All of this is to say, the Oscars are snapshots-in-time, but if you can get in once, you probably have a decent shot of getting in again (they love keeping people in the club).

We rarely start with the winner, so let's start with Benicio del Toro.  Del Toro's career since his Oscar win has been a mixed bag, from critical darlings like Che and Sicario to a mess of paycheck gigs (The Wolfman, whatever he's doing in the MCU), all of which is a bummer when you remember how sensational he is in Traffic.  He brings an unexpected sensitivity to a cop being forced into the world of crime, and not being given a chance to get out (until he forges one).  The monologues about baseball, and wanting a better life for himself...there's a reason a previously unknown character actor bested a screen actor who'd been waiting 40 years for his Academy Award in 2000.

Though Finney is not without points in his direction.  The reviews of Erin Brockovich usually center around Julia Roberts in her dynamic titular role, but she's not the only one doing bravura work here.  The interplay with Finney's good guy lawyer (who still needs to make a buck) is really strong.  I love the way he seems impressed with Erin largely from the start, but he has to temper that and the reveal is him showing he knew there was something there from the beginning.  It's good, earnest work from a man who had at that point been headlining films for decades, but slid perfectly into the number two spot.

The same could be said for Jeff Bridges, another reliable leading man-turned-character actor who in 2000 was still on the hunt for his Oscar.  Bridges' work here is solid.  The way that he plays a laid-back, Clinton-esque president who seems to not be in with the sharks like Gary Oldman, and instead proves to be just as cunning as them, using that guise to his advantage, is really strong stuff (kudos to the casting director here).  I will say that I wanted something more from Bridges, though that might not be fair because he's doing the part, playing well against the more scenery-chewing acting from Gary Oldman, but it doesn't quite feel complete-more a great idea than a great character.  Still good though.

Willem Dafoe is in a similar boat, though in a much lesser film.  Shadow of a Vampire sounds great on paper (an actual vampire cast to play a fictional vampire), but it doesn't deliver.  It's a horror film that plays like a staid drama, and the seams show throughout.  I think Dafoe's work here is good-he owns this part, but it does occasionally feel like his over-the-top attitude looks better because the film around him is such a snooze.  I don't think there's enough of Dafoe's trademark grace (for a man who plays villains a lot, he generally has some sort of decency in his best work like Platoon and The Florida Project), and I suspect he won this nomination because of the makeup design (which I also wasn't super impressed by) and the film's final scene (which I was impressed by).

Our final nominee is Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator.  Phoenix, I'd like to point out, is a very good actor.  I give him back-to-back gold medals in 2012 & 2013 for my My Ballot, the only actor other than Nicole Kidman to have done that to date in our 22 seasons.  I say that because two of his Oscar-cited works left me so cold, Joker and today's film.  His Commodus swings for the rafters in virtually every scene.  There's no baseline here, playing a sniveling, power-hungry figure without any depth.  I know I don't love Gladiator, but there are at least 2-3 better supporting actor performances happening in his movie alone...Phoenix got in because he had the biggest part.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went for exactly the same lineup as Oscar, giving the statue to Benicio del Toro, and del Toro won the SAG Award...but in lead actor (I can't remember if this was a filing error or not...the same thing would happen with Jennifer Connelly the following year, as this was a weird trend with SAG at the time).  Supporting Actor instead went to Albert Finney with SAG, besting the Oscar lineup + Gary Oldman in The Contender.  The BAFTA also went to del Toro, but with a much different lineup as Finney & Phoenix were joined by Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot) and Oliver Reed (Gladiator), which was a posthumous citation for Reed.  In sixth place, I'm guessing it was Gary Oldman or maybe Bruce Greenwood in the now-forgotten Thirteen Days, though there are a lot of supporting actors in the Best Picture lineup (Reed, Richard Harris, Michael Douglas, Johnny Depp) that could've gotten in as well...this being such a set lineup most of the season makes sixth place hard to guess.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: One of the primary reasons that Michael Douglas would become one of my favorite actors in high school was his work in Traffic, some of the best stuff of his career and a grand look at a rich white man who has to solve actual problems, not ones that just present themselves as opportunities.

Oscar’s Choice: Gone were the 1980's, when an aging actor would routinely beat an upstart for a sentimental Oscar win-del Toro bested Finney, and probably by a decent amount.

My Choice: Oscar made the right choice, picking del Toro over Finney (the two best nominated works).  Behind them I'd go Bridges, Dafoe, and then Phoenix.

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Are we all joining Team Benicio, or do you want someone else?  Should Albert Finney have won an Oscar, or was he correctly a bridesmaid (and if so, what)?  And in a pretty open-and-shut year for the final quintet, who was in sixth place looking in the window?  Share in the comments!

Also in 2000: Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, Foreign Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2000

Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

Oscar's Long-Suffering Gentlemen

As you may have guessed due to the massive increase in articles on this blog in the past two weeks, I'm in a bit of a house-cleaning mode for the blog, getting all of the articles I meant to write in 2018 but never had time to, out the door for your enjoyment before we dive into some of the new series/articles of 2019.  While doing so, I was looking through my drafts folder and realized that I owe you a sequel to an article about Oscar bridesmaids that I wrote in December.  There I took a look at the living actresses who have been nominated 3+ times but never won a competitive Academy Award.  At the time, it seemed possible that both Glenn Close & Amy Adams could be removed from such a list, but instead they just moved further into the front, both still waiting for an Oscar that might never come (but don't tell them that).

Today we're going to look at the 12 men who are living and don't have an Oscar, but have lost at least three times.  Despite the focus on Close & Adams, there are actually three men on this list who moved up thanks to this past year's ceremony, and we actually had a tragic change in this list from what it would have been had I finished it in December, as the man who would have been our #1, Albert Finney, passed away last month.  Since I didn't have time to write him an obituary at the time, consider this a bit of a memorial post to the fine actor.

Finney was very rare when he died.  I wrote in my December article that only 11 women have died with 3+ Oscar nominations and never winning a competitive one, but for men it's nearly as rare, with 13 such men who have died without a competitive Oscar.  This list includes such icons as Mickey Rooney, Peter O'Toole, and Charles Boyer, all of whom won Honorary Oscars, as well as noted character actors such as Clifton Webb and Charles Bickford.  Below you will find an additional dozen that are waiting for that competitive Oscar-speculate in the comments which ones you think have the best shot at actually taking a trophy home before their final curtain call.

Honorable Mention: Warren Beatty, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt have 3+ acting nominations without ever taking a trophy for their thespian abilities (and are still with us), but they all have competitive Oscars of their own.  Beatty won Best Director for 1981's Reds, Pitt won Best Picture in 2013 for 12 Years a Slave, and Damon won Best Original Screenplay for 1997's Good Will Hunting.  As a result, I kept them off of the list even though technically they'd qualify.

Note: These are ranked by how many nominations an actress made, then by who got their most recent nomination the latest, and then by who got their first nomination first.

12. Viggo Mortensen

Nominations: Eastern Promises (Actor in 2007), Captain Fantastic (Actor in 2016), & Green Book (Actor in 2018)
He Lost to: Daniel Day-Lewis, Casey Affleck, & Rami Malek
Closest to the Win: It would have been 2018 had awards bodies not A) fallen weirdly in love with Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody and B) Green Book hadn't gotten a significant amount of flack for its treatment of black characters, though that latter hardly stopped it in the Best Picture & Screenplay categories so maybe it was just the former.  You could make an argument that Mortensen may have been a more palatable choice than, say, Christian Bale had Malek not been on a missile trajectory to winning his Oscar.
Well, He Still Won...: Mortensen hasn't been very lucky with awards bodies.  About the most notable trophy he's picked up would be for Best SAG Ensemble for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but he's never won a significant award for his solo acting.
Is This Happening Someday?: I don't know.  Aside from Green Book, Mortensen's past nominations were genuine surprises, and ones that had no chance of actually winning.  If he continues to make populist films like Green Book this could theoretically happen, but he's not the type of actor who seems comfortable with campaigning, and as a result I'd wager he won't take this, unless he gets the right biopic.

11. Woody Harrelson

Nominations: The People vs. Larry Flynt (Actor in 1996), The Messenger (Supporting Actor in 2009), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Supporting Actor in 2017)
He Lost to: Geoffrey Rush, Christoph Waltz, & Sam Rockwell
Closest to the Win: The Messenger?  1996 he was in fourth or fifth place, and Three Billboards was a near-miss for a nomination, so The Messenger you could quite plausibly state that he was second place, though a distant second place to Waltz.
Well, He Still Won...: Harrelson has never won a major trophy for film, but he did take an Emmy for his time in Cheers.
Is This Happening Someday?: I think so.  Harrelson is the sort of actor who demands respect at this point, and appears in prestige films regularly (he works regularly, period).  Give him the right supporting part in a film, and it feels like he'd be able to sneak in as a career-capper sort of trophy.

10. Mark Ruffalo

Nominations: The Kids are All Right (Supporting Actor in 2010), Foxcatcher (Supporting Actor in 2013), & Spotlight (Supporting Actor in 2014)
He Lost to: Christian Bale, JK Simmons, & Mark Rylance
Closest to the Win: None of these movies.  I honestly can't even wager-he was at least in third for all of them, perhaps no higher than fourth.  Ruffalo's nominations are weird because all of these felt like citations you could predict, but also are for work that was never going to come close to an actual win.
Well, He Still Won...: Ruffalo took the Emmy for Best TV Movie for his work as a producer on The Normal Heart but he hasn't picked up a major trophy yet for acting.
Is This Happening Someday?: Yes, it is.  Ruffalo just turned fifty, is well-liked (all of his costars seem to adore him), and now that he's not under contractual obligation to Marvel, he's got more time to make arthouse films, which feels like where he's at home.  He just needs to get in on a Best Picture nominee, and he could win...I honestly think he's famous enough he could win lead.

9. Edward Norton

Nominations: Primal Fear (Supporting Actor in 1996), American History X (Actor in 1998), & Birdman (Supporting Actor in 2014)
He Lost to: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Roberto Benigni, & JK Simmons
Closest to the Win: Call me crazy, but maybe 1996?  The Academy was feeling frisky that year (just ask Lauren Bacall), and he had just won a Golden Globe.  Most pundits, if you look back, thought it was a battle between Gooding and William H. Macy for Fargo, but I wonder if Norton (who also appeared in Everyone Says I Love You and The People vs. Larry Flynt) was more in the thick of the wins than people gave him credit for at the time.
Well, He Still Won...: Norton lost the Oscar to Gooding, but managed to pick up a Golden Globe in 1996 for Primal Fear.
Is This Happening Someday?: I'm going to guess no.  Norton has had a lot more pits than valleys in a career where he's never really stopped working.  I think he's the definition of an actor who starts out strong (surely everyone assumed he was the next big thing by 1999), but Birdman feels more the exception than the rule, and he's not the type that will go after the (quality) Oscar-bait projects.  They'll need to come to him.

8. Joaquin Phoenix

Nominations: Gladiator (Supporting Actor in 2000), Walk the Line (Actor in 2005), & The Master (Actor in 2012)
He Lost to: Benicio del Toro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, & Daniel Day-Lewis
Closest to the Win: None of these are close wins.  Walk the Line couldn't even get a Best Picture nomination, and that's the one that makes the most sense when you compare it to its competition (and he's at best in third behind Hoffman & Heath Ledger).
Well, He Still Won...: It always feels weird to say this, but the only major trophy that the deeply method & dark Phoenix has ever won was for the Comedy Golden Globe (for Walk the Line).
Is This Happening Someday?: I don't think so.  If anyone on this list is the modern successor to Albert Finney, it's Phoenix, who is an actor that is too good not to occasionally be nominated for awards, but also clearly hates them and I doubt the Academy would ever want to give him a microphone.

7. Nick Nolte

Nominations: The Prince of Tides (Actor in 1991), Affliction (Actor in 1998), & Warrior (Supporting Actor in 2011)
He Lost to: Anthony Hopkins, Roberto Benigni, & Christopher Plummer
Closest to the Win: You could make a sincere argument that he was the frontrunner in 1991, with tough competition from Hopkins and Warren Beatty (Hopkins victory has aged very well, to the point where we feel like it was inevitable but that was not what people thought at the time).  However, he was also in the thick of things in 1998, when James Coburn stunned for a victory in Supporting Actor, so there was clearly a lot of support for Affliction (considering how Benigni's career aged, the Academy probably wishes they had given it to Nolte).
Well, He Still Won...: Nolte nabbed the Golden Globe for his work in The Prince of Tides (hard to believe in this era of uniform awards seasons, but Nolte managed to win Drama Actor over the man who'd eventually take the Oscar)...please take note AMPAS-creativity is a good thing.
Is This Happening Someday?: No.  Nolte's shot at ever winning this Oscar died the day that infamous mugshot was taken.  He's nearly 80 years old, and he wouldn't be an awful choice for an Honorary Oscar if it would occur to anyone, but a competitive trophy ain't going to happen-the Warrior nomination was probably the closest he was ever going to get to a career honor.

6. Johnny Depp

Nominations: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Actor in 2003), Finding Neverland (Actor in 2004), & Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Actor in 2007)
He Lost to: Sean Penn, Jamie Foxx, & Daniel Day-Lewis
Closest to the Win: Pirates, for sure.  The 2003 Best Actor race was a genuinely close affair, with Penn, Depp, and Bill Murray all in a threeway locked race.  I remember at the time some people even speculated that it could end in a tie of sorts.  Can you imagine a year where the Globes and SAG honored three different lead performers in this era?
Well, He Still Won...: Depp is beloved by the Golden Globes (he's been nominated ten times, including multiple citations before Oscar gave him the time of day), but only won once, for Sweeney Todd (the year of the strike, so we've never seen a major Johnny Depp speech)
Is This Happening Someday?: Probably not.  Depp has become something of a pariah, a sellout on-par with Nic Cage at this point, and the abuse allegations against him will age more poorly as time goes by.  I honestly don't think he'll even get an Honorary Oscar considering how much of his once darling arthouse reputation has been drowned in a series of big-budget schlock.

5. Tom Cruise

Nominations: Born on the Fourth of July (Actor in 1989), Jerry Maguire (Actor in 1996), & Magnolia (Supporting Actor in 1999)
He Lost to: Daniel Day-Lewis, Geoffrey Rush, & Michael Caine
Closest to the Win: Cruise has genuinely been close to winning all three times he's been nominated.  Day-Lewis won in 1989 because Cruise was too young and too new to prestige, Jerry Maguire was a loss because Cruise, like his idol Paul Newman, probably was still too rich & famous to need an Oscar to complete the ensemble, and Magnolia would have happened had Miramax not been shoving caviar down the entire Academy's throat (also, everyone's worked with Mike Caine, and seems to love him, so him being thirsty for the thing probably helped).
Well, He Still Won...: Proving you learn something new every time you research an article, Cruise won the Golden Globe every single time he was nominated for the Oscar for the same film.  Oscar just never bit compared to the starstruck HFPA.
Is This Happening Someday?: I can't tell.  Cruise is still famous enough that he could make this work if he really wanted to, and I think (unlike Depp) he'd be forgiven his baggage.  I just don't think he wants to make the types of pictures that would allow him into an awards season, and honestly-can he still pull off such a character?  He hasn't done something like Magnolia or even Jerry Maguire in so long I honestly don't know if he still can, well, act.  An Honorary Oscar could be in the cards though, especially if they set precedence with Harrison Ford or Sly Stallone.  A lot of Academy members paid their mortgages thanks to Cruise's star power.

4. Kirk Douglas

Nominations: Champion (Actor in 1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (Actor in 1952), & Lust for Life (Actor in 1956)
He Lost to: Broderick Crawford, Gary Cooper, & Yul Brynner
Closest to the Win: At the time, most people assumed that Kirk Douglas, then one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, was a shoo-in for a trophy for Lust for Life.  The Academy, though, seemed to like Oscar-lookalike Yul Brynner more in the crowd-pleasing The King & I and so Douglas went empty-handed.  One has to assume if they had known at the time that he'd never get another nomination that he might have won, but who knows what the Academy would do, even with hindsight.
Well, He Still Won...: Douglas deservedly won the Honorary Award at the 1995 Oscars, back when they still broadcast the Honorary winners at the ceremony, so the world was treated to his emotional tribute to his son.  In addition to a slew of Honorary trophies (everything from the DeMille to the Kennedy Center Honors to the AFI Life Achievement Award), he picked up the Golden Globe in 1956 for Lust for Life.
Is This Happening Someday?: No, obviously not.  Douglas is retired and 102.  He got his Honorary Award, and basically every other lifetime achievement award the industry could throw at him, and he'll die a legend.  Kirk Douglas will still be one of the iconic movie stars of all time even without a competitive Oscar, which is surely better than a statue.

3. Bradley Cooper

Nominations: Silver Linings Playbook (Actor in 2012), American Hustle (Supporting Actor in 2013), American Sniper (Actor in 2014), & A Star is Born (Actor in 2018)...he also was nominated for Best Picture for American Sniper & for Picture/Adapted Screenplay for A Star is Born
He Lost to: Daniel Day-Lewis, Jared Leto, Eddie Redmayne & Rami Malek
Closest to the Win: American Sniper felt at the time like it was on the rise, and honestly I wonder if with two more weeks of gargantuan box office if Cooper could have bested Eddie Redmayne.  Also, still not sure what happened this year with the similarly-gargantuan box office for A Star is Born...though at least there Malek came with his own pile of gold.
Well, He Still Won...: Cooper has competed at the Golden Globes, BAFTA's, and Tonys in addition to the Oscars, but like Dafoe, he's never picked up a major trophy.
Is This Happening Someday?: We enter a trio of actors who have been nominated four times without a victory (with Finney's death, no living male actor has received five nominations without winning at least one of them).  Cooper arguably should be first on this list since he has more losses than anyone, but I'm only counting acting trophies.  Also, he's going to win someday unless we're witnessing a Kirk Douglas situation.  Cooper surely has the respect of the industry, and has a hunger for that trophy, which they usually award (especially in men), though he may have to be a little less pretty to finally get there.

2. Willem Dafoe

Nominations: Platoon (Supporting Actor in 1986), Shadow of the Vampire (Supporting Actor in 2000), The Florida Project (Supporting Actor in 2017), & At Eternity's Gate (Actor in 2018)
He Lost to: Michael Caine, Benicio del Toro, Sam Rockwell & Rami Malek
Closest to the Win: I would guess that last year Dafoe was in second place, and I still think it's a bummer that he didn't gain more traction for a clearly better role than Rockwell's, but he hasn't really been close for any of his other work, so I'd go with that film.
Well, He Still Won...: Dafoe has won a mountain of critics' prizes, but never picked up one of the major televised awards.
Is This Happening Someday?: I would assume not, but honestly that fourth nomination threw me a bit.  There were other more obvious contenders (John David Washington, for example) that could have easily snuck in and taken the fifth slot for Best Actor, and Dafoe doing so indicates that there's some appetite to get him an Oscar...but if there was a proper appetite, wouldn't he have won for Florida?  He works with high-profile auteurs, so if one of them gets a film with a little more traction/nominations it could happen, but it'd help if it was in the next couple of years since he's got some recent losses under his belt.

1. Ed Harris

Nominations: Apollo 13 (Supporting Actor in 1995), The Truman Show (Supporting Actor in 1998), Pollock (Actor in 2000), and The Hours (Supporting Actor in 2002)
He Lost to: Kevin Spacey, James Coburn, Russell Crowe, & Chris Cooper
Closest to the Win: Other than The Hours, Harris was close on all three of the other films.  It was down to he & Kevin Spacey in 1995.  In 1998, it was down to he and Robert Duvall (and then in a huge upset James Coburn won, proving that this "closest to the win" is very much a guessing game).  And in 2000, he was surging at the last minute enough to get his costar Marcia Gay Harden across the finish line, but he wasn't able to invade the Crowe/Hanks battle.
Well, He Still Won...: Harris grabbed Golden Globe awards for The Truman Show and Game Change (the HBO TV movie).
Is This Happening Someday?: I doubt it.  Harris still works (Westworld), but he refuses to campaign, and honestly has gotten to the point where I don't even think he'd show up to accept it (he didn't for Game Change), and unless you're Maggie Smith, you don't win if you don't show up.

OVP: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)

Film: The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
Stars: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Scott Glenn, Paddy Considine, Edgar Ramirez, Albert Finney
Director: Paul Greengrass
Oscar History: 3 nominations/3 wins (Best Editing*, Sound Mixing*, Sound Editing*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

And so I finish off the massively successful Bourne trilogy.  Yes, it continued on with Jeremy Renner (anyone remember that?), and yes it is coming back this summer in the form of another iteration starring Matt Damon, but the original Bourne trilogy before Hollywood kind of mandated that we never kill any franchise ever (2007 was a simpler time) is really just the first three films, all of which I had randomly never gotten around to when they initially aired.  I've heard nothing but good things, but so far I've been fine but not impressed with the movies (you can find reviews for Identity and Supremacy in the links).  Would the fact that this one got three Oscars indicate an up in the game?  Let's find out...

(Spoilers Ahead) The problem I find with the Bourne films, except for perhaps the first one (which, by traditional metrics of film-making is the least of the three but arguably makes the most sense and as a result is still my favorite of the bunch), is that you have to be deeply invested in the movie's mythologies in order to really bank on these films, which I just could never get into.  This is partially because so many movies in the wake of this series' success (quite unprecedented for an action-hero trilogy for all three to be adored and to scoop up such accolades), almost every "smart" action movie borrowed ferociously from the series by Paul Greengrass.  As a result, the film feels copied from, which isn't its fault, but it is of course a problem.

The other issue I have with the film is that the plot is relatively easy to solve, but so much of the movie's driving narrative is reliant upon us not knowing what comes next.  Characters like David Strathairn's Noah Vosen are considered so bad that you half expect them to be twisting a mustache while Matt Damon swoops in to save himself and Nell Fenwick (here, played by Julia Stiles, totally ruining the red herring appeal of her character in the first film).  Honestly, I get that the action in the movie is really impressive-Matt Damon is a truly capable movie star, as is Joan Allen, but I wasn't blown away at all here, and in many ways this film feels like the same movie I just saw with Supremacy.  Doing the same thing with the same pieces again and again isn't really great movie-making, and so I left relatively disappointed, and quite frankly thought that this was the least of the three pictures.

The movie received three Academy Awards, two for sound and one for editing.  It's easy to see why these were easy categories for the Academy to gravitate toward, and the sound editing in particular I'm willing to get behind as the fight scenes are well choreographed and the street noise (which feels tacked on and therefore I'm putting it in editing) is authentically noisy for a busy thoroughfare, but it's not artistry in the same way that some of the other movies are achieving that year.  The editing, as well, doesn't have the subtleties and sense of purpose that we get in something like No Country for Old Men.  All-in-all, I feel like this is one of those series that critics got smitten with and couldn't really bag on even if it was diminishing returns, and repetitive ones at that, until Jeremy Renner gave them a scapegoat.

I know I'm in the minority here, and I get some of the appeal (this is the last important role for Joan Allen until Room, and that's worth noting), but I wasn't blown away.  Anyone want to defend the series in the comments?  Anyone think this was, like me, the worst of the three?  And what of those trio of Oscars-which did it genuinely deserve and what was all just a lovefest?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Most Oscar-Nominated Actors Without a Win

With Julianne Moore's recent Oscar win, we have removed one of those actors who have long been on the "they need an Oscar" list, and got me to thinking-what other actors are nearing Juli's nomination count (or have surpassed it) that could still be included on this list?  This sounded like a fun idea, and so I figured I'd pull together a list of the most-nominated living actors without an Oscar.

I will point out a few things before we begin our Top 8.  For starters, it should be worth noting that four nominations is the cutoff for entry here, but there are a myriad of actors who still work very regularly that could make this list and are currently at three.  Actors as varied as Nick Nolte, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tom Cruise, Bradley Cooper, and Laura Linney have amassed a trio of nominations in their careers and could always be good for one more, gaining entrance to the club.  There are actors like Kenneth Branagh, not included below, who have been nominated in other categories and therefore have four or more nominations, but not enough acting nominations without a win to make the list.  And then there's Warren Beatty (also not cited below) who has won Best Director but didn't emerge victorious on any of his four acting nominations.  Therefore, we have just a paltry eight nominees who have been nominated at least four times and have absolutely no wins yet, proving how rare this is.  Let's get started (ties are broken by whichever person achieved their latest nomination most recently):

8. Leonardo DiCaprio
Nominations: 4 (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and The Wolf of Wall Street); Leo also got a Best Picture nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him...: Leo's won two Golden Globe Awards, for The Aviator and The Wolf of Wall Street
He Got the Closest On: DiCaprio decidedly got second place with The Aviator but he never had a shot of taking down Jamie Foxx.  That's still probably his closest, though, as Tommy Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker, and Matthew McConaughey were all th surest of things.
Is This Ever Happening?: I have to suspect yes, even if he continually threatens to quit acting.  The collective internet has made it their active duty to act like Leo (who is admittedly a very fine actor) not having an Oscar yet is a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare.  As you can see he is on the list, but only in eighth so there are seven other actors who are still kicking and have been waiting longer and more often than Jack Dawson for their Oscars, so everyone needs some perspective.  Though, yes, Leo needs an Oscar.

7. Annette Bening

Nominations: 4 (The Grifters, American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Kids Are All Right)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Bening also has two Golden Globes, one for Being Julia and the other for The Kids Are All Right
She Got the Closest On: This is harder to tell than for Leo, though I have to believe that it was American Beauty.  Bening had an actual movement at the time to give her the Oscar because "it was time" which people frequently called ageist and sexist (since she was only 41 at the time, hardly a death's door situation).  However, she hasn't won on her two chances since then (famously losing to Hilary Swank a second time in 2004), though she may well have been in second place all four nominations.
Is This Ever Happening?: I am not sure.  Women have a tougher time past the age of fifty getting nominated and winning, as is evidenced by Julianne Moore, but who knows if Still Alice becomes a thing-people seem to have thoroughly enjoyed giving it to the long-respected Moore, which may well open up more doors down the road for older actresses who get character centerpieces.  She certainly works in prestige projects and while she doesn't headline movies with great frequency, she gets a lot more quality work than some of her peers like Sigourney Weaver and Michelle Pfeiffer.  I wouldn't bet against it in the way I would Weaver and Pfeiffer, but it's not as clear cut as Leo (the only person on this list I'm certain will win a competitive Oscar someday).

6. Ed Harris

Nominations: 4 (Apollo 13, The Truman Show, Pollock, The Hours)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him: Harris has two Golden Globes for The Hours and Game Change
He Got the Closest On: The Truman Show-he was actually a clear 50/50 shot in 1995 for Apollo 13 and had a lot of late-breaking momentum for Pollock (The Hours was never an option), but The Truman Show he was actually the frontrunner.  Sentiment (and an admittedly strong performance) for James Coburn in Affliction upended Harris in what was clearly his best shot at the trophy (I remember Coburn being somewhere around fourth place for predictions that year, as Harris and Robert Duvall were clearly the two trying to take the trophy).
Is This Ever Happening?: Very doubtful.  It's not like Harris doesn't work anymore (he's regularly doing bit parts in movies) and clearly still has a passion for acting, but he hates awards shows and isn't going to campaign for it in the way modern awards seasons demand, and I doubt anyone is going to give him a Mo'Nique level performance that would basically mandate the politically-outspoken actor win.  An Emmy seems far more likely at this juncture.

5. Jane Alexander

Nominations: 4 (The Great White Hope, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Testament)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Alexander has two Emmy Awards, one for Playing for Time and another for Warm Springs
She Got Closest On: Halfway through the list we get two actresses from the 1970's who somehow managed major success but missed with Oscar and are little known today.  I suspect that Alexander, by process of elimination, was closest in 1976 with All the President's Men.  1970's Great White Hope was never a realistic shot (though you have to check out the video of it being presented just to see her dress, which looks like something out of the court of Marie Antoinette),  and Meryl/Shirley were always going to win her latter two.  1976, on the other hand, went to Beatrice Straight in a race that was pitting Alexander in a solid race against a young Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver, but the Academy's love of Network pushed the shortest performance ever into the light as a win.  Had it not, there's a decent chance that Alexander, who was a major player at the time, might have trumped future movie star Foster and taken this for a very popular film that did win Best Supporting Actor, after all.
Is This Ever Happening?: Extremely doubtful.  Alexander still works quite regularly (she turned 75 this past year), but it's almost always in bit parts or guest appearances on television.  Her moments at the Oscars are over at this point.

4. Marsha Mason

Nominations: 4 (Cinderella Liberty, The Goodbye Girl, Chapter Two, and Only When I Laugh)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Mason has won two Golden Globe awards, for Cinderella Liberty and The Goodbye Girl.
She Got Closest On: I know that Glenda Jackson was a bit of a surprise in 1973 when she won her second trophy, which leads me to think it might have been that one that she came the closest on (she did pick up the Globe for Actress in a Drama).  One wonders if the Academy had known at the time that she'd be such a fixture in movies over the next decade (this was her big break) if they'd skipped Jackson, who never showed up for awards anyway, and given it to Mason who would become a mainstay at the Oscars and showed up all four times she was nominated (a rarity for a performer in the 1970's).
Is This Ever Happening?: I actually told a friend of mine that Mason was a four-time nominee and he was stunned (yes, I frequently work Marsha Mason into most of my conversations), which is sort of telling as he's a pretty connected film fan.  So this seems doubtful, but she may well do something only one other actor ever has: be nominated for all four awards in the EGOT and not win one.  Only Lynn Redgrave has ever done it, and Mason has already been nominated for (and lost) the Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy, and is constantly doing something on the New York stage.  I think she should go for it!

3. Amy Adams

Nominations: 5 (Junebug, Doubt, The Wrestler, The Master, and American Hustle)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: She has two Golden Globes for American Hustle and Big Eyes
She Got Closest On: Until American Hustle I claimed that Amy Adams had the distinction of being in fourth place every nomination she got.  This seemed to end with American Hustle, where she was probably in second place (considering she was the only one of the nominees that year who didn't already have an Oscar on her mantle and she was in a Best Picture nominee).  Still, beating Blanchett that year was a nearly impossible order so it wasn't a close second by any estimation.
Is This Ever Happening?: I'm starting to think no.  It's weird-no performer has been more frequently crowned in the past decade with a nomination (outside of Meryl) than Adams, and yet she's never a frontrunner for the win.  She's at that age for actresses where a lot of opportunities begin to disappear (she just turned 40), she missed for Big Eyes despite solid precursor support (her first time since Enchanted where that happened), and her only role on-deck right now is Superman v. Batman.  She clearly wants it and has been playing hard for it in the past few years (perhaps even would move to that "infrequent work" stage of her career for a while like Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon did after their wins if she got the trophy), so she might just go extremely BAIT-y in a biopic soon to get it over with (though that may have ben what Big Eyes was supposed to be).  She certainly has the momentum, but she needs to nail this down in the next year or two as Oscar will move on to another performer lwho keeps missing pretty quickly (look to Marsha Mason for proof).

2. Albert Finney

Nominations: 5 (Tom Jones, Murder on the Orient Express, The Dresser, Under the Volcano, Erin Brockovich)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Him: Mr. Finney has three Golden Globes (for Tom Jones, Scrooge, and The Gathering Storm)
He Got Closest On: Surely his first, when he was headlining a Best Picture and lost to Sidney Poitier in a threeway battle between Finney, Poitier, and Paul Newman.  He was probably also in second place for Erin Brockovich, but Benicio del Toro had that one locked up.  It's worth noting that 1974 had arguably the biggest shock in Best Actor history with Art Carney trumping not only Finney in Orient Express but also Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, Al Pacino in Godfather II, and Dustin Hoffman in Lenny (at the time none of them had won yet), so who the hell knows what order that year was in.
Is This Ever Happening?: No-Finney still works sporadically (most recently in Skyfall) and is probably legendary enough that he could pull a Christopher Plummer/Beginners if he tried, but he's famously against awards shows (he doesn't campaign and never shows up) and that's not going to fly today (even with an Honorary Award where he'd be guaranteed to have his speech).

1. Glenn Close

Nominations: 6 (The World According to Garp, The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons, Albert Nobbs)
Don't Feel Too Bad for Her: Despite famously missing one big award, Close has won three Emmys, two Golden Globes, and three Tonys.
She Got Closest On: So, so many.  The back-to-back victories by Cher and Jodie Foster over Close's first two lead nominations were in insanely rich and competitive Oscar races.  One could easily see Close winning either (particularly for the mammoth hit Fatal Attraction) without any eyelash-batting.
Is This Ever Happening?: I find it very likely that Close will end up with an Honorary Award at some point-she has the sort of stature in the filmic community to win a trophy there, and I think at this point that she will probably gladly take it.  Still, she's in that position of someone akin to Paul Newman or Al Pacino or Geraldine Page quite frankly where if she were to finally get a frontrunner nomination (not something like Albert Nobbs where it was clearly she barely made the cut but a Color of Money or Scent of a Woman or Trip to Bountiful), she'd almost certainly win.  She's too legendary to deny at this point if she just keeps trying.  If I were her I'd try for some plum supporting role and see if that turns into anything.  Cause it's a damn shame that Glenn Close doesn't have an Oscar.

And those are the Top 8-any surprises?  Who do you think is the first to make it?  Who do you think will eventually make it?  And who ends up an unhonored statistic like Richard Burton and Thelma Ritter?  Share in the comments!

Oscar Trivia: The Quest for Six Decades

An Oscar nomination is a truly amazing moment in an actor's career.  For many, it's the moment they have dreamt of all of their lives-the culmination of years of work, determination, and a little bit of luck when just the right fates align and nab them their career high point.

And for most Oscar nominees, that's it.  If I remember my statistics right, it's about 65% of all Oscar nominees for acting will only get that one nomination, that one moment in the sun that will be in the first two lines of their obituary.  And that's great-we'll get to all of you in the OVP (or we've already gotten to you, in which case don't get greedy).

But for other actors, that one Oscar nomination is hardly enough, and they want more.  Some of these actors enjoy quick bursts of nominations like Renee Zellweger or Russell Crowe, but we're going to focus today on people who have managed to sustain decades of Oscar stamina.

It's actually extremely rare to be able to be nominated at least one time in four different decades, and even rarer to pull it off consecutively.  Since we're about to hit the decade's halfway point (can you believe that?!?), this is the perfect time to see who is on-track to continue their streaks and who might be in trouble.

Before we start, let's go through the people who have passed on and are no longer in the running but hit 4 or 5 decades (as the title alludes to, no one has hit six...and yes, this is a trivia article so if I missed an actor, share in the comments below).

Five Decades in a Row: Laurence Olivier (1930's-70's)
Five Decades Non-Consecutively: Katharine Hepburn (1930's-1980's, no 70's), Paul Newman (1950's-00's, no 70's as well)
Four Decades in a Row: Bette Davis (1930's-60's), Jack Lemmon (1950-80's), Geraldine Page (1950's-80's),
Four Decades Non-Consecutively: Mickey Rooney (1930's-70's, no 60's), Peter O'Toole (1960's-00's, no 90's)...both of whom never won competitive Oscars though they both won Honorary ones

Again, it's a short list, and one that has gotten considerably longer as the stars of the 1960's have stuck around further than was typical with stars of yore.  We'll start out with those actors that are still living and have already hit three decades.

Waiting for the Fourth...

Of the thirteen living actors who have been nominated in three separate decades for acting awards (and for the record, the year the film came out is the beginning of the decade-none of this "Google Search Driving Miss Daisy won the 1990 Oscars" crap), some actually have to wait a few more years before they can try again as their third nomination came in the 2010's and they can't get another decade under their belt for a few more years.  Most of these actors did this in the 1990's, 2000's, and 2010's: Brad Pitt, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, and Annette Bening all have nominations in each of the past three decades (it's worth noting that Bening is the only one of these four actors who doesn't have an Oscar, and is one of only two actors who have hit more than three that is still alive without an Oscar-I'm just saying AMPAS, but keep that in mind in a few years when you're handing out Honoraries and Bening is still empty-handed).  The only non-consecutive actor who has scored this decade would be Sally Field, who took a 28-year gap between her second and third nods, and did this oddly with only three nominations (Lincoln, her most recent nod, is her only loss to date).  And though it's hardly worth listing all of the actors who have two decades behind them, at least a trio of theoretical threats this year (Julianne Moore, Hilary Swank, and Marisa Tomei) could potentially join this list.

There are eight other actors, however, who could well reach their fourth decade citation in upcoming years.  Most promising of the bunch would be Robert Duvall, who is actually on most people's projections for a nomination later this year with The Judge (though Duvall has come extremely close to grabbing a nomination before with Get Low in 2010 and came up short so he may miss again).  Duvall is in the majority in not having consecutive decades: he's joined by Jodie Foster (who hasn't been nominated in twenty years), Sissy Spacek (who skipped the 90's), Ellen Burstyn (who also skipped the 90's), and Al Pacino (who skipped the Aughts).  All of these actors work fairly consistently, though Burstyn is more about television these days and Pacino is more about cashing in on his once grand legacy as an actor.  Still, though, if Robert de Niro can randomly get nominated for Silver Linings Playbook, anyone can come out of awards show retirement.

Only three actors are working on the slightly more impressive four consecutive decades: Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, and Holly Hunter.  Freeman and Kingsley work consistently and constantly, and Kingsley in particular is the sort of actor who gets nominated every time there's something prestigious about his work (he also has that feel of an actor who may score one last supporting win to get two trophies).  Hunter has long since been relegated to television (she got her third-in-a-row for a supporting role in Thirteen in something of a comeback, and you only get so many of those).  Still, these are actors to be on the lookout for in coming years to see if they can continue their respective streaks.

Waiting for a Fifth...

Once again, we can start out with five actors who have already scored their 2010's hit and are now just biding their time until they can try again.  Two of these actors have done five decades (shockingly) non-consecutively (which means they very well could have been in the running for six if they'd had a little more luck in a certain year).  Jeff Bridges skipped the 1990's (missing for The Fisher King) and Robert de Niro missed the Aughts (probably getting closest for Meet the Parents...though admittedly not too close).  The other three actors, though, have hit every decade since the 1980's consecutively: Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, and Daniel Day-Lewis (all, oddly enough, nominated in 1989), and have already gotten this decade crossed off.  Day-Lewis has notably won in three of those four decades.

Another twelve actors have scored four decades and are on the search for a fifth.  They range from actors who are constantly churning out films to actors who have largely retired from the cinema but are thankfully still kicking.  Though many of these actors scored their nominations consecutively, only one of the dozen is currently on a streak: that would be Diane Keaton, who has scored a nomination every decade since the 1970's (and only one nomination per decade, it's worth pointing out).  Keaton rarely challenges herself since Something's Gotta Give, but she's the sort of actor who bides her time until something brilliant randomly comes along and everyone remembers how much they love her.

Other working actors that could make it include busy actors such as Jon Voight (who skipped the 1990's despite constantly making movies since his big break in Midnight Cowboy), Shirley MacLaine (who, had she scored for Postcards from the Edge as she was expected to, would be a column down), Vanessa Redgrave (her botched campaigns for Atonement and Coriolanus actually mean that she could well have had the record by now!), Dustin Hoffman (who continues to make enough films often enough that he should be able to pull this off in a surprise supporting role, despite missing the Aughts), and of course Dame Maggie Smith (who skipped the 1990's, but came roaring back in the past ten years as a genuine box office draw and nearly won a citation for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel a couple of years ago).  The only one with a legit shot this year appears to be Smith, who has what could be a sleeper hit later this fall in My Old Lady (in a weak Best Actress year her name could be enough, and she's my dark horse contender for a nomination).

Other actors who are looking for a fifth don't work as often or are notoriously curmudgeonly about working again.  Joanne Woodward (not nominated since 1990, but extending all the way back to the 1950's with her streak, the earliest nomination for a living person in this article) rarely works anymore, and Gene Hackman (who missed for The Royal Tenenbaums due to category confusion, costing him his fifth consecutive citation) is happily retired.  Albert Finney (who missed the 1990's) hates the Oscars and only does bit parts these days, though he's the other actor (aside from Bening) who is living and has hit the 3+ decade counter, so he'd also be a decent contender for an Honorary Award (that he'd never show up for it in a million years).  Warren Beatty keeps claiming that he'll make another movie (that long-rumored Howard Hughes biopic is the stuff of cinematic legend), but I'll believe it when I can hold a ticket for the film (my plan is to see it as a double feature with Flora Plum)-he missed the Aughts but made it back to the 1960's with Bonnie and Clyde.  And finally there is Julie Christie, who has resumed working if not necessarily in major cinematic work.  She skipped the 1980's and bizarrely has only received one nomination in each decade she's been cited in (much like Keaton).

Waiting for a Sixth...

As the stats above corroborate, getting a sixth is damn hard work, as there's a reason no one has done it.  Kate Hepburn probably could have had she done more significant film work in the 1970's, but she spent most of that time on the stage, and she's probably the only one who has come close until now.  Three living actors have pulled off five decades in a row, and one in particular seems determined to break yet another of Hepburn's records (not settling for a tie).

Meryl Streep is the only actor who has managed to pull off a 2010 nomination already and have five in a row.  Streep, it's worth noting, is also the only actor to have more than one nomination in five different decades (Olivier getting Rebecca made a year too late), a record that may stand for infinity (of all of the living actors we've profiled, Robert Duvall is the only other actor who has gotten more than two in each of his eligible decades, and he's twenty years behind Streep and is 83-years-old).  Streep will need to continue her current stamina to hit the goal, but at this rate she could well take it in the 2020's (she'll only be in her seventies).

That is if one of the two other living actors don't go for the title first.  Both have received consecutive nominations since the 1960's, and at least one is still working.  Michael Caine, an actor you don't always think of for such lists, got his first nomination in 1966, then got cited in 1972, 1983, 1986, 1999, and 2002, and despite being 81, continues to work constantly (he'll be in the highly-anticipated Interstellar later this year) and has made no secret about his desire to win a third Oscar for a leading role.  Just one nomination would land him the record, and put Streep in a difficult position-2030 is a long way to go to actually beat this title outright.

The other person is the recently retired Jack Nicholson, who made his last film four years ago and claims he is done with cinema.  I don't want to call Jack a liar, but part of me wonders if his best friend Warren Beatty couldn't talk him out of that self-imposed exile to do a showy supporting role in that long-gestating Hughes biopic (surely Beatty's final film?) and get one last nomination.  Either way, it's hard to deny he's had a spectacular career.

And there you have it folks-a morning's dose of Oscar trivia.  Do you think that Streep, Caine, or Nicholson could take the record?  Who will be the next person to score four or five decades' worth of nominations?  Share in the comments!

OVP: Skyfall (2012)

Film: Skyfall (2012)
Stars: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Ben Whishaw, Albert Finney
Director: Sam Mendes
Oscar History: 5 nominations/2 wins (Best Sound Editing*, Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Original Score, Original Song-"Skyfall"*)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

I must admit freely that, because of my Millennial background, that even with my love of classic film, the first Bond that comes to my mind is Daniel Craig.  He wasn't the first Bond I was introduced to in theaters (that would be the tail-end of the Brosnan years), but for me, when I think Bond I go to Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (let's be honest, I think of him emerging from the water in those blue swim trunks, but that's an entirely different matter).

(With high-profile movies, I consider everything about the film a spoiler, so I'll just give you a head's up that we're hitting spoilers both light and heavy soon, so proceed at your own risk) It's important to note this, as I go in with none of the prejudices against him because he's blond or tougher or a little sexually androgynous (more on that later), and can just dive right into the film at hand, which is a doozy.  We open with Bond trying to run down a man in Instanbul (along with the comely Naomie Harris, a mysterious agent with MI6, and one of two "Bond girls" in the film), we get to see one of the best action sequences in years, complete with motorcycling across the Grand Bazaar and a train being cut in half, and Bond inexplicably going over a waterfall, presumed dead, with the bad guy getting away, and remarkably none of the cavalcade of bullets reaching their target.  As his body enters the water, the iconic typography starts to roll across the screen and Adele pronounces, "this is the end..." and little do we know that she's truly speaking about a major character in the film and that she's giving away some rather large plot points, albeit ambiguously.  Then again, it's Adele, so really you're just so wrapped up in the buttery silk of her voice that it's hard to focus on the actual lyrics.

As the film continues, we get confirmation that the target of this film, and indeed the primary focus of this film, is going to be M, giving Judi Dench a chance to shine in the movie.  We also see that, of course, James Bond has not perished after being shot and thrown down a waterfall (because who could that ever kill?), and once MI6 headquarters is attacked, Bond reappears either out of duty or out of his devotion to M, something not clear at the time, though it appears to be more the latter as the film continues.

This leads Bond to Shanghai, where Craig is given yet another exotic locale to do stunning acrobatics.  In this film we get a nod to the slightly aging (but still sexy as hell) Daniel Craig, as he doesn't pass his physical field tests to get back to work as an agent, but M puts him out there anyway.  A telling nod to this is when Bond is hanging on to the bottom of an elevator and can barely hang on.  I will note that for me, who has a nasty fear of high, open spaces, this sequence was probably the most "turn-away-from-the-screen," and this is a film that includes a man pulling a bullet from his body.  Watching Bond sail up that open elevator shaft, 100 stories from the ground, was a great action visual, as well as a bit nauseating.

Before this feat of daring, we are also briefly introduced to the new Q, the hauntingly beautiful Ben Whishaw, who has a fun way of playing with Bond's head, continually perpetuating the age-issue by being considerably younger than Bond, and constantly messing with him about his seniority.

After killing the assassin, in true Bond fashion, he also finds a woman, the beautiful Severine, and we get perhaps the only good pickup scene in a movie where Bond is fairly celibate, compared to his usual outings.  Marlohe, unlike say Eva Green a few years back, doesn't get enough time or enough depth to showcase any sort of acting talent, other than the ability to make her nails both alluring and look like daggers.  In his pursuit of Marlohe, who will lead her to her captor, Raoul Silva, Bond gets a hilarious sequence with a pair of komodo dragons, and then he is invited to Silva's private island in the middle of presumably the South China Sea (it's a little hard to tell, considering it seems like you're going through an entire season of Anthony Bourdain locales in one movie during a Bond film).  Of course, before he goes into the island, Bond seduces Severine in the shower, because he is of course James Bond.

And this is where we finally meet Javier Bardem's Silva.  Silva is a villain in the classic sense of the film, one that could rank alongside Goldfinger in terms of grand scale ruthlessness and hambone theatrics.  In their introduction scene, we get the scene that everyone will be talking about coming out of the film, the scene where Bardem, after revealing part of his plan to Bond (a former agent at MI6, he clearly loathes and obsesses over M, and wants to see her destroyed), he does some heavy flirting with Bond, playing with his chest and face, and insinuates that there's a "first time for everything," meaning indulging in the love that dare not speak its name, to which Bond replies, "what makes you think it's my first time?" It's a clever way to the end the scene, but it begs the question of if there was a Bond boy mixed in with the multitude of Bond girls?

The film progresses from there, with Silva seemingly always ahead of Bond, and having the cunning and flamboyant malice of a Batman villain.  We see M crucified by the press for not being able to handle the situation, and even before a Minister of the British government (played by Helen McCrory in a bit part, and I have to say the entire time that I was thinking "Cherie Blair is in Parliament!") it is questioned whether or not MI6 serves a purpose anymore in a post-Cold War world.  This is followed by a round of bullets coming from Silva's men on the committee hearing, which of course answers the question with a resounding "yes!" better than anything M ever could say.

The film finally reaches its conclusion (though its pacing is brisk and you never really notice the length, the film is over two hours long) at Skyfall, the manor of Bond's boyhood, where we are treated to Albert Finney in a fun cameo as the gameskeeper of the estate (though wouldn't you have loved to have seen Connery take on the role, considering the 50th anniversary implications?), who, along with M and Bond, build a fortress out of this building and sustain Silva's attacks for quite a while, before the estate bursts into flames.  M is shot in the film, and in the penultimate scene of the movie, she dies in Bond's arms (Silva having already gotten a knife in the back from Bond, the "old-fashioned" way), and we are eventually introduced to the new M (Ralph Fiennes, always sturdy in the film, getting just enough wryness out of his character to ensure that he'll make a solid future leader for MI6).


Clearly after devoting 1000-words to the film, I must admit to liking it, and I did.  Though it's not quite as good as Casino Royale was six years ago (that may perch next to Goldfinger in the "untouchable" Bond film excellence category), it's a brisk and taut action thriller.  Craig, a fine actor on top of being dead sexy and "just-enough-of-a-bad-boy" to fill the Bond shoes, is once again top-notch after his novocaine-headache of a performance in Quantum of Solace four years ago.  Both Bardem and Dench sink their teeth into their respective roles, with Bardem clearly having a blast as Silva and Dench making an indelible mark as one of the best performers in the Bond series.  The movie's action sequences are sublime, though there are some other marks that fall a little short, particularly the complete lack of interest in the two Bond girls in the final half of the movie.  The movie also seems to borrow a bit from the Dark Knight franchise, not necessarily a bad thing, but you don't want Bond to get into the orphaned child story or the constant search for a parental figure too deeply.  You want him armed with sleek guns, bodacious babes (of either gender, apparently), and exotic locales.  But these are very minor quibbles in an otherwise excellent movie, and the entire film has me raring to go for the next 50 years of England's deadliest weapon.

And I shall now hand it over to you with food for thought-what did you think of Skyfall?  Where does it rank on your personal Bond list?  And with several of the Bond staples recast (Q, M, Moneypenny), who are you hoping will become the next villain, love interest, and Bond theme-singer for the next movie?