2025 Oscar Viewing Project

Just in time for Oscar next weekend, I have officially seen all of the Oscar Viewing Project contenders for 2025!  For the second year in a row, I've done this before the ceremony, which feels very in-theme for how we operate.  For those that are new, the Oscar Viewing Project has me watching every single narrative, feature-length nominee at the Academy Awards (i.e. no shorts or documentaries, unless they're in the traditionally feature-length, narrative categories), and rating them in a vacuum, picking my choices based on whom Oscar selected based solely on the quality of the 3-5 nominees in front of me.  If you are truly new, this is the 32nd of the 98 Oscar ceremonies we've done this for, and you can see links at the bottom of this list for past contests.  For the first time since 2001, we have a new category that will be added, and it will be covered (Casting), and I will also be adding it to the My Ballots going forward (though not retroactively).  I have a few more screenings left to finish up the 2025 My Ballot (where I pick the nominees), including one specific animated film that's been annoyingly hard to get ahold of, but in the meantime, we will sort through Oscar.  As a reminder, here was where the domestic box office ranked in 2025:

1. Zootopia 2

2. A Minecraft Movie

3. Lilo & Stitch

4. Avatar: Fire and Ash

5. Superman

6. Wicked: For Good

7. Jurassic World: Rebirth

8. Sinners

9. The Fantastic Four: First Steps

10. How to Train Your Dragon

(Note: I will point out this is the current lineup as of the last writing.  Avatar: Fire and Ash, specifically, is still making relatively decent domestic money, though likely not enough to outearn Lilo & Stitch and move onto the medal stand)

Of these 10 films, I've seen eight of them, skipping both of the live-action animated remakes because, as a general rule, I think these are terrible.  I think it's notable, looking at this, how we have at least one truly original movie (Sinners becoming the highest-grossing totally original story since Gravity), and that the MCU truly just fell from grace here, with Thunderbolts not even crossing the $200M mark domestically and Captain America: Brave New World making $700M less than the last Captain America movie did at the box office (and only Fantastic Four making the Top 10).  Looking down the box office list, most of the unseen movies that I haven't caught yet are horror movie sequels, though The Housemaid stands out as maybe the movie I should've caught and might try to sneak in before the My Ballot (I will definitely be seeing How to Train Your Dragon given so many people loved the visual effects).

But now, it's time to go back just a few months to a time we all were getting a crush on Zohran Mamdani, watching Taylor & Travis get engaged, and seeing the first American pope.  And of course, let's remember the movies...

Picture

1. One Battle After Another

2. Hamnet

3. The Secret Agent

4. Sinners

5. Sentimental Value

6. Train Dreams

7. F1

8. Bugonia

9. Marty Supreme

10. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: This is a solid list in what was honestly a very good year for movies, maybe the best since 2021 or even 2017.  But there's no competition for Paul Thomas Anderson here-One Battle After Another is a profound, challenging picture with universally good acting and writing.  Hamnet is really special in second place, proving that Chloe Zhao is emerging as one of our most thoughtful and introspective directors, and I have a sincere enjoyment of the craftsmanship of something like The Secret Agent or Sinners, but One Battle is on another level, and as you'll see, is going to be batting really well this write-up.

Director

1. Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another)

2. Chloe Zhao (Hamnet)

3. Ryan Coogler (Sinners)

4. Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value)

5. Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme)

The Lowdown: A second showdown between Anderson & Zhao (both of whom are going to repeat when we get to the 2025 My Ballot), but I won't pretend this is a close race.  I've actually been much kinder to PTA than Oscar has (his films have plenty of My Ballot statues), but I'm glad on some level that Oscar waited for (what I hope) will be a coronation here as this will become the defining work of his career.  Also, I want to say for the record that Josh Safdie's personal troubles are not why he's in last...I just really did not like his movie.

Actor

1. Leonardo DiCaprio (One Battle After Another)

2. Michael B. Jordan (Sinners)

3. Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

4. Ethan Hawke (Blue Moon)

5. Timothee Chalamet (Marty Supreme)

The Lowdown: Best Actor remains the best lineup of the 2025 acting races, and I will own that none of these (not even Timmy in a movie I didn't like) is a bad performance.  In terms of a win, though, Leo's best work in years is really going to take it over Michael B. Jordan adding nuance to two different characters and Wagner Moura's steady, marked performance in The Secret Agent.  Leo's so good here-a man that even in his prime was over-his-head but in love with ideals and a woman who wouldn't stay, having to reengage with life to save the only thing he truly cares about...this is the kind of star power electricity that Leo promised when he was in his Chalamet years.

Actress

1. Jessie Buckley (Hamnet)

2. Emma Stone (Bugonia)

3. Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)

4. Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue)

5. Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I'd Kick You)

The Lowdown: I will largely skate by the elephant in the room (I love Rose Byrne, I love Kate Hudson, but these performances are not ranked incorrectly...do with that what you will), and instead focus on the real competition: Jessie Buckley's spiritual work as a mother trying to connect with a man she loves but can't understand and a boy she knows but cannot grasp, and Emma Stone's terrifying girlboss incarnate, totally grasping on to Bugonia's bizarre (and oftentimes off-kilter) wavelength.  I'm going with Buckley because I think she is able to connect more to the ending than Stone.

Supporting Actor

1. Sean Penn (One Battle After Another)

2. Benicio del Toro (One Battle After Another)

3. Stellan Skarsgard (Sentimental Value)

4. Delroy Lindo (Sinners)

5. Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein)

The Lowdown: I like #3-5 in other things (truth be told, there is no acting performance of the 20 that I truly disliked even if there are movies that were cited that I disliked, which is rare), but for me it's a competition between the two Oscar-winning acting titans in One Battle After Another.  I'm going with Penn not because he's the bigger performance, but because I think that big performances sometimes get a bad rap in modern acting (del Toro is certainly subtle), but you need them when you're playing a big character like he is, and he totally inhabits a unique type of weak toxicity that's rarely seen represented in the movies (but oftentimes on cable news).

Supporting Actress

1. Amy Madigan (Weapons)

2. Teyana Taylor (One Battle After Another)

3. Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value)

4. Wunmi Mosaku (Sinners)

5. Inga Ibsdotter Lileaas (Sentimental Value)

The Lowdown: Madigan gives one of the most unhinged supporting performances in recent years, channeling in many ways actors like Kathy Bates in Misery or Ruth Gordon in Rosemary's Baby to give us something truly terrifying (and speaking of Trump, if you think the red-haired clown terrorizing a group of children isn't an allegory for the guy that has plagued the Epstein list, watch again).  Taylor would be a really worthy winner too, and I love the imprint she made on this movie with only time in the first 40 minutes or so, but this is Madigan by the widest margin of the acting races.

Adapted Screenplay

1. One Battle After Another

2. Hamnet

3. Train Dreams

4. Bugonia

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: One Battle is not done with its wins yet, and takes another one for PTA.  One Battle is honestly one of the rare one of Anderson's films that is more of a director's achievement than a writing or acting one, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have the oomph to best Hamnet, which is also a wonderful and deceptively strong screenplay (the way that it folds ideas of Shakespeare into the film, while also feeling vaguely universal).  The rest of this category I'd probably upend, and will when we get to the My Ballot.

Original Screenplay

1. Sinners

2. Sentimental Value

3. Blue Moon

4. It Was Just an Accident

5. Marty Supreme

The Lowdown: I'll be honest, the writing categories are where a relatively decent Best Picture lineup (like I said, 2025 is one of the best years for movies so far this decade) shows some chinks in the armor, as you have films like Marty Supreme & Bugonia where I actively disliked the endings and felt they took down chunks of the movie.  There is a touch of that with Sinners, so I will note that it is just barely beating out Sentimental Value (which nails its ending), but the inventive plotting and the way that it unfolds a closed door horror so well means I'm going to slightly favor the vampires over the Swedish introspection.

Animated Feature Film

1. Elio

2. Little Amelie, or the Character of Rain

3. Zootopia 2

4. Arco

5. KPop Demon Hunters

The Lowdown: In what was otherwise a strong year for cinema, I'll own that animation was terrible.  It's not even a case where we have a bunch of better films sitting around-KPop is good when the music is playing and Zootopia is good if you don't constantly compare it to the original and Arco is good if you pretend the melancholy ending was at all earned by the rest of the picture...but overall this is not an impressive list.  If I have to pick a winner, it'd be Elio, a somewhat forgettable Pixar movie that nonetheless has gorgeous animation, beautiful music, and some really strong emotional plotting, but would stand out more if Pixar hadn't been using the same plot for every non-Toy Story film since Cars 3).

International Feature Film

1. The Secret Agent (Brazil)

2. Sentimental Value (Norway)

3. It Was Just an Accident (France)

4. Sirat (Spain)

5. The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia)

The Lowdown: The movies of this category used to, on very rare occasion, get nominations in other fields, but this year we have four of them nominated elsewhere and two nominated for Best Picture.  Even with this category, the Academy is becoming entirely focused on the Best Picture field.  Thankfully that's where this should be, as those are the two best movies of the bunch, with weirdly similar plots (both movies are essentially about how you can never know your parents).  I prefer The Secret Agent, a subtler movie with a more sprawling historical look behind it (and the better central performance), but honestly either one here is a winner.

Score

1. Hamnet

2. One Battle After Another

3. Sinners

4. Bugonia

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: I am a total sucker for Max Richter, whose soft melodies and gorgeous, romantic use of strings and swelling orchestras is a callback to the man I frequently confuse him with (Max Steiner).  Hamnet earned him his first Academy Award nomination, and I struggle to find a reason not to give him this (the OVP is in a vacuum, as a reminder, so I'm not trying to make up for lost time-just noting that Richter has gotten multiple My Ballot nods at this point, and will get another one in 2025 from me when we get there later this month).  One Battle After Another, by another favorite of mine (Jonny Greenwood) is really aces as well, even if it isn't quite as distinctive as we're used to from Greenwood's collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson.

Original Song

1. "I Lied to You," Sinners

2. "Golden," KPop Demon Hunters

3. "Sweet Dreams of Joy," Viva Verdi!

4. "Train Dreams," Train Dreams

5. "Dear Me," Diane Warren: Relentless

The Lowdown: I sometimes struggle with how to grade this category, because I do feel that it should not just be about the quality of the song, but also about how it is incorporated into the movie.  "Golden" is an ear worm that I have not stopped listening to since it came out (there's a reason this became a genuine pop hit), but the "I Lied to You" sequence in Sinners is easily one of the best scenes of the year, and in my opinion deserves this statue even if "Golden" might be a better piece of music outside the realm of the movie.  Of the three also-rans (i.e. the songs you don't know), "Sweet Dreams of Joy" is much better than you'd expect, and sadly "Dear Me" is exactly what you'd expect (we really should've just given Diane Warren that Oscar for Burlesque and none of this would've happened).

Sound

1. F1

2. Sinners

3. One Battle After Another

4. Sirat

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: After watching Sirat, I realized why this was nominated (the sound work is on full-display throughout, and honestly is a supporting actor in how prominent it is), though unlike The Zone of Interest, I wasn't as impressed, and felt it bordered the line between best and most that sometimes tech categories can't distinguish.  I was far more impressed with F1 and Sinners, the former a sea of zooming cars & "you're practically there" race scenes, the latter a wonderfully constructed semi-musical.  I'm going to go with F1, a movie I think did both mixing & effects well (I'm old-school), but either would make a good winner.

Casting

1. Hamnet

2. Sinners

3. One Battle After Another

4. The Secret Agent

5. Marty Supreme

The Lowdown: The first year of this category, I also kind of need to set my own parameters of how I'm going to grade this, as (like editing) you don't entirely know what was left in the cutting process.  For me, I think it comes down to how well the cast works together, how ingenious/inventive the casting process is (particularly if an actor isn't an obvious choice), and whether there are any clear standout good/bad casting decisions that elevate/demote it.  For me, I have Hamnet over the next two-I don't think there's a bad choice in the casts here, which is saying something as there usually is, but Hamnet had the stunt casting of two actual brothers to underline one character and the character he inspired, and that on top of Mescal & Buckley being perfect for their parts puts it in the lead.

Cinematography

1. Train Dreams

2. One Battle After Another

3. Sinners

4. Marty Supreme

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: Sinners has, for my money, some of the best cinematography of the year.  The Golden Hour shots are honestly breathtaking, but the night scenes suffer (by my personal tastes), with them trying to patch over some of the gaps in the visual effects (I liked the makeup, but the visual effects were more hit-or-miss for me), by making the screen too dark to see properly make it hard to judge overall as a success.  As a result, I am all in on the beautiful Train Dreams, a gorgeous Lubezki-esque take on the passage of time with a camera.  In a year where, in general, Cinematography was lacking (this is somehow going to be the weakest of my My Ballot lists in a few weeks), this is the one film that really embraced looking like a movie you'll remember forever.

Costume Design

1. Sinners

2. Hamnet

3. Marty Supreme

4. Avatar: Fire & Ash

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: It's possible I totally upend this entire list (looking like the only category I'll do that with), but for me it's all about the outfits specifically worn by Michael B. Jordan & Michael B. Jordan in the film.  Part of Sinners ability to inspire is that you kind of need to be horny for the dual MBJ's (this is a very sexy movie, with an early sex scene and Jack O'Connell clearly meant to be both figuratively and literally carnal), and the gorgeous teal-and-red combo that Ruth E. Carter brings here is better than the peasant period fare in Hamnet or the out-of-this-world third spin on Avatar (the craziest nomination of 2025).  I will note that the Mia Goth peacock outfit in this photo is so good it makes me forget that I was largely uninspired by the rest of Frankenstein.

Film Editing

1. One Battle After Another

2. Sinners

3. F1

4. Sentimental Value

5. Marty Supreme

The Lowdown: I mean, sometimes this category gets something a bit out-of-the-box (F1 was probably further along here than in the Best Picture race), but there are days I think "Oscar didn't try to think beyond his five favorite movies in the editing branch...should I even bother?"  I will note that One Battle After Another's win here comes from the way it unfolds tension-the bank robbery scenes, the harrowing conversation late in the film between Sean Penn & Chase Infiniti...it's something to behold.  Sinners might have had a better shot if it had had more consistent cinematography lighting, as well as had the good sense to cut that post-credits ending which feels nonsensical and totally unnecessary (but the building tension there is something else).

Makeup & Hairstyling

1. Kokuho

2. Sinners

3. Frankenstein

4. The Smashing Machine

5. The Ugly Stepsister

The Lowdown: Oscar has historically struggled with horror in his category even though it is very much the bread-and-butter of the genre, so it's weird to see a lineup where the majority of the nominees come from that world.  I am not so apathetic (I nominate horror more regularly for the My Ballot), and while I was impressed with the violent deformity of Sinners and the albino care of Frankenstein, my heart belongs to the remarkable beauty and elegant aging of Kokuho, giving us a first-hand at the look of kabuki theater.

Production Design

1. Sinners

2. Marty Supreme

3. One Battle After Another

4. Hamnet

5. Frankenstein

The Lowdown: We're going to give Sinners its final trophy here (genuinely curious how this compares to its count with Oscar-it ended up taking three statues from me), with the sets in this feeling so authentically barren.  There's so much personality and touches in the dancehalls and railway stations in Coogler's work, and yet they feel appropriately isolated-there's nowhere to run.  I'll note that most of this lineup is good, and this is Marty Supreme's worthiest nomination (I love the on-a-budget redesign of New York City that never feels like it's on a budget at all), but Sinners feels like it lives in the set the most, and adds the most to the story.

Visual Effects

1. Avatar: Fire & Ash

2. F1

3. Jurassic World Rebirth

4. Sinners

5. The Lost Bus

The Lowdown: Putting Avatar in a lineup of Visual Effects always feels like you're playing on cheat mode.  The latest round doesn't have the "how the hell did they do that?" impact that its predecessors had, but in an era where visual effects are increasingly sloppy, overdone, and clearly glossed over by darkened cinematography (looking at you, The Lost Bus), it has beauty and looks fantastic, and even against something as impressive as the technical virtuosity of F1, it's unbeatable.

Past Oscar Viewing Projects: 1931-32, 1948, 1957, 1972, 1981, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024

OVP: Adapted Screenplay (2004)

 OVP: Best Adapted Screenplay (2004)

The Nominees Were...

Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, & Ethan Hawke, Before Sunset

David Magee, Finding Neverland

Paul Haggis, Million Dollar Baby

Jose Rivera, The Motorcycle Diaries

Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, Sideways

My Thoughts: I'm writing this in advance of last night's Oscars (we'll have a ceremony recap later today), so I don't know which film joined our winner of this category (I'll reveal it in a second if your memory isn't solid), but I'm excited to remind everyone today that while the Oscar season is now over for 2020-21, it's pretty much always an Oscar season on TMROJ, and it's been 2004 for a number of weeks now (if you're just joining us, click below for links to past 2004 Oscar contests, we do new ones every Monday & Wednesday).  We are hitting the writing categories this week, and we're going to start with the one film that hasn't been discussed at all, Before Sunset, the "sole screenplay" nominee of 2004.

I always think it's a little weird that sequels are automatically adapted.  Like, it's not being adapted from anything-the story is totally created from scratch.  That is, however, my only complaint about this nomination.  Before Sunset is one of my favorite movies, not just of 2004, but in general.  While every film in the Celine & Jesse trilogy is a masterwork, this one is the best, knowingly reexamining our concept of what a cinematic romance is, and giving us a love story with a genuine ticking clock approach.  The writing is so sophisticated, distinguishing well between the vibrant "it's all going to be like this" optimism of your twenties with the knowing (but not yet weathered) approach of your thirties to love.  I love this movie so much (the Nina Simone ending!), and I cry every time I see it.  It's heart-wrenching, uplifting, & totally brilliant.

Before Sunset is not the only one of these films totally in love with dialogue (and love at a certain age), though.  Sideways is magnificent in that regard as well.  A simple concept (two unlikely friends, only one an actual bachelor) go on an expedition through wine country where they meet two women, one of whom changes their life forever.  But Sideways is a total winner of a screenplay in the way it embraces dialogue.  Think of the snobbery-fueled tirades that Paul Giamatti goes on (still the only performance of his that I liked, though not as much as the collective world did), or Virginia Madsen's "The Life of Wine" monologue.  These might not work-this is pretty sophisticated conversation...it's not necessarily meant to be relatable to most of the audience.  But it works because it's high-quality & because film is sometimes about learning about a world you don't know, encountering lives you haven't seen before but understand better for watching them.

This is part of what happens in The Motorcycle Diaries.  Certainly few of us can relate to the world of a young Che Guevera.  But while The Motorcycle Diaries is beautiful, its script doesn't really work for me.  The character development around Che isn't strong enough, and it's a bit tedious & plodding throughout the middle of the story.  There's not enough there, particularly when it comes to the central relationship (no growth...are they meant to be tacit lovers, soulmates...what's the deal?).  Few films have I wanted to love more (and didn't) than this movie as this is exactly up my alley, but Motorcycle Diaries came up lacking for me in terms of story.

This is also true of Finding Neverland.  The movie is less up-my-alley than the moving, Malick-adjacent Motorcycle Diaries, but it is about a writer (always my favorite biopic subject).  However, it doesn't really have enough perspective on its main character (JM Barrie), and it doesn't have enough hints to the magic of Peter Pan.  This lack of perspective hurts the movie as it moves on, as we don't have a strong enough understanding of what makes this a profound moment for Barrie...obviously the happenings are sad, but where does this land for him, why can he create a timeless classic from this story.  The screenplay is too lifeless for us to make the connection between the two.

Paul Haggis would become something of a pariah in my world the year after Million Dollar Baby (fun fact I'm sure I've stated throughout this & might say again-my first date with a guy was to Million Dollar Baby), and while I didn't like the movie, this is not Crash.  The central story in Million Dollar Baby isn't a bad one-a woman trying to find the father figure she never had, someone who could celebrate her talents...it's a good story, and the acting is solid (if not exceptional) enough to ground it.  The film's treatment of Maggie's family is awful (Margo Martindale, a great actress otherwise, is genuinely bad in this role), though, and it's not breaking any new ground plot-wise.  Still this is not a bad screenplay.  It's not just an Oscar-worthy one.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes combine their writing categories so there is no adapted or original distinction, and thus we have three adapted nominees in their five choices: Sideways (which won), Finding Neverland, and Closer, a movie they liked much better than Oscar.  The BAFTA's split, and true-to-form in 2004, went somewhat their own way, giving Sideways the trophy but making room for The Chorus and Closer over Before Sunset & Million Dollar Baby.  WGA also gave their trophy to Sideways, here, though, the only skipped Oscar nominee was Finding Neverland, and they went with Mean Girls in its place.  And while I know that a collective generation of gay men might protest, that WGA indication wasn't proof that Mean Girls nearly made it to the Oscars-I would assume Closer was the sixth place finisher.

Films I Would Have Nominated: I, however, would've found room for both.  Honestly-the Adapted Screenplay field was so good in 2004 it's a shock that Oscar came up with such a tepid list of contenders, and it's particularly maddening that they did so with Closer and Mean Girls both sitting there, ready to be plucked.

Oscar's Choice: There was no stopping Sideways-this might have been the surest bet of the night in 2004.

My Choice: I can't pick anything other than Before Sunset.  Sideways is excellent and a very respectable winner (a deserving silver it gets from me), but Before Sunset is part of my DNA at this point, and I cannot deny it.  Coming behind are Million Dollar Baby, The Motorcycle Diaries, and Finding Neverland, in that order.

Those are my thoughts-what about you?  I know I'm in the minority here considering the hosannas it got at the time, but is anyone with me for Before Sunset over Sideways?  How much better would this lineup be if you bumped two of the also-rans in favor of the gemlike Mean Girls and the controlled Closer?  And what do you think about sequels automatically being adapted?  Share your thoughts below!

Also in 2004: Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2004

Past Best Adapted Screenplay Contests: 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019

The Truth (2020)

Film: The Truth (2020)
Stars: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Ludivine Sagnier, Clementine Grenier, Manon Clavel
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

At some point I think it'd be fascinating to do some sort of mini-series about "what followed the Palme?"  I have to imagine after winning the "Nobel Prize of Cinema" it's difficult to go back & create something that, at the very most, can equal your monumental achievement, and more-than-likely result in you underwhelming the audience.  Hirokazu Kore-eda had that task with The Truth, the followup to his lauded Shoplifters which won both the Palme & an Oscar nomination in 2018.  Kore-eda's strategy seems smart here-he goes completely to a different world with his characters, even adopting a different language (the movie is largely in French, sometimes in English), and so there's little trace to his magnum opus, though you can still see the intelligent lines that ran through Shoplifters in this movie, even if it's lighter & more intertwined with a version of reality centering around cinematic icon Catherine Deneuve.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Fabienne Dangeville (Deneuve), a beloved French actress who has recently written a book and is filming a Sci-Fi picture called Memories of My Mother which Fabienne isn't taking seriously, and doesn't consider to be particularly good.  Her daughter Lumir (Binoche), actor son-in-law Hank (Hawke), and granddaughter Charlotte (Grenier) are visiting her, and we learn that Lumir hasn't read the book yet, and doesn't agree with the depiction of her childhood in it.  She is upset that her mother seems more present in her life than she actually was in the memoir, and that her mother didn't mention Sarah, an actress whom Lumir looked up to, and whom she feels a kinship with in a way she didn't with her mother.  As the film goes on, the women hash through the jealousies, both professional & personal that Fabienne felt to Sarah, stealing away her daughter, and how she wishes things could be different (but not so much she'd do things differently).  The women end on better terms, and with Fabienne realizing a new zest for her career & life.

The movie is fluffy light stuff on first glance.  It's bliss having actors as good as Binoche & Deneuve in the leads, and the supporting cast is delicious-not just Grenier & Hawke, but also Ludivine Sagnier as a supporting actress in the film whom Fabienne befriends and Manon Clavel as Manon (not a lot of heavy lifting there), an up-and-coming actress who is proclaimed as "the next Sarah," which makes Fabienne standoffish toward her.  However, the movie has deeper layers in the work than you'd expect as it goes, and I ended up kind of liking it more than I should have.  Despite the fault lines (there are detours with Fabienne's staff that feel underwritten, as do some aspects of her complicated relationship with Sarah), in a similar fashion to Shoplifters the movie doesn't give easy answers, but it does give resolutions that fit people who are established in their lives & unlikely to change but for a fraction.

The movie's best asset is Deneuve, and the weird meta-fiction that Kore-eda gives to her in the script. While she's obviously playing a fictional character, Deneuve's Fabienne is so intertwined with Deneuve that they use actual facts from the actress's life to flesh out the character, like that she has two Cesars (which Deneuve does) and that she was going to work with Alfred Hitchcock before he died (Deneuve was supposedly set to star in The Short Night with Clint Eastwood, which would've been Hitch's last film if it had ever gotten off-the-ground).  They even give Fabienne a moment to shade Brigitte Bardot, with whom the real-life Deneuve once shared an ex (Roger Vadim).  This adds layers onto Deneuve's performance, and makes it some of her most interesting work in a while-when is she playing herself versus playing her fictional counterpart?  It's a fun game to play as you watch a deceptively sly picture.

OVP: First Reformed (2018)

Film: First Reformed (2018)
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric Kyles, Victoria Hill, Philip Ettinger
Director: Paul Schrader
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Screenplay)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

I do not need my films to be pleasant.  I think one of the complaints I frequently get from people when I discuss a film is "I don't want to be depressed for two hours" or "I want to escape" and while that apparently isn't actually true (if it was, you wouldn't be watching SVU or Game of Thrones as depression will surely hit after a while), it's a preconceived notion for movies, and one that I don't share.  I don't mind if a film goes to the recesses of a man's soul, tries to find the light, and comes back empty-handed.  That said, even I can struggle on occasion with something black as tar, and this is what happened as I watched Paul Schrader's powerful, but bleak First Reformed, a film that focuses on one man's struggle with god and the environment around him.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie centers on Ernst Toller (Hawke), a pastor at a small, historical church that is 250 years old and was once a leg of the Underground Railroad.  Though it is still a functioning church, it exists mostly as a tourist attraction at this point, something for people to invite into their lives only fleetingly, and then leave behind, buried in their cameras.  One day a young woman named Mary (Seyfried) seeks his counsel, as she is worried about her husband Michael's (Ettinger) obsession with climate change and the worsening environment, and how no one seems to be taking this threat seriously.  Michael eventually commits suicide in the woods, his angst for the environment too much for him to bare, and slowly Pastor Toller takes up his cause, as well as his obsession.

The film unfolds almost entirely through meditation, with even individual conversations with people like Mary and Michael seeming to be out-of-touch with reality, Pastor Toller retreating into his own head for a conversation about the conversation.  It's a risky idea, to have a main character who forgets the subjects around him, but it's something that Schrader, who has made a career of writing about flawed, ego-driven men (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Affliction) can navigate well.  The madness that Hawke feels is real, and Schrader doesn't shy away from it.  He also makes it hauntingly relatable, at least at the start, with Toller feeling a helplessness about climate change we all have experienced at some point when reading about the seemingly unsolvable subject.

But of course Toller takes action in a dramatic way that we would not (it is a movie, after all), eventually deciding after a stomach cancer diagnosis that his life must mean something more, and decides to bomb the church, coming out as a dying Jesus figure equipped with barbed wire, trying to kill an industrialist who is destroying the local upstate New York environment.  The movie moves somewhere into a dream sequence, with him nearly committing suicide (despite already likely being dead), and then embracing Amanda Seyfried.  It's kind of a cop out answer to the larger question, but Schrader's script & Hawke's performance are so succinct and strong you can't really fault the ending.  The movie is good, but it's also almost impossible to watch, feeling at times like a very realistic car crash video.  I left desperately needing a hug, and wanting to know if Schrader simply has no hope for humanity, or if there was some lesson to be gleaned from Pastor Toller's hardened road.  The film doesn't give us those answers, and as a result I'm going with 3 stars, because while it's well-done, it's also not a film I enjoyed viewing from nearly any angle.

No Globe? No Sag? No Problem!!!

Lesley Manville didn't get invited by SAG or
HFPA, but she was good enough for Oscar anyway.

There are a lot of things to say about this morning's SAG Awards.  For starters, there is no universe where Bohemian Rhapsody qualifies as a strong ensemble.  I didn't even like Crazy Rich Asians, but I understand the pull to nominate it here, but Bohemian Rhapsody is completely & totally Rami Malek, and the supporting cast is a bunch of one-dimensional, lackluster performances that are entirely in service to Malek.  Nearly as absurd is thinking that Emily Blunt is a supporting performance in A Quiet Place.  I enjoyed Blunt in this film, and am excited she's clearly headed to her first Oscar nomination, but no one would consider this a supporting performance if Mary Poppins Returns wasn't an option this year.  NO ONE.  Nicole Kidman has to be looking at this year right now and wishing that she'd gone supporting for Moulin Rouge! in 2001 because apparently she could have gotten dual nominations that year, no trouble (and yes, it's absurd to think of her as supporting in Moulin Rouge!, but is it any more absurd than Blunt or Chalamet or Ali?).

But that's a gripe for a different day, because today we get to do one of my all-time favorite traditions at TMROJ: our annual "No Globe/No Sag/No Problem!" article.  For those unfamiliar, every year we take a look at one of the more under-reported aspects of the awards season, that despite people pretending like anyone without a Globe or SAG nomination is DOA when it comes to Oscar, almost always there's at least 1-2 actors who randomly get nominated without either of these precursors.  Even in an era of group think with the Academy, we have not had a year where no one is a "new name" since 2006, which was largely due to the bizarre Best Supporting Actor race that season (nine different actors were cited in those categories that year between the Globes & SAG Awards).  For reference, in the past ten years these have been the "No Globes, No SAG" victors with AMPAS:

2017: Lesley Manville
2016: Michael Shannon
2015: Charlotte Rampling, Tom Hardy & Mark Ruffalo
2014: Bradley Cooper, Marion Cotillard, & Laura Dern
2013: Jonah Hill
2012: Quvenzhane Wallis, Emmanuelle Riva, & Jacki Weaver
2011: Gary Oldman & Max von Sydow
2010: Javier Bardem
2009: Maggie Gyllenhaal
2008: Michael Shannon

As you can see from the above, the "No Globe/No SAG" contenders usually fall into one of two camps.  Either they are previous nominees/winners who are making a late play for the Oscar nomination, as they're already established enough with the Academy that they don't need precursors to get their screener into the DVD player, or they are "halo" nominations from films that are doing well in the Best Picture or other acting races that sneak onto enough ballots to get a fourth or fifth place nomination.  It's worth noting that none of these actors usually end up winning (I believe the last time that someone pulled off an Oscar win without either precursor nomination was Marcia Gay Harden in 2000), but it's too soon to count the following ten contenders out of Oscar's big night:

10. Toni Collette (Hereditary)

For Her: She received raves for her work in Hereditary, which is a genre film but has the prestige-horror angle that Oscar sometimes goes for (look at Get Out last year), and she's a previous nominee.  Collette has been working the rooms hard for this citation, and is the sort of actor most everyone has worked with & acknowledges is one of the best, but her nominations count doesn't really speak to that fact.
Against Her: It's a rough year for Best Actress outsiders (there is a lot of consensus forming around the Close/Gaga/McCarthy/Blunt/Colman quintet), so she'd likely have to take out either McCarthy or Blunt for their nominations, a tall order considering the former is one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars and the latter most agree is overdue for this nomination.  Plus, it's still genre and she might have needed more critical hosannas to land this spot.

9. Nicole Kidman (Boy Erased)

For Her: Kidman is consistently one of the best actors in cinema, and this is exactly the sort of role that gets you nominated (long-suffering, long-supporting mother).  Lucas Hedges did get a nomination for Best Actor at the Globes, and as a result this is probably more in the conversation with AMPAS than most critics have been giving it credit for, and Kidman's exactly the sort of matinee idol that gets nominated for work such as this.  If people ignore her on their Best Actress ballots for Destroyer, perhaps they'll want to include her here?
Against Her: She's looking at likely vote-splitting for her work in Destroyer, even if it's in a different category, and she's got The Favourite women taking up two of the nominations already.  Will Oscar have room for an actual supporting performance if they already have 40-60% of the category filled up with leads?

8. Steve Carell (Vice)

For Him: Carell seems to be pulling a play from Michael Shannon's book this year, where you just appear in as many films as possible and see what sticks.  He likely doesn't have to worry about vote-splitting with Beautiful Boy and Welcome to Marwen, but a trio of films could make the Academy give one of its occasional "they were in everything, so let's nominate them" citations.  Carell's got a showy role in a movie that feels like a Best Picture contender, which always helps-could this be a "halo" nomination of sorts?
Against Him: Best Supporting Actor seems to be solidifying (again, lead performers Timothee Chalamet & Mahershala Ali both make it harder for a turn like this to make the cut), and if anyone from Vice makes it, won't it be recent-winner Sam Rockwell, who got the Globe nomination?  It's hard to envision the Academy loving this movie so much that both of them get into the lineup.

7. Linda Cardellini (Green Book)

For Her: I can't decide if this should be #1 or if I'm crazy for including it on this list at all.  Cardellini's role in Green Book is a trifle, nothing really impressive about it and lacking even a really juicy scene that might get her into the conversation in a different year.  But she's also playing the supportive wife (one of Oscar's favorite roles) in a probable Best Picture contender, and romancing a surefire Best Actor nominee in her film.  Is this a Jacki Weaver-type nomination?
Against Her: She's not as famous as most of the people on this list (though she's worked in Hollywood a while), which makes standing out more of a challenge, and it's a pittance of a part.  With category fraud so rampant this year, how will there be room for a genuine supporting part to sneak in like Cardellini's?

6. Ryan Gosling (First Man)

For Him: I get the feeling that First Man is going to do much better with Oscar than it had any hopes to do with some of the precursor awards, considering it has very showy tech attributes that go a lot further with AMPAS.  That should help Gosling, a two-time nominee who has never won, who gives an introverted performance here that has gained a lot of critical praise.  If AMPAS wants subtle, he's a pretty strong option.
Against Him: If John David Washington is genuinely getting his nomination, that leaves very little room for a Best Actor nominee to sneak in, as Gosling would have to take out Viggo, Bale, Malek, or Cooper, none of which feel movable at this point.  Oscar only occasionally goes for subtle-this might be too subdued for them, and the SAG miss for Claire Foy makes me wonder if no one is feeling this work this year.

5. Yalitza Aparicio (Roma)

For Her: The work in this film is showy and impressive, and you can't help but connect with her Cleo.  For actor-fans of Cuaron's film (there will be a lot of them-expect this to be a Best Picture nominee), they've got no other place to show their enthusiasm other than Aparicio, and Globe/SAG are more into stars than Oscar is (because you become a star with that Oscar nomination).
Against Her: It's a director's film, and while the cast is an undersung hero of why it works, the combination of it being a visual rather than actorly showcase and that it's in a foreign language (already a hiccup with Oscar), means that Aparicio is going to need Oscar to love it a lot in order to get her into the race.

4. Julia Roberts (Ben is Back)

For Her: She's one of the country's most recognizable movie stars, and as a result can make a late play in a way that few others would be able to pull off (if Clint Eastwood's work in The Mule is good enough, he should be on this list as he's in the same boat, but the lack of a critic's screening makes me think that is entirely a commercial play).  Ben is Back is getting great notices for Roberts, and it hasn't opened yet so it could be a strong commercial play (plus she'll be on red carpets already thanks to Homecoming).  While there are a lot of Globe/SAG-nominated performers who could break up the quintet I've listed above, my gut says that if one of those names isn't on the list, it'll be Roberts that comes out of nowhere & scores for her work here.
Against Her: She needs strong box office & she needs to oust someone who is already a big part of the conversation.  She can do that, but Roberts has never pulled off an Oscar citation without serious Globes support heading into the night.

3. Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther)

For Him: He's a superstar actor (he must be getting a nomination at some point, right?), who has the most obvious, nominatable performance in a film that is a serious threat to win Best Picture.  It's relatively rare for a Best Picture winner not to have at least one nominated performance, and villains do well in Best Supporting Actor.
Against Him: The Return of the King was a much surer Best Picture victor, and it missed completely for nominations.  It's entirely possible that the Academy will skip this considering they don't go for comic book performances (Heath Ledger being the obvious exception), and he's been skipped over before for more obvious work.  Maybe they just aren't fans?

2. Ethan Hawke (First Reformed)

For Him: Hawke's work here is remarkable, a tour-de-force triumph that will be catnip to anyone who sees it.  Oscar loves very physical performances, and ones with lots of great monologues.  It's easy to see him making it on #1 ballots if enough people catch the film...
Against Him: ...but will they?  Schrader is probably looking at a Best Screenplay nomination here if Hawke can also pull it off, but this is a rough movie that people are going to have to start catching around the holidays, and it was released months ago, so the buzz is going to be tough to maintain as Vice and Bohemian Rhapsody continue to be a big presence in theaters.  Might it just be one of those performances the Oscars wish they'd nominated after-the-fact?

1. Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians)

For Her: Everything.  She's a well-known actor (check) who is appearing in a showcase supporting role (check) in a populist film that everyone saw (check) that is increasingly likely to win a Best Picture nomination (check).  Plus, in an Academy increasingly focused on diversity with their acting nominations, Yeoh's an easy way to honor one of the most important Asian women in cinema.  I had toyed with putting Hawke or Jordan at #1, but the SAG nomination for Best Ensemble combined with the dual nominations at the Globes makes me think this is probably going to happen.  Also, Supporting Actress is the only race where the fifth slot doesn't have a clear favorite so she has room (Adams, King, Stone, & Weisz make it, but Foy is slipping, Robbie is out-of-nowhere, and Blunt will get in for Mary Poppins instead).
Against Her: It's a relatively slight role, and it's entirely possible that the Academy (allergic to comedies) won't love CRA the way the general public did.  But I think this is happening-it's the only one on this list that I'd have listed on my official Top 5 predictions at this point.

Maudie (2017)

Film: Maudie (2017)
Stars: Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kari Matchett, Gabrielle Rose
Director: Aisling Walsh
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Adult dramas, one without frills or packaging, are rare these days when they're well-done.  Too often we find ourselves stuck with either dramas with comedic undertones (the old lady who has to find her self-worth through indulging in marijuana or listening to rap music) or are soggy come-from-behind tales without any sense of reality to them (nearly every music drama ever made).  As a result, a movie like Maudie, which was an arthouse hit but has largely gone unnoticed as we count the best films of 2017, should be a bit more treasured than it is.  Quiet, unassuming, introverted, but still brimming with strong work from the two lead actors and the rare biopic that goes off of its traditional story beats, Maudie is a lovely look into the world of famed folk artist Maud Lewis, played by Sally Hawkins.

(I know it's real life so I don't need this, but she's so unknown to most outside of the art community that I'm going to issue the Spoiler Alert Anyway) The film centers around a socially awkward woman with arthritis named Maud Dowley (Hawkins), who lives with her Aunt Ida (Rose) and brother, and whom (we quickly learn) once gave birth to a deformed baby, which has caused her aunt to think of her as promiscuous.  When her brother sells her childhood home, she randomly ends up being the maid for a gruff fish peddler named Everett (Hawke), whom initially dislikes her and eventually (though further into the movie than you'd anticipate) starts to warm to her.  While serving as his maid, she ends up finding a passion for painting flowers, trees, and birds, which is noticed by a woman (Matchett) visiting Nova Scotia from New York City, who starts to serve as a sponsor of sorts for Maud, offering her $5 for a painting.

You'd assume that at this point you'd know exactly what direction this film is taking, and in some ways you're right-Maud enjoys a newfound level of fame, and her husband has to learn to deal with his wife being more successful than she is, and she has to stand up for herself in the marriage.  But the way that Hawkins, Hawke, & Aisling approach this is on such a soft scale it feels like a new story.  Maud's newfound fame doesn't cause her to leave Nova Scotia, but instead simply means that she gets requests from across North America for her paintings.  Her brushes with celebrity mean a news article and a television interview, but nothing like her going on Carson or Dick Cavett, and the only name drop in the entire film is when Richard Nixon makes a request for one of her paintings (which really happened, though considerably later than when it did in the picture).

As a result, we get a more intimate look into Maud Lewis's real life, as she was not a wealthy woman and her paintings didn't become the type that sold for $25k a pop (like they do now) until after her death.  She and Everett spent most of their lives in relative poverty and in a teensy house on the outskirts of Marshalltown.  As a result, the focus here is less on how Lewis deals with traditional fame, and more with how her husband deals with his love for a woman he didn't know he was capable of caring for (he seemed destined to be an eternal bachelor otherwise), and what fame looks like for the couple on a scale familiar to anyone who lives in a small town.  I loved this approach, because it felt fresh, particularly in the eyes of Hawkins and Hawke, both of whom are superb here.  Hawkins is good with physicality as an actress, playing the hunched over Maud with increasing severity as her arthritis got worse, but also finding her inner-strength and resolve.  We saw in Happy-Go-Lucky that she's shockingly good at playing an optimist, and once again she does that, playing a woman whom we are meant to pity without any sort of pity for herself, instead showing how lucky she was to find the success and the love that she did, even if it doesn't look like what we as an audience might want for her.  Hawke is equally-good as a man who clearly resents Maud's success, but more because he resents that he needs her around.  The way that he manages to show that he loves her without saying it is terrific, and unlike Hawkins (whom I would have bet on being able to play this), Hawke is lightyears away from the dreamer American man stuck in adolescence that has been his best filmic parts.  Both combine to a loving duet that will make you wish this kind of subdued drama was made more often in American cinema.

OVP: Supporting Actor (2014)

OVP: Best Supporting Actor (2014)

The Nominees Were...

Robert Duvall, The Judge

Ethan Hawke, Boyhood

Edward Norton, Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher

JK Simmons, Whiplash

My Thoughts: And now we have come to the acting categories-that top six categories that aren't just "really, XX film won another one?" or "do you want to make more popcorn?" during the ceremony while you're watching at home, but the pins-and-needles, "I wonder if they'll say something political or funny?" types of moments when you're watching the actual Oscars.  Here we have five men, four of whom are arguably most famous for parts in superhero movies, and the fifth of which is an acting legend who with this nod got a staggering seventh nomination over forty years after his first.  I really don't want to start with him as I love him as a performer and hated this movie, but it's time to eat our vegetables (or in this case, Velveeta and battery acid).

The Judge was the worst film of 2014.  I remember watching the movie just a couple of days before the Oscars as I wanted to be a completist but had avoided it like the plague, but knew it would make it for something with a cast and crew like this.  Duvall was the sole citation for the film, and it's easy to see why the Academy went for it-he's a wonderful actor being given a series of big speeches to bluster through, selling the hell out of each of them with enough bombast to make Brian Dennehy say "whoa, pull back a little."  The performance, though, is not good and runs counter to the quieter moments of The Godfather that made Duvall a great actor in the first place.  The picture is dreadful, but Duvall is unable to sell the moments where he throws away his career and reputation trying to teach his son a lesson.  It doesn't help that the script genuinely doesn't make any sense, but Duvall should have at least brought more dignity to the role.  The nomination seems to have been an acknowledgement from the Academy for an actor they admire (who clearly wanted this nomination something fierce-he campaigned hard for it) in a relatively weak year for this category, but that's not forgivable and it's not like Duvall hadn't already been amply (and justly) rewarded before.

On the opposite end of the spectrum to Duvall is JK Simmons, the only person in this field who was on his very first nomination.  Simmons has long been a character actor that you recognize as being reliable, a nice guy, and virtually everywhere (he was weirdly even in a dream I had Saturday night).  Giving him this moment-in-the-sun, especially with such a loud character as Terence Fletcher, was bound to give him the long attention that he deserved, but while I like the sentiment here (especially in supporting categories it's great to see a longtime character actor finally get some love), the performance is mostly underplayed.  Simmons delivers each yell and scream with a fierceness that has to be admired, and his character occasionally is duplicitous in an interesting way, but it's hard to see the nuance here-his Terence is all surface, rarely anything more.  I've said this before, but while I like the idea of little backstory into this man (villains without a reason for their villainy are always more terrifying), it doesn't seem possible that Andrew is the first student that got the best of his ego considering how easily he does it.  Simmons isn't helped by a script that doesn't quite know what to do with Fletcher until the end of the picture, but I feel like he should have found a soul somewhere in that body, even if it was damaged and hollow.  Plus, there's no denying this is clearly a leading role, which has to lose some points from the get-go (category fraud is still category fraud even if you're not a headliner).

Speaking of headliners, let's move onto former major movie star Ethan Hawke, who seems to now spend his forties alternating between random horror movies and Richard Linklater pictures.  Hawke's work in Boyhood in many ways borrows from his real-life persona, and in a couple of ways from his most iconic role as Jesse in the Before trilogy.  I love the way that his hapless loser never really finds his moment-in the-sun, but as the years go by he still finds happiness in what was initially given to him.  This is one of many wonderful observations made by Richard Linklater (the way this movie mirrors life is truly special), but Hawke's Mason is someone that probably never really realized that his dreams didn't come true in the way he hoped, and only reflects on it late in the night, with a beer in hand.  It's a wonderfully fresh look at the parental figure, perhaps because we get to see his evolution in a way we never really could in any other film.  The naturalism that Hawke brings is something to behold, and it's odd that Patricia Arquette got the lion's share of the plaudits even when they're both doing phenomenal work.

Mark Ruffalo may be the most weirdly inconsistent actor that I genuinely love to watch at the movies.  For every iconic performance that I can't get enough of (You Can Count on Me, Zodiac, The Kids Are All Right), I also find him leveling into scenery-chewing or overusing his mumbly gifts onscreen (In the Cut, Spotlight).  Foxcatcher is a weird place in-between the two, where he somehow finds himself in a bad movie giving a relatively excellent performance.  It would have been so easy for Ruffalo to turn his Dave into a watchful worrier, someone that is the moral compass to his brother's misguided lug, but he doesn't do that (except in that ridiculously over-the-top final scene in the snow, but that's all on the writers), and instead he is forced to show what it's like to succeed, even when you have to do so at the hands of someone he can't stand.  Think of how superb Ruffalo is in that video documentary he's making, where he's being forced to read lines that he doesn't agree with and that are justifying the vile abuse of his brother.  It's one of many scenes in the film that show that he understands not only this character, but what this character, a man past his prime but who knew he was once a star (and knows that others want to shine in that glory), would give to the world.  It's a great, understated performance.

The final piece here is with an actor who has never really understood the meaning of the word "understated," but at least here he finds a film where that rings true.  Edward Norton's work in Birdman is a funny look at his own self (Keaton isn't the only one playing a parody), an actor of intense gifts who attempted, but was never successful in, translating into the same type of movie-stardom enjoyed by Keaton's Riggan in the picture.  Norton's character is hilarious, perhaps the funniest part of a movie that is droll but has a nasty and delicious sense of humor.  I do feel, especially in the first table-read scene but also in a smattering of moments later in the picture, that Norton uses his character's excesses to indulge his own, and the acting could have used more focus, but overall I think this is one of the better works from this actor, of whom I'll admit that I'm not much of a fan despite his critical following.

Other Precursor Contenders: Even by awards season standards, the precursors for this field were boring, as almost everyone went with the same lineup.  The Globes and the SAG Awards went with the exact same nominees and winner as the Oscars, while the BAFTA Awards only substitution was category fraud with Steve Carell going in place of Robert Duvall.  This makes Best Supporting Actor one of the hardest categories of 2014 to go with a sixth place (we genuinely got no indication of whom it might have been).  My gut says Tom Wilkinson (Selma) or Josh Brolin (Inherent Vice), both former nominees in big films, but I think they were far away-this lineup was clearly the one all awards' voters preferred.

Performances I Would Have Nominated: I am not one of those voters, however.  I definitely would have made room for Ben Schnetzer's wonderful activist in Pride, Adam Driver's sexy-but-troubled brother in This is Where I Leave You, and though I'd have to see it again (it was probably category fraud, but it's been a while since I caught the movie), perhaps Logan Lerman in Fury.  I know he's intensely pretty, but it'd be nice if an ingenue made it in the male categories on occasion instead of just the female.

Oscar’s Choice: I don't even know who was in second place, as JK Simmons won the Oscar in a landslide.

My Choice: Hawke over Ruffalo-aided by both a better movie and more a natural progression, this is a pretty easy decision even though both are quite good.  Following them would be Norton, Simmons, and poor Bobby Duvall way in the back (you've got six more OVP battles left-don't cry too hard for Tom Hagen).

Those are my thoughts-what are yours?  Do I have company in preferring Ethan Hawke, or is everyone on the Just Keep Simmons train?  Am I the only person who generally finds Edward Norton off-putting?  And who was the sixth place finisher that clearly should have been taken over Duvall (every name I'm throwing out is better than him)?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2014: Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Costume, Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Documentary Short, Live Action Short, Animated Short, Previously in 2014

Past Best Supporting Actor Contests: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013