Rodney's 2011 Oscar Wishlist (Part III -ACTING II)

     Good morning blog-readers. I have to say that the best cure for a case of the Mondays is having it off; and with plans for an afternoon date to see War Horse with my partner, this Monday seems to be shaping up nicely. But as I did yesterday, I wanted to set aside a little time to continue my Oscar Wishlist. Today I'll be continuing with the acting categories:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

     Albert Brooks - Drive

 (In this year's weakest category, where the Academy seemed to be scraping the bottom of the barrel just to find five nominees, that Brooks wasn't one of them remains a baffling conundrum -especially since up until the nominations were announced, it seemed to be a two-man race between him and Christopher Plummer.)

     John Hawkes - Martha Marcy May Marlene

(Delivering a better performance than he did last year in his Oscar-nominated turn in Winter's Bone)

     Ezra Miller - We Need To Talk About Kevin

     Nick Nolte - Warrior

(He's being brushed off as being type-cast in this role and its even been speculated that its Nolte rather than Jonah Hill who "stole" Brooks' "spot" on the nominee list, but his is easily among the top three performances in this category -demonstrating emotional complexity as a man who no one will accept as changed.)

     Christopher Plummer - Beginners

(He's the Oscar frontrunner and it's easy to see why in this film -one of the year's best.)

As stated before, this is probably the weakest category this year. One has to really think to come up with five award-worthy nominees. Max Von Sydow received one for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close due to the "you're old and we owe you one" principle. Jonah Hill received one for Moneyball due to the "you're young and popular and will thus increase viewership" principle. And I can't even fathom how Kenneth Branagh made it into this category with his bland and forgettable portrayal of Sir Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn. In a year with only three extraordinary standout performances in this category (although only two were nominated), why not choose to recognize two other actors who worked on fascinating films in daring roles like Miller or Hawkes or even Armie Hammer for his repressed Clyde Tolson in J. Edgar?

WINNER: Nick Nolte - Warrior

(It's amazingly hard to pick between any of the top three contenders and although Brooks' villianous turn may be the most striking, I can't escape the raw emotional intensity and truth of Nolte's performance.)

     Check back soon for my Best Supporting Actress Wishlist!