Tuesday 26 January 2016

Best Actor 2015: Results

5. Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl - Redmayne gives a downright terrible performance simplifying the character into separate turns, one as a bland nothing and the other as a ridiculous caricature.
4. Bryan Cranston in Trumbo - Cranston hams it up just a bit in the early portion of the film, but eventually settles in to give a fairly effective portrayal of whatever the film needs Trumbo to be.

Best Scene: His speech.
3. Matt Damon in The Martian - Damon effectively gives his character's situation the needed dramatic weight, and is decent in portraying his character's jokey optimism, though I did find his shtick to become grating after awhile.

Best Scene: The Launch
2. Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs - Fassbender gives an engaging and intriguing performance as he builds his characterization around the variations within the facade of Jobs. 

Best Scene: His second talk with Sculley.
1. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant - DiCaprio gives a great performance, finding nuance within his minimalist character, which works so well in tandem with the film's grand scope and vision.

Best Scene: Glass discovers his son.
Next Year: 2015 Supporting

18 comments:

RatedRStar said...

I am not going to suggest anyone because I think you have the list pretty much sorted out.

RatedRStar said...

Luke: Id say 18

Calvin Law said...

Oh well. At least I liked DiCaprio, so this doesn't nearly wrack me as it does for Robert, Michael McCarthy and Matt Mustin.

For supporting:
Emory Cohen for Brooklyn
Nicholas Hoult for Mad Max Fury Road
Benicio del Toro for Sicario
Josh Brolin for Sicario
Richard Jenkins for Bone Tomahawk
Spotlight chaps
Hateful Eight chaps
Idris Elba for Beasts of No Nation
Matthias Schoenaerts/Michael Sheen for Far From the Madding Crowd (though I prefer Schoenaerts, I have a feeling you'll prefer Sheen)
Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina

Calvin Law said...

Also, you know who would've been an awesome Hugh Glass in the 1970's? Robert Shaw. Or an awesome John Fitzgerald.

Luke Higham said...

I'll just name the performances that will be reviewed.
Idris Elba in Beasts Of No Nation
Richard Jenkins in Bone Tomahawk
Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin in Sicario
Nicholas Hoult in Mad Max: Fury Road
Emory Cohen in Brooklyn
Adam Driver in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina
Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci in Spotlight
Matthias Schoenaerts and Michael Sheen in Far From The Madding Crowd
Walton Goggins, Samuel L. Jackson and Kurt Russell in The Hateful Eight

Luke Higham said...

RatedRStar: Insane as it is, I'm going with 25-26. :)

Robert MacFarlane said...

Who I want to be reviewed:

Emory Cohen in Brooklyn
Martin Sheen in Far From the Madding Crowd
Nicolas Hoult in Mad Max: Fury Road
Adam Driver in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Benicio Del Toro in Sicario
Michale Keaton, Liev Schreiber, and Stanley Tucci in Spotlight
Kurt Russell in Hateful Eight

Calvin Law said...

In fact,

The Revenant (1970s directed by Werner Herzog, and have a feeling someone's done this one already)
Hugh Glass: Klaus Kinski
John Fitzgerald: Robert Shaw
Jim Bridger: Brad Dourif
Captain Henry: David Warner

1960s (directed by Akira Kurosawa)
Hugh Glass: Toshiro Mifune
John Fitzgerald: Takashi Shimura (come on, this would be interesting)
Jim Bridger: Tsutomo Yamazaki
Captain Henry: Tatsuya Nakadai

Michael McCarthy said...

Since I didn't get to post this on DiCaprio's review, I guess I'll just throw it out there now:

Those "extra" moments to DiCaprio's performance (his shooting the elk with the stick, his catching the snowflakes, and ESPECIALLY that last stare into the camera) didn't add nuance to his character, it just added vagueness. It made the film, as well as Glass's personal journey look like they had more meaning than they actually did.

On another note, the more I think about, the more I might be able to accept an alternate defense of this as a great performance, but a very different one from the defense in his review. The vagueness in his performance did give Glass kind of a zombie-like quality, which is fitting for a film called "The Revenant."

Alex Marqués said...

I'm expecting a lot of 5s for the alternate supporting category.

Robert MacFarlane said...

Don't you get it Michael? All of that was to bring Leo closer to THE TRUTH.

Luke Higham said...

Robert: Your thoughts on Macbeth and Fassbender & Cotillard.

Robert MacFarlane said...

Haven't finished it yet.

Luke Higham said...

Louis: Did you finish Wolf Hall.

Louis Morgan said...

Michael:

Well I don't mind arguing. I don't see how the final look was vague really at all. There's interpretation allowed considering that it's a silent moment, but I don't mind saying I think the intent of that scene was fairly obvious. The other scenes I do think brought nuance begins DiCaprio was not allowing a single emotion to override his entire performance.

mcofra7 said...

Louis: Updated top 5 performances from DiCaprio.

Louis Morgan said...

mcofra7:

1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. The Revenant
3. The Departed
4. Catch Me if You Can
5. Django Unchained

Anonymous said...

If it were up to me, I would rank the nominees in the following order:

1.) Leonardo DiCaprio -- The Revenant (100 / 100)
2.) Michael Fassbender -- Steve Jobs (90 / 100)
3.) Matt Damon -- The Martian (90 / 100)
4.) Eddie Redmayne -- The Danish Girl (75 / 100)
5.) Bryan Cranston -- Trumbo (40 / 100)


Deserving Performances that Could or Should Have Been Nominated:
Abraham Attah -- Beasts of No Nation
John Cusack -- Love & Mercy
Paul Dano -- Love & Mercy
Johnny Depp -- Black Mass
Michael B. Jordan -- Creed
Ian McKellan -- Mr. Holmes
Will Smith -- Concussion
Jason Segel -- The End of the Affair
Jacob Tremblay -- Room