Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2016: Woody Harrelson in The Edge of Seventeen & Hugo Weaving in Hacksaw Ridge & Results

Woody Harrelson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Mr. Bruner in The Edge of Seventeen. 

The Edge of Seventeen follows high school outcast Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) as her life seemingly gets worse when her best friend starts dating her brother. 

This entry into the genre is particularly good for its considerable sense of humor much of which exists within the character of Woody Harrelson's history teacher Mr. Bruner, a character that is often the caring and supportive sort. The opening of the film is a flashforward featuring Nadine as she announces her intention to commit suicide to Mr. Bruner. What follows is one of the funniest scenes of 2016  via Harrelson's perfect delivery with his false sincerity as he announces that her words are "a lot to take in", followed by a perfect deadpan as he announces the fact that he had been drafting his own suicide letter at the same time, before reading it off that notes his exasperation with Nadine and his preference for the peace of a cold death rather than her taking his lunchtime away. Harrelson emphasizes every single word with a kind of honest lack of sincerity, as he makes the annoyance towards losing his time real while being as phony in the best way possible as he delivers each word as an extra degree of truth towards Nadine, before switching to the perfect excrement eating grin when he declares his hope that his indifference would get him fired. Although the film then proceeds to flashback what we get from Harrelson is random appearances of great comedy throughout the film whenever Nadine runs into him. Harrelson's embodying this note-perfect long-term teacher who has seen it all in one way or another. Harrelson's hilarious then doling out his particularly blunt wisdom when noting that Nadine does herself no favors. 

Harrelson though of course delivers these extra bluntly, such as when retorting that maybe she should have a life rather than focusing on one mistake he made during a lecture or noting that she might just be not particularly likable for her lack of friends. Harrelson delivers all of this with impeccable timing that makes his theoretical cruelty pure comic gold, although he does do a bit more to enable the character to serve his purpose beyond the comedy. Harrelson's performance always has this right knowing quality in his eyes as someone who has seen this before even with his approach that does suggest his callousness, while funny, isn't all there is. We develop more so into this as he reads out an impulsive sexually explicit text that Nadine sent, which Harrelson delivers with comic perfection as Mr. Bruner slowly uncovers its nature as he goes along starting with an initial "this isn't so bad" before starting to see it for what it is. As blunt as Mr. Bruner is, when he notes that Nadine is his favorite student and gives her part of her cookie, Harrelson is able to carry with it a more genuine sense of care even within the sarcasm that defines the man. Harrelson's great because he doesn't switch from the note, he rather carries the note authentically from who this guy is and the way he deals with students, likely students like Nadine before. It isn't a sudden shift rather just even though he's still callous, he does care but in his own way. Harrelson ends up being this source of comfort as he is able to create rather brilliantly the sense of sincerity within the sarcastic cynicism, without breaking either which is impressive. How? Well, Harrelson's comic moments again have the right sort of distance in that they definitely are jokes to him as blunt as they are, however when we do see the concern, which Harrelson plays entirely in his eyes, that is wholly genuine though not at all forced. It is a terrific comic performance from Harrelson as he runs with the humor that defines the character, but when he needs to give just the right amount of heart, he does so with a natural ease. 

Hugo Weaving did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Tom Doss in Hacksaw Ridge. 

Hugo Weaving exists in probably the least successful portion of the film featuring the pre-war times where the tonal clash is aggressively evident. The scenes that work best are those that follow squarely on Hugo Weaving as Tom Doss the father of our hero Desmond (Andrew Garfield). Weaving's performance is defined by Tom Doss being a man who mentally died in World War I despite surviving in the body. Weaving's performance is as a broken man specifically as everything about him seems as though he is weighted down within his existence. His face drowns down into a state of just barely holding it together so as not to fall apart constantly, his own physical being sunken and filled with a painful depression. Weaving's performance suggests almost a barely functioning corpse forced to still walk the earth while feeling the constant pain of his death all the same. Every moment we see him there is suffering laden within him whether it be just beneath the surface or constantly oozing out of him. Weaving's best moments come when his sons decide to enter World War II, first his older son Doss's brother, where Weaving is outstanding throughout the dinner scene when Doss's brother arrives in army uniform. Weaving's initial impression with quiet disbelief and an immediate sense of pain. And what is always remarkable is when a performance that is already in a deep pit can somehow go further into that pit. Weaving does this as regales a tale of a local boy who had a clean-cut uniform, and Weaving pressures into each word irony of a man with a broken yet true perspective on the situation. When he finishes the tale by noting the bloody death of the man and hoping his son's death will be cleaner, Weaving's lips quiver as the man barely able to speak the words, and his eyes only become more filled with anguish. Weaving showing as much as the father is brutal, all of this comes from a very real pain at seeing his son potentially die, and when he tells his son to get out of his sight, the anger of it is wrapped by an overpowering sadness. His conversation with Desmond when he enlists is a bit different and I like how in it, Weaving conveys a different relationship with the son he knows is different. Weaving still exudes the petrifying fear and sadness as he looks at his son, however now his trying to explain the situation is with earnest desperation trying to convince him that as a man of faith, in the way Desmond is, it can't work out. What Weaving shows with each scene as much as this is a deeply flawed man, all of what he is comes from his ptsd, and is heartbreaking in depicting his horrible state. The one scene where he seems out of this, and I think Weaving uses particularly well, is when Tom goes about helping Desmond avoid court martial by getting a letter from a General, and former comrade in arms. Weaving's performance in the scene of saving his son from legal punishment shows a potential other side to Tom. Although his eyes are still of the broken man, when Weaving speaks there is a real passion within it as he speaks of Desmond's rights and what he must've fought the previous war for. In the moment Weaving shows strength in Tom, and suggests in it the man he might've been, if he hadn't been scarred so deeply by his past.  

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