Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1967: Donald Pleasence in Will Penny, Kenneth Mars & Dick Shawn in The Producers & Results

Donald Pleasence did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Preacher Quint in Will Penny. 

Will Penny is an off-beat and effective western about an aging trail hand (Charlton Heston).

Donald Pleasence takes up the role of the heel required for the western and a very peculiar one. Pleasence after all isn’t necessarily an actor you’d instantly envision as a western actor given his Englishness is readily evident. The atypical nature of the casting plays effectively into the weirdness of his character. A character who suddenly appears as the ranch hands try to claim an elk only to be suddenly advanced upon by Pleasence’s Preacher Quint and his family. Pleasence as per usual, and not too surprisingly given that he is playing in a western setting, fashions a new accent for himself, something that isn’t quite American or English but completely works for the character. It is a strange ramshackle quality that denotes a man who has lived much of his life in very low circumstances but strives yet fails to present himself as some strange learned man of God. It is instantly ear catching as is his whole physical performance, where there is a scavenger like energy that Pleasence exudes as he peers upon the men whose only crime was to come across the same elk. Pleasence delivers a raw intensity and insanity though tempered with a particularly devious edge. Pleasence plays into the whole idea of the “Preacher” as very much a fire brimstone center of town square type preacher, although Quint is just in some random places trying to harass people who aren’t part of his family. Pleasence’s sermons are magnificent bits of performance from him as they are full bodied in just announcing himself as though he is about to leap out of his body as he implores some kind of divine intervention for his hideous actions. 

Every time Pleasence speaks it. It is as though he is trying to call upon the forces beyond nature to destroy his enemies with the mania in his piercing eyes. There’s a bit of subversion by Pleasence though, just a bit that is a brilliant little touch where kind of between the overtures there’s like a glint in his eyes of a knowing or just a moment where his voice falls a little where he suggests that even the preacher bit is nothing more than a game that Quint plays around with as part of a madcap act to lead his family. Pleasence has a great hideousness within his character as initially Will saves his friends by killing one of Quint’s family, where we get a standout moment of Pleasence praying to God to wreak vengeance on them where he makes the words sing as this blinded madness. Pleasence comes in and out of the film after this confrontation as this unwanted parasitic force of evil. Pleasence creates a vicious terror in his menace that isn’t so much defined by confidence but rather the rabid madness of the character. Pleasence creating almost a darkly comic quality to the character by playing into the grotesquery with such glee. Something that is particularly unnerving after a long loving sequence of Will helping and falling in love with a fatherless family, where Pleasence storms in with his delivery of “Merry Christmas” being as though the devil has come to call. Followed by one of his most disturbing acts as forces the widow to choose between his sons, while also disparaging his sons, the energy Pleasence brings creates such incredible distress by how much he seems within this moment to the point of a true demented hysteria. My only complaint about the character would be he doesn’t really have a great final moment to really let Pleasence sink his teeth into one more time, as the confrontation is relatively quick. But that is a case of only wanting more of a good thing, and really this is an amazing turn by Pleasence through the impact he makes. As he takes a germ of the false preacher and runs with it for his relatively limited screentime, making a tremendous impact, and in a role that I think many lesser actors would’ve made some forgettable rote heavy, Pleasence turns him into something more unique and impressive. 

Kenneth Mars did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Franz Liebkind nor did Dick Shawn receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Lorenzo St. DuBois but his friends call him L.S.D. in The Producers. 

Maybe The Producers as a film is a bit like the old Beatles or Elvis or Beatles or Rolling Stones debate where either you’re a Max (Zero Mostel) or a Leo (Gene Wilder) person, or you’re a Franz Liebkind or an LSD person. Not that you don’t like them all, but there is some degree of preference, although I think this largely speaks to the treasure trove of comedy evident within the film regardless. In terms of the supporting competition each play the broadest of the characters perhaps with Mars first to appear as the author of the play, “Springtime for Hitler” chosen by the titular producers as a surefire flop. A character who is patently absurd from the get go as we meet him pretending to be a proper “good American” going so far as two terribly sing Yankee Doodle Dandy, while of course also donning a German war helmet that might confuse the issue just a bit. Mars’s performance very much plays into this ridiculousness in many ways playing his role as an over the top German soldier in a war auctioneer just with different ends. As his German accent is just as over the top thick with the emphasis on that particular harshness used for more villainous characters, however something he instantly subverts with his silliness from the outset. An idea that expands when the producers surprise him with wanting to actually put on his play where Mars begins to espouse his views more openly though his exact perspective on Hitler and the whole Nazi regime seems a bit tilted even as ridiculous Nazis go. Mars's performance as the drunken Liebkind brings to it this combination between a lost love’s adoration towards Hitler against his unbridled, though wholly hilarious, rage against Winston Churchill as a comparison. Going off on all the ways Hitler was better based mostly on their paintings (though maybe a little mixed up on what type of painting Hitler did exactly), their dancing of course and Chruchill’s way of pronouncing Nazi. Mars’s performance of playing between basically what is best described as lovey dovey towards Hitler, then a sourpuss to Churchill is a magnificent silly dance of switching expressions and physical manner as he goes from wistfully dancing for Hitler to become ogre-like as he looks down upon Churchill. It’s a grand bit of ridiculousness.

Unfortunately for the Producers, they perhaps go too all in with their scheme and instead of just choosing the worst play they seem intent on choosing the worst of everything including the worst possible Hitler. Leading us to the introduction of Dick Shawn as Lorenzo St. DuBois aka LSD played by Dick Shawn where I’ll actually start with the later scenes of his performance, where his star turn as Hitler turns Liebkind’s straightforward adoration to that of a satire. Shawn is absolutely hilarious in pulling off basically proving the concept that this swerve would make the play a success as he brings his specific beatnik energy to the dictator. Where Shawn is outrageous through every swing of his performance as he opens with his anxiety over losing the war by serenading himself by piano, and using the word “baby” far more than Liebkind or history would support. Shawn’s portrayal of that specific distress is particularly funny by just how weirdly distressed he is in such a bizarre yet perfectly funny way. But his Hitler expands on that as we also get him with his troops, where Shawn once again is great in just playing up the stupidity as he so earnestly delivers the line that “we can’t attack Germany, we’re Germany”. But we also get the marvelous scene of his whole sequence of dealing with his “Little Joey” to cheer him up, Joey being Joseph Goebbels, we’re they’re best buds, proper beatnik best buds however in every overly chummy interaction, with even an all important high five, that is pure comedy gold as they “man” and “baby” each other in such joy as Joey lays out his new track, that being a propaganda piece where they beat England. 

Something that gets interrupted by Liebkind, whose distress at seeing the play matches the comedy on stage wonderfully well, playing it with this sincerity of his distress close to crying baby in every bit of being distraught at seeing “his Fuhrer” saying “Baby”. Leading to two great bits as Franz first dresses down an audience member for interrupting his bemoaning by noting that he’s the author and “outranks her” with all the same billowing as his Churchill rant, followed though by his knocking out of stage hand where Mars is hilarious by being frankly so silly in his “you please be unconscious” so gently before physically assaulting a man. And honestly where Franz goes through the last bits of the film are more looney tunes than anything, not a criticism mind you as Mars delivers it with aplomb from coming in to shoot the producers like Yosemite Sam as sneers his way through trying to kill them to a more Elmer Fudd pathos as he admits his failures and attempts suicide, which while about suicide still wholly funny through the silliness of Mar’s over the top somberness as he decides his own fate…only to be thwarted by his own lack of bullets. Even that continues though as we get him to try to blow up the theater to stop the show, where we get Mars’s portrayal of attempted intelligence, which is Franz being particularly stupid, as he analyzes his fuses. The sudden insightful manner in his eyes and the way he stares so intently as he discovers his short fuse for dynamite, by naturally lighting, before the great reaction of realizing his error, is a most pleasant cherry on the top of the performance. 

Now I held off on LSD’s audition because for me it just might be my favorite scene in a hilarious film. Although I think this brings up something about “dated” and whatever it really means because the character of Lorenzo St. DuBois is specifically a sendup of Beatnik/Hippie types, yet despite being so specific it doesn’t really matter because what he is doing is funny regardless if you connect to specificity or just enjoy the insanity of it. Well I enjoy the insanity of thanks in large part due to everything that Shawn does in the part, particularly the swings of the part in the audition scene. From as he strolls in with such casual ease asking if the Hitler auditions were the auditions for Boomerang, only to be told of his error leading to Shawn’s immediate and strangely natural switch to such anxiety as he seems to ridicule his own, one would assume, drug addled brain. Combined with his perfect hat in hand demeanor when admitting to his six months in prison and his insistence that he’s clean. But he gets the audition where somehow LSD summons a band to play his performance of “Love Flower”. A performance that is amazing every second of it. From his initial intensely hippie loving everyone manner as he opens the song about giving people his love flower, before switching to a more hostile love flower to cops and landlords, where Shawn’s switch to such raging intensity of a man hating the “man” of society to such a degree and in such a contrast to his “loving” side it is absolutely beautiful comedy. Only perhaps topped as he continues that intensity to such comedy genius to one of my all time favorite bits of physical comedy as he announces that he will dance in song, leading to Shawn’s somehow frozen yet free bodied movement of everything but his legs in this singular form that is utterly ludicrous yet utterly amazing. Followed again by his switch to suddenly some existential fear around the love flower, where Shawn is intense now through that terror rather than anger before collapsing to the floor, where he peels a banana peel like it is a life line before dismissing it to instead suckle his mini cymbals instead with a face of best described as wacky contentment. After such a display one can only say “THAT's OUR HITLER!”. Or really this is just an incredibly funny performance that never ceases to make me laugh despite how many times I've seen his bit. 

(Mars)

(Shawn)

UPDATED OVERALL

Next: 2004 Lead

Alternate Best Actor 1967: Results

 5. Sergei Bondarchuk in War and Peace Part IV - I elected not to review Bondarchuk for his self-directed performance. While a good performance in terms of his reactions to the various horrors of war and the eventual respite in the end, as a director he chooses not to focus on his performance as much as you'd think, particularly when the subtitle of the film is his character's name. Pierre's story while not lost in the shuffle wholly, is not focused upon performance wise heavily, instead choosing more visual choices to convey certain moments including the final romantic overture where we get a brief reaction by Bondarchuk, which while good, is quickly moved on from. He gives a good performance but it does feel like less of an impactful one thanks his choices as a director than say what he gave himself as an actor in the first part of the film series especially. 

Best Scene: Arriving Home. 

4. Ljubiša Samardžić in The Morning - Within very much a director's film as well, giving a interesting charismatic performance that unfortunately is very much limited by the confines of the writing. 

Best Scene: Fantasy

3. Michel Simon in The Two of Us - Simon gives a striking and extremely naturalistic portrayal of seemingly warm loving old man, who also holds some casual cruel prejudices. 

Best Scene: Ending.

2. Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood - Wilson gives a brilliant counter performance to Blake, bringing to life as tangibly a career criminal who may be less personally violent but is just as deadly. 

Best Scene: Conning the store. 

1. Toshiro Mifune in Samurai Rebellion - Good predictions Razor and Shaggy. Mifune delivers one of his best performances giving such a moving portrayal of the love of a father that also realizes intense rage when that love is endangered. 

Best Scene: The violence begins. 

Updated Overall

Next: 1967 Supporting (Probably not a lineup)

Alternate Best Actor 1967: Toshiro Mifune in Samurai Rebellion

Toshiro Mifune did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Isaburo Sasahara in Samurai Rebellion. 

Samurai Rebellion tells the story of a highly skilled but unambitious samurai who runs afoul his clan after his son is asked to take the former concubine of their lord. 

Samurai Rebellion suffers slightly in comparison to the great Masaki Kobayashi’s previous films about a man against a system of injustice, particularly Harakiri which it closely resembles in the overall plot and the idea of a family being torn about by cruel lords. It isn’t as great as that film, but Harakiri is one of the greatest films ever so being less than that isn’t bad. As it is still well worth watching, even if it isn’t as tight or quite as powerful as that film, in large part we get a very special collaboration by having the great Mifune as Kobayashi’s lead this time around and proof that neither his career, nor his talent ended after this legendary collaboration with Kurosawa. And Kobayashi thankfully challenges Mifune in a different role, despite being yet another samurai, this is a different samurai for Mifune. As this character is neither the great rebel samurai of Yojimbo nor is he a chaotic fake samurai from Seven Samurai, nor the great general from Hidden Fortress, Isaburo Sasahara is kind of just a guy even though he’s in this system. There’s a different vibe Mifune brings here that is just wonderful and shows once again great acting isn’t always playing extremely different parts rather it is finding the differences in similar parts and expressing those differences to make new characters that leave lasting impressions. 

Mifune does so here by in no way making Sasahara any sort of larger than life guy in fact accentuating more so the fact that there isn’t anything too notable about him despite his alluded to skills at fighting something we get the sense of as he has casual conversations with his also extremely skilled friend and fellow vassal Tatewaki Asano (Tatsuya Nakadai). Nakadai and Mifune have great chemistry here that is unique to this film given, while there will be a duel between them, this is the only film I’ve seen between them where the pair get to be friends. With Mifune and Nakadai having just work buddy chemistry. It is very easy going with Mifune’s delivery of taking his life as casually as he does, even if in a defeated way at times given he is brow beaten by his wife, isn’t of someone bemoaning his whole existence rather it is just a guy who has accepted his plight having the bit of fun he does get in getting to to express that belief with his friend. The two have a great ease where the sense of respect between the men is just a given and the way Asano describes Sasahara, you see the younger man see the older man for more than what the older man even believes. As whenever Asano builds him up too much, Mifune plays in his eyes almost an embarrassment at the idea that he could be anything truly great and not just a husband and a dad. 

Speaking of those two elements we get two very distinct sides from Mifune, and again sides that are unique to this performance from the great actor. The first is that of the husband where the moments we do get of him with his domineering wife, Mifune is remarkable in the years of just accepting whatever his wife says as his eyes have a resignation and his voice has an innate sigh of a man who seems to be constantly saying to himself “it’s just not worth fighting with her”. We also get the latter part as the dad where Mifune certainly played paternalistic father figures in previous films, notably Red Beard as one of his most mature characters, but this is very different as emphasis on the dad dad so to speak. As Mifune is wonderful at being a bit of a fuddyduddy for the lack of a better term. He’s not cool or hip around his son, rather you just get this simple bright smile of appreciation towards his son and just as someone who loves him simple as that. Mifune’s portrayal of not complicating this in any way is so distinct because complication is usually the name of the game, and even in Red Beard Mifune gave his wisdom out in sometimes cold blunt ways. But here Mifune just accentuates a sincere open warmth where every interaction with his son is just as a loving guy who wants nothing more than the best for his son. Mifune makes this pure in every bit we get and consistently expresses leaving a strong impression that is key to the progression of the plot. 

The plot appears as Sasahara’s son is asked to take on the single mother concubine of the lord as his wife, something they reject based on rumors of her manner but something that changes when they find that she is a lovely loving woman. I’ll be honest while the relationship isn’t bad in any way I would say it is more of just fine and the film could’ve had something just a bit more potent in showing these two as the perfect couple sort of thing, instead they do what they need to, the actors I think just don’t have that burning chemistry though I think both are more than decent in their roles. Mifune picks up the slack for that however in his reactions to the love he sees between his son and his wife, as his smiles become so much brighter and his speech about the new wife, Mifune gives a glowing delivery of every word where he shows not how much Sasahara is getting out of the new women in a direct way but rather how much he’s getting out of her by seeing how much joy it brings to his son. When he encourages his son about the relationship, Mifune’s speech is tremendous because it contains love, but also the sense of years of burdened somehow relieved as Mifune’s eyes are that of a man who couldn’t have true love himself however that wound is softened by seeing his son find it in the end. 

Sadly the plot becomes more complicated when the wife is recalled by the lord at a cruel moment, something the family eventually rejects as a cruelty, particularly after the couple had conceived a child. And when we see the son take the stand Mifune’s laying of the groundwork of the man defined by this love for his son pays off, when we see his son’s happiness threatened Mifune’s work shows this love fueling his conviction to do whatever it takes to defend his son. Mifune’s calm in these scenes shows essentially the great man who always could’ve been in the way we see a man standing firm by his strongest belief that being the belief in supporting his son. Even surprising his son in his steadfast approach Mifune is great in suddenly his presence being the full Mifune of the man who is larger than life, but still different as we see that put upon dad now finding his strength as in every moment of this there is this glint in the eye of Mifune of a man who is doing it all for tender care. Eventually it all falls apart when the Lord refuses to relent leading to both the tragic death of Sasahara’s son and his daughter in law. Then we get Mifune unleashed in one of his all time great just full Mifune intensity here representing not just rage but also such rabid grief as Sasahara kills a substantial number of men from the Lord. Mifune uses all of his physical power and every bit of what his eyes can do like few actors to show the tremendous pain of a father fueled into every moment of the one sided massacre. That moment is followed by such a poignant moment of performance by Mifune as he shifts to such a gentle heartbreaking calm as he buries his family, where Mifune’s quiet in contrast to the earlier explosion is so powerful in showing the same love now just in his promise to try to spread the word of the injustice by escaping the lord’s realm. Leading Sasahara to have to duel Asano as the latter must fulfill his duty as the guard of the border, where Mifune finds such a remarkable quality as he prepares to fight his friend. There is just this quiet calm conviction as he notes what he will do no matter what, you see a man with his eyes set on only doing the justice and promise to his family. It isn’t the eyes of a killer but the eyes of a father that Mifune expresses in this quest. Throughout the incredible duel Mifune’s performance is captivating in the consistency of that conviction until he fatally wounds his best friend. When Asano stops, I love the shift of Mifune as we see that conviction vanish, not because he no longer cares, but now sees his friend as no longer an enemy but just his dying friend. Mifune is so moving by making this shift feel natural as Sasahara still loved his friend even though he had to kill him for his quest. Something we see continue in a final attempt to escape where Mifune again brings such intensity to every moment of the final fight, being this fierce powerful onslaught of that emotional power of a man putting every ounce into himself to try to find justice for his family. Mifune is incredible as he conveys that even as he is physically falling apart from wounds, the eyes never waver as the man is looking to that conviction still. Mifune delivers yet another tremendous performance here, finding a new way to the rebel samurai, this time not as a man who rebels through chaos, but rather just a reflection of love for a father. 

Alternate Best Actor 1967: Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood

Scott Wilson did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Dick Hickock in In Cold Blood. 

Scott Wilson had a notable year in 1967, playing a supporting role as a wrong suspect who happens to also know some very important information in In Heat of the Night, a performance that ended up being a mini showcase for Wilson, bringing a lot of naturalism and color to a what could’ve been a forgettable role in lesser hands. That role, which apparently got him this role via recommendation by the great Sidney Poitier, was in many ways a warm up to this role. Wilson plays the secondary lead here, the one of two men responsible for the death of a family in a small town, the other being Perry Smith played by Robert Blake. Smith being the killer typically more focused upon due to his more idiosyncratic life, his more pathos driven existence and possibly because Smith was the one who literally committed the murders. Hickock however was as responsible, despite not pulling the trigger, a dynamic realized within Wilson’s performance. Wilson’s performance that naturally elevates the film to very much emphasizing the “true” within the true crime, as the moment we see Hickock join Smith on their deadly trip, Wilson doesn’t seem like an actor presenting himself as a part, rather just this small-time criminal coming onscreen. There’s a history about Wilson’s performance that is innate, and his history isn’t so distinct, Hickock is a “run of the mill” compared to Smith, but yet the man’s history is still important. The moment he says goodbye to his dad, Wilson’s suddenly this working class son being supportive to his dad, acting as though he’s going to make it big with this new idea of his. 

Wilson is completely natural in the immediate switch we get when he joins Perry in the car, and Wilson suddenly dominates, sorta, as one of the fascinating elements here is the way the relationship between the two men is never a singular note. Rather a switch between them, however the basic setting is that Hickock is dominant as he is the one with the plan, which is to rob and murder a farmer he “knows” has a safe filled with money. Wilson’s performance is fantastic in the bravado he brings that is of a certain very specific career criminal quality, where in his mind this “score” just is exactly what he needs to get everything set for himself. Importantly Wilson paints no doubt within the notions and even goes further than that he sells the notion believably to Smith. This includes even noting that they’re not going to need anything to cover their faces because they aren’t going to leave any witnesses. Hickock has the murder plan already as part of the deal, but presented Wilson delivers it as the means to any end for a man who exists within the mindset that being a crook is just his innate nature. Importantly, the idea of the murdering is presented by Hickock but Smith is part of the plan with the knowledge that Smith has already killed someone. A moment where Wilson is brilliant and creates an essential dynamic at times in their relationship. Wilson has this pestering quality, such as when he purposefully briefly sets off Smith knowing he’s brought out the killer instinct. Something Wilson doesn’t deliver with fear, but rather an easy going smile, the smile of the man who doesn’t see that killer’s quality as a danger to himself but rather a tool for his horrible plan. 

Much of the film skips over the actual murders, something we don’t return to until near the end of the film, the rest of the time spent with Hickock and Smith attempting some kind of getaway despite stealing very little from the farmer, who in fact paid almost everything with a check. Where Wilson is great by portraying the burden of the murders so differently within his own work, yet is wholly convincing in playing this alternative note than the pathos driven one portrayed by Blake. Wilson captures the amorality of Hickock with such a disturbing believability in his ease about living with his murders, even encouraging more potential murders along the way. Wilson’s presentation has an eerie convincing quality in just being fed up with any talk of any mistakes they’ve made with an insistence that the two are distanced from it. Wilson makes this practicality disturbing because in his performance, it isn’t that he doesn’t care, but rather his reactions of frustrations around it are more so man just being thrown off from what he believes to be his job than having taken part in the brutal murders of four people. The ease about the criminal nature is what is so chilling in Wilson because every second of this you just believe this guy who takes in the killings as a calculation like any other. His downplaying moments of it to Smith, even Wilson accentuation on it as like a forgettable mistake, is brilliantly performed, because he shows that in this man’s mind that’s all it was to him. 

In their on the run period Wilson has some stand out moments where he illustrates further the career criminal nature of Hickock where it is just second nature, something that Wilson also makes second nature. A standout scene is when we see Hickock approach a clothing store manager to fashion himself and Smith for a “wedding”, something that is all a lie of course, but Wilson’s presentation of this is amazing. He’s beaming with confidence in every step of the process bringing so much warmth in his language as he’s building trust with the manager, by having such an affable charm as he “sells” the lie so convincingly. Particularly as we get to the payment, you never doubt his ability to not only to get to pay by check, through the ease Wilson brings such commitment to friendliness, that he even convinces you that he’d get the manager to give them some spending money by increasing the check. Wilson’s smiles, his physical “good ole boy” manner, every bit of it is a magnificent dance of a con that he takes through and pretty much convinces you to “sell” him something with your own money. A quality consistent in their other schemes, including trying and failing to kill a motorist for their cash using Smith of course as the actual hands of the operation, but Wilson again accentuates the needed “team” in their potentially horrible crimes. As we see when Smith is preparing to kill a man, Wilson is that charming smile of a distraction that would make it all so easy and just “part of the job”. 

Eventually their luck runs out as they are arrested for a stolen car, but I love the moment just before this where Hickock suggests they just try to make their cash ride at a casino. There is no hesitation in his delivery, Wilson presents a man who absolutely believes he could make this plan work, even as the odds are so obviously against him. Under interrogation the dynamic shifts substantially, as Wilson tries to play the note of the cool operator, however when pressed the facade breaks down. Wilson is excellent because you see the attempts at playing the cards he thinks he has, from first the attempted confidence, then attempting to play the scared innocent as he reacts finally with emotional distress to the murders, not because of guilt but rather having been caught, which is a striking contrast to Blake’s far more controlled portrayal of Smith in this instance. A dynamic we see as he flashbacks to the murders, an all time great, and all time great disturbing scene, where both actors are essential in the realization. As with Wilson we saw the “fun” of playing the conman, now we see the man who has planned out the murders, and Wilson’s great by honestly presenting a caustic stupidity in every step. Playing up the fiendishness and even giving into it with such slimy disregard, including considering raping one of the victims, only stopping due to Smith’s interference. Wilson shows a combination though that is chilling between the power of his threat in the scene, and the lack of power in his growing anxiety as it is obvious there is no money safe whatsoever. Smith shows us the fool, and in that fool we see such danger of a man as his mistake leads to the death of innocents. The final segment of the film is more so Blake’s showcase but Wilson is still great even in the bits he has as the men wait for their execution. Wilson’s fascinating because he presents himself as though Hickock is almost living in the “retirement” plan or “all star” setup for criminals. As the career criminal there is a glee almost in Wilson at times, and a practical manner who accepts his situation as it is at this point. Wilson brings depth to a lack of depth, as Hickock basically espouses his support of capital punishment, as he’s about to be the victim of it, showing the reasoning not a great thinker, rather a man who accepts it all in his limited view of life. Although a shorter moment for him, Wilson is outstanding in depicting the execution scene because come off that same idea as before, the whole time Wilson presents so powerful this dawning realization of the reality in every second. The man's eyes are that of someone emotionally despondent but more than that someone seeing his whole semblance of his reality cracking finally just before he is about to be killed. Although in many ways the less showy part, Wilson delivers also a great performance by creating a different portrait of a criminal, not as a one of the kind, but rather the run of the mill man who could enable and exacerbate the nature of both men to the most heinous deeds. 

Alternate Best Actor 1967: Michel Simon in The Two of Us

Michel Simon did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the Silver Bear, for portraying Pépé in The Two of Us. 

The Two of Us follows a young Jewish boy Claude sent to live with an elderly couple in the country. 

Michel Simon was simply one of the first actors to “get it” when it came to film acting, becoming one of the early consistent performers on film who not only seemed to understand the medium but had the ability to take risks with dynamic characterizations. A career that lasted from the silent era to the 70’s. One of the few major awards received by Simon was for Berlin top acting prize for this film. Simon plays the grandfather of the elderly couple who take in the boy and Simon’s ability on screen is readily apparent as it always is. There’s a natural ease to his performances and this one is no different. Simon brings instantly a sense of this man of the country who has long lived there and pretty much is an innate product of this existence, something we will find is both a good thing and a bad thing. But let’s begin with the lacking complication of the good, where Simon is truly wonderful in portraying the overabundance of warmth in his performance towards the boy Claude. Simon is just beaming in the way he presents that the grandfather couldn’t be more fulfilled than when he is playing with this boy. He is loving every second of it, and is something you feel come across the screen to create such a warm loving dynamic. Simon has so many great moments that aren’t defined by any great drama just of great fun. Such as rough housing with the boy, or a moment of the two swinging each other on a swing. There is such a zest to it all and Simon succeeds in making that sense of fun come to the viewer, while also seemingly getting the best out of the child actor who too seems to be just having fun at least from what comes onscreen. It feels wholly natural and just wholly honest in every moment of it. 

But of course it isn’t all good, and even then Simon is great such as a moment where Claude is sent away to school where he is immediately bullied, ridiculed and has his head cruelly shaved. Simon’s reaction is heartbreaking because you do so how much he loves the boy in his eyes and his delivery of saying that he’ll teach him instead couldn’t be more reassuring or supportive to the struggling boy. With that though we have the most challenging aspect of the film and something that I think is its greatest ambition but also its greatest deficiency. Because as much as the film devotes so many lovely moments to Simon’s Pépé, it as often gives him moments of his views on the world which are openly antisemetic, prejudicial to outsiders in general and fully supports the Nazi puppet French leader Philippe Pétain. There’s a struggle here as the film is directed by Claude Berri, that depicts a boy named Claude in a situation that apparently mirrors his own life where he too was sent to the countryside to an antismetic couple, so theoretically he is just delivering his life story, and so maybe why the reckoning of this element is light, and the commentary on it beyond the depiction is somewhat limited. Berri himself seems to want to focus on the good times more but wishes to depict that nagging element. Something that should be potentially fascinating but maybe his closeness to the subject matter limited his commentary. So creates a curious situation because so much of it, and so much of what Simon does in the role, wants you to love Pépé yet he has these horrible beliefs behind him. 

Well as much as the film limits the resolution of this, Simon I think does what he can in terms of trying to kind of make you understand this man, and show that someone can be largely likable as long as you don’t bring up certain subjects, which to be fair holds true for some. Simon very much emphasizes the limitations of the man’s perspective for his politics. When he goes off on Jewish people, foreigners, communists or anything else, there’s a routine in his delivery, it is the standard statements of expectation and something he doesn’t even really reflect on. It is an old man’s rambling, sadly given the situation such mentality leading to horrible events so it is difficult to ignore. Something that the boy slightly challenges by questioning if he’s actually met Jewish people, which Simon’s reaction in these moments is perfect as it is of someone who never even furnished such deep connections to the topic as he presents confusion and naivety. An element Berri seems to be partially commenting on such as when Pépé happens upon a brutal Nazi regulation, where Simon’s reaction is terrific in showing the suddenly the old man being completely lost at such a horrible notion before being hurried along. Or another moment where with the war ending Pépé is still holding onto Pétain as this great man, to the point even part of Pépé’s family threaten to leave forever if the old man doesn’t take the picture of the disgraced false leader. We get the moment after he’s caved in, where Simon would be deeply affecting with the emotion he brings out in his performance by showing so convincingly this man who is just lost and confused by the revelations of the world around him…if one can’t be so easily detached given what he’s sad about is a man who was an active tool of the Nazi regime. So it’s a strange situation, but in all of this Simon is effective in playing every emotional beat, and creating a cohesiveness in presenting the more savory and less savory elements of this character. As he is genuinely unquestionably affecting by comparison when Simon shows with such empathetic heartbreak the old man's reaction to the death of his faithful dog. There isn't a second where the emotion doesn't feel absolutely real and tangible. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention his scene of presenting himself as he was as a soldier in World War I, which is a terrific vaudevillian bit of over the top physical performance, where Simon is having a blast but is also very entertaining in the grandfather making fun of himself by lampooning old serious soldier self. But that scene is just another example of so much of what Simon does well with this part, challenging you to like this old man, even as his stated beliefs are that of a terrible person. 

Alternate Best Actor 1967: Ljubiša Samardžić in The Morning

Ljubiša Samardžić did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning the Volpi Cup, for portraying Mali in The Morning.

The Morning follows the period of time of victory immediately after WWII in Yugoslavia, which results in an odd combination of celebration and killings. 

I’ll admit going with a festival winner might not always be a guaranteed choice for analysis as there have been the examples where the winner seemed like the juries pulled a name out of the hat and said “sure” rather than really accrediting a great performance. And I’ll say while Ljubiša Samardžić’s performance isn’t entirely that but I wouldn’t call it a great performance either. His actual appearances in this already fairly short film are limited as it takes a wavering perspective and he only becomes lead by virtue that the film keeps coming back to him as it frequently diverges to other people dealing with their new found “freedom”. We to Samardžić depiction of Mali as a man who basically is killing people still even after the war even having this strange urge to do so, where it appears the people may be guilty in some way, but still the jump cuts we get to depict the executions leaves some questions in mind about that guilt. Samardžić’s performance is interesting in the exuberance he brings to it, that is a kind of madness he creates in the man. He doesn’t play it as fully insane as though he’s a psychopath, despite his killings, but rather someone who has become detached from his existence to have this sort of dreamy enjoyment of the madness. This state of his is captivating when the film chooses to depict him as his physicality even maneuvering around almost like a ghost himself, but the way he seems so carefree about everything. He’s captivating as far as he can go in depicting this, as we see him talk to a few women about either the present or the past, but even that Samardžić depicts with the same sort of casual ease that seems eerily disjointed. It all works in his performance in crafting this very specific state of being that does successfully realize this man is sort of ripped from reality, but still playing with it in his own way. BUT, the film’s choices to constantly divert attention to someone else or to some extreme stylistic swing does limit how much Samardžić actually gets to explore, even as the technical lead of this film. He’s good with what he has but we don’t really get to play with it in more directions. We get a stylized scene of getting into fineries but even that is far more visual than something the performers really get to sink their teeth into. Regardless, Samardžić gives a good performance, but it was one where I felt we got a great starting point that sadly the film didn’t allow him to explore beyond a certain point. 

Alternate Best Actor 1967

 And the Nominees Were Not:

Michel Simon in The Two of Us

Ljubiša Samardžić in The Morning

Sergei Bondarchuk in War and Peace Part IV

Toshiro Mifune in Samurai Rebellion

Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2017: Kōji Yakusho in The Third Murder & Results

Kōji Yakusho did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Misumi Takashi in The Third Murder. 

The Third Murder follows a defense attorney Tomoaki Shigemori (Masaharu Fukuyama) for a man who murdered his boss. Sounds like a straightforward mystery or courtroom drama but given it is Kore-eda, if only it twere so simple. 

Kōji Yakusho this time around is decidedly not playing the kindly bathroom cleaner in Perfect Days, the last film I reviewed him for, something that is abundantly obvious in the opening of this film that is perhaps the clearest picture of the intention of Yakusho’s character Misumi, but then again maybe not. What we do see is a double act of brutality as Misumi not only bludgeons the man, his boss, to death he then sets the corpse on fire. This seemingly is the undisputed act of the piece and perhaps our best method to understanding the enigma of this character…maybe. Yakusho’s performance in the scene, which we assume is real at the very least and the facts as presented. There is a hostile extreme in the act and Yakusho presents us with a violent man. Something that seems to fit when Misumi was formerly imprisoned for murder avoiding the death penalty only by the act of Shigemori’s father who was Misumi’s judge. Leaving Shigemori to essentially try to figure out why this man was deserving of such mercy, something that will not be easy for him or the viewer in uncovering the enigma that is Misumi. Yakusho’s performance here is brilliant right off the bat because of how much he frustrates you in a way by his ability to answer questions while not saying a damn thing about anything. When his defense team first meets him, inquiring about the crime and essentially trying to reduce the sentence by making it more of a side effect of a robbery, Yakusho’s performance seems almost disinterested by the questions. Yakusho has the vibe of a career criminal in a way looking for the “cheapest” way out of a situation he’s been in before. He’s captivating though because he’s not precisely that, he’s sort of that, as that sort of disinterest is only can be a criminal to treat his obviously severe crime as just something for him to throw away. He makes you sorta believe this but the problem is there’s the edge of every word where Yakusho is presenting at least a slight or severe lie in his eyes in each delivery. 

You can’t believe the man so clearly particularly when it becomes clear the robbery came after the murder therefore requiring a new defense if there is any chance at avoiding the death penalty. So the next try is to suggest he was motivated by the murdered man’s wife to kill her husband as some sort of illicit lover’s pact. Something that when Misumi’s asked about it he doesn’t deny, but doesn’t confirm either. Again Yakusho’s performance is key to all of this because he too doesn’t confirm or deny it either. Which could be an excuse just to be nothing but it is the something that Yakusho plays around with that makes him so transfixing in his vexing qualities. When asked point blank about an affair, Yakusho’s shrug is a masterclass of alluding to something but not quite alluding to enough. There’s some kind of embarrassment, and suddenly you can perceive him as a different kind of crook. There’s something he sort of cares about, but at the same time there is a callousness about him that makes it seem like it is a standard issue sleazy murderer…maybe. The only truth you can truly accept is that Yakusho captivates in his peculiar way of dodging the questions, without saying no or saying yes. But kind of saying both at the same time. Shigemori, still struggling to find some way to prevent the death penalty, seems to find some other motive where the murdered man may have been molesting his daughter and Misumi acted in judgement of that heinous act. Naturally when Shigemori asks him about it, Yakusho doesn’t make things easy for us. Rather Yakusho shifts again this time most powerfully to portray a different kind of killer, and here is curiously just as he’s given the potentially most sympathetic motivation that Yakusho actually doesn’t make it the simple way of showing the man burdened by performing this kind of vengeance. Rather Yakusho goes to a darker place, particularly as he speaks of tragedies of his family where Yakusho doesn’t give motivation still, but what he shows is suddenly this more chilling intensity in the man. Suddenly he speaks with the type of viciousness of a killer, even a serial killer which Misumi technically is, but you can take it as hate towards the world, due to injustice or just hate towards the world. Yakusho makes it a most striking declaration by keeping the ambiguity alive as the man is speaking an emotional truth but he still is not speaking the truth. Even when he demands that Shigemori answer with his own belief, where Yakusho is genuinely scary in the intensity of the moment, how can one be sure with this man?

Shigemori’s path isn’t easy as Misumi seems ostracized by his own family, however the daughter’s story gives credence to this motivation though no one speaks an exact command or choice at any point. But as the best possible approach Shigemori attempts to get Misumi to pursue this course, until in court he does the exact opposite and insists that he’s innocent saying that he was pressured to make a deal. Suddenly as he is pleading his innocence Yakusho’s performance manages to be his most obviously false and guilty, where everything else he says you can’t be sure of, Yakusho brilliantly overplays this moment of creating a man playing the part now of just the criminal making up stories for the sake of it. Yakusho brings a different kind of blithe quality now where there’s more of an act than in his early scenes where you just can’t be sure of it, here you know this is the one place that Misumi is unquestionably lying. Leading to his death sentence, Shigemori visits Misumi with that sentence placed to try to figure out the mystery one more time. Of course Yakusho/Misumi still remain extremely cagey in his exact intentions, but captivating in his enigmatic state. Yakusho delivery of Misumi stating it would’ve been better if he had not been born seems real and creates the penetrating nature of a deep pathos…but this doesn’t exactly tell you why either which is the brilliance again. Something that Shigemori attempts to challenge by stating that Misumi’s actions must’ve been to protect the young woman, even his plea change protecting her from testifying makes it so he does have a good deed out of his existence. Yakusho is outstanding in his reaction to this because in the first moment you do believe this along with Shigemori as his face brightens a bit and the man seems to accept his good deed within what appears to be a rotten life. BUT when Misumi shrugs off that this may all be the lies of an old murderer, Yakusho doesn’t make it easy once again, as even his grin in this shrugging suggests you can’t believe any exact intention of the man at any point. And that’s the greatness of this performance, because while you can choose to take an interpretation as Shigemori does, Yakusho doesn’t enforce it, nor does he prevent it. He manages to instead brilliantly tiptoe around the lines to create a cohesive whole yet remain an enigma, which we know he’s a murderer, but why, well Yakusho gives you riddles but he never gives you answers in the best possible way. 

Updated Overall

Next: 1967 Lead

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2017: Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Mom

Nawazuddin Siddiqui did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Detective Dayashankar Kapoor in Mom. 

Mom follows a college professor Devki (Sridevi) who seeks revenge for her step daughter after she is brutally sexually assaulted by a group of men. 

I will say Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an actor I reviewed three times before this and in each instance has been a disparate performance and character. Siddiqui physically in each instance looks very different, no more so than in this film as he appears as a mostly bald private detective with a style all his own, who happens to hear about the plight of Devki’s stepdaughter, being missing initially, who is eventually found near death. Unfortunately for Devki, due to the stepdaughter having been drinking her testimony is put into question and the four men are exonerated by the courts despite their obvious guilt leading Devki to take the law into her own hands. In order to do this more effectively she calls upon Siddiqui detective Kapoor to help her. Siddiqui’s initial appearance is well performed in establishing the idiosyncratic nature of his character. Siddiqui is once again very much doing his own thing and successfully in the way he holds himself as a purposeful peculiarity. Something that works as presents himself as a peculiarity, where Siddiqui specific eagerness to help he paints with the right ambiguity between someone who is genuine in his keen eyed interest as he almost looks like a dog waiting for a treat with his specifically curious eyes and particularly accentuated grin, that may denote almost an ambulance chaser version of a detective, or just a man who presents his genuine interest in helping in his own unusual way. Well it becomes the latter clearly when Devki utilizes his skills as a detective to track down and find different ways to seek revenge against each of the guilty men. Siddiqui continues his ambiguous but entertaining note, where basically what he does is offer some levity within the rather dark situation. He does so in a way that works just through his off-beat delivery that fits and works for this off-beat oddball character. So every time he comes in for some exposition or moment of maneuvering the revenge plan, Siddiqui comes at it with his own unique angle that fits this eccentric character. What Siddiqui does effectively is show sort of the growth and investment of Kapoor into the revenge that is beyond monetary benefits. Something we see when he keeps mentioning his mother, something that Siddiqui plays initially seemingly within the eccentricity of Kapoor, but as he continues to mention it his eyes effectively denote a real care and outright empathy where his mother represents what Devki is doing for her stepdaughter. Siddiqui utilizes just that much more investment, he doesn’t lose the eccentricity by revealing sincerity as the ambiguity leaves to show that his investment goes beyond monetary compensation. An element that is featured even more strongly in his final scene where he comes face to face with the most dangerous of the men. Siddiqui’s wonderful in this scene by playing the shades of a sense of dread, but with a bravery of a man who has no desire to suffer fools of this hideous man. His delivery of correcting the man about a correct pronunciation is pitch perfect because he manages to make it a joke to Kapoor but also with it this real belief in Devki as he spells out the man’s own doom. Siddiqui hitting his height in this moment that exemplifies his overall effectiveness in the role, that makes the comedic elements of the character speak to more than just the comedy, though it works straightforwardly as well, by funneling within a highly specific character that he makes believable, while also using it to allude to a greater depths to the real motivation of the man. It’s a strong performance that really other than Sridevi, manages the very tricky tone of the film to deliver another wholly engaging performance, that for Siddiqui is yet another performance that didn’t for a moment make me think of the other performances of his I’ve reviewed here. 

Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2017: Mark Rylance in Dunkirk

Mark Rylance did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Mr. Dawson in Dunkirk.

Dunkirk follows three stories related to the Dunkirk evacuation by the British army. 

The nature of Dunkirk is one of the most pure example of a cinematic approach where I do think it is one film where it was absolutely meant for its original format to the most pronounced extreme, having said that, still works for me even in the lesser format of a home viewing, even on a larger television screen. Relevant though is Christopher Nolan’s emphasis on the visual approach for the material where the amount of backstory per character is very limited. The character probably with the most backstory is Mark Rylance as the “lead” of the boat story, where an older English gentleman goes with his son, and ill-fated friend George (Barry Keoghan, who I was taken by being reminded of just how not creepy he is here) to rescue men from Dunkirk using his own boat. Rylance's performance very much from the outset is about stature and developing that specific comforting presence of an old fashioned unfussy English gentlemen intent on doing the right thing. Initially what Rylance does is to not really put too much on anything, showing a very internalized determination fitting for the quiet man he is as he prepares the boat, before the navy can commandeer it themselves and set sail. Even his warning to George that they are going into war Rylance’s delivery of the line is with a subdued yet potent urgency of someone who speaks in fundamental truths and with an innate earnestness about himself. Rylance sets up the character effectively as empathetic respectability with the presence of a quiet established dignity for the good natured patriarch of the time.  

The journey is naturally not the easiest though on the more hopeful outset of the trip Rylance’s moment of beaming with pride at the spitfire planes, even giving a bit of history on their engines Rylance exemplifies the specific belief in the planes. Something that one could take as just belief in his country, but it extends to something beyond that. Rylance lays the groundwork for what are the essential truths of his character. The first important moment of the trip comes in as the boat picks up the only survivor of a sunken ship, the shivering soldier (Cillian Murphy). A man clearly suffering PTSD from the attack and refuses to stay on the boat that is headed back to the danger in Dunkirk. Rylance is fantastic in the way he presents the measured approach Dawson takes to dealing with the man at a breaking point. Rylance brings first just this considerable calm where his eyes bring so much empathy for the man’s brokenness, yet there is the perfect type of conviction in his voice as he notes that they can’t run away from the way. Rylance brings such a simple certainty to the moment that is absolutely wonderful. As is his moment of realization of just how of an extreme the man is, and falsely says they’ll turn around. Rylance brings such a gentle disarming quality to his performance, where his eyes note the real danger the man is posing before doing his best to alleviate the situation. Rylance offers such calm as he lies to the man by saying that they’ll chart a course. Even when shortly afterwards the man attacks Mr. Dawson, in order to get control of the wheel, Rylance’s reaction is still not of anger or fear but rather surprise at the extreme desperation of the man in the moment. Even after that though Rylance believably stays largely as this rock of dignified determination. And what makes Rylance stand out though is the quiet internal life in every decision, with an innate empathy, and the suggestion of key moments of pride. Rylance consistently offers some greater sense of the story of Mr. Dawson even though we are eventually only given one clear piece of motivation for Mr. Dawson. Something that Rylance establishes before we are told the moment when the boat has the chance to save a downed fighter pilot. Suddenly Rylance loses all his composure, and it is especially striking because of how quietly reserved he is the rest of the time. The urgency Rylance brings is emotional and honestly very moving as the panic is real and there is more going on with Mr. Dawson then just trying to save this one pilot. Rylance’s delivery suddenly hurried and in his own way desperate in his insistence that they try to save the man. A moment that is later explained when Dawson’s son tells the saved pilot that Dawson's older son had been a pilot who had been killed. An element that doesn’t change Rylance’s performance but rather one can see that Rylance already made it clear. The quiet determination, the moments of specific pride in the RAF, and that key moment of losing his own grip, all reveal a grieving father who wants to live by his son’s example and do everything in his power to honor his memory. Rylance manages to fully embody the type of the volunteering older gentlemen but naturally goes further both in the bigger moments but also the nuance in every small detail he has. 

Alternate Best Actor 2017: Results

5. Josh Brolin in Only the Brave - Brolin gives a consistently good portrayal of a firefighter insistent on the importance of his duty. 

Best Scene: Final fight with wife. 

4. Kamel El Basha in The Insult - Although slightly limited by the narrative El Basha finds nuance and humanity beyond the symbol the screenplay sometimes forces him into. 

Best Scene: The apology. 

3. Vladimir Brichta in Bingo: The King of the Mornings - Brichta goes all in bringing an intense and dynamic energy even if the film doesn't always give him the best path to take. 

Best Scene: Removing the makeup. 

2. Jamie Bell in Films Stars Don't Die in Liverpool - Bell has one of the least interesting parts in this lineup making him all the more impressive through the nuance he consistently finds throughout. 

Best Scene: Final goodbye. 

1. Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really There - Good predictions Ytrewq, Jonathan, Marcus, A, Luke, Anonymous, Tim, Matt, John Smith, Robert, Razor, RatedRStar, Calvin,Tahmeed, Emi, Shaggy & Harris. Phoenix gives an understated yet intensely powerful portrayal of a man defined by violence in a very particular way. 

Best Scene: The water. 

Updated Overall

Next: 2017 Supporting

Note: I will be updating other rankings later as I want to re-watch a few films first. 

Alternate Best Actor 2017: Vladimir Brichta in Bingo: The King of the Mornings

Vladimir Brichta did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Augusto Mendes in Bingo: The King of the Mornings. 

Bingo King of the Mornings follows the unlikely trajectory of an aspiring actor, doing softcore pornos, becoming the star of a hit children’s clown tv show. 

Vladmir Brichta plays Augusto the actor where the film opens with almost a kind of Safdie brothers like intensity as we follow him to try to get out of his particularly humble beginnings. Brichta approaches the role with a fundamental truth behind Augusto as a man who is destined for greatness, or at least he believes him. Something we see as we open the film where he is spending time with his young son just before a porn shoot. Where Brichta plays the moment with his son, towards his less than appealing job, as a hype up moment where Brichta presents not as delusions of grandeur rather this self-motivation method to a certain kind of madness of someone insisting that he'll be big. Brichta undercuts it with just a glance here or there before the hype up, showing that at this point he’s not there, but with the conviction of a man who just knows he’ll be there somehow. Where we quickly see one opportunity through a tv show, and one success of this performance is Brichta’s ability to modulate his performance per the performances of the character of Augusto. Obviously the softcore doesn’t require much of him, but in the brief tv show appearance, Brichta reinvents his presence to this very specific type of actor, where he comes across well but in a very specific alternative charisma than what we will eventually get as Bingo. Brichta effectively portrays the potential of the man as a performer, something that naturally carries to Brichta’s own performance. 

Brichta’s charisma he delivers here is very much attached to the drive of the man where in his eyes you see that insistence that he can do anything. Something that comes into play when he decides to audition for the new children’s program Bingo instead of the tv show. Where Brichta brings this predatory quality even as he darts towards this chance at fame even if it seems ill-fitting to his previous jobs in showbusiness. The intensity he delivers as he very nearly bites into the idea of the children’s clown denotes the need to find a path to his own fame. Where we see Augusto make his impression by not playing into the clown trope and in fact using inappropriate language for a children’s show, unheard by the English speaking studio bigwig, to get people to have a bigger reaction. Brichta’s approach, where this is almost an uncurrent of insanity in the “sell” of his Bingo, works though in the way there is just so much energy in his delivery, a specific chaotic energy of someone rolling with the madcap punches more than anything. Something that naturally extends to when he’s dealing with the sometimes unruly children of his show, where Brichta combines a big smile with also an often hectoring edge, but with just the right blend that he never quite becomes unbelievable, even if he is a bit more hostile than you’d expect a children’s clown to be. 

Within the world comes his fame, which initially is something that Augusto thrives with where Brichta plays into that drive now also into a self-satisfied ego, to the point of insisting he’ll easily have sex with the religious show producer Lúcia (Leandra Leal). Brichta continues the chaos with that same energy effectively though now with a bit more of a pompous stride. An element that becomes less clear for him when it becomes obvious that he cannot reveal his identity therefore limiting his actual exposure. Leading Brichta’s performance to blend that previous intensity that he used for his performance to become now this tipping towards vexing frustration. Something that Brichta effectively builds in his performance, along with moments out of makeup where you see him stewing in it against other moments of fantasizing of being able to reveal himself or have unexpected success with sex with Lúcia, neither of which happen. Unfortunately this leads me to the elements of the film which were less successful for me. One being his relationship with his son, who I’m sorry but came off as a prop to me. Other than the opening scene, I thought he was just kind of there. The other also being his fame obsessed mom, something that I also thought needed to go further. Although I think Brichta is good in showing the quiet consideration of the otherwise very blunt man to his mom, along with later his unconsolable desperation when she dies later. But even that transition seems rushed there that it doesn’t overall have the impact it should even if Brichta is certainly giving it his all. Additionally the whole path of frustration, along with his relationship with Lúcia have a lot of potential but just feel repetitive in the actual execution. Hitting the same beats too many times, and while Brichta I think remains good, I’ll admit Augusto becomes less and less interesting in every repeated bit. Brichta portrays this growing mania about him, but it never builds towards anything that is cathartic as either a failure or success…though the film paints it as all success in the end. Something that happens but it wasn’t something I felt in any profound way in terms of the realization of it in terms of the writing or direction. Brichta I never feel fails in his task but there is a certain limitation of the result, particularly in terms of his personal growth where the postscript suggests far more than we get. I will say however the moment of Augusto finally getting to wipe off his makeup, even if the build to it isn’t perfect, Brichta’s performance in isolation is moving in creating that sense of relief at finally getting the recognition he was waiting for in just the modest way he approaches the moment in each second of the reveal that he does end on a high note even if I don’t feel everything comes together in terms of the writing of Augusto’s/Bingo’s personal journey. 

Alternate Best Actor 2017: Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here

Joaquin Phoenix did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning CANNES, for portraying Joe in You Were Never Really Here.

You Were Never Really Here follows a hired gun as he gets involved with retrieving the kidnapped daughter of a state senator. 

Joaquin Phoenix is obviously an actor I have covered many times, and have covered him many times for playing men who are on some sort of extreme psychological edge. As Joe in this film this is yet another entry, yet an extremely unique entry within his oeuvre, and as I’ve written before, the great actor isn’t always about playing extremely different roles but rather finding compelling variation within similar roles. Within that idea Phoenix immediately crafts something quite different here as Joe than his earlier Freddie Quell or his later greatest hits rendition in Joker. It begins with his specific physicality and I will say while this is an expected element within Phoenix’s work in terms of an inclusion, it is completely different than expected in terms of execution. While Phoenix previously depicted Quell as the literally bent man unable to even physically stand like a healthy man, as Joe Phoenix reinvents that to create something I quite honestly wasn’t aware he could do, which is be physically intimidating. While Phoenix obviously bulked up for the role, it isn’t just that, rather the way he holds himself. Where Freddie was bent, here Phoenix reworks himself into that of essentially a lumbering brute, where all of the intensity he typically has is somehow all forced into himself as a singular shroud of protection. Phoenix wholly convinces at being someone you don’t want to reckon with, and while Phoenix has obviously been dangerous in other roles, it was usually as a live wire type situation, here, you can see him as a specific force. 

That brilliant physicality, which again just is wholly convincing and grants you something immediately new from Phoenix, it goes further as is common to Phoenix is a character dealing with trauma, but in this instance the reaction to that trauma is something quite a bit different. An overriding and callback to aspect of the character of Joe is his suicidal ideation, where throughout the film we see Joe play with methods of killing or harming himself. The film opens with a bag over his head to suffocate himself and soon afterwards, when visiting his elderly mother, he plays around potentially stabbing himself with a knife. Phoenix is incredibly disturbing in the way he handles these scenes, because there is no dramatic element to them either speaking towards intensity of the moment like say Riggs in Lethal Weapon, nor is it even say the way Freddie Quell is festering in his own anguish such as in the prison lash out scene from The Master. Rather Phoenix does something entirely differently by playing it as incredibly casually, which in terms is particularly off-putting. Phoenix portrays this unnerving comfort in Joe in these actions as though they are everyday occurrences for the man, because they are everyday occurrences. What Phoenix presents them as instead as his version, his very disturbing version, of playing with a stress ball, as he brings the same kind of matter of fact quality to these early moments, as a man who just uses that as part of his way of dealing with existence. 

There’s an idiosyncrasy within Phoenix’s approach here within his own turns but just performances in general, particularly within the revenge or vigilante genre. Phoenix makes Joe his own beast and even subverts your expectations of such a character in many ways. There is for example quite a bit of calm in his performance, and calm is usually something that denotes the badass in one way or another. While Joe has traits of such a type of character, the approach Phoenix takes ensures that you would never describe Joe as such. Part of it is the way this calm is more so the way he presents Joe as existing in his world as more so part of this near malaise of his existence that is burdened by unending trauma and violence. And in a way if you had a less intimate view of Joe, you could believe him as a badass when you see him interact with his liaisons, Phoenix delivers his lines with confidence of a man who knows the job and the routine. He has no questions or hesitations about it. Even when he goes about infiltrating the house where the senator’s daughter is being kept, Phoenix interrogates the runner for the house again as a man who is most efficient. Menacing even in his way of just so matter of factly requesting the information where the violence of the man is so innate in himself that Phoenix can barely raise a pulse in his questioning and getting set up to go in for the retrieval. Phoenix does command the space, but what he does is connect this to that same blasé manner towards his own suicidal tendencies, of a many with an eerie comfort towards death. 

That comfort to death extends to the particularly practical but also particularly brutal method of killing each time, which is largely with a hammer he buys at a hardware store. Where we see him go about his trade where Phoenix plays the sequence of killing all the men in the house with not exactly ease, but the same sort of approach someone might take to hammering down a ton of floor boards. It is absolutely routine for him, there is no weight in it, it is just what the man does. An approach that could seem like too little yet I found what Phoenix does here absolutely captivating in creating the idea of a man who in a way thrives with violence because internally he is filled with so much horror that to put it out externally is merely a continuation of that existence. As Joe is haunted by so many horrors of his own abuse as a child, the abuse of his mother by his father, death as a soldier, a mass grave in law enforcement, the man has more ghosts than people, and Phoenix is able to create this state within his performance. One where the horror is within his stare and even so within his consistency when he is killing or facing more death. Phoenix portrays someone so broken by his experience that he is a curiosity in himself and living still is also part of that curiosity. The only breaks whatsoever coming specifically from anyone who seems to try to present themselves to him in any way that isn’t violence. 

The moments where Phoenix breaks the state of Joe in any way are impactful through that consistency he crafts in his idiosyncrasy. As through his journey with his mother, we do see a loving if in no way untroubled son as he helps his mom out in her decrepit state. When he rescues the abused girl the first time, Phoenix says much in the moment where she first embraces him, then tries to kiss him. Where Phoenix in his subtle reaction creating how much any tenderness is more so a knife than what an actual knife would do to him, as he shows both surprise of the care and horror of her attempt to kiss him, stemming from her own mistreatment, where Phoenix reveals the broken psyche of Joe by how deeply each impact him, of course deeply within the malaise of Joe. The next break comes when after the initial rescue the plot gets murkier as the governor has her kidnapped again, trying to cut off all loose ends including Joe who barely escapes and finds that the men even went to his home and killed his mom. And there’s a powerful contrast between two scenes of when Joe sees his mother has been killed and when he “interrogates” one of the men who killed his mom. The former is again a rare moment of released emotion where we do see how much Joe still loves his mom even through the drama, and Phoenix is incredible in letting it eek out. It is amazing particularly since Phoenix often is so emotive, that it becomes so powerful in the way he artfully breaks the state of Joe’s mind only in these rare but impactful moments. And that is further emphasized by when, after wounding the man, asks the man if he killed his mom. Joe is back to his violence and state of perpetual trauma, and Phoenix is almost relaxed in the way he asks. Something that makes sense through Phoenix is realization of this particular state where more suffering is merely the norm. A powerfully shown element when Joe goes about weighing his mother in water and choosing her initially to join her in death by drowning himself. Phoenix’s portrayal creates the turning point of the man just going about accepting what he has been as there is comfort as he goes about his own death, until he sees a vision of the girl he did not save. Leading to the final act, where Joe seems to save the girl, who is him in so many ways, right down to how the plot realizes itself. However pivotal is the final release of his own defenses by seeing himself reflected in so many ways, and Phoenix doesn't suddenly go big. He’s remarkably small, still yet so incredible in the way he releases the emotions dormant, not as a pressurized valve, but rather this quiet erosion through the final scenes. Phoenix presents not a man with an understanding of any of it, or what to do with it, yet Joe cannot escape it. His final line delivery of repeating “it’s a beautiful day”, after being told so by the “rescued” girl, Phoenix is amazing in his underplay, of reaffirming, as an acceptance, yet in no way is it of renewed optimism or anything easy. Rather a man living within his fate of existence, as painful as it is, but speaking that it is what it is. I loved this performance by Phoenix, as much as it is a man on an extreme, Phoenix uncovers wholly new ground in crafting a different kind of tragedy and different kind of experience. Utilizing a more minimalistic and quieter choice, which pierce still so powerfully in creating captivating and unique portrait of a withdrawal of emotion rather than an explosion of it.