Alternate Best Actor 2015: Results

10. Johnny Depp in Black Mass - Depp returns to form here for an effectively brutal depiction of a vicious mobster.

Best Scene: Whitey tries to explain why he wasn't a rat.

9. Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind - Ben Mendelsohn gives an endearing and moving depiction of a gambler with his work being particularly well amplified by his amazing chemistry with his co-star Ryan Reynolds.

Best Scene: Gerry plays a piano.

8. Michael B. Jordan in Creed - Jordan gives a great portrayal of a man with the passion to find his own path though with the frustrations of a son trying to overcome the shadow of his father.

Best Scene: "I wasn't a mistake"

7. Jason Segel in The End of the Tour - Segel gives a fascinating portrait of David Foster Wallace capturing his personal idiosyncrasies along with his personal philosophy, intelligence, and vulnerabilities.

Best Scene: Lipsky asks Wallace about his depression.

6. Michael Fassbender in Macbeth - Michael Fassbender offers a unique and powerful alternative interpretation of the tragic Scot, as man slowly destroyed by madness from his post traumatic stress.

Best Scene: Macbeth learns of the fate of his wife.

5. Ben Foster in The Program - Foster brings the right out of control vanity and ego to his Lance Armstrong, but still offers just enough sympathy for the man.

Best Scene: Lance says he'll clean up the sport himself. 

4. Jason Bateman in The Gift - Jason Bateman offers one of the most realistic depictions of a bully you'll find in a film, but goes further to still instill this sort of man with a very real humanity.

Best Scene: The final gift.

3. Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes - McKellen offers not only his own effective approach to the well worn character, but also goes deeper to realize the personal difficulties of being such a man in heartbreaking detail.

Best Scene: Mr. Holmes and Ann.

2. Tom Hardy in Legend - Tom Hardy gives two great performances, one appropriately outrageous and entertaining as deranged mad man, and the other appropriately charming and moving as a potentially good man who allows himself to fall down the same path as his brother.

Best Scene: The Krays come to blows. 

1. Jacob Tremblay in Room - Good predictions Luke and Anonymous. This year came down to several performances for me, and it's a great year, despite what perhaps the lead actor nominations might allow one to believe. My choice, the choice that I'm picking, yes right exactly now must be chosen, yes the choice. Well obviously I already chose, but this one was particularly difficult as there was not a single performance that just stood out to me, not in a bad way mind you, but rather I had to choose simply through work that I equally loved. Anyway my choice is the youngest of all the nominees yet his work is no less captivating. Tremblay's work is unassuming yet tremendous, as he carries his film so eloquently depicting a quiet yet so powerful depiction of a boy's tumultuous journey to discover the world.

Best Scene: Preparing to leave the room. 

Overall Rank:

1. Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes
2. Paul Dano in Love & Mercy
3. Jacob Tremblay in Room
4. Tom Hardy in Legend
5. Tom Courtenay in 45 Years
6. Jason Bateman in The Gift
7. Christopher Plummer in Remember 
   
8. Leland Orser in Faults
9. Ben Foster in The Program 
10. Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road
11. Michael Fassbender in Macbeth
12. Jason Segel in The End of the Tour
13. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant
14. Michael B. Jordan in Creed 
15. Kurt Russell in Bone Tomahawk
16. John Cusack in Love & Mercy 
17. Christopher Abbott in James White
    
18. Abraham Attah in Beasts of No Nation
19. Tom Hanks in Bridge of Spies 
20. Viggo Mortensen in Far From Men 
21. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in A Second Chance
    
22. Tobey Maguire in Pawn Sacrifice 
23. Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind
24. Ryan Reynolds in Mississippi Grind 
25. Andrew Garfield in 99 Homes 
26. Ralph Fiennes in A Bigger Splash
    
27. Adam Driver in Hungry Hearts
    
28. John Boyega in Star Wars: The Force Awakens 
29. Patrick Wilson in Bone Tomahawk
30. Joel Edgerton in Black Mass 
31. Jesse Eisenberg in The End of the Tour
32. Johnny Depp in Black Mass
33. Jason Mitchell in Straight Outta Compton
    
34. Domhnall Gleeson in Ex Machina
35. Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs
36. Song Kang-ho in The Throne
37. Rolf Holger Lassgård in A Man Called Ove
38. Antonythasan Jesuthasan in Dheepan
39. Colin Farrell in The Lobster 
40. Al Pacino in Danny Collins
    
41. Jason Clarke in Everest  
42. O'Shea Jackson Jr. in Straight Outta Compton
    
43. Matt Damon in The Martian  
44. Corey Hawkins in Straight Outta Compton
    
45. Reda Kateb in Far From Men
46. Mathias Schoenaerts in A Bigger Splash
    
47. Sharlto Copley in Chappie 
48. Frederick Lau in Victoria
    
49. Vincent Lindon in The Measure of a Man 
50. Antonio Bolívar in Embrace of the Serpent
    
51. Nilbio Torres in Embrace of the Serpent
    
52. Géza Röhrig in Son of Saul
    
53. Daniel Craig in Spectre
54. Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
55. Michael Fassbender in Slow West
56. Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation 
57. Kevin Bacon in Cop Car
58. Pilou Asbæk in A War
59. Ulrik Munther in The Here After
    
60. Mathias Schoenaerts in A Little Chaos
    
61. Tom Hardy in Child 44
62. Chang Chen in The Assassin
    
63. Buddy Duress in Heaven Knows What
    
64. Tom Hiddleston in Crimson Peak
65. Colin Firth in Kingsman: The Secret Service 
66. Armie Hammer in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
67. Henry Cavill in The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
68. Paul Rudd in Ant-Man
69. Robert De Niro in The Intern 
70. Vin Diesel in Furious 7
71. Liam Neeson in Run All Night
72. Richard Madden in Cinderella
73. Taron Egerton in Kingsman: The Secret Service 
74. Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk 
75. Alex Jennings in The Lady in the Van
    
76. James Freedson-Jackson in Cop Car
77. Hays Wellford in Cop Car
78. Jake Gyllenhaal in Southpaw
79. Bill Hader in Trainwreck
80. Noah Schnapp in The Peanuts Movie
81. Sean Penn in The Gunman
82. Kodi Smit-McPhee in Slow West
83. David Thewlis in Anomalisa
84. Chris Pratt in Jurassic World 
85. Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man
86. Michael Caine in Youth 
87. Chris Hemsworth in The Heart of the Sea
88. Will Smith in Concussion
    
89. Dev Patel in Chappie 
90. Ryan Reynolds in Woman in Gold
    
91. Yoo Ah-in in The Throne
92. Nick Cannon in Chi-Raq
    
93. Channing Tatum in Jupiter Ascending 
94. Mark Ruffalo in Infinitely Polar Bear 
95. Asa Butterfield in 10,000 Saints
    
96. Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl

Next Year: 1962 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 2015: Jason Segel in The End of the Tour

Jason Segel did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour.

The End of the Tour is a terrific film about a Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) interviewing novelist David Foster Wallace as he wraps up his tour promoting his highly acclaimed novel Infinite Jest.

Jason Segel is an actor best known for his broad comedic performances, though I'll admit I have seen little of his work in total, so this is rather outside of that comfort zone. The film is a two character piece, though there are other minor players, but it squares specifically on the dynamic between Lipsky and Wallace. Jesse Eisenberg who frequently gives mannered performances actually is surprisingly subdued in that regard here, which works well against Segel's work which must be mannered in order to capture the spirit of Wallace. Any notion that Segel is just a broad comic actor can instantly be forgotten in his realizations of Wallace's idiosyncrasies. The way Segel speaks here is somewhat unusual in his almost airy sound of his voice, the muted timbre as well as the pace of delivery as he almost quickly rushes through what he's saying then has a notable pause before starting again. This is the way Foster spoke, and you'd think this was merely the way Segel spoke as it never feels like an affectation, but rather just the way the man speaks. Segel even captures the unique movements of the man as creates a sense of an almost tug of war in his body language as he goes outgoing one moment, to a shyness the next. Segel makes it all of this seem just as he is, and never allows it to seem like acting for even a moment.

Segel's brilliant realization of Wallace's various tics, without making them seem like acting tics, is essential to the success of the film. When we first meet Wallace it could have been just time to see some caricature of a real person but through Segel we seem to just meet the man. Segel importantly does nothing to prevent us from seeing Wallace as more than just a collection of ideas, which is also important in the film as Lipsky also has to see Wallace as a person rather just as the vague idea he has of some genius novelist. Segel's performance carefully humanizes Wallace from the moment we meet him in the flesh as calmly apologizes for his earlier brief phone conversation with Lipsky, where he sounded as though he might be the egotistical writer sort. His introductory moment further quashes this idea as Segel, even in finding those idiosyncratic behavior of the man, plays him as an approachable enough man, even if there is a certain introverted element in his behavior. Segel and Eisenberg for that matter both do very well in portraying the needed awkwardness of two strangers' meeting. Segel's very good in portraying the courtesy of Wallace as he tries to break the ice with Lipsky, but with a most definite hesitation when the idea of the interview is more fully realized when Lipsky reveals his tape recorder.

The conversations between the two are really the film, and both actors must find their characters in the shifting of topics throughout the interview. Now often times the conversations are quite minor in discussion such as just when they are indulging in some junk food they procured for the night. Segel and Eisenberg manage to make even these minor conversations rather compelling as they so easily find the chemistry between the two, and make the words sound so particularly natural. These scenes are nicely played though in producing a certain warmth, and perhaps alluding to a possible friendship just through the ease in which the two of them can go back and forth on various topics. Segel captures a certain rhythm in Wallace as he covers these simple enough topics as he goes from casual discussion, but set off on a certain point reveals an intellectual intensity of sorts, though not overt. Segel is excellent in these moments as he basically reveals the passion of Wallace's certain beliefs when they come off even in casual conversation. What's special about this is that he avoids making it seem self-indulgent. He naturally comes to these points as just someone talking about something they care about, and even then Segel inserts moments of realization as though Wallace sees what he's doing and pulls back.  

That puts a nice contrast against the moments where Lipsky directly presses Wallace to talk about his personal philosophies and how they relate to Infinite Jest. Segel handles these moments well by showing Wallace very much take upon the role of the proper interviewee as though he's on a talk show. Segel does not portray this as though it is a facade or anything, just rather the adjustment of a man who wants to make sure he gets his ideas across clearly. The passion in these scenes Segel reveals again though in an intriguing alternate way that it is more precise, and in a way less natural, but in no way false. He conveys the earnestness of his beliefs in direct fashion to make it abundantly clear to Lipsky exactly what ge believes without question, though again Segel does this without an obvious smugness rather a confidence of an intelligent man who has given much investment into the development of these concepts. There are moments even in these conversations that Wallace takes a moment to make it clear that all that he says is what he hopes his book accomplished. Segel is great in this as he reveals this to be genuine modesty in Wallace, and suggests the vulnerability of a man who perhaps is still unsure if he's truly succeeded or not.

As the tour goes on Lipsky and Wallace do connect in their moments of mutual appreciation but there is definite push back when Lipsky's questions become more incisive towards Wallace's personal life. This includes questions involving his parents as well as his problems with depression and possibly drug abuse. Segel is fantastic once again in these moments as again he keeps it very much within the setting of a proper interview as he maintains his composure as well as he can. Segel's reactions to these questions show Wallace's resistance to even broach the subject, and finds an understated disgust towards Lipsky for even bringing the subject up. When Wallace does answer Segel finds the right defensiveness in Wallace at all times as he makes every answer have an aggressive quality to it as though he's trying to even attack some of Lipsky's suggestions in his own humble way. However Segel does not have Wallace cover up as he does allude to the pain associated with these memories, and gives a greater understanding to the subtle melancholia that Segel presents as a part of Wallace's natural state of being. The difficulties of the interview are only encouraged by Lipsky's jealousy of Wallace's success, but also Wallace's concerns when Lipsky seems to be becoming a bit too friendly with Wallace's female friends. Segel is quietly moving by creating the sense of Wallace's personal sensitivity, that is not of an egotistical writer, but that of a man with very normal insecurities. The fate of Wallace is known from the introduction, as he eventually committed suicide, and Segel does find that course in his portrayal. Segel never allows that to control the portrait of the man. Segel through every conversations, which are always engaging no matter how slight they may seem, finds the man's sorrow, his brilliance, but also his joys. It's an excellent performance which always feels not as an imitation, but as a true embodiment of this man.

Alternate Best Actor 2015

And the Nominees Were Not:

Tom Hardy in Legend

Jason Segel in The End of the Tour

Johnny Depp in Black Mass

Michael B. Jordan in Creed

Ben Mendelsohn in Mississippi Grind

Predict those five or these five:

Michael Fassbender in Macbeth

Jason Bateman in The Gift

Jacob Tremblay in Room

Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes

Ben Foster in The Program 

Or both.