Alternate Best Actor 1998: Results

10. Vinícius de Oliveira in Central Station -  A performance that is fine in moments however he is always overshadowed by his co-star, and frequently reveals certain limitations that the film directs/edits around.

 

Best Scene: Any bonding moment.

9. Sean Gullette in Pi - Gullette has the occasional scene, however he frequently is overshadowed by the vision of the film, and often provides somewhat thin reactions to that vision. 

Best Scene: Any talk with Margolis.

8. Hugo Weaving in The Interview - His film frequently wastes him through a plot no one cares about, but Weaving is consistently captivating whenever he's onscreen in his portrayal of a serial killer. 

Best Scene: Confession.

7. Christopher Lee in Jinnah - The film tries to cover too much in too little time, but Lee gives a striking gravitas to the central character and offers any other levels whenever he can. 

Best Scene: Seeing the violence.

6. Han Suk-kyu in Christmas in August - Han gives a moving portrayal of the kind man and the emotional distress of his tragic situation.

Best Scene: One more picture.

5. John Hurt in Love and Death on Long Island - Hurt manages the tone of the piece quite effortlessly in portraying the very specific fascination of his character with a subtle emotion and humor. 

Best Scene: Confession.

4. Bob Hoskins in TwentyFourSeven - Hoskins is charismatic as usual in portraying a man with a vision but also excels whenever he is allowed to reveal the character's vulnerabilities.

Best Scene: Apology to no one.

3. Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se...- Khan impressively deals with the various changing tones of the film, managing to keep them together even as they are so disparate. 

Best Scene: Final scene

2. Peter Mullan in My Name is Joe - Although bogged down by some plot mechanics later on, Mullan gives a charming and moving portrayal of a man trying to find a new leaf.

Best Scene: Why he quit drinking.

1. Matthew Lillard in SLC Punk - Well color me as surprised as anyone else that Lillard topped this year, but actually watching the film was no surprise at all, as it was the performance that hit that "extra something" that makes a performance truly great for me, where his performance energy is ideal for the role, however he also excels in being the straightman to the other "punks" while also bringing that comedic chaos himself, while also finding depth in this journey that ends up being surprisingly moving in the end. 

 

Best Scene: "Now what am I doing to do for friends?"

Updated Overall

Next: 1998 Supporting

Alternate Best Actor 1998: Sean Gullette in Pi

Sean Gullette did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Maximillian "Max" Cohen in Pi.

Pi follows a man trying to make sense of the universe through mathematics which slowly drives him mad. 

Pi is an ambitious filmmaker's first film which comes with a few different things typically, including a lead actor who may or may not be part of their ongoing filmography. Sometimes you have a Harvey Keitel, where a great actor begins with a great filmmaker, sometimes, not quite so much. And I'll say Pi falls into the latter with Sean Gullette in the lead role as the mathematician whose obsession with numbers goes to biblical levels. Gullette's performance for much of the film is fairly one note of this sort of generalized paranoid intensity in and around everything. He doesn't really change much between his performances whether he is talking to his mentor (Mark Margolis who is the best part of the film), random people wanting to exploit him along the way, or random orthodox Jewish men who play into his math mania. Gullette certainly carries that intensity well enough, but I wouldn't say there are any great layers to his work. He keeps a very similar manner with just staring as though he's constantly thinking about his quest, and is a bit limiting for the character. He doesn't quite invite us in so to speak by building towards the paranoia, he's basically there the whole time, and the film just progresses from there from scene to scene. Gullette often is just kind of an aspect in what Aronofsky is doing, a bit like Jack Nance in Eraserhead, however I both prefer Nance and Eraserhead on the whole than Gullette's whose performance does feel a tad similar to. Gullette's work does eventually shift in the third act when everything in the film seems to be building in intensity as everyone seems to want a piece of his mind and his obsession only gets that more vicious. Unfortunately to me that just led Gullette to kind of start yelling all of his lines, again not with layers within the yelling just to tell us that the man is at an extreme and little more than that. I wouldn't say he's bad, it works up until a point, but again it doesn't make us feel as though there is a true progression here, more of a jump, making so a big shocking moment for the character at the end, just feels like something that happens rather than one more step towards insanity. Gullette doesn't give a bad performance, but he doesn't give a great one either. He very much just feels part of Aronofsky's vision that doesn't have life beyond that to any notable extent. He exists in this state of extreme, which again is a note that one can make magic out if one delivers a true greatness, but this isn't that performance. 

Alternate Best Actor 1998

 And the Nominees Were Not:

Christopher Lee in Jinnah

Sean Gullette in Pi

Vinícius de Oliveira in Central Station

Bob Hoskins in Twenty Four Seven

Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se..

Predict those five, these five or both:

John Hurt in Love and Death on Long Island

Han Suk-kyu in Christmas in August

Peter Mullan in My Name is Joe

Hugo Weaving in The Interview

Matthew Lillard in SLC Punk!