One Category at a Time: Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actor is often a refuge for overdue veterans reminding the industry that they're still alive (unless they're in a film that's just too cool for the Academy - coughAlbertBrookscough!), and with the exception of one conspicuously youthful contender, that's exactly what the category represents this year. I think it's safe to assume that someone is finally getting his due this year, but while the precursors have made it convincingly clear which senior it'll be, I have some uneasy reservations.

My Awards nominations: Supporting Actor

Supporting Actor:

ALBERT BROOKS in Drive:

Brooks finds the seedy darkness inside an outwardly affable facade that makes his villainous mob boss all the more threatening.

ROBERT FORSTER in The Descendents:

Even though he only appears in a couple of scenes, the impact he leaves is palpable. The only way he knows how to cope with the grief of his daughter's inevitable death is bitterness and anger, but we can sense his love and his hurt.

EZRA MILLER in We Need to Talk About Kevin:

We don't get much exposure to Miller (as the older Kevin) until halfway through the movie, but once he's there he carries a ubiquitous presence that you can't shake. His depiction of a disturbed youth is as unsettling as they come.

BRAD PITT in The Tree of Life:

With a galvanic performance that bests any other of his career, Pitt becomes the personified embodiment of Mallick's idea of Nature; raw, unrelenting, pure, instinctive. It's hard to play an abstract theme instead of an arc, but Pitt nails it.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER in Beginners:

Plummer's warm portrayal of dying man finally finding his identity in his last year of life is as inspiring as it is sad; a masterful stroke that blends the joy of his character's sexual liberation with the sorrow of knowing his own mortality.

Just missed:
Hugo Weaving in Captain America, Ben Kinsgley in Hugo, Nick Nolte in Warrior,
Patton Oswalt in Young Adult

Review - Drive

A few thoughts on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, an art house character study wrapped in a violent crime drama and advertised as a high-speed action movie:

Ryan Gosling plays a nameless driver for hire, running the gamut from Hollywood stunt work to manning the getaway car for various mob jobs. He is a soft spoken man of few words, but beyond his humble facade lies a dangerous disposition. When the mother and son who live down the hall from him become innocent, unintended targets of a tense mob conflict, the circumstances unleash the driver's deceptively powerful sting.

Best of the Decade #4: Finding Nemo (2003)

Finding Nemo is a film best described with superlatives: of all Pixar films to date, it is the most moving, most resonant, and most sincere, presenting the fears and struggles of parenthood through a funny, touching, and truly original story.
Thanks to the meticulous effects animation and production design, it is also the most gorgeous computer-animated movie you're likely to see, relishing in vibrant colours set against an oceanic backdrop of deep pastel blue. Equally as vibrant are the characters, fleshed out by perfectly written dialogue and an exceptional voice cast, boasting standout performances from Albert Brooks and especially Ellen Degeneres. Another important character is the one-of-a-kind music of Thomas Newman, who captures the emotional ebb and flow of the story like no one else could.

All said, Finding Nemo is an unrivaled gem of a movie, the acme of refined and intelligent family entertainment, and quite simply the best animated film of the decade.

BRILLIANT SCORE ALERT:


(For those keeping track, this gives director Andrew Stanton the distinction of being the only film maker with two movies in my top ten of the decade.)