Beauty vs Beast: The Darkest Elio
Monday, January 29, 2018 at 3:00PM Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" contest - we've been more or less working our way through the year's big awards contenders over the past few weeks, with a Three Billboards here and a Phantom Thread there, and knowing what you know about my oft-expressed personal... predilections... you'd be forgiven for expecting a proper Call Me By Your Name showdown at some point. But I can't do it! I can't pit (haha like a peach) Elio against Oliver. I refuse!
Thankfully the awards season has offered me an alternative. (For once the awards season doing me a favor!) While Timothee Chalamet's been racking up the critics prizes for his performance it's been widely assumed that the Oscar already has Gary Oldman's name engraved on it and has since the very first photograph of him in Churchill drag was revealed. But where would your vote go, I wonder...
PREVIOUSLY Last week was the aforementioned Phantom-Thread-off, and finally some much deserved attention for Vicky Krieps, whose Alma plucked up about 70% of your mushrooms I mean votes. Said Claran:
"I thot Krieps is a discovered gem!! She matches DDL every step of the way n emerges the winner, well sorta... Its no an easy feat acting opp such icons like DDL or Manville n she holds up pretty well!! I'm surprised tt she din land a best newcomer mention w the BAFTA or NBR or any other critics group. She's the find o 2017, if u asked me."
Reader Comments (26)
Is this even going to be close knowing the feelings of most on this site (including myself)?
If you're going for "BEST SHOUTING PERFORMANCE" than Gary Oldman would win hands down. That is acting with a capital A!
I much prefer the subtlety of Timothee Chalmoet's work. Introspective and brooding. He steals your heart!
Chalamet - no contest. And if he were to win, I'd rank him among the top 5 Best Actor winners of the last 25 years.
lol. Timothée Chalamet, obviously.
Today I walked past a London bus with a Darkest Hour advert that literally is, in caps, THIS FILM MUST BE SEEN. Gary Oldman must be really desperate, he reminds me of Leonardo DiCaprio's thirstiness when it was also obvious he was winning everything.
Kiki:
Leo Dicaprio has been thirsty his entire career. Oldman spent close to 30 years giving remarkable performances, and presuming his talent and the work would be enough for him to be recognised. He was running around campaigning or going to Hollywood retirement homes for votes (like Kevin Spacey famously did).
I completely understand Oldman taking no chances this time around. He's been disillusioned. He's tried to be all punk rock (Sid Vicious reference) and "I don't give a shit" about awards in the past, which is why he's barely been nominated or won much of note in the past, despite most of his peers claiming he's one of their idols and inspirations. He's a legendary actor who doesn't want to go to the grave without having won the highest accolade for his craft. I can give him a pass for one season of thirst.
that should read:"He was NOT running around campaigning...."
It would be great for a Timothée winning and also for CMBYN as best picture. I haven't a so full punch of emotions since Mulholland Dr.
An exceptional recreation is what he did with Dracula 25 years ago. Or Syd Vicious 30 years ago, if prefer actual human beings.
This is all kinds of wrong, honestly. We'll never get rid of those "Honorary Oscars performing Actual Human Beings/Past Celebrities" aren't we?
Let's get rid of the s*** for once, shall we? Oldman was never nominated in the past because he was not liked at all. Its a Sally Field reversal situation. That's the hypochrysy of Tinseltown.
That's their hierarchy, too: A NOW respected actor we consider way overdue (the Polanski award)
All these things considered, a really kick in the butt would be Chalamet winning. And NOT just because I think he's the better performer.
Another butt kicking award should be Get Out, which mocks this hypochrysy on their own faces. But that's going too far!
Chalamet. No question.
Just saw CMBYN and was enthralled with Chalamet's performance.
I would vote fro him as BA if I was able. Oldman did a stereotype role..although I have to say he was good in it. Not memorable. CMBYN will stay with me a few days.
If Oldman actually wins this I'll shove a peach pit up my ass. Chalamet all the way! (Ha! It rhymes!)
There are five great young male performances in the past forty years, in chronological order: Dennis Christopher in "Breaking Away", Michael O'Keefe in "The Great Santini", Timothy Hutton in "Ordinary People", River Phoenix in "Running On Empty" and now Timothee Chalamet in "Call Me by Your Name".
Timothee Chalamet. Hands down.
Sorry, but getting buried under layers of makeup and shouting monologues does not equal being a great performance.
I saw Darkest Hour this weekend. It's Timothee for sure (actually it's DDL but that's neither here nor there) but Oldman was really fantastic. Many people have criticized Darkest Hour for its bombasity but I thought the movie was quite restrained, even in its big conflict scenes. Lincoln is the best comparison.
It's ok. Fourty years from now we will cheer when Timothee Chalamet wins an Oscar for the Bernie Sanders biopic and we'll reminisce how much we loved his heartfelt, tearful performance in Call Me By Your Name.
Timothée’s peach over Gary’s ham. No contest.
In terms of degree of difficulty, Chalamet gets this. He had to speak three languages, play the piano, and he had no big grandiloquent speeches and make-up to help him create a character. He had to convey Elio's inner life through looks and physicality. If I had to choose an Oscar clip for Chalamet it would be the scene where he gazes at Hammer dancing. He conveys confusion, desire and lust without saying a single word. I also loved the midnight scene as he awkwardly and eagerly throws himself against Hammer's body and tries to climb him. It perfectly captures a young man's first flailings at sex.
The problem is that Oldman has been the favorite to win since casting was announced, which robs most of the fun out of it.
What made the Crash BP win and, to a lesser extent, Streep beating Viola Davis, such wonderful delights was the surprise factor.
Of course, after Chalamet loses people will still bitch about it, but the loss will be expected, so it won't have any of the impotent rage and involuntarily hilarious meltdowns that manifest themselves when a true upset happens.
lol
So this is a filler article/poll?
I mean, at least Elio and the peach would've provided some semblance of a contest and variety. Or even Marzia and Oliver.
<rolls eyes>
hepwa I love your list!
There's playing to the crowd, and then there's this poll.
"What made the Crash BP win and, to a lesser extent, Streep beating Viola Davis, such wonderful delights was the surprise factor."
You're kidding, right? Crash is widely regarded as one the of the very worst BP winners ever. It's an awful, sledgehammer didactic posing as a movie.
These votes will be added to Timothee's Oscar votes tally right? RIGHT?!
@ Rob - Crash is a perfectly fine film. It gets a bad rep because most Oscar obsessives are gay and therefore feel a need to take it down viciously for having the nerve to take down their precious Brokeback Mountain. The second you step out of the bubble, BBM's estimation goes down (it is fine film) and Crash's estimation goes up (it is a fine film). They are both fine (not great) films that you watch once and have no urge to revisit. Only in fantasy land that BP win was a travesty.
And regardless of the quality of either movie, I'm referring to the spectacle people made of themselves at the time, especially Tom O'Neill, at the Envelope (way before Gold Derby), which was hysterical, laugh-out-loud insanity. And God bless the late Roger Ebert, who was a massive Crash lover and vocal supporter of its BP win,. I'm assuming you weren't around to witness the way people lost it when it happened, but it produced hours of entertainment, some of finest trolling I've ever read online and involuntarily hilarious meltdowns.
When Meryl beat Viola some of it happened too, but not as much fun.
Viola was in the wrong category to begin with.
The next Beauty vs Beast has to be Judd Apatow vs Diane Keaton.
Question:
After 10 years, who remember anything from Crash?
And who remember something about Brokeback Mountain?
Answer that and you know which film is better :)