by Nathaniel R
Willem Dafoe in "Poor Things" from Searchlight Pictures
Will Robert Downey Jr's scenery chewing in Oppenheimer, John Magaro's stealth beautiful support in Past Lives, and Ryan Gosling's giddy winking joy be "Kenough" several months from now when the Oscar nominations are announced? That's the pressing question at the moment when it comes to the Best Supporting Actor race. They're surely the top violable contenders from the first seven months of the year, give a pair from Air. But can you choose between the foul mouth charisma of Chris Messina and the hesitant gamber cool of Ben Affleck?
We frame the Best Supporting Actor race this way because who knows what the rest of year might hold in terms of releases...
There seems to be no end in sight for the WGA and SAG strike. The greedy studios aren't budging at the moment, unwilling to share the wealth that they can't even generate without writers and actors!
If the strike stretches on for months, Academy voters might not have any new films to consider before they have to vote. Without actors to promote the films, surely the studios won't risk dropping expensive awards-hopefuls like it's business as usual?
That said, for the purposes of the Oscar predictions -- which we've put off long enough -- we're pretending that things are going to be resolved and the slate of promising films will actually arrive. CHECK OUT THE CHART. More charts to come of course so boost our resolve at finishing them in the comments.