Oscar Chart Updates: Two-Lead Men's Movies

Robert Pattinson & Willem Dafoe in "The Lighthouse"

We're in for it with category fraud this year, y'all. Yes, we're in for it every year of course until something finally breaks within the Academy (disgruntled character actors stage a revolution, "do you hear the people sing singing the song of angry men..." c'mon SAG!) but 2019 in particular appears to be a film year with an unusual amount of two-leading-men films. We've got (arguably) The Lighthouse, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Ford v Ferrari, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Two Popes, and maybe more. So we've opted to just kind of ignore the problem and assume we know who is going where in the BEST ACTOR and BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR chart updates though as always we wish the leading men would just stay in lead like they're supposed to. If it was good enough for Amadeus, it's good enough for you, people!

Having said all that we just realized we left Matt Damon (Ford v Ferrari) and Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse) off of either chart which is silly but not intentional. We'll squeeze them in somewhere as soon as we have a moment.  What do you think of the new rankings? Any strong hunches this August? 

CONSIDER - Actors of 2019, First Half

With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 19 performances by actors we liked most at the movies thus far this year. We hope you'll sound off on these and share a few of your own in the comments... and we hope this list serves as a reminder to Oscar, Globe, critics, and SAG voters that amazing performances can happy at any time of the year. Why wait til December to start considering your "Best of" ballot? We're not saying that all 19+ of these fellows deserve prizes, just that everyone should be keeping lists of standouts for their own pleasure and edification and to combat faulty memories as the year progresses.

Subject to Change! I regret missing the following actor-led pictures which I will catch up with as soon as I have the opportunity: The Mustang and Sorry Angel. Okay here we go...

9 FAV LEADING ACTORS
(Jan 1st - June 30th releases) 

Chao Deng as "Jing Zhou/ Zi Yu" in Shadow
An amazing dual role wherein he delivers both near-camp level villany and subdued stoic masculinity sometimes in the same frame. [Awards for this performance: Best Actor nominations at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Huading Awards.]

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April Foolish Predictions #4: Best Supporting Actor

Previously: Animated Features, Foreign Films, Sound & Music, Prediction Index

What will the Supporting Actor race look like this year? Will it be awash in "comebacks" (Al Pacino, John Lithgow, Tim Robbins, David Straithairn)? Perhaps it'll lean into fresh cinematic faces (Aldis Hodge, Jonathan Majors, Kristoffer Hivju, Taika Waititi)? Maybe it'll be a year of long-awaited first nominations for thespians who've had rich careers (Ben Mendelsohn, Bruce Willis, Jonathan Pryce, Antonio Banderas, Tracy Letts)? Most likely, as with each Oscar year before it, it'll be some random combo of all three but determining who the five men will be this early is nigh impossible. Why is that? Well, there are a few reasons...

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Another Look at 'Clemency'

by Murtada Elfadl

Hodge and Chukwu at ND/NF

Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency opened the New Directors/New Films fest in New York last night. I got the chance to see it again and any reservations I had about it went away. This is a new version that is tighter than the one I saw at Sundance. While the changes are miniscule, they really pull the film together and focus its story. At Sundance I praised the central performance of Alfre Woodard as a prison warden managing a prison that includes a death row. However I thought the film meandered and was repetitive.

Not anymore!

Now it centers Woodard’s dealing with the processing of one death row inmate (Aldis Hodge) and the forces both against him and defending him. The focus is still on the toll all this takes on the psyche of Woodard’s Bernadine; so she is still front and center and owns the film. What is around her now flows easier and the film’s message about capital punishment remains potent. Chukwu won Sundance grand jury prize making history as the first black woman to do so. Clemency announces her as an exciting new director.

Oscar Chances: Obviously Woodard is its biggest and perhaps only chance at Oscar. The performance is there and so are the critical plaudits, however she needs a patient release plan to allow the film to reach its audience (The Wife playbook if you will). Other than that I see this as a film that Gothams/Indie Spirits will fall in love with - with possible nominations for film, director and supporting actor (Aldis Hodge).

The Next Best Actor Race

by Nathaniel R

Pacino & DeNiro together for the fourth time in "The Irishman"

A month ago we started brainstorming about Best Actress 2019 so before the April Foolish Oscar Predictions are announced let's brainstorm about possibilities in the male acting categories. It looks thin to us thus far, reminding us that we'd be happiest with 4 female acting categories instead. That said, it's hard to keep track of everything in every stage of production so we hope you'll share anything you're exciting about that we may have missed or any hunches you have about upcoming films.

These are neither value judgments (since so few films have been screened) nor predictions (that's in April) but merely a listing of performances that are on the way...

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