April Foolish Predictions: Best Supporting Actor

by Nathaniel R

Samuel L Jackson was Tony-nominated for The Piano Lesson on Broadway. Will the transfer result in another Oscar nomination?

It's the last four days of April Foolish Predcitions and, thus, time for the acting categories. A year out nobody knows anything, particularly in regards to the supporting categories since they're less dependent on juicy obvious-from-a-distance leading roles and far more dependent on things you can't really know in advance like who will "steal" the movie, how large their supporting roles will be, and whether they'll film will have enough heat to ignite their campaigns. This is when it's most fun, especially in the supporting categories where you can imagine almost anything happen. By the time the televised awards roll around each year there is zero drama in Best Supporting Actor (though we infrequenely see some in Best Supporting Actress).

Last year's lopsided contest was the Robert vs Ryan showdown with two full blown movie stars competing for the supporting gold, one leaning into a career achievement narrative while the other was content to ride his film's pink zeitgeist wave rather than worry about the gold...

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"The Kill Room" opens Friday

by Nathaniel R

Pulp Fiction favs Uma Thurman and Samuel L Jackson are reuniting onscreen for The Kill Room, an art-world set comic thriller. It opens this Friday. But we mostly want to shout this one out because our friend Denise Grayson (The Social Network), is in it. (She's the blonde upfront. We added the star for highlight). Actors aren't allowed to promote their own work at the moment, but we can still shout out actors we love as fans or friends. The trailer to The Kill Room is after the jump... 

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The Honoraries: Samuel L. Jackson in "Eve's Bayou"

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their careers.

by Cláudio Alves 

Previously in the "Honoraries" miniseries, Ben Miller and Lynn Lee looked at Samuel L. Jackson's work in two provocative indies, exploring the actor's innate intensity. Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan reveals Jackson as a bluesman inflamed by spiritual purpose, while Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction saw him play a hitman and resulted in the actor's only Oscar nomination. It should have also resulted in a victory, but that's a matter for another day, another article. This time, I shall investigate the complexities of his turn in Kasi Lemmons's Eve's Bayou. The director's debut feature was a passion project for many people involved, including Jackson, who also produced.

Such investment, such devotion, may be at the heart of his achievement. Not only is Eve's Bayou a masterpiece of 1990s American cinema, it also features one of Jackson's best performances…

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The Honoraries: Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction"

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their career.

“And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”

by Lynn Lee

If Jungle Fever (1991) put Samuel L. Jackson on Hollywood’s map, Pulp Fiction (1994) made him a star.  With his jheri curl helmet, glowering eyes, and stentorian voice, Jackson’s gun-toting, Bible-quoting Jules Winnfield became an instant icon.  At least, it wasn’t long before high school and college boys of the mid to late ’90s were sporting “BAD MOTHERFUCKER” wallets and reciting his “path of the righteous” speech – without, of course, anything resembling SLJ’s diction or élan.

It wasn’t just him, of course...

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The Honoraries: Samuel L Jackson in 'Black Snake Moan'

We're celebrating each of the upcoming Honorary Oscar winners with a few pieces on their career.

by Ben Miller

Craig Brewer’s Black Snake Moan is a hard sell on paper and an even harder sell in execution.  Jackson’s Lazarus finds half-naked and half-dead sex addict Rae (Christina Ricci) on the side of the road.  He takes her back to his house to nurse her back to health.  In order to cure her sex addiction, Lazarus chains Rae to his radiator. Luckily for Brewer and the film, Jackson fully invests in the provocative material, delivering a fiery performance of angry righteousness, and one of the best star turns of his career...

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