Hans’ Oscar Bites

Feels so rare to save this one for almost-last but it has been a very long time since this race had any sort of compelling competition to it, and what’s more, for five performances that are all actually very good and deserving! I heard the interesting observation that four of these five nominees got their start as child or teen actors, which I feel like might add the extra interesting element for what made this for such a fascinating race; it’s the Academy almost being forced to hand an award to someone who may have always been pigeonholed as just a young actor.

The nominees are:

– Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme

– Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another

– Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon

– Michael B. Jordan, Sinners

– Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

In order of preference

5) Ethan Hawke (as Lorenz Hart), BLUE MOON

This is a very highly ranked #5 for me as Ethan Hawke has the ignominious task of basically talking non-stop at people, with himself, and at times even seemingly at the audience for a full 100 minutes, all while we are taking notice of how short they make him. Any two-hander he has with any other given actor in the ensemble has him always pulling focus, and yet he does it in such a way that still opens up a new aspect of the character. Really no notes here, I would be thrilled if he won, as he’s been one of the hardest working actors in Hollywood for ages. 

4) Timothée Chalamet (as Marty Mauser), MARTY SUPREME

Another performance that pains me to rank lowly as I think Timothée is finally starting to get the hang of tapping into a performance without feeling that he needs to be *Timothée*. Much like Hawke, he carries the lion’s share of this movie and he commands every conversation he finds himself in. I still really wish we could recapture the magic that was his Call Me By Your Name performance, and obviously there has been a lot of *external* discussion about Timmy’s comments vis a vis other forms of art, but it really doesn’t take away from this being really excellent work. His final scene is something really special.

3) Michael B. Jordan (as Elijah “Smoke” Moore / Elias “Stack” Moore), SINNERS

Yes, he plays dual characters, which makes for an incredibly technical achievement of a performance, and yes, it has been notice that the costumers did kind of have to Mario and Luigi them so that you knew who was who at any given time, but honestly I think that’s such a discredit to what Jordan actually does with the characters he crafts here that he so deeply cares about still giving distinct personalities and characterizations too. Like, I don’t even think the color-coding was necessary but I’m sure the filmmakers were just trying to give the audience an extra little bit of help, because even when he is confronting himself in any given scene, you can tell exactly who he is playing at any moment. It’s a bonafide movie-star making turn and, given his SAG win, not an unlikely Oscar-winning turn.

2) Leonardo DiCaprio (as Bob Ferguson), ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

This is one of those performances that it would be so easy to take Leo for granted, but I saw it described in one tweet really well that Leo has completed a sort of unofficial “Buffoon Trilogy” between this, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Killers of the Flower Moon. The kind of pathos we get here really kinda feels like starting to get a glimpse into Leo starting to come to terms with his own age and longevity in this business, and he’s a silent glue to all the wackier characters around him. Plus that whistle. 

1)Wagner Moura (as Armando Solimões / Marcelo Alves / Fernando Solimões), THE SECRET AGENT

Guys I’m tired, it’s been a long season. He’s handsome and did a great job. Brazilians might passion him to a win idk

-WILL WIN: who tf knows, this feels like the most wide open race in ages. I’m going with Michael B. Jordan just cuz he had such a big SAG win right in the middle of voting, it’s in a big beloved movie, and it came right as perceived frontrunner Timmy’s tides were turning. 

-COULD WIN: Would seriously not be surprised with any of the other four. Could very well be that it’s just been Timmy this entire time and we’ve all gone a little stir crazy

-SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE: Dylan O’Brien, Twinless. Clearly this was the year of dual performances between Jordan, Moura, as well as RPatz in Mickey 17, Theo James in The Monkey, and Mia Goth in Frankenstein, but what he turned in was something incredibly heartfelt and mature, a long way from his Teen Wolf days.