Analysis: Best Supporting Actor 2015

 

www.biography.com: Stallone is winning, and for the second year in a row, the Oscar frontrunner is my number 1 too.

Oscar Nominees:

1. Sylvester Stallone, Creed: I guess some of my extreme love for this performance does come down to nostalgic value. I thoroughly like, to love, all the Rocky films, yes, even Rocky V, and though Stallone does not necessarily give the most consistent of characterisations throughout these films, the character of Rocky Balboa still continued to resonate with me through all those films because of the endearing underdog quality to the writing behind the character, and of course, the performance. Now Creed provides an altogether different challenge to the actor altogether. Stallone's just grown into the role so comfortably, and embraces the original endearing quality to the character alongside with an aged, melancholic air of times passing him by, both funny and quite sweet in how out of touch with the modern day he is. He then transitions into being a mentor to Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed, and the way the two actors develop a dynamic similar to that between Stallone and Carl Weathers in the original films is quite something, as they merge that friendly camaraderie with the trainer-trainee partnership between Stallone and Mickey (Burgess Meredith) in the first three films. The chemistry is effortless, Stallone's very unassuming approach continuing to make Rocky even more likable than he already is. There's a sad tinge to his character's reminisces of the past and his deceased close ones (exemplified brilliantly in a graveyard scene) but it's not overly dwelt upon, nor does it need to be, as Stallone shows such remarkable restraint and subtlety in conveying how he's dealt with his grief by continuing to love the likes of Adrian and Paulie beyond the grave.

Then there's the greatest part of his performance. Rocky becomes diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The gradual, heart-breaking breakdown of Rocky's defences not because of the disease, but rather how much he misses his wife is just so beautifully, sensitively done in Stallone's hands, and makes the subsequent revitilization of his spirit in preparing Jordan's Creed for the final fight so superb. This is amazing work by Stallone that is not only career-best work, best work of the year, but also one of the best supporting performances ever.

2. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies: An altogether very different sort of performance to Stallone's, no less complex and a brilliant piece of work in itself. Rylance is required to be many things within one film, sometimes even within the same scene. He's the inspirational factor to the film, the discreet deceitful spy who's causing a great deal of trouble, funny and moving with the undercurrent of intelligence, and it's easy to see how in the wrong hands this sort of role would've gone awry. As Soviet spy Rudolf Abel Rylance reminded me a great deal of Anthony Quayle's performance in Ice Cold in Alex, in the most technical sense on the 'enemy's' side but neither actor ever plays it as such. It's tough to describe the brilliance of Rylance's performance here as it's just such an effortless bit of work that involves everything from subtle comedy ('Would it help?') to that poignant bond he develops with Tom Hanks' James Donovan.

3. Tom Hardy, The Revenant: Another excellent supporting turn and it's a shame they kind of mucked up with the remaining two nominations, as these three choices were really, great choices. Anyway, Hardy takes the Fitzgerald, probably the most despicable, selfish asshole depicted onscreen in quite sometime, and not only milks the character's gleeful villainy for all it's worth, delivering that 'God is a Squirrel' monologue with all the gusto he can muster and grunting and huffing with that animalistic edge the mannerisms of the performance convey so well. But within this constantly loutish behaviour that's so entertaining to watch, Hardy also reveals even more depths to the man by showing where this disgusting behaviour comes from, a tortured past. He gives a fantastic performance that is perhaps the highlight of the film outside of the beautiful direction and cinematography.

4. Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight: Spotlight is an excellent procedural, but I have to say they didn't quite pick out the best choice for a supporting player from the film to nominate. It's kind of like the nomination of Jason Robards in All the President's Men instead of Hal Holbrook, although this time round there's no singular performance as strong as Holbrook's and Robards is decidedly more impactful than Ruffalo. Which isn't to say Ruffalo's overly bad. He gives a very, very, very mannered turn and while I felt like it didn't really work overall in conveying anything about the character, it does actually work to an extent in generating a sort of interesting dynamic between his character and particularly, Stanley Tucci and Michael Keaton's characters. He has a few emotional scenes which are decently done, and although his performance is perhaps the weakest out of the main cast it's still not dreadful, and though undeserving of a nomination, I don't quite hate him here.

5. Christian Bale, The Big Short: I love Bale as an actor in general, but it does irk me a bit to see him getting a nomination for his role as the very, very quirky and mannered Michael Burry in the underwhelming The Big Short. The film as a whole really comes up short in making any sort of statement about the story it tells, and the style it wants to tell it in, and comes across as being a Wolf of Wall Street--wannabe with an atrocious, atrocious, atrocious performance by Gosling in the DiCaprio-esque (only in terms of breaking the fourth wall) role, Brad Pitt really slumming it, Steve Carrell overplaying it a bit (but still giving the best performance in the film), and Bale just generally being a bit odd, tics here and there, what a character Burry is with little else to add to the film (although that might not be such a bad thing, seeing the mess the film is). Bale isn't overly bad, and does those little Aspergers-esque mannerisms well enough, it's just that the film gives him pretty much, nothing to do.

My Nominations:

1. Sylvester Stallone, Creed

2. Benicio del Toro, Sicario: Del Toro gives a performance that perfectly exemplifies the saying, 'what you see isn't what you get'. It's a performance that requires multiple rewatches to fully grasp the excellence of it within the film, and as a performance in itself. It's a quiet yet deeply disturbing, and chilling, but also sympathetic, turn as a character who could've just been pure terrifying and it would've worked for the film, but del Toro adds so much character and depth to the role of Alejandro, making his final actions in the film some of the most breathtakingly savage moments captured on film in 2015.

3. Nicholas Hoult, Mad Max: Fury Road
4. Samuel L. Jackson, The Hateful Eight: Well, Jackson's performance here is just...a career-best. 'Nuff said. Jackson's Marquis Warren delivers firstly everything you've come to expect of the badass motherfucker; Tarantino's dialogue is delivered as smoothly and trippingly on the tongue as ever, and as ever there's that domineering control of the silver screen he has with his presence alone. What's fascinating is that Jackson does not hold back in revealing the more unsavoury aspects of this sort of character. There's a much darker edge to his performance here than usual, particular with one monologue near the end of the first half which might be the most hauntingly powerful and disturbing of his career, and without spoiling too much does a great deal in facilitating a most fascinating arc for his character.

5. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies



6. Emory Cohen, Brooklyn: Compared to the other 4 performances in my top 5, Cohen's performance may seem considerably simpler...but it really isn't. Playing a romantic love interest to a performance as great as Saoirse Ronan's leading turn is not an easy task at all, but Cohen not only manages to not get overshadowed, in fact he makes almost an equally great impact on the viewer. His Tony shares some great romantic chemistry with her Eilis, that's for sure, and he handles the whole Brando On the Waterfront-esque mannerisms of the character so well by doing them not as some smarmy, wannabe cool impersenations but as a genuine, endearing attribute of the character that makes every little movement he makes onscreen so compelling. The difficulty in playing a nice guy is very much overlooked nowadays in film circles. This kind of goes against m principles, but for this category I'm making an exception in that I give 6 nominations to this category just to get Cohen in. It's too amazing a supporting performance to leave off, and I can kind of justify it by saying that Jackson gives a glorified supporting, borderline lead performance.



7. Tom Hardy, The Revenant

8. Walton Goggins, The Hateful Eight

9. Matthias Schoenaerts, Far From the Madding Crowd

10. Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation

11. Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina

12. Richard Jenkins, Bone Tomahawk

13. Michael Sheen, Far From the Madding Crowd

14. Kurt Russell, The Hateful Eight

15. Tim Roth, The Hateful Eight

16. Adam Driver, Star Wars: The Force Awakens

17. Liev Schreiber, Spotlight

18. Stanley Tucci, Spotlight

19. Josh Brolin, Sicario

20. Bruce Dern, The Hateful Eight