Supporting Actor Has No Frontrunner
Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at 7:01PM
NATHANIEL R in Liam Neeson, Mahershala Ali, Moonlight, Peter Sarsgaard, Silence, Supporting Actor, Trevante Rhodes

Oh sure... Liam Neeson you say. So did I at one point. But Silence is looking like an increasingly imaginary film, don't you think? I'm not dumping him from the predicted lineup just yet though The Supporting Actor Chart has a ton of movement post-festival explosion.

The biggest chart debut goes to Peter Sarsgaard as Bobby Kennedy in Jackie (they love actors as real famous people and he's typically strong) while Michael Shannon moves on up for stealing the entire show in Nocturnal Animals. And with the eyebrow-raising news that Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk is not debuting for critics before its NYFF premiere, have we been overestimating that film? What a strange decision! 

Finally what to make of the men of Moonlight? They're all terrific but due to the triptych nature of the film, not a one of the men is in more than a third of the picture. My favorites were Trevante Rhodes (the lead character as an adult) and Mahershara Ali (a major figure in the first third) but you could fill up a whole supporting actor category with the men in Moonlight. No really. Here they are...

The Men of "Moonlight"

Mahershala Ali
as Juan

Alex R Hibble
as "Little"

Ashton Sanders
as Chiron

Andre Holland
as Kevin 

Trevante Rhodes

as "Black" 


With apologies to Jharrel Jerome who plays Kevin as a teenager and is also really good (but we have to stick to five because them is the rules)

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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