Top Ten: Greatest Supporting Actors of the Decade Who Weren't Oscar Nominated
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 at 12:21AM A truth. Year after year, Best Supporting Actor is the category with which we have the most disagreement with Oscar. Before our hearts are broken anew this impending season we wanted to celebrate the decade that's nearly behind us. We tend to view it Best Supporting Actor as the category wherein the Academy acting branch is at their absolute laziest each year, though we've never quite figured out why so much of their laziness funnels into this category ("whoever's in a best picture! YOU")
Today, for fun, a grumpy what-coulda-been list celebrating ten performances that rank among the best supporting work this decade...
10 BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR PERFORMANCES OF THE '10s
THAT WERE NOT OSCAR NOMINATED
10 Tracy Letts, Lady Bird
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project
Want to buy him all the "World's Greatest Dad" mugs for this performance. This kind of warm performance easily finds a home in Supporting Actress but "Supportive" fathers are a no go for voters for reasons we've never been able to ascertain apart from basic toxic masculinity... and that being supportive is just not considered an interesting or valuable thing in a male role...
09 Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: ALL though we'd hear arguments for the two frontrunners
Mad scientist filtered through hedonistic oversexed isolation. Inspired and riveting throughout.
08 Samuel L Jackson, Django Unchained
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
Number one reason we hate category fraud: It prevents worthy actual supporting performances from getting their just due recognition. Waltz had no business drawing attention away from the film's best performance: Jackson was running circles around everyone in this film and what's more he wasn't repeating himself (like Waltz) or hamming it up against type (like Leo), but finding fresh satiric inspiration in his longtime collaborators problematic epic.
07 Alden Ehrenreich, Hail Caesar (2016)
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
A star-is-born moment and yet somehow it didn't take? Would that i t'were so simple to become a star with a performance about becoming a star that's this savvy and charismatic.
06 Lakeith Stanfield, Short Term 12
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Cooper and Fassbender
Nearly everyone in this great indie went on to much bigger careers but we're so proud to have been in on all of them at the ground floor, particularly Lakeith Stanfield. This incredibly raw and wounded performance of a teenager about to enter the real world after growing up in the system, aimed straight for the heart but without the soggy weight of sentimentality.
05 Brad Pitt, The Tree of Life (2011)
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Every once in a while Oscar voters notice the well worn soulfullness just milimieters below the surface of that perfect movie star face. But they should do that more often.
04 James Franco, Spring Breakers
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: All but Cooper and Fassbender
Though his worst impulses have long since caught up with him, we shouldn't rewrite history and pretend he was never inspired. "Look at mah shiit!"
03 Ralph Fiennes, A Bigger Splash (2016)
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: ALL
Fiennes is in that special small category of actors that is hampered by being brilliant too frequently. It's obviously taken for granted by Hollywood rather than celebrated. That he only has two Oscar nominations is an outright embarrassment (for the Academy not for him) when he should have already won twice (Grand Budapest Hotel and Schindler's List). In A Bigger Splash he played against type, subverting his usual restraint for a balls out charisma/exasperation of a man who is always "on"
02 Michael Fassbender, Prometheus (2012)
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: ALL
Where can we buy a David8 model? No price is too high.
01 Matthew McConaughey, Magic Mike (2012)
Oscar nominees he was superior to that year: ALL
His all time greatest performance and so easily awardable, too, in all the traditional ways. But for the ass-shaking and selfsploitation, that is. If only the Academy hadn't been so stuffy, nominating five men who'd already won, all doing less than career best (though Tommy Lee Jones was fab). McConaughey won the Oscar the very next year so we just pretend it was for this incredible star turn instead.
See any patterns here? What made these performances so tough for voters to see the worth in?
Reader Comments (63)
Okay, my thoughts
Andrew Garfield, Never Let Me Go AND The Social Network: Both among the best of the year and would each get my vote.
Jude Law, Anna Karenina: In terms of oscar history, Jude Law is probably the performer with the biggest gap in my personal nominations vs his actual nominations. But he absolutely nails this role.
Samuel L, Jackson, Django Unchained: The best thing about the movie.
Chris Sheffield, The Stanford Prison Experiment: Fascinating work from him.
Liev Schreiber, Spotlight: Terrific and the performance I think about most from this movie.
Andre Holland, Trevante Rhodes, Moonlight: Goddamit. Their duet kills me every time.
Fillippo Timmi, Vincere: Staggering and exhilarating work.
Shabab Hosseini, A Separation: Heartbreaking. First among equals in that cast.
Antoine Reinartz, BPM: A secret heart to this masterpiece.
Also Tracy Letts, LADY BIRD;' Glenn Powell, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME, Ernst Stotzner, FRANTZ, Shin'y Tsukamoto, SILENCE; Michael Stuhlbarg, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
@Arkaan. Thanks for mention Shahab Hosseini
Some other of my favorites:
Noe Hernández, Miss Bala
Damian Alcazar, Fecha de Caducidad
Oscar Martinez, Toc Toc
Luis Alberti, Luciérnagas
I could add Gabriel Carbajal this year who does a terrific work in Chicuarotes
Just agree about Fiennes in "The Bigger Splash".
Much better than all these:
1. Tom Holland, The Impossible
2. Andrew Garfield, The Social Network/Never Let Me Go
3. Daniel Bruhl, Rush
4. Jacon Trembley, Room
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
6. Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners
7. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name
8. Mark Rylance, Dunkirk
9. Jonathan Pryce, The Wife
Just agree about Fiennes in "The Bigger Splash".
Much better than all these:
1. Tom Holland, The Impossible
2. Andrew Garfield, The Social Network/Never Let Me Go
3. Daniel Bruhl, Rush
4. Jacob Trembley, Room
5. Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained
6. Jake Gyllenhaal, Prisoners
7. Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name
8. Mark Rylance, Dunkirk
9. Jonathan Pryce, The Wife
James Franco is a disgusting pig.
This list is right-on. I've been thinking about my favorite performances of the decade lately, and Letts, Isaac, Fiennes, and Ehrenreich would all make that list.
The one additional non-nominated Supporting Actor performance I really adore is F. Murray Abraham as Bud Grossman in Inside Llewyn Davis. He's only in the film for a scene, he's so perfect - no other actor could have so much impact in so little screentime.
Rizz -- for me Tremblay is a clear leading man in ROOM. And that campaign had trouble trying to push him as supporting (though usually it's easy to get away with with children).
Fabio -- mary rylance won the oscar so he wouldn't be eligible for this list and I think Tremblay is 100% a leading man
I was the only one to bring him up and I feel like more people need to remember this performance so I'm saying it again: ANDREW SCOTT in PRIDE.
1. Min-sik Choi (I Saw the Devil) 2011
2. Alessandro Nivola (Disobedience) 2018
3. Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained) 2012
4. Ashton Sanders (Moonlight) 2016
5. Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) 2016
6. Tobey Maguire (Brothers) 2009
7. Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin) 2011
8. Leonardo DiCaprio (Django Unchained) 2012
9. Jason Mitchell (Mudbound) 2017
10. Patton Oswalt (Young Adult) 2011
-Alessandro might move up. All the performances in Disobedience have been growing on me exponentially since I saw it.
-Most surprising person on my own list is Tobey, I usually hate him as an actor.
-Based off this list, the academy really fucked up in 2011. None of the actual nominees made my personal nominees of that year, though Christopher Plummer was a strong 6th.
A bunch of guys from "Spotlight", but Tucci and Keaton especially.
As mentioned above, Stuhlbarg in "Call me by Your Name" - he is endlessly fascinating, great when given great material, but is even interesting in boring stuff like "Boardwalk Empire". Watch him at the margins, he won't do anything over the top that steals the scene but will just be incredibly precise and watchable without pulling focus.
Agree 100% with Jackson, Isaac, and Pitt.
I'd include Issey Ogata (Silence), Javier Bardem (Skyfall), Sam Rockwell (Conviction - co-lead?), Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin - co-lead?), and Jonathan Pryce (The Wife - co-lead?).
Stuhlbarg, obvs
Tom Waits, Ballad of Buster Scrugs
James Gandolfini, Enough Said
Ashton Sanders, Moonlight
Josh Hamilton, Eighth Grade
Lakeith Stanfield in two or three movies
Hugh Grant in two or three movies
FYC Supp Actress: Jennifer Ehle in Contagion!