Oscar Volleys: Best Supporting Actor is a Done Deal

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Today, Eric Blume and Nick Taylor discuss Best Supporting Actor...

A REAL PAIN | © Searchlight Pictures

ERIC: Nick, I'm lucky enough to be paired with you for two different Oscar volleys this year. Let's start with the easier, our dive into the five Best Supporting Actor nominees. Nathaniel has already written about the incredible strength of this year's nominees, and I agree with him that it's one of our best ever. These gents were all a part of my personal top ten in this category, and there's not a dud in the bunch, in my opinion.  What are your thoughts on the group?

NICK: I’m less enthusiastic about this year’s contenders than you and Nathaniel are. No one’s doing bad work, but I wouldn’t have any of them in my lineup...

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Best Supporting Actor - Strongest Lineup in Years?

by Nathaniel R

Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in THE APPRENTICE © Briarcliff Entertainment

It's that time when you should start voting on the chart polls of "who SHOULD win?" We all know Kieran Culkin has the "supporting" Oscar locked up for his moody insightfulness and purposefully too-much lead performance in A Real Pain. But can we pause for a moment to appreciate that, Category Fraud aside, this is the best Best Supporting Actor lineup we've had in ages. There's not a bad or solid-but-unexciting performance in the bunch, just excellence across the board. Because I was so stunned at the quality of the shortlist, I had to look back through Oscar history to find its equivalent  - a year wherein there's not a single performance nominated that would look bad as a winner. I think you have to go back thirty years to either 1995 or 1993 to find a lineup as consistently strong. This message has been brought to you by a post-nomination viewing of The Apprentice a film I'd been avoiding for trauma reasons around the death of democracy. Strong is just excellent in the awards magnet role of Roy Cohn, a role that's already won Al Pacino an Emmy and Nathan Lane a Tony (both via Angels in America). Strong is so good that it's legitimately surprising that he's not even third best in the category...

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Oscar Volley: Best Supporting Actor suffers from "Succession" nostalgia

...after a brief holiday break, the Oscar Volleys continue with Elisa Giudici and Abe Friedtanzer on Best Supporting Actor...

Denzel Washington in GLADIATOR II | © Paramount Pictures

ELISA: This year’s Oscar race seems wide open for surprises, which, after years of things being more or less decided in advance, is pretty exciting, right? Unfortunately, due to local release schedules, I haven’t seen a few of the candidates, but I wouldn’t bet on anyone being "locked" exactly.

Take Denzel Washington, for example. He’s been widely praised for his performance in Gladiator II—arguably the only part of the film that everyone agrees is of high quality. It’s the classic, showy, theatrical role that could easily land an actor like Washington yet another nomination, especially given the respect and fame he commands...

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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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TV: "Succession" Course-Corrects With Third Episode of Final Season

By Christopher James

Some episodes of TV are above and beyond the show’s they’re housed in. Season four, episode three of Succession raised an already strong show to new heights. A twist early enough in the episode sets the final season in a new direction and gives Emmy-ready tapes for its crew of actors.

In full honesty, I was working on an article about Succession jumping the shark. A once dynamic series which captivated audiences and critics was just spinning its wheels tossing business jargon and curses into an incomprehensible word salad. Much of season three featured the Roy clan rehashing more of the same. However, episode three of the new season is flooring. 

SPOILERS TO IMMEDIATELY FOLLOW...

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