For Your Consideration Vol. 2:
Support This!
Well, it’ s that metformin weight loss pcos time again where we appreciate the underappreciated, the ignored, the overlooked, etc. I’m not going to stroke anyone’s ego, because God knows that these actors don’t need any more of a boost. In Volume 2 of FYC, I want to look at 5 actors whose performances in a supporting role were well-deserved but not honored with Oscar nominations.
SPOILER WARNING!
Possibly NSFW: Because of metformin weight loss reviews the language featured in the scenes, clips, and montages below, this post may not be safe for work.
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Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed
This nomination is the most obvious of Oscar snubs in recent memory. Nicholson absolutely kills in Scorsese’s 2006 Best Picture winner. He’s fierce and paranoid, which is a deadly combination. The pace of the entire film is set by Jack’s emotional state, because it’s those actions that drive each scene to the next. Now, we have to give credit to William Monaghan’s great script, but you can’t ignore a powerful performance that sells the whole plot. The Academy gave a deserved Oscar nom to Mark Wahlberg and his performance in The Departed, but that’s just a great performance (not a knock!), but it’s not a great performance that drives a film. Heath Ledger’s Joker drove The Dark Knight, and not unlike Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs, you can feel his presence even when he’s not on the screen. You can feel Jack throughout The Departed, though, admittedly, the work isn’t as iconic as the other two, you can’t ignore the intensity and the impact that it has on the story. Of course, the other driving force is DiCaprio’s character, but that’s a different discussion for a different day.
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Chris Cooper as Col. Frank Fitts in American Beauty
I want to simply say that Chris Cooper got robbed. His work in Sam Mendes’ American Beauty is straight up awesome. His entire performance is based solely on an internal struggle with his sexuality that doesn’t come to the surface until the end of the film. He’s a stubborn character that takes out all of his aggression on his son; his way of “coping”.
American Beauty is full of ironies, and Cooper’s character is the biggest one. He’s the antithesis of Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham, so his role in telling the story is crucial, because you need that irony, that opposite character, to show how far Lester has come. And Cooper sells it so well. Without a stirring, believable performance from that character, the entire movie wouldn’t work as well; some of that power and impact would be drained.
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David Carradine as Bill in Kill Bill Vol. 2
David Carradine’s performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 2 might not be one of the most famous, or the most instantly suggestible for this category, but it is one of the most memorable of the 2000s. In 2003, Tarantino was forced to split up his epic about a revenge-seeking bride that is betrayed by the ghosts of her past on her wedding day. Cutting arguably Tarantino’s finest directorial achievement in half (releasing each part in two separate years no less) would serve to be a mistake when each year’s respective award season came rollin’ ’round.
While Uma Thurman’s role as the Bride claimed multiple nominations from various associations (except the Oscars), it’s David Carradine’s show-stealing performance as Bill that was unfortunately snubbed from contention. Carradine’s casting was fairly shocking when it was announced, because it was all at once out of the blue and practically poetic in its perfection. No one else could have played Bill with such subtle, sinister carefulness. We learn about Bill mostly from the expressions of those who have encountered him or from stories (legends?) that we hear; the guy is mythical by the time we meet him. Bill is Carradine’s swan song. Perhaps, there was always a brilliant actor within the man who wandered the world in Kung-Fu, but I’d like to think that Carradine just had this single one to give.
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Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery in Zodiac
Believe it or not, there was a period in time when Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t appreciated or recognized for his work (between Chaplin and Iron Man), so there are a handful of performances that could be easily mentioned. The one that pops immediately to mind is obsessive journalist Paul Avery. David Fincher’s Zodiac, a movie that was unreasonably ignored in major Oscar categories, is a story about writers who get tangled up by the mystery of the notorious Zodiac killer.
What’s great about RDJ is how he sells the downward spiral of his character. There’s legitimate progress that is seen on screen. In movies, we see a change in dialogue and attitude to show the progress of a character arc, but we don’t always see a physical manifestation; not enough to be convincing of that transformation, at least. Also, you have the fact that RDJ doesn’t phone in performances. He shows up and consistently gives his best regardless of the role or the genre of the film. His acting in Zodiac is top notch, sympathetic, and self-deprecating.
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John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski
I’m not quite sure why we don’t hear the outcry regarding this horrible omission more, but John Goodman in The Big Lebowski is just legendary. What I absolutely love is how much of a loose cannon he is; you don’t know when he’s going to flip his shit or if he’s going to be civil… And then freak out and pull a gun on Smokey at a bowling alley. The extreme, explosive performance is not only Goodman’s best, but the standout in the movie. We mostly remember actors who get lost in their performance, because the performance itself is usually ultra-dramatic, but we rarely honor comedic or more outrageous roles unless the character is psychotic. Goodman’s acting was strong enough for a nomination, but unfortunately, every aspect of the movie was ignored after it came out; condemned to a loyal cult following. Luckily, that’s not the case anymore as The Big Lebowski and Goodman’s Walter Sobchak is universally loved. But, I guess, that’s just, like, my opinion, man.
