Okay, let's wrap up this look at the acting Oscars since the year 2000 with a look at Best Actor, a category where if you play a historical figure, any historical figure, you're probably gonna win. You don't even have to play him particularly well, you just have to play a historical figure and then get your acceptance speech ready. I'm being slightly facetious, but seriously, 14 of the wins this century have been for a biopic of some kind (including Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer).
Quick recap: I'm going to look at the five nominees and decide if they got it right or not. The four answers to that question are Yes, Probably, Debatable, and No. What's the difference between Probably and Debatable? I don't know! One last note: I'm not going to deal with performances that got snubbed because then this turns from a fun little exercise into A Thing. And I'm not here to do A Thing. Let's get into it.
2000 Winner: Russell Crowe, Gladiator. Nominees: Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls; Tom Hanks, Cast Away; Ed Harris, Pollock; Geoffrey Rush, Quills.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Are you really going to argue with Maximus Decimus Meridius? He's father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife, and he will have his vengeance in this life or the next. It is wild that this is to date the last time Tom Hanks was in the field of nominees for Best Actor. He's the quintessential American leading man for his generation, but he hasn't been able to land a Best Actor nom in nearly a quarter century.
2001 Winner: Denzel Washington, Training Day. Nominees: Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind; Sean Penn, I Am Sam; Will Smith, Ali; Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Denzel gets his Leading Actor Oscar. You could say that Training Day isn't the greatest film Denzel has made, but he carries it, and you can't argue with his win.
2002 Winner: Adrien Brody, The Pianist. Nominees: Nicolas Cage, Adaptation.; Michael Caine, The Quiet American; Daniel Day-Lewis, Gangs of New York; Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Brody has had an interesting career and he was very good in The Pianist, but man does he stick out like a sore thumb in this group of nominees. There are some heavy hitters in this lineup. Day-Lewis and Cage were probably the men vying for win here.
2003 Winner: Sean Penn, Mystic River. Nominees: Johnny Depp, PotC: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Ben Kingsley, House of Sand and Fog; Jude Law, Cold Mountain; Bill Murray, Lost in Translation.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. Sean Penn is talented actor and he's got two Oscars. So we will let him keep one of them, but man, it would be cool to live in a world that is inhabited by Academy Award winner Bill Murray.
2004 Winner: Jamie Foxx, Ray. Nominees: Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda; Johnny Depp, Finding Neverland; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator; Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. I've talked about this in some of the other posts, but this is a You've Had a Great Year Oscar. Foxx was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor, so he was probably going to win something. He's also a great leading man. Yes, Ray might not be the best biopic, but an Oscar for Foxx is right.
2005 Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote; Nominees: Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow; Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain; Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line; David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. HOWEVER this is what I'm talking about when I joke about how this is a category is about being in a biopic. Hoffman was a phenomenal actor and he was great as Truman Capote, but the same can be said about Ledger. And sometimes it feels like this category recognizes a physical transformation to look like someone else more than just rewarding acting.
2006 Winner: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland. Nominees: Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond; Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson; Peter O'Toole, Venus; Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Good for Forest Whitaker, but this was a supporting role. This is an Oscar that could've gone to either DiCaprio or Gosling. Or we could have finally given O'Toole an Oscar win. Yes, it would've been overdue and a career-achievement Oscar, but c'mon.
2007 Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood. Nominees: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street; Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah; Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Daniel Plainview is one of the great film monsters and DDL is perfect in the role.
2008 Winner: Sean Penn, Milk. Nominees: Richard Jenkins, The Visitor; Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Look, I let Sean Penn keep his first Oscar, but he's not a two-time winner. You could either take away the Mystic River win or the Milk win. I'm taking away this one and giving it to Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.
2009 Winner: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart. Nominees: George Clooney, Up in the Air; Colin Firth, A Single Man; Morgan Freeman, Invictus; Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. Jeff Bridges gets a career-achievement Oscar here, and it's a fine win. But Clooney and First are both right there with award worthy performances. To me, though, the big miss here is Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker, his breakout role as the wildman, SFC William James.
2010 Winner: Colin Firth, The King's Speech. Nominees: Javier Bardem, Biutiful; Jeff Bridges, True Grit; Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network; James Franco, 127 Hours.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. This is a case of a make-up Oscar. As I briefly touched on, Firth could've been a deserving winner the year prior. Also, hey, Jeff Bridges is here again! Feels like some people just checked the same names two years in a row. But the performance here that should've won is Eisenberg for The Social Network. His version of Zuckerberg is the lasting impression of one of the most influential people in our world. I know I'm falling into the trap of rewarding an actor for playing a real person, but this is kind of the inverse, since we didn't know much about Zuckerberg at the time (we kind of still don't) and this performance has defined who he is for a lot of people.
2011 Winner: Jean Dujardin, The Artist. Nominees: Demian Bichir, A Better Life; George Clooney, The Descendents; Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Brad Pitt, Moneyball.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. I get that there was a wave of enthusiasm for The Artist, but this is a performance that just doesn't stand out any more. Part of me thinks that Clooney cast Dujardin in The Monuments Men just so he could kill his character off. Anyways, it's too bad for Clooney to lose Lead Actor again, he's had some bad luck the year's he's been nominated. I could see giving it to any of the men nominated. If I have to pick one, I'll go with Oldman.
2012 Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln. Nominees: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables; Joaquin Peonix, The Master; Denzel Washington, Flight.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. I mean, Day-Lewis is Lincoln. I feel bad for Cooper who was right there step-for-step with Jennifer Lawrence in making Silver Linings Playbook work so well.
2013 Winner: Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club. Nominees: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Bruce Dern, Nebraska; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street; Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Sadly, the McConaughesaince overwhelmed the Oscars. I am glad McConaughey found his passion for acting again and he's given us some great performances, but, to be honest, his work in The Wolf of Wall Street would've been more interesting in the Supporting category. Speaking of The Wolf of Wall Street, DiCaprio should have picked up his Oscar here.
2014 Winner: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything. Nominees: Steve Carell, Foxcatcher; Bradley Cooper, American Sniper; Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game; Michael Keaton, Birdman.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Redmayne wins for an ok biopic. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but there have got to be better ways to showcase lead performances. I'm sort of a hypocrite because one of the two actors I'm thinking about is Carell for playing John du Pont, which was another role the required physical transformation and imitation. You could also go with Keaton for Birdman where he played an actor on the brink of a breakdown.
2015 Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant. Nominees: Bryan Cranston, Trumbo; Matt Damon, The Martian; Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs; Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. There was very much a "it's time" feel to DiCaprio's Oscar win, but if he's already won for playing Jordan Belfort, we can look elsewhere. For my money, Matt Damon is the winner. The Martian isn't a life-changing movie, but it's a lot of fun and very rewatchable and a lot of that is due to Damon's no frills lead performance.
2016 Winner: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea Nominees: Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge; Ryan Gosling, La La Land; Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic; Denzel Washington, Fences.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. There is a great debate here between Affleck and Washington. I love Manchester by the Sea, and feel this was the right call, but if you're telling me Denzel should have won, I won't fight you on that.
2017 Winner: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour Nominees: Timothee Chalament, Call Me By Your Name; Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread; Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out; Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. I get in the real world that Gary Oldman was due for a win, but we gave him the win for playing George Smiley. So we are free to go in a different direction. I'm going with Kaluuya for Get Out, a film whose impact and legacy keeps growing and growing.
2018 Winner: Ram Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody Nominees: Christian Bale, Vice; Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born; Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate; Viggo Mortenson, Green Book.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Malek is a fun and interesting actor, but this ain't it. I'd go with either Bale or Cooper. Both men are due for Best Actor wins, but since Bale has an Oscar for Supporting Actor, I'll go with Cooper, who so far has always been a bridesmaid at the Oscars.
2019 Winner: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker Nominees: Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory; Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood; Adam Driver, Marriage Story; Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. I can totally see this a career-achievement Oscar. I wasn't the biggest fan of Joker, but I can see how he was due for a win and don't have a huge problem with it. But maybe Rick Dalton was DiCaprio's Oscar winning role? Or maybe the Oscar should've gone to Adam Driver for Marriage Story.
2020 Winner: Anthony Hopkins, The Father Nominees: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal; Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; Gary Oldman, Mank; Steven Yuen, Minari.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. We all know this was supposed to Chadwick Boseman's Oscar. The producers of the telecast knew it, everyone knew it except for the Academy. Anthony Hopkins didn't show up for the ceremony and released an acceptance video a few days later where he seemed confused and slightly embarrassed. Hopkins gave a great performance, but this was sadly Boseman's final performance and it is excellent. This is one of the weirder Oscar loses ever.
2021 Winner: Will Smith, King Richard Nominees: Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos; Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog; Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick... Boom!; Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. This is so sad because what should have just been an either/or choice has become something everyone is embarrassed by because of the The Slap. This was a two-man race between Smith and Cumberbatch, with Smith coming out on top. But everything is just weird.
2022 Winner: Brendan Fraser, The Whale Nominees: Austin Butler, Elvis; Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Paul Mescal, Aftersun; Bill Nighy, Living.
Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. Fraser made his comeback with this this film, and while it's to be determined what he does with his return to acting, it feels deserved. I think Butler and Farrell could have been legitimate winners, but the story of Fraser coming back combined with his performance made this something that couldn't be stopped.
So what did we learn? Eleven times the Oscars didn't get it right! I think it's because there is a formula for winning the Oscar: play a real person, get an award. I don't want o be cynical, but this is pretty cynical.
Okay, we will wrap this up by looking at the this year's winners next time.
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