Did the Oscars Get It Right? Best Supporting Actor

Okay, back with part two of "Did the Oscars Get It Right?" my look at whether the acting awards went the right way or not since 2000. Today, I'll look at Best Supporting Actor, a category that is divided between everyday, regular Joe character actors just doing the work and leading men slumming it amongst the little people. 

Quick recap: I'm going to look at the five nominees and decide if they got it right or not. Tthe four answers to that question are Yes, Probably, Debatable, and No. What's the difference between Probably and Debatable? I don't know! But it feels like  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: Benicio del Toro, Traffic. Nominees: Jeff Bridges, The Contender; Willem Dafoe, Shadow of the Vampire; Albert Finney, Erin Brockovich; Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Del Toro's win for his performance as Mexican police officer caught in the Drug War was very much deserved. Traffic has faded from memory in recent years, but when it came out, it was a pretty big deal and of the many performances in the film, del Toro's was the one that stood out the most. But let's give credit to Dafoe for getting a nom for the truly bonkers Shadow of the Vampire.

2001 Winner: Jim Broadbent, Iris. Nominees: Ethan Hawke, Training Day; Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast; Ian McKellen, LotR: The Fellowship of the Ring; Jon Voight, Ali.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. This one pains me to type because Broadbent is one of those character actors doing the work and he finally got rewarded and beat out four actors who have all been number one on the call sheet on different projects. However, no one has seen Iris and Jim Broadbent gives off major "Who?" vibes. David Letterman even did a top-10 about how unrecognizable Broadbent is. And then Gandalf the freaking Grey is right there, guys. Ok, is Gandalf Sir Ian McKellen's best work? Probably not, but it's a pretty iconic role. Who hasn't done "You shall not pass!" at some point? 

2002 Winner: Chris Cooper, Adaptation. Nominees: Ed Harris, The Hours; Paul Newman, Road to Perdition; John C. Reilly, Chicago; Christopher Walken, Catch Me If You Can. 

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. This Cooper's moment to step into the spotlight, and he nailed it. Hard to argue with the Academy on this one.

2003 Winner: Tim Robbins, Mystic River. Nominees: Alec Baldwin, The Cooler; Benicio del Toro, 21 Grams; Djimon Hounsou, In America; Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. This is probably a career-achievement Oscar for Robbins more than anything else. He's good in Mystic River, but looking back at things, that film really hasn't had any staying power (of the Dennis Lehane adaptations that followed in the wake of Mystic River, it's definitely been passed by Shutter Island, and probably passed by Gone Baby Gone). So Robbins gets a reward for his years of work, that's fine. But maybe this award would be more interesting going to Watanabe or Hounsou? Or wouldn't it be cool to live in a world where del Toro is a two-time Oscar winner?

2004 Winner: Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby. Nominees: Alan Alda, The Aviator; Thomas Haden Church, Sideways; Jamie Foxx, Collateral; Clive Owen, Closer.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. Million Dollar Baby is another Clint Eastwood film that hasn't had the staying power one would've thought when it was released. But just because no one really revisits the film doesn't mean we should take away Freeman's Oscar. Among his fellow nominees, maybe Haden Church has the best claim if we're revising history. Foxx was nominated for Best Actor that year, so he wasn't going to win this. Closer works better as a play, and Alda is a television guy. So Freeman gets his overdue Oscar and that seems right.

2005 Winner: George Clooney, Syriana. Nominees: Matt Dillon, Crash; Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man; Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain; William Hurt, A History of Violence.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. So we've discussed career-achievement Oscars here and in the Best Supporting Actress post, but now we get to something related, but a little bit different: the You've Had a Great Year Oscar. This is the Oscar that you for performance, but it's actually for something else you've done that year. Now some of it comes down to weird timing. You get movies released in the same year despite working on them in different years. It happens, making movies is weird. Clooney won his Oscar for his very good portrayal of a jaded CIA officer in Syriana, but he also won an Oscar in 2005 because he directed, co-starred, and co-wrote Good Night, and Good Luck. He was the fifth person ever to receive acting, writing, and directing nominations in the same year and the first to do across two different films. So he had a very good year. Tough luck for Jake Gyllenhall.

2006 Winner: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine. Nominees: Jackie Earle Hailey, Little Children; Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond; Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls; Mark Wahlberg, The Departed.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. Look, Arkin is very funny in Little Miss Sunshine. And he also has interesting subtle moments in this film as well, so I can't argue with Arkin's win. But maybe an Oscar gets Eddie Murphy to take more roles. Maybe Wahlberg's performance is just as effectively profane as Arkin's was. Maybe Hounsou deserved more credit for Blood Diamond. There are some interesting what ifs, but Arkin's win makes sense.

2007 Winner:  Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men. Nominees: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Wilson's War; Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild; Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton. 

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Anton Chigurh is one of the most iconic characters in modern movie history. The only bummer here is that in any other year, all of these other performances would have been very worthy winners.

2008 Winner: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight. Nominees: Josh Brolin, Milk; Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt; Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Ledger's performance as the Joker was phenomenal and it has a very strong, lasting cultural impact. His take on the Joker is most people's definitive take on one of the most iconic characters in pop culture. But damn, Downey and Hoffman gave great performances that year that went unrecognized.

2009 Winner: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds. Nominees: Matt Damon, Invictus; Woody Harrelson, The Messenger; Christopher Plummer, The Last Station; Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Wow, what a three-year run for iconic villains. Hans Landa belongs right up there with Chigurh and the Joker. While there are some good performances among the other nominees, no one is touching Waltz.

2010 Winner: Christian Bale, The Fighter. Nominees: John Hawkes, Winter's Bone; Jeremy Renner, The Town; Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right; Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. This is what I'm talking about when I mentioned that leading men slum it to get an Oscar. Look, Bale deserved an Oscar for something, but I don't The Fighter is just kind of a movie that exists. Good for him, but Hawkes and Ruffalo were definitely robbed. And Renner could make a case as well. And Rush probably wins this award if this category jumped into a time machine back to the 1980s. I'm glad Bale has his Oscar, but he probably deserved it as a lead actor for Vice. But we will get to that later.

2011 Winner: Christopher Plummer, Beginners. Nominees: Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn; Jonah Hill, Moneyball; Nick Nolte, Warrior; Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Probably. Simultaneously a deserved win for the role and a career achievement win. Plummer is very good as a gay man who is finally able to come out and explore his sexuality following the death of his wife. Plummer became the oldest man to win Best Supporting Actor with the win, and it is deserved. But I do want to give Nolte credit for his performance in Warrior as another father filled with regrets.

2012 Winner: Christoph Waltz. Django Unchained. Nominees: Alan Arkin, Argo; Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master; Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Someone was going to get another Oscar this year, and, for some reason, the Academy picked Waltz for creating a character who was essentially the inverse of Hans Landa. Waltz is very interesting and Dr King Schultz is a good character, but, for me, this Oscar should've gone to either De Niro or Hoffman. De Niro got his first nomination in 21 year for Silver Linings Playbook and brought equal force to his scenes with Bradley Cooper. And Hoffman was mysterious, dangerous, and fascinating in The Master. I think this one feels wrong because Hoffman would be dead less than a year after the Oscars ceremony, so it really feels like a missed opportunity to honor him.

2013 Winner: Jaren Leto, Dallas Buyers Club. Nominees: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips; Bradley Cooper, American Hustle; Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave; Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Leto was fine in Dallas Buyers Club, but it kind of feels like McConaughey dragged him to his nomination and win. And the win justified Leto's more whack-a-doo Method acting tendencies. Cooper or Hill would've made sense here. But Fassbender should've gotten the win here.

2014 Winner: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash. Nominees: Robert Duvall, The Judge; Ethan Hawke, Boyhood; Edward Norton, Birdman; Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Simmons is so good in a lot of roles, but he got the role of a lifetime in Whiplash. Sure, he might be more recognizable as J. Jonah Jameson, the yellow M&M, or from his Farmer's Insurance commercials, but he deserved this Oscar over a very stacked field of great actors.

2015 Winner: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies. Nominees: Christian Bale, The Big Short; Tom Hardy, The Revenant; Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight; Sylvester Stallone, Creed.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. Look, I know that Mark Rylance is a "better" actor than Sylvester Stallone, but we're talking about Rocky Balboa here. One of the most iconic characters of the last 40 years and we couldn't give Stallone an Oscar for it. You can track multiple eras of filmmaking through the lens of Rocky and it's just wrong that Stallone wasn't given a capstone award for it. And beyond all of that, Stallone gives a good performance as a broken version of Balboa. 

2016 Winner: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight. Nominees: Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water; Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea; Dev Patel, Lion; Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Ali was excellent as Juan, a stand-in father figure for the protagonist in Moonlight. 

2017 Winner: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Nominees: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project; Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri; Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water; Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Debatable. I'm not even sure that Rockwell gave the best nominated performance in Three Billboards. Harrelson did great work as cancer-stricken sheriff who is just trying to keep everything together while he still can. Dafoe also gave a great performance in The Florida Project as the manager of a cheap motel in Orlando who tries his best to help the lower-class residents that essentially live there.

2018 Winner: Mahershala Ali, Green Book. Nominees: Adam Driver, Blackkklansman; Sam Eliot, A Star is Born; Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Sam Rockwell, Vice.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? No. This is a tough one. Green Book is a cynical, bad movie. As good as Ali was in it, should we be rewarding it? I don't know. This award probably should've gone to Driver, but the Academy couldn't exactly give him an Oscar while snubbing John David Washington for a film that pointed out the differences between what black men and white could and couldn't do. Sam Elliot or Richard E. Grant would've been worthy winners as well.

2019  Winner: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Nominees: Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood; Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes; Al Pacino, The Irishman; Joe Pesci, The Irishman.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. One could argue this is a career-achievement Oscar. Maybe it is. But Cliff Booth is just such a good laid-back Brad Pitt role that it's also a deserved one. Now, there are/were questions about the misogyny of the character and perhaps the film, but giving an Oscar to a performer isn't an endorsement of the actions of the character.

2020 Winner: Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah. Nominees: Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7; Leslie Odom Jr, One Night in Miami...; Paul Raci, Sound of Metal; LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah.  

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Kaluuya deserved this Oscar. If anything, he should have more than the two nominations he currently has. (Supporting Actor for Widows and Actor for Nope if you're curious) So this Oscar is very much deserved.

2021 Winner: Troy Kotsur, CODA. Nominees: Ciaran Hinds, Belfast; Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog; J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos; Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. There aren't a lot of opportunities for deaf actors, and Kotsur took advantage of his moment. Let's shed a tear for the two nominees from The Power of the Dog, though.

2022 Winner: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once. Nominees: Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin; Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway; Judd Hirsch, The Fablemans; Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin.

Did the Oscars Get it Right? Yes. Quan was the beating heart of the film that swept the Oscars. And for a movie all about the multiverse, there is a little bit of justice for Quan to get an Oscar after he took a long hiatus from acting due to lack of opportunities. It's a good thing that he's back in the film business.

So what did we learn? With 11 yeses, Best Supporting Actor is a category that gets it right more often than not. Even the seven probably and debatable wins feel right. Which is a bit surprising to me. I figured there would be more wins in this category that felt like guys chasing an Oscar, but there really are only a few instances of that. I've got my work cut out for me to wrap up this retrospective before the Oscars Sunday night, but I can do it. Tomorrow, I tackle Best Actress, which I think will have a few more controversies.