Best Male Performance of 2012
Also in the running
Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained
Honorable Mentions
#15 - Jean-Louis Trintignant- Amour
"...Trintignant [has] the ability with the simple movement of an eye to convey everything the audience needs to know..."
#13/#14 - Omar Sy and François Cluzet - The Intouchables
"...Like the best buddy comedies, Cluzet and Sy play off each other incredibly well. Both have a captivating presence and can easily switch between the humor and drama their roles require of them..."
#12 - Liam Neeson - The Grey
"...Neeson, who lately has seemingly been taking any film that comes his way for a paycheck, finally finds himself in a movie with purpose...and takes on his role with gusto..."
#11 - Bradley Cooper - Silver Linings Playbook
"...his best role since his stint on Alias...Cooper has finally stepped out of Douche-Land, a place where he's been stuck ever since he became a "movie star"...[a role that has] some quieter, emotion-driven moments and he succeeds..."
The Top Ten will be revealed after the jump...
Click "Read More" to continue...
Click "Read More" to continue...
#10 - Hugh Jackman - Les Miserables
The film wasn't perfect, but I certainly appreciated aspects of Les Miserables and Jackman's performance -- his first cinematic musical undertaking -- is a solid one. While it may have been a tiny bit overpraised this year, that's only because there were so many other fantastic performances in the mix.
#9 - Aksel Hennie - Headhunters
Hennie by no means has "movie star" looks -- and he, in fact, pokes fun at himself for this in the opening moments of the film -- but he's very engaging onscreen. His character is an arrogant jerk, but because of the way Hennie portrays him, we care about the guy and root for him 100% of the time along his crazy journey.
#8 - John Hawkes - The Sessions
John Hawkes finds himself in a prone position the entire movie and he's only allowed to act with his head and his voice -- a difficult task, I must assume. Although we feel sorry for Hawkes' character, what is most interesting is that we never feel pity for him, per se, and this role is certainly one that could've elicited that emotion. It's actually a welcome relief and saves the film from becoming more of a disease-of-the-week-type flick.
#7 - Tom Holland - The Impossible
Cast members from The Impossible took the top spots in the Best Actress and Supporting Actor categories at this year's RyMickey Awards and while Tom Holland can't match that feat, he still puts in one helluva performance. In his first film role (!!!), he carries a huge chunk of the heart of the film. I've praised The Impossible numerous times already and will be praising it numerous times to come, so I'll hold back my effusiveness here, but much like Naomi Watts, Holland must deal not only with special effects, but with some incredibly emotional scenes that showcase his talent.
#6 - Richard Gere - Arbitrage
While this role may not be complicated to portray as some of the others on this list, Gere plays a flawed corporate executive perfectly. He's a philanderer whose cheating ways eventually catch up to him to bite him in the ass and as his world unravels, it's fun to watch Gere as his character's world falls apart around him.
#5 - Logan Lerman - The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Lerman took the top spot in my Best Younger Performance list this year and while The Perks of Being a Wallflower isn't a great film, his performance in it is worth the price of admission. Perfectly navigating the tricky world of a ninth grader entering high school, Lerman also has to deal with a character who has more than a few emotional issues with which to cope as well. Here's hoping he can move past the Percy Jackson series into better roles like this one.
#4 - Jack Black - Bernie
I avoided this movie for months after it became available on Netflix Streaming simply because of Jack Black. I don't dislike the guy, but I've never found him particularly interesting as an actor and I admittedly assumed this would be a low-grade comedy. Instead, Black takes a character that so easily could've become a one-note Saturday Night Live caricature and gives layers to it that I wasn't expecting in the slightest.
#3 - Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Master
Most people (including the Academy members) found themselves praising Joaquin Phoenix's work for The Master and while I liked Phoenix, I couldn't help but get a little "actorly" and gimmicky vibe from his role. I preferred Mr. Hoffman and while the Oscars deemed him a supporting actor, he's definitely a co-lead, hence his placement here. What fascinates about his character here is the kindness around the edges masks a power-hungry manipulator who becomes more and more frightening as the film progresses.
#2 - Denzel Washington - Flight
You always run the risk of overdoing it when you're "playing drunk," but Washington reins things in, giving us a much more subtle approach to alcoholism than we're used to seeing. The performance is very introspective, but we're always well aware of what's going on in the character's mind and, while pivotal to a movie like this, that's not an easy thing to accomplish. Washington's role stuck with me a while after watching it and that's always a good thing.
#1 - Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln
I am not the biopic guy. Nearly 90% of the time, I despise them actually. I also hate how the Academy has the tendency to heap praises onto someone merely for impersonating them as oftentimes an impersonation doesn't necessarily lead to a well-rounded role. With that being said, there's something transcendent about what Daniel Day-Lewis does here. Obviously "transcendent" is a big word that shouldn't be bandied about willy nilly so its usage here indicates how impressed I am with this performance. Yes, Day-Lewis is impersonating the title character, but there was never a single moment in the film where I felt like I was watching an actor. I believed whole-heartedly in the strongly resolute, yet quirky down-home nature that Day-Lewis utilizes to bring the sixteenth President to life on the screen. Day-Lewis is given the opportunity by Spielberg to have the camera focused solely on him for long takes during several speeches and it allows us as the viewer to completely lose ourselves in the character. A fantastic role that absolutely deserved the Oscar.
Previous RyMickey Award Winners
No comments:
Post a Comment