Best Actor Contenders

Poll: Who's the surest bet in this year's Best Actor race?

Who do you think earns a nomination for sure?

Jeremy Renner has been on everyone's radar for a while now, though he may be too much of an unknown for a nod. Many contenders have debuted well at festivals this week. George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Viggo Mortensen have all earned positive reviews for their respective films. Colin Firth took home Best Actor from Venice and his film A Single Man was just picked up by The Weinstein Company, so expect a strong campaign for him. And Robert Duvall's turn as a Tennessee hermit ignited Toronto. We've yet to see Day-Lewis and Freeman, but both the roles seem baity enough.

Who gets in? Any names you're rooting for that aren't on the list? Let me hear it.

Robert Duvall Enters the Fray

It looks like we have a new name to add to the Best Actor race, ladies and gentleman.

Robert Duvall's performance in Get Low, another Toronto debut getting loads of good buzz, is now considered a major player in this year's award's race.

Duvall last made waves in Toronto back in 1997 with his knockout lead turn in The Apostle, a film which he also wrote and directed. He earned his fifth of six Academy Award nominations for that role. His only win was in 1983 for the film Tender Mercies.

This time around Duvall plays a Tennessee hermit named Felix Bush, who plans his own funeral to be held while he's still living.

The film has apparently been met with standing ovations after screenings at the fest, with most of the praise heaped on Duvall.

From John Foote at InContention:

"As I interviewed Duvall in the Park Hyatt Hotel, there was a distribution deal taking place downstairs so there is a very good chance the film will be seen this fall. If so, the landscape of the Best Actor race has just changed. I think Duvall has to be considered the frontrunner for this miraculous performance. Again, the man proves he is perhaps our greatest actor."

Sounds like Duvall is a lock. He'll be competing with the likes of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Daniel Day-Lewis, Viggo Mortensen, and Morgan Freeman this season. Can you hear them yet? "It's such an honor just to see my name on the same list as Robert Duvall." Good luck to one of the greats.

Matt Damon's Oscar Prospects

Reviews for Steven Soderbergh's The Informant! are starting to trickle in from Venice. The consensus seems to be that it's good, not great, but boasts a wonderfully funny lead performance from Matt Damon.

The film centers on Mark Whitacre, an executive at an agriculture company who turns whistleblower to the FBI over a corporate price-fixing scam. The closer the feds get to putting away the bad guys, the more obvious Whitacre's own set of company misdealings becomes.

Empire has seen the film, and their review is full of praise for Damon's work:

"Most people agree, though, that the film is very much a triumph for Matt Damon, who really excels in the role of Mark Whitacre...it's to his credit that a role that could easily have been a one-dimensional caricature generates, in the final reel, a lot of sympathy, not only from us but from everyone he drags into the case."

Guy Lodge over at In Contention likes him too:

"Not unlike his otherwise wholly different turn in The Talented Mr. Ripley, [Damon] reveals the psychological cracks in the makeup of the American everyman so incrementally that you hardly notice until it’s too late. Aided by a deadpan comic fluidity the actor has never controlled so comfortably, it’s the finest work of his career."

Damon will probably be a nominee in this year's Best Actor race, with a supporting turn in Clint Eastwood's Invictus strengthening his body of work. If he's good enough there, he could join the club of actors nominated in two acting categories in the same year.

Damon is a great character actor who excels in comedy, drama, and action. I'd love to see him get some recognition.

Edward Norton in American History X

Can someone please explain to me how Roberto Benigni won the Oscar back in 1998 over Edward Norton's impassioned, brilliant performance as a reformed neo-Nazi in American History X?

I just now finished watching the movie for the first time. It was good, but by far the best element of the film is Norton as Derek Vinyard. He is completely committed to this brutal character and pulls it off with terrifying, savage precision. My word, this is an affecting work.

Another note, earlier today I mentioned my appreciation of the use of black and white in contemporary films. I love the mix here. Neo-Nazi Derek's life is in black and white, the only two colors he sees and a representation of his close-minded, racist view of the world. Post-prison Derek lives in a more diverse, beautiful, full-color world. A lovely touch.

Oscar Trivia #2

Anthony Hopkins was inspired by the voices of Katharine Hepburn and Truman Capote in his choice of the eerie cadence for Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.