Dick Cheney, Vincent van Gogh, Tony Vallelonga, and Freddie Mercury walk into a bar. The only one of the five Best Actor nominees that isn’t based on a living person is Bradley Cooper as Jackson Maine in A Star Is Born. The other four are all real live people with their own distinct origin stories.
Each represents a different era in time and has a different reason for being someone important enough to warrant their own movie biography. The only one of these men still alive is Dick Cheney, who remains an important American figurehead, revered by some Americans and hated by others.
Dick Cheney, mastermind and warmonger. Van Gogh, beloved post-impressionist genius who lost his mind and died too young. Tony Lipp, an ignorant kid from the Bronx who got enlightened and made a lifelong friend. Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the band Queen and LGBTQ icon.
One of the amazing things about this year’s Best Actor race is that it has come down to the one hero of the bunch. While each of these characters has something heroic about them (even Dick Cheney), the only one unequivocally regarded as a hero is Mercury, both because the rousing songs of Queen live on and because of the way Mercury lived and died. The barriers he overcame and the legacy he left behind are the things that drive the legend and the potential Best Actor win.
With the exception of Melissa McCarthy and Olivia Colman, the Best Actress race is less about transformation and more about authenticity. Not so with Best Actor. This is probably due to the simple fact that, at least so far, history has mostly been made by men, specifically white men. They have had a lock on it for centuries. There are simply more world-renowned men for actors to embody.
All five of these performances showcase actors transforming themselves into someone completely different than who they are. When compared with the Best Actress race, it’s easy to see how few female characters, even powerhouse performances, are given that kind of transformative work to anchor a Best Picture contender. The same goes for actors of color, for the most part.
Why does Rami Malek have the edge? Because he won the Globe (drama) and the Screen Actors Guild. Believe it or not, there was a time when Bohemian Rhapsody wasn’t even considered a Best Picture contender and, thus, Malek seemed like a long shot. As late as November 28, we wrote a column called Can Bohemian Rhapsody Defy Critics and Earn a Best Picture Nomination? Well, of course it did, though at the time most people were skeptical.
Malek seems to have the edge because of both his general likability as an actor, the success of the film (currently at $208 mil domestic), and the likability of his character. Meanwhile, Christian Bale’s film, Vice, perversely landed in the comedy category at the Globes. It’s extremely rare for the Globe comedy winner to go on and win Best Actor. In 20 years, only two have done so: Jamie Foxx for Ray and Jean DuJardin for The Artist. By contrast, the Globe drama winner has gone on to win the Oscar 12 out of the last 20 times.
It’s safe to say that Malek’s wins have taken everyone by surprise, though much of that had to do with so much punditry focused on Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born being the early frontrunner. Viggo Mortensen seemed like a lock at some point, due to the fact that he’s never won and Green Book was looking like a film that couldn’t lose. Then it switched over to Christian Bale, though the fate of Vice itself seemed uncertain.
There is no doubt that there was a major disconnect between the critics and bloggers who covered the race and the actual voters. With Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody being so popular with audiences and voters, they really did seem to rise above the chatter, to produce, at the very least, a lead actor win for Malek.
There is no doubt that this has been a confounding season in many ways, and one of those is most certainly the surprise rise of Rami Malek.
Malek’s performance was great, but he’s only Malek. Still, he’s the frontrunner now.
It could have been Bale’s year but the voters hate Cheney and Bale is not loved in Hollywood even though he’s revered as an actor.
Final voting opens Tuesday and closes Feb. 19th.
Penn and Sharder are telling Hollywood that it’s still time to show Cooper some love. It is the good week to do so.
Cooper’s Jackson Maine is a great character and Cooper is excellent.
The Academy could finally decide to give him the Best Actor Oscar. It would be a good decision.
VOTE COOPER!!!
That’ll be a great upset.
VOTE COOPER for BEST ACTOR.
My rating on performances
Bradley Cooper ****
Rami Malek *****
Christian Bale ****
Viggo Mortensen ****
Haven’t seen Dafoe’s yet.
Cooper & Bale *****
Malek and Mortensen ****
Also haven’t seen Dafoe.
That’s the thing. Thirteen of this year’s twenty acting nominations went to performances of people that existed or exist.
And only one of them had an unbelievable difficulty to make it pay it off. Recreating one of the most iconic and flamboyant and well-known performers of all time, recreating his magnetism on stage, and make us forget plenty of times, we were watching an actor, is what locks Malek for the win at every awards show. Right now it is insane to bet against him winning both BAFTA and Oscar.
OT: AARP Awards per showbiz411:
The AARP Movies for Grown Up Awards are being handed out right in Hollywood.
It’s the 18th annual edition. I’d like to say AARP is for old people,
but everyone is old now. Bruce Springsteen’s been on the cover of their
magazine. These awards reflect general sentiment in Tinsel Town.
So far “Roma” has won Best Foreign Film. Richard E. Grant won Best Supporting Actor for “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Spike Lee was named Best Director for “Blackkklansman.”
My insiders say “Green Book” will win Best Picture. Its star, Viggo
Mortensen should win Best Actor. Glenn Close is a lock for Best Actress.
Let’s see if they’re right.
Keep refreshing.
BEST MOVIE, Green Book
BEST ACTRESS, Glenn Close
BEST ACTOR, Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
BEST DOCUMENTARY Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Judi Dench, All is True
BEST TIME CAPSULE MOVIE If Beale Street Could Talk
BEST ENSEMBLE Bohemian Rhapsody
BEST SCREENPLAY Jeff Whitty, Nicole Holofcener, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
BEST INTERGENERATIONAL MOVIE, Mary Poppins Returns
BEST GROWN UP LOVE STORY, What They Had
I have watched At Eternity’s Gate this week and have to say how blown away (not so suprisingly) by this film and Defoe’s performance. He is beyond astonishing and this is my favourite performance of his to date. I really do think it is Malek’s to lose BUT the joy I would have to see Defoe do an Adrien Brody (The Pianist) and suprise win the thing come Oscar night would be amazing.
Dafoe is indeed in a league of his own among this year’s nominees. An absolutely brilliant tour de force.
Olivia is gonna have a great time 🙂
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48ae632c15a55f5fcc1edb0fcff4257540b8cf566e352d91b8d1ed8fb9b891dd.jpg
Lucky lady!
“. . . the only one unequivocally regarded as a hero is Mercury, both because the rousing songs of Queen live on and because of the way Mercury lived and died. . .” That’s how I can become a hero? Shoot! I am heading down the wrong path in life.
OT: Has anyone seen the ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ reunion pic?
https://ewedit.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/four-weddings-funeral.jpg
There are endless possibilities for sequels: ‘Four Divorces and a Colonoscopy’, ‘Four Funerals and That’s It’…
Four Facelifts and a Tummy Tuck
Four Hearings and an Arraignment
I find it sad that the British don’t do movies like this anymore
The 90’s were a golden age for romantic comedies on both sides of the pond: ‘When Harry Met Sally’, ‘Pretty Woman’, ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘All About Mary’, ‘What Women Want’… I could go on and on. Nowadays, comedies are often vulgar and more idiotic than funny.
I’m sorry, but without Ethan Hawke, this category is an embarrassment of impressions, pantomimes and caricatures (Rami Malek, Christian Bale, Viggo Mortensen). Willem Dafoe is brilliant in a film that is completely unwatchable, total hot garbage.
By default, Bradley Cooper should be the winner of this category — he really has become a great actor — except I think ASIB’s chief narrative problem involves his character’s gloomy trajectory taking over the whole movie.
You end up with the weakest Best Actor line-up since 2006 when Forest Whitaker beat Leonardo DiCaprio’s bad accent in Blood Diamond and Peter O’Toole vamping in Venus.
I completely disagree with you saying At Eternity’s Gate is unwatchable, total hot garbage. It is a work of pure art. The way Schnabel uses the camera is brilliant and illustrates the mood and mind of his character Vincent which Defoe absolutely performs with tenderness and reality.
The Reveant year had was one of the worst best actor line ups. DiCaprio won for basically looking like he was having a bad time. One of his weakest peformances.
If we need to award someone for playing a gay rock icon, can’t we just wait until next year when there’s not a pedophile involved in the movie and the actor in question actually does all of his own singing?
NOT YOU AGAIN
I’m sorry, who are you?
I have a feeling Rocketman will be terrible.
I hope not. The trailer actually surprised me. I got Across The Universe vibes, I love that it’s going for some sort of fantastical, magical realism tone rather than just straight, bland biopic (like some other musical biopics I could mention).
Still, a rich living person producing his own biopic is not really a good sign I think. I fear it’s going to be very black&white and silly. But let’s hope not.
Ummm. You don’t know the history behind Bohemian Rhapsody? Queen has been involved the whole time. It’s Brian May’s movie at this point as he is seen at so many awards shows I think people think he is the director. They’ve had full creative control since day one. That’s why it took so long to get off the ground.
Yes, and did it turn out good?
No
Exactly my point.
Oh okay. Thought you were criticizing one but not the other.
I’m worried that because Bohemian Rhapsody made so much money they would make it similar to that, a paint-by-numbers Wikipedia article in film form.
Elton’s music, as people like David O Russell, Baz Luhrmann, Cameron Crowe, etc. could attest, is very cinematic. Just give me amazing tableaus set to his music during the majority of the film and I’ll be happy. That, unfortunately, was something I wasn’t treated to with Bohemian Rhapsody.
I also hope it focuses more on younger Elton, both for the musical output and for the fact that he started becoming boring by the mid-80’s.
Thank you. Couldn’t agree more. Also love Taron Egerton.
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Rami Malek should won Ru Paul’s Drag Race for best lypsync, not SAG or Oscar or GG.
Malek did sing and they blended his voice with Freddie’s and Marc Martel’s because people want to hear Freddie’s voice when they see a biopic about him. This is why BR will win Sound Mixing as well. It’s also unfair to reduce such a complex performance just to singing. This is Best Actor not The Voice.
Any intention of real acting from Malek was harmed for the awful editing, that almost doesn’t left any space for Rami explore the role beyond the makeup and mustache. The best sequences from BR are when Malek is performing as Freddie (and that’s why one of those scenes were used at SAG Awards to present the nominees). I don’t think that Rami Malek is a bad actor – but his performance REALLY isn’t the best of the year.
Every time people try to trash Malek’s performance they invoke the false mustache or the fake teeth as if everyone who wears them could play such a multifaceted and complex human being as Freddie Mercury. Truth is most people/ actors COULDN’T.
People are mistaking Freddie with Rami, that’s the trouble. Tell me one scene where you can see all the multifaceted and complex character on the screen.
Nailed it.
Freddie Mercury was a hugely complex and multifaceted, everything the way his character or any other character or simply anything in the film (including Malek’s perfectly solid turn) isn’t in my humble opinion. To each their own though, it’s just that people who like complex, fascinating, uncompromising stuff like the real Mercury’s personality found nothing like that in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Dr. Shirley’s family have made it clear that Don and Tony were not lifelong friends. This has been known for a long time. To continue perpetuating that narrative is irresponsible.
Have you listened to the tapes?
I heard the tapes, they were friends. Not only that, in the movie Dr. Shirley is gay, and he says he doesn’t know where his brother is. I wonder if there was some family stigma against him because he was gay. you know, back in the day, families weren’t that forgiving if you were gay. They wanted to hide you in the attic and deny it. I think that’s what’s at the heart of their “proclamations”, allbeit too late.
Sorry but the tapes have disproved this.
-As far as nuanced acting goes, even under mounds of make-up, I thought Bale was best of all this year.
-Viggo blew me away, too — I didn’t think he just gave a stereotypical turn.
-Cooper impressed me with his singing and his acting chops were pretty good, too.
-Malek impressed me, but I wasn’t bowled over and he was in a problematic movie.
-Haven’t seen Willem Dafoe.
Other performances that impressed me greatly:
Hedges (beautiful nuanced acting in a tricky role), Ali (I consider him Lead), Hawke, Gosling, JD Washington, Jon Cho.
It’s incredible how all the performances you mention that didn’t get an Oscar nomination are almost 50000 times better than Malek’s frontrunner performance. To say his performance is unworthy of the awards attention it got is simply an understatement. Even a nomination would have been too much, as pointed out by so many on this site among so many others when the film came out.
Agree about Ali in lead. Totally category fraud. And Viggo was great.
Until I saw Defoe I thought Malek was the best of the lot. You need to see Defoe’s interpretation of Vincent.
“As far as nuanced acting goes, even under mounds of make-up, I thought Bale was best of all this year.”
This.
Ive really liked Awards Daily’s coverage but are we rooting for predictability or do you want to know everytging before Oscars night? It seems like Sasha and the commenters are getting frustrated that results are diverging? I think if everything’s preordained, Oscar night isnt fun
Do you think BR is winning British Film? I’m really struggling with my predictions. For now I have Roma in Best Film and The Favourite in British Film.
I think it will take British film, Editing and Best Actor.
So I presume you’re predicting The Favourite for Best Film? I still don’t think it’s going to split that way. British Film is voted on by a smaller opt-in branch, which makes me think it’s a more “snooty” subgroup than the general membership. I don’t think they’ll pass on The Favourite there.
Everyone votes on all categories for the winners
False.
Animation, Foreign Language Film, Documentary and British Film are voted on by their respective opt-in chapters, and Debut is voted on by a jury.
http://awards.bafta.org/sites/default/files/images/ee_british_academy_film_awards_1819-_rules_and_guidelines_-_feature_categories_0.pdf
You learn something knew every day! So they are doing these categories like the TV awards which always is very diversity conscious. Not sure how I feel about that. This makes me feel BR is definitely not winning British Film.
The funny thing is, they keep changing these rules all the time. Or at least before 2013, they did. I didn’t check since then, but I know for sure that they had three different systems for British Film in place in 2009, 2012 and now. And perhaps there was another between 2009 and 2012, but I kinda lost it yesterday digging up these old rules.
That doesn’t surprise me. A bit like the current UK government. There is an episode of the fantastic UK horror sitcom ‘Inside Number 9’ that gives a perfect breakdown of how the BAFTA select panels work. Episode is called ‘And the winner is’
What’s an opt-in chapter? And why doesn’t BR stand a chance to win?
Basically, members can choose to be included in a special “branch” of the membership that votes on British Film by committing to watch British films (I’m not sure if this is in any way enforced though.) This “branch”, called a chapter in Britain because British is awesome, are the members who vote for both the nominations and the wins for Outstanding British Film.
This is so complicated. Why can’t BR win tho’? I’m predicting TF but I want to be sure.
It could of course, but I would imagine that it would be slightly harder if the voting is done by a membership who specifically asked to vote on this category. Perhaps they are less “populist” and care more about finding excellent British films, and the general wisdom is that Bohemian Rhapsody is helped more by the sentimental vote than the more “let’s pick the very best, no matter what everyone thinks” vote.
Opt-in chapter is a fancy way of saying select group of BAFTA members selected to vote in a specific category. If it happens like the TV branch, then they’ll all sit in a room and talk it out like the critics awards. If that’s the case, I can’t see them consciously picking Bohemian Rhapsody. If it’s a bit more random, then BR could well win it.
I believe what you’re describing is what the Bafta Film rules call a jury. The chapters are just the branches normally, and they reduce to juries when their membership is less than 80. I doubt that the British Film chapter would be smaller than that, so I believe it’s normal secret voting, just not for everyone. If you do have more specific evidence then I’d love to hear it though.
No what you say sounds correct. I am just going by hearsay/my knowledge of the TV categories where I believe they literally assign random members to vote on specific categories.
So this select group consists of highbrow members who will choose only very refined and boring movies.
I wouldn’t describe Three Billboards as refined or highbrow.
Lots of artsy film loving Brits I spoke to LOVED 3 Billboards and thought it was a high artistic achievement because they thought it was an accurate representation of America. McDonagh is very highly regarded over here so that probably explains the win. But I agree – 3 Billboards is a mess.
I think it may be pot luck who is voting – after all Fish Tank and I, Daniel Blake both won this category too.
I’m getting this feeling we’re overestimating The Favourite. This season has been pretty unpredictable so I wouldn’t be surprised if TF loses both Best Picture and British Film.
I think The Favourite is being completely overestimated at BAFTA for being British. A Roma/BR film/British film split makes sense to me.
Definitely possible.
I wouldn’t be surprised either way either… But the uncertainty is the main thing that’s making this years race interesting.
Given that BAFTA preemptively scrubbed Singer’s name from the nomination AFTER voting closed, I think it’s safe to assume that BR won British Film. That leaves quite the question mark in Best Film: Roma or The Favourite?
It could be just a precaution.
I’m struggling with Visual Effects: First Man or Avengers. I refuse to believe BAFTA will give it to Black Panther like the idiots from BFCA. Those morons…
Yeah, that’s my big struggle both at BAFTA and The Oscars.
Whoever wins the BAFTA will be the Oscar frontrunner. I tend to go with Avengers right now.
Or Documentary. Some experts on GD are predicting They Shall Not Grow Old. What?
Anyone know what time the BAFTAS will air in the US? Central time
You must have a lot of patience for awards sjpws if you want to watch yet another one. I normally just check the results. Is BAFTA a good one?
BAFTA is the best one. Short, relevant (no TV) and usually quite funny. Stephen Fry used to host all of them, and he is hilarious. Since last year, it’s Joanna Lumley, who also did a really good job IMO. And NO COMMERCIALS.
I’m just wondering to see the live updates. The show is kinda boring lol
It’s 9 PM in the UK, so that should be 4 PM in New York. So that should be 3 PM central?
Even if Bohemian didnt originally have BP buzz there have been many performances that have come from pics that didn’t generate any BP buzz at all like Last King of Scotland, Still Alice, and Iris. I’m not even sure if these films got universally positive reviews. Before that I wasn’t that involved in Oscars But I would imagine City Slickers, Topkapi, The Accidental Tourist, A Year of Living Dangerously, Shampoo, My Cousin Vinnie, and A Trip to the Bountiful didnt generate any attention as BP but id love to he corrected
If he wins the Oscar (which I sadly think he will) Rami Malek is about to be rewarded fir the weakest Lead Actor performance at The Oscars in half a century or something. He’s undoubtedly the best thing about Bohemian Rhapsody and still leans to caricature so much during the film that watching this work getting a nomination for The Oscars, let alone frontrunner status is just ridiculous. There’s not a single nomination that terrible film deserves and that’s from someone who’s been a die-hard Queen fan for years. Also let’s stop acting like Malek doesn’t also gets points from a lot of voters for how he handled working with someone who seems as despicable as Singer and the controversy around him or the fact that he portrays a rock idol as Mercury in a film as “safe” and mass friendly as this. To say he’s unworthy of literally ANY awards attention, let alone THAT kind of awards attention is an understatement. He’s clearly a really talented actor, it’s a shame he can’t fully escape the flashy nature of the material here. He’s “acting” in the entire film, at times it verges to comical. I wish that embarrassment of a BP nominee got the Oscar love it deserved, meaning zero lol. Ugh
I just realized something weird: the last five Best Picture winners in a row have all had nominations in both Supporting categories.
2013- 12 Years A Slave: Fassbender/Nyong’o
2014- Birdman: Norton/Stone
2015- Spotlight: Ruffalo/McAdams
2016- Moonlight: Ali/Harris
2017- The Shape Of Water: Jenkins/Spencer
What’s the one and only movie that fits that bill this year? Vice. And somewhat unexpectedly, to boot. Most people weren’t predicting Rockwell to make the cut, but he still managed to get in. It’s also one of only two films this year with the traditional Director/Screenplay/Editing/DGA combo. (That and Klansman.) Sure, it missed SAG, but so did TSOW last year.
(Do I actually think Vice is going to win BP? No, but it’s a fun crackpot theory.)
You’re trippin me out, man.
Also, Cheney continues to destroy everything good and true in the world.
How many of those BP winners hit more Oscar nominations than corresponding guild nominations?
And actually, on a more serious note… I looked more closely and, since 2000, all but three BP winners have had at least ONE nomination in a Supporting category. And of the three that didn’t, two didn’t have ANY acting nominations: Slumdog and LOTR:ROTK. The only movie to win BP with an acting nom but nothing in Supporting was The Hurt Locker, whose sole acting nom was in Lead for Jeremy Renner.
Now, that’s not too relevant this year since most serious contenders for Picture have at least one Supporting nomination. (Only Black Panther and Bohemian don’t.) But it’s something to keep an eye on in future years, maybe.
The De Tavira surprise nomination gets more and more significant.
Good point! If she hadn’t gotten nominated, Roma would’ve had to break the Supporting stat to win. Now it doesn’t have to. Definitely a good sign.
I would call that not statistically indicative of anything. For statistics to mean something they have to have an explanation behind them. other than nominations for BP having a lot of other nominations. So yeah, this is more in the realm of inevitable coincidence and not indicative of anything
“it’s a fun crackpot theory”
Take out the gender separation here, and you actually have another movie that fits the bill — The Favourite, also with two supporting nominations (but in the same category). Unlike Vice, The Favourite actually has a sliver of a chance of winning Best Picture.
If either The Favourite or Vice win Best Picture, then you should given the Nobel Price for Oscar Prediction. Otherwise, this is just a fun coincidence.
Vice is also the strongest movie according to the stats right now – since it has the weakest industry stat to beat, and just the one. 🙂 (Until it loses the WGA.)
Rip Albert finney. We are losing great tv and movie stars
Malek is winning this with bale a close second
Seeing as how the Academy seems to be doing a U-turn on all of their worst decisions, can we get a hashtag going to get Ethan Hawke and Toni Collette write-in nominations…
This! Apparently if you don’t like anything the academy chooses to do, all you have to do is voice displeasure on social media and they will change it. Popular film, host, no songs, presenters….ridiculous.
It would probably just be easier to accuse the Academy president of wearing blackface back in the ‘80s.
In the moment Rami Malek is winning for this, we have to face the fact that Albert Finney just died without an Oscar, one of the greatest stupidities sponsored by the Academy in its history.
Seriously.
THIS.
It was shameful of the Academy not to even NOMINATE him for Miller’s Crossing
And BIG FISH
Albert Finney never wanted an Oscar. I would have given it to him for Murder on the Orient Express, although I can’t remember offhand who else was in it that year
I can’t stand the Queen fans hysteria.
I’m new here but I honestly don’t see this hysteria. It’s the other way around.
RIP Albert Finney
I also thought Malek’s performance was too much of a caricature. At this point I guess we have to automatically place Taron Egerton as the frontrunner to win next year for playing Elton John? That’s pretty much what you all are saying.
Why was it a caricature? Give me some real arguments because you keep using that word.
I asked some haters the same thing. No answer.
As an actor I’m curious as well. I graduated from the Academy of Theatrical Arts and Cinematography in my country and neither me nor my fellow actors find his performance to be a caricature.
caricature
noun
a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things…
So we will start with the obvious. The teeth. Just use YouTube to compare Malek with Mercury and you will see the teeth Malek used are much bigger and more pronounced than Mercury’s actual teeth. Second, use YouTube to watch interviews and behind the scenes footage of Mercury and you will see Malek over does his mannerisms especially the effeminate ones. The way he walks and talks and even says “darling” in every sentence wasn’t the way I’ve seen Mercury behave through the loads of real footage of him that I have seen.
Therefore when you over emphasize traits such as these, I believe it creates caricature rather than imitation which (despite that words negative connotation in people’s comments) would’ve been better here. That’s why the singing scenes are the best because he keeps it so close to the original. And I’m not even knocking him for not singing like other are. More music biopics than not use the original artists recordings. Freddie is often cited as the best vocalist of all time, and you want an actor to sing instead of him? Nah.
circusfolk, you are my hero
If this looser is your hero I pity you.
The teeth lol. The fake teeth Rami wore were much smaller than Freddie’s. He said that in multiple interviews. Mercury was very flamboyant and theatrical, I’m sorry but I don’t see Rami overdoing his mannerisms, on the contrary. And most people don’t know how Freddie was in real life anyway, I think Malek knows more than most of us because he spent a lot of time with people who really knew the real Freddie like May, Taylor and Deacon.
He was flamboyant on stage, yes. But not so in his private life. He was shy and didn’t act in a way that would draw attention. He also tried to hide his sexual orientation which is why I think he didn’t act that way off stage. But if you have footage that proves otherwise, do share.
“The fake teeth Rami wore were much smaller than Freddie’s.”
No. This is a misconception. They originally made the fake teeth the same exact size as Freddie’s, but they proved too big for Rami Malek because Rami Malek is a smaller person than Freddie Mercury was. So they made the teeth smaller to fit Malek. But they are still the same size in proportion to Malek’s face as Freddie’s teeth were to his.
Thus smaller?
Obviously lol
Sure, if you’re being an obtuse idiot and refusing to look at things in context.
If they had put teeth the size of Freddie’s in Rami’s smaller mouth, they would have looked bigger. As it is, if you look at pictures of Rami and Freddie side by side, their teeth look the exact same size. Same. Not smaller. That’s what matters.
So they aren’t bigger? They are perfect for his face?
I wasn’t the one arguing that they were bigger. I was just correcting the misconception that they’re smaller.
The moment you start to use insults it means you lost the argument.
The moment you stop believing facts it means the argument is pointless.
But he’s right. Rami’s face is smaller, thus the teeth are smaller.
What on earth does that matter? They were specifically built to LOOK the exact same size in Rami’s mouth. What matters is what you see when look at Rami’s face onscreen.
The only obtuse idiot here is you.
Wow, to me they don’t… Oh well, maybe I’m wrong. 🙂
Then why don’t they LOOK the same size in proportion? At all.
Imagine the stories he heard.
“Ludicrously exagerating”. You are insane if you think Malek does this. Most actors in theater or film tend to give extra something just for dramatic effect, but that’s not caricature. All actors do that especially when playing a real person. You have no idea what you’re talking about, don’t you?
“So we will start with the obvious. The teeth. Just use YouTube to compare Malek with Mercury and you will see the teeth Malek used are much bigger and more pronounced than Mercury’s actual teeth.”
So it WASN’T just my imagination. Good…
https://youtu.be/Xs4H627KSoM
https://youtu.be/WWf-lvXhzwY
The SAG Awards choose a scene where he’s lypsyncing in a Queen performance to represent his acting – but you think the opposite.
It’s an indictment of the Academy that Malek will have an Oscar and now Albert Finney never will. RIP
Is it just me or was Malek’s fake accent/voice in the movie kind of terrible?
Like, the real Freddie Mercury talked like this:
https://youtu.be/8wk9hPubD1Q
No, it’s not just you. I think Malek is pretty solid in an otherwise terrible film but everything from the accent / voice to the expressions to everything approaches over the top so often that it becomes ridiculous. We hadn’t had a Best Actor frontrunner THAT weak in probably decades.
He didn’t want his BR performance to feel like an impersonator so he intentionally didn’t do everything exactly like Freddie. He wanted it to feel authentic. Actors usually do an interpretation, not an imitation. See Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote or even Bale as Cheney.
I’m surprised some people want this perfect mimetic performance. A man like Freddie would find that so boring and unimaginative.
I had a conversation with my two sisters in law, both very liberal. One lives in Minnesota and works at a theater. The other lives Michigan and works at a college. Neither are interested in watching a black and white foreign language movie set in Mexico about a housekeeper.
When asked if it won Best Picture would they watch it. The Minnesota sister in law would consider watching Roma if it won Best Picture. The other could not care less about the Oscars.
Just giving everyone an outsider perspective of how Roma is being viewed outside the film community.
Has nothing to do with the topic of the article
Since when are off-topic comments inappropriate?
I didn’t say inappropriate I just pointed out how off topic it was
I feel like Roma was something regular people checked out the first week it was released on Netflix and then probably turned off. Sure, it’s loved and admired by most film fans. Sure, it’ll be seen by Oscar completists. And if it wins, I’m sure many people will check it out on Netflix afterwards. But I don’t think it’s a film for the masses :/
I’ve been posting my “Personal Oscars” on Facebook (and on Twitter, but that is a non starter) and this particular category was very slight this last year.
I struggled to gather a group of 6 and the ones I was able to round up were great, but seriously unexceptional.
These were my choices:
Best Actor:
Stephan James – If Beale Street Could Talk
Runner Up:
Tomasz Kot – Cold War
Honourable Mentions:
Christian Bale – Vice
John David Washington – Blackkklansman
Lakeith Stanfield – Sorry To Bother You
Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here
Am I the only one who wasn’t wowed by any one male performance in a leading role this past year? These are all wonderful but none were superlative in the way the ladies’ roles were performed.
There were some that I found exceptional, although generally none in the Oscar conversation. Yoo Ah-in in Burning, Ryan Gosling in First Man, Nicolas Cage in Mandy, Simon Russell Beale in The Death of Stalin were excellent.
I agree with the three I’ve seen. (Not seen Mandy.)
Consider checking out Ethan Hawke in First Reformed (2017). It should have been here.
Kot is a very solid choice, even if Joanna Kulig is even better.
Oh Hawke was up there too!
It’s Malek’s to lose. While Bradley Cooper should ideally swoop in to win, for some reason, well, he won’t. I personally prefer Christian Bale – who gives a career best performance – but, I’m guessing given the hate directed towards Vice (which seems, in some circles, more amplified than the hate towards Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody combined) will null and void any chance he has.
It’s funny how many things seem like locks to people before a single precursor award is given out… And how few of them actually turn out to BE locks. 🙂
I am struggling with Rami Malek’s frontrunner status. I don’t think I would have a problem with the performance or the film if it was a piece of fiction. Being a fan of Queen since I was a teen – oddly enough, thanks to Mike Myers – I had a big problem with Bohemian Rhapsody. It’s not a secret that the film, for lack of a better word, fucked with the history. Knowing a lot of the history of Queen before hand, it was really disconcerting. The mucking up of facts really turned me off even if the film itself was a sparkling piece of entertainment. As a gay man, it was hard to look past how Mercury’s sexuality seemed to be glossed over and the actual history of the band seemed not to be that important.
I will admit that Malek’s performance was good, if not great. However, so many times when we are given a rock biopic, there is a lot of criticism toward lipsyncing. Yes, he does a great job, but I don’t think that there is much material given to Malek to warrant an oscar. For me, of the five nominated performances – and the only reason, I think, is release date – Bradley Cooper (not a fan), gives the best performance of the nominated 5. Oddly, he’s the only original (meaning not a real life person) character, he’s incredibly tortured, it’s transformative and he does his own singing. I’m still hoping he wins and honestly, I don’t know why we are only talking about Malek vs. Bale. To me, Malek should honoured to be nominated, Bale has already won for a better performance from a better film, Dafoe is great in a typically weird Schnabel work and Mortenson is great in a movie that I think is better suited to an HBO event film (I’m not one of the Green Book haters, but think that there were better performances in 2018).
I’m usually in line with the oscars in terms of performances, but this year, not so much. I am thrilled that Glenn Close will most likely win, although I wish more people were talking about McCarthy and not Gaga (even though I loved A Star is Born), I’m not happy about Ali being the frontrunner for Green Book (I’m all about Sam Elliott this year) and I do hope that Regina King crosses the finish line for Beale – her Puerto Rico scenes are stunning.
It’s interesting you say this about the history when in fact the surviving band members all signed off on the film and have praised Rami Malek’s performance. However, I do agree that his sexuality was very sanitized in this film. But Rami’s performance is one of the years best, along with Olivia Colman.
The surviving band members have every reason to want to cheer-lead the movie, they are profiting from the film and from the renewed interest in the band’s music, and frankly a lot of the inaccuracies in it were rather self serving towards them.
Right. His performance was good, maybe even very good. Not amazing. And it was good/very good in a very problematic film. The standard for rewarding excellence in acting and in high caliber films has really, REALLY dropped.
Off-topic: Rachel Weisz absolutely swept the floor with Emma Stone at the Awardswatch Top 50 Performances poll. Which, of course, is a useless indicator for actual award predicting, but might show some consensus forming around Weisz > Stone, which should help with the vote splitting problems.
I mean I can see why. Stone is very good. Weisz is AMAZING.
By far, the worst performance of all five. He is there because of the beloved Freddie Mercury, rather than his actual portrayal. Not only the film is terrible, but his performance is average at best. He nailed the physicality of it, but failed to go beyond the caricature and mere imitation. There were lots of more deserving actors for that spot, including Ethan Hawke, Ryan Gosling or Joaquin Phoenix.
Malek had the best performance among the bunch. I wish Hawke was nominated because his was the best of the year, but Malek’s is 10000 times better than Viggo’s Danny DeVito impersonation.
Malek’s performance (not bad at all but verging extremely close to caricature) makes Viggo’s performance look like the best acting ever put on a screen. I don’t think either of them deserved a nod this year but as far as I’m concerned Malek’s turn is sooooooo inferior to Viggo’s, like ridiculously inferior. It’s that unworthy of the awards attention it got.
I love Viggo and I think he should have won for Eastern Promises but Malek’s performance is superior this season.
Viggo is my win in 2007 for Eastern Promises.
Let’s agree to disagree. The fact that Freddie Mercury was an icon doesn’t mean Malek portrayed him the way he deserved.
What a great, great, absolutely fucking great comment. I agree 100%, Malek wouldn’t make my personal Lead Actor Top 30 this year…
Come on, let’s be serious. No matter how nice a guy and fairly talented bloke Gosling is, he’s not that great in First Man. All I see is Ryan Gosling, playing as truthfully as possible the situation presented in the script, but not Armstrong. If de Niro had done the part he would’ve made sure he first and foremost looks like Armstrong, walked like him and talked like him. Let’s not get over our heads now. Malek did a good job with the terrible lines he had.