So, we’ve had a taste of the worst… let’s start talking about some of the Bests. Here are the nominees for the MAJOR Award for Best Supporting Actor 2012! These five actors left an indelible impression, in spite of playing second fiddle! The Best Supporting Actors of the year!
Click through to see who made the cut!
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Javier Bardem
“Skyfall”
Bardem enters a franchise more than twenty films strong, and authors one of its best villains yet. Flamboyant, menacing, and disfigured, Raoul Silva has a phenomenal backstory and motivation for making things personal against 007 and M. It’s completely obvious in his performance that Bardem relishes this role, which in turn becomes a super enjoyable thing for the audience to watch.
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Leonardo DiCaprio
“Django Unchained”
DiCaprio puts his conscience aside, and portrays a slimy, skin crawling slave owner in Tarantino’s latest revenge movie, “Django Unchained”. Privileged, entitled, inhumane, and most of all, racist, Calvin Candie is the type of character that you WANT to see get what’s coming to him. Which is a big part of what makes great villains great. DiCaprio is detestable and despicable, but all to his film’s benefit.
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Phillip Seymour Hoffman
“The Master”
Lancaster Dodd is the author and founder of a philosophical, psychological, spiritual program known as “The Cause”. He claims to be able to guide followers to past lives, and puts them rigorous conditioning exercises. When pressed for actual results, he gets defensive. Enigmatic, mercurial and arrogant, Dodd is a fascinating character, and with him Hoffman delivers yet another high calibre, outstanding performance.
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Tommy Lee Jones
“Lincoln”
Cantankerous as ever, Tommy Lee Jones makes his presence felt in this enormously talented ensemble cast. As Thaddeus Stephens, an outspoken abolitionist who has to reign in his views in order to help actual legislation pass, Jones gets the chance to play a cranky codger that mildly antagonizes the President in spite of ultimately being on the same side. In a role suited to his talents, Jones knocks it out of the park.
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Sam Rockwell
“Seven Psychopaths”
It’s hard to describe the manic energy that Rockwell brings to this film. To those of you familiar with his off the wall characters, I would just say that this may be his craziest yet. Hysterical and hard to keep up with, his wanna be screenwriter is a fast talking, unbalanced, screw-loose. It’s an extraordinary thing to witness… I literally don’t know how he was able to keep it up without dropping from exhaustion.
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There they are! The wingmen, villains and allies that added the most to their films in 2012!
What’s your take? Am I overrating any of these performances? Is there anyone I dissed by forgetting them? Which of these guys do you think deserved to win?
Let me hear it!
Fogs' Movie Reviews 
Our nominations will be very similar.
Ok… good to know. Appreciate the affirmation!
I haven’t seen any of these, so I can’t really weigh in except to say that they’re all films and actors I’ve seen praised before, so they’re probably worthy.
Let me run a few things by you, though, just for the sake of argument. First, do you think there’s any “villain bump” going on here? I.e., cases where the actors are getting extra praise simply because the role itself is more daring?
And second… I think you’re probably right that Lincoln is going to steamroll a lot of the awards. Every indication is that it was well done, and to be perfectly blunt, it’s the sort of movie that even if it wasn’t well done, Hollywood would like to praise it anyway just because of the subject matter.
Not necessarily on the villain bump. But villains do somehow get a chance to have a little more fun with their roles. Only two of these are villains. Bardem and DiCaprio. Hoffman’s Dodd isnt a villain…
It might be the case of in the supporting category, there’s more villains under consideration, cause the lead is the hero, then the villain winds up being supporting…
Lincoln is SUPER Oscar bait. It might as well be chemically constructed to attract Oscar votes. LOL
Tough category. I think it is a three way race between Javier, Leo, and Phillip with Tommy Lee falling behind. I didn’t watch “Psychopaths” so I don’t have an opinion on Sam.
I’ll vote for Javier.
Roger that. They were all good, it is a tough call…
Rockwell was great too, he was off the freaking hook. LOL
Tommy Lee was perfect! Perfectly cast, the right accent to his voice and absolute command when he speaks. In a senate filled with people all striving to be heard, when he spoke all listened. And what he said was a lesson on great politics and how to lead. When his final motivation is revealed, it’s a masterstroke! Maybe his best work in microcosm!
I’d still go with No Country for Old Men if I were picking his finest hour, but he was great here, no doubt about it.
I’m sure the Academy will award him with a nomination at the very least…
Tommy Lee for me, his lines were a big part of why I liked his character though. Good list, glad you fit Rockwell in 🙂
😀 Heh. Thanks.
Rockwell was bouncing off the walls, I had to find room for him. That kind of performance deserves something!
You know the Academy awards are too stiff to recognize. LOL
Only have seen one of these, which you can probably guess… Bardem will gladly get my vote even if I haven’t seen the other films.
Heh. Its a solid choice 🙂
Dont worry Jay, I’ll circle back around to a bunch of stuff you HAVE seen before its done. 😉
No one deserves such praise as Rockwell, he has been under appreciated for too long. I’ m not sure this is the role for this kind of attention. I love Tommy Lee but he just seemed to be Tommy Lee, grumpy old guy. I have yet to see The Master, I have no doubt Hoffman is good, he always is. That leaves the two villains, I’ ‘ll go with Bardem over DiCaprio because Skyfall and Silva were so especially well done.
Naw, man, I loved what Rockwell did with Seven Psychopaths, he was such a spaz! (In a good way)
Tommy Lee was basically playing to his strengths, no doubt.
Why does it not surprise me that your process leads you to the Bond choice? 🙂
As much as I loved Skyfall, I’m going to go with Tommy Lee Jones.
Ok, ok. Going with the mainstream choice. Gotcha. He picked up his Academy Award nom this morning, as expected…
My instinct for respecting my elders points me toward Jones, but DiCaprio really kills it in Django Unchained. His “dented skull” speech stands among his best work without any real debate, I think– guy cut his hand on a crystal glass he broke while emoting, and he just shrugged it off and went right on acting. That’s dedication. Plus, come on, the way he says “white cake” just drips with malice.
He was evil. There’s no doubt about it. I was also shocked by his civility in the Mandingo fighting scene introduction. He was just… so dismissive of human life. Chilling.
AND it rounds out his filmography a bit, which I approve of. How often has he played a villain? This seemed like a different role for him, which I applaud.
That’s one of my favorite character introductions for the entire year. You’d think that he and Franco Nero had just been chucking dice around.
Sam Rockwell, Very funny 😀
Phillip Seymour Hoffman!!!
Sensing a trend… you a big fan of “The Master”? 😀
Off topic, have you dicussed or reviewed War Z? Anyways, great post and movie blog lov’s it ! 😉
Thanks Stephanie!
On the WWZ, no, I dont really do movie news, or trailer reviews. When it gets closer I’m sure it’ll come up…. and of course, I’ll review it once its out.
Meanwhile though, I will say I’m not impressed with what they’re doing with the Zombies… what I see in the trailer just looks silly. They’ve got some work to do to win me over…