Late last year when we saw set photos of Hugh Jackman running around as disgraced presidential hopeful Gary Hart, I stacked up his Oscar odds for The Greatest Showman and concluded, “Better luck next year, Hugh.” Well next year is here, and we have a trailer for The Front Runner, which will be screening at TIFF, where it is on my schedule, and sure enough, Hugh is coming for that Oscar. This is classic trophy bait biopic stuff, with a bonus side of topical relevance since it’s about politicians and their morals and how perceived moral failings make them unfit for office. Or rather, how perceived moral failings used to make them unfit for office. This is a beloved actor in an against-type role, playing the Downfall of an Admired Man. Oscar eats that sh*t up.
But also, it’s about gossip! Gary Hart was hardly the first politician to engage in extramarital affairs, but his was one of the first—maybe the first?—major campaigns derailed by accusations of adultery. It’s all here in the trailer, the powerful man who believes himself insulated from inquiry (and let’s be honest, up to that point politicians didn’t expect to be challenged in this way, at least not on the record), the journalists who don’t want to Stoop So Low by printing Vile Gossip, the collapse of the public and the personal and the very notion of what is “newsworthy”. Compared to now Gary Hart’s beleaguered campaign is practically an idyll.
Jackman is going to have some stiff competition, though. First Man just premiered at Venice and Ryan Gosling is already getting buzz (I’m seeing that at TIFF, too), and there is Robert Redford and his final performance in The Old Man and the Gun to contend with. Lakeith Stanfield and John David Washington should both be considered, and Jake Gyllenhaal is in the wings, we’ll see how he comes out of The Sisters Brothers (another TIFF pick). Rami Malek will have a flashy go of it with Bohemian Rhapsody, Christian Bale has a movie out later this year, and Ethan Hawke had career-best reviews with First Reformed. And of course Bradley Cooper is already Doing The Most. So far, 2018 has been a GREAT year for film, and compared to last year, when the Best Actor field was weak and non-competitive, this year is already stuffed with great performances, and we’re only just starting to see the typical award bait movies. So the question for Hugh Jackman and The Front Runner is whether or not this is enough to stand out in such a packed year. We’ll know more next week.
Attached - Hugh Jackman at the US Open with his wife this week.
