The Critics Choice Awards were last night, and Oscar nominations close tomorrow, and between these two points in time, we’re getting a clearer picture of the Oscar race.
Robert Downey, Jr., for instance, widens his lead in the Best Supporting Actor category, while taking potshots at critics in his speech. I genuinely don’t care when actors, etc, sh-t on critics—I’m more surprised when they have nice things to say—I just think it’s kind of funny he’s reading from bad reviews while accepting an award from critics. I guess he’s still upset we didn’t like Dolittle.
Anyway, he’s now the clear frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor. Similarly, Paul Giamatti now has an edge on Cillian Murphy for Best Actor after he won in a head-to-head matchup, though I expect it to be a close contest between them going forward. Giamatti has in his favor an “it’s his time” narrative, though, which is hard to resist for Academy voters. Jeffrey Wright has an “it’s his time” narrative, too, but he clearly does not have the momentum Giamatti does. I feel pretty good about his chances of getting a nomination, but at this point, Best Actor is coming down to Giamatti v Murphy.
Also on hand was Colman Domingo, once again BRINGING IT to the red carpet. He BETTER get an Oscar nomination because I want to see that fit! (Also, he’s really good in Rustin.)
And then there was Bradley Cooper, who is, to his credit, showing up smiling everywhere, but does have an aura of “always a bridesmaid, never a bride” about him now. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio skipped the red carpet.
On the Best Supporting Actor side, besides RDJ, Sterling K. Brown might be peaking at the right moment to edge out Charles Melton (who showed up in a GREAT red suit, speaking of men I want to see on the Oscars’ carpet).
RDJ, Mark Ruffalo, and Ryan Gosling are pretty well locked in. That leaves Melton, Brown, Robert De Niro, and Willem Dafoe fighting for the last two slots (with Dominic Sessa, who won Best Young Actor/Actress last night, and Glenn Howerton as the dark horses). I’m not convinced the Academy can resist De Niro and Dafoe, which means that for all the highly competitive promise this category showed two months ago, we might end up with a very, well, typically Oscar lineup, to be capped off by RDJ finally winning as Oscar.
