The 91st Oscars: Best Supporting Actor

This year's Oscar race is the most interesting in years. In many of the major categories there is no clear front runner. But one of the acting categories, Best Supporting Actor, seems to be settled.

Heading into the nominations, there were a trio of actors expected to compete for the prize. They were Mahershala Ali, as the pianist Don Shirley in Green Book, Sam Elliott, as the manager of his younger brother the rock star in A Star Is Born, and Richard E. Grant, as a woman's partner in crime in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Each had a legitimate claim. Ali is essentially the second lead in Green Book--he has a smaller part than Viggo Mortensen, who was nominated for Best Actor, but the two of them are both at the heart of the film. Elliott, who has been acting for about fifty years, received his first nomination, and has used his gruff, cowboy style of acting to become something of a legend in Hollywood. Grant, a British actor who has also received his first nomination, isn't well known to the casual fan, but has been in many films over the years and gets a great part in Can You Ever Forgive Me?--the classic boozy sidekick role who gets all the good lines.

As my thoughts on this category were forming, I figured Elliott might be the favorite for the gold watch factor as well as his being damn good (I especially liked his silent, but red-eyed response to Bradley Cooper telling him he had always worshiped him, not their father). But the movie seems to be a non-starter during the awards circuit. I'll elaborate on this in future posts. Grant might have been my second choice, given the way the character was written (actors who play witty characters often win awards if they knock it out of the park--think George Sanders in All About Eve). Why not Ali? For the simple fact that he won two years ago. Will Oscar voters give him another one so soon?

The answer appears to be yes, as the scope of his part is too much to ignore. He did win two years ago for Moonlight, but that has not stopped him from winning the Golden Globe and the SAG award. Winning that combination is a path leading to Oscar gold.

The other two nominees figure to be out of the running for different reasons. Sam Rockwell, as George W. Bush in Vice, won just last year, and in this film he is little more than a cameo, although he does a damn good Bush impersonation. Adam Driver is very good as a cop infiltrating the KKK in BlacKkKlansmen, and is an actor on the rise (he's made a bunch of movies in the past few years, including the high profile last trilogy of Star Wars, and they're all good, which shows he makes excellent choices). I expect he'll be back soon in an Oscar race.

Will Win: Mahershala Ali
Could Win: Sam Elliott
Should Win: Mahershala Ali
Should Have Been Nominated: Michael B. Jordan, Black Panther