The Muriel for Best Male Lead: Not Even Close
By Craig Kennedy - February 28th, 2008; 9:55 am
Click through for the latest Muriel Award.
Also check out some of the voters chiming in on performances they felt were unfairly overlooked.
Filed under: Awards
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Well, I’m pleased. A very deserving winner (19 out of 20 votes!) and the #1 runner-up is my other favorite of the year. Muriel’s top two are my top two - we’re in sync when it comes to the guys. :-)
And the other runner-ups are deserving as well. I’m glad Muriel was wise enough to include Sam Riley among the very best leading male performances of the year. And Philip Seymour Hoffman was recognized for the film he should have been recognized for.
Only 2 votes for Josh Brolin? *sniff* Still, he did win the Body of Work award, of which he was infinitely worthy.
And poor Ryan Gosling - a one-vote wonder. Pierre de Plume will not be pleased. He will not be pleased at all.
“Pierre de Plume will not be pleased. He will not be pleased at all.”
One by one the voters will die under the most unusual circumstances. Until finally he comes to Muriel herself…
Be sure to click on the also-ran link. There’s some good stuff there too. Also-Ran movies will be coming up soon and I should have a blurb of my own…not to obviously pimp my own output or anything…well, ok that was exactly what I was doing.
I’m surprised, but not disappointed to see Viggo #2.
Here’s how I voted:
1. Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
2. Philip Seymour Hoffman – Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
3. Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
4. Christian Bale – 3:10 to Yuma
5. Gordon Pinsent – Away From Her
Casey obviously got rolled into supporting actor which is fine. I almost went with the status quo and voted for him there, but I had to go with my own stubborn opinion.
Well, Muriel did get this one right, as she has done with nearly all of the previous categories. DAY LEWIS is tops of course, and some of the runner-ups, (like Sam Riley) are inspired. But no no no to Sam Rockwell–that is overstating the case there. The film is pretty awful, and the lead did little to save it in that regard.
Very saddened that james McAvoy didn’t place on the entire list, when I thought his performance was among the best in this category.
Don’t worry, Sam. James McAvoy will get his due one day, both from Oscar and from Muriel.
Yeah Sam, there was the odd surprise for me on the list too. I’d also rank McAvoy’s Atonement performance ahead of a number of those listed. Didn’t see Joshua, but thought Rockwell terrific in Jesse James.
Surprised about McAvoy and also Amalric’s one vote. I still think he carried that film, which was underrated all around in my opinion.
Like that vote for Bale, Craig. Zahn and a couple others from Rescue Dawn could have shown up on the also-ran list as well.
Sartre: Rockwell was indeed fantastic in JESSE JAMES, but he was rather pedestrian in JOSHUA (in my opinion of course; Muriel feels otherwise) And as Alison says, one day McAvoy’s performance will be seen as teh subtle acting gem that it is.
Yeah, Daniel, you would think Amalric would have scored more strongly with Muriel.
Daniel, Amalric was definitely underrated, and it’s ridiculous that the film itself got nominations in 4 key categories that make up an excellent picture, but not BP. Three of the BP nominees had no editing nod yet Diving Bell got one. Plus directing, plus adapted screenplay, plus cinematography.
Max von Sydow was also highly underrated and ignored in my opinion.
That’s a pretty good list there, Muriel, although i haven’t seen Joshua.
I’d go:
1. DDL
2. PSH - Before the Devil Knows…
3. Viggo - Eastern Promises
4. Casey Affleck - Assassination of Jesse James…
5. Gordon Pinsent - Away from Her
Glad to see Bale’s Rescue Dawn performance getting high marks. Also glad to see Leung getting mention for Lust, Caution. A little surprised to see Gere in the for The Hoax, but it wasn’t a bad movie and I enjoyed all the performances in that one.
Alison, like you I struggle to understand the incongruence. Who knows what it’s about? But perhaps it was a casualty of the British AMPAS members seemingly voting in large numbers for Atonement’s BP nomination, but not pushing so hard for it elsewhere.
No wonder Pierre’s ears have been tingling. . . .
Well, yes, Gosling could have placed higher, but it’s not easy to demote most of the choices on the list.
@ Alison: the only missing vote was mine, in fact. And since I (still!) haven’t seen the movie, it means he could’ve gotten 20/20.
It really seems like, judging by both this and other categories, Muriel sort of has a crush on Joshua.
Why, Muriel, why?
Alison nailed my thoughts here. A deserving winner and a much better representation of the best lead acting work here than that little gold man thing they just did.
Oh, and I agree with the point made about the Day-Lewis performance. If it gets reduced to the most wild moments, that will suck. Highlighting those “big” moments only is like skipping the oatmeal, hash browns, eggs and breakfast meat to get to the syrup-drenched pancakes.
Seriously. People are always going right for the money shot and ignoring the subtext and the arc of his character. The power is only partly in the emoting, it’s everything else that goes with it.
That’s why I get tired of seeing the “I abandoned my son! I abandoned my boy!” part of the baptism scene. That’s all the show. I still get a chill thinking about it, but it’s so much richer in context.
“…like skipping the oatmeal, hash browns, eggs and breakfast meat to get to the syrup-drenched pancakes.”
You hit the nail on the head, Alexander. In fact I wish they would have shown a different clip at the Oscars because they start it too late in the arc and it just looks like “he’s acting” out of context. When really it’s the character who is acting in order to get what he wants, but in the midst of it Eli hits the nerve that is his vulnerability. It’s a hard balance to pull off and DDL did it masterfully. That’s why they kept using the clip, because it is an incredibly executed scene, but it just doesn’t work out of context.
You have to admit that syrup-drenched pancakes are still totally Oscar-worthy even out of context.
Too, true, Craig. Especially if they’re drenched in the real, pure maple syrup as opposed to that crappy Aunt Jemima processed stuff.
But, alas, that’s what people love. Processed syrup with empty calories and processed movies with empty calories.
lol…I even like crappy Aunt Jemima. Obviously I prefer the real deal, but gooey sweet goodness is gooey sweet goodness and on a pancake with a load of butter? Well that’s heaven.
Oh my god. I’m totally having pancakes at lunch now.