The Oscars: Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role

And the nominees are:

Casey Affleck - Robert Ford in The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Casey Affleck has been a busy boy (as have many of the actors this year, Josh Brolin was in three nominated movies American Gangster, No Country For Old Men, and In The Valley Of Elah). Affleck was also in Gone Baby Gone, but we are here for The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and as you can tell from the title Affleck is a coward. Robert Ford joins Jesse's gang after growing up reading about Jesse and Frank James in the newspapers and dime novels. He lives and breaths the James brothers and considers himself an expert on the two. He slowly gets disenchanted with Jesse when he realizes that Jesse isn't the almighty train robber portrayed in the stories of hilarity ensuing. The curious thing about this role is that in my opinion, it is the leading role. He is the narrator, he is telling us his story, he is on screen more then Jesse. The only thing stopping him from being the lead actor is that Jesse James is played by Brad Pitt and Pitt was also one of the producers. This is the problem with the supporting roles, they may not be long (Ruby Dee had 4 scenes that lasted less then ten minutes on a 2 1/2 hour movie, Casey Affleck carries the movie and is on the screen longer then the "Lead")

Javier Bardem - Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men

Bardem is the front runner right now and seems to have the Oscar all but sewn up. Anton Chigurh is an emotionless, compassionless killing machine. His inability to comprehend human life is matched only by his ability to take it, as he does with ruthless abandon. Hired to track down drug money by a group of Americans, he quickly kills those who hired him and begins to search for the money on his own as hilarity ensues. Bardem does a good job of playing the psychotic killer.

Philip Seymour Hoffman - Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson's War

Philip Seymour Hoffman is very good in this movie. He plays a cynical crass CIA agent assigned to help Charlie Wilson with his covert war against the soviets as hilarity ensues. Typical Hoffman role typical Hoffman effort, good.

Hal Holbrook - Ron Franz in Into The Wild

This one is the only one I have not seen and as such I don't know what to say. Does he have a chance against the rest of them? All I know is that at age 82, Holbrook is the oldest nominee in Academy Awards history in the Best Supporting Actor category. It didn't work for Peter O'Toole last year, I din't think it will work for Holbrook this year. Oh yeah, and hilarity ensues.

Tom Wilkinson - Arthur Edens in Michael Clayton

Tom Wilkinson plays a lead attorney for a prestigious New York firm. In the middle of a crucial deposition involving a class action lawsuit against the firm's largest client, U-North, an agricultural products conglomerate, Edens began rambling incoherently and stripped naked. Dispatched to fix the situation, Michael Clayton (George Clooney) gets Edens out of jail in Milwaukee and learns that his friend, who had a mental breakdown in the past, is not taking his medication. Hilarity ensues.

Well, there you go, tune in tomorrow for Best Actress in a Leading Role.