Because I truly, madly, deeply have nothing better to do with my time than to make 600-word blog posts about Oscars, here are my top 5 reasons why Albert Brooks should/would/could/might/will/possibly get an Oscar nomination for 'Drive'.
1. 'Drive' is earning him heaps of praise.
In what is obviously the most likely reason why he might earn a nomination for his performance in 'Drive', Albert Brooks has found himself the subject of loads of praise. Not every review has had glowing comments about his portrayal, but enough to make me think he could have serious potential. The Independent Spirit Awards recently announced their nominees, giving Brooks a nomination and The New York Film Critics even went so far as to give him their 'Best Supporting Actor' award, which are both definitely steps in the right direction.
2. The Oscars love when actors play against type (*and don't seem miscast).
The asterisk here being possibly the most important part about this argument. When an actor known for performing mostly comedic roles finds himself in a serious drama (with Oscar potential), that actor will often be the center of various critics' attention. When an actor that is often type-cast breaks from tradition and displays an acting ability no-one knew possible, it tends to impress people more than it probably should, just out of surprise. Albert Brooks, being traditionally far more comedic, does that here.
3. The Oscars are suckers for comebacks.
We've seen it happen before: A big-name actor takes an elongated break from acting and comes back with a strong role that everyone falls in love with -- Brando did it with A Dry White Season; George Burns did it with The Sunshine Boys; Daniel Day-Lewis does it all the time -- it's not an uncommon thing in the awards circle. People love comebacks, and so do the Oscars.
4. His role is flashy and violent.
To put it bluntly, he's a bad-ass. And when you think about it, over the past 5-6 years pretty much every single Best Supporting Actor winner has been one, or in the very least psychotic and violent -- all three of which adequately describe Albert Brooks' character (In case I need to remind you, he stabbed a guy in the face with a fork -- A F@#$ing FORK! The only way that could have been more bad-ass is if he was riding around on a dragon). So, let's just think about it for a second:
- Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight: Crazy, clown-faced murderous psychopathic bad-ass.
- Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds: Quad-lingual Nazi bad-ass.
- George Clooney, Syriana: CIA renegade bad-ass.
- Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men: Goofy-haired cattle gun-carrying psychotic bad-ass.
- Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine: Honey badger-like grandpa bad-ass.
Okay, so the last one was a bit of a stretch, but you can see the pattern.
5. 'Drive' may have trouble receiving nominations in other categories.
We saw it happen last year with 'The Town'. Jeremy Renner's chances for nomination drastically increased when it became apparent that the movie had very little chance of receiving any other nominations. As a way of compensating for this discrepancy, extra emphasis was placed on Jeremy Renner's supporting turn. The idea that a movie *this* good could walk away empty-handed may pressure Oscar voters into giving Brooks more credit than he might deserve. Not to say Brooks wouldn't already deserve a nomination, but it is possible that the Academy just might over-compensate, and due to the movie's graphic nature, I think 'Drive' might wind up getting overlooked for some of the other major awards. Food for thought.
So what do you think? Does Brooks stand a chance? Does it even matter? What's the meaning of life? Who is Robert K. Weiss?
For more posts like this, go somewhere else. Peace.
2 comments:
It'd be a damn shame if the film didn't get many nominations, I saw Drive today, and at the very least, Albert Brooks SHOULD get a nomination for his role here. He did stab a guy in the face with a fork, and that was badass
Wow, you've made some very sensible points. I didn't think of the last three points. So it's settled, Albert Brooks is going to win an oscar for this.
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