Best Actor 2018

For the films of 2018
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Who was the Best Actor among the 2018 Oscar nominees?

Christian Bale - Vice
3
15%
Bradley Cooper - A Star Is Born
7
35%
Willem Dafoe - At Eternity's Gate
3
15%
Rami Malek - Bohemian Rhapsody
4
20%
Viggo Mortensen - Green Book
3
15%
 
Total votes: 20

Reza
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Re: Best Actor 2018

Post by Reza »

The year's best most intense performances were by both, in order, Ethan Hawke in First Reformed and Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here.

The other three performances which I really liked were Ryan Gosling in First Man, Rupert Everett in The Happy Prince and Robert Redford in The Old Man and the Gun.

Since none of the above made it to the final list I voted for the crowd pleasing turn by Rami Malek.
Sabin
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Re: Best Actor 2018

Post by Sabin »

Not a great list at all. All of these performances feel hamstrung by their respective film's writing or directing. The only person I can't defend is Bradley Cooper because if it's not his fault, whose fault is it? And yet I walk away finding his work the most authentic, personal, and admirable even if I might like his film the least. I vote for Bradley Cooper.
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dws1982
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Re: Best Actor 2018

Post by dws1982 »

Cooper was the only one who even deserved a nomination, in my opinion. It's not that I consider him a great-great actor, but I think I've voted for him in three of these polls. (Four if you count the Best Picture vote I gave American Sniper.)

Ryan Gosling would've gotten my vote if he had been nominated, or in a perfect world, Charlie Plummer for Lean on Pete.
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Re: Best Actor 2018

Post by nightwingnova »

Ethan Hawke.
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Precious Doll
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Re: Best Actor 2018

Post by Precious Doll »

I'm not voting in this poll. I think this most be the must uninspired line-up in this category ever.

None of these actors deserved a nomination. Though to be fair Rami Malek & Viggo Mortensen are better than their respective films but are hardly worthy of awards.

I'll never understand how Ethan Hawke was snubbed in favour of Willem Dafoe - a great actor but weighed down by a dreary film.

Given the Academy is more English language focused along with Ethan Hawke, the other major snubs are Robert Redford & Clint Eastwood but then they made it look so easy and were so leisurely assured in their work that I can appreciate the Academy overlooking them.
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Best Actor 2018

Post by Big Magilla »

The most glaring omission is, of course, Ethan Hawke who won the lion's share of the critics' awards for First Reformed. Although his absence from the Golden Globes, SAG and BAFTA were obvious predicters that he wouldn't be nominated, it still came as a letdown when Oscar ignored him as well. Less shocking were the omissions of Ryan Gosling in First Man and Lucas Hedges in Boy Erased as well as several others whose names were bandied about in the early stages, including Clint Eastwood in The Mule and Steve Carell in Welcome to Marwen.

Of the actual nominees, I never thought Bradley Cooper would win for A Star Is Born and I hoped Christian Bale wouldn't win for Vice. I liked Viggo Mortensen more than most here, but I never expected him to win for Green Book. That left the race, in my mind, between Willem Dafoe, whose melancholy portrayal of the dying Vincent Van Gogh was the closest in tone to the missing Ethan Hawke performance, and Rami Malek's crowd-pleasing performance as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Once it became clear that Dafoe had no chance, I expected it to be smooth sailing for Malek whose performance, in the end, I actually preferred among the nominees.

Malek's performance may not stand the test of time, but it was the right one at the right time. He easily gets my vote.
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