Humpday Treat – Supporting Actor and a Rocky Comeback [Poll!]

Kris Tapley at In Contention talks up Sylvester Stallone in Ryan Coogler’s upcoming Rocky redux, Creed. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense for a perfect storm. There isn’t exactly a strong best supporting actor frontrunner right now, though plenty of contenders, and some we haven’t seen yet – who knows what will come from Tom Hardy in The Revenant or anyone in Joy or The Hateful Eight. On the other hand, come on.

Tapley writes:

With the Ryan Coogler-directed film, Stallone has now taken on the role of Rocky Balboa seven times on the big screen. He was nominated at the outset for 1976’s “Rocky” and lost to Peter Finch for the late actor’s fierce “Network” performance. But the truth is he might be even better this time around. I would be tempted to call it his best on-screen work to date as he finds such subtle, unassuming textures in the performance that both deepen a character we’ve grown to love over the last 40 years, as well as present him in a whole new shade.

The film itself could certainly be a contender in other respects. Michael B. Jordan is sensational and deserves to be in the best actor conversation. Coogler proves beyond “Fruitvale Station” that he can deliver on a big platform while keeping a certain edge to his vision and voice. The film looks absolutely stunning, cinematographer Maryse Alberti finding countless iconic images (with one entire fight sequence seemingly filmed in a single take). Plus, it’s sure to be a bona fide Thanksgiving hit upon release, which will only fuel the awards fire.

I have to admit, as readers of this site well know, I’ve felt some kind of cracking heat coming off of Creed for a while now. We’ll see how far it gets. Supporting Actor, like Best Picture and Best Actor is hard to talk about completely without all of the information out of the box. Right now, there are three big unknowns left. (The Revenant, Joy, The Hateful Eight). Still, this is a great breakout moment for Ryan Coogler, whose Fruitvale Station was so good, so promising and yet was ignored by Oscar voters, despite being a Weinstein Co. movie. The young writer/director considered this film a personal one, inspired by and dedicated to his pops.

Best Supporting Actor, though, without the Big Three that are left probably looks something like this:

The strongest contenders:
Jacob Tremblay, Room
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Benicio Del Toro, Sicario
Harvey Keitel, Youth
Michael Keaton, Spotlight

The next tier of maybes
Jeff Daniels, Steve Jobs
Jason Segel, The End of the Tour

But until we see what’s coming up we can’t suss anything out yet for a certainty but it’s great to hear that Sly Stallone could be BACK. A poll for you readers.