Oracle Online

Best Supporting Actor, after reaching its heyday in the 1990s, has become a poor excuse for a category in the last few years, honoring the pent-up, ultra-aggressive works of actors like Tim Robbins and George Clooney. This year, therefore, it’s a slight change of pace to see the two frontrunners for the trophy being from comedies, albeit two overly-praised comedies: Alan Arkin as the cantankerous grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine and Eddie Murphy as the washed-up soul singer in Dreamgirls. Their competitors this year, Jackie Earle Haley as a sexual predator in Little Children, Mark Wahlberg as a tempestuous cop in The Departed, and Djimon Honsou as a concerned father in Blood Diamond, will just have to applaud nicely as Murphy and Arkin are the only two who have a shot. In a normal year I’d suspect that, considering Dreamgirls was snubbed in the Best Picture lineup, the trophy would belong to Alan Arkin, who is enjoying a career renaissance, receiving his first nomination in over forty years. However, this one seems destined to go to Murphy, whose years of making millions for producers will make up for his run-of-the-mill performance.

If I had a ballot, my vote would go to Wahlberg, whose performance in The Departed was sensational, especially considering the limited number of scenes he had--every word, every syllable, seems to be spit out like a bulldog ready to pounce. He’s come a long way since those Calvin Klein ads. Also, considering the weak field that they assembled this year, why didn’t the Academy nominate Wahlberg’s co-star Jack Nicholson, whose crime boss in The Departed was worth the 30-year wait we had in uniting Jack with director Martin Scorsese?

While the men were as a whole abysmal this year, the women were rather impressive. The collective Supporting Actress nominees are Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), Adriana Barraza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), and Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), playing a child beauty pageant contestant, a deaf sexually-frustrated teenager, an irresponsible maid, a sexual-deviant teacher, and a down-on-her-luck “diva," respectively. While some will argue that Abigail Breslin’s cute but unimpressive precocious turn in Little Miss Sunshine could pull an upset here, there’s really only one woman who will be taking home a trophy on February 25: ousted American Idol reject Jennifer Hudson. Hudson’s performance (my preference for the win) is a true star-is-born moment, filled with great singing, acting, and sheer life force. She’ll win, and become a star.

Had the Academy had the good sense to nominate Emily Blunt, however, Hudson may have had a problem on the way to the podium. Blunt, whose wicked turn as the assistant in last summer’s Devil Wears Prada had critics salivating, may have seemed too slight to nominate against the “important” Babel and Notes on a Scandal, but the reality is that she exudes more vibrancy with one callous putdown than Kikuchi and Blanchett do in their combined performances.

As for Best Director, as loath as I am to say it, I will be predicting that Martin Scorsese, the filmmaking god, will be taking his very first Oscar this year. I am loath not because I don’t love Scorsese nor because I don’t want him to win (I do), but because Scorsese, despite helming Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas, and The Aviator, has never won an Academy Award, and many Oscar pundits believe that he may be cursed. However, up against competition as middling as Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel), Paul Greengrass (United 93), Clint Eastwood (Letters From Iwo Jima), and Stephen Frears (The Queen), it seems impossible to deny that Marty will be finally taking home his deserved Oscar this year. It’s a shame, really, that he doesn’t at least have the satisfaction of taking down some of the truly innovative filmmakers of the year, however, as both Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth), both of whom made the best films of 2006, are not nominated alongside him.

As for the other categories--will it be Will Smith or Forest Whitaker, Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren? And who will take the top prize? Stay tuned...