Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gathers for a massive awards gala to honor what they deem to be the best of what American cinema has to offer. They come up with a list of names and movies to consider, and they announce those names well in advance of the ceremony, with much pomp and circumstance.
Then, every year, the rest of us spend the weeks leading up to the Oscars telling the Academy why their list is dumb.
Because this past week has made it clear—somebody's gotta get your shit together for you.
We do this because we're usually right—the Academy's proclivities are pretty well-documented, and if you spend more than five minutes perusing any entertainment news outlet you can easily surmise that this year's a particularly egregious one. (Hello, #OscarsSoWhite.) Like the airing of grievances that occurs every Festivus, talking about snubs and omissions is a regular awards-season tradition, but this year is one where it's worth listing some overlooked performances with a little more zeal, to better underscore how much more interesting this year's crop of nominees could have been.
Here are a few of our humble suggestions.
Charlize Theron. It's strange that Mad Max: Fury Road is up for Best Picture and yet the badass shoulders upon whom the film rests didn't even land a nomination. As Imperator Furiosa, Theron brought depth and pathos to a character that easily could've been a more conventional role. Furiosa wasn't just Fury Road's hero, she was its symbol and rallying cry—the kind of action hero that only comes once a decade, if we're lucky. Imperator Furiosa is the Han Solo of 2015 (a year that, ironically, had Han Solo make an appearance), a character and performance that couldn't have been more perfect for the era she appeared.
Oscar Isaac. Ex Machina's complete omission from every category except for writing and visual effects is one of the more widely maligned snubs this year, but it's also the second year in a row the Academy has neglected to acknowledge Oscar Isaac's tremendous talent. It's a pity too—Ex Machina is a worthy follow up to Isaac's memorably understated turn in Inside Llewyn Davis. As Nathan Bateman, Isaac is full of quiet, friendly menace, disappearing behind glasses and a beard and still utterly commanding every frame he's in. And who could forget the scene of him tearing up the dance floor? However...
Alicia Vikander. ... The real star of Ex Machina is Ava, the android at the heart of the story. Yes, she's nominated for her performance in The Danish Girl—but there's a bit of cheeky metatextuality to the notion of playing the role of a synthetic life form that's designed to pass for being human, and Alicia Vikander so subtly takes on the challenge that it almost feels like the wrong performance scored her the nomination. Vikander is magnetic, conjuring warmth through cold metal, hiding complexity behind a veneer of innocence. Which of course, only serves to make things that much more nerve-wracking once Ex Machina finally shows its hand.
Benicio Del Toro. While Sicario is getting some love this year for its gorgeous cinematography and score, Benicio Del Toro's performance as the titular assassin is a marvel, quiet and controlled in a way that helps to draw you even further into the film. Del Toro's performance, like Sicario as a whole, never really lets you find your balance. Sicario is a film that keeps its audience on a need-to-know basis, and as the center of everything Sicario dances around, Del Toro's character could easily be frustrating. Instead, his demure, almost sleepy presence subverts the ugliness of what he does, and the government agents who turn to him to further their own goals.
Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor. Tangerine is one of the biggest surprises of the year, a loosely structured dramedy about transgender sex workers made on a shoestring budget (the film was shot on three iPhones). As Sin-Dee Rella and Alexandra, Rodriguez and Taylor—both making their feature debut, with very little prior experience—are charismatic and empathetic leads, easily walking the line between comedy and melancholy. There aren't many movies quite like Tangerine; it's too warm, too frank, too damn empathetic to ever get recognized in the year of #OscarsSoWhite. But we can hope to see more of Rodriguez and Taylor in the future.
Jemaine Clement. What We Do in the Shadows is a foreign film, and foreign films typically don't land acting nominations, but ever since the mid-aughts peak of Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement has made his mark as one of the most delightful oddballs in pop culture. Unfortunately, outside of the comedy band that made him famous, Clement hasn't really landed a role suited to his sensibilities—that is, until Shadows. Clement is almost unrecognizable as Vladislav, one of three hapless vampire flatmates featured in one of the most original comedies last year. Alas, comedy rarely garners awards love, but that's what articles like this are for.
Michael B. Jordan. We liked Creed a whole lot, in case you couldn't tell. Stallone is wonderful in the movie, and nabbing Best Supporting Actor award would make a fantastic way of closing the book on the character that made him famous. But Creed is a perfectly executed underdog story, led by a terrific performance from an actor who has both tremendous acting chops (see also: Fruitvale) and broad appeal. Jordan is a disappointing omission, especially in a year where the Best Actor category feels almost spectacularly boring.
The 88th Academy Awards are scheduled to take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, February 28.
