Supporting Actor 1996

Been looking forward to a few of these for awhile. No rants or diatribes for this category. Let's get to the films.

1996 Best Supporting Actor

Cuba Gooding Jr - Jerry Maguire

Everyone remembers his wild acceptance speech at the Oscars but I didn't realize that it was almost a continuation of his actual performance from the film. The Gooding we saw at the Oscars is partly like his character Tidwell in the film. Tidwell has these explosive moments just like the acceptance speech but it works for the character. Tidwell is a Wide Receiver for the Arizona Cardinals and he has the ego that an NFL WR should have. By that I mean he's a little larger than life and quite focused on cultivating his brand image and getting paid. Others will say that Gooding's performance comes off as obnoxious, but that's kind of the point of the character right? I actually thought it was going to be that way the entire film but Gooding turns the loudness down when the story calls for it and he's good in those moments as well. He and his wife, Regina King, have some pretty good chemistry together and make for a good couple. Those two on screen together were fun to watch. Now is Gooding's overall performance revelatory? No and that's fine. He's the millionaire athlete that wants more money and lives it up in his profession but is also equally passionate about his family. I think it's a good enough supporting performance in a film that's a little to a lot hokey at times so a loud performance like Gooding's doesn't look too out of place. I'm just completely unsure if it should be a winner. I never got the vibe that I was watching something important, just something fun. Cuba brings a ton of energy to the performance and that translates well, but I don't know if I'm as energized to vote for it.

William H. Macy - Fargo

William H. Macy is so good as Jerry Lundegaard and easily should have won this category. However, if you switch Macy and Geoffrey Rush, the whole Actor categories would make much more sense! Macy's character is quite obviously the lead actor of the film even if he's not onscreen the whole time but the film is about him and he's onscreen for way more time than Rush. That would make Rush's win look better and Macy would deservingly have a Best Actor Oscar, because let's face it, he deserves it for Fargo. Macy is the ultimate pathetic loser fuck up. He hires inept thugs to kidnap his wife so he can get the ransom money from his father-in-law, but things go awry and lots of death and violence follow, like in any good Coen Bros film. He's very much the Midwestern guy who is in over his head trying to finagle a windfall for himself because he doesn't want to ask his wife or father-in-law for the cash. It's apropos that Macy is a car salesman because he has no shame in trying to rip off a customer just as he has no shame in having his wife kidnapped and his father-in-law extorted. It's just that Macy's character is completely unequipped for dealing with things once they go wrong, which is part of what makes him so pathetic. Macy is able to make Jerry into a sympathetic and even likable character despite everything he does. It's a pitch perfect Coen Bros performance and Macy absolutely deserved an Oscar for this role.

Armin Mueller-Stahl - Shine

I've already stated that I didn't quite understand the love for this film and the same would go for Mueller-Stahl's performance. I guess it got swept up along with the film itself which would make sense. Mueller-Stahl plays musical genius David Helfgott's overbearing father. Now don't get me wrong, I think Mueller-Stahl does a good job with what he has to work with but it's just so prominently one note that it's hard to get excited about it. He's the tough father pushing his son to be better and doesn't except losing in any fashion, even turning down a special prize at a competition. He's a hard ass that dominates his family and his son's life one moment and then has moments where he's being the nice father, telling his son he's doing a good job. But then he goes through these sort of bipolar moments where he will let David got to America for music school but then realizes he will lose his control over David and then forbids it and makes David ashamed for wanting to abandon his family. This happens a couple times and you can see why it's a somewhat one note performance. It goes back and forth between overbearing father who controls David and the family and the father who tries to be loving in the only few ways he knows how. After awhile the performance starts getting boring because you've already seen all it has to offer. There's also some allusions to the Holocaust and Mueller-Stahl being a survivor which is why he's such an overbearing ass but it's never explored and only briefly mentioned. That would have been something I would have liked to hear more about to better understand this character, but the film didn't care about that and wanted to make him the quasi-villain for David to partially explain his breakdown and schizophrenia. It's a role that when nominated you're like okay, so what. But when it's not nominated, it becomes one of your handful of other choices to be included because such and such didn't deserve it. To me, this performance is just kind of there.

Edward Norton - Primal Fear

Okay, so this is a pretty damn good film! Side tangent for a second, but I must say that 80s and early 90s films are some of my favorites because of their overall look, music, and feeling. I love the old cars and cheesy synth music and the dirty, grungy cities. It's probably because I'm a child of the 80s so this is all part of the nostalgia of my childhood, but I can't get enough of this type of film. Primal Fear just also happens to be a very good film with great acting and a spellbinding story on top of the guilty pleasures. This is Edward Norton's screen debut, a year that saw him in this and a Woody Allen flick and The People vs. Larry Flynt. Not bad. Norton carves out a deliciously memorable role in this film as the accused murderer of a Catholic Archbishop. Richard Gere defends him and we see that there is more than meets the eye to Norton. He first comes off as the overwhelmed, stuttering, country bumpkin with Southern accent to match. Norton is fine as this character giving a believably Southern take on his altar boy. However, we see that Norton is also suffering from split personalities and we have a tougher, almost drill sergeant like other character that Norton can transition into when cornered and pissed off. What makes this performance is the transition part of it because it's so seamless and not ridiculous. It has the potential to look completely goofy and like a bad B movie if done the wrong way or done by the wrong actor. Wait, did I say that his transitions are what make the performance? Because you ain't seen nothing yet until the very end. Without giving anything away, it's chilling stuff and also brilliant stuff in a span of like 4 minutes. I could watch this film over and over for that payoff alone. Norton is up to the challenge because out of this whole film, the thing you remember most is Norton's performance and that's quite the accomplishment for a screen debut.

James Woods - Ghosts of Mississippi

This is kind of a chintzy movie, honestly. The way a lot of it is shot and how the acting and dialogue are, just doesn't seem fitting for such a heavy subject like racial strife and the assassination of a civil rights leader and subsequent bungling of his murder trials. Woods contributes to that less than serious tone with his performance which is really a lot of reaction shots and him mucking it up as the typical southern racist dipshit. Seriously, a lot of his screen time is simply him walking out of or into a court room and saying some racist remark. Or it's him in the court room rolling his eyes, yawning, squirming around, sighing heavily - real over the top stuff. Woods' character is obviously the villain of the film but Woods plays it like he needs a mustache to twirl, it's such a caricature. His character is cocky and smug and just a general bad person living it up because he knows he won't be convicted in Mississippi for killing a black man. Woods only has one scene where he actually gets to interact with another person and it's a short one in a bathroom where he taunts Alec Baldwin's character that he won't be found guilty. It's the only real chance Woods has to do anything with his character and it's not enough. I feel bad that Woods didn't get to do a whole lot besides ham it up as a racist killer but then he did get an Oscar nomination out of it so what do I know. It's weird that the Academy has such an infatuation with performances/roles like these. I can point to Geoffrey Rush's win this same year as something similar. The Academy seems to love it's obvious acting even if it's hammy. Unfortunately, this is a minor, forgettable performance.


This is a hell of a group based on my top 2 favorites from this year. First of all James Woods is my 5th spot because that's not much of a performance. Putting old man make up on and hamming it up shouldn't lead to an Oscar nomination. Armin Mueller-Stahl is my 4th because it's so one note and that's all it has going for it. My 3rd would be the winner of this category, Cuba Gooding Jr, who is really not all that impressive though he does bring a lot of energy. Duking it out for the win is Norton and Macy and I've got to give the win to Macy though ever so slightly over Norton because hot damn! is Norton really flipping fantastic and makes his film so much better. Macy is just the better all around performance that probably could have gone lead but even still deserves a damn Oscar. It's that good. I'd say an above average year because we get two amazing performances that didn't even win. As always, I hope next year is better.

Oscar Winner: Cuba Gooding Jr - Jerry Maguire
My Winner:  William H. Macy - Fargo
Edward Norton
Cuba Gooding Jr
Armin Mueller-Stahl
James Woods