Leading Actor 1995

This year has felt like it's lasted really long because of my film festival and birthday and work all getting in the way. Finally almost done with 1995 and the Best Actor category offers up some very interesting dudes. I've wanted to see Nicolas Cage's winning performance forever and now I get to do so. I'm interested in seeing if Massimo Troisi is as bad and unwarranted as everyone says so. And then you get Dreyfuss, Hopkins, and Penn in performances they didn't win but some people love and hate. So a good group and hopefully I can get through this quickly.

1995 Best Actor

Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas

Not a good film to watch while having a beer and relaxing, that's for sure. I've always looked at this year and wondered just how good Cage was to get a win, especially with his current money grabbing roles in forgettable films lately. It's easy to forget he was a great, great actor which he still is when he wants to be. But I always looked at this and wondered if I'd like it. I heard great things about it over the years so I was glad to finally see for myself. Cage definitely knocks it out of the park. He's so good and so convincing that if someone told me he was constantly drunk for this film that I would believe them. Acting drunk in a film is tough. A lot of great actors really suck at it and make it so comically unbelievable you wonder if they've ever been drunk. But Cage is so utterly believable that it's scary. He plays a screenwriter who gets fired and decides to go to Vegas to drink himself to death. He meets Shue's hooker and they have a little romance. It's a really depressing and sad look at alcoholism and the honesty with which Cage portrays his character is admirable. He's not this super charming, likable, relatable guy. He's a pathetic, creepy, loser that has accepted he hates life and is going to kill himself. Even when he and Shue get together, there's no happy ending with him stopping drinking. He just looks at it as a nice distraction on his way to death. I like that Cage continues to drink until he dies because it feels more honest and real. He looks the part of a guy drinking himself to death with the pale skin and the sunken eyes that are half open shuffling around and having tremors when he wakes up. Thing is, this being Cage there is an opportunity for him to overact or at least act like some of his recent films but he never does this. He plays his character exactly how he should be played. There's never the portrayal that him being drunk is funny or noble or easy to be around. We are shown all the different stages of his alcoholism and Cage is great in each one from the eager to drink one, to the soused and talking in accents and cracking jokes, to the rage of losing control, to the blacking out and passing out stages. I don't think you can call this a romantic performance. It's a thing of beauty to watch and reminds me that Cage was/is a gifted actor. I wish we'd get more performances like this and not his roles for cash. This is definitely a great performance, though, and even though it's a tough watch I'm glad I saw it.

Richard Dreyfuss - Mr. Holland's Opus

This is a pretty cliched movie, one you've probably seen countless times. In this iteration, we have Dreyfuss as the reluctant music teacher who eventually settles into his job and ends up touching the lives of his students and fighting with the establishment to keep the curriculum and then the students give him a big ol thank you at the end when he's made to retire. It's basically the male version of Music of the Heart minus the inner city stuff going on. The Academy loves these type of movies and really, for whoever the lead role is, it's a showcase for them to shine. Dreyfuss is in almost all of this two plus hour movie and has to do a lot of leg work to keep this movie from going off the rails into sappy, cliche, boring territory. He also has to cover a bunch of different decades and change his appearance to match it. To say this is a dedicated performance would be an understatement. Dreyfuss definitely carries the movie and elevates it to something a little more dignified than cliche music teacher story. It's solid, veteran work but it's not something that's going to truly inspire and amaze you. You watch it and recognize he's a great actor but I don't think anyone is going to form an emotional attachment to the movie unless they are a music teacher or something. Not to denigrate Dreyfuss's work, though, since he is clearly the only reason to watch the movie. The story goes through different interactions with his students through the years focusing on one person who gets extra attention for various reasons. It's almost episodic so we see Dreyfuss teach a girl how to play an instrument and control her breathing, help a black kid find his rhythm and be able to keep wrestling because it helps him academically, showing another kid that he's not too good to do the little things and appreciate music, and mentors a talented singer who has a crush on him. Dreyfuss is very good in these one on one interactions and is very believable as a music teacher giving advice that applies not only to music, but to life. There's also the family life that causes big issues for Dreyfuss's character. His son is deaf and he doesn't think he can appreciate what dad does for a living and doesn't quite connect with his son until the end of the movie. Dreyfuss handles that inner growth and relationship well and it shows how natural he can be as an actor. The best I can say is that Dreyfuss is technically competent in this role, a solid veteran in a cliched movie that helps make it just slightly better.

Anthony Hopkins - Nixon

Hopkins had the difficult task of taking on such a mythologized man who everyone has an idea of in their head. Most people have also seen a ton of Nixon impersonations in the media so there is a lot riding against portraying such a unique looking and sounding man. That's without throwing the whole political angle into it, as well. I think the main thing to judge, fairly or not, is how well does Hopkins pull off looking and sounding like Nixon. For the most part, Hopkins looks like Hopkins and doesn't sound quite right. I do feel like that's partially a huge knock against Hopkins. I liken it to Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon who looks nothing like Nixon and just always sticks out in a negative way. Hopkins is at least more believable than Langella but there are lots of time where I'm paying more attention to the look and sound of the character than the film itself and it shouldn't be that way. I get that unless through CGI or amazing make-up that that will never happen but it's always going to be a point of contention. I do think that there are plenty of times in the film where Hopkins' acting really takes over and causes you to overlook the appearance thing and focus on the man underneath. I like a lot of his acting in the film honestly and feel he captures the vibe Oliver Stone is going for in making Nixon into a power drunk man who thinks he can't fail and shouldn't fail. I like how Hopkins keeps Nixon from being too crazy and paranoid at the end. Though I do want to note that there are times where the performance is more like imitating than true acting, more focused on getting the look down than in fully inhabiting the character. But there are times when Hopkins is able to give us something interesting. It's probably hard, too, to do in this Oliver Stone film that is highly stylized and doesn't leave a lot of opportunity for your normal biopic tendencies. That can be a good and bad thing but I think a film about Nixon needs to allow the main character some room to have a performance. I just think that President Nixon is an extremely tough character to pull off because it already comes with preconceived notions of the man. He is larger than life nowadays and that takes a strong performance along with a strong visual likeness to successfully pull off. I think Hopkins gives it his best shot which isn't quite good enough, but in a lesser actor's hands would have been a catastrophe. Faint praise, yes, but Hopkins does what he can to make the performance work. It just doesn't work all that much for me.

Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking

Sean Penn's first Oscar nomination. It's vintage Sean Penn stuff and it's easy to see why he was nominated here. He plays a death row inmate in Louisiana and his performance is a slick one. It's a fine, solid enough performance but I think the Sean Penn charm comes into play and might contribute to his being on this list. He'd been a bad boy in Hollywood and in some comedies and other minor things but this seemed to be his dramatic breakout along with Carlito's Way not that long before this one. So the Academy wants to hitch itself to a rising star and nominate him for an Oscar, something we've seen time and again from them. That's all conjecture on my part but it makes sense. His performance is good like I said and Penn does do a pretty good Louisiana accent in this. I'd say that's the standout thing about his performance. Penn puts up a facade of a tough guy in the beginning but does let down his guard when talking to Sarandon's character gradually and exposes the human being underneath the murderous criminal. I do like that Penn humanizes his character and is consistent with his performance. He does come off like a cool guy but it's genuine and apart from the other aspects of the performance. The relationship with Sarandon works well and they have an interesting chemistry between them. And Penn really sells to us that he's a dead man walking especially leading up to his execution. It doesn't ring as convoluted or false. There's no big pronouncements or overacting, just a nervous man who accepts his fate but doesn't want to die. I'd say this is one of the more subtle Penn performances I've watched and I can say I liked it. Like I said, easy to see why he was nominated for Best Actor.

Massimo Troisi - Il Postino

This was slightly difficult to find a decent English subtitled copy of, though nowhere near the worst so far to track down. I have heard a lot of bad things about this film and this performance which obviously makes me question whether it belongs even before I see it. But I know I need to watch it first to make up my own mind as the hive mind has been wrong before. My big issue with foreign nominations is something I've touched on before which is am I missing anything in the performance because I don't get the subtleties of a different culture or language? I think Troisi's performance translates well. I think my issue with his performance is that at times, the Pablo Neruda character (Philippe Noiret) takes over and Troisi fades to the background. Neruda is the star of the film and is the impetus for the whole story. And Noiret is able to carry the importance of Neruda well. Troisi gets relegated to a fanboy and I don't think it's worth a Best Actor nomination. Now, unfortunate circumstance is that Troisi died the day after the film wrapped of a heart attack after putting off heart surgery to finish the film. This is plainly and obviously a nod to an actor basically dying for his craft. If he doesn't die, I bet he doesn't get nominated and neither does the film. I failed to mention that Troisi is a postman (duh) who delivers mail to Neruda and then pesters him about how to write poems and how to get the girl he loves to fall in love with him. I just don't think Troisi carries the film all that well which is why I gravitate to Neruda. Troisi's character is kind of a meek guy, afraid to confront the woman he loves and unable to excite the viewer to keep interested. It's a very subdued performance but one that doesn't become stronger because of it's subtlety. Didn't really care for this performance and sorry, but if not for his death, this doesn't get nominated.


This is a pretty decent Best Actor group. Not the best, mind you, but decent. Troisi doesn't belong at all but he's the only one. Dreyfuss buoys a cliche film with a decent job at the music teacher changes lives role. We've seen it before and since but Dreyfuss is good. Hopkins is all over the place as Richard Nixon and it shows in the performance. It's good at times and kinda bad at others. Definite middle. Penn actually surprises and gives a really good performance as a death row inmate. I shouldn't say surprises because I've liked a lot of his stuff but I didn't think he'd be as good. Easy to see why he'd win 2 Oscars later. Cage is the pleasant surprise. I'd heard of his performance being great but wanted to find out for myself. Yeah, it's great. Really deserving win for him despite his recent crappy films. So glad I got to watch that one because I probably wouldn't have otherwise. A decent year, not great. Hoping 94 blows me away.

Oscar Winner: Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas
My Winner:  Nicolas Cage - Leaving Las Vegas
Sean Penn
Anthony Hopkins
Richard Dreyfuss
Massimo Troisi