So… the alpha dogs of Best Actor. Nobody is more alpha this year than Jeff Bridges, who has been brilliant and dreamy forever. The Dude abides. Hilary Swank aside, it's awfully hard to win an Oscar but Bridges has finally mastered that difficult combo of timing, career momentum, pre-season hoopla, general goodwill and baity material that Oscar generally requires of its winners.
Best Actor Nominees
- Jeff Bridges, boozy, bloated and brilliant as "Bad Blake" in Crazy Heart.
- George Clooney at his Clooneyist in Up in the Air. Boy has he mastered Clooneyism.
- Colin Firth, derailed by grief in A Single Man. That phone call alone… Oscar Clip!
- Morgan Freeman nobly embodies Nelson Mandela for his buddy Eastwood in Invictus.
- Jeremy Renner loves only one thing in The Hurt Locker… but is that war, bombs, adrenaline or the ticktock of a personal death wish?
Since Bridges has already won, all that's left is daydreaming about the movies. If you fuse all of these men together you've got a movie about a 53 year-old
alcoholic bomb-diffusing singing politician who has lost his gay lover and numbs the grief with constant travel. Somebody please make that movie.
Which nominee gets your vote? Pretend you're an Academy voter and check that ballot in the comments.
