Best of 2012: Supporting Actor

My second official post!

I figured since the Oscars have come and gone, and we're now looking forward to the 2013 film year, I thought it would be a good idea to finally begin my own year-end lists now that I've seen pretty much everything I wanted to see (with deepest apologies going to Middle of Nowhere, which played at the Belcourt at the worst possible time for me) in an attempt to both usher in the new year and to sort of informally introduce myself a little more. The lists in question are my personal perfect-world Oscar ballots, which will eventually lead up to my top 10 of 2012 (or my Best Picture nominees).

Best Supporting Actor

• Simon Russell Beale for The Deep Blue Sea - For imbuing such a contrived, and self-serious script with sobering regret, barely-contained composure, and a "guarded" sense of both care and disdain.

• Jason Clarke for Zero Dark Thirty - For resourcefulness and curiosity in this intentionally thinly-drawn character, Clarke bears the mental scars that come with his job beautifully with permeating physicality and masculinity in the film's only character arch.

• Stephen Cone for The Wise Kids - For treating his portrayal of Austin with the same sensitivy and communal grace in which he treats his script. Never finding the easy answers to this film's complex and tender-hearted questions, while brimming with sincere heartache.

• Matthew McConaughey for Magic Mike - For perfectly utilizing his star persona and typically energetic humor to explore Dallas' sketchy, yet irresistible charms. And for always surprising us by just how seamlessly he slides into Dallas' skin.

• Bruce Willis for Moonrise Kingdom - For effortlessly inserting himself (and all the things that make us love Bruce) into Anderson's deadpan comic energy and simmering gradations of sadness and heartbreak that complements all angles of this bittersweet love story.

Honorable Mentions: Noe Hernandez who emanates raw terror and frightening unpredicatability, serving as the protagonist's closest ally and most dangerous enemy in Miss Bala; Javier Bardem for delightfully unhinged grudge-holding and unabashed queer villainy as one of Bond's most exciting enemies in Skyfall; Aris Servetalis for dangerous, misplaced devotion to his own patriarchal social institution in Alps; Richard Green for having a similar devotion to his film's more dangerous group of "heroes," but in more disturbingly self-sabotaging ways in The Snowtown Murders; Tommy Lee Jones for providing Lincoln with it's most poignant moments of earnest outrage, rich (unhammy) humor, and generous characterizations; Ezra Miller for perfecting his all-too-comfortable state of playing smart-ass teens with 'tude, whilst injecting his character with unexpected warmth and the oft-forgotten art of showing true friendship in The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Jude Law who, perhaps, wishes for the uncommon depth that Simon Russell Beale has in a very similar role in The Deep Blue Sea (or at least wishes Wright would allow him to do exude such depth), but still glows with thick-bearded hurt in Anna Karenina; and Andrey Smirnov serves as a wonderful foil in Elena, while also never forgetting to show his frustration and understanding toward the titular character.