With Oscar season ahead, 2011 is looking more and more like the year of the Gosling. In the wake of her Best Actress Oscar win for ""Black Swan"", this was promising to be Natalie Portman's year in the spotlight as Hollywood's darling. After all, Portman had no less than three movies hit theaters this year.
For a solid eight months straight there was at least one flick featuring Portman playing in theaters at any given time. But, quantity doesn't always translate to quality. Indeed Natalie put out two abominable clunkers with ""Your Highness"" and ""No Strings Attached"".
Ryan Gosling, however, has thankfully stepped in to take her place in the spotlight, by delivering his own three-peat of consistently excellent movies over the course of 2011.
First came ""Crazy, Stupid, Love"" this summer, which, despite it's title that could have been drafted by a cliché rom-com name generator, turned out to be quite an endearing and entertaining film, with no small debt to Gosling's turn as a mastermind womanizer. But it's Gosling's later two entries of the year that will be remembered come Oscar time.
His chilling yet intriguing performance as the nameless main character in ""Drive"" is a rare kind of iconic role. It will undoubtedly beget plenty of homemade-scorpion-jacket-clad costumers this Halloween on State Street and places him as a serious contender for a Best Actor nomination.
And his turn in the George Clooney-directed film ""Ides of March"" as an idealistic presidential campaign strategist faced with the drama of covering up a sex scandal could easily place him on the list of Best Supporting Actors as well.
To be fair, I would argue he is actually the lead in ""Ides of March"", but I expect that he'll place himself in contention for Best Supporting Actor instead in order to double down, as an actor can only be nominated once in each category.
While Gosling is looking to dominate the Acting categories this year, his co-star George Clooney will be a serious contender as well. He probably won't get nominated for his role as an actor in ""Ides"", but he very well may as its director.
Furthermore, Clooney has serious Oscar prospects with his other film this year, ""The Descendents,"" out November 18th. After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival last month, ""The Descendents"" is already being buzzed about as not just a potential Best Picture nominee, but outright as the possible Best Picture.
Clooney's role as a father attempting to reconnect with his two estranged daughters has already been pegged as the performance to beat in the Best Actor category next year.
But perhaps the unorthodox-Oscar-bait project I'm awaiting most eagerly is ""Young Adult"", out December 9th. Directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody—the duo behind ""Juno""—the film stars Charlize Theron as Mavis Gary, a teen lit author who returns to her small Minnesota hometown in an attempt to relive her high school glory days and rekindle romance with her happily married high school boyfriend.
""Young Adult"" promises to be a dark, biting comedy from one of the most underrated directors of recent years, complete with that snappy signature Cody dialogue that you'll be quoting well into the New Year.
While Oscar-bait may seem like an odd descriptor for such a movie, the fact that Reitman's last two films have been multiple-Oscar-nominees, including both for Best Picture, certainly earns Reitman the benefit of the doubt.
Last year, many proclaimed ""Don't count out the Cohen Brothers!"" regarding the Oscar potential of their end-of-the-year-release ""True Grit"", which turned out to be quite a force to be reckoned with come nomination day. This year, I say, don't count out Jason Reitman.
Who do you think deserves an Academy Award this Oscar season? E-mail any questions or comments to David at dcottrell@wisc.edu
