Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2010: Results

5. Sam Rockwell in Conviction- Rockwell gives the best performance in his film giving some poignancy to his character's situation even though the power of his performance is limited by the film's problems.

4. Andrew Garfield in The Social Network- Garfield plays the emotions of his role a little to heavily at times but still gives an effective performance with a few stand out moments.

3. Chow Yun-Fat in Let the Bullets Fly- Yun-Fat gives a very entertaining villainous turn even if he could have brought just a little more menace to his role. 

2. Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer- Brosnan gives a strong performance effectively creating the different faces of a career politicians with too many secrets.

1. Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom- Good Prediction Fisti. This might not be a great year for great performances as I don't give anyone a five, but it is a great year for good performances. My personal winner came down to the two criminal uncles of Mendelsohn and John Hawkes in Winter's Bone.

Overall Rank:

1. John Hawkes in Winter's Bone
2. Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom
3. Ben Kingsley in Shutter Island
4. Cillian Murphy in Inception
5. Pete Postlethwaite in The Town
6. Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer
7. Ted Levine in Shutter Island
8. Barry Pepper in True Grit 
9. Joel Edgerton in Animal Kingdom
10. Jackie Earle Haley in Shutter Island 
11. Chow Yun-Fat in Let The Bullets Fly 
12. Jeremy Renner in The Town
13. Guy Pearce in Animal Kingdom
14. David O'Hara in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
15. Jon Hamm in The Town
16. Andrew Garfield in The Social Network
17. Max von Sydow in Shutter Island
18. John Malkovich in RED
19. Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2  
20. Armie Hammer in The Social Network 
21. Bill Murray in Get Low 
22. Sam Rockwell in Conviction
23. Ken Watanabe in Inception
24. Ned Beatty in Toy Story 3 
25. Guy Pearce in The King's Speech 
26. Jack McGee in The Fighter
27. Sullivan Stapleton in Animal Kingdom
28. Nicolas Cage in Kick-Ass
29. Jason Schwartzman in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
30. Tom Hardy in Inception
31. Mark Strong in Kick-Ass
32. Chris Evans in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
33. Michael Keaton in Toy Story 3
34. Kieran Culkin in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
35. Mark Ruffalo in Shutter Island 
36. Brandon Routh in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
37. Michael Keaton in The Other Guys 
38. Lucas Black in Get Low
39. Chris Cooper in The Town
40. Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Inception
41. Garret Dillahunt in Winter's Bone 
42. John Carroll Lynch in Shutter Island
43. Mickey O'Keefe in The Fighter
44. Vincent Cassel in Black Swan
45. Mark Webber in Scott Pilgrim vs the World
46. Matt Damon in True Grit
47. Luke Ford in Animal Kingdom
48. Bill Cobbs in Get Low
49. Choi Moo-sung in I Saw the Devil
50. Brian Cox in RED
51. Pete Postlethwaite in Inception
52. Tom Wilkinson in The Ghost Writer
53. Don Cheadle in Iron Man 2
54. Ray Winstone in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
55. Karl Urban in RED
56. Rupert Grint in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 
57. Mickey Rourke in The Expendables 
58. Paolo Bonacelli in The American 
59. Robert Pugh in The Ghost Writer
60. Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go
61. Michael Caine in Inception
62. Michael Gambon in The King's Speech
63. Morgan Freeman in RED
64. Tom Berenger in Inception
65. Justin Timberlake in The Social Network 
66. David Zayas in The Expendables
67. Dileep Rao in Inception
68. Eric Roberts in The Expendables
69. Jackie Chan in The Karate Kid
70. Christopher Mintz-Plasse in Kick-Ass  
71. Peter Gallagher in Conviction 
72. Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are Alright
73. Derek Jacobi in The King's Speech
74. Josh Hutcherson in The Kids Are Alright
75. Josh Brolin in True Grit
76. Mickey Rourke in Iron Man 2
77. Ben Barnes in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 
78. Brandon T. Jackson in Percy Jackson
79. Timothy Spall in The King's Speech
80. The Rest of the Cast of the Expendables

Next Year: 2001 Lead

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2010: Andrew Garfield in The Social Network

Andrew Garfield did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a Golden Globe, Bafta and several critic awards, for portraying Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network.

The Social Network has three notable supporting performances in the film. Armie Hammer is properly pompous and gets across the entitled nature of the Winklevoss twins well, although his work since then suggests this might of been the part he was born to play. Justin Timberlake has the juiciest role as the ambitious but paranoid Sean Parker. He isn't terrible, there is an awkwardness in his performance though, and he particularly falls flat when portraying Parker's paranoia. Andrew Garfield as Facebook co-founder and Mark Zuckerberg(Jesse Eisenberg)'s best friend Eduardo Saverin received most of the attention out of the supporting players.

The first time I watched the film Andrew Garfield actually left the biggest impression on me and I was little cold on Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal. Watching the film again though switched things around with Eisenberg's performance left the best impression, and Garfield weakened for me. A strange occurrence sure but watching Never Let Me Go the other film he received praise for made me understand a little bit of why. In Never Let Me Go Garfield gives an emotionally charged performance, but frankly too emotionally charged without the proper depth of character to really make the emotion resonate. His breakdown in that film left me completely unmoved because he just did not build to it well enough.

I do believe his performance in this film is better than his performance in Let Me Go though, but it shares the same problem where he gives an excessive emphasis to the emotional state of his character. He puts too much at once limiting his ability to play through the scene properly, or to powerfully build the fears and insecurities in Saverin as he sees Zuckerberg slowly edge him out. I don't want to sound to negative as I don't think he is bad at all, I just don't think he is great. He still does put on a great deal of effort and he does bring the emotions needed to his scenes even if he he takes a little too earnest of approach in his portrayal of Saverin who is suppose to be the moral center of the film.

There are plenty of things to like about this performance still particularly his chemistry with Eisenberg which finds the difficult connection between the two by having a genuine friendship there but as well a distance there due to the conflicting natures of the more self absorbed Mark, and the far more open and modest Eduardo. They are quite effective in creating early on both how the two would work together to make Facebook but as well create the seeds of the rift that would slowly develop between the two. Eisenberg and Garfield both handle this incredibly well by having the vastly different styles of performance that still work together in the same scene.

This is not a perfect performance as his character's arc would have been all the stronger if he simply eased up a little on some of the earlier scenes in his performance. Garfield though is very good in the final payoff scene for his character as he confronts Mark and Sean for betraying him. He delivers absolutely in this scene portraying the righteous anger in Eduardo for what they did to him. Yes this payoff would have been even greater I think if he slowly built up the vulnerability in Eduardo to this point, but as it is it still is an effective scene. All in all Garfield is quite good in his role, even if he does not stand as the best performance as the film.

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Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2010

And the Nominees Were Not:

Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom

Sam Rockwell in Conviction

Andrew Garfield in The Social Network

Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer

Chow Yun-Fat in Let the Bullets Fly

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