Continuing our coverage of the 2012 Oscars we now analyze the nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a motion picture.   This year’s crop is loaded with so-so performances that should prove to be an easy task for the academy to choose from.  Here at The Republika we go through the chore of making it easy for you to make your pick and win in your own Oscar Party Ballot.  Let’s see what’s in store for us this year.

The nominees

Kenneth Banagh - My week with Marilyn 

Jonah Hill - Moneyball

Cristopher Plummer - Beginners

Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Nick Nolte - Warrior

There are a few out there, including me, that think that John Goodman is missing in this category.  Not only is his role in The Artist’ splendid, it’s downright better than most of the nominees performances this year.   As for the ones that are competing this year I think that most of the roles are really overrated and aren’t as good a job as other years.  Let’s take the example of Nick Nolte, a drunk parent who practically abandoned his kids to become estranged fighters.   His nomination is mostly based on the notion that his scene as a drunk in the hotel room before one of the fights is so emotionally draining that they should give him a lolipop or something.    I’m really not that impressed with that.

Jonah Hill on the other hand does a pretty good job of being himself throughout the movie in Moneyball.    There is absolutely nothing special going in on with his performance and shouldn’t get as much credit as he is getting.   The thing is, Brad Pitt’s role enhances Hill’s acting and makes us believe we are seeing something special.   Does this performance remind you of Cuba Gooding’s in Jerry Maguire?  How bout Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting?  Not really.    We also get the same thing with Kenneth Branagh in My week with Marilyn.   As we move towards the favorites, Christopher Plummer playing and just “came out of the closet elder” is probably the favorite and I don’t get it.   Beginners is a really boring movie, and watching an old dude play a gay character is more of a novelty than a performance.  But hey, if i’m really objective here, I think it is the best performance out of this batch of dudes; not even Max Von Sydow’s incredibly difficult job can beat the momentum Plummer has gathered recently with his BAFTA award.

The Republika will go with the one everybody is picking, and this is not because we want to get on the bandwagon, it’s because its probably the best performance of the current nominees.  If we had to include the ones that aren’t in the list, I would be going for Mister Goodman, but hey, the academy forgot to vote for him and we are left with crap, so lets pick a little piece out of that and give it a shot.

Where is he?: John Goodman

Should win:  Max Von Sydow

Will Win:  Christopher Plummer

The Republika’s Pick:  Christopher Plummer