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Just last week we told you about Duncan Jones’s concentrated grassroots effort to nab Sam Rockwell an Oscar nomination for his tour de force performance in “Moon.” It is a film that, unfortunately, came and went at the marketplace, yet was one of the best films of the summer. And Rockwell, as he’s proven time and again for years now, has the chops and deserves the props.
Jones has chimed in once again one the matter at his blog, Man Made Movies, and lays out all the Tweeting and petitioning goodness. You can even buy a T-shirt for the cause. Don’t you have a new movie to be preparing, Duncan!?
Seriously, though, it’s worth noting that, in the wake of this, Sony Pictures Classics, as well as Rockwell’s own representation at the publicity firm I/D Public Relations, are getting serious about an Oscar campaign. It will be an uphill climb because, due to the film being a British production, it isn’t eligible for a number of the awards that might have put it on the domestic radar, such as the Gothams or the Independent Spirits. The film did, however, show up in a number of high-profile categories when the British Independent Film Award nominees were announced earlier in the week.
Whether Rockwell nails the honor or not is ultimately beside the point. “He deserves to be in the conversation,” Sony Classics honcho Michael Barker told me. “He’s one of these guys like Philip Seymour Hoffman, who we had in films like ‘Love Liza’ and ‘Owning Mahowny,’ where you just said, ‘One of these days [he'll be nominated].’”
Rockwell has been consistent for over a decade now. Some, like your humble host, are fans from way back, when Rockwell was a smart-talking street soldier in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” but he really came into his own with supporting roles in films like “Galaxy Quest,” “The Green Mile” and “Heist.” Newbie director George Clooney gave Rockwell his first leading man shot in 2002’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” but it didn’t take (even though Rockwell was brilliant and even Oscar-worthy in the film).
So the actor kept at it in the background of other films, such as Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men,” Andrew Domink’s western adaptation “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (which, in this viewer’s opinion, should have netted him a Best Supporting Actor nomination) and last year’s “Frost/Nixon.” Now, we get another leading man effort in “Moon” that Rockwell knocks out of the park, and we’re left wondering: When will everyone sit up and finally take note?
It’s good for Rockwell to be in the thick of an Oscar hunt and, come what may, I think Sony Classics and I/D are smart to bring him into that fold. It will only mean further exposure for one of the more talented under-the-radar film actors in the industry. Talk about a campaign built around all the right reasons.
14 responses so far
1 10-28-2009 at 10:09 am
Kevin said...
As cool as it would be, seems like the academy doesn’t like grassroots campaigns/being told who to vote for. The Dark Knight had a grassroots campaign last year and look how that turned out. The Academy bucked against it and collectively told the rest of the world to suck it. We’ll see how this campaign goes.
2 10-28-2009 at 10:11 am
James D. said...
I haven’t had my Mickey Rourke to root for this year yet. It would be nice to see Rockwell up there, as unlikely as it might be.
3 10-28-2009 at 10:22 am
Mr. F said...
I’m glad he is at least getting a campaign. His performance is still my favorite of the year, and he deserves to be nominated. Hopefully it will lead to results like those for “Frozen River” and “Away from Her”
4 10-28-2009 at 10:22 am
Loyal said...
It’s worth noting that Sony has pushed back its DVD/Blu-Ray release from 12/29 to sometime in January.
5 10-28-2009 at 10:23 am
The Other James D. said...
See, I knew, at least, that he wouldn’t just fade from the Oscar discussion. What he really needs is a win from a couple of crix awards and a BFCA nomination. (A win from, say, NSFC, would be a dream.) He’ll never get a Globe nod, so hopefully he is the Richard Jenkins/veteran character actor-type thespian nom from early in the year and gets in @ SAG. Think he’ll get in at BAFTA?
I’d like to note “Lawn Dogs” and, especially, his brilliant performance in “Snow Angels” among his finest achievements.
6 10-28-2009 at 10:40 am
red_wine said...
Great that he is, this is SO not happening, what a waste of effort. Take Hawkins last year, she tore through the critics awards, in a rare coup, swept the top 3 (LA,NY,NSFC) and yet the academy couldn’t be bothered.
As last year showed us, he academy has taken a turn for the worse and will nominate mediocrities from Meryl Streep and other stars but would be hard pressed to lend to vote for a genuinely good performance. Doesn’t it bug you that Brad Pitt can be nominated for a non-performance like Button whereas Rockwell does not stand a chance.
7 10-28-2009 at 10:40 am
Daniel said...
His performance in Snow Angels was easily his best.
8 10-28-2009 at 10:47 am
Lance said...
I think it’s sad that so much campaigning has to be done to get a performance like this nominated. They need to rework the system so performances in smaller roles aren’t overlooked. I would recommend that they do a scoring system that is done through out the year. A performance like this would probably rate very high and not be forgotten based upon the film’s success, it’s release date or whether it gets any critic’s awards. I know many people are against putting numbers on a performance because they feel acting is art – well, if you truly feel that acting is art you should be against competitions like the academy awards. It’s a competition, so let’s put some criteria on how to exactly judge these things and not make is so subjective.
9 10-28-2009 at 10:53 am
James D. said...
He was great in Snow Angels, but his work in Jesse James stands out the most for me. So haunting.
10 10-28-2009 at 12:04 pm
Robert Hamer said...
Oscar-worthy in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? Deserved a nod for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford? Wow, you’re a bigger fan of Rockwell than I am by far, though I do agree he’s a brilliant actor. I’m a bit of a sucker for performances in unique or bizarre roles (i.e. Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Peter Sellers in Being There) so I wish Duncan Jones the best of luck.
11 10-28-2009 at 12:56 pm
Adam Smith said...
I couldn’t agree more. Sam Rockwell is definitely among my favorite working actors. Edward Norton used to be my main man, but he’s kind of screwed the pooch as of late, whereas Sam Rockwell is consistently fantastic, even in lesser works like “Choke” and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
12 10-28-2009 at 1:19 pm
Ivan said...
Let´s see… for now Morgan Freeman and George Clooney are the only locks in Actor Category, the next two spots seems to belong to Colin Firth and maybe Viggo Mortensen or Daniel Day Lewis . The last spot is the wild one…
Jeremy Renner or Sam Rockwell.
I think Matt Damon has better chances with Invictus in the supporting category.
Definitely Rockwell is in the race.
13 10-28-2009 at 4:53 pm
Kevin said...
I don tsee DDL getting nominated. WoM is that while its a great performance, as is natural with DDL, it’s nothing truly extraordinary from him ala There Will Be Blood. Mortensen, Firth, and Clooney are getting career best notices in the reviews for their respective films (I’ll find out in about 2 hours about The Road at Austin Film Fest, I am going in prepared with a bunch of tissues to dry my tears at the end). Freeman has yet to really be seen but has been a front runner for a while now. I see it ending up like
Morgan Freeman
Viggo Mortensen
Colin Firth
George Clooney
Jeremy Renner
I know that Renner has somewhat slowed down on his buzz, but something tells me Summit will push The Hurt Locker (especially Bigelow for director) really hard and I think Renner has the breakthrough factor on his side in addition to having already delivered some really strong supporting performances already.
14 10-28-2009 at 9:18 pm
Glenn said...
red_wine, then what about Melissa Leo? Her film was out at the start of August and only made $2.5m and was mentioned just as much (although didn’t win as much) as Hawkins.
Kevin, absolutely nothing about The Dark Knight’s campaign was grass roots.