"I Want an Oscar, Dammit!" Performances

Exhibit A:

Cumsinbatches in "The Imitation Game"

Jim Carrey (and Courtney Love) in Man on the Moon Bill Murray in Lost in Translation Robin Williams in Patch Adams Tom Cruise in Magnolia

Eddie Redmayne in fucking everything. His stupid goddamn face. So thirsty.

Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs."

Kevin Spacy in Life of David Gale and Pay It Forward Will Smith in every serious role he's done this decade (Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds, Concussion, Collateral Beauty, etc.) Steve Carell in Foxcatcher and Marwen Sean Penn in I Am Sam Jodie Foster in Nell

The Shipping News and Beyond the Sea were two more of Spacey's failed Oscar Bait roles

JUST TELL ME HE'S OKAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

OP---do you know how to make a list here? You have to double space.

For your consideration...

I Am Sam

Judi Dench in "Victoria and Abdul."

IS THAT MY OSCAR IN THERE??????

IS THAT MY OSCAR IN THERE???????????

Four you’re considrashin.

I remember a review for Angela’s Ashes where Emily Watson is described trudging up a hill as if she can see her Oscar waiting for her at the top.

Babs in Nuts.

Jake Gyllenhaal in...

NIGHTCRAWLER SOUTHPAW LIFE STRONGER etc

Denzel Washington in FENCES

Kate Winslet in both "Revolutionary Road" and "The Reader."

That was the year she just decided it was just time she got the Oscar for Best Actress, and she would get it with one of those two films though hell might bar the way. Apparently before the films were released she thought she would get it for "Revolutionary Road" (since that was the more prestige project), but then it didn't get very good reviews, and so when "The Reader" got better reviews she started pushing for that instead. She REALLY worked the interview circuit. She didn't wind up annoying people as much as Anne Hathaway when she did a similar all-out Oscar campaign for "Les Miserables," but she was still pretty obnoxious. She got the Oscar, and to be honest I think she deserved it that year, even though it's not her very best performance (which I would say would be either in "Heavenly Creatures" or "Steve Jobs").

Tobey Maguire in Brothers.

Paul Muni, back in the 1930s, was the forefather of this phenom.

Charlize Theron in "Monster" is the perfect example: a serial killing lesbian hooker requiring a pretty young actress to gain weight and look terrible (it's brave!). That movie was made to get its lead actress an Oscar.

Matthew McConaughey had an Oscar-tailored performance that worked with "Dallas Buyers Club," but when he tried similar tricks in "Gold" (weight gain this time instead of weight loss), no one bought it. And even though he was kind of terrible in "Gold," the guy tried to pull out every stop to get a second chance at a statuette.

Is the McConassance over?

Anything from Jim Carrey.

Steve Carell in WELCOME TO MARWEN.

Adam Sandler and Will Smith in that movie about the guy who lost family in the Twin Towers.

That wasn't Will Smith, that was Don Cheadle YOU MUTHERFUCKING RAAAAAACIST!!!!!

#SoBrave

Grow up r26...

Viola when she snots up.

Jerry Lewis in Max Rose

Angie in A Mighty Heart.

Madonna wanted it badly for Evita.

We had his thread a few years ago but people had to post pictures.

*This thread

Robert De Niro in Raging Bull

Denzel SHOULD have won for Fences.

Kate Winslet/The Reader

Seriously!

Denzel gave one of the hammiest performances I’ve ever seen in “Fences.” I know people give Viola grief here for her snot acting, but at least she modulated her performance for the camera.

Except for Viola and Stephen McKinley Henderson, most of the performances in that movie were terrible.

Nah. Denzel was top notch. Wayyyyyy better than Casey Affleck.

Everyone knew he shouldn’t have gotten that.

Steve Carell in that Marwen movie is what happens when Oscar Bait backfires

Robert DeNiro, "Stanley & Iris"

"Teach me to read!"

R4 Eddie redmayne is the absolute worst winner ever. Well unless Rami Malek wins.

Al Pacino in Stench of a Woman. I can't believe he won over Denzel in Malcolm X for that hammy performance.

Sharon Stone in Last Dance. She played a woman on death row.

R42, I hate Redmayne with a passion and think “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a travesty, but still... Roberto Benigni.

Shelley Winters in everything, including Tentacles.

Margot Robbie in "I,Tonya."

I thought Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill was freaking brilliant. It was also my favorite movie last year.

Much of Winslet's and Dench's filmography, but that's partly due to them starring in so many Weinstein films.

Diana Ross in LADY SINGS THE BLUES

Jodie Foster in Nell

Liza in Rent-A-Cop

All of mine.

[quote]What performances reeked of desperation to win an Oscar ?

Well, Glenn Close this year, for sure.

I mean ... you KNOW she’s writhing in bed in desperation each sleepless night, ever since her latest glum, “showstopping” showcase came out.

Lady Gaga, but removing the 'loads of makeup' she usually buries herself under.

R45, Shelly Winters was great in 'A Place in the Sun'.

GREAT.

R3 Bill Murray has never given a desperate thirsty performance in his career.

After 29, Katharine Hepburn turned into a hambone. Particularly absent of meat in Suddenly Last Summer.

Tom Cruise in Born on the Fourth of July

I always wondered why the other three nominees (Brannagh, Morgan Freeman and Robin Williams are so happy for Day-Lewis to win. It is like they didn't want to lose to Tom Cruise who was the favorite. Especially Freeman seems very happy considering he could have won too. Jodie even lets out a little "oh" when she opens the envelope. (but the gloves. oh dear. )

Cruise should have won instead of DDL r59, I think he did incredible work in BOT4OJ

R56 came here to say that. Also, just because someone doesn’t actually win doesn’t mean it was a “failed attempt.” He was a close second all along.

Things like The Life of David Gale, The Pursuit of Happyness...those are failed attempts.

And Sean Penn’s Mystic River was a successful attempt.

Annette Bening in Running with Scissors would be another failed attempt (although I think she’s actually very good). Ditto Goop in Proof and Sylvia (she’s also very good in both).

R61 Agree that Annette Bening is really good in Running With Scissors. The ending is quite heartbreaking. Probably the best performance Ryan Murphy has ever directed.

Her Gloria Grahame film might be another one that qualifies for this.

Hilary Swank's 'Amelia' was mentioned but how about her 'Conviction'.... this bitch really tries it every year.

I don't like Tom Cruise as a person but for sheer entertainment value, and business, he should already have an Oscar.

He doesn't even seem to try to do serious movies anymore r63 so I doubt he'll ever get one.

I'll keep that BITCH FROM GETTING AN OSCAR.

R64 I bet he gets one after he dies. Some bullshit one for something like “life long contribution to the cinema”. And once he does die everyone will declare Cruise an underrated actor, who never got the props he deserved while alive.

r66 I don't think the give out posthumous honorary awards.

They don’t, but I bet they invent one for him.

You guys have a lot of shit wrong.

If they achieve the Oscar nomination how does it work with the subject? “GIVE ME AN OSCAR DAMMIT!!!” Seems more like performances that you can tell were Oscar bait but failed. If they get the nod or win, then how do you make fun of it? They succeeded then.

OP specifically mentions that it could either be successful attempts like Meryl playing Margaret Thatcher, or failed ones, so nobody is getting anything wrong by mentioning those that the Academy liked, R69. It's just that the role was conceived with the specific intent of getting an actor awards recognition, which doesn't even apply to every Oscar-nominated or even winning performance. I seriously doubt Marisa Tomei thought she'd be taking home an Oscar when she was on the set of "My Cousin Vinny," and James Cromwell didn't take "Babe" thinking that a talking pig movie was his ticket to a nomination. (For a more recent example: Daniel Kaluuya in "Get Out").

Or Rami Malek in BR. People HERE claim it screamed “OSCAR” to them but I never felt that.

Bale is VICE and Cooper in ASIB are just THAT.

Jamie Foxx in The Soloist.

But he really was good in the role.

Tom Cruise has had several brilliant performances in his time and proved his detractors wrong... apart from the showy roles in 4th of July and the vampire Lestat, I think his subtle work in Eyes Wide Shut was Oscar worthy too.

I always say I loved him in Eyes Wide Shut. And Jerry Maguire and he was fantastic in Magnolia

That he can make billions with his action flicks would suggest he is a professional talented entertainer.

Shirley in 'Terms', she was desperate for Oscar

Failed attempt - Hugh Jackman in that Gary Hart movie

what the fuck was up with jodie foster's speech there?

Do you mean how deep she talks or what she said r78?

I watched “The Upside” and Cranston’s performance SCREAMS Oscar bait. It was insane. He was so over the top at moments.

R40 god that movie was torture. The fact the entire thing rested on a hate crime because he liked to wear heels - but he was constantly specializing his new female neighbor - was very awkward. Carell was unwatchable. And the plot holes! And shitty writing and editing. I fucking wanted to die 89 times watching that movie.

R46 omfg yes

Our very own Sarah Jessica Parker makes an attempt at a serious drama every 10 years or so! The trailer for here latest is below. It flopped. In Here and Now I think she's dying.

Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl and Cake. For the first she stopped washing her hair and went topless. For the latter she stopped working out and wore no makeup!

I actually thought Janiston was quite moving in The Good Girl. The film too was a great wry indie ensemble movie that portrayed a real slice of Americana (sometimes a very ugly one), and the character's moral dilemmas felt palpable. Not quite the vanity project that Cake was, which literally only existed to get her nominations.

I remember the huge FYC campaign (including many billboards in L.A) and Oscar/SAG screeners being sent out LONG before the movie ever was released. A friend of mine in WeHo genuinely wondered at the time if it was actually a movie or just a poster lol.

Wait r83 I saw this movie last year st TriBeCa and I swear it had a different name then.

And yes it was awful.

I agree Aniston was very believable in The Good Girl.

R85 the SJP one?

Yes r83.

Do you think it was Oscar bait?

Aniston was great in CAKE also. But it was blatant it was all for award nominations

R79 - I meant the substance of it. I know it's written for her, but it's awful.

Bette Midler, For the Boys

Kevin Spacey, Beyond the Sea

Talk about Oscar thirstiness: Casey Affleck got fucked by his own brother in Locker Room by the Sea.

Beyond the Sea was hilariously bad

I was one of the 14 people who went to see Woody Allen's "Wonder Wheel" in the theater out of some kind of morbid curiosity.

Winslet, Juno Temple, Justin Timberlake and especially Jim Belushi all ham it up horribly. You can actually start to smell the sweat coming off the screen. Every Winslet scene might as well have "For Your Consideration" flashing under it like some sort of William Castle stunt. Worse yet, You can hear Jim Belushi's internal monologue constantly... "I will be a respected actor after this. I will win awards. I will be a respected actor after this. I will win awards."

It's a terrible, terrible movie.

Eben the cinematography seems thirsty for attention.

Oscarbation!

Zac Efron as Ted Bundy

Worked: Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf

I Want an Emmy, Dammit!! Performances

I don't like Cruise, but he should have won supporting for Magnolia.

R99 agree. He was amazing.

Peter O’Toole in ‘My Favorite Year’.

Miss "The Dingo ate my baby!"

Tom Hanks in Castaway

This years Oscar bait is 'All is True' with Judi Dench and Kenneth Branagh.

Talk about stretching the age difference, Anne Hathaway was only 8 years older than Shakespeare, not 26.

Sally Kirkland in Anna.

[quote]Tom Cruise has had several brilliant performances in his time

He's never given an even OK performance anything. It's always Tom Cruise making faces.

Goop was brilliant in Proof, Hard Eight and Sylvia. The first two were also great movies. That Shakespeare movie was lame, don't know why it got so much praise.

Javier Bardem in Biutiful.

Hugh Jackman in Prisoners.

Cate Blanchette doesn't do a movie unless it has Oscar potential. Same with Jake Gyllenhaal and DDL who doesn't do a movie unless he is the lead.

"Peter O’Toole in ‘My Favorite Year’. "

Yeah, well, that was one movie where the star DELIVERED!

It's a damn shame O'Toole went to his grave without an Oscar, he deserved on so many times over.

I took classes at the Groundlings a zillion years ago and we had one fun exercise where we'd start a sketch e.g. hello, handyman, I'd like to hire you to hang some pictures on my walls and fix a leaky faucet and the scene would go on and the teacher would say at some point 'Oscar moment!' and we'd have to take wherever we were and go from zero to 60 immediately and get hysterical a la characters in clips.

"I told you I needed that faucet fixed because I NEED TO TAKE A SHOWER TONIGHT THE MOST IMPORTANT NIGHT OF MY LIFE!!!"

I could never watch the Oscars the same way ever again.

Oprah Winfrey in Beloved and The Butler.