This was a great group of actors vying for one statue; strongest field in years. Weakest link? Barkhad Abdi of “Captain Phillips” he was an excellent thug and was completely believable. The Academy has a history of awarding a complete unknown before; 1984 Dr. Haing S. Ngor won for “The Killing Fields” and that made more sense then than an Abdi win tonight. The trio of Michael Fassbender for “12 Years a Slave,” Bradley Cooper for “American Hustle” and Jonah Hill for “The Wolf of Wall Street” signs of future nominations to come and of those nominations wins. Jonah Hill was the perfect foil in “Wolf” and he brought a tremendous levity to an über intense way of living. Michael Fassbender is a newbie to the nomination process and you ask yourself, why? He has had plumb roles in the recent past and as diabolical as he was in “12 Years” it would be unjust if he won tonight. There is a great scene in “Dallas Buyers Club” where you are first introduced to the character “Rayon” (and a similar way director Jean-Marc Vallée introduces all three of his major leads) where the action in a hospital scene where the doctors are attending to Ron Woodroof and on the other side of the adjoining hospital bed behind the separating curtain you see a little out of focus head peeking a look at his “room mate” and shortly after you realize it was tonight’s eventual winner Jared Leto. Mr. Leto was as perfect a choice as there ever could have been to play this part and like his co-star Mr. McConaughy the physical toll they brought to their roles was worth the weight in gold they’ll hold tonight!
Head and heart agree: Jared Leto
TBK Media Co. (The Brown Knight) 