| Kyle Buchanan Pop Culture Reporter | | Hey, movie fans! It's your faithful Carpetbagger. | | Two shake-ups in this year's Oscar race recently raised my eyebrow … | | First, Mahershala Ali decided to position himself as a supporting actor for the upcoming period dramedy "Green Book," where he and Viggo Mortensen play two mismatched personalities on a road trip: Ali is a fussy pianist, Mortensen a lightly racist palooka. Though Ali doesn't enter the movie until 15 minutes in, from that point on he and Mortensen are absolute co-leads who share nearly every scene. Still, Ali decided the delayed introduction was significant enough to drop down to the supporting actor race, where his screen time will swamp the likes of Sam Elliott in "A Star Is Born." | | The irony is that Ali's big Oscar clip is a scene where he tries to convince a racist restaurateur that he deserves the exact same seat at the table as Mortensen. When it comes to the Oscar race, I felt the same: Why not run him alongside Mortensen as a lead actor candidate, since that category is weak this year and it would have a certain integrity? But the strategy here is to separate these well-liked actors so they don't have to compete against one another, and I must grudgingly admit it betters their odds. Though Mortensen will be up against a stiff competitor in Bradley Cooper for "A Star Is Born," I think Ali could easily win his second supporting actor Oscar, after the one he picked up not long ago for "Moonlight." | | Things were even murkier over the last two months when it came to "The Favourite," a witty royal comedy where Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz play two ladies at court who try to manipulate the diminished Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). To judge by screen time, all three actresses are leads, but of course we can't have that in such a competitive Oscar landscape. So, Fox Searchlight has determined that Colman will go lead, and her more famous co-stars will run as supporting actresses. | | A lot of Oscar strategists breathed a sigh of relief at this one. Had Colman gone supporting, that's exactly the sort of flashy character actress performance that could have swept all season, but as a lead, she'll likely have to draw votes from the likes of prestige pick Glenn Close, who is vying for her personal best performance in "The Wife." I think it may even open up a path for passion pick Lady Gaga to bypass both of them and prevail for "A Star Is Born," but then again we are still a few months out from the nominations, even if the strategies newly put into place tend to encourage this long-range spitballing. | | |
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