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| Channing Tatum in Foxcatcher |
Every Oscar season, there are a handful of actors who get tagged with the "snubbed" moniker. While it is always unfortunate to see our favorites not honored with at very least a nomination, there's another trend that goes largely unnoticed: those who never even got that far. The Runner-Ups is a column meant to honor the greats in cinema who put in phenomenal work without getting the credit that they deserved from The Academy. Join me every other Saturday as I honor those who never received any love. This list will hopefully come to cover both the acting community, and the many crew members who put the production together.
The Runner-Up: Channing Tatum
Film: Foxcatcher (2014)
Oscar Nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category (2014):
-J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) *WINNER
-Rober Duvall (The Judge)
-Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
-Edward Norton (Birdman)
-Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
-Rober Duvall (The Judge)
-Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
-Edward Norton (Birdman)
-Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
*NOTE: I apologize for taking two months off from the promised column of The Runner-Ups. While I will be looking to start Failed Oscar Campaigns in September, I hope to right some wrongs and, for this year only, make the column weekly while trying to highlight filmmakers who deserved Oscars but didn't get them. Thank you for your understanding and I hope to be more professional in the future.
There's something odd about Channing Tatum's career in recent years. Whereas he could get by on being a pretty-boy actor in the past, he has somehow found a nice middle-ground in combining his physicality and good looks with compelling roles. Magic Mike and its sequel were far more intriguing than a male stripper movie had any right to be. He even earned comparisons to Gene Kelly for his work in Hail Caesar!, which makes one think of when he will get attention as something more than this oddly charismatic actor. Considering that Logan Lucky features him donning a southern accent and playing a goofball, it only seems right that I once again explore the one odd moment where it looked like he would at least get an Oscar nomination and instead got usurped by his co-star Mark Ruffalo, possibly because he had a hunch in his back or something that carried over to his work in Spotlight (again, getting him an Oscar nomination - that time more deserved).
By some irony, this is the second Foxcatcher post that I wrote this week. I previously wrote about how odd Steve Carell's Oscar nomination was, as he doesn't seem quite that interesting in an Oscar-worthy way. However, I left the Bennett Miller film with a bit more of a vibe that Tatum is an actor with more to offer than we'd give him credit for. While I didn't like his work in the 21 Jump Street franchise, I did think that he had dramatic chops and has been winning me over in almost every Steven Soderbergh collaboration to date. Still, there's something fascinating about his wrestler character that makes me wonder why he didn't get more attention. After all, it hit a few of the Oscar-bait style requirements. It was very physical and featured him altering his body for a performance. Maybe it just wasn't on level with Ruffalo, who is good, but clearly had points for having a devastating character reveal later in the film. Still, Tatum's whole character is one long tragedy hidden under even more coldness than Carell.
The reality is that Tatum's character is desperate. He was an Olympic champion who is now forced to do public gigs for cheap just to pay rent. He wants that validation that he once got. He has to be strong even if he is extremely vulnerable. It's generally the crux of why Foxcatcher works. He is struggling to find stability in his life, and Carell embodies that in a demented way. Still, Tatum pushes himself to be accepted by Carell and be the athlete that he was when he won medals. He pushes himself, and failure is very difficult to him. It's in part because he doesn't know how to control his emotions, but also because he handles his losses with a physical menace that is unrelenting. He's abusive to himself because he knows that he could be better. He can't even find solace in his brother Ruffalo, who tries to tear him away from this downward spiral where the money's good, but the psychological side effects are worse.
To some extent, Tatum is just a pawn in Carell's plan for respect. Carell has nothing to offer but pushes others to give him pride. It's a menacing circle that comes off as uncomfortable. One has to wonder how much damage Tatum pushing himself will actually lead to. At one point, it leads him to such terrible physical abuse that he leaves a hotel room in shambles. It's a scene that could easily embody the Oscar-bait approach to getting Tatum that nomination. However, it's the nuance and repression that leads up to that scene that makes it all the more powerful. You find something deeper in Tatum's role through that action. He's a mess, and he's a large reason that the film works. The only catch is that he doesn't have a novelty to an Oscar bid like Carell or Ruffalo. All he has is this tragic figure who is used to make someone else look better.
I'll admit that Foxcatcher is probably not the best film to give anyone an Oscar nomination for, but it definitely showed actors with potential to get one. As much as I'm happy to know that Carell can retire an Oscar nominee, I felt that Tatum pushed himself into another league with this performance. While it may seem unlikely that a role in Magic Mike or Logan Lucky will be what gets him in, I recognize that he has dramatic chops to make his brute force of a character shine. He brings a physicality to the vulnerability and ends up creating a character who is compelling within his own tragedy, making us wonder if he'll snap or not even recognize how he's being conned. It's a sad story, and Tatum plays it so well that his lack of nomination is just as much of a bummer.
There's something odd about Channing Tatum's career in recent years. Whereas he could get by on being a pretty-boy actor in the past, he has somehow found a nice middle-ground in combining his physicality and good looks with compelling roles. Magic Mike and its sequel were far more intriguing than a male stripper movie had any right to be. He even earned comparisons to Gene Kelly for his work in Hail Caesar!, which makes one think of when he will get attention as something more than this oddly charismatic actor. Considering that Logan Lucky features him donning a southern accent and playing a goofball, it only seems right that I once again explore the one odd moment where it looked like he would at least get an Oscar nomination and instead got usurped by his co-star Mark Ruffalo, possibly because he had a hunch in his back or something that carried over to his work in Spotlight (again, getting him an Oscar nomination - that time more deserved).
By some irony, this is the second Foxcatcher post that I wrote this week. I previously wrote about how odd Steve Carell's Oscar nomination was, as he doesn't seem quite that interesting in an Oscar-worthy way. However, I left the Bennett Miller film with a bit more of a vibe that Tatum is an actor with more to offer than we'd give him credit for. While I didn't like his work in the 21 Jump Street franchise, I did think that he had dramatic chops and has been winning me over in almost every Steven Soderbergh collaboration to date. Still, there's something fascinating about his wrestler character that makes me wonder why he didn't get more attention. After all, it hit a few of the Oscar-bait style requirements. It was very physical and featured him altering his body for a performance. Maybe it just wasn't on level with Ruffalo, who is good, but clearly had points for having a devastating character reveal later in the film. Still, Tatum's whole character is one long tragedy hidden under even more coldness than Carell.
The reality is that Tatum's character is desperate. He was an Olympic champion who is now forced to do public gigs for cheap just to pay rent. He wants that validation that he once got. He has to be strong even if he is extremely vulnerable. It's generally the crux of why Foxcatcher works. He is struggling to find stability in his life, and Carell embodies that in a demented way. Still, Tatum pushes himself to be accepted by Carell and be the athlete that he was when he won medals. He pushes himself, and failure is very difficult to him. It's in part because he doesn't know how to control his emotions, but also because he handles his losses with a physical menace that is unrelenting. He's abusive to himself because he knows that he could be better. He can't even find solace in his brother Ruffalo, who tries to tear him away from this downward spiral where the money's good, but the psychological side effects are worse.
To some extent, Tatum is just a pawn in Carell's plan for respect. Carell has nothing to offer but pushes others to give him pride. It's a menacing circle that comes off as uncomfortable. One has to wonder how much damage Tatum pushing himself will actually lead to. At one point, it leads him to such terrible physical abuse that he leaves a hotel room in shambles. It's a scene that could easily embody the Oscar-bait approach to getting Tatum that nomination. However, it's the nuance and repression that leads up to that scene that makes it all the more powerful. You find something deeper in Tatum's role through that action. He's a mess, and he's a large reason that the film works. The only catch is that he doesn't have a novelty to an Oscar bid like Carell or Ruffalo. All he has is this tragic figure who is used to make someone else look better.
I'll admit that Foxcatcher is probably not the best film to give anyone an Oscar nomination for, but it definitely showed actors with potential to get one. As much as I'm happy to know that Carell can retire an Oscar nominee, I felt that Tatum pushed himself into another league with this performance. While it may seem unlikely that a role in Magic Mike or Logan Lucky will be what gets him in, I recognize that he has dramatic chops to make his brute force of a character shine. He brings a physicality to the vulnerability and ends up creating a character who is compelling within his own tragedy, making us wonder if he'll snap or not even recognize how he's being conned. It's a sad story, and Tatum plays it so well that his lack of nomination is just as much of a bummer.
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