2013 Muriels: Best Supporting Actor

Another year, another round of Muriel Awards! This year's actually a bit odd for me, as it's the first year I'm serving solely as an overseer rather than an active voter. What does that mean you reading this? Not a goddamn thing. Let's just jump on in, then!

Third place:



Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street [111 points / 19 votes]

Second place:



Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave [124 points / 20 votes]

And your winner...



James Franco, Spring Breakers [178 points / 25 votes]

"As if by definition, James Franco’s Alien is unlike any being our heroines have ever encountered. The titular Spring Breakers -- four reckless college-aged ladies who have drank, smoked, and robbed their way to Florida -- suddenly find their perpetual party is over. They’ve been arrested and detained a long way from home and are in desperate need of bail. This is where Alien arrives, springing them for what seems like nefarious reasons. In the way that many frames of the picture are spent languishing upon the lovely bodies of these girls, the leering Alien represents a dangerous end to their devious dabbling.

You see, Alien is a local St. Petersburg rapper who freelances in drug dealing and presents the very model of a modern street thug, complete with oversize shades, cornrows and metallic grillz. He revels in flashing his gun arsenal as easily as he peels off bills or cruises the streets in a Camaro with ridiculous dollar-sign rims. In essence, Alien is exactly the wolf these little Red Riding Hoodrats have been warned about. Being impish young lasses, however, you can understand how naturally they are attracted to follow him.

What’s completely nuts and kind of amazing is how Franco’s character morphs into becoming the emotional center of the film. Spring Breakers continually blurs the line between celebrating its excess and serving as a cautionary tale about falling under its spell. Director Harmony Korine invites his audience to participate in the glorification of spraaaang break but also provides an opportunity to harshly view its ridiculous, seamy underbelly.

As Alien, Franco embodies it all. He manages to be loopy yet terrifying, a laid-back guru in the body of a homicidal gangsta. He routinely pulls off insane scenarios with aplomb, including serenading his ski-masked, rifle-toting brood with a Britney Spears ballad. His outrageous braggadocio reaches its apex in an elongated show-and-tell of his various curios (including multitudes of board shorts, cologne bottles and nunchucks) until two of his new female companions suddenly turn the tables and threaten him with his own guns. Alarmed, he proceeds to accept their weapons in his mouth and -- there’s no other way to describe it -- fellate them, first submissively, then aggressively. This act defuses the threa, and actually causes Alien to appreciate these disciples as not only unhinged equals but soulmates. The scene also signals that he is actually no longer directing the madness, but that he has been preaching to an anarchic and crazed choir. Spring break won’t last forever, but Franco’s weird, invigorating turn is surely a standout to remember." -- Patrick Williamson

See the full results.