2015 Muriel Awards: Best Supporting Performance, Male

One exciting thing about this year’s awards is that there were a decent number of close races, particularly in the performance categories. So while 2015 saw a lot of good performances, none really dominated in the minds of the voters, leaving us to cast a wide net. This is especially apparent in the supporting actor category – our winner didn’t even garner the highest number of votes. That’s a testament to how much affection this guy engenders in fans of the movie, I’d say.

Third place:

Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies [147 points / 23 votes]

Second place:

Oscar Isaac, Ex Machina [150 points / 24 votes]

And the Muriel goes to…

 

Sylvester Stallone, Creed [162 points / 23 votes]

“Much like the loveable palooka who remains his signature role, Sylvester Stallone never stays down for the count. His career has been pronounced dead at least a dozen times going all the way back to Rhinestone, yet here we are a few decades later and the all-time Razzie champ (33 nominations) is the odds-on favorite for an Academy Award. Yes, an award for acting.

“For you see, regardless of whatever those bitchy crones at the Razzies might say, it is a well-kept secret that Sylvester Stallone is actually quite a gifted actor. Unfortunately, most of the time the person keeping this secret is Sylvester Stallone, who as a writer-producer-director-brand-manager does not often do his leading man many favors. He likes to play hard and mean, turning his body into a circus side-show attraction and striking somber poses at times unintentionally hilarious in their vanity. Stallone consistently seems to forget why audiences fell in love with the Italian Stallion some forty years ago – for his warmth and vulnerability. The original Rocky wasn’t so much a fight picture as much as it was a love story, and an extraordinarily tender one.

“Writer-director Ryan Coogler remembers, so his Creed forgets the feather-haired, hard-bodied, monosyllabic avenger of III and IV in favor of the original’s motor-mouthed mug. Balboa’s back with the hat, the leather jacket and the bouncy ball, mumbling malapropisms to anyone within earshot. Rocky has endured for so long in the hearts of moviegoers because he’s a character completely lacking in guile, a fighter without a mean bone in his body.

“There’s a wonderful reserve to Stallone’s performance in Creed. Having lost pretty much everybody who was ever close to him, he putters around between visits to the local cemetery, gracious to others while keeping his distance, always half-a-step behind as if afraid to really engage. It takes the constant badgering of Michael B. Jordan’s Donnie to bring out the champ’s old eye of the tiger, and one of the many miraculous things about Coogler’s film is that these payoffs that should seem melodramatic feel so organic and hard-earned.

“A control freak with an ego the size of Stallone’s handing over the keys to his prized franchise to a young whippersnapper like Coogler is a huge leap of faith. An even bigger leap is Sly allowing himself to be frail here in ways we’ve never seen him onscreen. (In interviews, he admits to having originally balked at a particular plot development and even asked Coogler for rewrites before deciding to go for it.) His movements in the film have a beguiling delicacy, a big lug possessed of unexpected grace. Watch the moment when Rocky gets some bad news and gingerly removes his hat.

“Of course we’ve been here before with Stallone, as twenty years ago Cop Land announced he was a superstar ready to take big risks with young directors. Unfortunately that movie was nowhere near as good as his performance in it, and the subsequent box office fizzle sent Sly scurrying back to strongman roles. Here’s hoping the hosannas for Creed encourage Stallone to continue in this direction. He wears vulnerability well.” ~ Sean Burns

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(Ed.: FYI, the punching bag thing? Totally on purpose. I just wish I could've found a pic of Mark Rylance boxing to complete the trifecta.)