Variety’s Clayton Davis is more or less in agreement with what I consider to be the current top 5: Butler, Jackman, Nighy, Fraser, Driver. Actually, Clayton has ‘Bardo’ actor Daniel Giménez Cacho in there instead of Adam Driver (his #6). The problem with “Bardo” and its lead is that we just don’t really know if that movie is any good. The fact that NYFF didn’t select Inarritu’s film means that it might not be favoured by the high-brows and its absence from TIFF might mean it’ll be too ambitious for the low-brows.
Austin Butler (Elvis)Brendan Fraser (The Whale)Hugh Jackman (The Son)Bill Nighy (Living)Adam Driver (White Noise)
Others: Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick), Daniel Giménez Cacho (Bardo), Christian Bale (Amsterdam), Jeremy Pope (The Inspection), Diego Calva (Babylon)
I’m more prone to believe that, given this seems to be a fairly weak year for prominent male lead performances, Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” should be taken very seriously.
It’s such a weak year for male acting that if I were Paramount/Apple I’d really try hard to push that December deadline on Scorsese/Schoonmaker for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” This is the absolutely perfect year to release that film and campaign DiCaprio’s performance.
Not entirely sure why Clayton’s #8 is “Broker” lead Song Kang-ho, that movie is DOA as far as I’m concerned. Critics weren’t so keen on it and it’s already being accused by some nitwits as being anti-abortion.
Clayton’s #7 is Christian Bale in “Amsterdam.” I’m crossing my fingers that it’s a good movie, but, again, it’ll have to defy the potential David O. Russell backlash coming its way in November.
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