Screen Actors Guild snubs Joaquin Phoenix as critics question The Master

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/dec/12/sag-awards-snub-joaquin-phoenix

Version 0 of 1.

For a time, he was this year's coveted favourite for best actor, but the Oscar bellwether that is the Screen Actors Guild Awards snubbed Joaquin Phoenix and his critically acclaimed movie, The Master, as its nominations were announced on Wednesday.

Amid howls of outrage from fans of Phoenix, there was speculation that he had shot himself in the foot with his recent bad-mouthing of the awards season and the Oscars in particular, describing them as "bullshit".

But critics said the failure to recognise The Master for any category other than for best supporting actor, for Philip Seymour Hoffman, was evidence of Sag's wider problem with the movie itself.

Tom Shone, the Guardian's film blogger and author of Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Summer, wondered in November whether Phoenix's performance was "too nuts even for the academy".

On Wednesday, he said: "The performance has been a tough sell. The question mark over the performance for me is that it bordered on being a little bit exploitative – Phoenix's psychological unravelling on screen. His best performances have always bordered on: 'How much of this is acting and how much is he going through a breakdown?'"

Two years ago, Phoenix confused his fans with the documentary I'm Still Here which appeared to be a chronicle of a nervous breakdown. He appeared on the David Letterman show, bearded and barely coherent, in a performance which, like the documentary, later turned out to be a fake.

Shone said: "Now this [The Master] is the most out-there, the loopiest performance and the same question marks are hanging over it. Is this a damaged soul revealing himself to the camera?"

Oliver Lyttelton, features editor at the Playlist film blog, said Sag had "very much stuck with the establishment this year, with big names favoured in almost every case over breakout actors or 'difficult' films."

Lyttelton said, of Phoenix: "there was a long time where everyone thought that he wasn't just going to be nominated – he was going to win." He said that the actor's comments were "probably a factor" in his failure to be nominated, but said it was more likely to be the film itself.

"It's probably a factor but the fact that they did not nominate Amy Adams suggests that they are not responding to the film. The reviews turned out to be more divisive after it came out in Venice. The Master seems to turn off a many people as it turns on."

"I don't even think it's a critics' film, it's a some-critics' film. There were a lot of people like myself who liked it but who weren't doing cartwheels."

Lyttelton said there were a few surprises, including the nomination of Nicole Kidman for best supporting actress in the Paperboy and Javier Bardem, for Skyfall.

"Last year, they nominated Demian Bichir in A Better Life. He's not a well-known actor and the film was small. But after the Sag awards, he went on to be nominated for an Oscar. But this year, it all seems to be big names. Nicole Kidman's film, The Paperboy, got terrible reviews. She worked quite hard with Q and A sessions. With something like this it's a bit of a popularity contest."

Kristopher Tapley, editor-at-large of HitFix.com, agreed that it was unlikely that the actor's comments about the academy held any sway.

He said: "If anything is holding Phoenix – or Amy Adams, by the way, who also didn't make the cut where many thought she would – it's simply that "The Master" isn't resonating. The vibe I got when I first saw it was that it would be a tough sell to voters, and that could be the issue here. I have certainly heard of complaints that Phoenix's work is overacting or indulgent, and though I disagree, I understand why that would be a reaction some might have."

Tapley said that Sag could even have done the actor a favour. "The academy's acting branch could come around, and with ballots hitting mailboxes in less than a week, they could even feel compelled to stand up for him as a result of today's perceived 'snub'," he said. "The presence of Philip Seymour Hoffman in the supporting actor category give me, a fan of the film and the performances, hope that there are pockets of support."