Don Cheadle was nominated for Best Actor for Hotel Rwanda, playing Paul Rusesabagina as a hotel manager whose professional competence becomes a moral instrument, which is a difficult thing to sustain.
He came up through Boogie Nights and Devil in a Blue Dress, where his Mouse is genuinely alarming, and worked through the Ocean’s films and the Marvel series as War Machine.
Talk to Me and Traffic show the range, and he has directed once, the Miles Davis film Miles Ahead, which he also co-wrote and financed with difficulty.
He is a consistently better actor than his filmography’s shape suggests, having taken a great deal of ensemble and supporting work.
Don CheadleCrash (2005) rates 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Paul Haggis assembled a multi-strand Los Angeles film in which every character holds one racial attitude the plot then corrects, won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain, and has spent…
Benicio del ToroTraffic (2000) rates 9 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Soderbergh shot three parallel drug war narratives himself, gave each one a different film stock, and won Best Director while the film lost Best Picture to Gladiator. Benicio del…
Ben KingsleyTony Stark hunts a terrorist called the Mandarin while battling PTSD from the Avengers, with Christmas as the season-long backdrop. Iron Man 3 is Shane Black's 2013 American superhero film depicting Tony Stark hunting an apparent terrorist called the Mandarin…
Anne Heche
Courtney B VanceJohn Irvin's 1987 Vietnam combat drama. Unsentimental and procedural.
Andy GarciaSoderbergh's 2001 Rat Pack remake. Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Roberts, Gould.
Burt ReynoldsPaul Thomas Anderson's foundational ensemble masterpiece. Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds.
Don Cheadle
Anthony MackieThe most contrived blockbuster of the decade. The 4 reflects honest evaluation of one of the most commercially successful films in cinema history.
Benedict CumberbatchTwo billion dollars on the strength of accumulated franchise capital. Forty characters, the Snap that wasn't depicted, and structural failures.
Anthony MackieThe Phase 3 inflection point where moral clarity became moral confusion. Spider-Man and Black Panther's introductions as franchise expansion vehicles.
Clark GreggRobert Downey Jr.'s strongest moments buried under franchise machinery. Black Widow's intro, War Machine's recasting, and Whiplash wasted.
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