The best actors in bad films
Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in “Green Book”
This year, the Motion Picture Academy proposed a variety of ideas to boost the waning ratings of the Oscar telecast — from ditching hosts to removing (then unremoving) categories from the TV broadcast.
Kurt Andersen argues that this populist sentiment led to an odd disconnect this year: mediocre movies nominated for Best Picture only because of a great leading actor. Kurt lists his favorite performances in 2018 from not-so-excellent films.
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