Robert Downey Jr.'s Golden Globe Should Have Gone To Someone Else - Here's Why
Robert Downey Jr. won yet another Golden Globe for playing Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan's historical epic "Oppenheimer" — but two nominees in his category were more deserving.
On the one hand, it's thrilling to see Downey Jr. earn his third competitive Golden Globe for playing the main antagonist of "Oppenheimer," a real figure from history who quietly worked against scientist Robert J. Oppenheimer (played on-screen by Cillian Murphy) and discredited him on the United States Atomic Energy Commission. After feeling embarrassed when Oppenheimer dismisses him in public over his scientific knowledge, Strauss reacts by essentially blacklisting the scientist over his alleged ties to the Communist party, and Downey Jr. shows audiences just how craven Strauss was in his quest to bring Oppenheimer down.
Still, Downey Jr. had some serious competition in his race for Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture, which included Willem Dafoe ("Poor Things"), Ryan Gosling ("Barbie"), Robert De Niro ("Killers of the Flower Moon"), Mark Ruffalo (also "Poor Things"), and Charles Melton ("May December"). So who should have beaten Robert Downey Jr. for the Golden Globe? It comes down to two other candidates, actually: Gosling and Melton, who shone in their respective projects for very different reasons.
Ryan Gosling gave 110% - perhaps more - to his role as Ken in Barbie
Margot Robbie might play the titular Barbie in Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," but Ryan Gosling's Ken threatens to run away with the film every single time he appears on-screen. From his very first moments vying for Barbie's attention on a crowded beach by slamming face-first into plastic waves — after which he informs Barbie that his job isn't lifeguard, but just "beach" — to the montage where he discovers the "wonders" of the patriarchy, Gosling gives everything he's got to "Barbie." It's thanks to the actor's wide-eyed commitment to his role that it works perfectly. He might be "just Ken," but he's the one who sings the film's breakout song ... and alongside Robbie's Barbie, he experiences a full character arc.
After he successfully overthrows the matriarchal structure of Barbie Land and installs a clumsily structured version of the patriarchy, Barbie helps Ken realize he needs to understand his identity without her, and while Gosling is giving the film his all for the entire run-time, it's especially satisfying to watch him perform the moment where Ken fully realizes who he is. He is "Kenough," and frankly, he was good "kenough" to beat Robert Downey Jr. That's not to say that Downey Jr. wasn't excellent in "Oppenheimer," but Gosling created an entire character out of a plastic doll with no genitalia — which is a pretty remarkable feat.
Charles Melton's performance in May December is a shocking look at a broken man
On the other end of the spectrum is Charles Melton, who delivered one of the most quietly devastating performances in recent memory as Joe Yoo in Todd Haynes' "May December," serving as a stark contrast to Ryan Gosling and Robert Downey Jr.'s bombastic performances in "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." Before this role, Melton was best known for his work on the over-the-top teen soap "Riverdale," and as Joe, he certainly proved he could hold his own against heavy hitters like his co-stars Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.
"May December" is, above all, a statement on the way that spectators treat horrific situations and how insensitively they can approach the most difficult of subjects, and Melton's Joe is in the eye of this particular storm. Though he's married to Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Moore) as the movie begins, actress Elizabeth Berry (Portman) upends their "idyllic" life together to investigate the circumstances of how their relationship began — at which point we learn that Gracie groomed, assaulted, and abused Joe when he was 13 years old and she was 36.
The way Melton plays Joe — a young boy who never truly got to grow up, but is now seemingly stuck in the body of an adult man — is heartbreaking from start to finish, particularly when he ends up in a romantic entanglement with Elizabeth without any awareness of how to handle the situation. When Joe weeps at the film's close as his kids graduate from high school, it's gutting and strangely optimistic, marking a perfect end to this tricky movie. It would have been so fitting for the Golden Globes to not only award Melton for his shattering performance, but also pass the torch on to a younger generation of performers.
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