Oscars 2019: 9 Ups & 8 Downs

By Jack Pooley / February 25, 2019

6. Mahershala Ali Beats Richard E. Grant (Best Supporting Actor)

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Mahershala Ali won his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in Green Book, beating out passionate fan fave Richard E. Grant for his stellar work on Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Grant was always a long shot, but considering that this was his first ever Oscar nomination over a 30+ year career, and his movie was so much better than Green Book, it's a damn shame he didn't take the gong home.

That's not to dump on Ali's work: he did fine with what he had, but Green Book's screenplay is so facile and underwritten that Ali wasn't really given the chance to give a truly Oscar-worthy performance. The Academy clearly disagreed.