4. Matthew McConaughey - Magic Mike
2012 was the year McConaughey finally broke loose of his romantic comedy shackles and started making films that mattered, as well as offering performances that showed that he broke into the industry thanks to talent, and not simply based on his washboard abs and surfer hunk good looks. In Magic Mike, McConaughey was lithe and lascivious, the perfect portrait of over-pumped and over-sexed masculinity, wirey and primed and effusing the kind of raw sexuality that makes female audiences at strip clubs turn from mild mannered working women to baying, lusty animals. But his performance was so much more than his shirtless scenes, and the layers of the character made him the ideal Fagin substitute, charming and engaging to begin with, but with a deeper, darker river beneath the surface that added something far more to the performance.
Why The Snub? There are just too many great performances this year, and unfortunately - and somewhat unthinkably - McConaughey has probably split his own vote, thanks to strong performances in both Magic Mike and Killer Joe (which would never in a million years get a nod), as well as very good turns in both Mud and The Paperboy. It might sound ridiculous, but he's been too good all year for one role to get him a nomination.