Hedges' Oscar nomination for 'Manchester by the Sea'...

Oh, yes, the film itself is fried asbestos served on expired wheat and Hedges' performance barely ate anything from that plate. But did he deserve that spot. Did he deserve that nomination...

I think this was one of the most overpraised films of that year and the praise for Affleck's performance especially. I personally wouldn't have nominated Hedges.

Big fan of the performance. Pretty much everybody in the film was wonderful and deserved Oscar nods. Casey Affleck gives one of the best subtle performances of all-time. My pops died when I was a teen, so I could totally relate to Patrick and his anger. MBTS definitely in my top ten for 2016. My 2016 favorite was Lion and Hell or High Water. For me, it's a heartbreaking drama about why it is wrong open up old wounds. Sometimes in life, we need to distance ourselves from trauma and go in the different direction. I applaud the film for not going with a feel-good, easily digestible ending. I think that's why some people didn't like it. There was no "lets cheer" ending.

Phoenix is 22 years older than Hedges. Even if some of Phoenix's parts can be described as "manchildren", Hedges would never be considered for those roles in the first place. Phoenix gets cast in those parts precisely because he's a middle aged man, so it shows just how much some of those characters are in arrested development.

Phoenix is not Hedge's problem or competition in casting circles. He's in the same age/casting bracket as Timothee Chalamet, Tom Holland, Austin Butler, Nicholas Hoult etc. All these actors come with large, vocal fanbases, particularly from females. That influences castability, as it's about the bottom line. They are all in line ahead of him in the casting heirachy, even for the weirdo parts (is there any reason Hedges couldn't play Willy Wonka instead of Chalamet? Methinks not). If you're a pretty boy that girls seem to like, Hollywood will cast you as weirdos all that time if you gravitate to those type of roles (see Johnny Depp). Hedges just doesn't have that kind of appeal, and he'd really need to be a truly generational talent (ie a Gary Oldman or Phillip Seymour Hoffman level actor) to overcome the fact that he's an average looking guy by Hollywood standards and he hasn't got that vocal female fanbase because of that. Hedges is a solid actor, but he isn't that level. If Hedges was a pretty boy, he could be playing all the weirdos he'd want and it'd only make him more popular.