Entertainment
'Show Me A Hero' Should Bring Oscar Isaac A Globe
There's no question that Oscar Isaac is having a hell of a year — or even a couple of years. Besides being the internet's current boyfriend, in 2015 alone he put in excellent performances in Ex Machina (which all Poe Dameron fans should seek out if they haven't seen yet), Mojave, HBO's Show Me a Hero, and, of course, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where he gets to be the cool-headed pilot. He worked with the Coen Brothers in Inside Llewyn Davis, where he was also able to show off his musical chops, and he's going to get to flex his villain muscles in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse. Yep, it's good to be Isaac. But what would put the cherry on top of his good-luck streak is if he brought home an awards statue. Luckily, Oscar Isaac is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, which he absolutely deserves to win.
He's nominated for Show Me a Hero, a six-hour HBO miniseries based on Lisa Belkin's nonfiction book. The series follows the struggle to bring low-income housing to a wealthy neighborhood in Yonkers, New York in the 1980s. Isaac plays Nick Wasicsko, a local politician who becomes mayor during the kerfuffle. It's a hard role, and here's why Isaac should win for it.
Wasicsko Isn't Easy To Love
Despite the title, Wasicsko isn't an unshaded hero. He exploits the housing controversy to become mayor, and then is only in favor of it for political expediency, not because it was the right thing to do. It's hard to gin up sympathy for him, but Issac does. You root for him without even really knowing why.
He's The Flip Side Of Poe Dameron
If you want to make sure Isaac has range, watch this after Star Wars. Poe Dameron is charming, cool, and confident — the kind of role that every actor wants to be known for. Nick Wasicsko is unsure of himself, depressive, and calculating. He's a lot to take on, and probably not that fun to play, but Isaac delves into it and still makes the character someone you'd want to spend six hours with.
You Can Tell He Cares For The Character
For all his flaws, Isaac doesn't condescend to Wasicsko. You can tell he has great affection for him. "I fell in love with him, and I really wanted to try to understand who he was, and tell that story," Issac told Paste. "There was something about Nick’s personality, or his physicality, the way he spoke, the timbre of his voice, it’s hard to explain why. It wasn’t an intellectual thing. It wasn’t until I saw him on video that I wanted to understand what it was like to live through this thing the way that he did."
He Makes Public Policy Interesting
It's a hard sell. Not everyone can pull of a story that's about housing policy, zoning laws, and legal appeals. But The Wire's David Simon wrote Show Me A Hero, and Isaac gave it a personality that makes it really compelling, even though you might not care in the least about a dispute over housing in a small city that took place three decades ago.
He Only Has Six Hours
No offense to Patrick Wilson, a fellow nominee for Fargo, but Show Me a Hero is only a six-hour miniseries. (Fargo's episodes are so long, they practically hit he six-hour mark by episode four, not even halfway through.) He has to get across a lot in a short period of time, and he nails it.
For His Dance Moves
OK, fine, his disco skills are more on display in Ex Machina. (I told you to watch it.) Isaac doesn't break out any of these dance moves in Show Me a Hero, but how can you not throw awards at the man now that you've seen them?
