Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1992

The Contenders:

Robert Downey Jr.: Chaplin
Stephen Rea: The Crying Game
Denzel Washington: Malcolm X
Al Pacino: Scent of a Woman (winner)
Clint Eastwood: Unforgiven

Tramping Around

Film: Chaplin: The Movie
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on The Nook.

Robert Downey, Jr. is on top of the world right now, but this wasn’t always the case. The man had some dark years, which is what made him the perfect casting for Tony Stark—a likeable rogue with a seriously checkered and dark past. There was evidence early in his career that the man had serious talent. Exhibit A is Chaplin: The Movie (normally just called Chaplin). Downey plays the film star from the beginning of his career to his honorary Oscar in 1972, through all of the personal and professional trials that the man endured.

Downey plays Chaplin himself and is joined by a solid cast including Kevin Kline as Douglas Fairbanks, Anthony Hopkins as the fictional George Hayden going over Chaplin’s autobiography with him, Dan Aykroyd as early comedy director Mack Sennett, Kevin Dunn as J. Edgar Hoover, Paul Rhys as Chaplin’s half-brother Sydney, Diane Lane as Paulette Goddard, David Duchovny as Chaplin’s cameraman Roland Totheroh, Penelope Ann Miller as Edna Purviance (one of Chaplin’s early co-stars), and Moira Kelly as both Chaplin’s first love Hetty Kelly and his fourth and final wife Oona O’Neill. This leaves out brief appearances by Marissa Tomei, Geraldine Chaplin, Nancy Travis, Milla Jovovich, and James Woods.