Creed - 1 nomination

Actor in a Supporting Role - Sylvester Stallone

I'm a sentimentalist, so I'm predisposed to excitement when something that I loved as a younger person comes back for more.  At the same time, like most movie nerds, I get nervous when something I loved comes back just in time to ruin everything I loved about the original.  So with nervousness and enthusiasm, I saw Creed.  

This is the story of Apollo Creed's son, Adonis, who grows up to have a passion for boxing and no one who would take him seriously and train him.  He moves to Philadelphia and searches out the legendary fighter (and former best friend of his deceased father), Rocky Balboa.  Rocky is still a legend in the city, but has settled into a quieter life as a widower and running a restaurant, "Adrian's," his late wife's namesake.  Rocky is moved by Adonis' determination and also by his loyalty to the young man's father, and decides to help him train to become a serious contender.

Sylvester Stallone, in his Golden Globes acceptance speech, talked about putting Rocky's character on again as an old friend.  The is the most apt description of what watching this film is like.  They so beautifully honor the nostalgia, the history of Rocky, the original characters; even that iconic music is used so judiciously that it never feels like a cheap knockoff, and the whole story truly becomes the logical continuation of the saga.  I'm only mildly embarrassed to share that I (literally) sobbed toward the end of the film.  You may not recall that Rocky (the first) won the Academy Award for Best Picture - it was a film that was bursting with heart.  This film is an homage to that original without being a carbon copy.

After seeing this wonderful movie, I'm now officially rooting for Stallone to win it.  He was the older, wiser Rocky, and he got me.  He really got me.