Jesse Eisenberg - 1:02:29 (69.77%)
Kieran Culkin - 58:06 (64.88%)
When Kieran Culkin collects his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for A Real Pain, he will make history as the category’s first champion to have appeared in more than 60% of his film. The current supporting male record of 58.59% has been held for over half a century by Jack Albertson (The Subject Was Roses), who was fairly obviously miscategorized and thus should never have raised the bar so high in the first place.
I am also not in favor of Culkin’s supporting candidacy, but I wouldn’t go so far as to label him and Jesse Eisenberg as co-leads. Within the irritating confines of the binary category placement system, I would bump Culkin up because I view him as a quintessential secondary lead.
I realize how limited Benji’s POV is compared to David’s, but that’s typical in a primary/secondary lead dynamic such as theirs. Although Benji is largely seen through David’s eyes, he still exists independently of him. Of course, that’s not to say that he gets much screen time to himself, but he is more than just David’s headache. I think the relative sizes of their roles speak to that, and I think they clearly (albeit not equally) share an arc in a film that centers on their relationship.
A Real Pain is only the ninth film I’ve timed in which two performers fall within the 60-70% screen time bracket. In order of release, the others are The African Queen, Paper Moon, The Goodbye Girl, The Dresser, When Harry Met Sally, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Y Tu Mamá También, and Training Day.
In justifying Culkin’s lead placement, I wouldn’t cite any of those previous eight cases. In spite of their actors’ greater screen time differences, I instead feel compelled to compare A Real Pain to Nebraska, C’mon C’mon, Rain Man, and even Midnight Cowboy. But in many ways, it really stands on its own.
As I’ve always said, category placement is entirely subjective. I’ve seen strong arguments both for and against Culkin’s campaign, some of which influenced my somewhat middle ground opinion. There are certainly more egregious cases of category misplacement, including several this year.