A long way from Indiana Jones: This film fan is rooting for Ke Huy Quan to win the Oscar

The Academy Awards will be presented on television this Sunday. Hopefully, no one will get slapped this time around.

As a lifelong fan of the movies, I tune in every year to the Oscars and see them through to the end. For me, it’s a tradition that goes all the way back to the late '80s, the year “The Last Emperor” won. Chevy Chase hosted the ceremony that time, and for my 16-year-old self, it was comic gold when he was caught picking his nose at the podium when the show returned after a commercial break.

For years now, though, there have been times when I almost turned in early – when, frankly, I was worn down by the bloated musical numbers, the unexciting roster of nominees, the awkward presentation of awards, the political speeches, and everything else.

But then there are those years in which I am rooting for someone to win, usually because I have goodwill and fond lifelong memories of the nominee. This is one such year.

Ke Huy Quan is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his turn as the loving, multiverse-hopping husband of heroine Michelle Yeoh in the wildly creative, unpredictable and entertaining “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

Even if you’re unfamiliar with the film, a modest hit that I predict will win Best Picture, you’re probably familiar with Quan, especially if you’re my age and saw a lot of movies as a kid in the 1980s.

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Quan is Short Round from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,” the 1984 action-adventure film that to this day ranks as one of the most exhilarating roller-coaster rides I’ve ever experienced in a movie theater.

Quan is Data from “The Goonies,” the 1985 treasure-hunt comedy that I saw two nights in a row at the ol’ Sanford Twin Cinemas when I was 13 years old.

Quan is more than Short Round and Data, though, as far as his life in the movies is concerned. As a middle-aged adult returning to the silver screen, he is a fine actor, it turns out. He’s a performer filled with more to share than he has been given the opportunity to show during these long decades since he sped through tunnels in a mining cart with Indy and saved his neighborhood from greedy developers with his friends Mikey, Mouth and Chunk.

While not the main character, Quan is the heart of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” a smash-up film that distinguishes itself in the genres of action, comedy, fantasy and science fiction precisely because it has so much heart.

As stated, I’d like to see Quan win largely for sentimental reasons. It’s up to the Academy voters to decide if he has given the best supporting performance of 2022. That’s a race in which I can only weigh in partially, anyway, as I’ve only seen four of the five nominated performances. Of the four, I consider the turns by Quan and Barry Keoghan, the troubled kid who dares to profess his love in “The Banshees of Inersherin,” to be the best.

I’ve rooted for two nominees in recent years and was disappointed both times.

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I wanted Michael Keaton to win Best Actor for his portrayal of a has-been movie star shooting for Broadway glory in “Birdman.” Keaton, who was superb in that 2014 tragicomedy, is one of my favorites, an actor who’s quick, smart, energetic, hilarious in comedies, and compelling in dramas. Keaton had me on board from the get-go when he and Henry Winkler worked as pimps in a morgue in the 1982 comedy “Night Shift.” He really started showing his strengths in “Clean and Sober,” the 1988 drama in which he played a cocaine addict whose life had veered out of control.

Eddie Redmayne beat Keaton that year for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” Like Hawking, my father had ALS. You’d think I’d be thrilled by Redmayne’s win for the awareness it helped bring to the disease. Well, of course I was pleased and hopeful. But I still wanted Keaton to win.

The other time, I wanted Sylvester Stallone to win Best Supporting Actor for his graceful turn as Rocky Balboa in “Creed.” Here was Stallone, a vain movie star known for muscular, often cartoonish characters, reprising Balboa as an older man, his glory days behind him, so weakened by cancer that in one scene he needs help walking up those steps he scaled so triumphantly in the first “Rocky” film. Stallone was wonderful in “Creed.” But he lost to Mark Rylance, who indeed gave a captivating performance that year in Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge of Spies.”

And so, it is with that same appreciation and enthusiasm that I am rooting for Ke Huy Quan, who does indeed give a terrific performance in “All At Once,” but also shines brightly as a treasured figure of my generation of moviegoers. You think of Short Round and Data, and you smile. It’d be nice to see Quan win.

If you have a chance, look up Quan’s Golden Globe acceptance speech on YouTube. Afterwards, you might find yourself rooting for him too.

Shawn P. Sullivan is an award-winning columnist and is a reporter for the York County Coast Star. He can be reached at ssullivanseacoastonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: This film fan is rooting for Ke Huy Quan to win the Oscar