This really was a strong year for this category –
with some wonderful performances, from some unexpected places – and a couple of
films that yielded multiple contenders.
Runners-up: We
had any number of performances that I quite liked, that I just didn’t have room
for in the top 10. Kathy Bates in Richard
Jewell is a wonderfully sensitive performance as a woman who believes
deeply in her son, even as their world crashes around them. Penelope Cruz & Julieta Serrano in Pain
& Glory both play the directors mother at different points in her life
– and together, they add up to a heartbreaking portrayal of motherly love – in
all its flaws. Evelin Dobos in Sunset is
such a smart, subtle performance it’s quite possible to overlook just how good
she is. Hye-jin Jang in Parasite was
terrific as the mother – the character in the family who takes the longest to
reveal herself – and perhaps has the saddest end. Jeong-eun Lee in Parasite originally appears to have a thankless
role of the original housekeeper – but she finds so much here as the film moves
along. Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers showed
precisely why she is a movie star – she owns this movie, the way she hasn’t
done since Out of Sight, over 20 years ago.
So-dam Park in Parasite is excellent as the cynical, incredibly smart
daughter – who has one of the best moments of the year right before she goes in
the door the first time. Margot Robbie
in Bombshell is the films most sympathetic character – perhaps because
she’s the only fictional one – but still shows how sexual harassment builds
piece by piece.
10. Shuzhen Zhao in The
Farewell
Zhao is wonderful – warm and open hearted as Nai Nai, the woman that
everyone gathers to wish farewell to because she has been diagnosed with
cancer. The trick is that she doesn’t know that. I think it is impossible to
watch Zhao in this film and not think of your own grandmother – I lost my own a
few months before seeing The Farewell, so I was primed to cry (and I did). Most
of the performance is warm and funny – the kind of supportive grandmother who
always has your back, even if your parents don’t. And then, the moment that
gets her on this list, is her final one in the movie – as she waves goodbye to
her family, keeping a happy look on her face, until, of course, she can no
longer do it. It is the most heartbreaking moment of the year – and it is so
wonderfully played by Zhao in a performance that will make you cry in more ways
than one.
9. Octavia Spencer in
Luce
Spencer, a character actress who has become an unlikely Oscar favorite
in recent years (winning for The Help, and being nominated for Hidden Figures
and The Shape of Water, delivers her best – by far most complex performance of
her career in Luce. She plays the title characters’ teacher – and while
everyone else believes him to be a great kid, she can see through him. But does
she see through him because of her own biases – or is that real? Does he do
what he does because of her – or would be do it anyway? We never really get an
answer – but it’s a delight to see Spencer, who too often has to play the
sympathetic friend, here get to really dig into a meaty, complex role – she
knows it too, and isn’t letting go.
8. Julia Butters in
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
It’s always difficult to evaluate child performances – because you’re
never quite sure how much is them, and how much is the director, steering them
directly where they want them go. One of the remarkable things about Butters’
performance in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood though is how thoroughly she
dominates her scenes with DiCaprio – and how much dialogue she has to deliver.
Tarantino has a particular patter that you need to get the proper rhythm for
when you deliver – and Butters is a natural – and she puts DiCaprio through his
paces, and asks him to keep up. It’s a small performance – just a couple of
scenes – but she absolutely owns them in a way that lets you know this isn’t
just a director molding a child performance – this is a born actress acting the
hell out of her role.
7. Yeo-jeong Jo in
Parasite
I have already mentioned pretty much every other prominent female
performance in Parasite in this category – but to me, the MVP of them all is
Yeo-jeong Jo as the wealthy Mrs. Kim. We are warned before we see her that
she’s young – and not very bright. But that’s a deliberate choice by Bong, to
shape how we see her character – she certainly is gullible, but I don’t think
she’s stupid. What she is though is sheltered – sheltered by her class, and
thus she sees things the world in a way that makes her a target for people.
It’s a great performance of a woman who isn’t necessarily bad – it would have
been too easy to make her a bad guy – but instead it’s something more complex –
a woman walking through life with blinders on, and never knowing it.
6. Florence Pugh in
Little Women
Florence Pugh obviously had a great year – those of us who saw her in
Lady MacBeth two years ago knew she was going to be a star, and now she is. In
her second great performance of the year, Pugh is given the difficult job of
playing Amy March – a character that is easy to hate, and hard to play well –
especially when Gerwig asks her to play Amy from the time she is a young
teenager until she is into her 20s. And yet, while Pugh never looks like a 13-year-old,
she acts perfectly like one – the kind of petty, whining child who doesn’t like
to be left behind. As she ages, Pugh makes Amy into a more complete character
than normal – you like her more than normal, because you can understand why she
does what she does. Pugh doesn’t steal the movie from Ronan – but she comes
close – and it is a performance that confirms just what a great actress she is.
5. Laura Dern in
Marriage Story
It’s sad that Hollywood didn’t always know what to do with Laura Dern –
after a great start to her career with David Lynch and others, she often didn’t
get the work the caliber she deserved – although once in a while (Citizen Ruth,
Inland Empire) we’d be reminded what a genius she is. Now, she has found her
niche on television (Big Little Lies, Twin Peaks: The Return) – and directors
are utilizing her skills once again. In Marriage Story, she plays Johansson’s
lawyer – and at first you think it’s going to be the type of role Dern can
sleepwalk through with ease. But she reveals some depths to her – she’s a shark
to be sure, but not an unfeeling one – one that understands just what Johansson
is going through and how both manipulate her, and be there for her – and she’s
even given a speech about the misogyny inherent in the justice system. It’s
another great role and performance for Dern – one of our greats.
4. Julia Fox in Uncut
Gems
In her debut performance, Julia Fox is tasked with trying to keep up
with the chaos of the movie, and hold her own against Adam Sandler, as the film
spins wildly out of control. She does both wonderfully well. She plays the
younger, mistress of Sandler’s character – and while it would have been easy to
play her as a gold digger, Fox doesn’t really do that. She may be in it, in
part, for the money – but there is genuine love and affection there – and hurt
when he rejects her. It’s also a very funny performance – in her moments with
The Weeknd for instance, or that very strange pilot at the end. I had never
seen Julia Fox is anything before – but now I cannot wait to see what she’s in
next.
3. Margaret Qualley in
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Margaret Qualley has been quietly building up a string of excellent
performances in the past few years – The Nice Guys, Novitiate, Fosse/Verdon
even the awful Donnybrook, and in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she makes the
most of the plum role of Pussycat in Tarantino’s epic. You notice and remember
Qualley from the second you see her on screen – wordlessly flirting with Brad
Pitt more than once through the window of his car as she’s on the side of the
road. When she finally gets into that car, she challenges Pitt to keep up with
her – his laid back performances is the perfect counterweight to her aggressive
one. That scene is the cornerstone of the performance – but she excels even
when she gets to Spahn Ranch – although that’s when you see her in a different
way – not the free spirit she appeared. It is a great performance for Qualley -
one of the most memorable in a film full of memorable performances.
2. Taylor Russell in
Waves
In the first half of Waves, newcomer Taylor Russell pretty much has to
sit back and watch in horror as her father and especially her brother destroys
their family – she is powerless to stop it, and doesn’t even know where to
begin to try. In the second half of the film, she has to anchor the whole thing
– picking up the pieces of her life that has been shattered, through no fault
of her own, and trying to find some degree of happiness for her self – and some
degree of forgiveness for everyone else in the family. This is a not a
show-offy performance – a risk she took, considering she had to share the
screen with Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Sterling K. Brown, not to mention the
pulsating sound and style of Trey Edward Shults film. But it’s a quietly devastating
performance – and the one in the film that finds hope for the future – and for
herself. This should be a star making performance for Russell.
1. Margot Robbie in
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
People can complain all they want to about the lack of lines Margot
Robbie had in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – no performance more moved me this
year than her beautiful work in Tarantino’s film. Playing the late Sharon Tate,
Robbie glides through the movie carefree and happy – living her life to the
fullest, because she doesn’t know what is around the corner. The movie gives
that happiness back to Tate here – nowhere more so than when Robbie as Tate
goes to the theater to see a movie with the real Tate – and the actress and the
actress playing the actress, share this bond through the screen that is
absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. Her final lines in the movie – as if
summoning DiCaprio to heaven – are just as beautiful When you can do what
Robbie does in this film, you don’t need that many lines.
No comments:
Post a Comment