Runners-Up: Emily Foxler in Coherence had the most
complex role in the film, and she really takes over in the final minutes Alexa
Havins & Alexia Rasmussen in Proxy anchored their two
separate halves in this disturbing film, creating two completely different, but
completely disturbed characters. Lisa
Loven Kongsli in Force Majeure is great as a woman whose life is turned
completely upside down by a cowardly act by her husband. Stacy Martin in Nymphomaniac Volume I gets the movie off to a good
start, and then anchors the lighter, more fun first volume with her excellent
work. Elisabeth Moss in The One I Love has a lot of fun in this inventive romantic comedy/drama. Emmanuelle Segnier in Venus in Fur owns
the screen in Roman Polanski’s latest – sexy, smart, funny and strong in equal
measure. Hilary
Swank in The Homesman is great, in her best role in years, whose
shocking act in the second act comes out of nowhere – yet makes complete sense
in retrospect. Tessa Thompson in Dear
White People should be a star making performance – she’s smart, funny, sexy
and handles the screenplays sudden twists very well. Agata
Trzebuchowska in Ida is quiet and observant, who displays a lot, by staying
still. Robin Wright in The Congress creates a wonderful, complex character in the midst of this mess of a
movie.
Top Ten
Jenny Slate carries Obvious Child, one of the most indie comedies of the year. She plays an immature, Brooklyn based 20-something, who works at a book store (for the time being), does the occasional stand up set, for free, and has just broken up with her boyfriend. Looking for some rebound sex, she finds it, than finds herself pregnant. She decides to get an abortion –and never changes her mind. Trying to make a character this immature likable – especially since abortion is still largely taboo in American movies (especially comedies) – would have been hard – but Slate does it with room to spare. Her performance here is warm, funny and extremely sympathetic. And she does learn something from the experience – the difference between the quality of her standup at the beginning and the end is huge – I could never see the woman with the act she goes on with early making it big – it’s an average routine, well delivered. By the end, she is a potential star in the making. So is Slate.
9. Charlotte Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac
For the third time in recent years, Gainsbourg is
given a lead role in a Lars von Trier – and knocks it out of the park. It’s not
her best work – that would be Antichrist, but it’s a step up from Melancholia
(where Gainsbourg is great, in not that well written of a role). In
Nymphomaniac, she has a difficult role – she plays a woman who has spent her
life having a lot of sex – who is recounting her story, judging herself, and
trying to figure out what to do next – all the while, she has to contend with
Stellan Skarsgaard’s ever weird listener. She has more notes to play than Stacy
Martin, who plays the Young Joe, because Gainsbourgh covers more ground – more
partners, more strange sex act. As with everything she has done for Trier,
Gainsbourg throws herself into with gusto – and pretty much carries the film.
There are a lot of strange curves in the film – lots of places where the film
could fly off the rails, but Gainsbourgh keeps things on course. It’s another
great performance by Gainsbourg for Trier – one of the best director-actor
combos in recent years. 
Witherspoon’s performance in Wild is a return to form for her – a return to the edgier roles she used to play before she got lost in a thousand romantic comedies. As a Cheryl Strayed, a woman reeling from the death of her beloved mother, who spiraled down into drug use and promiscuity, ruining her marriage – who decides the only way back to her life is to hike 1,000 of the PCT; Witherspoon delivers her best performance in years. Cheryl is not a perfect woman – she is at times not even all that sympathetic, as she really has no one to blame but herself for how screwed up her life has become – and Witherspoon doesn’t shy away from those aspects of the character. Yet, she also does make us like this woman – admire her determination and drive, as she is able to get back on track. The best moments in the performance are the quietest ones. This is a great performance, which will hopefully be a sign of a next stage in Witherspoon’s career.
7. Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights
One of the most under rated performances of the
year is Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s great work in Beyond the Lights. She plays a
Rihanna-like singer, who we first see in an over the top sexual musical video,
who is struggling with her new found fame. Everyone thinks she should be happy – she has everything she has worked
for – but she`s miserable – because she realizes that to the industry she is
little more than a piece of meat. Through the film, she will rediscover who she
wants to be, and becoming the artist she wants to be. In many ways, the film is
clichéd – but it works because of Mbatha-Raw’s amazing performance. She can
sing, and her best moments are often musical ones, but there is a lot else to
this performance. This performance should have made her into a star – she’s
going to be one anyway. This is a great performance in a movie far too few
people saw. She was fine in Belle earlier this year
6. Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night/ The Immigrant
5. Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
In Her, Scarlett Johansson played the disembodied
voice of a computer operating system trying to learn all she can about
humanity. In Under the Skin, she again plays a non-human character who is
confused about humanity. Yet, while there is that superficial similarity
between the performances, they really couldn’t be more different. Here, she
plays an character who cruises the streets of Scotland, picking up young men
for what we assume is sex – although eventually we will see what see is really
doing to them. These scenes were shot on the fly – with Johansson knowing what
is going on, but the men not. Later, the movie will move into a more
traditional narrative, and Johansson will change her performance. Much of the
time, she seems to be a blank slate – a woman who is observing everything, but
only understanding a little. That may sound like she isn’t doing very much –
but it’s actually quite difficult to pull off. She holds our attention, often
by doing little. It is a great performance by an actress who seems to be
entering the most interesting phase of her career. 
Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive is about two vampires who have been observing humanity for centuries. The male, played by Tom Hiddleson, has become jaded and cynical – and really hates humanity for everything they have screwed up. And then there is Tilda Swinton, who plays his partner, deeply in love with him, but who couldn’t be more different. She loves humanity, because of all the things they have created. It’s easier to be jaded about people – harder to love them. Swinton is, once again, stunningly beautiful and ambiguous in the role – she seems to reinvent herself with each turn, and here she anchors a movie that could have gone off into cynicism, and brings it back to a very human place. She’s the beautiful heart of the movie. Swinton always picks the most interesting roles, in the most interesting films, by the most interesting filmmakers. Here, she delivers one of her best performances – in what could just be Jarmusch’s best film. It isn’t a performance that knocks you flat immediately – like Swinton in We Need to Talk About Kevin, or even this year’s Snowpiercer. Instead, like the movie itself, it grows in your mind for days, weeks and months after watching.
3. Anne Dorval in Mommy
Dorval
is probably best known for playing another bad mommy in a Xavier Dolan film –
her great work in her breakthrough, I Killed My Mother.
But her performance in Mommy is much better – much less of a monster, and more
of an understandable woman who both loves and hates her son, and has no idea
how to raise him. Dorval is a middle aged woman struggling just to make ends meet
– her son is off in a hospital getting treatment, but he cannot stay there much
longer. What follows is a complex mother-son relationship, where the two push each
other’s buttons, test each other, and try desperately to make it all work.
There is nothing subtle about Mommy – or Dorval’s work in it, even if there are
some great moments that are quieter than the rest of the performance (like her
final scene with Suzanne Clement – which is stunning in its simplicity). For
the most part though, Dorval holds nothing back – making her character a
flawed, yet understandable woman, who does things we may not approve of, but
that make complete sense.
2. Luminita Gheorghiu in Child’s Pose
As an upper class woman who wants to control her
every aspect of her son’s life, Luminita Gheorghiu delivers one of the best,
most unsung performances of the year. When the movie opens, her adult son has
told her that he needs her space from her – that he wants to live his own life,
and there is nothing she can do to stop that. Then he gets into an accident,
killing a poor child, and she’s jumps back into his life – controlling his
every interaction with the police, hiring a lawyer, trying to bribe a witness
who could be a problem for him. But she also uses it to weasel her way back
into every other aspect of his life as well – including a superb scene between
her and her son’s girlfriend, which is truly disturbing. She is a woman who has
put blinders on to all those around her – she cannot pretend to care about her
maid’s problems for example. Her constant presence has essentially ensured that
her son will always remain a child. And yet, Gheorghiu is not a one note
monster – it’s actually a remarkably subtle performance – and one that deserves
to be seen by far more people than have seen it so far.
1. Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl
The role of Amazing
Amy is one of the best female roles in American movies in recent years – hell it’s
one of the best period, which is why every actress in Hollywood seemed to be up
for the role at one point or another. Fincher surprised many by picking Pike –
but she ended up picking the perfect actress for it. Pike is stunningly
beautiful – who is able to do convey a lot in the early scenes of the movie,
without really doing much. She plays these scenes well – superficially she
looks like a sympathetic victim, but if you look a little closer, you see that
she’s really a blank slate (something that comes through on a second viewing
more – or if you’re looking for it because you know what is coming). In the second
half, where it becomes clear that she is the “villain” of the movie, and she
goes full psychopath she is even better – and it’s because she never goes over
the top with Amy, no matter what her behavior looks like. She is always in
control, always thinking, always plotting. Her righteous anger at Nick is fully
justified in her mind – and she plays that wonderfully well. She is logical to
a fault – cold to a certain degree, but she doesn’t see herself that way. She
is, to some a feminist icon, because her frustration is more universal than
people want to admit. But she is a calm, cool, psychopath – that beautiful face
masking deeper, darker thoughts. This is a brilliant performance by Pike – a star
making one, for an actress who has been doing solid work for nearly a decade,
and only now getting the role to show just how good she can be.
No comments:
Post a Comment