Another insanely good year for this category – just
look at the great work that didn’t make my top 10 this year. Glenn Close in The Wife gave one of her
best, and subtlest, performances in years as the genius behind the genius. Olivia Cooke in Thoroughbreds wonderfully
played the more outwardly insane of a pair of murderous teenage girls. Viola Davis in Widows nails the role very
tricky balance between tough and vulnerable. Claire Foy in Unsane went brilliantly paranoid in her best
performance of the year – that more people should have seen. Lady Gaga in A Star is Born played
this role to perfection – it may lack depth, but she does everything you could
ask her to and more. Maggie Gyllenhaal
in The Kindergarten Teacher took what was a great role in the original
Israeli film, and brought even more depth and sympathy to a character who does
terribly unsympathetic things. Kathryn
Hahn in Private Life has been great in comedies for years – and is now
given a more dramatic role, and proves she’s equally good at that. Dakota Johnson in Suspiria had a
difficult role here, as she has to be ambiguous and unreadable – and did so
wonderfully (I’m so glad she’s freed of the 50 Shades series now). Anya-Taylor Joy in Thoroughbreds is
brilliant as the more outwardly normally, and inwardly psychotic of the pair of
girls at the films core. Joanna Kulig in
Cold War is the emotional anchor of this film – and earns her spot here for
being the center of a dance sequence. Kiki
Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk is excellent as the true lead of the
movie – the one who takes on the weight of the world – and luminous as the
romantic lead. Rachel McAdams in Game
Night shows off the brilliant comedic chops and charm here that made
everyone think she was going to be the biggest star in the world 10-15 years
ago – and has one of the best single line readings of the year. Natalie Portman in Annihilation has a
difficult role here, having to anchor a wild movie that goes in so many
different directions, and she does it brilliantly. Julia Roberts in Ben is Back delivers one of her very best
performances, as a woman trying to save her teenage son from addiction. Mary Elizabeth Winstead in All About Nina is
far and away the best thing about this movie – giving another great performance
that makes you wonder why Hollywood hasn’t found more for her to do.
10.
Carey Mulligan in Wildlife
Carey Mulligan has been doing terrific work ever
since her breakthrough in An Education nearly a decade ago, and her role in
Wildlife is one of her best. Here, she plays the trapped 1960s housewife –
mother to a teenage son she leans too heavily on, and wife to a man who unhappily
drifts from job to job she finally goes a little mad herself when her husband
leaves to take a dangerous job. She starts an affair, but doesn’t hide it very
well, she starts to break down, and doesn’t hide that at all. She is coming
apart at the seams, and her teenage son doesn’t know how to deal with it –
cannot even quite tell what is wrong with her. It really is a kind of
heartbreaking performance – she is a woman trapped in her circumstances, and doesn’t
know how to get out, and makes the wrong choices. And yet, Mulligan never
judges her, never condemns her – and sees her with clear eyes. Another great
performance by one of my favorite actresses.
9.
Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
For those who have been paying attention, it’s no
surprise that Melissa McCarthy is a great actress. Even in her wildly funny and
entertaining comedic work, where she is no stranger to going over the top,
there has always been an undercurrent of sadness to her work – and however big
her characters are, they are always human underneath. In Can You Ever Forgive
Me, McCarthy finally gets to show her range on the big screen. Here, playing a
lonely, angry, smart but poor woman who falls into forgery accidentally, the
finds out how great she is at it. There is humor to the film to be sure – and
McCarthy delivers that, but she foregrounds the sadness to her character as
well. When she finally makes a friend, finally gets some money – she is happy,
and she isn’t quite sure what to do with that. This is terrific work by
McCarthy – and will hopefully prove to those who didn’t already know just how
large her range is.
8.
Charlize Theron in Tully
As someone who thinks the best performance of
Charlize Theron’s career is in the Jason Reitman directed, Diablo Cody scripted
Young Adult, I was excited to see the trio reunite for Tully. Tully is a
strange movie – a dark movie, but dark in a way any parent – especially mothers
– will understand. Theron plays a woman who while in her 20s, live and worked
an exciting job in New York, drinking at hot clubs, sleeping with whoever she
wanted. Now, she’s in her late 30s, married, a mother of three kids (including
a surprise new born) and living in the suburbs – and is over worked and over
tired, and cannot help but wonder if she made one mistake after another. Theron
goes there – to that place that we all go to at times. No, the film didn’t make
much money – and it seems to have been forgotten this awards season – but I
have a feeling it’s going to grow in stature over time – especially Theron’s
brilliant, zero vanity performance.
7.
Yalitza Aparicio in Roma
Newcomer Yalitza Aparicio delivers a stunning
performance in Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. As Cleo, the maid to a middle class
family, she is pretty much at the center of every scene in the film – carrying
it with silent dignity, and overwhelming emotions, that she lets wash over her
face. Cleo is a brave woman – she doesn’t let anything keep her down, she just
bares down and gets through whatever she has to get through in order to survive
– often putting the needs of her employers over her own. The two big scenes at
the end of the movie (you know the ones I mean) are emotional powerhouses – and
it’s remarkable what Aparicio does in them. Hopefully, this is the start of a
great career for her.
6.
Thomasin McKenzie in Leave No Trace
Young McKenzie is the heart of Leave No Trace – a teenage
girl who has had to age beyond her years, as she lives in the forest with her
father – and who is really taking care of who is a very real question. McKenzie
is great in the opening scenes – as she tries to hold on to the only real way
of life she knows. But as the movie progresses, her performance progresses too
– she no longer wants to hide from society, no longer thinks that everyone else
is against them. It’s a tough as nails performance from her, where she has to
do so much. She is at the heart of nearly every scene – and it’s the type of
performance that should launch a great career.
5.
Regina Hall in Support the Girls
Regina Hall’s performance in Support the Girls is
one of those quietly remarkable ones where everything she does seems so simple,
and yet it adds up to a powerhouse of a performance that you will not forget.
Here Regina plays the manager of a Hooters-like restaurant, who loves her
“girls” – not in a creepy way, but in a way that actually support them,
encourage them – and inspire loyalty in them. She runs the place pretty much
solo – doing everything to keep it going, and while on the job, she is a
portrait of competence. But in her personal life, everything is falling apart.
By the time we get to the end of the movie – which is perfect – we are right
there with her. Hall is one of those actresses who has been around forever, and
never gotten a ton of respect. That changes with this remarkable performance.
4.
Olivia Colman in The Favourite
There are some performances that you see and know
will become instantly iconic – and Olivia Colman playing Queen Anne as a
spoiled child throwing a constant temper tantrum is one of them. That surface
level of the performance is entertaining in a big, oversized way. But what
makes the performance one of the very best of the year is the fact that
Colman’s role goes deeper than that surface level. The film is about three
women, who are all trapped in the misogynistic traps of their time – two of
them know this from the start, and Colman’s Queen Anne only gradually figures
it out over time. Those rabbits are her character in a microcosm – at first, it
seems like an eccentricity, but when you get closer, it becomes sad and tragic.
Colman, who has never not been great, is finally getting the attention she
deserves.
3.
Helena Howard in Madeline’s Madeline
One of the great performances of the year that no
one is talking about is Helena Howard’s wonderful debut performance in
Madeline’s Madeline. Here, she’s playing a teenager who feels like an outsider
at school, an outsider at home – and the only place she feels at home is at her
drama class – where she maybe being exploited without her knowledge. Howard’s
work here runs the gamut – it’s an intensely physical performance, performative
in the extreme, in very different ways. But it’s also a deeply emotional
performance of a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. This is
one of the great performances of the year – and I wish more people realized it.
2.
Elsie Fisher in Eighth Grade
Is there a more honest and painfully awkward
performance this year than Elsie Fisher’s in Eighth Grade? Here, she plays an
eighth grader who is one person in her head – outgoing and funny, with lots of
friends and fans, popular, with a boyfriend, and then there is that painfully
shy girl who can never quite get out of her mouth what she wants to say. The
camera hardly ever leaves her side – and sees pain and horror ever and
potential embarrassment around every corner. Fisher is great at every scene –
from those awkward Youtube videos, to trying to hide in the plain site at a
party, to that terrifying scene in the car, to her one real moment of triumph –
when she stands up for herself. This is a great performance – and I cannot wait
to see what Fisher does next.
1.
Toni Collette in Hereditary
Toni Collette’s performance in Hereditary is the
type of work that wins an actress an Oscar – as long as it happens in a movie
that isn’t a horror film. She is playing a woman with a complicated
relationship with her recently passed mother, and perhaps an equally
complicated and strained relationship with her children. She buries herself in
her work – making very creepy, and personal – dioramas to keep her feelings at
bay, because she knows what will happen if she were allow them to bubble to the
surface – which, of course, is what will eventually happen. Collette is the
emotional core of the film, and her performance is both intensely internal and
subtle, and can explode in rage. Collette is brilliant in this film – and deserves
all the accolades, and more, that she has received for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment