It seems like it’s been a while since we had this
many great performances in the supporting actor category – but when it rains,
it pours, and this year had a wealth of choices.
Some great performances that I didn’t have room for
in the top 10 included: Alan Alda in
Marriage Story uses his good guy charm to good effect in the film – the
lawyer who wants the best for everyone, but perhaps isn’t the right fit. Sterling K. Brown in Waves is wonderful
as the caring, too involved father, who thinks he is doing the right thing –
but it leads to a very bad place. Woo-sik
Choi in Parasite as the son who gets everything started, and ends the film
with an unforgettable moment of delusion and heartbreak. Asier Etxeandia in Pain & Glory as the director’s old star, who
shows just how talented he was – and could still be. Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems is great, playing an exaggerated
version of himself – a vein athlete. Anthony
Hopkins in The Two Popes is excellent in the role of Pope Benedict – and
could have been even better had the screenplay gone deeper. Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man in
San Francisco as the best friend and artist, who does his best to express
the feeling of an entire city through his work. Sam Rockwell in Richard Jewell is so good in ways that are
instantly recognizable, so he gets over looked. Leonardo Sbarglia in Pain & Glory who is only in one scene, as
the director’s old boyfriend, but it’s one of the most memorable, and best acted
scenes of the year. Wesley Snipes in
Dolemite is My Name is having the time of his life as his above it all
character – it’s not a deep performance, but every line reading is a killer.
And now, the top 10.
10. John Turturro
in Gloria Bell
For the most part, Sebastian Leilo’s English
language remake of his own film Gloria is basically a redo of that film – a
very good redo, with an excellent performance by Julianne Moore – but a redo
just the same. The one aspect of the film that really sticks out this time
though is John Turturro’s great performance as Moore’s new love interest – a
recent divorced man, who is still way too involved in his ex-wife’s life, not
to mention his two adult daughters, who rely on him for everything. Turturro’s
performance here is vanity free (it’s a nice reveal the first time he has sex
with Moore for example) – and a portrait of a pathetic man, who says he knows
what he wants, but is powerless to overcome his own insecurity and anxiety.
Turturro is always great – he’s particularly great in this film.
9. Jeremy Bobb in
Under the Silver Lake
Jeremy Bobb is in all of one scene in Under the
Silver Lake – but it’s the single best scene of the film, and one of the very
best of the year. As the mysterious character known as The Songwriter, Bobb’s
job, under a hell of a lot of makeup, and a bad wig, is the detail the ludicrous
conspiracy theory that underpins everything that has happened in the film. To
say more is the ruin the film’s surprises – but needless to say, Bobb
absolutely nails this scene – it’s the type of one scene wonder performance
that will become famous in the years to come, when more people realize just how
good this very strange film is.
8. Shia LaBeouf in
Honey Boy
Shia LaBeouf wrote Honey Boy, and is essentially
playing a version of his own father. When LaBeouf was a child actor, his father
was his manager and chaperone – despite the fact that he was an abusive,
recovering alcoholic and a convicted sex offender. The film is about just how
far his father pushes him – who petty and jealous of his own son he was, and
how that effected the son into adulthood. And yet, if LaBeouf played him as a
monster, it would be boring. Instead, he plays him as a sympathetic, fully
rounded person who does horrible things, talks a mile a minute, and for whom
every day is a struggle. It is a great performance by LaBeouf – really the best
of his career – and what’s more, it feels like the performance he had to give
in order to move on.
7. Kelvin Harrison
Jr. in Waves
Kelvin Harrison Jr. is one of the great young
actors working now – and 2019 represented a huge breakout year for him with his
lead performance in Luce, and his performance here in Waves – which anchors the
first half of the movie. In the film, Harrison plays a young black man, who
feels the weight of the world on his shoulders – the expectations from his
father and stepmother to be a good man, to get a scholarship in wrestling, and
the weight for his girlfriend to step up and take care of his responsibilities.
And then, of course, it all comes crashing down around him – and he doesn’t
know how to react. As with the film in general, Harrison’s emotions here are
cranked up to 11 – and yet they don’t feel phony or forced or overblown – but
exactly right. It’s a big, bold, volatile performance – and Harrison shows why
he is could be one of the next greats.
6. Willem Dafoe in
The Lighthouse
Willem Dafoe has always been a great actor – and
he’s having quite a renaissance in the last couple of years, picking up Oscar
nominations for The Florida Project and At Eternity’s Gate. His performance in
The Lighthouse is lighter than either of those – in fact, it should probably
not be allowed to be this good in a movie while clearly having this much fun in
the role. Dafoe plays the older, gruffer, cruder, ruder, more flatulent of the
two lighthouse keepers in the film – and he delights in tormenting poor Robert
Pattinson throughout the course of the movie, although eventually that
lightness turns dour and sour and paranoid – and he goes off the rails
wonderfully. There is nothing subtle about this performance – certainly not the
accent – but there is also nothing in it that isn’t perfect for the role.
Another for Dafoe’s pantheon.
5. Tom Hanks in A
Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
For all the jokes people make about Hanks and all
the Oscars he’s won and been nominated for – he actually hasn’t been nominated
at all since CastAway nearly 20 years ago – and in recent years has delivered
some great performances (Captain Phillips, Bridge of Spies) that perhaps
deserved more love than they got. He delivers one of his very best performances
ever as Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – it was perfect
casting of course, but Hanks doesn’t play Rogers as a secular saint – he goes
deeper than that. His Rogers is the man with infinite wells of kindness and
patience – but there’s also something a little creepy about him, a little
stand-offish, in the way he just pretends he doesn’t hear the questions he
doesn’t want to answer, or else won’t give details about them – although you
can see that pain there. What Hanks plays here is a man of immense self-control
– and how that may just be a little sad, in addition to all the great things
Mr. Rogers did – and meant – to so many.
4. Al Pacino in The
Irishman
Pacino was the perfect choice for Scorsese’s Jimmy
Hoffa – it brings Pacino into the Scorsese fold of gangster epics, which oddly
he had never been in before. But it’s also because Pacino isn’t afraid of going
big, bold and risk going over the top. Sometimes, Pacino goes too far – but
that doesn’t happen here. Here, the big and bold is perfect for Hoffa, who was
that was anyway, and as the film moves along you realize that most of that in
Hoffa is bluster – almost comic. He doesn’t really believe they will take him
down. It’s Pacino finally having a chance to give his talents to Scorsese – and
Scorsese knowing the absolute perfect way to use those talents.
3. Kang-ho Song in
Parasite
One of the biggest stars in Korean – and one of the
best actors in the world – I am delighted that Kang-ho Song seems to finally be
getting the type of attention that he deserves for his best ever work for
frequent collaborator Bong Joon-ho. Here, playing the father of the family
trying to integrate itself into the life of a rich family, Song is brilliant in
the early scenes – where things are lighter and funnier, and even more so as
the action gets more frantic, and ke tries in vein to keep things under
control. One of the absolute best moments of acting in any film this year is
when he is laying on that cot, and finally admits he has no plan – it’s a
culmination of his performance and character in this film, but also in all of
his films with Bong – where he always seems to have something up his sleeve.
And that doesn’t even mention his devastating final moments. So I welcome the
world to the cult of Kang-ho Song – what took you so long?
2. Joe Pesci in
The Irishman
The smartest thing, in many smart things, about The
Irishman is the way it uses Joe Pesci. Pesci, whose well-known persona is based
on the hotheads he played in previous Scorsese gangster masterpieces GoodFellas
and Casino, is pretty much the exact opposite here. His Russell Bufalino is
every bit the killer of those characters – but a measured, calm, smart one. He
doesn’t raise his voice – because he knows he doesn’t have to. He exudes
authority, and knows he will be listened to by all who know what is good for
them. His final scenes are even quite touching, even if you know the person he
is. This may well be the final performance of Pesci’s career - it’s only his
third film this century, and his first is nearly a decade. If it is, what a way
to go out on top.
1. Brad Pitt in
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Brad Pitt is one of those interesting movie stars
in that he is one of those few actors who can still pull of the absolute movie
star performance – like in the Ocean’s films or Moneyball, where he coasts on
his charm, his talent, his good looks and good humor. That’s a skill few people
have left. But he’s also an excellent character actor when he wants to be –
diving in deep to characters, drudging up something profound. His best
performances – like in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert
Ford, and now this one in Once Upon in a Hollywood, Pitt combines those two
aspects of his talent, to deliver something truly special. His Cliff is really
the heart of the film, the connective tissue between everything – and Pitt
doesn’t let that go. He also embraces the contradictions in his character – the
complex morality, or amorality, of his character that complicates his status as
a hero. It is the best performance in a great career – probably the best in any
category this year.
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