Probably the biggest tragedy of my life, and arguably the worst tragedy facing the nation in this trying time, is that I don't really know how to write about acting, directing, and writing. And the second biggest tragedy for me and the continental United States is that I've felt deeply compelled to remind you all of this for a decade and a half, whenever I'm tasked with stringing together a few engaging words about those very things. It's a pickle and a half, but it's my sworn duty to go ahead and eat at least half of that pickle. You don't have to call me a hero; it's enough to know that you're thinking it.
So here's the deal: I have already lost sleep giddily planning what I want to tell you about The Power of the Dog's jangly in glass-filled score, or big dumb fun space prosthetics in Space Sweepers, or why The Green Knight's costumes are absolutely essential for the survival of this (and every) species, and if me losing my shit over film crafts sounds like fun, come back tomorrow and I can guarantee you a metric truckload of lost shit. For now, however, rather than trying to get too in-depth, I'm just going to present my top 5 in each of the acting, writing, and directing categories, with some quick thoughts about the category in general. Which means that, compared to yesterday's truly punishing post, today's might only take you a few minutes to read, and I might not even have to sit, weeping, with my hands in the freezer afterward! Dreams really do come true. So let's get to it! Wild horses couldn't stop me from finishing these posts, but they'll certainly try--they're already on the doorstep, and I don't know how much longer I've got until they get in, so I'll go ahead and get started.
Note: I've scattered a few youtube clips of the performances throughout. No rhyme or reason, just whatever I felt like showing off, whenever I felt like doing it.
Best Actress
5. Mary Twala-This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection
4. Renate Reinsve-The Worst Person in the World
3. Kristen Stewart-Spencer
2. Olivia Colman-The Lost Daughter
1. Penelope Cruz-Parallel Mothers
Honorable mention: Isabelle Fuhrmann-The Novice
I love Twala's dogged confidence and anger as well as Reinsve's constantly shifting sense of place and self, like she couldn't settle on a life if she tried. (I really wanted to find a clip for Mary Twala, but there's nothing at all, so here's a trailer, as this movie deserves a bigger audience--and contrary to what the trailer wants you to think, it's not a horror movie). And my girl K-Stew deserves a special shoutout--she's been great for a long time, but the bird-boned alien on a stage that she makes out of Diana is really special. Still, this category was always a death match between the final two, with Olivia Colman's inside-voice tornado of a complicated mother barely getting edged out by Cruz's even intricately detailed mother possessed by the forces of history (or maybe just by herself). Still, this is such a stellar category: if I were only picking 5 performances from the entire year (rather than 20), three of them would probably come from here.
Best Actor
5. Jim Cummings-The Beta Test
4. Udo Kier-Swan Song
3. Benedict Cumberbatch-The Power of the Dog
2. Simon Rex-Red Rocket
1. Hidetoshi Nishijima-Drive My Car
Honorable mention: Nicolas Cage-Pig
A vaguely underpopulated category this year, at least for me, but that doesn't mean there aren't riches to be found, from Jim Cummings--arguably the best there is at high-speed mental breakdown monologues-- Udo Kier, who gets in on sheer star power and gumption alone, throwing himself at long stretches of dialogue-free work, doing drag on a dime, and fighting with Jennifer Coolidge with equal abandon. And I'll always have room in my heart for Benedict Cumberbatch's Bronco-loving, sex-rag rubbing mess of a man in Power of the Dog. Simon Rex would make a great #1 choice--his giddy amorality, the way his eyes light up when he's thinking about himself, the breakneck pace of literally every single line he says. But ultimately I stuck with Nishijima's spells of quiet, the way he delivers Uncle Vanya lines 100 times over, and absolutely for the world-shattering ending of a scene I wrote about yesterday.
Supporting Actress
5. Kirsten Dunst-The Power of the Dog
4. Dakota Johnson-The Lost Daughter
3. Harriet Sansom Harris-Licorice Pizza
2. Park Yoo-rim-Drive My Car
1. Martha Plimpton-Mass
Honorable mention: Anne Dowd-Mass
100% the most difficult category for me to decide on--more than half of that lineup I didn't even have in my top 10 five minutes ago, but here we are. I think my dilemma stems from a huge list of great contenders (my shortlist has 31 performances on it) and a lack of the kind of head-over-heels love that I've got for performances in other categories this year. Still, who am I to deny the continued (and presumably eternal rise) of Dakota Johnson, for whom I will stan until the day she seals me in the sarcophagus of her choice, and the same goes for Kirsten Dunst, whose frozen mask of mortification and despair during the dinner party piano scene provides some of the best-acted moments of the year. Also thrilled to offer a spot to Harriet Sansom Harris--while everyone was throwing accolades at Bradley Cooper for his short but punchy work, Harris was lurking behind him with her lips bared and a twinkle in her eye. It's tempting to go whole hog for Drive My Car, and for Park Yoo-rim's contributions to that scene I keep going on about--and the subtle grace and warmth she brings to an otherwise cool movie are certainly trophy. But I'll stick with Martha Plimpton to the end, whose gargantuan final monologue hits like a truck, but who resonates just as strongly in her moments of listening and silence (of which she has many), staring like she's carving a book into the walls with her eyes.
Supporting Actor
5. Troy Kotsur-CODA
4. Chaske Spencer-Wild Indian
3. Kodi Smit-McPhee-The Power of the Dog
2. Jeffrey Wright-The French Dispatch
1. Vincent Lindon-Titane
Honorable mention: Alex Wolff-Pig
Another terribly difficult group to narrow down (and with apologies to Anders Danielsen Lie and Mike Faist), but I love the lineup I ended up with. Spencer is unmissable in a little-seen movie, nothing but nerves and pain and guilt mashed together into one slow-motion explosion. Kotsur is the opposite, a constant whirlwind of positivity, humor, and emotion--it's hard to watch any scene he's in and look anywhere else. Kodi Smit-McPhee's is one that's even more fascinating on a second watch, all the little tics, gestures, and tones (or lack thereof) that trace a thin line between what the character's performing for himself, and what he's performing for everyone else. Wright would be a satisfying winner here--why doesn't this man have an oscar, or even a nomination yet--but Lindon is an absolute force in Titane, hulking slab of a physical presence backed by a squall line of something--whatever screaming little monsters live in this man's head, occasionally climbing out his ears or down his nose.
Director
5. Ryusuke Hamaguchi-Drive My Car
4. Steven Spielberg-West Side Story
3. Tsai Ming-liang-Days
2. Julia Decournau-Titane
1. Jane Campion-The Power of the Dog
Honorable mention: Oliver Hermanus-Moffie
Another embarrassment of riches (have we talked enough about how many great movies came out this past year?), one in which Hamaguchi's tightness, formal control, and deep wells of emotion only musters a fifth place finish. I debated kicking Spielberg out for a 'cooler' choice, but the strength and clarity of his vision for that movie is like 90% of why it works (and it really works), so he's earned his place. A real steel cage match between Decournau and Campion for the gold, both women who crafted something strange, tense, sensual, and totally off the wall bonkers. Ultimately, Campion takes it by an anthrax-ridden hair.
Original Screenplay
5. Parallel Mothers
4. Pig
3. This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection
2. Titane
1. Bergman Island
Honorable mention: Mass
A wild variety of movies here, ranging from Parallel Mothers's woozy mashup of melodrama and memories of fascism to Pig's terse and elaborate monologues and This Is Not a Burial's languorous pace, lingering quiets and shocking/transporting ending. Yet again, Titane comes up just short, but not because I don't love a movie that has its serial-killing protagonist murder someone by sticking a stool leg through their head and then sitting on that stool. Still, how could I say no to the bifurcated timelines, fantasies and film plots that fold quietly into the grooves of reality, its pitch-perfect romance and its deep and vaguely pleasant melancholies?
Adapted Screenplay
5. West Side Story
4. Zola
3. The Green Knight
2. The Power of the Dog
1. Drive My Car
Honorable mention: The Lost Daughter
A bunch of these movies offer a masterclass on how to adapt something and make it your own: how West Side Story reimagines and recontextualizes its story and setting for a new century, how Zola takes one huge twitter monologue and imbues it with motion and scale, or how The Green Knight turns a 700-year old poem into a bizarro fantasy road trip movie about contending with the weight of your own future. The Power of the Dog is an admirable and robust piece of work, and deserves all the praise it gets, but I've got to go (once again) with Drive My Car for its insights into the source material and its addition to it (all the Uncle Vanya rehearsal scenes were created for the film), scaffolding something new and improved into the cliffside.
And once again, we've ended for the night! I said that this would only take me an hour to write, but somehow I started at at 10.15 this morning and it's already dinnertime. (...he says 'somehow' like he didn't take a break to watch Dune.) I'll be back tomorrow (or possibly Tuesday, depending on real-world things) to talk about the craft categories, but for now you'll have to make do with wondering how many more times I'm going to mention Drive My Car (is it more than one and less than ten? Maybe!).
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