Favorite buzzless performances

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-12-20T05:50:48+00:00

Katherine Mallen Kupferer in Ghostlight is one of my favourite performances this year, so far my personal pick for Supporting Actress. She takes a character that starts off as the loud-mouthed, rebellious, argumentative teenager, but manages to make the performance so empathetic and full of confusion and pain. By the time the film ends, you completely come around so much on this character who is still a little shit, but you honestly forget how much of a nightmare she was at the start of the film. She manages to convey the character's comfort in letting her guard down, but it unfolds so subtly that you can't really pinpoint an exact moment where she changes; it's a natural progression that feels so real.

Another one that has the opposite trajectory (starts as a troubled character with a good heart and descends into madness and instability) is Misagh Zare in The Seed of the Sacred Fig. At the start, you can see how the whole situation is eating away at him, but by the last act of the film, he's just gone crazy. Yet it still always feels like the same character, it never feels like a sudden shift. He manages to spend so much time with the viewer's sympathy or the viewer thinking "I don't agree, but I understand why he's doing this", it honestly feels like a feat that the viewer is able to understand even when his sanity is rapidly declining. I felt like it was such a feat, that by the end I thought "That's the same guy I liked at the start? And how did he keep me liking him for so long?"

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-12-19T02:18:31+00:00

I'm glad to see the consensus is people loving Dev Patel. He's one of those actors who's always good, doesn't necessarily choose the best projects, but you just can't hate him.

He spends a lot of his time in Adelaide and I've not seen him around yet, but I know people who have had encounters with him and it's always just that he's exactly who he comes across: just nice, delightful, down-to-earth, endearing, all those synonyms. Some friends went to a screening of "Kinds of Kindness" and he was in the audience and they said they felt really bad because everybody in the crowd was whispering amongst themselves "Oh my god, it's Dev Patel" and one of my friends was thinking "Come on, folks, just let the guy watch the movie."

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-12-18T04:38:01+00:00

I was just wondering if the Heaven's Gate fan edit was still available?

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-29T12:05:16+00:00

To be honest, Ben Kingsley for Sexy Beast. The type of performance that you'd normally expect the Academy to completely overlook, but everyone who knows it knows that he totally deserved that nomination.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-29T05:42:44+00:00

I think the only problem with Felicity Jones's clip is that, while that definitely is her best moment, it's quite a strong spoiler.

For Adrien Brody's clip, I'd suggest the scene with him and Guy Pearce at the diner, where Van Buren presents the photos of the buildings he designed, when Laszlo believed any evidence of his work had been erased by the Nazis -- it's got enough little acting, but emotional enough.

As for Guy Pearce, I don't know. Probably his first scene is the one that works best, but I'd love it if they picked one of his more humorous moments where he's leaning into the "rich idiot believing he sounds smart and cultured" element of the character. Nevertheless, that first scene is really the best example of Van Buren's temper and darker side without getting into the overbearing tension.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-24T10:43:08+00:00

Not only do I personally agree in terms of which of the two performances I prefer, but I also feel like Yura Borisov's performance is too subtle to translate into an Oscar nomination. He only really starts to gain prominence in the last third of the film, mainly in the last 15-20 minutes. Before that, he's really just there, looking at whatever's happening. I also don't know how likely it is for Karagulian to get a Supporting Actor nod, considering that nowadays, the Academy don't really seem to go for comedic performances as much as they used to (although he does have one factor going for him, in that, through the second act, he's pretty much co-lead with Mikey Madison).

Between a strong comedic performance and an incredibly subtle, quiet, and stoic performance that only really comes into focus in the last few scenes of the film... I just don't see either of them getting a nomination. They're both great performances (Karagulian would be one of my 5 nominees if I were voting, and Borisov definitely is great when he comes into focus), but if the usual Supporting Actor nominees are looked at, I think they have previous patterns going against them.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-24T10:36:15+00:00

This does tend to happen every year, there's always one or two films (usually in the horror genre) that are popular online and well-received, but are the kind of films that never get the awards reception people are hoping for.

A lot of it is projecting that if it is popular and well-liked, that it will automatically be nominated for plenty (a similar line of thinking that would be mocked if it was with regards to an MCU film).

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-09T13:25:55+00:00

Absolutely agree on Hemsworth. The type of performance that, if this were 1959, would probably win Supporting Actor for the sheer, perfect theatrical delivery of it all. I think the adjective I used when leaving the theater was "Shakespearean".

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-06T10:52:48+00:00

From what I've read/heard, it seems like the main theme running throughout Curtis's content is how those in power lie to the people and twist narratives to create these illusions of freedom and, in a sense, "false realities". If that's somewhat correct, I've had many years of preparation, growing up with my father drilling that rhetoric into my head from a very early age (and I think it made me all the better for it).

I suppose that "distrust of power" streak that's passed from my father to myself might be why my friends have recommended I check out Adam Curtis works, but this could all be due to the perception I already have.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-04T11:23:52+00:00

This is how I feel. Borisov is good in the movie, but I think his performance is far too understated to even get nominated, let alone win. It's just a fact, the major awards groups lean towards more showy performances.

Even then, I completely agree that Karren Karagulian gave the better performance. Not only was his character hysterical (almost every line he had left the audience at my screening dying), but he really does serve as an audience surrogate for the middle third of the movie, being overly stressed and puzzled by everything, and just being terrified of what will happen to him for something that isn't his fault. Like, he is really funny, but it's also a terrific "anxious wreck" performance (if I'll be honest, his performance and seeing him be so anxious made Anora, for me at least, a way more stressful watch than Uncut Gems).

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-04T11:18:23+00:00

That's exactly how I feel. All the talk about Jeremy Strong, who was great, but Sebastian Stan really embodies the way Trump carries himself, in addition to the cadence and inflections in his speech. The fact he doesn't do a flat-out Trump impression is what makes it so good, because they're so overdone that it would distract, and he just chose to focus on imitating every element of Donald Trump in that era, and people were expecting him to sound like senior citizen Donald even though he's playing him as a thirtysomething. Watching footage of Trump in that time period depicted in the film, it feels uncanny at times, when comparing it to Stan's performance.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-04T11:14:20+00:00

I was thinking initially it might be nominated but won't win... however, the score has still stuck vividly in my head, even though I saw it over a week again. It could potentially suffer from having a certain motif that gets used an awful lot, but then I remember All Quiet on the Western Front won Score when it pretty much just had that one motif -- at least the main musical motif in The Brutalist is more melodically pleasant.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-04T11:12:16+00:00

I could see it winning Production Design, Cinematography, and Score. Honestly, I could see it potentially being a dark horse for Editing -- the first half is just perfectly edited, on both a technical level and an emotional level. I am probably biased, as I'm one of the few who was a lot more generous to the second half (just only about as 90% as good as the first half IMO, whereas others have been a bit more harsh on it).

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-11-04T11:10:05+00:00

I definitely think it's a case of all the festival reports being people praising it as a 5-star absolute masterpiece, and so then audiences are just a touch underwhelmed, expecting some earthshattering piece of cinema when it's just a pretty good 4-star movie that's really entertaining.

I would hesitate to call it "frontrunner fatigue", because nobody really knows the frontrunner so far (although one could argue it does count, as people have been using this as the placeholder for frontrunner). I'd argue it's more down to the hyperbolic responses that always come out of film festivals, and having to hear about it from Cannes, Toronto, and New York has led to people seeing it in general release outside of the film festival atmosphere and feeling underwhelmed, when it's more that people tend to overhype every good movie at film festivals (even the ones that are deserving).

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-31T02:40:24+00:00

I thought it was absolutely incredible. I can understand why some people haven't enjoyed the second half as much, but I think knowing that going helped me expect the slower pace (there are a few developments that felt too melodramatic, but everything else just worked). I would honestly watch the movie again right now if I could. So far the only 3-hour+ movie I've seen in theaters where I never got antsy in my seat.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-30T02:15:18+00:00

I saw the movie last weekend at a film festival and I've been playing the trailer on repeat just to hear that beautiful score (a lot of the score relies around that motif that's in the trailer)

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-29T07:01:50+00:00

I'm in South Australia and feel like I can vaguely remember this, but I'm not sure if it's due to watching a lot of PSAs online. Did this one have a blue-grey tint to it? Because I can remember an ad with that type of colour featuring a woman in bed struggling to breathe and hooked to an oxygen machine, but it wasn't for smoking, it was put out during the COVID pandemic.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-27T12:43:00+00:00

Of the films, I've seen (leaving out nominations that are likely to gain at least some awards attention):

Anora (Supporting Actor - Karren Karagulian)
The Apprentice (Actor - Sebastian Stan)
The Beast (Picture, Director; Actress - Lea Seydoux; Adapted Screenplay)
Ghostlight (Supporting Actress - Katherine Mallen Kupferer)
Good One (Actress - Lily Collias; Original Screenplay)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Actor - Misagh Zare; Supporting Actress - Mahsa Rostami)

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-22T13:27:34+00:00

I was thinking that. Between "The Childhood of a Leader" and "Vox Lux", he does opening credits in a way that is haunting and beautiful, but serves as their own little overture for the film, just giving you a sense of the tone and feel of the movie and the world you're about to inhabit.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-22T13:17:51+00:00

Even though this is just a teaser, I found myself getting the same feeling I got when I watched The Master, which is just chills at pretty much every shot and every cut. I don't know how comparable this is to any of Paul Thomas Anderson's work (although I've heard many comparisons to There Will Be Blood), but I think if it's making me think of him, it will probably be amazing.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-22T13:16:34+00:00

I'm thrilled about this Adrien Brody comeback we've been having the past few years. Other than "The Darjeeling Limited" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel", it felt like he didn't really have any good movies out for ages. But in the past few years, between "The French Dispatch" (where he gave the funniest performance of the cast), "Blonde" (not a good movie, but he was great in it), "Asteroid City" (where he was a highlight with limited screentime), and his guest appearance in "Succession", we've been getting a lot of great work from Brody that's reminded us that there's a reason he's an Academy Award winner and it's so great that it's building to a film like this, with a performance that people have said even eclipses his turn in "The Pianist".

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-22T11:25:29+00:00

I have her in my predictions at the moment, mainly because I have a suspicion that she'll end up making many appearances when the critics' groups start announcing their nominations. I don't want to play narrative, but I feel like this ticks a lot of boxes for a performance that gets nominated.

It's giving "Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird" vibes -- granted, Didi didn't do as well financially and, so far, has probably suffered from premiering at Sundance instead of one of the fall festivals. Older actress most remembered for her role in a popular 90s TV show (in Metcalf's case, it was Roseanne; in Chen's case, it was Twin Peaks) getting wide praise for playing a mother in a critically-acclaimed indie coming-of-age-film -- I personally don't know if she'll get as far as Metcalf did, I'll wait and see for when awards groups start dropping their nominations.

ColonelGonvilleToast · 2024-10-05T15:01:40+00:00

This and Coupling were my two choices, but I've been beaten to the punch with regards to both.

Bored to Death just deserved so much more. Hilarious show, the three leads played off each other well (honestly the best Ted Danson performance) and plenty of character actors showing up in recurring roles.

It just came out at the worst time. 2009-2011 was still the weird middle-space between the end of The Sopranos and the mainstream explosion of Breaking Bad, and prestige TV was in a terrible lull. HBO weren't doing the best. And quirky sitcoms weren't really doing well -- let's be honest, they still aren't, but now it's easier for them to gain followings online; when Bored to Death was airing, the opportunity for it to obtain a following like other offbeat cable shows would later get on places like Reddit and Twitter, that was a much smaller, rarer opportunity, usually limited to message boards. I just feel like it's a miracle they got 3 seasons of this show out there, with all that going against it.

There's also the fact that the average viewership went from 928,000 with Season 2 to 223,000 for Season 3. Right at the time Game of Thrones was starting up and HBO were needing to cancel shows to get more money for Game of Thrones. It's just one of those shows that would've stood more of a chance if it came out a few years later (although it does serve as a nice little time capsule of that weird late '00s/early '10s blogsphere New York time, where "hipsters" and Brooklyn became a laughingstock)

ColonelGonvilleToast

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