By Jon Kissel
The below performances, 5 male, 5 female, and one actor of the year, have not been nominated for an Academy award, despite all being quite deserving. Some performances that have (Mahershala Ali in Moonlight, Natalie Portman in Jackie) would certainly have made this list, but it's better to shine the low-wattage light of the MMC onto less celebrated films.
The below performances, 5 male, 5 female, and one actor of the year, have not been nominated for an Academy award, despite all being quite deserving. Some performances that have (Mahershala Ali in Moonlight, Natalie Portman in Jackie) would certainly have made this list, but it's better to shine the low-wattage light of the MMC onto less celebrated films.
Actor of the Year - Isabelle Huppert
French actress Isabelle Huppert gave three phenomenal performances in 2016. As a conflict photographer in Louder Than Bombs, she was an ethereal, mysterious presence in her family's lives. As a professor putting her life back together after a divorce in Things to Come, she flawlessly played a wide range of emotions from harried to warm. Finally, in Elle, as a severe businesswoman, Huppert wows with an enigmatic display of impossible-to-understand behavior that slowly reveals itself as the viewer learns more about her history. Any one of these would rank as some of the best work of the year, but combined, this is an output of historical proportions.
Ralph Fiennes - A Bigger Splash
Going as big as an actor can go, Ralph Fiennes manic music producer in A Bigger Splash makes a huge impression. Over the few days that the film takes place, Fiennes' Harry is the last to go to bed and the first to wake up, finishing breakfast by the time his vacation mates are groggily arising from their hangovers. His centerpiece scene, in which he dances like a spider monkey on meth, begins with him inviting others to dance, but that doesn't last. There isn't another person living who can match his energy.
Rebecca Hall - Christine
In a strange coincidence, Christine Chubbock, a reporter who shot herself on air, got two film treatments made about her in 2016. Rebecca Hall stars in the feature one (the other is a documentary), and is dominating as the troubled journalist. A more internal version of Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, Hall's Chubbock is a deeply-insecure ball of nerves, always keeping her guard up lest someone see her fraying inner self. Hall and director Antonio Campos keep the tension level high despite the preordained ending. She is presented with numerous outs throughout the film, and Hall plays out the possibility on her face, only to revert to her insecurities and pass, keeping her on her tragic path.
Ethan Hawke - Born to Be Blue
Musical biopics are a tough genre thanks to the precision spoofery of Walk Hard, but in Born to Be Blue, Ethan Hawke, as Chet Baker, does what Paul Dano did in 2015's Love and Mercy; he connects the audience directly to the subject's musical gifts and lets them wonder if this is a gift or a curse. Chronicling the part of Baker's life when he was recovering from a brutal beating caused by his drug addiction, Hawke gives the jazz legend a weariness well-earned after all the difficulties in his life. Despite his repeated failures and betrayals due to his drug habit, Hawke's Baker is too self-deprecating and charming to be hated by those he's failed and betrayed. Hawke is eminently watchable in the role, substituting his usual loquaciousness for an easy charm communicated with a tired smile.
Taraji P. Henson - Hidden Figures
Another surprisingly strong film in an oft-corny genre, the true story of three unheralded black women who shepherded NASA through the Space Race works based on the power of its story and the actors portraying these women. In Hidden Figures, none shines brighter than Taraji P. Henson. She blows the viewer back in their seat with a mid-film monologue that rages at a system that would needlessly hold her back, even in a STEM environment that should be based on results and output. Giving an old-fashioned performance full of the fundamental righteousness of Jimmy Stewart or Sidney Poitier, her tenacity in the face of the casual racism and sexism that characterizes her work environment is stirring to behold.
ROYALTY HIGHTOWER - THE FITS
The child star of The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer's sensational debut, Royalty Hightower is impossible to look away from. As a young girl transitioning from an all-male environment to an all-female one, she is utterly magnetic, often filling the screen with her intense visage. Occupying nearly every frame of the film, she gives a wholly convincing, occasionally ecstatic physical performance, credible as the mini boxer of the beginning and the confident dancer of the end. Hightower makes a strong pitch as the official mascot of the Internet's black-girl-magic.
Ralph Ineson - The Witch
The born-to-play-this-role award for 2016 goes to Ralph Ineson, who may as well be the reincarnation of a stern Puritan zealot from the 17th century. As the overwhelmed patriarch of an exiled family in Robert Eggers' The Witch, Ineson booms with authority in the town meeting that gets him kicked out, but is gradually revealed to be wholly incapable of taming the wilderness or protecting his family. Somehow, Ineson portrays his character as more foolhardy than malevolent, a good father despite his poisonous worldview. Not an easy caricature of religious fervor but instead a tragic figure, Eggers and Ineson treat the character fairly and empathetically, even as we watch what he holds dear slowly taken from him.
Daniel Radcliffe - Swiss Army Man
Playing a corpse who slowly comes back to life, Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man has added a very strange credit to his resume. That he amazes the viewer with a stunning capacity for physical comedy and rubber-face ensures this credit isn't a black mark. In this deeply weird, somehow uplifting film, Radcliffe's Manny is a font of life for his marooned companion, functioning as a baby learning about the rules of society even as he flaunts the physical rules of the world. When not contorting his features or barking out staccato questions, Radcliffe is endearing, pushing back against his flawed teacher and full of childlike curiosity. In a career marked by daring choices since his Harry Potter days, Radcliffe gives one of his most eccentric performances, and likely his best one, too.
Michael Shannon - Midnight Special
Anytime personal favorite Michael Shannon gives a reasonably good performance, he's likely to make a list like this one, but with his work in Midnight Special, that's more true than usual for 2016. Working again with frequent collaborator Jeff Nichols, Shannon is toned down from his usual theatrics but no less effective. Stern and resolute in trying to get his son to a destination before the government or a cult can get to him, he plays the entire arc of fatherhood in a two-hour film, going from protective to proud to resigned at an inevitable separation. Nichols knows where his bread his buttered and gives Shannon the opportunity to go big a couple of times, but this mostly quiet performance is Shannon's best work since Take Shelter, another story of a father trying to protect his family.
Sigourney Weaver - A Monster Calls
Sigourney Weaver earns her place on this list due to one scene, though her performance in A Monster Calls is the best part of that film overall. As the mother to a young woman dying of cancer and the grandmother to a consequently angry boy, she is the orderly port in a storm, keeping things running with an everything-in-its-place precision. When her grandson trashes an immaculately-appointed sitting room, she walks into the destruction and takes it all in. Wordless in her pain and devastation at this symbolic disordering of her life, Weaver subs in for any beloved authority figure or family member that's been let down, with waves of disappointment and hurt playing across her face. It's a scene so empathetic that the viewer wants to jump through the screen and grab a broom.
Rachel Weisz - The Lobster
The Lobster takes place in a superficially flat and emotionless world, and more than the rest of the superb cast, Rachel Weisz gives the lie to that impression. Introduced first as a narrator and later as a character, her voiceover is hilarious in its deadpan nonchalance, describing horrific events as if she was reading minutes from C-SPAN or interjecting when a boring character drones on too long. Once she appears onscreen, that level of monotone is maintained but her face says all the things that this odd and repressive society forbids her from saying. The glowing center in a dark film, Weisz has never been better.
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