13 Great Movie Performances From 2018
If you're like me, you go to the movies with the full intention of escaping. But that doesn't mean I want to forget about my own world and enter one stuffed to the brim with superheroes fighting in a battle royale, or full of exhaustingly confusing heists, or where cars and helicopters and boats or any other method of transportation exploding to the delight of the popcorn-crunching masses. One of my favorite things about the movies is watching actors perform, creating fully realized characters that are more than just lines of dialogue from a script. The following performances are some of my favorite of the year, the roles that found beauty, tension, and levity in films that transcend genre throughout 2018.
It's not often you see an actor take on the horror genre with the kind of guts and seriousness that they may insert into a more middle-of-the-road, Oscar-baiting style role. But Toni Collette isn't your typical actor, and she's proven her ability to blend into any character no matter the genre in which she plays. (She previously earned an Oscar nomination for another horror film, The Sixth Sense.) Hereditary is a full onslaught of terror, with shocking twists and turns creeping not-so-subtly around bends in the road and corners of a dark room. At the center of it all is Collette's Annie, who is at first consumed with grief after the death of her semi-estranged mother-and then overcome with madness as she begins to suspect her mother hasn't fully left her after all. But Collette doesn't soak her performance in rueful sadness; it's a horror film, after all, and she appears to be having as much fun as her director in scaring the hell out of an audience.
In 1976, Taxi Driver served up a breakthrough lead role for Robert De Niro, who at the beginning of his film career played an unsettled driver in New York City whose descent into madness included some of the most iconic quotes in film history. Forty-two years later, the man behind those lines-Paul Schrader, who also directs-would deliver another powerful script about a lonely man who loses his mind in the face of an existential crisis. Ethan Hawke is not at the beginning of his career, however, but he's never played a role like Ernst Toller, the beleaguered reverend of a small New York church whose faith is tested when one of his parishioners expresses his own anxiety about the current state of the world. While less gritty than its spiritual predecessor, First Reformed offers a sometimes comically bleak worldview-and one trippy twist ending-all centered around Hawke's commanding lead performance, which may be the best of his career.
Of all the elements that made Black Panther such a game-changer-the stunning direction from Ryan Coogler, the tight script, and the revolutionary way it grounded the superhero genre into our own real world-my favorite was Michael B. Jordan, who brought a searing humanity to a comic book villain, the likes of which we have not seen since Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning turn as The Joker. In his third outing with Coogler, Jordan once again examined the damaged psyche of a young man who has lived his life without a father-the absence of which has formed and shaped his identity and created him into the man he became. Killmonger is also one of the complex and real villains in a long time, a perfect antagonist to Chadwick Boseman's hero that forces the film's audience into empathizing with Killmonger's own struggles and worldview. His final scene is iconic, a brutal dramatic moment that one would not usually find in a Marvel film. While Coogler's script and direction set the foundation, it was Jordan's performance that carried the character to extreme heights.
In post-war Poland, a musicologist named Wiktor discovers a plucky young singer, Zula, and casts her in a traveling show that boasts Poland's patriotic music. The two fall in love, and Pawe? Pawlikowski's film sees Wiktor and Zula's relationship tested by numerous forces.
There's an oft-repeated line about acting: "Dying is easy. Comedy is hard." So what happens when you try to do both? Charlize Theron re-teamed with director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody-the three worked together previously with the sharp and biting black comedy Young Adult-for the similarly bleak and cutting Tully. Theron once again excels at playing a woman whose disappointments overwhelm her; following the birth of her third child, she finds herself exhausted and worn down, desperate for the chance to reignite a spark in her life and find the joy she's supposed to experience as a mother. In comes the titular Tully, a plucky night nurse played by Mackenzie Davis who reminds Theron's Marlo what it's like to feel alive again. The result is strangely funny and bittersweet-there's a third act twist that turns the entire film on its head. But Theron's performance, both hilarious and sad all at once, keeps the satirical and irreverent Tully on solid ground.
I'll admit that I was feeling cold when I finished Chang-dong Lee's slow-moving Korean drama about three young people: a delivery man named Jongsu; Haemi, an aloof woman he admires; and Ben, a mysterious wealthy man. Days after watching the film, I couldn't stop thinking about it-or Ah-in Yoo's performance. The film is presented as an emotional mystery, which is full of unanswered questions presented to us far before the actual mystery-Haemi's sudden disappearance-actually begins. Ushering us along is the Yoo's Jongsu, who is quiet, distant, discomforting, and always watching the people around him and looking for clues about who they might really be. With all of the confusion and paranoia of a film noir, but with social commentary about class warfare in contemporary South Korea, Burning rewards its patient viewers with a complex narrative that may very well extend beyond its running times into their own imaginations as they attempt to solve the enigma that Jongsu can't on his own. And Ah-in Yoo, too, may haunt the audience for days after the final credits roll.
Andrew Bujalski's Support the Girls is a little comedy with a giant heart, and at its center is Regina Hall's surprising and genius portrayal of Lisa, the beleaguered manager of an unassuming sports bar-the kind of place that attracts its clientele because of its cute waitstaff in tight t-shirts rather than the likely mediocre food. The film depicts, mostly, one eventful day in Lisa's humdrum life, which sees her dealing with a idiotic thief, some rowdy patrons, a condescending boss, and her somewhat unruly waitresses. It's not a splashy role, but Hall seems to savor in Lisa's ordinary life, which doesn't seem to have much direction and requires extra emotional labor in order to find its ultimate purpose. The lesson here: Work is hell, but the people make it worth doing, and Hall's Lisa finds herself in a parental role to the young women who ultimately look up to her. It's a delightful and charming indie comedy that gives Hall the opportunity to do what she does best: be fully human, with all of the joys and disappointments a woman like Lisa would have to face with equal measure in a manner of a few hours.
Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor) is your typical lovelorn teenage girl, drafting love letters to her former crushes for her eyes only. But when the letters wind up being mailed to the former objects of her affection, her life is turned upside-down as the boys confront her about her former feelings.
In Paul Dano's directorial debut (co-written with his partner, Zoe Kazan), a family falls apart before our very eyes. While her husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) leaves her behind with their young son on a fool's errand to find himself by fighting wildfires, Jeanette sets out on her own to find work, to find her own purpose, and along the way only creates a bigger divide in her marriage and in her relationship with her son. Along the way she meets a wealthy older man who can offer her an escape from the world she detests more with every day, and it's then that Carey Mulligan delivers her surprising turn-making Jeanette savvy, slightly dangerous, and full of fire and grit. The result is tense and brimming with energy, like watching a the embers from a fire crackle and pop in the air, threatening to burn everything within close proximity.
If you're like me, you go to the movies with the full intention of escaping. But that doesn't mean I want to forget about my own world and enter one stuffed to the brim with superheroes fighting in a battle royale, or full of exhaustingly confusing heists, or where cars and helicopters and boats or any other method of transportation exploding to the delight of the popcorn-crunching masses. One of my favorite things about the movies is watching actors perform, creating fully realized characters that are more than just lines of dialogue from a script. The following performances are some of my favorite of the year, the roles that found beauty, tension, and levity in films that transcend genre throughout 2018.
These actors found humanity in their characters, no matter what genre their films represent.
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