Year in review / list mania each day. Here's Nathaniel...
This is our third year of highlighting that unpredictable spark between actors that can ignite greatness in a movie (see previously installments for 2015 and 2016 if you're so inclined). We had fun doing it before so we're going to keep on at it. If only we could bottle these formulas but the thing about great chemistry is that it can't ever be fully recreated even if old movies during the studio system teach us that the same pairing can generate similar energies again. Why Hollywood doesn't still try to repackage successful combos remains a missed opportunity both for pop culture impact and in-film loveliness. Just about the only films with recurring co-stars these days are franchises but that's a different kind of luck, since it would happen even if there was no actor-to-actor spark.
Okay here we go...
17 Jon Bernthal and Rosemary DeWitt, Sweet Virginia (secret lovers)
When you cast a couple in the right age range for their characters rather than making the women 20 years younger, you're often rewarded with adult sparks. Absolutely believed these two as a steady if "discreet" pair. The noir isn't about their romance but it gives it beautiful sturdy homey feelings to work from / and threaten.
16 Chris Pine and Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman (heroic f*** buddies)
"Above average"
15 Robin Wright and Ryan Gosling, Blade Runner 2049 (Boss & her work equipment)
Though the movie as a whole was lacking its many moving parts often carred a kind of perverse intricate grandeur... none more successful, I'd argue, than this relationship however lopsided.
14 Chris Hemsworth & Mark Ruffalo, Thor: Ragnarok ("friends...from work")
13 Kristin Scott Thomas & Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour (old marrieds)
Though Oldman's performance is one of those suns that everything orbits, which often prevents this kind of chemistry from happening in films of this ilk, Kristin Scott Thomas is a formidable enough actor to break from the orbital pull and redirect your feelings about the marriage.
12 Betty Buckley & James McAvoy, Split (therapist & patient(s))
What a joy to see Buckley back. And to figure out which patient McAvoy is playing which time
11 Timothée Chalamet & Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name (lovers)
I'd argue, perhaps counterintuitively, that the central romance is not the movie's true source of power... it remains just out of reach, which is not unlike first love. Forever half real half idealized.
10 Jason Mitchell & Garrett Hedlund, Mudbound (unlikely friends)
It's both a curse and a pleasure that Mudbound has so many voices telling its story. Definitely needed more time with these two (though they're hardly given shortshirt) as the soul of the movie as two war veterans dreaming of less painful lives.
09 Willem Dafoe & cast, Florida Project (motel manager and tenants)
With next to no help from the naturalistic non-expository dialogue Willem Dafoe and the first timers he's surrounded by successfully show you the wary/protective/angling dance these characters have been engaged in before the movie and probably will after it, too.
08 Josh O'Connor and Alec Secereanu, God's Own Country (unlikely lovers)
07 Julie Walters & Cast, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (mother to brood, both literal and figurative)
T'was a stroke of genius to let Walters mother Jamie Bell again (Billy Elliott reunion!). Even better when you see how she's working so hard to mother them all including her much doted-on movie star 'daughter'
06 Richard Jenkins & Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water (neighbors)
That scene in the hallway. Yes!
05 Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic & Jacob Tremblay, Wonder (immediate family)
*cries*
04 Rebecca Hall, Luke Evans, and Bella Heathcote, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (throuple)
The year's sexiest adult romance between consenting adults was polyamorous. May this movie have a much longer life on streaming than it did in theaters.
03 Cast, BPM (Beats Per Minute) (community activists)
Few movies outside of Altman pictures ever understand how to capture group dynamics. That's the subject of BPM and the actors winningly dive in. You're in the room with them, constantly shifting allegiances, crushes, petty grievances, and all.
02 Holly Hunter, Ray Romano, and Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick (In-Laws)
It's surprising that the heart of this romantic comedy is not the romance but the bonds formed with future in-laws. They say you're marrying someone's whole family when you marry them but few movies actually show even a tiny glimpse of that.
01 Saoirse Ronan and Everyone, Lady Bird (Various)
Cheating here for #1 but the great young actress and her writer/director Greta Gerwig manage to make every relationship sing and most of them in different keys, too. Sondheim would be so proud. From first romance, to rebound fling, to mother/daughter, father/daughter, best friends, to student and faculty, and so on. You're always exactly sure of the interpersonal dynamic at work even if Lady Bird herself isn't as observant about it.