Year in review list mania each day. Here's Nathaniel...
This is our fourth year of highlighting that unpredictable spark between actors that can elevate a movie whether the movie is able to catch up or not (see previously installments for '15, '16 and '17, if you're so inclined). 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 at least generate similar energy again. Why Hollywood doesn't still try to repackage successful combos of actors (rather than just all the brand do-overs) remains an unsolved mystery
Herewith the most beautifully realized relationship energy of the year...
18 [TIE] Ben Foster & Thomasin McKenzie, Leave No Trace
AND Josh Hamilton & Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade (Single Father/Teenage Daughter)
There's a lot to recommend in both films, two sleeper arthouse successes this year, but neither film would have the same emotional resonance without that authenticity of feeling in the central duet. Marvel at the way Hamilton looks at or speaks to Fisher, for example, perpetually impatient to be let in on her interior life, but also nervous about intruding on her journey and walling her off yet further. Equally impressive is the difficult balancing act McKenzie plays as both dutiful daughter and emotional caretaker for her troubled father, as she grows ever more restless to escape him without losing him. What a quartet of performances...
17 Chloe Moretz, Sasha Lane, and Forrest Goodluck, The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Misery Loves Company)
There's power in unity, especially for oppressed people. Cameron Post is a bit uneven but at its core it's quite truthful about the way queer young people form immediate bonds with their own while they await adult escape from their needlessly small lives and homophobia-ridden circumstances.
16 Regina King & Colman Domingo, If Beale Street Could Talk (Parents)
Their scenes are never about their marriage but watch how both actors imbue everything with the cushioning strength of this longtime love. #COUPLEGOALS
15 Hilary Swank & Michael Shannon, What They Had (Estranged Siblings)
Relatable. They nailed the odd dichotomy of being both totally comfortable and uncomfortable with someone at the same exact time, shared history as bonding agent.
14 Raul Castillo & Evan Rosado, We the Animals (Father & Son)
Please seek this Indie Spirit nominated treasure out. You won't be sorry you did.
12 [TIE] Nicole Kidman & Lucas Hedges, Boy Erased
AND Julia Roberts & Lucas Hedges, Ben is Back (Mother & Son)
On the evidence of these two relationships, both quite moving however flawed the movies around them, as well as his breakout in Manchester by the Sea, Lucas Hedges should continue exploring the complicated bonds between troubled sons and their loving but sometimes clueless chief parent/guardian who isn't quite sure how to guide them into adulthood. At least as long as said parent/guardian is an Oscar-winning actor. Hedges just turned 22 so he's only got a couple more years left to explore this. DO A FEW MORE QUICK!
11 Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively, A Simple Favor (Odd Couple Friendship)
They couldn't be more perfectly cast and their odd couple alliance and very different screen energy powers this hugely enjoyable genre-hopping film.
10 Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Nick Robinson, Alexandra Shipp, and Katharine Langford in Love Simon (High School Clique)
The physical ease and emotional resonance of this quartet is the unsung foundation of this movie's success. They lay all the blueprints down for every slight, romantic aspiration, awkward secret, and each disruption to their group dynamic that the plot throws at them. Their tight movie-movie routine at the beginning of the film as they drive to school with their signature drinks, makes the romcom's epilogue that much swoonier; a quartet becomes a quintet without skipping a beat.
09 Viola, Elizabeth, Cynthia, and Michelle in Widows (Gig Economy Co-Workers)
Sometimes ensemble chemistry isn't about actors clicking-in to each other's groove, but about dramatizing the ways in which they only reluctantly will do so, bringing uncomfortable frictions and suspicious alliances into the room with each other.
08 Ryan Gosling & Claire Foy, First Man (Husband & Wife)
I'd argue that this is the year's most successfully dramatized screen marriage, but people didn't seem to want them from a biopic about the space program. Their loss! These two pack an emotional wallop when they're paired.
07 Charlize Theron & Mackenzie Davis, Tully (???)
If you haven't yet seen this we don't want to spoil this enigmatic relationship for you. We've been calling it the year's most underrated and misunderstood movie for months now, and the Oscar worthy screenplay by Diablo Cody and these two complicated performances make that so.
AND THE CONNECTIONS WE SIMPLY CANNOT IMAGINE THIS FILM YEAR WITHOUT...
05 [TIE] Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, and Olivia Colman, The Favourite AND Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams, and Alessandro Nivola, Disobedience (Triangular Passions)
On the evidence of these two superb pictures, Rachel Weisz should forever more star in tetchy triangular movies in which longtime relationships are disrupted by volatile new situations and the inevitable shifts in feeling that come with time.
04 Tomasz Kot & Joanna Kulig, Cold War (Lovers)
Cold War's years-spanning stacatto romantic tragedy lives or dies by the sexual chemistry between the lovers. Kot and Kulig more than provide. You can feel the merciless undertow of their passion informing and affecting every bad decision, compromise, and separation. And that mid-film sex scene is a true scorcher because of it.
03 Principal Cast in The Shoplifters (Makeshift Family)
Have we convinced you to see this gorgeous new classic yet? Japan's Oscar finalist and Palme d'Or winner is in movie theaters right now in multiple cities - GO SEE IT. We've written or spoken about the emotional power of this makeshift family of five in podcast, interview, and performance rave form before.
02 Melissa McCarthy & Richard E Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Drinking Buddies)
You should really read former TFE contributor Manuel Betancourt's beautiful take on the neccessity of queer friendships in art over at Electric Literature.
01 Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga, A Star is Born (Mutual Muses)
Chemistry can make the difference between a story being a well-received movie or a cinematic event. That's especially true in romantic dramas (see Titanic, Doctor Zhivago, Funny Girl, Moulin Rouge! etcetera). Oh sure, "Shallow" generates electricity all its own but A Star is Born as a full movie soars or crashes depending on the chemistry of the leads and Cooper and Gaga have it in spades. For this we might even thank Cooper's guiding hand behind the camera in addition to his partnering in front of it... a dynamic that is mirrored with true, well, dynamism onscreen in the story of Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) and his discovery Ally (Lady Gaga). Her career lifts off into new realms but in one of the new version's (of an old tale) best tweaks, the rock star's brother makes us privvy to the melancholy knowledge that her talent is also reenlivening his own if not enough to save him; he hasn't played this well in years.