Halfway Mark 2: Fav Performances of 2022 (Thus Far)
Monday, June 27, 2022 at 10:00AM
NATHANIEL R

by Nathaniel R

Yesterday we talked about favourite films and craft achievements. Tomorrow we'll talk Oscar. But today... personal favourite star turns. Keeping lists of standout, charismatic, fascinating, or just plain enjoyable acting all year long is, we maintain, one of the greatest pleasures cinephiles can indulge in. Or rather it is if you're a cinephile who is also list-inclined. Some people frown on lists, top tens, and awards as reductive and no way to judge art. To this I can personally only shrug. The list-making / awards habit has never reduced my love of art but on the contrary has only broadened it, leading me to be curious about all sorts of things each year even if they aren't in preferred genres or from familiar preferred artists. I'm always wondering where the next great piece of art will be found. In terms of actors, there's a thrill in keeping an open mind, never knowing in which movie the next turn that really sparks imagination, catharsis, thirst, joy, or numerous other feelings will pop up in.

Herewith a handy cheatsheet of favourite film performances from the first six months of 2022 so we don't forget them later on in the year-end glut...

This is our way of combatting the recency bias that plagues film critics, guild members, and Academy voters when they do their annual voting at some point between December and February. Of course many of these performances won't factor into our own Film Bitch Awards (distributors often backload the year) but that's no reason not to sing the praises of these actors who kept us riveted to the screen for the past six months...

LEAD ACTRESS

We pray Michelle Yeoh is heading to a Best Actress nomination for "Everything Everywhere..."

At this writing Yeoh's prismatic star turn has the clearest shot at year end awards Best Actress attention and with good reason. Her Evelyn Wang is so many women in one and, as such, a brilliant versatile summation of Yeoh's long career and enduring stardom. Sadly Thompson's revelatory Leo Grande work will have to wait for the 2023 Emmys 15 months from now due to the decision to bypass a theatrica release. Vartomolei can expect many juicy offers due to her film-carrying dramatic potency in Happening while Cha Cha Real Smooth's Johnson is as enchanting as the movie requires her to be to work, but already has more offers than she can possibly handle. Official Competition premiered last year in Venice and the jury really should have included it alongside Parallel Mothers for Cruz's Best Actress win. It's her best comic performance to date.

LEAD ACTOR

Channing Tatum having much fun as the fictional 'Dash' in "The Lost City"

While only one of these performance (Austin Butler -- more on Elvis soon) can reasonably hope to compete for year end awards, it doesn't mean that they aren't wonderful. Booster proves he's more than just a comedian but also a fine actor (and screenwriter), Mortensen navigates very odd terrain in his latest collaboration with Cronenberg but you never don't believe his core as a performance artist beset by literal internal trouble as his body is evolving beyond his comprehension. And of course adventurous arthouse audiences already know that Franz Rogowski is unmissable.  Finally, The Lost City won't "endure" in the way really energized star vehicles or great films can but Tatum is giving it his all as the dumb but loyal male model who is  nursing a long long crush on the woman who "created" him... or his altar ego, rather.  

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jamie Lee Curtis, great again, in "Everything Everywhere..."

Supporting Actress is always an embarrassment of riches, no matter the year.  We're only dealing with six months worth of movies at this point but this quintet here, for example, could top many actual Oscar shortlists and while they're at it provide an eye-opening range of acting styles and film genres. Of these five women we desparately hope that Jamie Lee Curtis, at least, gets an Oscar campaign because a) she's long long overdue for a nomination given that she's done stunning work in high-profile films for decades and b) she's incredible in this eccentric genre-mashing movie, fully committed, vanity-free, funny but frightening, and even briefly touching. If awards voters weren't so resistant to genre films, Curtis would already have some industry honors on her shelf. But since she's a horror icon (Halloween) and all of her best performances have been in comedies of one kind or another (Freaky Friday, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies) awards bodies have usually ignored her.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Justin H Min leaves a major empty space as the titular character in 'After Yang'

What an amazing year for Asian-American cinema thus far. This has resulted in so many unsung actors getting real opportunities to beautifully showcase their range (Yang, Quan), lead-worthy charisma (Ricamora), or auteur-serving skill (Min). Finally, Luis Gómez is just hilarious in Official Competition. He raises his role, a wealthy artistically clueless businessman dabbling in film production, to high comic art.

(Just missing the list was Colin Farrell who was typically strong in his Batman role...and yet we just couldn't shake the central nagging question: why cast him in the first place? Why cast actors to play human characters if you require them to look 0% like themselves in order to do so? There are other human actors who look the part!)

JUVENILE PERFORMANCE (UNDER 18)

Grace Jenkins as Trixie in "Deep Water"

UPDATE: I forgot Evan Assante who is wonderful as "David" in Cha Cha Real Smooth" - he should definitely have placed here above some of the others!

Belgium's Oscar finalist last year (it wasn't nominated) got a US release this year and its two child stars are both incredible (and believably siblings though they aren't related in real life). We also must highlight Grace Jenkins whose precocious daughter of f***ed up parents somehow steals Deep Water right from under the noses of Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas despite their outlandish characters.

LIMITED OR CAMEO PERFORMANCE, FEMALE

Isabella Laughland in "Good Luck To You Leo Grande"

We love a good cameo or two scene role. Adams has always been such a fun actress and since we think she went a little too broad with her character on Hacks, we're delighted to have loved her work in Dog. Björk's weird riveting singular cameo in The Northman is a welcome return to the screen (like Tina Turner and Annie Lennox before her, both riveting in their very very short film careers, we wonder what could have been if she cared for a second career as an actor). Kornowski is creepily hard-eyed in her confession late in Crimes Of The Future after her murderous performance in the opening scene. Laughland is a welcome wry third wheel in Leo Grande's penultimate scene. And finally Mouglalis is stunning as the stoic abortionist in Happening. We're never sure if anyone cares about this category at the Film Bitch Awards but we love watching out for stunning work in bite-sized confines.

LIMITED OR CAMEO PERFORMANCE, MALE

Ingvar Sigurðsson (and Willem Dafoe sort of) in "The Northman"

There were less exciting options for the men but Willem Dafoe and Ingvar Sigurdsson (the latter is one of the greatest Icelandic screen actors) share a role... in an eccentric memorable way... in Robert Eggers amazing  viking epic. Harris is fun in a stick up the butt way in Top Gun Maverick's opening scene and Harrison Jr does everything that Elvis asks of him... though neither have been handed great roles if we're being honest. Sarsgaard is always dependable and this performance as a shady compromised official reminded us of his similar doomed nervous and great supporting turn in the gangster drama Black Mass. 

VOICE ONLY OR MOCAP PERFORMANCE 

Lee Eddy just fab as 'mom' in "Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood"

Here's why we know the Emmy's voiceover category is one of the dumbest and laziest and useless mainstream awards in the entire history of showbiz awards. H Jon Benjamin, surely one of the greatest voice actors of all time, has only been nominated for 1 Emmy despite genius level work for 20+ seasons of fantastic animated television as the lead of shows like Archer and Bob's Burgers. His shelves should be buckled under by now with multiple Emmys. In other news, we don't know who Lee Eddy is but we're determined to learn more after her spot-on work in Richard Linklater's animated memoir/fantasy about the late 60s in Texas. 

ENSEMBLE

One of the greatest spells a movie (or tv show) can cast is when an entire ensemble, no matter the individual role, conjures up a kind of hive-mind tone and performance register and everything just clicks between everyone in multiple directions, illuminating as much interpersonal drama or comedy as your eyes can see. We just love to see it. This kind of magic never ever gets old. 

CASTING

STUNT TEAM

UPDATE: RRR, which I saw after this posting should have placed here.

2022 movies we haven't yet caught up with that might have factored in here had they been screened: Kimi, Jerry and Marge Go Large, Lightyear, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Men, Mothering Sunday, Nitram, and Pleasure

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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