Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, “The Holdovers”
Alexander Payne’s comedically bittersweet, Hal Ashby-influenced throwback drama, “The Holdovers,” is full of great turns and surprises. Paul Giamatti is the terrifically funny curmudgeon lead, but the relative newcomers in the films are revelations. As the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam, Da’Vine Joy Randolph is brilliant, still angry, still wounded, and still heartbroken, but she’s never just one thing, a complicated figure perhaps too burdened by the responsibilities of the real world to wallow. And Dominic Sessa, the young, angry, petulant child at the center of the story, is also terrific. Constantly troubled and always on the verge of being kicked out, Sessa’s character is bitter, sarcastic, and brilliant. But as the movie slowly evolves, we see it all as a mask and defense mechanism for all the sorrow in his heart about his broken family, his mentally ill father, and all the hard luck he’s faced. Sessa takes us on that journey and there’s just no way the movie works as well as it does without him. – RP
Ryan Gosling, “Barbie”
Does anyone relish sending up the cliched notions of idiot, beefcakey white dude as much as Ryan Gosling does in “Barbie?” Margot Robbie is also terrific as the existentially burdened doll at the center of the movies, but Gosling arguably steals it with his comedic performance, throwing himself into the doofusness of his character with such aplomb and zeal. Still, like Barbie, Ken has a lot on his mind about not being Kenough. It’s a hilarious performance of idiotic unearned confidence, but underneath it all, a sad story of male inadequacy, blonde fragility, and a man who finds his identity in crisis when his one true purpose, being Barbie’s arm candy, is blown apart. What’s left in that wreckage? A man forced to confront who he really is and who he truly wants to be now that his big buff facade has self-destructed. Kudos to Gosling for getting that all across in a frothy fun comedy. – RP
Tia Nomore, “Earth Mama”
Widely praised out of the film festival circuit and via reviews, you still sort of wish the deeply empathetic “Earth Mama” somehow would have gotten more love in 2023. A terrific directorial debut by Savanah Leaf (mentioned on our Best Films Of 2023 list, but arguably should have been on it too) and incredible, naturalistic, low-lit photography from cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, the true force of nature in the film is its lead Tia Nomore. Playing a pregnant single mother with two children in foster care who embraces her Bay Area community as she fights to reclaim her family, Gia (Nomore) is angry, bitter, frustrated, and broken. Let down and abandoned by the system, her family, and everyone who has seemingly ever entered her life, Gia has lost so much, so much that most of us wouldn’t be able to withstand. Throughout the bruising drama, though, in her intimate, moving performance, Nomore imbues great humanity and dignity throughout all the roller coasters of her emotional struggles. “Earth Mama,” in many ways, is hard to watch; to experience someone suffering so quietly but so deeply is so wounding. And there’s arguably nothing more heartbreaking on screen this year than watching Nomore’s Gia just trying to get through each day whole. – RP
Emma Stone, “Poor Things” and “The Curse”
God, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” is so hilariously layered. A fantastical Mary Shelley-esque satire of Frankenstein’d beings, but also the search for pleasure, female autonomy, lack thereof, man’s wicked need for control and domination, and self-discovery, you truly have to be sad at anyone offended by this wickedly sharp and funny movie. Carrying the weight of its bizarre weirdness is Emma Stone, who is just so wild and unhinged in the picture. Throwing herself into hilariously awkward sex scenes, whipping herself into a frenzy of outrage as she grows self-aware about all the male attempts at exploiting and controlling her, and relishing the chance to burp, fart, and facial-tic her way through hysterical scenes, this is arguably the performance of the year, and just a layered comedic tour-de-force that is just as audacious as the movie itself (also kudos to Mark Ruffalo for a similarly deliriously committed performance too). Just when you think she couldn’t do any better, just watch her in “The Curse,” as a transparently hollow white-savior philanthropist and HGTV host with a big bright smile who naively believes she’s giving back while awkwardly trampling all over the cultures and people she purports to help. She’s like gentrification personified, wrapped in the convenient delusion of culturally sensitive empathy and eco-consciousness to assuage her phoniness. Brilliant stuff. – RP