Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing”
When is Colman Domingo ever not good? Even critics who don’t love his recently released Netflix series, “The Madness,” wrote he was the reason to keep watching. In “Sing Sing,” Domingo plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a fictional member of a real-life prison arts rehabilitation program at an upstate New York prison facility. Divine G’s storyline is not groundbreaking, but how Domingo and director Greg Kwedar fashion the story gives it unexpected life. More impressive is the fact Domingo shot “Sing Sing” during a three-week break between “Rustin” and “The Color Purple” with almost no prep time. Somehow, it ended up being his most profound performance of the three projects. And that “almost” last scene in the movie? A scene Domingo partially improvised? It may just break you. – GE
Kirsten Dunst, “Civil War”
Nowadays, a film featuring Kirsten Dunst in a prominent role is few and far between. However, she has proven to be one of the best actors working today, especially after seeing her performance in Alex Garland’s “Civil War.” Playing Lee Smith in Garland’s timely war film, Dunst imbues the character with beautiful stoicism. She’s seen the worst in humanity, but Smith soldiers on through it all in the name of journalism. In a film filled with wonderful performances (look at Dunst’s husband, a terrifying Jesse Plemons, for example), Dunst rises above and delivers one of the year’s best. – CB
Lily-Rose Depp, “Nosferatu”
With apologies to Lily-Rose Depp, we hadn’t really seen her in anything before that didn’t seem like anything more than typical nepo baby privilege, but wooo boy, were we wrong, and perhaps she just needs to be in the hands of a filmmaker like Robert Eggers. And when Anya Taylor-Joy dropped out of the film, it seemed like a major downgrade, but Depp not only rises to the occasion, she somehow outperforms incredible performances by Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Emma Corrin, and more. Her character, haunted by lustful, erotic, amorous dreams and visions of a vampire beckoning to her across time and space, Depp’s Ellen Hutter character is psychologically sick and tortured. And she’s also terrified and in the grips of a paroxysmal possession that is frightening and almost puts Linda Blair’s “The Exorcism” performance to shame. With shades of the terror Shelly Duvall conveyed in “The Shining,” “Nosferatu,” is astonishingly bloodcurdling and creepy, and a big part of why is Depp’s shocking and arresting performance. – Rodrigo Perez
Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Ed Norton, Timothee Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
OK, this is cheating, we know, but the ensemble cast of James Mangold’s Bob Dylan picture “A Complete Unknown” is incredible (and they’re all likely getting nominated up the wazoo). Ed Norton is terrific as the amiable, elder statesmen folk protest singer Peter Seger, Monica Barbaro’s turn as the talented, but irritable-with-Dylan’s bullshit Joan Baez is superb—and her singing is honestly next f**king level. Then there’s Timothée Chalamet, who is excellent as the enigmatic and elusive Dylan, but his performance is actually second to his outstanding singing and guitar playing (which he somehow does live in the movie, and makes Dylan classics seem striking and magnificent all over again, an astounding feat). But fine, if we’re forced to choose just one person from this cast, it has to be Elle Fanning, who will be, mark my words, regarded as the best actor of her generation, if she isn’t already. Playing Dylan’s girlfriend, the heartbreak she conveys throughout is just devastating, and often expressed in painfully wrenching moments of silent weeping. Fanning’s gf not only has to struggle with Dylan’s conceit and obliviousness, but she also has to watch him slip away from her heart in real-time like sand slowly falling out of one’s grip as fame overtakes him and she has to come to the slow-motion conclusion that the the meteoric rise that is shooting him into the pop-cultural stratosphere, is more powerful the gravitational pull of their love. – RP
Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness”
You would think winning the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival would be indicative of year-end accolades. Somehow, Plemmons transformative work portraying three different characters in Yorgos Lanthimos‘ now-underrated anthology has gotten lost. Over two months of filming, Plemmons pivoted from a man who has let his boss rule his life to a police officer who goes to shocking extremes to prove his wife is not who she says she is to a cult member who is willing to betray his partner for a prophecy anyone in the real world would believe is ridiculous. Plemons’ work is something of a collective marvel and you can be assured we won’t forget it here. – GE
Zoe Saldana, “Emilia Perez”
If you did your research, you knew Saldana could sing. She’d already lent her voice to an “Avatar” song and an already forgotten Lin-Manuel Miranda Netflix animated musical. Saldana has spent years of her life making those James Cameron movies and franchise fare. But she began her career on the stage, first as a young ballet dancer and then doing stage work in New York City. Those skills are like riding a bike, they never leave you (see Jeff Goldblum in “Wicked”). And when Jacques Audiard’s audacious epic lets you know it’s a musical, the burden to bring the audience into this unexpected world lies completely on Saldana’s shoulders. In “The Pea,” she has to not only seduce the audience but dazzle them. She needs them to want all of the characters in the film to sing again. Saldana is so charismatic. So perfect for this genre, that you immediately dream Hollywood will find ways for her to do it again and again and again. – GE
