Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
It will be hard for many to believe, but Adrien Brody was not director Brady Corbet’s first choice to play the fictional American immigrant László Tóth in “The Brutalist.” Brody, an Oscar winner for “The Pianist,” replaced another actor who had to drop out of the project. Sometimes you just get lucky. As Tóth, Brody studiously constructs the growing frustration of a man who has to completely rebuild his life following the end of WW II. Once a renowned architect in his native Hungary (also where Brody’s family is from), Tóth finds himself forced to work manual labor to survive. When he meets an industrialist with lofty philanthropic goals, he thinks his dreams of designing visionary buildings have finally come to pass. Nothing is what it seems, however, and Brody pulls from his depths to depict the continuing nightmare Tóth believes he’s enduring. Something tells us if the other actor hadn’t dropped out, Brody’s award-winning epic simply wouldn’t be the same. – GE
Jude Law, “The Order”
The events of Justin Kurzel‘s “The Order” may occur in the 1980s, but this movie has that low-down ’70s New Hollywood style running through its veins. This police procedural, about an Idaho-based FBI agent out to take down an outfit of white supremacist insurgents robbing banks, is full of old-school cool. It’s lean, it’s hard-boiled, and it’s flush with gorgeous shots of All-American vistas to offset all of the macho shit happening elsewhere onscreen. Flicks like “Thunderbolt & Lightfoot” or “Prime Cut” did that first, but Kurzel’s mise-en-scene here is stunning amid the narrative’s doomy proceedings. They indeed do not make ’em like this anymore. But any New Hollywood crime pic worth its salt also needs a sturdy, magnetic hero at its center. And Jude Law’s agent Terry Husk fits that archetype, albeit if it’s gone to seed: a paunched and stubbled hand of justice who can’t turn his engine over like he used to. Does that stop Husk from the thrill of the hunt? No, but his bad heart and nosebleeds force some pause on him, and his quiet, nervy energy makes fellow cops and civilians wary of his presence. He’s not only a shadow of his former self, but his roughhewn bearing casts a shadow, too; a reminder to a man’s man of what hard living could turn them into. But a darker, more primal shape also trails Husk: the violence that men like him leave in their wake. Law ripples with intensity throughout the picture as a gassed-out “good guy” who nevertheless thrusts himself headlong into the face of crime. It’s a turn full of great interior beats, but two scenes with Morgan Holmstrom solidify Husk as one of Law’s greatest roles. Those silent staredowns metaphysically say so much, and propel “The Order” into a higher echelon of crime film. Husk’s wide-eyed, somber gaze bears the news of Kimmy’s husband without a word, but he’s too injured to say he’s sorry. And how could he be sorry, after all he’s seen? For Husk, the hunt never stops. – Ned Booth
Josh Harnett, “Trap”
It’s nice to see a working actor really come into their own years after the fact. Once a baby-faced IT boy who rejected that mantle and seemingly walked away for a few years, Josh Harnett is back and having a real moment thanks to M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap.” Playing a father taking his daughter to a concert but also secretly a serial killer who is on the loose but being hunted by the police at a stadium show, Shyamalan’s twisty movie is deliciously wicked and entertaining. And much of that is due to Harnett’s layered and complicated performance of a man who is a cold-blooded psychopath, but also a loving father trying to protect and adore his teenage daughter. Throughout, Harnett is threading many needles of performance, a man used to compartmentalizing his life—doting and caring in one situation, cruel and ruthless in another. But on this fateful night, his two selves are forced to confront a situation where they can’t be made distinct, leading to a sweaty, stressful breakdown, all the while, trying to play it super cool for his daughter. It’s the story of a charlatan and trapped rat watching the mask he’s been wearing slowly get peeled off, and the more his identities are threatened with exposure, the more unhinged and sociopathic he’ll get. It’s arguably the most complicated and underrated performance of the year and Harnett is incredible in it. – RP
Josh O’Connor, “Challengers”
British actor Josh O’Connor is everywhere right now. After popping off early in “God’s Own Country” and “The Crown,” he’s seemingly had a second breakthrough wave this year, thanks to Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis rivals thropple drama. Playing a slutty, cocky, dirtbag tennis player, O’Connor is incredible next to Zendaya and Mike Faist (who are both terrific by the way). But O’Connor’s character is the sleazebag underachiever; he’ll never win the championships that Faist has earned, but he’s the better player, and moreover, his f*ckboi charisma will always seduce the girl. He’s a shit, but he’s a sexy, confident, smug one, and O’Connor plays him with persuasively sweaty swagger. Next up and on the horizon for O’Connor is Rian Johnson’s next “Knives Out” film, another Guadagnino film, a gay love drama alongside Paul Mescal, a Kelly Reichardt film and a Steven Spielberg movie. Suffice it to say he’s super in demand at the moment, maybe the hottest actor on the planet other than Paul Mescal and much of it has to do with his magnetic “Challengers” turn. – RP
Juliette Gariépy, “Red Rooms”
Every slow burn needs an unwavering flame to fuel it, and Pascal Plante found just about the steadiest one imaginable for “Red Rooms” with actress Juliette Gariépe. And what a role for Gariépe to tackle. As Kelly-Anne, she’s a pilot light of the iciest blue shade, her impenetrable gaze boring itself through everything she sees, mostly her computer screen. But the inscrutable nature Gariépe supplies to Kelly-Anne’s stare makes “Red Rooms” one of the best thrillers of 2024. If eyes are the window to the soul, then what’s behind hers? Gariépe’s performance provides no easy answers to that question. As an always-online Quebecois model morbidly obsessed with a high-profile serial murder trial, she plays Kelly-Anne as a blank void. She’s statuesque, yes, but entirely vacant, which makes her investment in the case so unnerving. But Gariépe’s little touches make what’s unsettling about this set-up even worse. Her eyes light up at the wrong times. She’s too eager to re-watch snuff videos on the dark web with fellow trial tourist Lucie. And as Kelly-Anne’s interest develops in more disturbing ways, Gariépe plays her even shrewder. It’s clear she’s up to something deliberate, calculated, even self-destructive, but why? And to what end? Plante writes and depicts Kelly-Anne as a Travis Bickle of the digital age: a woman in a room who gradually unleashes a deranged interiority onto the world, with a quasi-heroic resolution tidying it all up. But Gariépe’s performance adds the real juice of ambivalence to “Red Rooms.” However you want to qualify it, she’s got the look. But is it a dead-eyed stare? One of stoic resolve, out to achieve a slanted kind of justice? A clear-eyed appraisal of a darker venality that anyone obsessed with true crime, or tied to a screen, is susceptible to? Or maybe Kelly-Anne is just fetishizing some sicko shit to quench perverse desires only she will ever understand. Plante’s patient, assured direction gives “Red Room” a nice heft, but his lead actress makes sure Kelly-Anne is a heroine 2024 audiences won’t soon forget. That’s because Gariépe never truly betrays the cards her character holds; but with what we know of Kelly-Anne, it’s clear that she’s playing for keeps. -NB
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