Author Archives: Keith Garlington

Best of 2016 – Lead Actress

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Each year I set aside time to examine and spotlight what I think are the best performances of the past movie year. In keeping with the upcoming Oscars I have adopted their format and for the next several days I’ll be highlighting the very best performances for each of the four acting categories. Much like in the supporting category, women had a ton of fabulous performances to consider which made this tough to narrow down. Nonetheless these are my five favorites.

#5 – Sarah Paulson (“Blue Jay”)

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In “Blue Jay” (the first of Netflix’s multi-picture deal with Mark Duplass) two high school sweethearts bump into each after years apart. Duplass and Sarah Paulson start by reminiscing over the past but soon open up painful old wounds. Paulson is a true highlight. Much of her performance features a considerable amount of improvisation but you never notice. She’s completely in tune with the material. A truly wonderful performance.

#4 – Amy Adams (“Arrival”)

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It saddens me to see “Arrival” getting such little attention from the awards crowd, but one thing they have all recognized was the fine work from Amy Adams. In Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral science fiction thriller Adams takes the role of a linguist but (as the director himself said) first she is a mother. That adds an entirely different layer to the role which Adams handles with an understated beauty.

#3 – Rebecca Hall (“Christine”)

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“Christine” tells the sad, tragic story of the final days in the life of news reporter Christine Chubbock. Rebecca Hall’s portrayal of Chubbock is unquestionably one of the year’s most unforgettable performances. Hall’s handling of depression, loneliness, and self-doubt is brilliantly agonizing. Hall gives every ounce of herself, physically and mentally transforming into a deeply troubled real-life character. It’s incredible work.

#2 – Emma Stone (“La La Land”)

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I can finally say I am sold on Emma Stone. What a performance in this Damien Chazelle modern day musical. Channeling beats from the MGM musical heyday but with a real-world messiness, Stone acts, dances and sings her way through this uplifting yet bittersweet story. This had to be impossible to visualize, but Stone hits it with a full commitment to every task she is given. The results are magical.

#1 – Kate Beckinsale (“Love & Friendship”)

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How, oh how, has Kate Beckinsale not been given the awards attention she so richly deserves for her superb performance in Whit Stillman’s “Love & Friendship”. It is such a tricky role. Beckinsale nails this wacky mixture of beautiful eloquence and casual toxicity. She’s both charming and appalling. I love the other performances I’ve mentioned, but there was nothing quite like Beckinsale.

Those are my picks for the five best lead actress performances. See something you agree or disagree with? Please let me know in the comments section below.

Best of 2016 – Supporting Actor

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Each year I set aside time to examine and spotlight what I think are the best performances of the past movie year. In keeping with the upcoming Oscars I have adopted their format and for the next several days I’ll be highlighting the very best performances for each of the four acting categories. Today we look at Supporting Actors. It was incredibly hard to whittle down, but these are my five picks.

#5 – Michael Shannon (“Nocturnal Animals”)

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Talk about an actor with an incredible knack for stealing scenes. Michael Shannon is often the most captivating character on the screen. You could say the real-life Shannon is a touch unhinged – a quality that feeds into many of his fascinating characters. It’s certainly true for “Nocturnal Animals”. He hits every batty, off-beat note and as he often does, he steals every scene he shares.

#4 – Tom Bennett (“Love & Friendship”)

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I literally can’t think about Tom Bennett’s performance in Whit Stillman’s brilliant “Love & Friendship” without laughing. Bennett’s lovable goofball offers up the film’s broadest comedy, but he also gives us some of the funniest scenes of the year. His bits on English peas and “Church-Hill” are pure comedy gold. It’s a lighter role than others, but no less impressive.

#3 – Kevin Costner (“Hidden Figures”)

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And to think until I saw it I had no idea Kevin Costner was in “Hidden Figures”. Costner has long been a favorite of mine, an actor as reliable as they come. Here he brings a steady and obvious assurance to his role. His performance resembles a classic form of acting, not showy, but one that allows his veteran acting chops to do the heavy lifting. He was a highlight in a film filled with great performances.

#2 – Hugo Weaving (“Hacksaw Ridge”)

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I’ve been surprised at how few people have talked about Hugo Weaving’s piercing performance in Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge”. The very few comments I’ve read have been mixed, but I feel Weaving is both brutal and devastating as a father dealing with a truckload of emotional baggage. It’s deeply moving and reveals a side of Weaving I wasn’t expecting.

#1 – Dev Patel (“Lion”)

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Here is an actor I’ve always enjoyed but who is rarely (if ever) considered a “leading man”. In “Lion” his performance is hard to categorize. It is a supporting role, but he is very much the lead in the film’s second half. He’s also a significant reason the movie has such an emotional pull. Patel takes his character through inner turmoil and conflict while never hitting a false note. It’s a captivating performance, and it’s good to see him getting awards season attention.

So there are my favorite supporting actor turns of 2016. We will look at the leads in the next few days. What do you think of these picks? What would have made your list? Let me hear it in the comments section below.

Best of 2016 – Supporting Actress

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2016supactress

Each year I set aside time to examine and spotlight what I think are the best performances of the past movie year. In keeping with the upcoming Oscars I have adopted their format and for the next several days I’ll be highlighting the very best performances for each of the four acting categories. The ladies go first and we start by looking at Supporting Actresses. Last year was rich with quality supporting performances from so many talented actresses. It was tough to narrow down, but these were my standouts.

#5 – Lucy Boynton (“Sing Street”)

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The more I watched her character in “Sing Street” the more I appreciated Lucy Boynton’s surprisingly nuanced performance. The role isn’t nearly as shallow as its first impression. Boynton deftly unwraps her character’s inner turmoil but she’s also a ton of fun playing within John Carney’s nostalgic, spirited 1980’s sandbox. As the film went on I loved the performance more and more.

#4 – Aïssa Maïga  (“The African Doctor”)

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There are a number of scenes that demonstrate why I appreciate Aïssa Maïga’s performance in “The African Doctor”. But I particularly appreciate how she balances the numerous things thrown at her. She has her broader comedy moments, but she also deals heavily with frustration and resentment. In many ways she is asked to be the film’s conscience. Maïga handles it all with ease.

#3 – Octavia Spencer (“Hidden Figures”)

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There are few performers with more natural talent for acting than Octavia Spencer. You never doubt what she brings to the screen regardless of the size of her role. This was never more true than in “Hidden Figures”. Her performance is so grounded in truth that you never question her character’s feelings or motivations. Even when the script is bit on-the-nose Spencer has you buying every second of it.

#2 – Nicole Kidman (“Lion”)

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I had lost sight of Nicole Kidman’s brilliance as an actress. Silly me. Her performance in “Lion” served as a wonderful and welcomed reminder. There isn’t an ounce of glamor or show in what she does. Through her every scene Kidman remains quiet and understated yet she steadily brings an emotional heft. It’s a tricky role that many actresses would have milked dry. Kidman knows exactly how to play it and the results are astounding.

#1 – Viola Davis (“Fences”)

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For my money there was never a competition for first place. From the moment I left the theater after seeing “Fences” I knew I had seen my favorite female performance of the year. Simply put Viola Davis is electrifying in what is close to being a lead role. Sharing this much dialogue and screen time with Denzel Washington may seem a bit intimidating, but Davis matches him line for line. It’s an absolute master class and anything short of the Oscar would be an insult.

So there are my picks out of a really strong category. What do you think? Please share your thoughts on this list and on what would have made yours.

REVIEW: “Southside with You”

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There are a handful of moments in “Southside with You” where I saw glimpses of a different movie – a better movie hidden just under the surface. They are brief moments where we get small tastes of character depth, moments where the actors feel more natural and less scripted, moments where the film hints at developing its own unique identity. Unfortunately these are only ‘moments’ and they tease us with what this film could have been.

First time director Richard Tanne’s starry-eyed treatment of President Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date is a strange bit of bio-fiction but full of meaty potential. Tanne, who also wrote the screenplay, uses the familiar true framework of their first date and fills it in with inventions of his own. The problem is a big chunk of his fiction does more to hurt the film than to help.

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The movie begins on a warm summer Chicago day in 1989. Michelle Robinson (Tika Sumpter) is a Princeton grad and now lawyer at Chicago’s Sidley Austin law firm. She is assigned to mentor a Harvard man and summer associate named, you guessed it, Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers). Michelle is portrayed as ambitious and focused. Barack is more laid back and charismatic. Michelle is adamant about keeping their relationship professional but agrees to go out on a ‘not-a-date’ outing with the future leader of the free world.

Barack picks Michelle up in his beat-up yellow Datsun and the two spend the day in Chicago. They hit a museum for an art exhibit. They take a stroll and have lunch in a park. They attend a community event where Barack served as organizer before heading to Harvard. They hit a bar, watch a movie, and end it with ice cream and a kiss. I mention all of that because it doesn’t really spoil anything. Tanne wants this to be about what they say instead of where they go. He tries to emphasize the conversations and pulls heavily from Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy. Perhaps a bit too much.

The walk-and-talk formula works so well for Linklater because the conversations feel incredibly organic. Several things factor into that. First he has more seasoned actors. But the big difference is Hawke and Delpy contribute to those scripts. Their input helps make those exchanges their own. Many of Tanne’s conversations feels heavily scripted. Despite the best efforts of Sumpter and Sawyers, their dialogue is often dry and stilted. The actors are better than the material and there are moments where you see them rising above it and falling more comfortably into their characters. Sadly, the film doesn’t allow them to do it consistently.

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Back to Tanne’s inventions, one instance where it works is in the fictitious bar scene. Tanne slows things down and loosens his grip on his actors. It allows for the most open and authentic scene in the entire film. I loved it. But then we get moments such as the community event which probably happened some time later in their relationship but here is used as a pretty significant and obvious plot device. There is also an encounter outside of the movie theater that actually happened but Tanne significantly alters. The result is a noticeably clumsy and contrived scene that simply doesn’t work.

Sadly too many things don’t work. Perhaps I’m looking at it all wrong. Maybe it should only be viewed as a lightweight romantic date movie, but I’m not convinced it works through that lens either. I tried to imagine if the story or romance would hold an ounce of interest if the two involved weren’t the future president and first lady of the United States. Without their connection the answer was a resounding “No”. And even with their connection the movie doesn’t fare much better.

VERDICT – 2 STARS

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REVIEW: “Hidden Figures”

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The inspiring true story at the center of “Hidden Figures” is one aching to be told. Three brilliant mathematicians struggle to get their due in the fledgling NASA program. Why do they struggle? Because they dare to be African-American and women. It’s a spirited account of the persecution these women faced and the barriers they boldly broke. At the same time it’s a film aiming at being a crowdpleaser and packaged with a glossy coat of Hollywood influence.

“Hidden Figures” is adapted from Margot Lee Shetterly’s biography of the same name. The story begins in 1961 fresh after the Soviet Union’s successful Sputnik space mission. In full Cold War mode, the United States government begins pressuring NASA to catch up with the Soviets and put an American in space. To accomplish that in the pre-computer era NASA relied on human computers to put together equations and calculations. Many of these ‘computers’ were African-American woman who worked behind the scenes and without much credit.

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The film focuses on three of these women, brilliant mathematicians working in a back room at the segregated Langley NASA complex. Taraji Henson gets the starring nod playing Katherine Johnson, a mathematics genius from birth. Octavia Spencer co-stars as Dorothy Vaughan, the eldest of the three friends and an aspiring supervisor. Janelle Monáe plays Mary Jackson, a fiery engineer who is consistently denied the promotion she deserves. One of the film’s true pleasures is watching these three actresses work. Henson, Spencer, and Monáe have spectacular chemistry but they also bring an immense amount of truth individually, even when their scenes are a bit on the nose.

Each of these brilliant women are in line for promotions yet they all meet some sort of racial or sexist hurdle at every turn. Most notable is Katherine’s assignment to the Space Task Group, a team of white male engineers tasked with getting their astronauts into space and back down safely. Kevin Costner plays Al Harrison, the director of the group under intense pressure by the paranoid government. Harrison is all about results. He doesn’t see male or female, black or white. At the same time he’s impervious to the obstacles Katherine faces and the abuse she takes particularly by the wormy Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons).

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Co-writers Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi (Melfi also directed) tell a powerful story but do so with splashes of fiction. Often this works in the movie’s favor but not always. Their additions may occasional take away from the real story, but they also give an honest depiction of the oppressive rules and attitudes of the time. Then you have Parson’s completely fictional character who is a conduit for those prejudices. The performance is fine but the character is scripted so tightly that it’s hard to believe in him. Kirsten Dunst has a similar fictional character but one that is handled much better.

“Hidden Figures” is a polished Hollywood movie through and through, but the power and importance of its story along with the three central performances easily overshadow any hiccups. I would even toss in Kevin Costner who offers up some of my favorite supporting work of the year. There is simply an irresistible quality to these characters that makes spending time with them a joy. And regardless of how predictable it may be, this is still an empowering, inspirational story that needs to be told.

VERDICT – 3.5 STARS

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Random Thoughts on the 2017 Golden Globes

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Awards season is upon us and the Golden Globes got the ball rolling. The Hollywood foreign press sparked several interesting storylines that we will be talking about all the way to Oscar night. It was a fun night will a few surprises and a few disappointments. Here are a handful of random thoughts:

  • Who had the best night? Do I even need to tell you? “La La Land” went a perfect 7/7 which was both wonderful and surprising.
  • The first surprise of the night came quick. Aaron Taylor-Johnson wins Best Supporting Actor for “Nocturnal Animals”. Hard to argue. It’s a great performance, but Michael Shannon was that film’s scene stealer and he didn’t even get nominated.
  • Predictably “Zootopia” wins Best Animated Film. I know I know, people love it. For me it was insanely heavy-handed. Great message but handled with bludgeoning subtlety.
  • Jimmy Fallon was an okay host. The opening musical riff on “La La Land” was a hoot. After that Fallon kinda disappeared.
  • Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical went to Ryan Gosling. Hmm. Well it was a weird group. The inclusion of Reynolds and Hill was baffling to me. And while Grant and Farrell are both good, they are hardly give Awards caliber performances. That’s why Gosling won. But he needn’t worry about giving an acceptance speech on Oscar night. He’s toast when tossed in with Washington and Affleck.

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  • Speaking of Gosling, he gave my favorite speech of the night. It was humble and very personal. There was no doubt it came from the heart. Good job Ryan.
  • And then you have Meryl Streep’s speech. As unpopular as this may sound, I zoned out halfway through. I’m just tired of the political wrangling especially when both sides start repeating themselves. The speech will be heralded by the left and railed on by the right. Whatever. I would have MUCH rather heard her talk about what won her the award in the first place. Oh well, it was her time to spend.
  • The Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher tribute was such a tender moment. Just a lovely montage.
  • “Elle” certainly turned some heads. Not only did it win the Best Foreign Language category but Isabelle Huppert wins Best Actress – Drama. Look out Oscars!
  • Steve Carell and Kristen Wiig – Best presenters of the evening (Seeing Rocky and Apollo together – a close second).
  • Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn – Worst presenters of the evening.
  • Did anyone else notice the weird selective aggression when it came to the cut-off music. There was no rhyme or reason for it.
  • “Hidden Fences”?
  • Casey Affleck is a good actor. I’ll give him that. But you’ll be hard-pressed to find any better performance than Denzel Washington’s in “Fences”. Electrifying. I was hoping he would win.

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  • Speaking of “Fences”, Viola Davis. I can’t express how thrilled I was to hear her name called for a Best Actress-Drama. It was a stacked category but her performance was on an entirely different level. Pure brilliance.
  • I loved Damien Chazelle’s win for Best Director. “La La Land” was such a gutsy undertaking, but to then deliver the way he does. A truly magnificent accomplishment and a well deserved win.
  • Chazelle’s win for Best Screenplay. Well, that was a little surprising.
  • Did you guys notice all of the beards?  I mean beards were everywhere!
  • “Moonlight” winning for Best Picture-Drama was no surprise. While I prefer “Hacksaw Ridge” out of that group, “Manchester By the Sea” was the only real challenger for “Moonlight”. Up next, a showdown with “La La Land” on Oscar night. That should be fun to watch unfold.
  • Every time I saw Ryan Reynolds I just shook my head. Very likable guy and all, but “Deadpool” nominated for two Globes? Can’t see it.
  • Yes Meryl Streep was nominated again this time for “Florence Foster Jenkins”. It’s become a regular thing at this stage of her career (whether deserved or not) . I’m hoping the Academy doesn’t do the same. Don’t get me wrong. Streep gives a nice performance, but there are so many actresses who deserve it more this year. Hey Oscar, let’s give them a shot.

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  • Regardless of whether you prefer “La La Land” or “Moonlight”, everyone can agree that Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar were adorable!
  • How about that teleprompter malfunction? Could there have been a worse possible time for Jimmy Fallon? I felt for the guy.
  • Here’s hoping the internet doesn’t give “La La Land” the “Boyhood” treatment after such a big night. We may like one film more than the other and that’s okay. Winning at an awards show won’t change a film’s value to us. Let’s just be collectively happy that we have some really good films to talk about this season. That’s a good thing.

So there are just a few thoughts from last night’s big show. It was fun in a very Golden Globes-like way. So what did you think of the show, the winners, the losers, Casey Affleck’s hair? Share you thoughts in the comments section below.