Alternate Best Actor 2024: Cillian Murphy in Small Things Like These

Cillian Murphy did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Bill Furlong in Small Things Like These. 

Small Things Like These follows a coal merchant in an Irish village who notices alarming things at the local convent. 

Cillian Murphy coming off his extremely deserved Oscar win for leading Christopher Nolan’s three hour epic unexpected blockbuster Oppenheimer followed that up in the most Cillian Murphy way possible by leading this extremely modest film in every way, however the one consistency being having the finally properly appreciated Cillian Murphy in the lead. Murphy’s role however is quite different, getting to play a native Irish character and the most run of the mill of men it would seem who open the film as he’s just living his life, with his large family of daughters and with his wife Eileen (Eileen Walsh). The early scenes of the film are Bill just going through his routine of delivering coal and spending time with his family. Where Murphy is the ideal pairing for this film which is in large part successful through his striking sense of place, Murphy’s performance is part of this sense of place. Murphy is just wearing the location in his own performance as he just seems as much part of that bits of dirt on his hand, and the frequently cold or damp weather just is in this man’s eyes and in his very being as a person. There is no need to believe Bill in this film, Murphy just is Bill in that quality of the experience is what we immediately feel within him. Murphy’s work here is intensely quiet, and makes even his often internalized work in Oppenheimer seem loud by comparison. Although what both performances have in common is just how much Murphy can contain in his face, which is even more essential to this performance than his previous turn. As Murphy is creating the experience of the man to allow us within his specific mental space, and physical space of this world. In the early scenes of the film we see Bill go by his day to day experience. And what Murphy does in his performance makes us feel what this experience is. In his working of his route, Murphy has a natural exasperation, not of someone truly spent by his job, but has been working his physically demanding hours for some time and is very much in the routine, which is tiring however also routine. We see him go along with his family, where Murphy expresses a very natural warmth in the way he interacts with his daughters. He’s very, very quiet with them still, but just through a small smile, and the brightness in his eyes you see the unquestionable love he has for his family, and that Bill is clearly a great dad. We see him attend a town Christmas event, where Murphy brings the bits of joy that he shares more than anything with his family, and even just his slight bit of quiet amusement when his wife makes it very clear, though not the most subtle of hints, what she would like from him for Christmas. It isn’t the idyllic life, not is it is a flawed life, it is a perfectly pleasant life for the most part, in a times a harsh environment, and Murphy’s portrayal of it embodies the years and years of this life as just a given as part of the experience that makes Bill the person he is. 

An important moment happens early on where Bill sees a boy he knows running alongside his truck, to which he stops by to greet the boy he knows comes from a far less than perfect family. Murphy is great in the scene through the simplicity of the goodness of his performance, as you see the man just in his modest way bringing such a natural heart in trying to be as encouraging as he can be in recognizing the boy and even giving him a little bit of money. Something we see later on where he admits he gave the money with a brief delivery and looking down knowing Eileen will probably balk at his charity. Murphy though in the scene shows the man going along as he does, but in going along as he does, there is the striking awareness of what is around him and perhaps the small things he can do to be empathetic. That awareness ends up being the focal point of the film where in his route Bill does coal drop offs to the local convent, where each stop off Murphy’s performance speaks volumes, despite saying very little in the initial scenes. His first seeing a woman being pulled into the convent basically screaming horror as she is led in, and Murphy’s work says so much just in his eyes of taking in the seemingly terrible thing he is witnessing. Bill makes no action in the moment, but Murphy’s reaction to it leaves the impact within the man quite notably. The next time he makes the drop no one is there to deal with the order so Bill comes inside, only for one of the women confined to the convent to run to him to beg him for help. Murphy’s amazing in the scene as he just tries to defer by saying “he can’t”, and in every delivery Murphy is powerful in the sense of a quiet shame in the words combined with the real sadness in every statement. There’s more though in that Murphy’s expression takes in the horror of it, potently you see the man shaken within the moment and even though he insists he can’t do anything, Murphy shows so potently the impact the interaction has on him on a fundamental level. Something he brings home and discusses with his wife, where Murphy’s incredible in the weight he brings in his face as he recounts what has happened to his wife, who mostly dismisses his concerns and notes that he has a soft heart. Meanwhile Bill counters about his own experience and kindness he was given as a young boy by a wealthy woman who helped him and his mother when he was young. Murphy is great in the scene because there is so much in his smallness in just looking out, where you see the events of the night, his daughters’ own potential future and his past just playing out in his mind. Every word he speaks begins with the traumatic weight of knowing he did the wrong thing by ignoring and just cannot get the memories from his mind. 

Unfortunately for Bill the next time he goes on his rounds, he doesn’t just discover something suspicious but rather finds one of the young women at the convent put in the coal shed he makes deliveries to. Murphy’s amazing in the scene through the humanity he brings in the horror in his reaction to seeing the poor woman clearly having been placed here for hours. Murphy’s work embodies both in his expression and through his physical reaction, where you just see him so naturally become ill at the cruelty of the treatment, that is so incredibly moving. As Murphy brings such an attempt to then bring warmth as he tries to bring her in, as Murphy creates the struggle within Bill to try to project any kind of comfort he can, while clearly still being very much disturbed. Murphy once again does so much within the small minimalist limits of his work, yet is effortlessly captivating in bringing you into such an incredible sense of the empathy of Bill as he takes the young woman back inside the convent. Where he ends up meeting the Mother Superior (Emily Watson), who unlike Bill where Murphy emphasizes uncertainties in the man’s empathy, we see the cold certainties of Watson’s performance as a woman has no reservations or hesitations in her treatment of the women. Murphy’s great in his anti-chemistry with Watson as you see him even fall into himself in a kind of fear in reaction to the Mother Superior, as he immediately crafts such tension within Bill, and makes us feel so tangibly that Bill in a way is facing the entirety of the authority of his town as the Mother Superior insists on talking about the incident further with him. Murphy is tremendous in this scene by very much not being the dominating performer, and allowing Watson to be so. Murphy essentially is giving a masterclass with every halted breath and glance over to Watson, as Mother Superior runs down Bill’s prospects and family with a combination of both threat and bribe regarding the incident Bill was just part of. Murphy’s amazing in just how he rides this line between complete fear but just the hints of strength in Bill, such as noting his complete lack of shame in not having a son and himself carrying on his mother’s name. Murphy plays so well in living within the tension himself, but you see Bill still very much taking it all in, creating the uncertainties so strikingly. Murphy so artfully embodies the tension of the scene, because he doesn’t make it a momentary fear of the ramifications, rather you see the weight of essentially a societal burden upon him as goes through the strange process of the Mother Superior dismissing any troubles, while also offering him a “reward” and with an emphasis that he forget all of it. 

One of Murphy’s greatest moments as an actor comes immediately afterwards in just his silence as he walks out of the convent, with the “reward” in hand, and Murphy’s portrayal is filled with so much anxiety and self-loathing, where he shows the way Bill is thinking of what he has done, before taking his first action by telling the young woman his name and where he can be found. Murphy’s great because he doesn’t play it with an immediate confidence or any of the story, rather he shows very much the fear that is still penetrating his mind in every moment of his delivery, and through this expressing just how much it takes Bill to find his courage as his first step. Murphy presents the trauma and the impact of the night’ event as he drives home, and all Murphy has to work with is himself and some breaths. But Murphy’s performance with those breaths and just the small space of the truck, let’s us within his mental space so viscerally as the man going through it all and in no way being able to escape the deep penetrating thoughts of what he saw. And from that moment on the burden of the events is something that is within every aspect of Murphy’s portrayal of Bill as he basically can not exist within his life with the knowledge of what he experienced at the convent. There is no longer even the smallest bit of comfort within Murphy’s performance, showing the man now fixated within his thoughts and unable to move on from what he knows is right. Murphy’s outstanding because what he does is through such subtle changes, such quiet choices in his performance, makes it penetrate that much deeper as he pulls us into Bill’s frame of mind wholly. As you watch Murphy, you too can’t escape the thoughts because he makes them so true just within his eyes, within his physical posture, you know what the man is going through and you know what he can’t escape. Murphy gives us the intimate details, without speaking for the most part, of the man making his decision to go against what everyone tells him, what the societal expectations are and goes to help the woman regardless. And even though the decision will unquestionably have consequences upon him, Murphy gives such beautiful work in presenting Bill no longer with those burdens of his conscience. Instead what we see is just this quietly supportive warmth as he takes the woman along and helps her in her escape. Murphy doesn't do it with a a beaming face or anything big of the ilk, just this small but potent tenderness in every physical interaction and his quietly assuring delivery. His final moment of his perfomrance, which finally we see a true smile to reassure the young woman rahter than himself speaks volumes because Murphy through his work has made it such a hard earned moment of internal comfort after so much pain. Murphy in his extremely modest performance, is absolutely exceptional, giving a masterclass in subtlety, by using that smallness to let us in on such an intimate yet absolutely heartwrenching personal journey. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness

Jesse Plemons did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite winning Cannes, for portraying Robert, Daniel and Andrew in Kinds of Kindness.

Kinds of Kindness is an anthology film about three very strange relationships. 

Kinds of Kindness is curiously in a middle ground grey area for director Yorgos Lanthimos, with whom I love his films when written by someone else, finding them a somewhat frustrating experience though when he is nearly the complete architect of the piece. Technically this film falls under that banner being written and directed by Lanthimos and his writing partner for those films Efthimis Filippou. One of the reasons why is in his previous undiluted efforts Lanthimos also directs the majority of his actors to give artificially stiff performances, unlike in Poor Things and The Favourite where he let the actors loose to most delightful ends. It seems like this choice rubbed off on Lanthimos to some extent because while the performances aren’t the fully expressive turns of his last two films, Lanthimos’s directive seemed to be less strict even if like those earlier films the overall style is that of detachment, or maybe just the actors in this ensemble just kind of were best in their particular way around the material. Logical given that Emma Stone as the other lead of the film has obviously been most successful with Lanthimos, but you also have a Lanthimos newcomer with the very talented Jesse Plemons, who somehow I’ve only ever reviewed for his decent but in terms of his oeuvre rather underwhelming as representation of his talent, Oscar nominated performance. 

Plemons plays three different roles in this anthology of three films, where he plays the lead, co-lead then a supporting role. I’ll actually pull a Memento and go in reverse order given Plemons’s expanded role for each. In the third story he plays a cult member along with Emma Stone’s Emily, in the strange water cult lead by Omi (Willem Dafoe) and Aka (Hong Chau), where they are required to consume blessed water and on a quest to find a woman capable of reviving the dead. Plemons’s role in this segment is relatively limited in playing the cult partner searching for that woman with Stone’s Emily. What Plemons is playing in the segment is primarily an obvious jealousy for favor in the cult hierarchy and his performance is one mostly within the reactions of expressing that jealousy. His little glares make their impact in Plemons very much calling upon his Breaking Bad background in playing the little stares, though with a bit more smugness than old earnestly psychopathic Todd. While Plemons’s performance isn’t really the focus of this segment he is effective in his bits of just creeping around the corner of the frame and being this quietly pestering presence as he looks upon Stone’s character with a considerable disdain, then eventual unpleasant satisfaction when she falls out of favor with the cult. And I will note Plemons’s particular delivery of his wanting to have sex with Omi as it just being perfect, being very much the very bizarre humor styling of the film, however Plemons success with that particular style. 

The second story of Daniel, a police officer whose wife Liz, Stone again, sadly was on the Triangle of Sadness cruise and seemingly was lost to the sea. Plemons’s performance in this segment is about capturing the highly specific tone of the Lanthimos detachment. There is something most certainly weird about Plemons’s performance, as no one behaves like a human precisely in this film, except MAYBE Dafoe in this segment and the vet Margaret Qualley in the third segment, but Plemons manages to achieve something in terms of playing with real emotion albeit in a bizarre way. As we get him as this police officer dealing with very real grief of having potentially lost his wife, and Plemons’s general somberness is very sincere. Although tipped to something that is bit much with just how hangdog he is, to the point of touching a suspect and then speaking how the obviously not at all like his wife suspect, and then commenting on the man’s appearance with such desperation. Plemons succeeds in the strangeness that is funny, but to quote the Simpsons, not ha ha funny. Plemons overdoes it in the right way in the sorrowfulness as he makes requests like a kid who spilt milk but with the bizarre contrast that he’s asking to watch a sex tape he made with Liz, his partner and his partner’s wife. It only gets stranger when Liz does appear to have been rescued and it isn’t the happiest of reunions as Liz doesn’t behave exactly as he remembered. Plemons’s performance again plays between reality and complete insanity, as we see the quiet frustrations in his reactions with that of an anxiety of someone genuinely suspected that his wife has been replaced. At the same time though there’s the way he starts questioning which isn’t of slight suspicion but immediate conviction where we get the insanity. Which again is funny in an unpleasant way though where Plemons brings together from that frustration to an intense mania, where now any hint that it’s not Liz he immediately jumps on with a demented certainty. Plemons is remarkable because the intensity there is a reality in the idea of a paranoia that feels very real, but the fact that it jumps to this point so quickly is that kind of tipping into a farce, something that Plemons balances effectively. Something that twists again as Daniel decides to “test” Liz by being verbally abusive towards her and requesting “kindnesses” such as doing harm to herself. Again the switch is of that detached reality, but Plemons is genuinely terrifying though in his cold expressions, with such fuming hate filled emotions just beneath the surface with every demand of Liz. Plemons presents a horrible abuser where he quietly relishes his pain he causes to his wife with this immediate sadistic pleasure for himself. Plemons crafting a twisted portrait of a grief to terrible abuser that isn’t realistic at any point, it is funnyish, but what is so notable is that Plemons crafts an internal logic within his own performance. 

That internal logic being a consistent element as we get Plemons in the first story as Robert. Robert’s story is when Plemons is the unquestioned lead as a man in the employ of Dafoe’s Raymond, an employer who gives Robert gifts but also demands that Robert follow every single order he gives him in life, including who he takes for a wife, whether or not he has children, his weight or even proceeding in a strange vehicular manslaughter with a willing victim. Where again Plemons excels in crafting a very distinct tone of his performance between this strange extreme but with some reality in the internalization of his work. As on the surface Plemons is off in the way he plays the fixation on Raymond’s requests so matter of factly, and obeys his commands initially with this comical desperation because it is so strange. Plemons though balances that in his eyes there is a more honest anxiety connected with it, that even as the scenario is absurd, Plemons artfully plays into the absurdity but with some grounding. In the progression of this plot, where Robert doesn’t follow one of Raymond’s orders leaving him to be lost without the direction of the other man, we see Robert’s whole life fall apart. Something where you get reality and absurdity mixed in. Such as when Robert confesses to his wife all that Raymond has done, including enforcing a lack of children between them, Plemons emotional frustration within his delivery even the intensity speaks to a more honest regret. Less realistic perhaps is however Robert trying to recreate circumstances himself such as an injury to interact with a woman, something that Raymond had done to get Robert to meet his wife, we see Robert try and fail with a pretty hilarious delivery by Plemons by just how phony and ridiculous the act is. Plemons plays successfully the strange extreme but with balance, as we see Robert see his life crumble upon him through a series of slightly absurd reactions however with the grounding of very real distress at the same time as he sees he might be replaced by Raymond and has to stop it at any cost. As much as it is ludicrous as we see the man go about murdering a man to get back in this odd relationship, Plemons plays into the style by accentuating it in his aggressive fixated delivery but within the style he still finds the sense of real distress within that. Plemons in all three performances anchors and excels within the specific sensibility of Lanthimos. As he doesn't get covered by it, nor does he ignore, amplifying it effectively to find the odd humor of it, while also bringing just enough actual humanity to make the style a bit more tangible. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor in Challengers

Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist did not receive Oscar nominations for portraying Patrick Zweig and Art Donaldson respectively in Challengers. 

Challengers follows the love triangle between three tennis players. 

The film itself is shuffled timewise between different phases in the lives and the relationship of the three central characters, however for the review I think it would be easiest to examine the progression of O’Connor and Faist’s performances in chronological order. As one of the successes of both performances is creating the different ages of the character, as while obviously neither O’Connor nor Faist look like teenagers they do much to create the vibe of them when we see them as a formidable doubles team. Each just has a lack of weight in their performance, the lack of weight being the lack of life experience in both of them. There’s an ease about them and really even the hope of youth in their relaxed physical manner and their faces that just have no harshness in them. Although there is some hairstyling involved, perhaps some makeup but mostly it is just the vibe where the two excel in that state of two young guys, more so high schoolers than anything else. A sequence where the two also lay some essential groundwork in their tennis playing each portray the simple joy of performance between the two as you see that both Patrick and Art love playing together. They are truly a team in the sequence as performers as well as they both exude that same energy as one. Something that continues as we see the two together as a pair, where the chemistry between them is quite fantastic. As the two have a warmth in their banter, even when they are purposefully pestering each other a bit, Faist and O’Connor trade them off as proper buddies. Although I think essentially you get the dominant, or the less negative way of saying it, the older brother vibe that O’Connor brings in a greater innate confidence about himself over Faist who plays it all a bit smaller and purposefully the meeker of the two who looks upon Patrick with the sense of always never quite being what he is. 

Unfortunately for the pair’s relationship Patrick decides to take Art to see upcoming tennis superstar Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) at a game. A game where O’Connor and Faist’s reaction is that of instant and overwhelming combination of awe and arousal as each man is smitten by her very being. This leads both to go to a party to try to hook up with Tashi. Something where O’Connor and Faist both excel in filling different roles within the scheme of the attempted relationship with Tashi. The consistency within the scenes is the mutual obsession in each of their eyes once they strike up a conversation with her and the various, at first friendly, little barbs against each other where the delivery of them by Faist and O’Connor have that swiftness of true teenager boys having a certain kind of measuring contest, that may be in all good fun…or perhaps not. Within their methods to woo Tashi though each presents themselves a bit differently, as O’Connor brings out what will be something that is consistent in his performance and I love the way that O’Connor utilizes this choice as a weapon utilized both by his performance and actually by Patrick as a purposeful choice. With Patrick there is this side grin, that O’Connor makes the choice to purposefully present only a certain moment of Patrick trying to project his strongest confidence and put forth his best charm offensive. Something we see along, with his rapid fire delivery of someone finding any kind of way to hit on something within Tashi to make her interested in him. Which for her is tennis, where you see actually the greatest fixation in Tashi. Faist on the other hand wisely isn’t competing with O’Connor on that front of the scene, instead actually becomes more insular at times, but rather shows Art’s method as attempting to make a single important strike to get her attention. As with Art’s pivotal lines, that is where Faist puts the most confidence, as he works up to try to make his impact where he can, while often looking off in slight frustration at the ease O’Connor brings with Patrick. 

The two have pseudo success early on as Tashi invites the two into a makeout threeway, however she eventually moves them into making out with each other much to Luca Guadagnino’s…I mean Tashi’s delight. Which speaks much to the relationship between the two guys which definitely goes into a sexual relationship in addition to their friendship even if both men wouldn’t immediately admit to such things. However what it really is, is the start of manipulation of Tashi of the men as she makes her number the prize of a championship game, that previously Patrick admitted he’d throw for Art, but now it becomes personal. Within the game you see the first break as O’Connor now goes all in with the confidence bringing a bravado with every moment of his play and even being very close to mocking in his overly satisfied reaction to Art’s losses. Where Faist counters that effectively by showing Art becoming more serious, tighter in his manner, more determined in a way but also now weighed with jealousy for Patrick’s success. Something that is only exacerbated when Patrick not only gets the number he indicates by Art’s own serve style that he successfully had sex with her as well. Something where you see the ego of Patrick grow, meanwhile the frustration of Faist’s performance only becomes all the more internalized and intense. Something that continues as we get our first time jump to Art and Tashi at Stanford, meanwhile Patrick has gone pro not to exactly the greatest of successes. 

Through the scene we get our first age up where Faist loses that youthful energy being that much more serious, meanwhile O’Connor’s confidence now has more of a put-on. It isn’t as though he’s truly not confident but you see the guy having to purposefully put it on a bit more. From that though we more so see the progression of the relationship with Tahsi with each. The first where Art not so subtly tries to put some doubts into Tashi’s mind, where throughout the scene Faist’s chemistry with Zendaya is one of constant doubt, quiet frustration and just a fixation on the need behind her. This contrasts with O’Connor where at first you see the two getting on quite well, sexually as they chat up tennis and we see Tahsi turned on by that and O’Connor shows Patrick very much turned on by Tashi. Unfortunately Patrick tires of her fixation on only tennis to which she in turn denies him sex. O’Connor’s great in the way he presents Patrick’s specific lack of BS when it comes to Tashi’s manipulation around tennis. O’Connor while still presenting his own fixation by sexual need overtly, combined with this very blunt disinterest with her overt machinizations and obvious disinterest with him outside of being a tennis player. O’Connor though not making it quite so simple putting in part an attack against Tashi when he calls himself her peer, but within the bluntness of his delivery we see the emotional vulnerability just beneath it of the pain he does feel connected to her seeming dispassion for Patrick if he’s not a tennis player. 

Shortly after their fight however Tashi has a career running injury, that in turn also leads to the rejection of Patrick by both Tashi and Art. Leading her to Art, where Faist is great in the way he constructs Art’s, well, constructed confidence. It isn’t real confidence as he chats up Tashi later to join his team as a coach, and really more so to get a bead on starting a relationship with her. What Faist does is craft the attempted confidence of indifference, something he presents with a callous stare and speaking about tennis as though it is nothing to him in a certain sense, though it obviously is much. Faist pointedly undercuts this however when it turns romantic such as stating his desire to kiss her with so little confidence and just the most desperate sense of an ask with a self-defeating attitude. Faist showing so much still Art’s fixation on her as this unobtainable goddess in a way to the point that even when he does obtain her it in no way builds genuine confidence. Something quite obvious in our briefest time jump where we see Patrick approach an engaged Tashi and hookup with her. I think the thin nature of the scene is really key particularly in O’Connor’s performance. O’Connor doesn’t present as genuinely desperate love or anything of the ilk, rather is just direct with almost a non-verbal of saying “I’m hot you’re hot, let’s have sex” with once again his weaponized grin to help sell it all. Contrasting that with Art who catches a glimpse of the situation, where Art is becoming a tennis champion at the same time, and Faist is great in playing the posture now of the star athlete in his general demeanor walking around but when looking at that we see the same guy desperately trying to insert himself into the conversation with Tashi and Patrick. 

After this we get the most substantial time jump where Art is the very successful, though pivotally not legendary, tennis player who is married to Tashi, have a child and even essentially an industry behind them as a team. Faist in these scenes shows that complete transition and it is remarkable how he can go from the up and comer star, to now the spent star who is past his prime. Faist does so through the sort of seriousness of his intensity in these scenes portraying the man dogged by his success in a way and just constantly has this weight about him. What doesn’t help matters is his relationship with Tashi has not changed as she truly controls the pair despite not being the tennis star, and even now that he’s married to her with a child he’s still not equal to her. Faist still showing the same fixation though now with I think a greater sadness about it because there’s a hopelessness about it, such as his delivery of “I love you” to Tashi, followed by frankly a dismissive “I know”. His “I love you” being so filled with years of frustration, years of being in love, but not truly being love himself. Faist playing so well this duality of a desperate state despite also having that intensity of the successful man. Speaking of desperate states, we find Patrick as a starving fringe tennis player, who can’t even afford his hotel room. O’Connor is absolutely amazing in this phase of playing Patrick, because he’s downright hilarious yet he’s still in character. Because what O’Connor does is still have that same confidence but now he doesn’t quite have all what he needs to fully back it up. I love the moment where he tries his classic grin on the hotel manager, where you can see the attempt but now it comes off as a bit sleazy and desperate despite not exactly being all that different from when it was successful. O’Connor playing so well into this juxtaposition of confidence now is his only thing he can hold onto to hide his desperation. As we see when talking to an official and his eyes just focus on her breakfast sandwich, and for the moment O’Connor just shows a very hungry man and really the very pathetic state of Patrick at this time. Or even when he hookups with a woman solely to get a bed to sleep in due to his lack of funds, where O’Connor is comic gold in just how he puts on the barest interest, and particularly his perfect quick reaction of “screw it” by dropping all pretense and just starting to make out with her to get to his end goal. 

The central element of this final time period though is a tennis tournament which is a tune up for Art, a last ditch effort for Patrick, and naturally the two come face to face for the victory. Where the battle between them is obviously about far more than just the game or even what the game means for their career. Leading up to it we get two pivotal scenes, one being the only major scene between Patrick and Art since the end of their friendship where they share a sauna much to Art’s dismay. It’s an amazing scene in terms of the performances of both. Because on the surface you have each playing a part at first, where Faist is projecting callous confidence, a disregard for Patrick as though he is the great man and Patrick is just some random sleazebag. Contrasting that O’Connor is great in bringing the lack of shame possible for a man with nothing to lose coming in with his hectoring attitude and manner of trying to impose his will against Art best he can. Eventually within the argument though there’s a fantastic moment where you see the “act” in O’Connor let up as he gets to something deeper in his eyes and genuinely delivers Patrick’s almost apology by saying he liked playing with him. Something where Faist shows Art almost stiffen all the more to try to hold firm to his earned confidence of his career and bring too much admance to his sneer of any meaning to their old days. We also get Patrick and Tashi essentially opening up negotiations with each other, as Patrick tries to present himself as a prospect both as a tennis player and as a lover basically. Something where again O’Connor’s remarkable by as much as he brings that confidence it is the confidence of a man who is in dead end and as much as he pushes there’s always the nagging sense in his eyes of not nearly being as great as he wishes he was. What Patrick does have though is Tashi’s number metaphorically, where O’Connor plays the straightest moments in Patrick in stating his disgust with her in a way, while at the same time showing his obvious lust for her in almost the same breath in seeing her as the sexy manipulator essentially. Where O’Connor’s performance captures a specific knowing where he has the directness of the truth, but also the certain resignation that he’ll give into her anyways since he can’t rid himself of his attraction to her. All of it culminating in the final game, where each present their own forms of lying to themselves, where O’Connor brings that pestering attitude, mixed in with moments of vicious frustration, and Faist matches that with that “Above it all” attitude of the great athlete mixed in with his own vicious frustration where the simple truth is neither guy is having any fun. That is until Patrick secretly reveals his affair with Tashi, and in turn her active manipulations of both, and we get the final play between the two in the tiebreaker for the match. It has be said the sequence is oustanding, the best in the film, one of the best of 2024 and Faist and O'Connor are pivotal. Becuase as much as it is a lot editing, score, and specific directorial choices by Guadagnino, their work is essential in creating the gradual loss of the frustrations of each men, to slowly building up joy as they play, to finding the sense of friendship again, to building together this moment of pure jubiliation as they embrace each other. The scene would not work if Faist and O'Connor did not make you believe the silent connection that is reformed through the game, which they absolutely do and make the film end on such a unbelievable high. Both performance are pivotal however throughout the film, as each successfully creates such a tangible personal journey that amplfy the other's by the contrast that they create in those journeys and natures of the two men, with the consistency being the obvious talent of both actors. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: George MacKay in The Beast

George MacKay did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Louis in The Beast. 

The Beast follows a woman Gabrielle (Lea Seydoux) going through a sci-fi purification process to purge herself of strong emotions that takes her through past lives. 

George MacKay plays the man who is a constant in her past lives, and while technically it is said to be the same character, MacKay plays three characters within the character of Louis. An ideal casting because MacKay is proving himself as an actor with an ability just to fit into any period/role you want to throw him into. Something that becomes abundantly clear when the earliest memories place the two in France in the 1910’s where Gabrielle is a woman married to a doll factory owner, where she comes across Louis. MacKay fashions himself entirely into this role with a natural ease of the Frenchman within a more regal and potentially repressed period. MacKay doesn’t really require for you to buy into this performance you just immediately believe through the confidence of his work. His posture, and controlled line delivery are that of a man of this period, where MacKay naturally manages to bring in the ease within the unease so to speak. In that MacKay indeed presents a man somewhat repressed within this time and place, but within MacKay’s own work he makes it so naturally that at the same time. MacKay’s refined manner just simply is Louis in this segment and is completely convincing as such as a starting point, that one could presume to believe that the film will merely be about this potential, or “could’ve been” affair between Gabrielle and Louis. 

The chemistry between Seydoux and MacKay is critical to this segment because it is the establishment of the two finding the connections through time. The chemistry in this segment specifically presented within the confines per the period and per the situation where Gabrielle is considering having this affair yet is weighed upon by a belief that doing so would create some sort of catastrophe. Seydoux and MacKay are great together in realizing it in this segment as very much the period drama about the real emotions just beneath the veneer of their well tailored clothing. MacKay showed within the lines in their early scenes the quiet degree of potent connection and interest. Something he fashions in just a glance or a moment of more warmth in his words than the expected formalities of their interactions. MacKay with Seydoux finding the ease towards the two finding something within each other, however subtly just within their hearts yet something they won’t quite say. They naturally realize this progression in the moment until it seems they may finally be able to connect beyond the stolen glances, as they begin to touch one another. Where MacKay and Seydoux are great in showing the way the emotions begin to pierce out of each other from the most minute physical touch. A release that isn't just a standard emotional expression, but rather with it that very specific tension of two people who have been holding it in for so long. Unfortunately just as they might be considering this a fire and flood trap them in the factory and the two must try to survive. MacKay is great in showing the immediacy of the situation within his performance, as suddenly he does become the hero seemingly as the gravity of it all comes loose, and the two repressed refinements are naturally dropped as they are faced with death in the most immediate sense. Sadly despite their attempt to escape they both drown. 

The film then jumps to another life and memory as we see Gabrielle now in a model house sitting in Los Angeles meanwhile Louis is something far less glamorous. Although MacKay delivers an entirely new performance and entirely new presence as this version of Louis, now going by Louie, where we open with him making a vlog espousing his incel beliefs where he notes his horrible life tying all his problems into believing women don’t find him attractive. MacKay is amazing because any notion of his previous performance is instantly forgotten as he is wholly convincing in this new performance. A performance he delivers with as much ease, though now he’s as obviously American but no longer in a state of period repressment. Although even this is a reinvention as his physical manner is changed, but not to a normal behavior. Rather it is a completely different kind of tension, that is less of repression of good emotions instead the tension of someone very mentally unstable. MacKay’s delivery in these scenes is extremely disturbing as he brings so much into them. There’s the obvious self-pity mixed within a strange self-aggrandizement, where he mixes in the two through this particularly off-putting delusion of his state of being. But more unnerving however is this eerie conviction about his performance as he expresses his self-defeating and hateful views, that does have a sense of that sorrowfulness, but more so MacKay underlines it with the palpable sense of a hatred behind it all. MacKay brings to life so naturally and chilling these expressions of the man so firmly believing his own twisted and toxic worldview where you sense this isn’t just videos to paint himself a certain way, rather is a genuine horrifying manifesto he is speaking towards the world. 

Despite their extreme differences in this version of time an earthquake ends up bringing the two together again regardless, where their relationship once again has a chasm although this time through their emotional states. Although a connection in each is lonely, however Gabrielle exists within her loneliness in an attempt to reach out to someone as strange as Louie, meanwhile Louie treats his loneliness as something he needs to strangely defend. MacKay is great in the scene where she first speaks to him because he shows the way the fear instantly realizes itself and his specific intensity becomes more panicked as though the fact that his fundamental worldview is being challenged it almost breaks him. And while rejecting her the first time he does seem to reappear to spend time with her, where MacKay’s amazing in a different kind of awkwardness in terms of the relationship with Gabrielle. They do find chemistry again though this time in a different fashion from before, as she reaches out so warmly while MacKay presents this fixation in his mind as though this version of Louis cannot stop thinking about his assumptions that he’s created in his personal philosophy on women that it prevents him from reaching out back to her. MacKay excels in creating this believable brokenness that is the man where you see the demented state of the man as a constant and lost in his mental disturbance. As we see their encounter seemingly not real, as we see an alternate version of afterwards where we get another screed from Louie where he verbalizes both his intense self-doubts along with a horrifying sense of determined hatred. MacKay creates a chilling portrayal of the man finding solace in his broken mind through his anger. 

Within the scheme of this film there isn’t a traditional resolution to this story as it progresses more so into the framing device of the woman going through the strange process of emotional removal. Although that is where we are given MacKay’s briefest performance as the Louis in the future also considering the process along with Gabrielle. This is without a doubt MacKay’s least showy performance though fittingly as he just presents a normal guy, with not long lost love connection to Gabrielle but rather just a natural ease with her fitting to two people who could potentially have a relationship. And so that potential is the shades of the other two relationships, the first which is left as straightforward as described. The second though, with the past lives connection within the idea as Gabrielle in some versions seems to be able to comfort a deranged Louie, but in another where she murders her. MacKay in both versions creates the juxtaposition of perhaps the past Louis within the reaction to her comfort, or just the psychopathic determination to kill what he sees as his self-delusional “tormentor”. All of these ideas to Gabrielle seemingly reject the process to see Louis in her future again. And while it seems like Louis is giving overtures of connection there is a hollowness in MacKay’s eyes and a lack of connection even as she embraces him. Gabrielle realizing too late that he’s gone through the purification himself, ripping out any chance for love, and MacKay’s great in the way he can express affection in the basest sense, perfunctory, artificial, and with any sense of humanity ripped from it. It’s more remarkable because MacKay doesn’t play it as a pure robot, but rather a human where the soul in which to make genuine connections has been eliminated. If this review sounds slightly jumbled it is because the use of MacKay, who is bordering between lead and supporting, is purposefully jumbled in the memories of Gabrielle. What is not jumbled is MacKay’s actual performance. Where he is captivating in all three performances, there’s no second of accepting the new Louis, MacKay is simply the new Louis each time, creating three distinct phases of life, managing to so tangibly be the repressed romantic, the psychotic anti-romantic and then the man where romance isn’t something that even phases him. The parts are separate but all connected through the immense talent of MacKay, which this performance, or performances are a striking testament of. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Daniel Zovatto in Woman of the Hour

Daniel Zovatto did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Rodney Alcala in Woman of the Hour. 

Woman of the Hour follows serial killer Rodney Alcala including his appearance on the dating game. 

Daniel Zovatto takes on the role of real life Rodney Alcala which is actually the majority of the film despite the name of the film where we occasionally check in with the strange dating game story. Much of the time the film captures instead the horrible crimes of Alcala as he goes about brutally murdering various women, directed with often eerie calm by director/co-star Anna Kendrick, which very much relies on Zovatto’s performance. Where Zovatto’s performance very much is realizing the nature of the psychopath, specifically the ability to create an appearance of normalcy. Zovatto though doesn’t just portray Alcala’s ability at being normal but rather even worse his ability to be charming. The activity we see associated with him being his interest in photography and film. Zovatto brings an outgoing ease with these scenes, and despite his impressive stature is even able to be disarming. The way he presents himself physically there’s a certain relaxed open manner he exudes when approaching the women each time. Zovatto makes it worse than that because when you see Alcala compliment the women, Zovatto very much brings this quiet warmth in his performance whenever he compliments them about their beauty and just seems to be a caring guy. Zovatto puts on the seemingly ideal face of the good person who you can trust each time he approaches the women, Zovatto makes it eerily convincing because of that charm. 

Unfortunately in every situation what we have with Alcala is a true psychopath who can present himself one way, which being completely the opposite behind the false charming mask he puts forth for all to see. Zovatto’s performance is particularly disturbing in the ease of his performance in putting the hints to his nature in the moments just before he approaches the women or merely when they aren’t looking. In just a second his eyes change from that of the disarming man, to that of a predator as he looks upon them suddenly with this cold detachment and very much seems to be observing them as a specimen for himself rather than as a person. Zovatto’s physical manner changes as the way he can suddenly no longer seem like a gentle giant, but instead the scariest of brutes. As Zovatto just changed his posture a little to suddenly create this more vicious stance where you see the monster in the waiting show itself. Zovatto’s performance is particularly disturbing in the way he presents this as a natural flow for Alcala in these scenes, it isn’t a case where you see him go one way or another, rather what Zovatto shows is this particularly chilling control over his own nature. Zovatto very specifically presents the way that Alcala willingly plays a game with the women. He’s not turning from one nature to another, he is the psychopath the entire time, and rather the false face of the trustworthy photographer is merely a tool he knowingly engages as much as he does with his photographs. 

When the monster fully comes out it becomes absolutely horrifying each and every time Because Zovatto’s performance makes it all so easy for the man. The viciousness isn’t something he needs to pull out of himself, it's just what he is and he begins to be himself in such disturbing detail. Such as in the opening scene of the film, which is honestly one of the most chilling cinematic moments depicted in a film, where Alcala goes about choking a woman to death, only to perform CPR on her in order to essentially murder her twice. Zovatto throughout this process is terrifying because you see the calm about himself so often, in even the way he physically starts to interact as he’s making the turn is though he’s playing with a tone he chooses to break in the way he feels like. As it progresses Zovatto presents this clarity in Alcala’s thought throughout, as it isn’t something he pulls out, it is rather the actions of the man where it is merely something he does to himself. Something we also see in the couple moments where one of the other dating game bachelor’s confront him and Alcala shows the man one of his murder photos. Zovatto’s smile is incredibly disturbing because you see just how much for Alcala that the whole process, including murder photos, and every brutality is nothing but a hobby for himself, with the false face, and the brutality just going naturally hand in hand as a step by step process of a fiend. 

The one exception to this game is specifically with one potential victim a runaway Amy (Autumn Best) who we mostly see him going about his usual process by describing her as looking like Linda Manz then getting her to come out with him to the desert with the idea of a photoshoot, and again Zovatto in portraying each segment of the process is scary just by the how relaxed it all is. The difference in this situation though is after the initial attack by Alcala, Amy doesn't react how he expected her to do so, as instead of screaming or attacking she just lies by treating as normal and that she promises to keep it all a secret. Zovatto’s great in this scene because his emotional breakdown in the moment shows that frankly this is something that isn’t computing in the twisted mind of Alcala and by breaking the mold, we see Zovatto portray just the emotional mess of a creature that Alcala is behind all the confidence he expresses when within his process. However it works as Alcala lets her live and even begins driving her back to the city, where Zovatto’s performance continues to impress by the differences he brings throughout the sequence. As you see the man is somewhat lost as he’s strangely lost his usual control, and almost unable to comprehend what is going on in his mind. Zovatto successfully reveals the one time Alcala is out of his comfort zone in a way which reveals just this broken mess of a psyche that by chance allows Amy to get away. Zovatto gives a terrific performance here by granting such chilling detail to the process where he is captivating in showing both the lure of his killer but also the hideous nature behind a deceptive smile. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Hugh Grant in Heretic

Hugh Grant did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for a BAFTA, for portraying Mr. Reed in Heretic. 

Heretic follows two Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East) who unfortunately enter the house of a committed reddit user. 

Hugh Grant plays that committed reddit user, and in so many ways Hugh Grant is this film because getting to see him just sink his teeth into a villainous performance is the majority of the reason to watch this film which…I’ll get into a little later. As right off the bat when the two Mormons sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Paxton (East) approach Grant’s Mr. Reed’s house to spread their word, Grant is a tremendous amount of fun. Grant is very much utilizing his known presence as the stuttering yet charming leading man, who may blink more than once, in setting up the seemingly harmless enough older man who wouldn’t mind inviting in the two women for a discussion on religion. Grant very much brings the charm he was typically called upon in the majority of his 90’s to 00’s performances with his bright smile and generally slightly goofiness that creates an affability. Grant alludes to the eventual nature of the character however in just slightly off glances as he encourages the two to come into his house, which they refuse until he assures that his wife is inside “baking pie”. Grant is convincing enough to bring in moments mostly by being the Hugh Grant presence we’ve come to expect, and is kind of the tee off for the character as essentially once they enter the house it is the slow switch from one nature to another. 

Grant very much IS the film because so much of it becomes a whole lot of just talking about religion as Reed begins to discuss religion about them. Grant's first switch becomes a mix between his old charm though now with this growing directness in his delivery. Grant’s wonderful in the way he smiles after every sort of beat in the discussion almost to disarm them one more time, even as Mr. Reed, for someone seemingly just curiously interested in the Mormon church, offers some vast knowledge of the specifics of the founding of the faith. Where Grant emphasizes certain pieces of these descriptions with a cold analysis suddenly, where it seems less of him opening for further discussion and more so the first in what will be many attacks along the way. Something that continues as he questions more from each of the sisters, where Grant becomes more intense in his questioning and you see sort of any of that charm in Grant fade away suddenly in moments to great effect. Grant’s eyes become so cold such when he asks about Barnes’s deceased dad, specifics about his death and then asking if she’s contacted him from the presumed afterlife. Grant in particular suddenly loses any semblance of his little smile having a tremendous impact as his eyes instead begin to pierce as the man begins to try to break down both of the women to their very core. 

At a certain point Reed kind of loses any notion of pretending he is just “curious” with slightly sinister undertones to just openly direct in his attacks on the beliefs of the women and notes that he will help them find the “one true religion” where all sort of warmth purges from Grant’s face which is most disturbing from him in particular. Which becomes more alarming when the women find they can’t get out from the door they came in and Reed doesn’t seem like he intends to allow them to leave. Grant is having a ton of fun in this performance, and very much makes these scenes work just by having the fun that he does. As Grant very much plays around with the nature of the character, such as when he purposefully builds dread, where Grant is very entertaining by very much playing Mr. Reed as knowing about his own increasingly sinister nature, and that Mr. Reed himself is having fun in the strange game of his. Grant selling honestly so many of the lines that frankly go a bit on and on to say the least in setting up that the women can’t leave, and making them sing simply by his delivery of them that infuses each with an energy that is captivating within his own performance even as honestly the dialogue starts to get a bit repetitive. 

Following this we get Mr. Reed goes into his very long screed against religion by challenging every facet of their religious beliefs by connecting elements of pop culture and general beliefs while going about taking stabs at various aspects of religious beliefs. And what makes this scene work is largely Grant because he really colors every aspect as we very slowly rundown Reed’s thesis on the growth of monotheistic religions. Grant does this by just being so playful with all his different lines in going in really surprising directions in just throwing random bits of color to accentuate one line or another, creating an unpredictability within the very long exposition. Grant’s delivery is engaging in itself by itself, he’s just a delight to watch here in running with every line he has, but it also does serve the film in the way he switches on dime adds to the potential danger of the character. Because Grant so naturally goes goofy in one moment by his suddenly singing of “Creep” with an American accent, or at one point even doing a Jar Jar Binks impression, to being straight in his refined accent, to suddenly getting the glints in his eye of a most nefarious purpose. Grant is just dancing around with the lines that get through the scene just beautifully, and entirely makes the scene through his performance. Honestly I think if you had a lesser actor, the scene itself probably would crumble, but Grant makes it work. 

Unfortunately the crumbling comes right after this scene anyways, where Mr. Reed makes the sisters choose a door and clearly the screenwriters had no particularly clever ideas of where to take this story after the screed scene. As we get into a whole dumb thing where Mr. Reed apparently has these captive troglodyte women to make a false miracle where one revives by eating a poisoned pie by having doubles, which in itself is a ridiculously dumb plan since he tells the women what’s in the pie, he could’ve just lied about the contents of the pie to begin with. Anyway it is all to get them to eventually find a hidden layer where every choice led to him controlling them to get them to say religion about control, which he wants because he wanted to be a serial killer who gets people to denounce their faith beforehand? To get them to become troglodyte women maybe? As we never do get why he even has them. Something? I don’t know, I don’t think the screenwriters knew either, as the film completely falls apart, finding nowhere to go and not really giving Grant anything interesting to do after a certain point. I’ll give Grant credit he’s still good, and elevates every line he does have, bringing the right still entertainment value mixed in with a chilling cutting into every time he springs up to hassle the women some more. But in the end he can do only so much with just how weak the material gets by the end of the film. Still even with the letdown of the film as a whole, Grant runs with the showcase he does get in the first half of the film, and successfully utilizes what made him such a popular actor in the first place combined with some new shades of his talent beyond the pigeonhole he had been placed into. 

Alternate Best Actor 2024: Keith Kupferer in Ghostlight

Keith Kupferer did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated for an Independent Spirit Award, for portraying Dan Mueller in Ghostlight. 

Ghostlight follows a construction worker going through a family crisis finding an outlet through acting. 

Ghostlight gives that rare opportunity for an unlikely if not entirely unknown performer to get to take on the leading role. In this case character actor, if not even background actor Keith Kupferer who maybe you know best as the “HE SHOULD TURN HIMSELF IN” guy from The Dark Knight. The film by providing the opportunity to Kupferer to show off talents previously hidden while also giving the audience a very different protagonist than many cinematic leads. Kupferer very much looks like the part he is playing, which is a guy working construction who very much just exists within a certain state of emotional being. Kupferer’s presence is one where it doesn’t feel like he’s playing anything, he’s just being, as he embodies not only the look but the entire feel. As we see the workaday Dan goes about his day dealing with dangerous drivers as he’s working, then finding his daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Kupferer’s own daughter), having intense problems at school to the point of being potentially kicked out entirely. Kupferer when taking in her actions, which we will find out later are likely connected directly to the suicide of his son/her brother, Kupferer just presents Dan as someone taking it all in. Believably so as he just carries that same hardening, not unemotional, but just adding in the pressure in an attempt to be as passive as he can be. Something that Kupferer convincingly makes the innate state of Dan as a man who learned to get by life mostly by just keeping it all in with his emotions, and Kupferer remarkably sets up the initial state of essentially the dormant volcano that could potentially erupt. Something we see on the edges of Kupferer’s performance as he conveys just the mental exhaustion of the man that is building up. 

Something we finally see come out as one pressure too many culminates with another drive almost swerving into his construction area, where Dan physically confronts the man grabbing him and telling him to stop. Kupferer is great in the scene because it feels like such a natural release, not a good way, but just that pent up anger put forth in any direction, in this instance the most immediate. Kupferer is terrific in the way though he comes down where he is able to play the moment of realization for a moment before coming back to his typical state of just trying to hold it in himself. The reaction though also causes him to catch the eye of a very small local theater actor Rita (Dolly de Leon), who gets him to come along into their production of Romeo and Juliet that is more than a ragtag group. And if this sounds like Sing Sing, it is because it is extremely similar in plot and really character development around the play. But who cares, they’re both good in different enough ways. Part of it being Dan is far from where Clarence Maclin starts even, as Kupferer shows Dan just an alien in the setting, looking at the words and reading them with a detachment. He importantly though underlies these moments with a quiet interest as he gets pulled into the performance, helps when he is put on leave for his job due to his outburst against the driver. But Kupferer very naturally creates the seed, he’s still the guy keeping it all in but with the acting we start to see just the most generalized interest, believably as something Dan just sees as something to do at the start. 

Kupferer basically plays the cultivation of the connection well particularly as we see him spending a bit more time for his daughter as he begins to express interest in Romeo and Juliet. Kupferer’s delivery of this interest is so convincing because it is so simple as a “I guess why not” sort of way as she, unknowing why, teaches him a few things about the play and performance. Connecting further is in the acting performances where he is consistently encouraged by Rita to try harder and participate more. Something where we see in Kupferer’s early portrayal of Dan in the play as quite frankly quite bad and truly just a man reading a script nothing more. In turn we also see that exhaustion that defines the man comes out when getting involved with some of the acting exercises, where Kupferer is terrific in playing the specific tension whenever pushed to portray emotions, despite being filled with them. Kupferer so effectively creates that dynamic because he does have a hard face, yet on those edges of every word and in his eyes you do see that dormant emotion just waiting to come out with the right excuse. Something Rita cultivates from him, where he and De Leon have great non-romantic, though with maybe just the right hint of it, chemistry between them as she basically pushes him to do more. Kupferer brings this gradual increase in his performance again so naturally, because it isn’t at all sudden, it is one scene from another of the acting, as we see the man slowly lose a degree of the self-consciousness to be something other than himself. Kupferer makes it remarkable because of just how believable he is in just how tight everything is about him before this, so when we see the bits letting out it speak volumes. 

At the same time we discover that Dan’s son died in an attempted suicide pact with his girlfriend, who unlike Dan’s son, awoke from the drugs they took leading Dan to try to sue the family for what they see having been culpable. Something that we see consistently Dan does not deal with whether it is with Daisy, his wife (Tara Mallen, Kupferer’s actual wife as well), his daughter even as she goes to a therapist and even when running into his son’s surviving girlfriend. Kupferer still shows the emotion in these instances but that emotion that he pulls into himself, where the intensity in his eyes worsen and you see the pain that he wants to keep out of himself. However this comes to a head when he is literally forced to speak about his son’s death in order to complete a court deposition. A scene where Kupferer is amazing as you see him basically forced to go moment by moment in recalling finding his son. Kupferer is tremendous in the scene by the way we slowly see the pressure of the emotion penetrate his walls, although this time not just in anger but in such messy complications. Kupferer certainly brings the anger, however below that he delivers the outpouring of the heartbreak. Kupferer is so powerful in his delivery of not wishing that his son’s girlfriend had also died, but that they had both awoken. Kupferer brings such devastating honesty to each and every word in what is just a tremendous cathartic moment of the man revealing his inner torments. 

And yes just like Sing Sing we see the progression of the healthy release of emotions with the growth in performance, though I would say Sing Sing perhaps is a little more detailed in this process through Clarence Maclin’s performance, Kupferer’s work is also remarkable with what he is given in terms of the film's shorter screentime. As importantly he makes the choice in not going too far in terms of either the release of emotion or his eventual ability with Shakespeare enough to play Romeo to Rita’s Juliet. Kupferer still maintains that Dan is a guy who doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve, however starts presenting a man who can regulate those emotions in a healthier way. As Kupferer eases up the pressure while also being more open in his heartfelt connections with both his wife and his daughter. Kupferer makes such a gentle yet wholly winning transition, and is incredibly moving in just the simple gestures of the man allowing those positive emotions to also reveal themselves in such gentle ways. While Kupferer honestly makes one of the best cinematic depictions of Romeo though I like that while we see Kupferer still showing Dan being himself, but now being himself while finding a way to express the emotions of Romeo. His acting has improved from just reading the lines out loud, but they are lines earnestly from Dan's own emotions now. It isn't some extreme transformation but rather Kupferer makes it something special by making it a man taking his genuine trauma and funneling into his performance in a much healthier release. Kupferer delivers such a wonderful heartfelt turn here, which is so easy to appreciate because he realizes such an atypical protagonist so honestly, while also getting a little bit of a showcase for a rather atypical leading man at the same time.