Alternate Best Actor 1980: John Savage in Inside Moves

John Savage did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Roary in Inside Moves. 

Inside Moves is a fine, though not substantial, off-beat drama about a man finding an unlikely new lease on life.

John Savage is probably best known as one of the group of friends forever changed by the Vietnam war in The Deer Hunter. Here we follow once again as a man permanently physically injured, though under very different circumstances. We open this film on his Roary going up a building only to jump off in a suicide attempt that leaves him with a limp but he survives. Like his work in his most famous role, Savage from the opening scene excels in internalizing trauma. The opening scene though just wearing the quiet desperation of a man. This is carefully though as he seems focused upon his intention rather than attempting any kind of cry for help. We then follow past the film's introduction to see a "recovered" Roary. Savage's performance in these two scenes alone is terrific work in terms of crafting the sense of time between the two phases of Roary. This as the second man is hardly in a good state, as now instead of that intention Savage embodies an anxiety within him and naturally also depicts his physical ailment that follows him wherever he goes. Savage doesn't depict it as a state of constant despair now, but there is still an unmistakable sadness within his work. It is more muted and in a way seemingly separated as the man is trying in some way to continue to exist, if little more than that. 

Roary's new path we find as he finds solace in a bar frequented by other seemingly broken people including a group of elderly men, including Harold Russell in his sophomore effort as an actor over 30 years after his first, a strung out prostitute, and the friendly, though also injured, bartender with former hopes as a basketball player Jerry (David Morse). Savage's performance is interesting as the lead as it is often this kind of reactionary one. His performance conveys that quiet sense of a kind of distress that defines the man though muted. He's broken in that certain sense yet there's also something very open within his performance all the same. In his interactions with the others Savage's work has this kind of balance to it. This as his eyes are often both expressive in terms of reaction while also shy. He shows a man finding himself in a way and finding himself through listening to others. He's still profoundly changed by what he did, but also in that we see a man in a  way almost on a different wavelength at times that provides a certain empathy in moments. This as we see him becomes friends with the people in the bar, particularly Jerry, and in that Savage presents a man capable of this most curious kind of encouragement. This is something that Savage realizes in a quietly moving fashion, almost his own emotional scars allowing him to express support without any kind of hesitation. 

Savage's performance realizes this peculiar state effectively. This as he begins to become this comfort and better man, while there is this shading in Savage's work that still expresses the greater state of distress that brought him to this new life in a way. Savage though manages to make the "feel good" for the lack of a better description work within his performance. This is because he never skips the step of Roary's own problems as he also shows this kind of interesting perspective the character seems to have because of his past rather than in spite of it. Savage earns this gradual kind of joys we see expressed in his work that he depicts always with the nuanced understanding from where it was that Roary came from to get here. Savage's performance never cheats the narrative or the idea behind the character, which I think actually as written it could've been very easy to bungle the character into someone cloying or unbelievable. Savage though effectively finds the effort within the man's arc. This making so many moments really work through his performance. This particularly in Roary romance with one of the bartenders Louise (Diana Scarwid). It's straight forward in execution, but the key moments of this Savage finds the right poignancy just through his expression of it. This particularly his scene of first kissing her as Savage's eyes convey the crippling shyness of the man's manner, before finally breaking through to the man embracing the woman and really life itself in the moment. The film, somewhat unfortunately, snags into more familiar territory, in overly familiar ways, as both Jerry and Louise seem to move on from Roary. Savage to his credit though never really falls into the lesser material himself. He amplifies it still with that off-beat energy of his that always feels true to the part. This as his confrontation moment even with Jerry later on, who has forgotten his friends despite their help, as Savage manages to deliver the scene with a fascinating combination of anger and sadness, but funneled through a kind of manner of curiosity as though Roary is trying to figure out the moment as he's going through it. This in showing the man finding his footing as he's speaking and finds the confidence with the character in the moment in a rather endearing and remarkable way. That is emblematic of Savage's whole performance that avoids the potential contrivances of the script to give a quietly moving and impactful portrayal of a man finding a new path in his life.