Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2023: Milo Machado Graner in Anatomy of a Fall

Milo Machado Graner did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Daniel Maleski in Anatomy of a Fall. 

Anatomy of a Fall follows the investigation behind a French man's death from following from his roof whether it be accident, suicide or murder by his German wife Sandra (Sandra Huller). 

Milo Machado Graner plays the key witness of the film, though also is the son of the couple whose relationship is exposed throughout the criminal investigation to see whether or not his mom murdered his father. Graner's performance for the first two thirds of the film is extremely low key. He has scenes though they are almost as though he is a footnote at times, despite an important aspect being mentioned early about the father's guilt over an accident that caused Daniel to become visually impaired. And we largely see him through the scope of a young boy grieving the death of his parents, who is almost hiding within himself to stay away from the pain. The focus of this is very uncinematic, though in a convincing way of realistically just portraying the sorrow of a boy who isn't portrayed as more than he would be. Graner's work skips the obvious pitfalls of the child performance, which is trying to show off too much, though one could be concerned with the other side, which is being too small. Perhaps this would even be a criticism of this performance, it is not, if that was all there was to it, but given his arc this is just an effective way to establish him as just a sad boy not sure how to deal with the situation. His first scene of note, where he's not framed off to the side, hidden under a cover, or just his back, when he must initially testify to what his parents were doing before his father's death. Graner's performance is more infantile in portraying still a state of sadness, and just speaks every word as part of that as he doesn't know where he was precisely when the death occurred. His initial testimony to the court is meek and retiring as he speaks his little bit of information without a great deal of confidence within the court. For a great deal of the film Graner is more referred to then seen until the final act of the film, after much as been revealed of the couples hardships, including much information that Sandra's defense team is using to allege that Daniel's father committed suicide. Before then we just have brief glimpses where Graner's performance again is still very subdued but works certainly in creating the sense of uncertainty in the boy who honestly doesn't know what to think with the revelations for much of the time. 

This may sound like I am criticizing his performance up until this point, but I'm not. It works in building towards making an impact by his final scenes where suddenly Daniel becomes very active in the trial, by taking the information he learned to recontextualize an earlier incident where his dog Snoop got sick, which he in a rather foolhardy attempt tries to recreate the event. Graner's performance is great in bringing to life just the immediate intense worry of a kid concerned with his dog, but a bit more complicated than that. There's also kind of a twinge of a fearful mania in his performance that indicates the motivation behind it, as his experiment was an attempt to prove that his father had potentially tried to commit suicide earlier by taking pills. We find this out in his explanation scene which again Graner is great and completely captivating in bringing such a sudden sense of his very real concern for his mother, and desperate need to try to figure out the truth. His performance has just a powerful emotional distress that is so powerful because Graner's work always feels that of a lost child trying to figure things out, as it isn't clean, it is a very messy emotion but more than anything convinces you of Daniel's rather extreme measure. We then see him explain it to the court where Graner's work is particularly effective by naturally showing his growth through the film through his much more confident delivery this time as compared to his first testimony. Graner doesn't go overboard with it, but speaks it truly as just something he knows more than anything. Something that he follows up in explaining what his dad had said to him, that indicated his suicidal thoughts, where Graner's very modest yet potent approach to the speech gives this sense of clarity though also sadness. A different kind though than we saw as the just sorrowful boy in the early scenes, and instead while still sad, though now with acceptance of the sadness rather than simply pain. It is impressive work from the young actor because he does create an arc as he goes from just depression with suspicion, to acceptance with love for his mother, and Graner makes this journey tangible and most importantly believable.