Halfway Mark 2: Fav Performances of 2022 (Thus Far)

by Nathaniel R

Yesterday we talked about favourite films and craft achievements. Tomorrow we'll talk Oscar. But today... personal favourite star turns. Keeping lists of standout, charismatic, fascinating, or just plain enjoyable acting all year long is, we maintain, one of the greatest pleasures cinephiles can indulge in. Or rather it is if you're a cinephile who is also list-inclined. Some people frown on lists, top tens, and awards as reductive and no way to judge art. To this I can personally only shrug. The list-making / awards habit has never reduced my love of art but on the contrary has only broadened it, leading me to be curious about all sorts of things each year even if they aren't in preferred genres or from familiar preferred artists. I'm always wondering where the next great piece of art will be found. In terms of actors, there's a thrill in keeping an open mind, never knowing in which movie the next turn that really sparks imagination, catharsis, thirst, joy, or numerous other feelings will pop up in.

Herewith a handy cheatsheet of favourite film performances from the first six months of 2022 so we don't forget them later on in the year-end glut...

This is our way of combatting the recency bias that plagues film critics, guild members, and Academy voters when they do their annual voting at some point between December and February. Of course many of these performances won't factor into our own Film Bitch Awards (distributors often backload the year) but that's no reason not to sing the praises of these actors who kept us riveted to the screen for the past six months...

LEAD ACTRESS

We pray Michelle Yeoh is heading to a Best Actress nomination for "Everything Everywhere..."

• Penélope Cruz as "Lola Cuevas" in Official Competition
• Dakota Johnson as "Domino" in  Cha Cha Real Smooth
• Emma Thompson as "Nancy Stokes" in Good Luck To You Leo Grande
• Anamaria Vartomolei as "Anne Duchesne" in Happening
• Michelle Yeoh as "Evelyn Wang" in Everything Everywhere All At Once

At this writing Yeoh's prismatic star turn has the clearest shot at year end awards Best Actress attention and with good reason. Her Evelyn Wang is so many women in one and, as such, a brilliant versatile summation of Yeoh's long career and enduring stardom. Sadly Thompson's revelatory Leo Grande work will have to wait for the 2023 Emmys 15 months from now due to the decision to bypass a theatrica release. Vartomolei can expect many juicy offers due to her film-carrying dramatic potency in Happening while Cha Cha Real Smooth's Johnson is as enchanting as the movie requires her to be to work, but already has more offers than she can possibly handle. Official Competition premiered last year in Venice and the jury really should have included it alongside Parallel Mothers for Cruz's Best Actress win. It's her best comic performance to date.

LEAD ACTOR

Channing Tatum having much fun as the fictional 'Dash' in "The Lost City"

• Joel Kim Booster as "Noah" in Fire Island
• Austin Butler as "Elvis" in Elvis
• Viggo Mortensen as "Saul Tenser" in Crimes of the Future
• Franz Rogowski as "Hans Hoffman" in Great Freedom
• Channing Tatum as "Alan / Dash" in The Lost City

While only one of these performance (Austin Butler -- more on Elvis soon) can reasonably hope to compete for year end awards, it doesn't mean that they aren't wonderful. Booster proves he's more than just a comedian but also a fine actor (and screenwriter), Mortensen navigates very odd terrain in his latest collaboration with Cronenberg but you never don't believe his core as a performance artist beset by literal internal trouble as his body is evolving beyond his comprehension. And of course adventurous arthouse audiences already know that Franz Rogowski is unmissable.  Finally, The Lost City won't "endure" in the way really energized star vehicles or great films can but Tatum is giving it his all as the dumb but loyal male model who is  nursing a long long crush on the woman who "created" him... or his altar ego, rather.  

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jamie Lee Curtis, great again, in "Everything Everywhere..."

• Jamie Lee Curtis as "Deirdre" in Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Nicole Kidman as "Queen Gudrün" in The Northman
• Zoe Kravitz as "Selina Kyle" in The Batman
• Elizabeth Olsen as "The Scarlet Witch" in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Kristen Stewart as "Timlin" in Crimes of the Future

Supporting Actress is always an embarrassment of riches, no matter the year.  We're only dealing with six months worth of movies at this point but this quintet here, for example, could top many actual Oscar shortlists and while they're at it provide an eye-opening range of acting styles and film genres. Of these five women we desparately hope that Jamie Lee Curtis, at least, gets an Oscar campaign because a) she's long long overdue for a nomination given that she's done stunning work in high-profile films for decades and b) she's incredible in this eccentric genre-mashing movie, fully committed, vanity-free, funny but frightening, and even briefly touching. If awards voters weren't so resistant to genre films, Curtis would already have some industry honors on her shelf. But since she's a horror icon (Halloween) and all of her best performances have been in comedies of one kind or another (Freaky Friday, Trading Places, A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies) awards bodies have usually ignored her.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Justin H Min leaves a major empty space as the titular character in 'After Yang'

• Jose Luis Gómez as "Humberto Suárez" in Official Competition
• Ke Huy Quan as "Waymond Wang" in Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Justin H Min as "Yang" in After Yang
• Conrad Ricamora as "Will" in Fire Island
• Bowen Yang as "Howie" in Fire Island

What an amazing year for Asian-American cinema thus far. This has resulted in so many unsung actors getting real opportunities to beautifully showcase their range (Yang, Quan), lead-worthy charisma (Ricamora), or auteur-serving skill (Min). Finally, Luis Gómez is just hilarious in Official Competition. He raises his role, a wealthy artistically clueless businessman dabbling in film production, to high comic art.

(Just missing the list was Colin Farrell who was typically strong in his Batman role...and yet we just couldn't shake the central nagging question: why cast him in the first place? Why cast actors to play human characters if you require them to look 0% like themselves in order to do so? There are other human actors who look the part!)

JUVENILE PERFORMANCE (UNDER 18)

Grace Jenkins as Trixie in "Deep Water"

• Günter Duret as "Abel" in Playground
• Chaydon Jay as "Young Elvis" in Elvis
• Grace Jenkins as "Trixie" in Deep Water
• Walker Scobell as "Young Adam" in The Adam Project
• Maya Vanderbeque as "Nora" in Playground

UPDATE: I forgot Evan Assante who is wonderful as "David" in Cha Cha Real Smooth" - he should definitely have placed here above some of the others!

Belgium's Oscar finalist last year (it wasn't nominated) got a US release this year and its two child stars are both incredible (and believably siblings though they aren't related in real life). We also must highlight Grace Jenkins whose precocious daughter of f***ed up parents somehow steals Deep Water right from under the noses of Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas despite their outlandish characters.

LIMITED OR CAMEO PERFORMANCE, FEMALE

Isabella Laughland in "Good Luck To You Leo Grande"

• Jane Adams as "Tamara" in Dog
• Björk as "Seeress" in The Northman
• Lihi Kornowski as "Djuna" in Crimes of the Future
• Isabella Laughland as "Becky" in Good Luck To You Leo Grande
• Anna Mouglalis as "Mme Rivière" in Happening

We love a good cameo or two scene role. Adams has always been such a fun actress and since we think she went a little too broad with her character on Hacks, we're delighted to have loved her work in Dog. Björk's weird riveting singular cameo in The Northman is a welcome return to the screen (like Tina Turner and Annie Lennox before her, both riveting in their very very short film careers, we wonder what could have been if she cared for a second career as an actor). Kornowski is creepily hard-eyed in her confession late in Crimes Of The Future after her murderous performance in the opening scene. Laughland is a welcome wry third wheel in Leo Grande's penultimate scene. And finally Mouglalis is stunning as the stoic abortionist in Happening. We're never sure if anyone cares about this category at the Film Bitch Awards but we love watching out for stunning work in bite-sized confines.

LIMITED OR CAMEO PERFORMANCE, MALE

Ingvar Sigurðsson (and Willem Dafoe sort of) in "The Northman"

• Willem Dafoe as "Heimer the Fool" in The Northman
• Ed Harris as "Rear Admiral" in Top Gun Maverick
• Kelvin Harrison Jr as "BB King" in Elvis
• Peter Sarsgaard as "District Attorney Gil Colson" in The Batman
• Ingvar Sigurdsson as "He-Witch" in The Northman 

There were less exciting options for the men but Willem Dafoe and Ingvar Sigurdsson (the latter is one of the greatest Icelandic screen actors) share a role... in an eccentric memorable way... in Robert Eggers amazing  viking epic. Harris is fun in a stick up the butt way in Top Gun Maverick's opening scene and Harrison Jr does everything that Elvis asks of him... though neither have been handed great roles if we're being honest. Sarsgaard is always dependable and this performance as a shady compromised official reminded us of his similar doomed nervous and great supporting turn in the gangster drama Black Mass. 

VOICE ONLY OR MOCAP PERFORMANCE 

Lee Eddy just fab as 'mom' in "Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood"

• H Jon Benjamin as "Bob" "Jimmy Jr" and more in The Bob's Burgers Movie
• Rosalie Chiang as "Meilin" in Turning Red
• Lee Eddy as "Mom" in Apollo 10½ A Space-Age Childhood 
• Eugene Mirman as "Gene Belcher" in The Bob's Burgers Movie
• Sandra Oh as "Ming" in Turning Red 

Here's why we know the Emmy's voiceover category is one of the dumbest and laziest and useless mainstream awards in the entire history of showbiz awards. H Jon Benjamin, surely one of the greatest voice actors of all time, has only been nominated for 1 Emmy despite genius level work for 20+ seasons of fantastic animated television as the lead of shows like Archer and Bob's Burgers. His shelves should be buckled under by now with multiple Emmys. In other news, we don't know who Lee Eddy is but we're determined to learn more after her spot-on work in Richard Linklater's animated memoir/fantasy about the late 60s in Texas. 

ENSEMBLE

• After Yang
• Downton Abbey: A New Era
• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Fire Island
• The Northman

One of the greatest spells a movie (or tv show) can cast is when an entire ensemble, no matter the individual role, conjures up a kind of hive-mind tone and performance register and everything just clicks between everyone in multiple directions, illuminating as much interpersonal drama or comedy as your eyes can see. We just love to see it. This kind of magic never ever gets old. 

CASTING

• Cha Cha Real Smooth -  Angela Demo
• Everything Everywhere All At Once -  Sarah Finn
• Fire Island - Jessica Munks
• Happening -  Elodie Demey
• The Northman  - Kharmel Cochrane

STUNT TEAM

• AmbuLAnce
• The Batman
• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• The Northman
• Top Gun Maverick 

UPDATE: RRR, which I saw after this posting should have placed here.

2022 movies we haven't yet caught up with that might have factored in here had they been screened: Kimi, Jerry and Marge Go Large, Lightyear, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Men, Mothering Sunday, Nitram, and Pleasure

Comments

[Greg F]

So sad Emma Thompson's luminous turn in Leo Grande won't get a proper awards run, let's hope the Emmys remember her in a year's+ time

Love the shoutouts for the Fire Island cast and of course everyone involved with EEAAO. I really think Yeoh can pull off the nom -- the trifecta of performance, career honors and sleeper hit film.

[TomG]

If there is an award for best performance in a bad movie, then Elizabeth Olsen wins that hands down. She was doing so much heavy lifting to make that movie work and made it seem effortless.

Zoe Kravitz has been bouncing around different franchises and has quietly been the best thing in her movies. I don't think she will win any awards for Catwoman, but she is putting in her dues for a future honor.

If The Northman had been released later in the year, would its Oscar chances improve, or it is still just too far outside of their comfort zone?

If Butler is going to get a nomination (given biopic love it seems like a sure thing) can Harrison Jr get swept up in the wave and get one as well? He has also been building a steady career, so maybe he gets one too.

[Mr Ripley79]

I am crossing Everything Everywhere All At Once for a Jamie Lee Curtis nomination,it really has been too long.

[NATHANIEL R]

TomG -- the role is way way way too small for that. He only has a couple of scenes and nothing really dramatic.

[thevoid99]

For me personally, I like to see Anya Taylor-Joy for The Northman, Lea Seydoux for Crimes of the Future, and Elizabeth Olsen for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to get some notices but also some honorable mentions to Rachel McAdams and Xochitl Gomez for their work in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as well along with Nicole Kidman for The Northman. Zoe Kravitz I hope gets some major film roles as I think she killed it as Selina Kyle.

For the men, Alexander Skarsgard, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Viggo Mortensen should be in consideration.

[Vanessa]

I always care about the cameo category at the Film Bitch Awards! You always make such thoughtful choices.

Some performances I'd throw in the acting mix:

Simon Russell Beale, Benediction
Anna Cobb, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
Adèle Exarchopoulos, Zero Fucks Given
everyone in Nitram (major, major work)
Lee Hye-young, In Front of Your Face
Tom Stourton and Graham Dickson, All My Friends Hate Me
Jenna Ortega, The Fallout (technically Emmy eligible but whatever)

[Ryan T.]

In re-watching Everything Everywhere recently, I think my "hopes and dreams" Oscar nomination for that film goes to Ke Huy Quan. Perhaps it's because Michelle Yeoh's nomination is, while not at all assured, isn't far-fetched now and regardless she's going to have so many more opportunities. But someone like Ke Huy Quan? And for a very tricky role, almost the heart of the movie some would say? Obviously it'd be great if they both make it in, but yeah rooting hard for Ke Huy Quan.