NYFF: Five Favorite Performances at the Festival
As the New York Film Festival winds down, here's Murtada Elfadl with some of his favorite performances from the movies he's screened.
Sakura Ando in Shoplifters
Shoplifters, Japan's Oscar submission, is about familial bonds that unite with love and real connection rather than blood. Ando plays Nobuyo, the matriarchal figure in this family of outsiders. Her character is the wisest, always knows more than the other characters in any situation. She’s in charge emotionally and that needs an actor who's restrained yet immediate and easy with feelings. She always has the emotional truth in the scene whether her character is having a tender moment with a lover, or facing up to ignorant authority.
Ando shines everytime she’s on screen, yet there’s one moment that is forever marked in my memory...