As Oscar season truly heats up with the arrival of October, we want the Academy to take a moment and look back as everyone looks forward. Sure, we’ve got sure-fire nominations coming for people like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and any number of people from Meryl Streep to Carey Mulligan for Suffragette.
But, what about those films that arrived earlier in the year that produced performances just as worthy that time has waned voters’ memory of just how incredible they were?
The Movie Mensch’s Oscar Watch takes a look at five blew-our-minds turns by some of our favorite actors and actresses that we hope the Academy will not forget when it comes time to fill out their ballots in January. We start with someone who was quite furious as Furiosa.
Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road
As much as the title led us to believe that George Miller was bringing back Mad Max with Tom Hardy killing it in the role that Mel Gibson made famous, this film was truly about Charlize Theron as Furiosa.
Her turn was equally tragic, tense and terrific. The Oscar winner surely deserves another nomination for what is easily the grittiest performance by any actress this year. Not only did she anchor the film with her inspiring heroism, but she also simultaneously showed levels of vulnerability that were as moving as Furiosa was fierce.
Jason Segel in The End of the Tour
A movie featuring writers talking about writing for two hours that was released in the summer is most likely to be forgotten after the buzz of Oscar season wanes as New Year’s Eve turns to New Year’s Day. But, let’s not let anyone ignore the subtle sensation that was Jason Segel portraying David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour.
Not only did the traditionally comedic actor show he can do drama, but he illustrated his command of the art form and all its finest subtleties. Wallace was a complicated fellow who was equally taken and turned off by his newfound literary fame. He also was a soul who was wrestling with internal demons that would eventually cost him his life. That was all present and accounted for in Segel’s performance, and yet also sprinkled with a dash of lightheartedness that impeccably embodied the real life word wizard.
Jada Pinkett Smith in Magic Mike XXL
Sure, it’s a movie about male strippers bonding over one last stand to show off their manhood to the eagerly awaiting women of the American southeast. But who would ever have guessed that the standout star and explosive scene stealer would be Jada Pinkett Smith?
There are characters in film that walk and talk with panache and there’s what Pinkett Smith gave us. Not only did she command every scene she appeared in, but months after we viewed the film, we are haunted by her characterization’s grace and gravitas. As we track a real life hurricane that is making its way up the eastern seaboard of the U.S. right now, it reminds us of what Pinkett Smith did in Magic Mike XXL. She gathered steam and extoled her power in an ever increasingly absorbing manner as she went north towards the film’s explosive finale.
Jason Mitchell in Straight Outta Compton
There was much that made Straight Outta Compton truly special and one of the top 11 movies of summer 2015. As a huge fan of N.W.A. and knowing their history, if you had told us that it would be the character of Eazy-E that anchored the film and in many ways gave it its heart, we would have scoffed. But, in the hands of Jason Mitchell, Eazy-E is portrayed as a soul who took advantage of opportunity and maybe even someone who looked out for himself more than his entire group at times. But, at the same time, Mitchell portrayed him as someone who found redemption as fading health had him knocking on death’s door.
It is a tragic performance, and the kind of one that the Academy usually rewards. It’s a hip hop biopic, and that is one that Oscar tends to ignore. But, let’s change things up this year, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and reward an art form that you’ve acknowledged repeatedly in the Best Song category, and give some love to an actor that turned in a performance that was downright earth-shattering.
Paul Dano in Love and Mercy
Speaking of musical legends, there are few in the rock and roll world as enormous as Brian Wilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys. Wilson was the man responsible for that Beach Boys sound and, as portrayed in Love and Mercy, crafted one of the most important and astounding rock and roll records of all time in Pet Sounds. He also had his battles with mental health that would be downright crippling. Paul Dano’s turn as the younger Wilson (John Cusack played him as an older man) is nothing short of a miracle.
Capturing mental illness onscreen is one difficult and oftentimes thankless job for an actor. Dano laid the groundwork early in the film and we see the hints of his ailment in little ways that allow us to truly see the roots and the costs of mental illness in the most personal and heartbreaking ways. Dano has always impressed us with his talent, but the scope and intensity of what he accomplished in portraying Wilson is as pitch perfect as those Beach Boys harmonies.