From Will Arnett to Lucy Liu, Performances That Shouldn’t Be Overlooked this Awards Season
by Jenelle Riley, Peter Debruge, Carole Horst, Jazz Tangcay · VarietyAs the year comes to a close, many standout actors have garnered attention. Of course, only a select few will continue on to Oscar glory — 20 to be exact. But there are many notable performances that, while well-received, have yet to be recognized by top awards associations. Here, we make a case for 12 actors who deserve consideration.
Will Arnett
Is This Thing On?
Arnett gets to flex his dramatic muscles in Bradley Cooper’s comedy-drama. As his marriage to Tess (Laura Dern) crumbles, Alex (Arnett) finds a creative and psychological outlet in stand-up comedy. While we expect Arnett to nail the comedy bits, he’s loving, confused, hurt and defiant in a scene with Dern in his bachelor pad. He has an old photo of Tess in her heyday on the volleyball court blown up and framed, but the angle is from behind. He says it shows their sons what a badass their mom is; she explodes because it doesn’t show her face. The scene encapsulates all the issues in their marriage and both play it with heartbreaking poignancy.
Miles Caton
Sinners
Director Ryan Coogler describes Caton as an “once-in-a-lifetime voice,” and he’s not wrong. It’s certainly impressive when Caton, who plays the preacher’s son, Sammie, in “Sinners,” teases his vocals in the back of a car ride, but when he steps on stage for a big musical number, his singing blows the roof off the joint. Literally! It’s a memorable and captivating debut performance with Caton showing off his singing and acting chops.
Oona Chaplin
Avatar: Fire and Ash
“Game of Thrones” alum Oona Chaplin is Pandora’s newest villain, Varang, the main antagonist leading the Ash people in James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Chaplin’s Varang is fiery and thrilling to watch. She’s a highlight of the film — certainly with her powerful physicality, flashing eyes and stunning headdress, it’s hard to take your eyes off her. Varang is terrifying, but her drive to save her people makes her a hero. And maybe, Varang isn’t the bad guy after all. Hopefully, the next installment gives Varang and Chaplin more time to shine and help understand her origin story.
Kerry Condon
Train Dreams
Like Heath Ledger’s closed-off cowboy in “Brokeback Mountain,” Joel Edgerton’s taciturn Robert Grainier in “Train Dreams” struggles to put his feelings into words, retreating into himself after his wife dies. When Condon enters the picture, playing a widow who comes along at a moment when the wounded logger appears to have lost his purpose, she brings grace and warmth to the equation. Even just sitting quietly at his side, the Irish actress conveys the healing power of human connection in several quietly profound scenes that course-correct his attitudes on life.
Billy Crudup
Jay Kelly
While his co-star Adam Sandler is rightfully being recognized for his standout supporting role in the film, Crudup also delivers a master class in just a few minutes of screen time. Crudup plays Timothy, a counterpart of George Clooney’s titular movie star who never made it as an actor and sees his old friend as having taken the glory he deserved. As the two catch up, Crudup veers from good-natured to sorrowful to bitter to menacing in a matter of minutes. It’s no coincidence that even when he’s offscreen, his character haunts the rest of the story.
Abel Ferrara
Marty Supreme
The “Bad Lieutenant” helmer gives his Ezra Mishkin an unexpected arc: he at first seems like a doddering old man down on his luck who’s overly attached to his dog. But by the time events with Timothée Chalamet’s Marty come to a head, Ferrara has drawn a sinister character — a gangster with a hair-trigger finger on his gun who will kill to get back his dog and money, in that order. While Ferrara’s gangster is chilling, a climactic shootout in a farmhouse allows him to play Mishkin as the lead in the blackest of comedies.
Jacobi Jupe
Hamnet
Jupe might not be eligible for a SAG ensemble nomination due to technicalities, but he won over audiences in Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” as the titular character. He plays the young son of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and wife Agnes (Jessie Buckley). In the film, his dad has to travel to London for work and tells his son to “be brave.” Hamnet takes those words to heart and sacrifices his life for his sister’s. Jupe delivers one of the best child performances of the year. He’s charming as a young boy who aspires to follow in his dad’s footsteps, and act. But he pulls out all the stops for the death scene and breaks your heart as he promises to be brave and face death.
Lucy Liu
Rosemead
Liu has always been a scene-stealer, be it the slapstick comedy of “Ally McBeal” or in action pics like “Kill Bill.” What’s particularly impressive about her work in “Rosemead” is how immediately you buy her as the grounded character of Irene, a Chinese immigrant. When she learns her cancer is terminal and her schizophrenic son will soon be legal age, she is driven to a desperate choice that might seem unthinkable. But in Liu’s hands, you never doubt Irene’s love and you can empathize with her impossible plight. It’s a timely, urgent film made all the more harrowing knowing it’s based on a true story.
Jay Lycurgo
Steve
As ensemble acting goes, Netflix’s “Steve” is a knockout, collecting roughly a dozen unfamiliar young performers to play rowdy reform-school cases opposite Cillian Murphy’s unravelling headmaster. The novel that inspired “Steve” was actually named for Lycurgo’s character, Shy, who can turn from tender and introspective one moment to frighteningly aggressive on a dime. Lycurgo did earn a British Independent Film Award for his remarkable, unpredictable performance, but the young actor deserves further accolades. He succeeds in keeping audiences on edge, while also generating empathy for his troubled character.
Vahid Mobasseri
It Was Just an Accident
Iranian actor Mobasseri starred in helmer Jafar Panahi in 2022’s “No Bears,” and here, the revered director casts him as a mechanic whose determination to extract retribution on his jailer is at once chilling, stomach-churning and even funny. Mobasseri plays Vahid as a relatable everyman that the audience latches onto — he is our surrogate. But Mobasseri infuses Vahid with decency that overcomes a thirst for revenge, and in the end, his fear is a startling reminder to not yield to oppression.
Sarah Niles
F1
Niles, as Bernadette, the mother of driving phenom Joshua (Damson Idris), brings charm, savvy and most importantly, a large well of confidence and love for her son to “F1.” It’s not so much one moment with her character, it’s the way her spirit threads through the film: she believes in her son’s talent more than he believes in it. She’s a rock, and when she tells off Sonny (Brad Pitt) — blaming him for her son’s crash during a race — she combines Mama Bear fury and admirable restraint to let Sonny and the audience know that this woman is not to be messed with.
Tonatiuh
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Straight and white, William Hurt won an Oscar for his then-revolutionary turn as Molina in Hector Babenco’s non-musical 1985 film. But when it came time for Bill Condon to cast the role in his adaptation of the Kander and Ebb show, the “Dreamgirls” director (who previously launched Jennifer Hudson to Oscar glory) searched practically the whole Western hemisphere and found his Molina in Mexican American actor Tonatiuh, who interprets the character’s queer identity quite differently, tapping into more contemporary notions of gender fluidity. Tonatiuh’s Molina can be frivolous one moment, maternal the next, appearing clean-cut, closeted and Cary Grant-like in the fantasy numbers.