10 great previous performances from 2021's Oscar nominees
...and maybe should be what they got recognition for?
The Academy has now weighed in and announced its nominations for the finest cinematic achievements of 2021. Veteran Oscar-watchers (or longtime obsessives) know that a nomination is often times not a recognition of the pinnacle of an artists’ career. In fact, it’s frequently delayed recognition.
Had, say, Alana Haim scored a Best Actress nomination for her debut performance in Licorice Pizza, this would be a different conversation. But today’s acting nominees were primarily familiar names or faces, many of whom have even been in these races before. If nothing else, the Academy Awards can serve as a light shining backward into the impressive body of work these performers have accumulated over the years.
I’ve always enjoyed using awards season as an excuse to catch up or revisit certain titles that helped set up a certain actor for future career success. Sometimes, these films contain the seeds of passion or the germ of idea that can later blossom into industry recognition. Here are ten such examples from today’s Oscar nominees.
OLIVIA COLMAN
Many years before she swept seemingly every award in site, Olivia Colman was putting in the work in quiet British indies. One such breakthrough for her that’s well worth your time is Tyrannosaur, a crushing drama by fellow actor Paddy Considine. She delivers a devastating turn as a character who’s often reduced to a quiet wallflower in a story about aggressive men. Colman refuses to resort the easy language of meekness as an excuse for sanding down the rougher edges of her character — a pattern she continues to this day when playing thorny figures like Leda in The Lost Daughter.
Available for free with ads on Tubi and to rent from various digital providers.
PENÉLOPE CRUZ
Penélope Cruz tends to do her best work with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, who regards her as a kind of muse. I think you can’t go wrong with any of their collaborations, but their latest in Parallel Mothers shares certain — ahem — parallels with 2006’s Volver. (You can read Almodóvar discussing some of these in my interview with him from last year!) As Raimunda, Cruz channels a fierce and feral intensity as a mother determined to protect her daughter no matter the cost … only to have such measures resurface tensions in the relationships with her own mother. Almodóvar’s multi-generational tale encompasses a broad swath of emotions, all of which Cruz navigates deftly.
Also, I would never recommend that anyone watch the flaming hot pile of garbage that is 2009’s Nine — but Penélope Cruz absolutely brings down the house in her musical number “A Call from the Vatican.” It’s worth revisiting on YouTube!
Available to rent from various digital providers.
KIRSTEN DUNST
There were many nominees today where far too many people expressed shock at a former teen idol doing the kind of work that could get Oscar attention. (See also: Stewart, Kristen.) From her earliest years on screen, Kirsten Dunst has shown she could deliver devastatingly emotional turns. No one brings that out of her quite like Sofia Coppola as shown in their decades-long collaboration, and it was visible from the jump in 1999’s The Virgin Suicides. As Lux Lisbon, mid-century suburban teenage ennui incarnate, Dunst understands how to convey the minutiae of melancholy. What she achieves in The Power of the Dog builds on the foundation of women feeling stifled without recourse for rescue that she initially established here.
Available to stream on Paramount+ and rent from various digital providers.
AUNJANUE ELLIS
You’ve seen her in films like The Help and Ray or perhaps TV shows like Lovecraft Country and When They See Us — but perhaps you didn’t know Aunjanue Ellis’ name. Hopefully, her Oscar nomination for King Richard helps to change that. I think her work in as Sistah Girl in 2002’s Blaxploitation homage Undercover Brother illustrates just what a consummate supporting player she is. Ellis always understands the assignment and elevates the work, be it a ludicrous comedy or a prestige drama. She has that rare skill of both shining light into a scene and reflecting the light generated by the lead. Maybe now she’ll have more of a chance to be the latter figure.
Available to stream on Starz and rent from various digital providers.
ANDREW GARFIELD
Since his earliest days on screen, Andrew Garfield’s real superpower has been his endearing earnestness. No matter the character, you can feel his heart exposed from his chest and bleeding out onto the screen. It’s true in tick, tick … BOOM!, just as it was in a very early turn in Boy A. Garfield makes the weight of the past evident in his troubled yet tender character Jack Burridge, a young man trying to start a new life. Few people could capture this level of aching vulnerability without teetering into gauche sentimentality, and that’s why Garfield’s performances have a way of nestling into deep corners of my heart and lodging themselves there.
Available to rent from various digital providers.
NICOLE KIDMAN
I feel like it’s somewhat cheating to use a recently Oscar-nominated turn by Nicole Kidman to illustrate her greatness, but … this is just so much better than the overwrought Lucille Ball cosplay she’s doing in Being the Ricardos. In Rabbit Hole, Kidman gets to explore the intricacies of grief as a bereaved mother feeling the absence of her child. John Cameron Mitchell’s adaptation of a play by David Lindsay-Abaire never gets bogged down in dialogue or staginess, allowing Kidman space to just be natural and let big emotions arise organically. Though the subject matter gives her space to be weepy, I’d be hard-pressed to find a moment in this moving film that I would deride as being maudlin.
Available to stream on HBO Max and to rent from various digital providers.
JESSE PLEMONS
One of the most pleasant surprises of this nominations morning was hearing the name Jesse Plemons, who — funnily enough — I interviewed back in 2020 right as he was gearing up for the back half of shooting The Power of the Dog. Short of Robert Pattinson and Adam Driver, I don’t think you’d find anyone who worked with more interesting directors over the last decade than Plemons did. Yet he rarely took big roles in those projects, lending him the aura of a character actor. Plemons’ moving, slightly against-type casting as the protagonist of Chris Kelly’s biographical comedy Other People will convince you he’s got what it takes to be a leading man. As a writer undergoing his quarter-life crisis while also coming to terms with the loss of his mother to cancer, he imbues the film with an unexpected soul where there could be navel-gazing narcissism. Prepare the tissues for an exquisite catharsis that will ensure you never hear “Drops of Jupiter” the same ever again.
Available to stream on Netflix.
KODI SMIT-MCPHEE
The Power of the Dog wasn’t young Kodi Smit-McPhee’s first rodeo; in 2014’s Young Ones, he also struggled with an imposing father figure against the backdrop of an unsparing terrain. It’s an early example of how Smit-McPhee’s great strength as an actor is conveying the timidity of tentative characters, first as shield and then as a weapon. Dystopian thrillers might be a dime a dozen these days, but I found this one particularly riveting thanks to great performances like Smit-McPhee’s and an uncommonly measured pace. (As an added bonus, it also features the first on-screen pairing of future The Great stars Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult!)
Available to stream for free with ads on Crackle, Tubi, Pluto TV and to rent from various digital providers.
KRISTEN STEWART
Five years of sustained critical discourse around the formidable acting talents of Kristen Stewart have finally culminated in an Oscar nomination! For a star of her caliber, what’s perhaps most striking about Stewart’s screen presence is just how well she responds to absence. In Personal Shopper just as in Spencer, she inhabits the body of a modern woman haunted by ghosts — figurative, digital, literal — and makes their spectral effects loom large in her actions and reactions. There’s something beguiling, if not downright bewitching, about what Stewart conjures in this mysterious tale about substitutes and avatars of many varieties. Her character Maureen is understated, quiet … and yet entirely riveting.
Available to stream on Hulu and to rent from various digital providers.
DENZEL WASHINGTON
Recent Oscar nominations for Denzel Washington have come from playing theatrical giants in works by August Wilson or Shakespeare. (In this house we do not recognize that Roman J. Israel, Esq. is a real movie.) But one does not become the best living actor of the 21st century, according to The New York Times, solely by playing larger-than-life figures. The rare stardom of Denzel Washington, an actor beloved by mainstream and arthouse audiences alike, is just as dependent on his ability to channel the sensibility of the average American. A personal favorite of mine is his role in Unstoppable as technical competence incarnate: an engineer tasked with averting a catastrophic accident on a runaway train. It’s thrilling to watch him work on a problem he has all the skills to solve. He’s proof that the everyman can be a believable action hero.
Available to stream for free with ads on Peacock and rent from various digital providers.
WHAT I WATCHED
A good combination of comfort food, new release catch-ups, and some repertory screenings around NYC:
Also, I watched the entirety of this 25-minute video this afternoon. I love what a genuine weirdo Robert Pattinson is, and if you’re still holding Twilight against him … get over yourself and join the fun!
WHAT I HEARD
I loved both of these interviews with two Oscar nominees from this morning: Summer of Soul director Questlove and The Power of the Dog composer Jonny Greenwood. I felt like I really learned something more about the craft and history underlining their work.
WHAT I READ
I had a rollicking good time at Jackass Forever over the weekend, despite my initial misgivings and perplexion at the kind of reverence the series enjoys in certain cinephile circles. Esther Zuckerman at Thrillist details how it became such a cause celebre among critical circles, while Bilge Ebiri at Vulture does a great job intellectualizing what makes the films so cathartic.
Also, I thought this brief New Yorker profile “The Damage Done by a Hollywood Stereotype” was a revelatory look into the downsides of typecasting.
WHAT I WROTE
Updates to my streaming lists at Decider are live for the month of February! These are always good to bookmark: Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney+, and (the slim pickings of) Peacock.
I’m also slowly starting to put my fingerprints on some other lists originated by other writers! Those lists include Netflix overall, Netflix thrillers, Hulu overall, Hulu horror, and HBO Max horror.
I’m mostly going to stop sending out free previews for the paid subscriber content from now on, and this is where you’ll see what you’re missing:
That’s all I have in me after the giddy rush of emotions from nominations morning! Later this week, subscribers will get to read a conversation with a very special guest about some of the names and movies that didn’t make the cut today. Sign up now and don’t miss out!
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall