Collette's performance in Hereditary is so good that the majority of moviegoers still haven't seemed to notice how much of a missed opportunity the rest of that film was. That's why I voted for her. Just making it clear for the record that if she wins, not every vote was a glowing endorsement of the film itself.
Darwin Manabat - Toronto, ON - 6 years ago
While Toni Collette screams, jumps and crawls into everyone's top spot, Ethan Hawke's turn as the Rev. Ernst Toller burrowed his way into my psyche as the best performance of the year thus far. Hawke goes deep to place I have yet to see him before. You witness his composure crumbling; breaking. It's a performance internalized, but also so expressive. This a story about humanity at its most vulnerable, about faith being tested against our very nature. Hawke firmly embodies this.
Jeff Nohl from Oconomowoc, WI - 6 years ago
I did not see Hereditary so cannot vote for Toni Collette. I did see the new Claire Denis movie, Let the Sunshine In. Juliette Binoche is fantastic in it. She expresses a wide range of emotions and many times reveals her character's emotions with no dialogue. Her face says it all. She carries the entire movie and I think Denis brought out the best in her acting and complemented that with terrific lighting and camera placement. It is Binoche's finest performance to date in my opinion. So I chose 'other'.
Michael Green - 6 years ago
I loved Colette but Blunt is amazing. Also I think A Quiet Place is the better film as well. Her reactions to the nail and her birth scene are top notch. She is well overdue for an Oscar nod.
Sam Ivaturi - 6 years ago
Brady Jandreau shouldn't be in last place. More people need to see The Rider.
Joaquin Phoenix arguably delivers a year's best performance whenever he puts out a movie, and that's never been more true than in Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here. Bulked up to play a deadened hired gun who rescues sex crime victims, Phoenix is by turns tender and brutal depending on if he's wielding his signature ball-peen hammer or removing his elderly mother's glasses as she's falling asleep. His mastery of the role means he's always fluctuating on that continuum, showing some shred of anguish when he's committing violence or discomfort when he's being kind. Hawke and Collette are helped in their great turns by the density of the scripts they're working with in their respective films. Again, they're both phenomenal, but it would be hard to make that piercing dialogue sound bad. Phoenix is barely verbal for much of You Were Never Really Here, but he might be saying the most.
Kevin White - 6 years ago
Toni Collette is fantastic in Hereditary but I have to vote other and write in Laura Dern for THE TALE. Dern plays writer-director Jennifer Fox as she is forced to reconsider a trauma from her past, one that she doesnt initially even consider a trauma or seems aware of how it has shaped the adult she has become. It’s a tough sit, but Dern’s performance is key to experiencing every bit of grey area and nuance in her story. The journey she takes you on is an important one, and it’s something that we always wish movies would do more often: provide a depth and complexity to its narrative and its characters beyond the satisfying and expected beats. Not only that, but it makes that narrative complexity its core and lets that confusion drive things both forward and backward. Really powerful movie, and it’s available on HBO for those with access to it.
James Spence - 6 years ago
As much as my inner nerd would love to give the vote to Josh Brolin’s Thanos, Jessie Buckley’s stunning performance in Beast left me thinking for days. She takes what, in a lesser actress’ hands would be a constantly and openly conflicted character, and instead wholly buys into the defense Moll needs to create. Her unabashed bias takes what serves as a background character in other crime films and fully explores this character and helps deliver one of the best finales to a film this year as well. Not only one of the best performances of the year so far, but one that will remain at the top of my list by year’s end without a doubt.
Jake Albrecht - 6 years ago
I didn't love the end of Hereditary but Toni Collette is the reason why the movie works as long as she does. The writing fails her in the end but it's a mesmerizing performance while it's working.
Michael Nabozny - 6 years ago
Collette deserves credit for not only exceeding the buzz she's earned for her enormous role in Hereditary, but for giving us a character with contradictions; manifesting guilt, love, fear, surrender, and endurance into a believable maternal role. If Laura Dern could be included for her marvelous work in The Tale, she'd be my pick, but for now, Collette has this in the bag.
I considered this question for a long time. Do I really think that Hugh Grant has given the best performance of the year, or am I being blinded by the brilliance of Paddington 2? Ultimately, I did the right thing and pushed the nicecore train further down the tracks and I'm glad to see so many Filmspotting listeners have done the same.
Collette's performance in Hereditary is so good that the majority of moviegoers still haven't seemed to notice how much of a missed opportunity the rest of that film was. That's why I voted for her. Just making it clear for the record that if she wins, not every vote was a glowing endorsement of the film itself.
While Toni Collette screams, jumps and crawls into everyone's top spot, Ethan Hawke's turn as the Rev. Ernst Toller burrowed his way into my psyche as the best performance of the year thus far. Hawke goes deep to place I have yet to see him before. You witness his composure crumbling; breaking. It's a performance internalized, but also so expressive. This a story about humanity at its most vulnerable, about faith being tested against our very nature. Hawke firmly embodies this.
I did not see Hereditary so cannot vote for Toni Collette. I did see the new Claire Denis movie, Let the Sunshine In. Juliette Binoche is fantastic in it. She expresses a wide range of emotions and many times reveals her character's emotions with no dialogue. Her face says it all. She carries the entire movie and I think Denis brought out the best in her acting and complemented that with terrific lighting and camera placement. It is Binoche's finest performance to date in my opinion. So I chose 'other'.
I loved Colette but Blunt is amazing. Also I think A Quiet Place is the better film as well. Her reactions to the nail and her birth scene are top notch. She is well overdue for an Oscar nod.
Brady Jandreau shouldn't be in last place. More people need to see The Rider.
Joaquin Phoenix arguably delivers a year's best performance whenever he puts out a movie, and that's never been more true than in Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here. Bulked up to play a deadened hired gun who rescues sex crime victims, Phoenix is by turns tender and brutal depending on if he's wielding his signature ball-peen hammer or removing his elderly mother's glasses as she's falling asleep. His mastery of the role means he's always fluctuating on that continuum, showing some shred of anguish when he's committing violence or discomfort when he's being kind. Hawke and Collette are helped in their great turns by the density of the scripts they're working with in their respective films. Again, they're both phenomenal, but it would be hard to make that piercing dialogue sound bad. Phoenix is barely verbal for much of You Were Never Really Here, but he might be saying the most.
Toni Collette is fantastic in Hereditary but I have to vote other and write in Laura Dern for THE TALE. Dern plays writer-director Jennifer Fox as she is forced to reconsider a trauma from her past, one that she doesnt initially even consider a trauma or seems aware of how it has shaped the adult she has become. It’s a tough sit, but Dern’s performance is key to experiencing every bit of grey area and nuance in her story. The journey she takes you on is an important one, and it’s something that we always wish movies would do more often: provide a depth and complexity to its narrative and its characters beyond the satisfying and expected beats. Not only that, but it makes that narrative complexity its core and lets that confusion drive things both forward and backward. Really powerful movie, and it’s available on HBO for those with access to it.
As much as my inner nerd would love to give the vote to Josh Brolin’s Thanos, Jessie Buckley’s stunning performance in Beast left me thinking for days. She takes what, in a lesser actress’ hands would be a constantly and openly conflicted character, and instead wholly buys into the defense Moll needs to create. Her unabashed bias takes what serves as a background character in other crime films and fully explores this character and helps deliver one of the best finales to a film this year as well. Not only one of the best performances of the year so far, but one that will remain at the top of my list by year’s end without a doubt.
I didn't love the end of Hereditary but Toni Collette is the reason why the movie works as long as she does. The writing fails her in the end but it's a mesmerizing performance while it's working.
Collette deserves credit for not only exceeding the buzz she's earned for her enormous role in Hereditary, but for giving us a character with contradictions; manifesting guilt, love, fear, surrender, and endurance into a believable maternal role. If Laura Dern could be included for her marvelous work in The Tale, she'd be my pick, but for now, Collette has this in the bag.
I considered this question for a long time. Do I really think that Hugh Grant has given the best performance of the year, or am I being blinded by the brilliance of Paddington 2? Ultimately, I did the right thing and pushed the nicecore train further down the tracks and I'm glad to see so many Filmspotting listeners have done the same.