2017 Year End Report: Best Supporting Actor

Not the deepest category this year, but still a lot of fine work.

 

Runners-Up: Daniel Craig in Logan Lucky is pure, comedic gold as a brilliant/dimwitted redneck safe cracker. Peter Dinklage in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri has only a few scenes in the film, but makes the most of them – especially his final scene, which for me was a turning point in the film. Dustin Hoffman in The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) delivers his best performance in years, as the aging father who can be a monster, but still inspires his now grown children – just not in the way he wishes. Jason Mitchell in Mudbound gets best in show in a terrific ensemble as a man who has to deal with the fact that he was treated better in a foreign land than he is at home. Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World is the best thing in the movie – as even capitalism personified. Ben Safdie in Good Time makes the most of his early scenes as the disabled brother who idolizes his brother too much for his own good. Bradley Whitford in Get Out is the perfect white liberal, who doesn’t know how clueless he sounds – and that’s before he turns evil. Steve Zahn in War for the Planet of the Apes as Bad Monkey, Zahn really is terrific – and if critics groups felt the need to give Serkis some noms, why didn’t they recognize him as well?

10. Jean-Louis Trintgnant in Happy End
The French acting legend reteams with Michael Haneke who directed him in a brilliant (career best?) performance in Amour back in 2012. His character here could well be seen as a version of the same character, a few years down the line, dealing with his actions in that film. At first, he seems like a typical old guy with memory loss – but as the film progresses, his desperate acts to try and find a way to die help define his character – and leads to the end of the film. Trintgnant, mow 87 years old, is doing some of the best work of his career with Haneke – and while Happy End doesn’t equal Amour, Trintgnant is nearly as good here. 

9. Tracy Letts in Lady Bird

The women of Lady Bird have gotten all the (much deserved) praise for their performances, but perhaps because I am a father, I have a soft spot for Tracy Letts’ performance as Lady Bird’s dad. Letts, who has become one of my favorite character actors over the last few years, here plays a dad who really wants everyone to be happy. He tries to keep the drama down, tries to hide his own disappointment, all to help his own children. He doesn’t let them know when they hurt his feelings, and the moment he realizes his son is going out for the same job he is, there is a moment so perfect, that it made me cry. Letts continues to be one of the great actors working today, doing greatness in the background.

 

8. Woody Harrelson in War for the Planet of the Apes

There have been some fine performances in these new Planet of the Apes movies – but none of them have been as good as Woody Harrelson here, playing a mad, Colonel Kurtz like character, off the reservation, on his own, ruling over his own private fiefdom. He is the harshest, cruelest character in the series so far – but also one of the most pathetic, trying hard to hold onto something that is already gone. His final scenes – as he lays drunk, and realizes what precisely is going to happen, are great – and marks a high water point for Harrelson – who for a long time, has been one of the most interesting actors around.

 

7. Patrick Stewart in Logan

There is no doubt that having seen Patrick Stewart in a number of X-Men films over the past 17 years really does add to the power of his performance here – as the aging Professor, who has grown senile, lost control of his faculties, and could actually be quite dangerous at this point. He makes a number of mistakes in this film – mistakes that will cost other people their lives, and he is full of regrets on his life. Logan does a lot of great things – things that superhero films have never really done – but one of them is allowing us to see Stewart’s Professor X like this – and Stewart full embracing it, giving the character a brilliant, final act.

 

6. Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name

The only complaint I have about Armie Hammer’s performance in Call Me By Your Name is one that he has no control over – he looks too old to be a 24-year old student. But once you get beyond that, everything else about Hammer’s performance in this movie works pretty much perfectly. At first, he seems like a tall, statuesque pretty boy – a stereotypical American. But gradually, that performance deepens, and his chemistry with Chamalet is the best of any onscreen couple this year. He lets you inside a little bit in the second half, showing the pain he hide throughout the first half, until he could no longer bare it, and lets it all go. Hammer has had an interesting journey since his breakthrough in The Social Network, and his brush his franchise filmmaker. If nothing else, this film certifies just how good he can be, in the right role.

 

5. Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name

One of the great character actors of his generation, Stuhlbarg has been doing great work for years – and getting noticed for it since the lead role in the Coen’s A Serious Man. He is one of those actors that make me think of Roger Ebert’s old Stanton/Walsh rule that stated that any movie featuring Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmett Walsh cannot be all bad. Here, he is in fine form throughout – playing the smart, supportive and seemingly oblivious father throughout the summer his teenage son finds love. And then, late in the film, he delivers one of the great monologues in recent memory – all about love and loss and it quite simply breaks your heart. It is a brilliant monologue, delivered by Stuhlbarg at the height of his powers. Sure, it’s strange to get a nomination for one scene – but for that scene, it’s worthy.

 

4. Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Sam Rockwell had a difficult job in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri – as he basically has to play a character with both revile and yet feel empathy for. I never agreed with the criticism that Rockwell’s character doesn’t deserve redemption – basically because I never thought the film granted him any. He is a character who is sure of himself, who is brought low – almost biblically – and has his whole view of himself shaken. He does this all while delivering a performance that is funny, humane, empathetic, and yet, yes, still hateful. It’s the best performance of Rockwell’s career – as he balances those two things perfectly.

 

3. Barry Keoghan in The Killing of a Sacred Deer

This was a breakout year for Keoghan, who audiences will remember as the doomed, good hearted kid on the boat in Nolan’s Dunkirk – who volunteers to go even when he didn’t have to. Whatever the exact opposite of that is, his work in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is pretty close. Here, he plays an angry young man, who has decided to punish a surgeon (Colin Farrell) because he blames him (not incorrectly) for the death of his father. The game he invents to do that is harsh and brutal – and yet Keoghan remains fairly even keeled throughout – everything is already in motion, you cannot stop it, don’t try. This was the films best performance, in a movie where the likes of Farrell and Nicole Kidman are also at the top of their games. One of the great performances of the year, and one I wish more people talked about.

 

2. Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri

As the Sheriff in Three Billboards, Harrelson delivers perhaps the best performance of his career. He gets to play a lawman of principle, who really does try and keep the peace, and keep everyone happy. That he cannot entirely see the damage that may well do to those in town in undeniable, but he is playing a man everyone in town (who is white, anyway) loves, and you understand why. He is also, perhaps, the funniest character in the movie – in part because he knows what is fate is, and is past the point of caring. Every line delivery Harrelson utters in the film is just about perfect – but perhaps none more so than his various letters, which hit the right spot. His final scene is heartbreaking, and is really when the film kicks into high gear. Rockwell has won more awards – but Harrelson delivers the (slightly) better performance.

 

1. Willem Dafoe in The Florida Project

It isn’t often when an actor like Willem Dafoe – who has been around for more than 30 years now, still gets the opportunity to surprise you – but that is what Dafoe does here. Mainly, Dafoe has made a career of playing various creeps and lowlifes (that is, after an early career as Jesus – or a Jesus like character). In The Florida Project on the other hand, he radiates goodness. I don’t know what led this man to this rundown motel in Florida – it likely wasn’t good (his son doesn’t seem overly happy with him, after all) but now that he’s here, he walks the fine line between running a business, and truly getting to know, and like the tenants. It’s a balance he goes back and forth on – sometimes more on side than the other. Dafoe clearly gets his showcase moments here – confronting the would-be pedophile for instance – but it’s in the quieter scenes, particularly his last one, where he completely wins you over. Dafoe has had a career full of ups and downs – this is clearly an up – one of the best performances in a great career.