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Audrey Kupferberg: Outstanding Film Performances Of 2017

Frances McDormand is astounding audiences as the rage-filled, maniacal mother of a young rape and murder victim in THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI, and Gary Oldman is thrilling viewers of DARKEST HOUR with his multi-dimensional portrayal of Winston Churchill.  They are rightful winners of this year’s Oscars for actors in leading roles.

However, 2017 was an outstanding year for fine acting performances.  A few of the strongest were not mentioned during the Academy Awards ceremonies.  Here are four of the finest performances by lead performers in films that will be savored well into 2018 and beyond.

Annette Bening plays real-life Hollywood star Gloria Grahame in FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL.  But this biopic is not a portrait of the vivacious beauty who captured the hearts of movie fans in the early 1950s.  No, this is a dramatic study of has-been actress Gloria Grahame fighting cancer in her mid-fifties, and dealing with the complications of a May/December love relationship with a young actor.  Bening’s approach to the character she is playing is deeply moving.  Using her entire physical being, she embodies Grahame’s struggle to fend off the illness.  Bening shows joy that is unlike the joy of a healthy woman; this is joy cloaked in sadness and suffering.  She is trying to act the fresh flower for her sincere, darling lover, but winds up as a wilted bloom.  Bening has given one strong performance after another in such films as THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, AMERICAN BEAUTY, BEING JULIA, and 20TH CENTURY WOMEN.  She deserves more credit than she gets for her great talent.  Granted, both she and co-star Jamie Bell, were nominated for BAFTAs for their performances.

Cate Blanchett, previous winner of two Oscars, appears in a very odd, late 2017 release called MANIFESTO.  This film began its life in 2015 as a video installation component for an art exhibition at the Australian Centre of the Moving Image in Melbourne.  Blanchett dons thirteen distinctly different identities to expound various manifestos about art.  This film is not directed at casual movie viewers.  It is a rare example of a visual study in which a brilliant movie star plays characters whose spoken words are more important than their character development.  Blanchett plays men as well as women with equal authenticity. I recommend MANIFESTO to those viewers who delight in theories of creativity.

You don’t have to read KING LEAR or odes of dead poets to be exposed to intelligent studies of aging.  THE HERO and LUCKY are two films that leave viewers with insights into growing old.  In THE HERO, Sam Elliott plays a well-known cowboy actor who has entered his so-called golden years.  THE HERO weaves the details of a man’s innermost thoughts with the complexity of his relationships. Elliott grows his character step-by-step to be a powerful force of individuality.

Finally, in LUCKY, one of the final films of Harry Dean Stanton and certainly among the most significant motion pictures of his long and successful career, comes the most heartfelt and extraordinary performance of 2017.  LUCKY is a character study that, on the surface, emphasizes the daily life of an ancient individualist, a loner by choice. His life might appear to be a series of dull repetitions, but actually is one-of-a-kind.  Stanton, who took on this challenging role at 89 years of age, plays a plain-spoken man, an atheist. He lives for the day.  As is the case with Sam Elliott, Harry Dean Stanton inserted details of his own life experiences to be combined with the screenwriter’s machinations. 

I think it will be several more years before we find ourselves amid such a sweet and plentiful crop of remarkable acting performances.

Audrey Kupferberg is a film and video archivist and appraiser. She is lecturer emeritus and the former Director of Film Studies at the University at Albany and has co-authored several entertainment biographies with her husband and creative partner, Rob Edelman.

The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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