the list of 9 for january 25, 2005:
MY NINE FAVORITE NON-OSCAR NOMINATED PERFORMANCES OF 2004
This is the first time in years that I haven't seen the majority of the big Oscar-nominated films.One reason is that I've been too busy over the last two months - when all the "Oscar-bound"pictures are released - to catch them all. The other, bigger reason is that this year's crop iskind of uninspired. I mean, come on, The Aviator, who cares? Anyway, I still managed to seeabout sixty new movies in 2004. These are the performances that truly stood out.
- Isabella Rossellini in THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD. Theeternally strange filmmaker Guy Maddin has found his perfect leading lady in Rossellini, who, asDavid Lynch's former muse, is no stranger to strange. She has a ball in a completely over-the-topturn as a crazed legless beer magnate. She's a total thrill to watch.
- Rachel McAdams in MEAN GIRLS. Though this agreeable comedywas meant as a vehicle for a certain overexposed teen starlet, it is the twentysomething McAdamswho, as bitchy "queen bee" Regina George, steals the show again and again and again.
- Daryl Hannah in KILL BILL, VOL. 2. You might sense a themehere - that I dig nasty villainesses - and you might be right. Still, Hannah injects a 20-megawattjolt of energy into an otherwise too-talky movie from a tiresome filmmaker.
- Anne Reid in THE MOTHER. Fantastically subtle work fromthe British stage actress, as a widow in her sixties who enters into a red-hot sexual relationshipwith her daughter's bad boy lover. Reid's performance is brave and bitter in every sense.
- David Thewlis in HARRY POTTER 3. Long one of my favoriteactors, Thewlis hasn't been getting many big roles in the last few years, but his poignant turnas the tragic Professor Lupin adds dignity to what is already the best film in the Harry Potterseries.
- Yuuko Daike in ZATOICHI. Playing a geisha out to kill themen who murdered her parents, this Japanese actress doesn't have a lot of lines in TakeshiKitano's Zatoichi, but you can positively feel the hurt and vengeance written on her stoicface.
- Freddie Highmore in FINDING NEVERLAND. While the filmitself was not overlooked by the Academy this year, young Highmore, as Peter Llewellyn Davies, isso good in a tear-jerker role that costar Johnny Depp - no slouch himself - told Tim Burton tocast Highmore opposite him in the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He will gofar, unless puberty stops his career in its tracks.
- Cate Blanchett in COFFEE & CIGARETTES. Although Blanchettwon Academy kudos for her Aviator turn as Katharine Hepburn, it was her dual role - asherself and as her bitter mess of a cousin - in Jim Jarmusch's so-so Coffee & Cigarettesthat I'd pick as her best performance of the year, if not ever.
- Christian Bale in THE MACHINIST. An altogether overlookedthriller made in Spain, The Machinist has already achieved cult status, no small thanks toBale's alarming weight loss. But while simply looking like a skeleton doesn't constitute acting(insert joke about supermodels here), it enhances Bale's already strong performance as a man beingdriven insane by his own denial.
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