Smaller roles that stole the show in 2015
It’s not always the big names giving the best performance in your favourite movie
What do an angry grizzly, a male entertainer and a pink elephant-cat have in common? They all stole the show in the movies they were in. Leading actors get so much credit when a movie is a success, but sometimes it’s the supporting roles that really make the story. Here are some of the standouts.
The Vuvalini
(Melissa Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers, Antoinette Kellermann and Christina Koch in Mad Max: Fury Road)
Older female actresses don’t get a lot of work, and when they do, it isn’t very interesting. These six got to play bitchin’ lady warriors in this year’s surprisingly feminist instalment of Mad Max. The group, known as the Vuvalini, doesn’t appear until the last third of the movie, but when they do the story shifts, introducing not just another band of killers but life-givers. They plant seeds wherever they go so that maybe one day something will grow. But don’t mistake their hope for weakness. They’re all too happy to hop on their motorcycles and fight alongside one of their own.
Big Dick Richie
(Joe Manganiello in Magic Mike XXL)
None of the supporting players got a character arc in the first Magic Mike, but that changed with the release of the sequel this summer. The movie is, at its core, about male entertainers finding their true calling. One, a new-agey reiki healer, wants to be a full-time singer; another hopes to get into the artisanal frozen yogurt business. It was all pretty silly, but it was good for a few laughs, especially every time Big Dick Richie was onscreen.
The Bear
( The Revenant)
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu put a premium on realism when filming his extreme survival story about real-life frontiersman Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio). His cast and crew battled the elements, rehearsing and filming in sub-zero temperatures. And he didn’t want any of that green screen stuff. During a scene with an avalanche, for example, Inarritu created an actual avalanche.
But all anyone wants to talk about — other than DiCaprio’s extreme sport brand of acting — is the computer-generated grizzly who attacks Hugh and very nearly kills him.
LeBron James
( Trainwreck)
The Cleveland Cavaliers star plays himself in Amy Schumer’s summer blockbuster, which seemed like an eyeroll-inducing bit of stunt casting. Only, it isn’t a cameo. James has a significant supporting role and, more surprisingly, he’s hilarious.
He wasn’t the only scene-stealer in the Judd Apatow-directed comedy but he was the most shocking.
Alexandra
(Mya Taylor in Tangerine)
The breakout star of the kinetic dramedy about transgender prostitutes is Kitana Kiki Rodriguez, playing lead Sin-Dee Rella.
She gets to do most of the crazy stuff: kicking down doors, dragging her nemesis around Hollywood by the hair, jumping over turnstiles to skip Metro fare.
The character of her less dramaprone best friend, Alexandra, is more understated, but Alexandra supplies the movie, which is constantly on the verge of going off the rails, with an emotional core that holds the whole thing together.
Bing Bong
( Inside Out)
Somehow Pixar turned the inner working of an adolescent brain into family entertainment and it was brilliant. As usual, the studio behind Toy Story 3, Up and Finding Nemo decimated viewers, leaving nothing but a pool of tears behind.
This time (SPOILER ALERT!), that was done by offing Bing Bong, the childhood imaginary friend of protagonist Riley. The porkpie hatwearing pink elephant-cat hybrid is goofy, lovable and naive, so watching him sacrifice himself to save Riley’s inner joy brings up a lot of emotions.
Irene
(Jennifer Hudson in Chi-Raq)
Spike Lee’s latest is an adaptation of Lysistrata, the ancient Greek play about a woman who convinces her female friends that the only way to stop men from killing each other is to withhold sex.
But Lee swapped the Peloponnesian War for the streets of Chicago. The movie is tonally inconsistent, blending farce and bawdy humour with horrifying violence. But the acting is splendid, especially from Oscar-winner Hudson as Irene, a woman whose young daughter is shot to death in gang crossfire.
Those in the know about Hudson’s real life will be especially moved by her performance. The actress lost her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew to gun violence.
Rocky Balboa
(Sylvester Stallone in Creed)
Sylvester Stallone hasn’t been in a good movie in a long time. And seeing that he would appear in this reboot didn’t exactly inspire confidence. But the latest instalment in the Rocky story has exceeded all expectations, even inspiring Oscar chatter for Stallone’s supporting role. That’s right. After Expendables 3 and Escape Plan, Stallone has managed to turn it around.