IMPRESSIVE ACTORS
THIS YEAR’S TOP 10 SCENE-STEALERS
HELLO? 911? I’d like to report a crime: A scene has been stolen, and I suspect Alan Alda is to blame.
What’s that, you say? This is the 10th time I’ve reported such a happening this year? I suppose it is. It’s just that 2019 has been filled with so many wonderful performances from supporting actors in film who, in key moments, sweep the audience’s attention away from everyone else.
Not like those fellows Al Pacino and Brad Pitt, of course, as they were practically handed the keys to their respective star-studded vehicles. We’re talking the likes of Billie Lourd in Booksmart, who derails the heroines’ night in the best possible way, or Alda, playing the compassionate lawyer among a sea of sharks in Marriage Story.
Here are 10 of the year’s top scene-stealers.
Alan Alda and Merritt Wever in Marriage Story
The moments of levity peppered throughout Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story are a welcome addition to the film, given its primary focus on the gruelling dissolution of the relationship between Charlie (Adam Driver) and Nicole Barber (Scarlett Johansson).
A few such moments arrive with the introduction of divorce attorney Bert Spitz (Alda) who, upon meeting Charlie, tells his new client: “Most people in my business, you’re just transactions to them. I like to think of you as people.”
Alda brings to his performance the warmth and charming sense of humour that contribute to his universal appeal in real life, positioning Bert as a foil to the hardball-playing lawyers (Ray Liotta, Laura Dern) Charlie and Nicole eventually hire.
The film’s funniest moment arguably takes place pre-Bert. After Nicole decides to divorce Charlie, she asks her sister, Cassie (Wever), to serve him the papers. What could have just been a serviceable scene becomes a comedy of errors thanks to Wever’s ability to play up Cassie’s nervousness.
Julia Butters in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
If you’ve seen even the teaser trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, you’re probably familiar with the scene in which a little girl named Trudi Fraser (Julia Butters) tells jaded TV actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) that what he just did was the best acting she’s ever seen in her whole life. (He then clenches his hand into a fist, stifling a sob.)
Given the meta quality of her words, it’s amazing Butters is able to hold her own in the scenes she shares with DiCaprio, such as one where Trudi wisely tells Rick, her co-star, why she stays in character on set. Cho Yeo Jeong in Parasite
Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a darkly humorous drama about class division, which suggests it doesn’t reflect too kindly upon the upper class. That’s largely true, except perhaps when it comes to Park Yeonkyo (Cho), the kind matriarch of a wealthy household infiltrated by the central Kim family.
The actress adds emotional depth and a lingering sense of loneliness to a character who could easily have been reduced to a rich businessman’s air-headed wife.
Adam Driver in The Dead Don’t Die
It’s been a most successful year for leading man Adam Driver, but we’d be remiss to skip over his role in Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die, featuring one of the actor’s finest line deliveries to date, the way he says “ghouls.”
From the act of stuffing his massive body into a tiny Smart car to his police officer character’s deadpan (and correct) insistence that zombies are responsible for the topsy-turviness of their small town, it’s hard to look away from the man who has been commanding the screen since Girls.
Billy Eichner in The Lion King
Most critics didn’t have many positive things to say about Jon Favreau’s almost shot-for-shot remake of The Lion King, aside from commenting on the technological marvel of it all. Eichner is the exception.
As Timon, the comedian famous for frenetically yelling things at people on the street – “Ladies, I know the Kominsky Method and I’m not sharing it!” – lends that booming voice to a teeny meerkat who, along with his best mate Pumbaa (the warthog voiced by Seth Rogen), livens up the film.
Billie Lourd in Booksmart
Given that Billie Lourd grew up with Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds as her mother and grandmother, it’s fair to say showbiz is in her genes. But the young actress is also a talent in her own right, as evidenced by her portrayal of spacey teenager Gigi in Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut, Booksmart.
Florence Pugh in Little Women
This year has been the most successful of Pugh’s professional career. The English actress, who wowed critics with her performance in 2016’s Lady Macbeth, officially broke out this summer as the lead in Ari Aster’s Midsommar, about American tourists terrorised by a pagan commune in Sweden. But most remarkable is how Pugh humanises one of literature’s most-hated characters, Amy March, in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women.
She captures the brashness of a jealous younger sister in one scene and, in another, the practical wisdom of a long-overlooked young woman.
Keanu Reeves in Always Be My Maybe
Always Be My Maybe stars and screenwriters Ali Wong and Randall Park probably knew Reeves would steal their thunder by popping up to play a parody of himself in their Netflix rom-com, but who could’ve resisted such a casting opportunity?
The movie star character is quite a departure from the real Reeves’ gracious self, perhaps adding to the enjoyment viewers get from seeing the John Wick actor declare that he “never cower(s) in the face of danger” before daring Marcus to “strike” him.
Archie Yates in Jojo Rabbit
Regardless of how you feel toward Taika Waititi’s satire Jojo Rabbit, which centres on a Hitler youth (Roman Griffin Davis) who grapples with his blind nationalism after befriending the Jewish teenager his mother helps hide in their attic, it’s hard to deny the perfect casting of Jojo Betzler’s best friend, Yorki (Archie Yates). Archie’s performance, his acting debut, was memorable enough to land him the lead role in Disney Plus’ Home Alone reboot.
Zhao Shuzhen in The Farewell
In The Farewell, a semiautobiographical film from director Lulu Wang, an American woman named Billi (Awkwafina) and her family members travel to China to say goodbye to Billi’s terminally ill grandmother, Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen), who remains in the dark about her cancer diagnosis.
Awkwafina, whose comedic performance in Crazy Rich Asians landed her on last year’s list of scene-stealers, strikes a more dramatic note here, allowing Zhao to more often lighten the mood.
Given that she’s been acting for more than 60 years, it’s no wonder Zhao masterfully deploys the ever-soslightly deprecating sense of humour typical of grandmothers. Viewers wind up loving Nai Nai almost as much as Billi does.