Sasha Lane as Star in “American Honey”
Andrea Arnold‘s dappled, kinetic, impressionistic portrait of a disenfranchised, tomorrowless tribe of young people grifting their way across America selling magazine subscriptions, is a film that delights in its fleeting imagery. Lacking a real plot, it requires a central performance of some magnetism to keep all its disparate postcard glimpses of roadside Americana in some sort of order, and Arnold finds it in the latest of her truculent but charismatic female teenage protagonists. There’s an odd contradiction at the heart of Lane’s performance that makes Star such a fascinating creation: she’s constantly on screen, and the camera is entranced by the blunt beauty of her features, the snapping youthful energy that radiates from her even in repose, but it’s not so much a character portrait as a faithful attempt to recreate the experience of a moment in time, a phase of life. And so Lane is given no mighty monologues and has only the slimmest of backstories on which to hang her characterization — instead the improvisatory vibe gives the impression of an unpremeditated performance, as she pivots within the tribe from watchful, sulky observer to participant to renegade, testing her boundaries, and finding out gradually, with the intense self-centeredness of youth, who she is going to be.
Michael Barbieri as Tony in “Little Men”
The small pleasures of Ira Sachs‘ compassionate but clear-eyed take on growing up in gentrifying Brooklyn are innumerable, but the most unmistakable new discovery comes in the small package that is Michael Barbieri. Bristling with insouciant charisma and restless energy like a pint-sized Brando (I am not even kidding), he plays the outgoing Tony, son of Paulina Garcia‘s shopowner mother, whose new landlord (Greg Kinnear) moves in upstairs with his family, including the similarly-aged but less extrovert Jake (Theo Taplitz, also excellent). Tony and Jake become friends despite their parents become increasingly hostile over the failing store’s rent, and despite the difference in social class, signified especially by Jake’s well-spokenness contrasting with Tony’s thick-voweled drawl. The perhaps unlikely bond is made all the more believable because of Barbieri’s magnetism — he’s a naturally electric presence onscreen, and you can see immediately how the more withdrawn Jake could be attracted to his unselfconscious glamor. We’re hardly the first to have noticed Barbieri’s turn — he’s already been cast in “Spider-man: Homecoming” and also has a sizeable role in the much anticipated Stephen King adaptation “The Dark Tower,” so good to know we’ve a few more bottles of his particular lightning on the way.
Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin in “The Witch”
We’ve been living with Robert Eggers’ outstanding horror debut for nearly two years now, since it premiered at Sundance 2015, but despite its release (to bona-fide sleeper hit numbers) more than a year later, we’re nowhere near over talking up its finer points. And Taylor-Joy is undoubtedly one of those, in a performances that’s perfectly poised between child and adult, innocence and hardscrabble experience, superstition and a kind of uncanny, beyond-her-years wisdom. Taylor-Joy already has three follow-ups in the can: M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split” which is due out in January 2017 and Luke Scott’s disappointingly bland “Morgan,” on the back of “The Witch” gave her something of the reputation as a modern-day scream queen, but her role in Barack Obama biopic “Barry” (which will be released on Dec 15) as well as a couple of currently-in-post thrillers should see show off other facets to her talents. And we know those other sides are there, because “The Witch” is so singular, not just in its uniquely well-researched, authentically damp and chilly period setting, but in being a horror that provides its uniformaly brilliant cast with far more challenging characterization than run-and-scream.
Hayden Szeto as Erwin in “The Edge of Seventeen”
Kelly Fremon Craig‘s surprise critical favorite, the adorable “The Edge of Seventeen” boasts terrific performances across the board, from Woody Harrelson‘s reluctant mentor teacher, to newcomer Haley Lu Richardson as the best friend turned (putative) frenemy, to relative veteran Hailee Steinfeld‘s lead role as the truculent central teen, Nadine. But the scene stealer is probably Hayden Szeto, who plays Erwin, a well-meaning and clearly smitten Asian classmate of Nadine’s, whose social ineptitude and sweet clumsiness provide a lot of laughs, but whose and ultimate shy wisdom also gives it so much of its heart. Mainly, though, he’s just very very funny, with a freshness, a lightness and a spontaneity to many of his moments that seems the direct result of a confident improviser given the space to shine. In one particular scene all he does is trip over his words repeatedly for what seems like an eternity and it just gets funnier and funnier. And even if somehow you’re dead inside to the degree that you’re not in love with smitten teenager Erwin, this performance still has the power to amaze: Szeto is actually 31. So casting directors, please a) hire him and b) check his attic for portraiture while you’re at it.
Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving in “Loving”
It’s always a bit of a knife edge as to whether more established actors who simply had a great year should appear on this list or contend for the main best performances list later, and we can’t say there’s a hard-and-fast rule. But it can’t be denied that Negga, though we’ve had our eye on as a series regular on “Agents of SHIELD” and various U.K. TV shows, is coming out of 2016 with a very different profile than she went in. She’s the best thing in the turgid “Preacher,” but her transformative film was obviously “Warcraft“– just kidding — it was Jeff Nichols‘ “Loving” in which she’s so brilliant you instantly forgive her for being in “Warcraft.” Her portrayal of reluctant interracial marriage-rights campaigner Mildred Loving, a black woman who married a white man only for both to be driven from their home state of Virginia for breaking segregation laws, is truly revelatory — she brings Mildred’s watchful warmth, glowing love for her husband and patient resolve to vivid life, painting a desperately human portrait of ordinary decency overcoming bigoted injustice. She’s tipped for an Oscar nomination but her luminous, graceful turn should light the touchpaper on her career whatever happens there.