Jonathan Groff, actor – “Mindhunter”
Though David Fincher was only one part of a directorial A-team including Asif Kapadia and Tobias Lindolm, his tone-setting work on the first two episodes of his birth-of-profiling show means that all of “Mindhunter” our second favorite TV show of the year) has that smooth, steely Fincher finish. And a lot of that is down to the casting of Jonathan Groff in the lead role, as smooth and polished a leading man as one could hope for. Groff has been working steadily for a decade, as a regular on “Glee,” then on Andrew Haigh‘s “Looking” among other titles. But it’s “Mindhunter” that has used his classic, preppy, slightly blank handsomeness to best effect, with Groff’s outstanding yet also muted and reserved turn suggesting untapped depths of twisted psychology lurking beneath that unruffled exterior. It’s a show about the masks worn not just by killers but by all of us, especially men playing their proscribed professional and social roles, and it’s in that subversion that Groff excels: what you see is absolutely not what you get.
Tiffany Haddish, actor – “Girls Trip”
Like so many apparently overnight successes, there’s nothing “overnight” about it: it has taken Tiffany Haddish over a decade, and a series regular slot on “The Carmichael Show” to meet her destiny at the hands of a zipline and a fruit plate in Malcolm D Lee‘s hit comedy “Girls Trip.” While the film itself is a riff on a tried and tested formula, it really does take a special talent to steal scenes from the likes of Jada Pinkett Smith, Regina Hall and Queen Latifah, but Haddish does it with such effervescent charm that even the most scatological jokes land with a sly wink rather than a thud. And though her uncontrollable extrovert Dina absolutely does not, underneath all the crazy energy, Haddish has a maturity and a locked-down confidence that makes her not just a standout in this one film, but a presence we cannot wait to see more of. Thankfully, upcoming roles in Lee’s follow-up “Night School” opposite Kevin Hart and in Ike Barinholtz‘s Thanksgiving comedy-thriller “The Oath,” alongside fellow 2017 breakout John Cho will give us that opportunity soon, and with her “Girls Trip” turn picking up gathering heat coming into awards season, we firmly believe her dance card will soon get even fuller.
Barry Keoghan, actor – “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer,” “Dunkirk”
The weird-looking, but also totally beautiful Irish actor Barry Keoghan is having quite a moment. Cast in a small, but memorable supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” the young actor has clearly caught the eye of some major talents. But it’s his scene-stealing, movie-stealing turn in “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer,” where he actually pickpockets moments from veterans Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman, which is absolutely transformative. Keoghan completely disappears into the role of a sociopathically disturbed, manipulative boy and his, odd, matter-of-fact mien is chilling enough turn ‘Sacred Deer,’ from psychological thriller/mystery, into a horror movie. At the very least you’ll never look at a messy plate of spaghetti the same way again.
Vicky Krieps, actor – “Phantom Thread”
It takes a formidable actor to go toe to toe with Daniel Day-Lewis and some have failed (see the guy dismissed and replaced by Paul Dano on “There Will Be Blood”). But maybe all it really takes is the kind of nonchalant performer who thought at first that the movie she was auditioning for was a student film. Perhaps it’s her aloof Luxembourger mien, but Krieps is slightly odd in person which is perhaps why she’s such an unstoppable force next to DD-L’s immovable object. A muse and an object of affection, initially she’s perhaps just a thing created for a man and a reflection of his needs. But “Phantom Thread” turns into a love story about power and control, and through her own crafty, artful machinations, Krieps uses a deceptively simple, alluring smile, to reveal at the very end, that she’s the one holding all the cards. And you know what? She’ll butter her toast as loud as she fucking wants, thank you very much.
Francis Lee, writer, director – “God’s Own Country”
If his film were “only” a gay love story, but one as winningly drawn and beautifully performed as “God’s Own Country” is, Francis Lee would be a director to watch. But the subtle and stirring Yorkshire-set drama is so much more than that, and proves Lee’s intiuitive grasp of so many filmmaking fundamentals beyond the mere telling of a tale. Not only does it have a certain (almost accidental) allegorical weight, in being about the romance between a surly British farmer and a Romanian migrant worker — topical in these Brexit-blighted times — it also has a spectacularly organic sense of place, as though it wasn’t simply set on these damp moors and hills, but actually somehow grew there. Every aspect of the film from the cinematography, to the sound design to the editing, is crafted with care yet understated in the final harmonious whole: it is perhaps only in the rawness of its feeling that Lee’s neophyte status reveals itself, and that’s something we hope he never loses. He’s reported already at work on his next film, so we’re already at work on looking forward to it.