Welcome to the 2024 SiftPop.com Sifties!
This year, the SiftPop writers came together to nominate five performances for Best Performance. Unlike the Oscars and other major awards shows, we didn’t differentiate between lead and supporting performances or between actors and actresses. This is simply a countdown of the five best performances that we collectively saw!
Regardless of initial opinion, time will reflect favorably on Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, if only because it serves as this wonderful moment in cinematic time where so many of the “next crop” of young performers were all together in a single movie. Mikey Madison did not get her start in the famed Tarantino picture, but like several other notable modern performers, it was many people’s first glimpse of the future Academy Award nominee. After some small-medium roles, Anora served as a bona fide breakout for Madison, allowing her to show the world the depth of her talent as she carries the weight of a Sean Baker feature. Madison simply becomes Anora. The audience is launched right into her day-to-day life with very little understanding of who she is fundamentally, but Madison’s role in the narrative gives us all the glimpses we need to craft a good degree of empathy for the character and situation. It’s an innately physical performance that Madison appears to be performing effortlessly. The emotional weight of the film rests almost squarely on her shoulders as she is whisked through a fairytale romance and out the other side. The joy, grief, fear, and anger are constantly embodied in how Madison delivers her lines, as well as how she conveys her physical self through facial expressions and body language. It’s a character that could probably exist in real life, and while Baker is the mastermind, it’s the clinic Madison puts on for two hours that makes Anora one of the most unforgettable movie experiences of 2024.
Timothée Chalamet has always been an excellent actor, but until Dune: Part Two, there was a specific kind of role that he thrived in. Between Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Little Women, Beautiful Boy, and even Bones and All, he’d been playing characters who had gentle interiors, and were always in touch with their emotions, even if those emotions manifested themselves in difficult ways. While Wonka started to stretch Chalamet out of his comfort zone, Dune: Part Two shows us a whole new side of him that opens up myriad possibilities for the kinds of roles he can take on in the future. What makes his Part Two performance so impressive is the authority that he portrays in his slim stature. He may not look like the kind of figure that can strike fear into the heart of his enemies and admiration into the heart of his followers, but just by the way he carries himself and projects his voice, especially in the latter half of the film, he horrifyingly transitions from Paul Atreides into Muad’Dib.
After garnering lots of attention for his four-season performance as Roman Roy on Succession, Kieran Culkin rode that wave into A Real Pain, his best film role to date. It’s the sort of performance where the actor largely plays themself, but that’s exactly what the movie needs. Jesse Eisenberg may not have written the role with Culkin in mind, but having seen the movie, it’s clear that no one else could have played Benji to the level of emotional resonance that Culkin does. He does his typical thing — lovable, fast-talking irreverence — but he does so much moving work just on his face, and that’s what stands out and sticks in your head. Culkin is the center that the movie hinges on, despite Eisenberg being the nominal lead, and him nailing the opening and final shots are the reason the movie works at all.
On the heels of other actors who had a resurgence in award-winning roles, Demi Moore ranks as one of the most ambitious, raw, and unnerving. As Elizabeth Sparkles, Moore leaves everything on the table. Throughout the course of The Substance, the audience goes through a roller coaster of different emotions regarding Elizabeth. Just when you feel bad for her, she does something so mind-numbingly perplexing that you want to bang your head against the wall. However, given who she works for, you understand why she makes the decision that she does. She will do anything she can to remain relevant. Moore’s performance touches such a nerve due to the commentary on how society views women and how fame can be as toxic of a drug as anything out there today. This movie wouldn’t work without Moore’s commitment. She’s always been a talented and underrated performer, but The Substance levels her up to legendary status.
It may sound crazy to say about someone with two straight Oscar nominations, but Colman Domingo might still be underrated. Every performance seems to pop off the screen, and his portrayal of Divine G in Sing Sing is just the latest example. Playing an inmate imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, there’s a duality to Domingo’s performance that’s a challenging ask. On one hand, he’s a writer and actor who founded the troupe as an outlet for the inmates to be able to have some escapism during their incarceration. In that sense, he’s acting in the role of a mentor — particularly to a new inmate he’s bringing into the troupe, played by Clarence Maclin. As a performer himself, Domingo shines as Divine from jump, commanding the stage in the opening scene. As the film goes along, Domingo effectively portrays a man who reaches his breaking point with an outburst full of emotion that is equally heartbreaking as it is understandable. Whether he’s reciting Shakespeare, or struggling with incarcerated life, Domingo plays it all perfectly.
Make sure to check out the previous 2024 Sifties winners, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for the winner of Best Movie!