Part 2/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)
Part I - Best Films of 2015
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Female)
CHILD (male)
Most Compelling:
Amir
and
Amiri O'Neill twin brothers who
play Michael, an African American boy in the Deep South of the 1950s, who just
wanted taste the "white people's water" in
White Water [2015]
Honorable Mentions:
Steele
Stebbins as Kevin, the "evil little brother" / younger son in
the remake of
Vacation [2015]
Petr Šimčák
and
Jan Maršál
as Tomáš and Haris, 11 year old BFFs video-chronicling their 6th grade year,
growing up in the Czech midsized South Bohemian town / regional capital of
Česke Budejovice in
To See the Sea (orig. Pojedeme k Moři) [2014]
Noah
Wiseman as Samuel, a 7 year-old Australian boy "with some
issues" being raised by a harried widowed mother in
Babadook [2014]
Bill
Melendez voicing
Charlie Brown,
Alexander
Garfin voicing Linus in
The Peanuts Movie [2015]
TEEN (male)
Most Compelling:
Atli Oskar Fjalarsso
as Ari a 15-year-old child of divorce in the Icelandic film
Sparrows [2015] who comes to better appreciate his
quite simple fisherman-by-trade of a father (played by
Ingvar Eggert
Sigurðsson) after his mother basically abandons him to him for a "far
more interesting" Danish man who "works for some NGO" somewhere
in Africa.
Honorable Mentions:
Nat Wolff as
the somewhat nerdy high-schooler named Quentin in
Paper Towns [2015] who falls in love with (in his view)
a far cooler young girl, but as the story goes on, he learns far more than he
had expected.
Dylan O'Brien
as Thomas who in
The
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials [2015] learns that a society that would
put quite random teenagers (or any teenagers) into a maze is going to be pretty
desperate / messed up. Why would it do that? Well, why?
Pedro Maia
as Ciao a high-schooler in Salvador Brazil in the mid-1980s in
After the Rain (orig. Depois da Chuva) [2013] a
"John Hughes"-like film but set in the context of Brazilian reality:
as Brazil was transitioning from nearly two decades of military rule to
democracy once again and concurrently Ciao's own school was electing a student
government for the first time in a similarly long time.
Thales Cavalcanti
as Jean a previously quite "pampered rich kid" in
Casa Grande [2015] in his last year prior to going to
college. The role plays-out as a straighter / more serious version Tom
Cruise's in
Risky
Business [1983]. Basically Jean has to grow-up and to some extent
"on his own."
Skyler
Gisondo as the annoying / übersensitive older brother James in the
remake of
Vacation [2015]
YOUNG ADULT
(male)
Most Compelling:
Ravi Patel as
a somewhat fictionalized version of himself in
Meet the Patels [2015] who despite being born already
in the States or having arrived here when he was very young, tries very, very
hard to fulfill his immigrant parents' dream of "marrying another
Patel." An unforgettable, often funny and heartfelt performance that
gives viewers a lovely view into his / his parents' world.
Honorable Mentions:
Michael B. Jordan
as Adonis Johnson who's grown-up knowing he was the illegitimate son of the
boxer Apollo Creed (of Rocky saga fame), who's had a lot of confusion
about this and good deal of anger issues as well to deal with as he tries to
decide what he wants to be / do with his life in
Creed [2015]
Sam Riley as
Grieder, a "stranger" from America
who rides in, on horseback, to a high Alpine village in Austria of the late 1800s in
The Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014]. What's
he doing there? He says his mother was from there. What's he doing
there now? He's says he's there "to set things right."
Alexander Fehling
as Johann Radmann a young junior Prosecutor in Frankfurt, West Germany in the
early 1960s, who decided in good part out of boredom to follow-up on a
seemingly small case that opened-up into the 1960s-era Frankfurt Auschwitz
Trials in which hundreds of former Nazis were tried (finally) in German courts
for their Nazi Era Crimes, in
Labyrinth of Lies (orig. Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) [2014]
Daniel de
Oliveira as Arminto Cordovi a prodigal son of a rich shipbuilder from Belem, Brazil
along the banks of the Amazon in
Orphans of Eldorado (orig. Órfãos do Eldorado) [2015].
He returns home, not exactly repentant, at the behest of his father's
housekeeper, who knows the father is dying. Yet instead of reconciliation
with dad, he falls in love with a random if attractive lounge-singer he meets
at a random river-side bar and spends the next 10 years chasing after her up
and down the river in what becomes almost a Brazilian (though sexier)
Apocalypse Now
[1979]
Odilion
Esteves as simply "Any Man" in the Brazilian sci-fi film
Blue Desert (orig. Deserto Azul) [2014] where everyone
seemed content, the basic needs of all seemed met, but everyone, communicating
almost entirely by computer / smartphone like devices also seemed lonely.
Alejandro Aguilar
as Luis, a gregarious construction worker / part-time referee who in this
Colombian film
Wasting Time (orig. Tiempo Perdido) [2014] composed of
ever so slightly interconnected
Crash [2004] /
Babel [2006]-like
vignettes has put much of his dreams on hold care to take care of his mother who's come
down with Alzheimers Disease.
ADULT (male)
Most Compelling:
David Wilmot in
the Irish film
Gold [2014],
Tomasz Kot
in the Polish film
Life
Must Go On (orig. Żyć nie umierać) [2015] and
Konstantin
Khabenskiy in the Russian film
The
Geographer Drank His Globe (World) Away (orig. Географ Глобус Пропил) [2013]
all playing essentially the same role, that of men in their late 30s-40s who've
realized that they've made some very big mistakes in life, disappointing a
large number of loved ones, and seeking, with varied degrees of success to
"make amends" or at least "make peace" with their
situation.
Honorable
Mentions:
Kevin James as
the honest if perhaps somewhat "boring" "regular guy" Paul
Blart in
Paul
Blart: Mall Cop 2 [2015]. Yes, no one aspires to grow-up to be a
"mall cop," but he's come to embrace his super-mundane job with awe
inspiring sincerity.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger as an good / honest Midwestern Farmer trying to do the
right thing even after his beloved oldest daughter had been attacked and bitten
by Zombies and was now slowly, irreversibly turning into a Zombie herself in
Maggie [2015]
Tom Hanks
as
James B. Donovan a New York insurance lawyer / former
Nuremberg Trial lawyer and quiet Patriot who is recruited by the U.S.
government to quietly / competently negotiate an early Cod War Ear prisoner
swap Russian spy
Rudolf Abel for U.S. U-2 pilot
Gary
Powers) in
Bridge of Spies [2015]
Kevin Costner
as Jim White, a previously problematic high school teacher / football coach in
McFarland,
USA [2015] finally lands a job way out at a high school in the San Joaquin Valley where the kids don't really have
time to play football. But what they do is ... run. So he becomes
the coach of a truly remarkable all-Hispanic California cross country team.
Ed Helms
as the now adult Rusty Griswald of American family comedic classic
Vacation [1983]
fame, who's basically "grown-up to be his dad" in
Vacation [2015] the sequel 30 years later, putting
"family first" to such an extent that though an airline pilot he
spends more time getting out of the parking-lot to come home from work than in
the air. On the other hand, he really cares about his family.
Édgar Ramírez
as Tony, Joy Mongano's ex-husband in
Joy [2015] who remains nice and a worthwhile confidante
to Joy even after their divorce, reminding us that it is possible divorce /
separate amicably.
Ben Stiller
as Josh in
While We're Still Young [2015] who for reasons not
entirely clear (certainly it's partly his fault, but it's also partly not) has
never reached his potential, becoming an increasing disappointment to his wife
(played by
Naomi
Watts) and especially to his former mentor father-in-law (paleyd by
Charles Grodin)
ELDER (male)
Most Compelling:
José Carlos Ruiz,
Eduardo
Manzano,
Luis Bayardo) playing three octogenarian friends in
One for the Road (orig. En el Último Trago) [2014] who
decide to fulfill the dying wish of a fourth life-long buddy (played by
Pedro Weber
'Chatanuga') and go on a road trip to carry an autographed napkin given
to the fourth friend by a famous mariachi singer with the lyrics of that
singer's most famous song back to the museum dedicated to that singer's memory
in that singer's home town. Much, often heartfelt, hilarious, and often
_very, very slow_ ensued ;-)
Honorable Mentions:
Ernesto Suárez as
Khalil in the Argentinian film -
Road to La Paz (orig. Camino a La Paz) [2015] an
elderly Muslim immigrant to Argentina
who near the end of his life decides that he wants to complete the Hajj (the
once in a lifetime pilgrimage that Muslims are asked to undertake to Mecca). To help him
along on the first let of his journey, from Buenos Aires
to La Paz,
Khalil invites a nice if random 20-something Argentinian driver to take him
there.
Ian McKellen in
Mr. Holmes [2015] as an aging Sherlock Holmes, trying
to solve one last case whose resolution eluded him up-onto-this point.
But he's ALSO really "starting to forget"
Robert
DeNiro as Ben a retired widower who after 5 years of retirement decides
that he'd still like to do some more with his life in
The Intern [2015].
Silvester Stallone
as a now older Rocky Balboa serving as a mentor figure to Adonis Johnson a
son of his friend / fellow boxer Apollo Creed in
Creed [2015]
HERO / VILLAIN (male)
Most Compelling:
Michael Shannon as
Florida "Real Estate Broker" turned Mephistopheles in
99 Homes [1999] who, "a survivor" that he was
had made the 2008 Financial Crisis / Housing Collapse "work" ... for
him.
Honorable Mentions:
Sam Riley as
Grieder, a "stranger" from America
who rides in, on horseback, to a high Alpine village in Austria of the late 1800s in
The Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014] to
"set things right."
Dylan O'Brien
as Thomas in
The
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials [2015] who even after escaping "the
Maze" at the end of the first episode of this story, spend much of this
the second, trying to figure "What the heck is going on?" (Why was I
/ we in The Maze to begin with?)
Michael B. Jordan
as Adonis Johnson who's grown-up knowing he was the illegitimate son of the
boxer Apollo Creed (of Rocky saga fame), who's had a lot of confusion
about this and good deal of anger issues as well to deal with as he tries to
decide what he wants to be / do with his life in
Creed [2015]
Matt Damon
as Astronaut Mark Watney who after being left behind on Mars during sand storm,
doesn't lose his head but slowly, methodically works out a means of
reestablishing contact with Earth and then surviving long enough to be rescued
in
The Martian [2015].
Daniel de
Oliveira as Arminto Cordovi a something of an a-hole (not exactly
repentant) prodigal son of a rich man who comes home to his dying father in
Orphans of Eldorado (orig. Órfãos do Eldorado) [2015] only
to run off again chasing after some random if attractive lounge singer he
heard in some random riverside side
.
Arnold
Schwarzenegger as a Midwestern Farmer trying to do what is right even
in the midst of a Zombie Apocalypse and after his beloved oldest daughter had
been attacked and bitten by Zombies and was now slowly, irreversibly turning
into one herself in
Maggie [2015]
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