Favorite Performances '13 - Elyes Aguis The Past

Aguis with Tahar Rahim as his father in Le Passe

Among the many many things Asghar Farhadi is a genius at, he's a genius at drawing fantastic performances from child actors. He does that again in his latest The Past (Le Passe) where he works with 3 young actors within the film's uniformly strong cast. And he's most successful in drawing out a mesmerizing and moving yet believable and restrained performance from Aguis.

Playing a young boy who's perplexed by the adults around him and how their shenanigans keep complicating his life, Aguis is the MVP. That's no small feat since every performance is tightly and expertly modulated. His big scene,  where he rebels against all that's happening around him in a train station, is the emotional highlight of the film. And he delivers, I was shattered by his deep emoting.

Favorite Performances '13 - Chiwetel Ejiofor 12 Years A Slave

In this space I will pay homage to the actors who gave performances in 2013 that moved and stunned me. These are the performances that I responded to the most and will remember, I think, for years to come.

If Oscar Isaac is The Voice, Chiwetel Ejiofor is The Eyes.  Steve McQueen locks his camera on those eyes and Ejiofor delivers emotional catharsis. It's a crescendo of a performance, starting in shadows as Solomon plays the audience surrogate into this unspeakably cruel world, building to a finale that shatters. "I apologize for my appearance.  I have had a difficult time of things these past many years".

Before we get there, we pass through the funeral scene where Solomon both accepts his destiny as a slave and the camaraderie and community of his fellow slaves. And in another instance, that haunting image of Ejiofor's silent face, and those eyes, reflecting and for one split second looking directly into the audience. These are just a few peaks in this marvel of a performance. Ejiofor pierces the heart. 

Favorite Performances '13 - Oscar Isaac Inside Llewyn Davis

In this space I will pay homage to the actors who gave performances in 2013 that moved and stunned me. These are the performances that I responded to the most and will remember, I think, for years to come.

If it was just for his beautiful voice this would still be Oscar Isaac's year. He not only sings but gives a fantastic performance in Inside Llewyn Davis.He's in almost every frame and the movie rests solely on his able shoulders. Playing an almost intolerable jerk who's really bad at life, is no small task. But Isaac keeps the audience riveted with his perfectly pitched performance, a slow burn of anger, exasperation, indignation and resignation. He accepts life at its most frustrating and we accept him as a new movie star.

Favorite Performances '13 - Lea Seydoux Blue is the Warmest Color

In this space I will pay homage to the actors who gave performances in 2013 that moved and stunned me. These are the performances that I responded to the most and will remember, I think, for years to come.

This is the sexiest performance of the year. For us to believe in the love story at the heart of Blue is the Warmest Color, we must believe that Lea's character, Emma, has sexual magnetism to spare. Enough for Adele to fall hopelessly under her spell and never recover. She delivers in spades; in her walk, her looks, the way she speaks. She is why the term "sex on a stick" was coined.

More on Blue Jasmine

Cate, Sally and Andrew

Now that we've got how great Cate is out of the way, here are a few other thoughts on Blue Jasmine :

- The movie is zippy and fast and at just over an hour and half reaches its conclusion quickly. A definite advantage in this age of the over-long movie.

- This is a fantastic ensemble. Sally Hawkins shines brightly all earthiness and brittle edges. Andrew Dice Clay is a revelation and carries the heart of the movie, his is arguably the only "good" character. Bobby Cannavale does his usual shouty Pacino thing but then surprises in a very raw and emotional scene. Even Peter Sarsgaard does the best he can with an underwritten part.

- Yes it's n obvious riff on Streetcar Named Desire, but it's also much more. Only takes the premise and builds other layers and tell what I thought was an original story. Cate's performance is certainly different than her Blanche; more modern and on full throttle from beginning to end as opposed to the crescendo building emotional breakdown that was her Blanche.

- Question to Woody; who says "make love" in 2013? OK maybe Jasmine since she puts on airs but then Sarsgaard's character says it too. It sounds so fake.

- Also what is up with the learning the computer sub-plot? What is Jasmine exactly learning? It looks like she has a laptop and I assume she has at least used it a couple of times. So confusing Woody.

- Sally Hawkins has a very cute and endearing moment early on : she courtesies when she meets Alec Baldwin.

- Also cute Alden Ehrenreich. More of him please, Hollywood.

Alden not in character but still cute

- The scene with Jasmine babysitting her nephews at Chuck e Cheese and dolling out life lessons while sipping her wine is fantastic. It is without a doubt Cate's Oscar clip. The most quoted bit is "There's only so much trauma a person can withstand before they take to the streets and start screaming". I really like the bit where she advises them to be kind to the service industry ending with "Tip big, boys".

"Tip big, boys"

Along with Stories We Tell, Before Midnight and The Spectacular Now Cate and Woody made summer movie going bearable.

Love Letter to Cate Blanchett

Cate Blanchett is my favorite actor. I can't get enough of watching her.So you can imagine my joy when I heard that not only is she in Woody Allen's latest but in fact gives a performance for the ages and completely dominates the movie. She has been away for a long time and small parts in The Hobbit and Hanna do not count. I'm glad she's back full throttle in this and upcoming movies with Todd Haynes, David Mamet and George Clooney. She's even playing the evil stepmother in the new Cinderella and might pop up in Terrence Malick's next.

I've seen Blue Jasmine 3 times now. And each time I've watched with my jaw dropped to the floor the whole time at the beautiful and precise marvel that is Cate's performance. I couldn't have it said better myself so I am quoting Mick LaSalle's review for the San Francisco Chronicle.

"But when we're talking about "Blue Jasmine," we're really talking about Blanchett, who - and this is no exaggeration - gives one of the greatest screen performances of the past 10 years. To say that she is Oscar worthy would not do her justice, not when we remember what actually wins Oscars. Blanchett's performance is one for the books.

First of all, there's the technical precision of it. Aided immeasurably by Gretchen Davis' makeup and Suzy Benziger's costume design, she is often playing some degree of chemical impairment - the nature and degree of which are always perfectly clear.

In terms of emotion, it's best to keep in mind that Jasmine's story, though told out of sequence, has a sequence nonetheless, one inhabited by Blanchett with preternatural intuition and nuance. We see that Jasmine was weak to begin with. And later, we see the guilt, the disgrace, the pain, the self-delusion, not as emotions in sequence, but as elements ever-present and threatening to bubble to the surface, threatening the magnificent facade. The facade itself is a splendid creation, paper-thin and yet seductive, the manners and references suggestive of all the good things money can buy - and has bought.

Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine" is beyond brilliant, beyond analysis. This is jaw-dropping work, what we go to the movies hoping to see, and we do. Every few years."

It's not a review, its a love letter. I whole heartedly agree. I'll leave with the fashion girl Cate, she was a vision in Balenciaga at the New York premiere.