Back in a theater this year instead of a train station, The 94th AnnualAcademy Awardsare scheduled to air March 27 on ABC. Hosted byWanda Sykes,Amy SchumerandRegina Hall, the ceremony could prove to be course-correcting for the Academy, and the movie industry’s biggest night. The Oscars' place in history is unquestionable, butdue to years of controversies, plummeting ratings and a 2021 telecast thatended in something like disaster, the future of the Academy Awards is unclear.
Of course many great performances have been honored by the Academy: who could contest recent wins forOlivia ColmaninThe Favourite,Mahershala AliinMoonlight, orRenée ZellwegerinJudy? And sometimes, the Oscars miss the mark—and miss out on extraordinary performances.
Idris Elba,Beasts of No Nation(2015)
Let this sink in for a moment:Idris Elbahas never been nominated for an Oscar. Granted, the acclaimed Brit’s best-known roles are arguably in television, but it’s still kind of shocking considering his standing in the industry. He was notably snubbed for an unsettling, titanic turn inCary Joji Fukunaga’sBeasts of No Nation, playing a cruel African warlord who essentially brainwashes young innocents into becoming mindless killing machines.
Beasts of No Nationis a brutal, borderline unbearable watch that’s impossible to turn away from because it’s so sympathetically, powerfully performed. Elba’s performance received heavy Oscar buzz on the festival circuit, but was possibly hurt by Netflix’s simultaneous release ofBeastson streaming and in theaters—several years ago, when such a move was more controversial.
Uma Thurman,Kill Bill(2003-2004)
Though the Academy has certainly shownQuentin Tarantinosome love over the years (he’s won two screenwriting Oscars, and received eight total nods across various categories), the Academy is infamously not very warm to films that are pure genre. How else to explain the outright shunning of action masterworkKill Billfrom the Oscars—most excruciatingly no acting nod forUma Thurman’s all-time finest starring turn?
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Initially released asVol. 1andVol. 2(though it’s best enjoyed as the four-hourWhole Bloody Affair, if you can find it),Kill Billis kinetic, funny and gory enough to entertain you into submission. There’s more though: Thurman’s formidable action prowess is met with a maternal ferocity (in theWhole Bloody Affair, the audience crucially discovers her child is alive just as she does, not earlier) that cuts deeper than her katana. It’s a mesmerizing tour de force comparable toSigourney WeaverinAliensas among the best of the genre.
Essie Davis,The Babadook(2014)
A critical darling following a thunderous Sundance debut,The Babadookhas a reputation as one of the greatest horror films of modern times, withperceptive psychological depth, despite being botched in its release by the distributor.
Jennifer Kent’s psychological thriller starsEssie Davisas a widow reeling from grief while raising a troubled son (Noah Wiseman, also incredible here). Kent is a brilliant, muscular director, and her background as actress shows in every moving, frightening, moment.The Babadookwasn’t eligible for Oscar nominations for bureaucratic day-and-date release restrictions that are now defunct. An injustice for one of 2014’s best films, genre or otherwise.
Adam Sandler,Uncut Gems(2019)
JoshandBen Safdiemake perhaps the best, most urgent crime movies of our time. Following breakout hitGood Time(a superb vehicle forRobert Pattinson’s ever-expanding and chameleonic chops), the filmmakers delivered an even better film, a thriller about a charismatic family man and jeweler who isn’t above betting everything in a series of high-stakes gambles.
InUncut Gems, Sandler, best-known as the star of critically derided broad comedies likeThe Ridiculous 6or, shudder,Jack and Jill, builds on the dark brilliance fromPaul Thomas Anderson’sPunch Drunk Lovehere, playing an addicted person, an unstoppably destructive force.Uncut Gems' brilliance lies in the unexpected but fully believable ways the Safdies plot an uncontrollable, demoralized man’s inevitable downfall. Sandler is so staggering, explosive here the actor received a congratulatory call fromnone other thanDaniel Day-Lewis.
Mike Faist,West Side Story(2021)
Steven Spielberg’s update of the iconic musical opened to weak box office as omicron roared, but the film was adored by critics; now it’s safe to say this is the definitive version ofWest Side Story, electrifying to behold, and a deeper, richer take on the material thanRobert Wise’s classic 1961 picture.
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Among the most critical enhancements in Spielberg’s version (screenplay byTony Kushner) is the central bromance that makes the tragedy far more affecting.Mike Faist’s Riff is a fearsome but not entirely unsympathetic antagonist. The actor has a beautiful tenor and a stunning physicality that says more than words. The film’s seven Oscar nods should have been at least eight.
Jennifer Lopez,Hustlers(2019)
A lamentable oversight. This much is true aboutJennifer Lopez, and has been for decades: despite being one of the most recognizable people on this planet, she can fully disappear into a good role, to an extent beyond any of her pop star peers. With the right script, acting is perhaps the greatest of the multihyphenate’s numerous talents.
InLorene Scafaria’s sensational box-office and critical hitHustlers, Lopez plays mother hen stripper Ramona Vega, who moonlights as a career criminal who operates by her own code of ethics that makes her surprisingly, even giddily sympathetic. Lopez commands the screen. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress virtually everywhere on the awards circuit, winning in several critics' circles, before a shocking, even scandalous and infuriating, Oscar snub.
Jake Gyllenhaal,Nightcrawler(2014)
Critics and audiences remember it all too well, whenJake Gyllenhaalwas snubbed for perhaps the most astonishing performance of a remarkable career, transforming into a disturbed sociopathic stinger who sells grisly media tips, inDan Gilroy’s hit neo-noir.
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As devious, soulless Lou Bloom, one of Hollywood’s hunkiest, most effortlessly charming actors looks hollowed out. He looks like he doesn’t sleep or blink, reptilian. Gyllenhaal’s work is complemented with a brilliant supporting turn fromRiz Ahmedas a desperate transient who will do anything for a buck. ThatNightcrawler’s performance work was overlooked in favor of shameless awards bait likeThe Danish Girlis a bad look for the Academy.
Kirsten Dunst,Melancholia(2011)
Kirsten Dunst finally received her first Oscar nod this year, for a harrowing turn inJane Campion’sThe Power of the Dog. It’s more than a little eyebrow-raising that one of the most reliable actors of her generation is just now getting recognition. She’s always been terrific, often better than whatever she’s in, since herInterview With the Vampirebreakthrough at age 11.
InLars von Trier’s epic sci-fi dramaMelancholia, Dunst plays a clinically depressed young woman who’s about to get married, as a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth. Dunst’s foil is Von Trier regularGainsbourg. The performers play sisters whose fears, desires and respective wellbeing are like yin and yang, as the world is about to end.Melancholiais a bold, viscerally powerful career highlight for director and star.
Toni Collette,Hereditary(2018)
Ari Aster’s horror drama about a family reeling from grief, and perhaps more broadly about fate and inevitability, was a box-office hit that divided some audiences but garnered praise across the board, including enthusiasm from none other thanMartin Scorsese.
Hereditarylives and breathes on the shoulders ofToni Collette, who gives one of the best performances of the 21st century as a matriarch who’s losing every singe marble, one by one. It’s devastating, scary and darkly comic.
