The Great Performances of 2018 | Features
“I do this and that,” the thoroughly Westernized Ben tells Jong-su in explaining what he does for a living. “To put it simply, I play.” Yeun is quietly chilling, but he makes us want to play along. (Christy Lemire)
Hugh Grant as Phoenix Buchanan in "Paddington 2"
In “Paddington 2,” Phoenix Buchanan is an Actor with a capital A. Well, actually, he’s a has-been Actor. The capital A still applies, however, even when his thespianism has been reduced to doing stale commercials on the telly, or even worse, when it’s used to commit outright grand larceny. Because this guy lives for the performance, and he’s willing to do things the hard way simply for the sake of assuming or recreating a role. And Phoenix has plenty of former roles from which to pilfer because he’s running through the career of his portrayer, Hugh Grant. As he proved in “Florence Foster Jenkins,” Grant is ripe for self-parody, especially when it involves villainy of some sort. He played a washed-up actor in that film too, but any subtlety he had there has been replaced by gloriously broad gestures. Grant’s capacity for gigantic performances seems to run counter to his sheepish romantic comedy charmer bona fides, until you recall that this guy worked for Richard Curtis, Merchant-Ivory AND Ken Russell.
Grant turns everything he’s done before up to eleven, dressing up in various guises (including a nun) and constantly drawing attention to himself even when inconspicuousness would be wiser. Marvel at the blatantly obvious, smarmy fake charm he employs when sweet-talking the location of the pop-up book-slash-treasure map out of a trusting Paddington Bear. Watch the cruel glee that crosses his face before he disappears behind the puff of smoke that will frame his nemesis. Shake your head when Phoenix, faced with capture by Paddington’s caretaker, Mr. Brown, opts for an Errol Flynn-style swordfight just to show off his fencing credentials. Grant’s wonderful, go-for-broke performance isn’t camp because camp is accidental; everything Phoenix does is on purpose and for maximum effect. I mean, his evil plan to finance a one-man show requires an entire carnival, secret codes and a runaway train! A Kickstarter would have been easier, but it wouldn’t be dramatic enough for this attention junkie.
As funny as Grant is, he doesn’t let us forget he’s the bad guy here. Insatiable ego aside, he’s formidable enough to make us fear for Paddington’s well-being. And yet, when his comeuppance arrives, it’s a win-win for everyone involved. Paddington clears his name and, in a spectacular end-credits musical number, the jailed Phoenix gets the one thing he’s always wanted: a captive audience. Hugh Grant makes us believe he deserves it. (Odie Henderson)
Elsie Fisher as Kayla Day in "Eighth Grade"
A vulnerable, unselfconscious, funny performance from a young person is always worth celebrating—it's hard enough being thirteen without worrying about being thirteen on camera, and often we'll see an actor pretending to be a confident actor playing a role, and not one person trying on the life and times of someone else. Not so with Elsie Fisher. As Kayla, the insecure, lonely, loving and motivated girl at the center of Bo Burnham's wonderful "Eighth Grade," Fisher doesn't pretend to be confident. Instead, she shows us that Kayla does. The result is a performance that's both painful and painfully funny, one that explores the honesty that artifice reveals, and yanks the viewer through the movie screen, the webcam, the iPhone, and right into her life. If that alone were her accomplishment, Fisher's would be one of the best of the year. But allow us to blow your mind: every "um," every "like," every "yeah," and every awkward slip of the tongue is scripted, making Fisher's a performance of incredible technical precision as well as vulnerability. By film's end, Kayla is on the rise, and mark our words, Elsie Fisher is, too. (Allison Shoemaker)
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