More than just a gracious gesture, Hawke’s statement is an important reminder about the art of cinema, something that can get lost in all the Oscars hype. Unlike the 10 slots for the Best Picture category, the acting categories only have five nominees, which means there’s less room for variety. And in a year that includes an glowing movie star performance from Michael B. Jordan in the blockbuster Sinners, veteran actor Leonardo DiCaprio being both captivating and pathetic in the thrilling One Battle After Another, and Timothée Chalamet cementing himself as one of the greats with his multifaceted work in Marty Supreme, there’s only room for two others.
Hawke is absolutely right to give those names praise, especially Plemons in Bugonia and Lee in No Other Choice.
Plemons has been doing fantastic work on screen for years, playing everything from the coldest killer in Breaking Bad to the biggest sweetheart in The Power of the Dog to a divorcee very concerned about Frito-Lay’s profit margins in Game Night. He seems to combine all those facets for Bugonia, in which he plays a seemingly good-hearted man who allows a family tragedy to drive him into a paranoid delusion. Even when he’s tormenting the CEO who insists is an alien (played by an always incredible, and Oscar-nominated, Emma Stone), we still sympathize with him.
Lee has an even longer and more varied filmography, even if most of it is in his native South Korea. he began working with Park Chan-wook with 2000’s Joint Security Area, playing a South Korean guard who strikes up a friendship with his Northern counterpart (Song Kang-ho) and, a few years later, showed up on American screens playing ninja Storm Shadow in 2009’s G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Lee’s American fanbase increased with Squid Game, in which he played the Front Man, and for voicing the monstrous Gwi-Ma in last year’s animated hit Kpop Demon Hunters. Even though his latest work with director Park, No Other Choice, pushes his character to desperate and murderous ends, Lee keeps him grounded, making him feel like a real person, no matter how outrageous his decisions are.
These are just two of the great performances that Hawke mentions, and even that list leaves out other incredible lead acting turns. There’s Joel Edgerton‘s taciturn take in Train Dreams, Vahid Mobasseri’s layered work in It Was Just an Accident, Liam Neeson poking fun at his screen person in The Naked Gun… the list goes on, far beyond five, far beyond even ten.
So while it’s fun to give attention to the five performances that got nominated for awards, Hawke is right to remind us that there’s so much more good acting out there, more than any one award could represent.
