Paul Raci (Sound of Metal)
In Sound of Metal, Riz Ahmed gives a powerhouse performance as a musician struggling to cope with a sudden loss of hearing, but it’s impossible not to be equally struck by co-star Paul Raci. As Joe, a counselor who leads a community for deafened recovering addicts, his performance throws Ahmed’s furious turn into sharp relief. Against the acute angst of Ahmed’s Ruben, Raci emanates a sense of warm authority that is immediately soothing, both to us and to Ruben. Before we even know that Joe has been through something similar -— he’s a Vietnam War veteran who lost his own hearing as suddenly as Ahmed’s character — we recognize him as someone uniquely placed to help shepherd Ruben through this watershed moment in his life.
Worldly wisdom is an easy quality to over-do, but Raci — a former addict, Vietnam veteran, musician and son of Deaf parents himself — gives a performance so naturalistic and credible that we can’t help but feel Joe’s hard-earned erudition is the actor’s own. Equally, Joe’s compassion, as firm as his authority, feels like the result of genuine experience: the kind of empathy you pick up because of your own tough trials, not in spite of them.
The un-showy sincerity of his work here is exactly why the moment Ruben disappoints Joe is one of the movie’s most devastating, with Raci’s measured response imparting a deep sense of gravity to the scene. Having been largely consigned to bit parts in a screen career that stretches back to the ‘80s, his work here is a testament both to the power of casting that utilizes actors’ life experiences and to Raci’s own formidable talents.
Bukky Bakray and Kosar Ali (Rocks)
On paper, Rocks’ story of a fifteen-year-old girl prematurely forced to parent her kid brother after their mother takes off doesn’t sound like it would leave much room for joy. In actual fact, Rocks is full of humor and optimism, both qualities that it draws from its largely non-professional cast of real young Londoners, who collaborated with the writers and directors to craft this naturalistic film.
Of these performers, Bukky Bakray as the titular character and Kosar Ali as her best friend Sumaya are chiefly responsible for leavening the film into the joyous and hopeful love letter to friendship that it is. Separately, they are real finds for casting director Lucy Pardee, but together, they are magic.
Their chemistry is some of the most natural you’ll see this year because it’s genuine: they first met in an acting workshop set up for the film, and instantly took to each other. Unhampered by a script (much of the dialogue was improvised), it’s immensely enjoyable to watch them trade off-the-cuff repartees or goof off in class together, particularly because it seems like Bakray really is reacting to Ali’s gift for comedy.
There’s an equally powerful sense of realism to their fraught moments, too, particularly when the burden of caring for her brother (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu, another one to watch) begins to weigh heavy on Rocks. Bakray layers Rocks’ desperation underneath a cool shell, but Ali’s Sumaya can see what everyone else misses, and we believe in her perceptive abilities because these actors have crafted such a credible intimacy between their characters.
Their performances deserve as much credit as the filmmakers do for Rocks’ emotional rawness and its anti-depressive qualities. Ali has signaled directorial ambitions of her own, but whether they continue to work in front of the camera or choose to move behind it, what is certain is that she and Bakray will enrich any project they put their hands to.
What’s next for Bakray: Self-Charm
Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden)
It’s not just Martin Eden’s anachronistic layering of ‘80s disco music over grainy black-and-white documentary footage that makes Pietro Marcello’s adaptation of Jack London’s novel feel like such a lively period epic. Playing the title character, Luca Marinelli invigorates every scene he’s in. He begins as the guileless Martin, a Neapolitan sailor who sets out on a pursuit of formal education to realize his dream of becoming a writer and marrying the middle-class girl with whom he’s fallen in love (Jessica Cressy). With hands like dictionaries and shoulders so wide they intimidate door-frames, Marinelli uses his stone-hewn physique to bring the same vigorous stamina to Martin’s furious writing and devouring of books as he does to scenes of manual labor.
Marinelli’s early scenes are a swoon-worthy beginning that throws back to the romanticism and effortless screen enchantment of Golden Age dreamboats, but the film’s final act sees him swerve into something like the cynical gear of a New Hollywood star. When literary success fails to quench his ambition, Martin becomes a sour, jaded shadow of his former self, a la the corrupted Dorian Gray. Given our earlier seduction, we can’t help but take Martin’s decline hard, a reaction that speaks to Marinelli’s captivating powers in both registers. With a performance this ambidextrous (plus a brooding turn in the action thriller The Old Guard) under his belt this year, Marinelli marks himself out as a future screen fixture.
What’s next: Diabolik
Mariana Di Girólamo (Ema)
Calling Mariana Di Girólamo’s jaw-dropping performance in Ema a breakout seems too muted. She nearly set the Venice Film Festival on fire in 2019 with her experimental reggaeton dance, platinum slick back, and give-no-fucks attitude. She plays Ema, the center of the film and one half of a relationship that’s crumbling in the Chilean mountainside after a traumatic adoption experience.
One part grieving mother, another part revolutionary, part street-rat, and a third part dance prodigy, Ema flaunts an urban guerrilla fashion sense and brilliantly twisted mind as she tears through the world around her as if all the elements and people were bent to her will. Girólamo is utterly irreplaceable in the role, knowing exactly how to woo, disturb, impress, and garner empathy the way Ema needs to in order to keep viewers on their toes in one of the wilder narratives on film in recent memory. – Luke Hicks
What’s next: La Verónica
Related Topics: 2020 Rewind
