THB #249: Things I'm Loving

It’s been a very odd week. Quarterlies from Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery that just didn’t add up to very much (Disney, which will be more interesting, lands next week). A LOT of movies on my schedule… a couple new ones every day, which when not at a festival is a lot. It’s Los Angeles cold in Los Angeles (waking up to the high 40s), which is always weird, especially as it was in the 90s about 10 days ago. And some unexpected reunions with old friends in the industry… which is fun.

I’m still in the middle of it, with 2 more screenings today, more tomorrow, and a couple of big ones on Monday and Tuesday.

But when people ask, “What do you love?,” this week, I find myself going small, not wide.

Photograph: Maarten de Boer

I love Samantha Morton in She Said. I have mixed feelings about the movie and watching two of my favorite actresses/favorite human beings in lead performances that really don’t get a lot of dramatic range to work through is frustrating. But Samantha Morton, who I have felt was the greatest silent actor of her era going back to the In America/Morvern Collar/Minority Report days delivers a stunning performance in She Said. She is playing the real life Zelda Perkins, who was dead center in the early Harvey Weinstein assaults, sitting almost still, with a use of her voice worthy of the greatest Shakepearians, taking us through a full emotional cycle of her character and her story. She not only captures Ms. Perkins - who I only know through on-camera appearances - but she brings all the rage, all the frustration, all the self-doubt, all the guilt, and all the committment to changing things… in just a few minutes on screen. There are a few “Beatrice Straight in Network” performances this year. For me, so far, this is #1.

Morton has been relegated to shows like The Walking Dead and The Serpent Queen in recent years… and she was great on those. But there is a context. I haven’t seen The Whale yet, somehow. But this performance, in minutes, reminds us that she should be seen as we see Mark Rylance or Ralph Fiennes or Tilda Swinton… an actor who can change everything in a moment through a sheer will of performance.

By the way… She Said has an amazing cast. Another actress who I think the world of, Jennifer Ehle, is also amazing. And I can’t emphasize enough, Kazan and Mulligan do everything you could ask of them as actors. I have mentioned this phenomenon I am noticing lately before… where the performances are perfect, but the context of the rest of the film seems to limit how deeply they can effect us.

I’m loving Brian Tyree Henry in Causeway, which is now on AppleTV+. I mentioned the performance in an Oscar column, but the film is now available on Apple and it is worth your time.