Beyond The Spotlight: Unmissable Acting Masterclasses Of 2024

From the grief-laden subtlety of <em>Ghostlight</em> to the revolutionary courage in <em>The Seed of the Sacred Fig</em> these performances redefine brilliance in 2024.

Prahlad+Srihari

Dec 26, 2024

We are highlighting overlooked yet outstanding performances that deserve wider recognition.

AS WE ENTER LISTICLE SEASON the chorus appears settled on the standout performances of 2024. Nearly everyone has been raving about Adrien Brody in The Brutalist, Colman Domingo in Sing Sing, Daniel Craig in Queer, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley in The Substance, Mikey Madison in Anora, Natasha Lyonne in His Three Daughters, Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, and Ralph Fiennes in Conclave. Seeing as all the other publications have got the standouts covered, we thought we’d turn the spotlight on a handful of outstanding performances likely to get overlooked by awards bodies but deserving the attention of a wider audience nonetheless.

Léa Seydoux in 'The Beast'

In Bertrand Bonello’s time-hopping epic, Léa Seydoux is reincarnated three times: as an unhappily married pianist in 1910 Paris, as an aspiring actress in 2014 Los Angeles, and as a woman resistant to purging the emotional memories of past lives in an AI-driven 2044. Each time, her desire for connection (with incarnations of George MacKay) is foiled by some looming threat. The collective heartbreak of it all culminates in a wailing scream that echoes far beyond the confines of the film. It is an utterly luminous performance of loneliness and stricken longing. And the French star commands every frame she is in.

Keith Kupferer in 'Ghostlight'

The timeless words of Shakespeare serve as therapy and healing for a broken father in Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s quietly illuminating Ghostlight. Keith Kupferer’s Dan is a man in controlled grieving mode. But his barely contained rage suggests depths of agony he is too stubborn to acknowledge. Urged on by a pushy actor (an excellent Dolly de Leon), he joins a local production of Romeo and Juliet. Acting provides him an outlet to articulate his pain. It slowly changes him, compels him to drop his armour and allows him to be vulnerable. The choice of casting Kupferer alongside his own wife Tara Mallen and daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer gives the film’s portrait of a family in mourning a real weight.

Willa Fitzgerald in 'Strange Darling'

If awards bodies had any love for genre films, Naomi Scott (in Smile 2) and Nell Tiger Free (in The First Omen) would have been shoo-ins for hitting astonishing notes of terror. But if there was one performer who towered over even these two newly anointed scream queens by holding the screen and then some, it was Willa Fitzgerald in Strange Darling. When we first meet Fitzgerald’s The Lady in JT Mollner’s chiller, she is bruised and bloody, fleeing into the woods in a panic, with Kyle Gallner’s the Demon chasing after her with a rifle. We learn in time that it all started with an S&M encounter gone horribly wrong. Just as Mollner presents the chapters out of order in an attempt to overhaul our expectations, so does Fitzgerald with her performance within a performance, toggling between controlled and deranged. Which is quite fitting for a movie about the trap of preconceptions. Fitzgerald commits to a risky role with a defiant vehemence, giving it a certain coyness and cunning, a sense of knowing and mystery. Her work here is truly a revelation.

Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson in 'A Different Man'

2024 gave us two beauty-is-skin-deep movies about an actor opting for an experimental treatment to transform their appearance and eventually regretting it. One was Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance a gross-out horror movie. The other was Aaron Schimberg’s less heralded and more understated A Different Man, a meditation on duality anchored by two great performances from Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. Stan’s Edward is a wannabe actor with a facial deformity who wants to look like everybody else. But despite getting a treatment that does exactly that and a new name, his manufactured self-image falters when he meets Pearson’s Oswald, a man also with a severe facial deformity but who is everything that he isn’t: confident, amiable and comfortable in his own skin. Stan and Pearson play up the contrast in the way Ed and Oswald talk and move around spaces. It is incredible to watch Stan’s slow unravelling as Ed descends into a cycle of self-loathing. But the film would not have worked without Pearson’s magnetic presence.

Soheila Golestani in 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig'

Mohammad Rasoulof’s latest is powered by the righteous indignation of women living under Iran’s oppressive regime and fighting its morality police. When investigating judge Iman (Missagh Zareh) loses his gun and his authority over his family, he uses the state’s iron-fisted tools and tactics to restore the status quo, subjecting his wife (Soheila Golestani) and two daughters (Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki) to shakedowns, interrogations, solitary confinement and psychological warfare. In a daring film, Golestani’s performance may be its most fearless. As Najmeh, she distils the fears of a woman who finds herself torn between her role as an unquestioning regime-loyal wife and her maternal instincts to protect her daughters. If Najmeh appeases her husband, it is partly to keep his worst impulses in check. But as a domestic crisis escalates to a home invasion thriller, we can watch the inner conflict register in her eyes. After making the film in secret, Rasoulof and many of his cast and crew were forced into exile in Europe. But Golestani was reportedly unable to leave Iran because she had been arrested during the Mahsa Amini protests, all of which makes the film’s indictment of Iran’s theocracy all the more damning.

Honourable mentions: Kinds of Kindness gives Jesse Plemons the rare opportunity to take on lead roles that played to his wacky strengths. Julianne Nicholson delivers a sensitive, layered, radiant performance in Janet Planet Annie Baker’s summery mother-daughter portrait. It isn’t an exaggeration to say Good One rested almost entirely upon a breakthrough performance from Lily Collias. Girls will be Girls and All We Imagine as Light are exquisite showcases for Kani Kusruti. Rebel Ridge provides a strong case for Aaron Pierre as the next big action star – and a soulful one at that. Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane make for the most endearing screwballs in Between the Temples.