<\/p>\n
As the 45th annual Telluride Film Festival begins to wind down, the landscape of lead acting Oscar contenders is beginning to materialize in the early days of the film awards season.<\/p>\n
On the actress side,\u00a0Nicole Kidman\u00a0is turning a lot of heads with her de-glammed performance in Karyn Kusama\u2019s uneven noir \u201cDestroyer.\u201d The film has been a bit divisive, but most agree that the 51-year-old Oscar winner delivers in a role completely unlike anything she\u2019s ever tackled. It\u2019s a true antiheroine, though, a character that could put some viewers off. But it\u2019s thrilling to see Kidman go to such a bold and dangerous place at this stage in her career.<\/p>\n
Fox Searchlight has at least a pair of possibilities, maybe a third if the reigning best-picture champ opts to widen the net for \u201cThe Favourite.\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019 outrageous period-piece comedy has critics going gaga (though that could fade somewhat if it becomes a love-it\/hate-it film in the season). The performances from\u00a0Olivia Colman,\u00a0Emma Stone\u00a0(receiving a tribute here at the fest) and Rachel Weisz are outstanding, but at the moment it appears Colman\u2019s uproarious depiction of Queen Anne is the leading contender. She\u2019s been rather universally declared the stand-out, but like her two co-stars, it\u2019s a role that could be perceived as supporting.<\/p>\n
If either of the other two ladies gets the upgrade, it would be Stone as Abigail Masham, one of the queen\u2019s intimate companions. The 29-year-old knows how to grab the spotlight when she\u2019s on camera, and indeed, that\u2019s what the film is about in some ways. Searchlight is leaving things open for the moment to see how these performances continue to land with audiences at the festivals, but if I were to wager an early bet, I\u2019d look for Colman to take center stage.<\/p>\n
Also from Searchlight is \u201cCan You Ever Forgive Me?,\u201d with\u00a0Melissa McCarthy\u00a0as author Lee Israel. Israel, who was struggling for work in the early \u201890s, found herself the most unlikely of criminals when she launched a campaign of forging (and stealing) intimate letters from famed writers like Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, then selling them at top dollar. Marielle Heller has made a charming film that expertly balances drama and comedy, and McCarthy delivers her best performance to date as the scorned and conflicted Israel. (Watch for Richard E. Grant in the supporting actor race as a rowdy friend and confidante.)<\/p>\n
Also worth mentioning is a pair of performances in foreign-film players: first-timer Yalitza Aparicio in Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s \u201cRoma\u201d and Joanna Kulig in Pawel Pawlikowski\u2019s \u201cCold War.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the lead actor arena, Robert Redford highlights an assortment of star players. His swan-song work in David Lowery\u2019s \u201cThe Old Man & the Gun\u201d could contend if that into-the-sunset narrative really takes hold. It\u2019s not that the performance really stands-out in his filmography \u2014 after all, it\u2019s built on the charm and charisma of so many of his other turns throughout the years \u2014 but it taps the nostalgia beautifully, and moreover, his chemistry with Sissy Spacek is too delightful to resist.<\/p>\n
In Damien Chazelle\u2019s \u201cFirst Man,\u201d Ryan Gosling tackles the role of astronaut Neil Armstrong with a kind of stoic ease. It\u2019s a bit more passive than the stuff that usually pops for Academy voters, but it\u2019s no less compelling. There are no \u201cOscar clip\u201d moments, but so much drive and grief and pain is happening beneath the surface. Co-star Claire Foy brings the electricity, though, and could be a better bet in supporting actress.<\/p>\n
Finally, director Jason Reitman wrangles with a number of zeitgeist-y themes in \u201cThe Front Runner,\u201d about politician Gary Hart\u2019s failed campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination of 1988. Hugh Jackman nails the role and all its na\u00efvet\u00e9 as Hart struggles under the spotlight of a press obsessed with his private dalliances.<\/p>\n