The Morning: The weirdest, wildest performances of the year

Plus, Ukraine, Aleksei Navalny and first ladies.

View in browser|nytimes.com Continue reading the main story February 19, 2024 Good morning. On this holiday Monday, my colleague Wesley Morris, a cultural critic, takes over the newsletter to talk to you about movies. — David Leonhardt By Wesley Morris Critic at Large We're also covering Ukraine, Aleksei Navalny and first ladies. Top left to bottom right: Paul Giamatti, Viola Davis, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling.  Seacia Pavao/Focus Features, Ana Carballosa/Amazon Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros. Best, weirdest, wildest They call the annual parade of prizes for art "award season." It lasts for months and reliably culminates in somebody standing on a stage saying "thank you" (or sometimes "no thank you"). Meanwhile, we at home might understand that we're looking at a winner, but almost never do we know why they've won. Lots of hardware, no citation. So, since its inception, The New York Times Magazine's Great Performers issue has tried to be enlightening about what makes certain good acting stand out. This year, we went in a different, deeper, slightly weirder direction by identifying a specific aspect of a piece of acting (a gesture, a facial expression, a back; how good somebody's performance was in a car, on a phone, in a group). On its own, that one element might be a singular achievement, but it also helps explain why the rest of a performance is so impossible to forget. Here are some highlights. Best Acting Above the Nose: Paul Giamatti, "The Holdovers" If a middle-aged actor has ignored the call to seek facial rejuvenation — if his entire face still works — special attention will be paid. Even then, who but Giamatti could use his face to travel from indignity to indignation with a mere narrowing of the eyes, from resting to rage? Paul Hunham, the fallen prep-school teacher he plays in "The Holdovers," slouches his way through the film, his quiver stocked with embitterment and tweedy hauteur. The movie puts Hunham's distasteful, explosive qualities to moral, altruistic ends, and you can measure the emotional magnitude of his righteousness by the creases, lines and squiggles that striate Giamatti's forehead. What he's after is richer than plain fury. Yes, he can give you Vesuvius. But here, in the most deeply inhabited, most sharply etched use to which that brow has yet been put, Giamatti has also located Lake Placid and charts a course toward it. Best Acting on a Landline: Matt Damon, Viola Davis and Chris Messina, "Air" The kick of a memorable phone sequence comes from the pleasure an actor has obviously found in the yakking. "Air" is set in 1984, when the landline still ruled telecom. Damon spends the movie neck-cradling a handset and, if Messina is howling at him on the other end, holding it at a comical distance and grimacing. Messina is playing Michael Jordan's ulcerous agent; Damon's character works for Nike. Messina screams into his phone's transmitter as if Damon were trapped deep inside. When Damon is on the phone with Davis (playing Jordan's mother), he holds it very close to his head, as if her voice were pain relief. Davis's grip implies delicacy and, because every phone call in "Air" is a negotiation, full commitment to the firmness of her terms. Best Gonzo Performance: Emma Stone, "Poor Things" It doesn't feel good saluting actors for courage. Courage is the whole job. But if you're playing an adult corpse and the corpse is reanimated with the brain of an infant and the reanimated, baby-brained corpse has to not only learn to remain upright, grip objects, feed itself and speak but also find a way of conveying to an audience the development of those faculties — in gradients! — well … then you are still only in acting class. However, if you're Emma Stone doing corpse work, the technique required to go from lumpen to living gets a magic wand's ting. And still the movie needs you to apply a comedian's sensibility — to every step, flub, bite and orgasm. On your way from savant to simpleton to sophisticate, you have to make every thought, every experience feel like an epiphany. You have to be ravished. Yet you have to ravish us. And you've got to have the courage — yes, there it is, the courage — to look ridiculous, powerfully ridiculous, as ravishment is achieved, to repossess it. And Emma Stone, you do. "Ridiculous" is yours now. Best Theft of a Movie: Ryan Gosling, "Barbie" For an audience to leave a movie theater convinced that one actor has pocketed the film implies that something went wrong, that a movie that wasn't about that character became about the actor playing that character. Famously: Anthony Hopkins and his almost 25 minutes of screen time in "The Silence of the Lambs." And now: Gosling — controversially, for stealing candy from a Barbie. He goes so hard at the joke that Ken is supposed to be telling on men: Strength is weakness, coolness is lame, knowledge is ignorance, twinkle is shadow. You watch Gosling's face for some sign of a wink, but he is committed. He could have played Ken as an idiot. But the comedy of the performance, the danger of the part and perhaps the point of the movie is that the actor playing this narcissist has installed in him a soul. Read the full story here, which includes nearly two dozen awards, as well as video clips that can elucidate the picks, even if you haven't seen the movies. Related: "Oppenheimer" won seven awards including best film and best director at the BAFTAs, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars. Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Ukraine and Russia Ukrainian forces training near the eastern front line last month. Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times Ukraine is running low on ammunition and troops and will probably have to cede more ground to Russia, which recently captured the eastern city of Avdiivka. Western leaders gathered in Munich. They discussed Vladimir Putin's ambitions and the unreliability of U.S. support. The Russian authorities detained at least 366 people, as thousands of Russians publicly mourned the death of the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny. Navalny's death has stunned Russian dissidents. 2024 Election Donald Trump Doug Mills/The New York Times Nikki Haley, J.D. Vance or Vivek Ramaswamy: See a list of potential contenders to be Donald Trump's running mate. Democrats are trying to motivate an anti-Trump coalition. Some liberals say they are feeling fatigued. Trump appeared at a footwear convention to promote Trump-branded sneakers. A New York judge recently ordered him to pay about $450 million in a civil fraud case. More on Politics Jill Biden and Melania Trump. Left, Maansi Srivastava/The New York Times; Erin Scott for The New York Times As first lady, Jill Biden wanted keep teaching, while Melania Trump wanted to go home. Both women expanded the possibilities for first spouses, Katie Rogers writes. Tom Suozzi's victory in a special House election ended a Republican winning streak on Long Island. Some Democrats believe it forecasts bigger gains there in the fall. Middle East The International Court of Justice began hearing arguments from about 50 countries on Israel's policies in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Israel does not recognize the court's jurisdiction. The U.S. said it struck more Houthi targets in Yemen, including an underwater drone. The American ambassador to the U.N. said the U.S. would not support an upcoming Security Council resolution that calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. International Grace Wangari Thuiya, who was killed in Nairobi in January. Natalia Jidovanu for The New York Times The killings of women in several African countries have set off protests and calls for governments to take action against gender-based violence. In Papua New Guinea, violence between more than a dozen tribal groups has been escalating. At least 26 people were killed in the highlands. A senior Pakistani official confessed to helping manipulate the results in the nation's recent elections. Business The Biden administration awarded $1.5 billion to a New York-based chipmaker, GlobalFoundries. Wall Street firms, faced with Republican attacks and potential legal risks, are backing out of their climate commitments. Other Big Stories Jim Chilton Erin Schaff/The New York Times Desperate migrants and cartel violence: Read this story of one family ranch in Arizona that illuminates what the border crisis actually looks like. Millions of people are under flood watches, mostly in California. Follow the latest weather updates. A Washington woman spent hours in a jail cell, accused of driving under the influence. A delayed medical check revealed her brain was bleeding. Opinions Part-time work has become the default at large employers like Walmart, saving money for the companies but making workers' lives worse, Adelle Waldman writes. Thousands of people in New York City collect cans to redeem them for cash. Raising the bottle deposit will help them pay the bills, Andrew Li writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss Kamala Harris and Fani Willis. Here are columns by David French on swatting and Zeynep Tufekci on long Covid. Discover more of the insight you value in The Morning. The Times is filled with information and inspiration every day. So gain unlimited access to everything we offer — and save with this introductory offer. MORNING READS Gerard Gousman  Jovelle Tamayo for The New York Times Equal parenting: More men are choosing to stay at home with their children. The stigma — and the notion that they're just filling in for Mom — may finally be fading. Not-so-golden era: Decades ago, female flight attendants couldn't get married or gain weight, and had to retire at 32. A key figure in a landmark lawsuit looks back. Metropolitan Diary: Tears without tissues. Lives Lived: Charles Hamilton popularized the term "institutional racism" and, with Stokely Carmichael, wrote a book in 1967 that was seen as a radical manifesto. He died at 94. SPORTS N.B.A.: The league's All-Star Game, despite the glamour, wasn't very competitive. One team scored 211 points. Men's college basketball: Unranked Ohio State defeated No. 2 Purdue, days after firing its head coach. The Red Storm: After St. John's loss to Seton Hall, coach Rick Pitino criticized his players and the teams' facilities. He said his first season as coach was "the most unenjoyable experience of my lifetime." Continue reading the main story ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS In Beijing. Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times Four nights in Beijing: In China, audiences are losing interest in Hollywood films and censorship of the arts has tightened, yet in Beijing last month, a four-night run of a stage adaptation of "The Shawshank Redemption" nearly sold out. The production, which features an all-Western cast, made changes to the script to get past Chinese censors, but some elements that may have been difficult to include in a contemporary Chinese play — like recitation of Bible verses and the sympathetic portrayal of prisoners — remained. Read more about the production here. More on culture Ye Fan for The New York Times A long rainbow-check scarf introduced by Acne Studios in 2019 has inspired a huge winter gear trend. Modeling's silver wave: Older women walked the runways at New York Fashion Week. See photos in The Wall Street Journal. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Christopher Testani for The New York Times Pound chicken breasts and marinate for a weeknight Chicken Saltimbocca. Improve your mood with better sleep. Adjust the amount of dish soap you use. Buy a refrigerator for your garage. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangrams were admonition, damnation, dominant, domination, intimidation, nondominant. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Continue reading the main story Editor: David Leonhardt Deputy Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Sean Kawasaki-Culligan, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ian Prasad Philbrick, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. 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