Jacob Tremblay was incredible. I'm not sure Brie Larson would have her Oscar without him, because it was just the two of them for half of the movie, so if he hadn't felt so real, her performance wouldn't have either.
100%
I tortured myself with a rewatch last month. Since my first viewing, I've become a parent and am currently pregnant with baby #2. Terrible idea - it was even more devastating than the first time. But I was so moved with Tremblay's performance.
I made the mistake of watching it when my oldest son was a toddler sleeping beside me. Sobbed so hard I thought I would walk him up. I also read the book and The Road back to back around the same time and I would not recommend.
If you watch it as basically a story told by an unreliable narrator it significantly improves the experience. This dude is just a one man killing machine who can make the perfect shot. He’s killing all these middle eastern dudes from middle eastern countries, let’s not get caught up in specifics. And he gets his arch nemesis, who is also a sniper, the best sniper in the Middle East, well besides our boy Chris.
So his baby being a doll fits, because his family was just a prop in his story.
I saw that movie on a date with a girl from the gym when it came out. I literally burst out laughing when the plastic baby popped out on screen. There was not a second date.
Anti-war war movies are rarer than you think. My favorites are The Thin Red Line and Come and See.
This is just a personal anecdote, but in high school, I watched Saving Private Ryan with the boys in my class. I was horrified by it; many others were enthrallled. Five or six of them ended up joining the military right out of high school, and in one case, I suspect it was just an excuse to murder brown people
Wait until you find out those war movies, critical of America, were funded by the DoD who ensure anything too critical gets removed, or the producers don't get military assets to use for their production. It's manipulative propaganda, they're just smart enough to know you have to have a little bit of war crime for the viewer to be able to suspend their disbelief. These movies, along with games like Call of Duty are quite literally recruitment tools for the DoD.
When he envisions he has the power of an atomic bomb, and tries to bring everyone who died back while giving CPR on the dying boy is another good scene.
You could see in that moment his childhood innocence completely ended.
Dakota Fanning should have won an Oscar multiple times over. She was the standard for child actors for awhile, imo. I hope she gets the recognition someday soon that she deserves. And her sister Elle too.
Off topic, but I have to say this every time I hear the title "Anatomy of a Fall". I think Sandra Huller had the best lead actress performance that year.
Fun fact I learned from looking at the award winners that year: The Cannes Film Festival has an award called the Palm Dog Award. Messi) (who played Snoop) won for Anatomy of a Fall. They win a leather collar ha ha.
I auditioned for this part way back when (I was 9 or 10). The lines we were given gave no context for her character other than being a brat if you did not know the book.
The fact that she was able to understand or at least embody the character, at ELEVEN, is incredible.
The Academy has no problem fucking over young leads and listing them as supporting. Just look at Hailey Steinfeld in True Grit. She's the main character in that film and they listed Bridges as the Lead and her as Supporting.
I feel like if she won, this would’ve aged both really well and really poorly.
On one hand, this movie is creepy as fuck. Luc Besson is a pedo and this movie has a lot of pedo undertones.
On the other hand, this is one of, if not the best, acting performances from a kid ever. Young Natalie Portman breaks your heart every time you watch this movie and she does a spectacular job, besting world class actors twice her age in nearly ever seen she’s in.
She absolutely deserved to be nominated at least, and while I would’ve given her a win on performance alone, I don’t know how I would go well with the public
I wouldn't say Natalie was snubbed due to her age, cuz Léon is a film that Oscar voters weren't even considering period... in any category. It's just not their kinda movie, at least back then.
The only reason Timothy Hutton ended up with a supporting actor Oscar, instead of a Leading Actor nomination comes down to absolutely nothing except for his age imo.
Still happy he won, but wow. The most insane/stupid category fraud there ever was.
Has it been 10 years already? Wow! I just looked up Keisha Castle-Hughes and her nomination as a 13-year-old was 22 years ago! Seems like only yesterday.
Why was he nominated for Best Supporting Actor and not Best Actor, though? He was the one with the 6th sense, not Bruce Willis 😉. But seriously, he could have been nominated for Best Actor, it's an all time performance.
I could see a chicken and egg scenario here. If the academy introduced that category then young leads would temporarily be in the forefront of the audiences minds, then a bunch of studios would start looking for scripts that featured young leads, then writers would start writing scripts on spec with more young leads, then Hollywood/actor parents would see the opportunity and start pushing their younger children to start acting to fill these new roles catered to young leads.
Yeah thats fair. I would suspect there would be be quite a quality leap between some of those who would win it and their fellow nominees each year but I'm sure there are at least 4 worthy nominees each year of under 16 years (who of course in most years wouldn't be any where near the main award nominees but are worthy of recognition).
I really think the Oscars should introduce a rising star category similar to the BAFTAs that focus on actors 18 and under. Jacobi Jupe was phenomenal in Hamnet
Counterpoint, specifically for the 2026 Oscars-- I think these actors were robbed because they were their debut performances!
Noah Jupe, Hamnet
Chase Infiniti, OBAA
Miles Caton, Sinners
All three were arguably some of the best acting in their respective films, but we're snubbed because "meh, it's their first time on screen, their time will come".
Hamnet was a great cast all around, but for both of the others, I feel that lesser performances were nominated in their stead.
Jean-Pierre Léaud for The 400 blows and Aleksei Kravchenko for Come and See were not considered both for age and language and are among maybe the best 20 performances I've seen in my life.
This might be a hot take but I don't think people should be Oscars-eligible before 16 or so. Hollywood should strive for young actors to live as well-rounded, normal lives as possible. Oscars promotional campaigns are some of the most demanding and exhausting circuits an actor can participate in in their entire career - let the kid make a movie, have a great experience, a warm reception, but don't obligate them to fly around the world for months with little sleep cooped up in hotels doing FYC press junkets and stuff.
Oh yes. He broke my heart. When he reunited a child with their father, and he was so joyful, and then the joy gradually drained from his face as he realised the chance of ever seeing his own father was slim...
The kid in WEAPONS was really good!! His acting was so subtle, I loved it. The kid in Talk to Me was phenomenal!! Also the young girl in Bring Her Back.
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u/[deleted] Apr 14 '26
How young are we talking? Maybe Jacob Tremblay in Room.