10 Actors Who Gave Their Best Performances In Movies Nobody Saw
5. Carey Mulligan - Wildlife
Carey Mulligan rightly received rave reviews for her recent Oscar-nominated performance in Promising Young Woman, but she actually turned in her strongest work to date in an altogether slighter, more unassuming film a few years back.
In Paul Dano's excellent directorial debut Wildlife, Mulligan plays 1960s housewife Jeanette, who attempts to come to terms with her husband Jerry's (Jake Gyllenhaal) decision to take a low-paying job fighting a nearby forest fire.
Mulligan gives a masterfully controlled performance, subverting histrionic, awards-baiting cliches as she embodies a palpably anguished woman striving for a better life.
Though Mulligan's work was widely accepted to be the strongest of her career upon release, and she received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female lead, she failed to secure a buzzed-about Oscar nomination, and the film grossed just $3.7 million worldwide.
Despite releasing just three years ago, Wildlife came and went with barely a peep, and as celebrated as Mulligan's work was in Promising Young Woman, Wildlife is her most complete and persuasive performance to date.