By the time the year comes to a close, everyone's going to be calling Oscar Isaac a breakout star for his part in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is quite frankly ridiculous. Not in that his performance as X-Wing pilot Poe Dameron will be anything less than excellent, but that he's been one of the most consistent screen actors for the past few years. He wowed in the Coen's Inside Llewyn Davis as the titular folk singer willing himself into a rut and flirted with the relativity of amorality in The Two Faces Of January, but his standout role thus far came in A Most Violent Year. His Abel Morales is a character at once familiar and new. By background stereotypical gangster (his origin is a few minor details away from Tony Montana), he strives to toe the straight and narrow, making a name for himself without diving into the muck that plagues 1981 NYC. Alternatively troubled and confident, it's never fully clear just how safe and in control Abel ever is. It's not just Isaac's show though. J. C. Chandor's third film solidifies him as the most versatile up-and-coming talent in American cinema; after market crash drama Margin Call and one-man survival thriller All Is Lost, his subversion of the idealistic rug-pull of Goodfellas shows there's no genre he can't embody and twist with expert precision.
