20 Best & Worst Movies From 2017 Oscar Nominees
3. Ruth Negga
Best: Loving (2016)
If someone else wins Ruth Negga's category this year, it will have to be a hell of a performance, because she is brilliant in Jeff Nichols' politically charged romance. And while it is deeply invested in grand ideas and important issues, it is that romance that really matters, buoyed by the chemistry between the two excellent leads.
They play the characters as real humans invested in their feelings, rather than political totems, and there is an art in the craft of the performances that is deeply affecting and moving.
Worst: The Samaritan (2012)
The Samaritan is the worst kind of Samuel L Jackson phone-in, with a cliched plot about an old con trying to get out of the business and sucked back in despite meeting a new, interesting person promising hope and reinvention.
The film isn't wholly awful, but Negga is no more than damsel in need of protection in a plot that moves like cement until a twist it probably imagined would be more redemptive. But it just inspires odd, slightly distasteful questions.