Oscars 2019: 13 Biggest Acting Snubs
3. Joaquin Phoenix (You Were Never Really Here)
Phoenix re-cemented his status as one of the bravest and most daring performers in Hollywood this past year with an all-around unconventional yet engrossingly effective lead performance in Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here.
The film is a beautiful bit of cinematic poetry, opting to consistently allow its audience to meditate in the meaning of the thematically-charged visuals rather than beating them over the head with exposition. Ramsay's directorial choices and brave and perfectly utilize Phoenix's unique abilities.
Playing Joe as a PTSD-addled veteran, Phoenix's performance is solemn and reserved, with him only getting a handful of lines of dialogue throughout the whole film. Yet he conveys so much through his physicality alone. Phoenix gained weight for the performance and result is a hulking husk of a man who is able to tell say more with a single movement of his shoulder than most screenwriters can in several pages.
For this writer's money's worth, Phoenix's most impressive bit of acting in the whole film comes near the end when he discovers that Nina has escaped on her own, slitting Williams' throat. Phoenix breaks down, tearing off his shirt and fully releases the overwhelming rage and sadness that has been repressed within his entire performance and it is alarmingly resonant.