A sunny shout-out to 70 winners at the Cannes Film Festival to celebrate the 70th event which is just around the corner – in no particular order.
Completely forgotten by AMPAS, and many other critics and awards groups alike, our great Brit Timothy Spall was awarded the Best Actor prize for his terrific, quirky, devastating central role in Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner in 2014. I know we are not far away geographically, as if this has anything to do with it, but British actors have not done as well as winners at Cannes as they have with the Oscars (I mean, Daniel Day Lewis has three of those bald statuettes). So, Mike Leigh again deserves some of the credit, not just for Naked, but for the irredeemable work his does with his actors and actresses. If you tried to pick a favorite Leigh performance you would lose yourself after using all fingers and both thumbs on each hand to tally them. David Thewlis though stands on his own here, a giant of his own making. He rants and implores Leigh’s words on screen like a natural, convincing nut-case. Arrogant declarations and theories of apocalyptic grandeur or the world we live in now. Thewlis gives Johnny a sarcastic, over-bearing presence, whether likeable or not you can not help but watch and listen.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzM-KxRa9Es?rel=0&w=640&h=360]
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