Some Praise for Chase Infiniti and Jesse Plemons
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I know that the Oscar nominations came out about a week ago and a bunch of people and publications have done their own writeups on them. I know some have their "snubs and surprises", and others have their own way of saying the same thing. I don't really pour over whom or who did not get nominated. There's only a certain number of nominations that go out and only those people are who the voting committee gets to pick the nominees. That's just the way it is. But I do want to point out two people who, regardless of getting no nominations, I think people should seek out the movies they are in to watch some incredible work.
The first one I will focus on today is Chase Infiniti and the work she did in "One Battle After Another". It's no secret to anyone who reads my stuff that "OBAA" was my favorite movie of last year. It is one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time. The performances make the movie what it is in the long run, but Infiniti may have stolen the show for me. She was amazing. She shows up about halfway through the movie and when she is onscreen she is the best part of every scene. She goes toe to toe with each and every scene she's in with Leonardo DiCaprio. He plays her dad and she is so, so good as a brooding teenager having to deal with an overprotective and all the frustrations that come with all of that. The scene where her friends come to pick her up and DiCaprio has to deal with all of that is funny and relevant. That is how I imagine I will react when my daughter inevitably starts hanging out with kids I don't know. And as much as I relate to DiCaprio in this scene, Infiniti steals the show from him. And the whole thing between her and Sean Penn is simply wonderful. She is the most powerful one onscreen at that time and she owns the scene. And the whole finale with her and the car chase is one of the most amazingly shot scenes I've ever seen, and Infiniti does such good work and she barely has to say anything. Chase Infiniti stood above the crowd in a movie filled with stone cold stars and up and comers who did get Oscar nominations. She was so awesome and when the movie ended my first thought was how great the work she did in this movie and that I want to see what she does next more than anyone else in this superb movie.
The other performance I wanted to single out was Jesse Plemons in "Bugonia". Emma Stone was rightfully nominated, and if she were to win, that wouldn't shock me one bit. She is the driving force and lead actor of the movie and she is so reliable that I expect her to shine. Plemons is right there with her in this movie though. Stone and Plemons were in Yorgos Lanthimos' previous movie, "Kinds of Kindness". They did some good stuff in that movie, but that was also a very odd and disjointed movie. I liked it, but it was a tough watch and there was almost too much going on in it. "Bugonia" is a much more focused movie and Stone and Plemons only had to play one character. And they both nailed it. Plemons is so good at playing a quiet psychopath. My buddy I saw the movie with said to me that he may be a little too good at playing these types of characters and then we had a full on conversation about Plemons and if he really is like the people he plays in real life. In "Bugonia" he is your typical internet obsessed crazy person who "does their own research". He claims to know who and who is not an alien amongst humans. He drags his cousin along on his wild fantasy. He drags everyone down to his level. He is the main one behind the whole kidnapping and questioning of Stone's character. The way he talks and deals with Donny frustrated me to no end. He was manipulative and acted like what he was doing was for all of humanity, when it really it was all about him. But, in the end, maybe he was right. Plemons was so pathetic and destructive that you are meant to think he is nuts. And while he is, he did kind of know what was going down, he just went about it in the absolute wrong way. As for being psychotic, Plemons nailed that as well. The way he could just switch his crazy on and off was wild. He was truly all the way gone and Plemons showed that tenfold in this performance. I think he was up to Stone's level in this movie and they both did some incredible work.
That was all I wanted to say about these two performances. While they may have not been nominated for any Oscars, go seek out these movies for these performances if you haven't yet. It is some of the better work you will see and the performances will stay with you for a long, long while.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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