Nothing for Armie Hammer, nothing for Michael Stuhlbarg. WTF?? 
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/movies/michael-stuhlbarg-call-me-by-your-name-shape-of-water.htmlIt’s Time to Take a Serious Look at Michael StuhlbargBy ADAM COOK JAN. 19, 2018
During awards season, a handful of performances from the past year become the only ones we talk about, leaving the rest draped in shadow. If there were a Most Valuable Per Minute of Screen Time award, surely Michael Stuhlbarg’s name would be the one on everyone’s lips.
Since his breakthrough lead performance in the Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man” (2009), Mr. Stuhlbarg, a Juilliard graduate who made a name for himself in New York theater, has been cast only in minor roles in movies, albeit by major directors. He’s probably best known to viewers for his recurring TV characters on “Boardwalk Empire” and “Fargo.”
Now Mr. Stuhlbarg, 49, is enjoying a midlife big-screen breakout, effortlessly elevating everything he appears in. He had a standout year in 2017 with supporting performances in three major awards contenders: “Call Me by Your Name,” “The Post” and “The Shape of Water.” But is he getting his due? While some critics’ groups have given him prizes, he wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe, and it remains to be seen if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will follow suit.
Far from your typical Hollywood leading man, Mr. Stuhlbarg nevertheless is making a strong case for juicier parts as he quietly steals scenes in acclaimed films opposite more decorated performers.
Here are five reasons to take a closer look at Michael Stuhlbarg:
Hugo (2011)Mr. Stuhlbarg proved to be the perfect vessel for Martin Scorsese’s infectious expression of cinephilia when he played Rene Tabard, a French film scholar who helps the titular hero uncover the past of a toy shop owner who turns out to be the pioneering director George Méliès (Ben Kingsley). When Tabard recounts a childhood visit to a Méliès film set, Mr. Stuhlbarg’s narration establishes a bittersweet but reverential tone. His big, bearded grin as he compliments Méliès’s perennial leading lady, Jeanne D’Alcy — “You are as lovely now as you were in the movies” — could have been just a touching highlight of this charming ode to the history of cinema, but he plays the scene with such delicate admiration that when D’Alcy’s eyes well up, it is difficult not to do the same.
Lincoln (2012)Here is a testament to Mr. Stuhlbarg’s ability to create unforgettable characters with limited screen time. Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” has a bloated ensemble cast that leaves several heavy-hitting thespians on the sidelines for much of its duration. Mr. Stuhlbarg makes just three brief appearances as Congressman George Yeaman, a wild card in the fight to pass the 13th Amendment, thus abolishing slavery. In a scene opposite none other than Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln, Mr. Stuhlbarg hardly has any dialogue as he listens to the president’s impassioned plea. He does so much with his facial expressions — he would have been a great silent actor, though with his skills, he could have excelled in any era of screen acting — and his visibly tormented inner conflict plays off Lincoln’s dignified confidence. Finally, when Yeaman casts his vote, spontaneously springing to his feet, Mr. Stuhlbarg’s orgasmic “Aye!” serves as one of the film’s most triumphant gestures.
Trumbo (2015)A profound misfire, this biopic is a dramatically inert attempt to pay tribute to the blacklisted screenwriters caught up in the Red Scare. Its single stroke of genius is the casting of Mr. Stuhlbarg as the actor Edward G. Robinson. Robinson’s Communist sympathies knocked him off Hollywood’s A-list, prompting him to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee. Robinson was an unlikely leading man whose average-joe appearance and earnestness make him a comparable presence to Mr. Stuhlbarg, but here Robinson is at his most vulnerable after he betrays his peers and is plagued by regret in later years. He feeds excuses like “I did what I had to do” and “I didn’t give them anything they didn’t already have” to Bryan Cranston’s Dalton Trumbo, but the look in Mr. Stuhlbarg’s eyes conveys the story of a haunted man with a level of nuance and emotion that stands out from the rest of the film.
The Shape of Water (2017)With Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer credited ahead of him, Mr. Stuhlbarg again manages to take a minor role and make it his own. In this Cold War fantasy romance between a cleaning woman and the mysterious amphibian man at the laboratory where she works, he plays Dr. Robert Hoffstetler, a scientist who is also a Russian spy. Though he never gives off the air of swing-for-the-fences method acting, Mr. Stuhlbarg has said that his process includes a lot of preparation to understand the psychology of his characters (he even keeps the details in order with a color-coded notebook). Sometimes his inspiration is how someone looks, in this case a picture of Peter Lorre that he stumbled upon, he explained to ScreenCrush. That’s a telling choice as the malleable Lorre could pivot quickly from menacing to lovable and that’s precisely what Mr. Stuhlbarg does here, taking full advantage of a character who is not what he seems. The film’s most riveting dilemma is that facing Hoffstetler: He’s torn between his morality and his country, which has asked him to kill the amphibian man. Mr. Stuhlbarg adds an extra dimension of intrigue and emotional range to this highly praised fairy tale.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer are deservedly two of the year’s most-talked-about actors for their turns in this moving gay coming-of-age romance, but Mr. Stuhlbarg, as Mr. Chalamet’s father, delivers the showstopper in “Call Me by Your Name.” In a soliloquy that may stand as the most stirring single scene of last year — one that prompted the singer-songwriter Frank Ocean to proclaim Mr. Stuhlbarg his “new dad” — the parent has a tender talk with his son following a discreet heartbreak. It’s a moment that deepens his character and shifts the focus from the blossoming young man to someone whose own matters of the heart have left him forever changed. “You had a beautiful friendship. Maybe more than a friendship. And I envy you.” Mr. Stuhlbarg delivers these poignant words with great sincerity and pathos, opting for naturalistic restraint where others would have telegraphed the emotions. Mr. Chalamet’s tearful reaction is in sync with the audience’s. With a remarkable display of unconditional love in an all-too-rare portrayal of a parent’s acceptance of their child’s sexuality, Mr. Stuhlbarg’s graceful conviction makes this movie moment immortal.
Topic: Armie Hammer & Timothée Chalamet find love in Call Me By Your Name (2017) (Read 896653 times)