Subtlety isn’t always the Academy’s bait amidst fake teeth, fake noses, fat suits and more but sometimes a performance can seep through and live inside a viewer rather than demand to be let in from the outside.
There’s something about David Strathairn in A Little Prayer from Sony Pictures Classics that I think can do just that. Debuting at Sundance, SPC scooped it up quickly after its premiere, reuniting the studio with Angus MacLachlan, who wrote the screenplay for 2005’s Junebug, which earned Amy Adams her first Oscar nomination. In A Little Prayer, Strathairn plays Bill, a man who tries to protect his daughter-in-law (an incredible Jane Levy) when he discovers his son (Will Pullen) is having an affair, touching upon a variety of issues in a changing modern South, including a woman’s volition over her own body, war veterans grappling with PTSD, and the limits of patriarchal interference. While it may seem like the story is trying to cover a lot of ground – and it is – it nevertheless remains a thoughtful and contemplative examination and at the center is Strathairn’s nuanced performance, elegantly weaving faith and reality, right and wrong as he strains to keep the threads of his family’s life together.
As a previous Best Actor Oscar nominee (also from a 2005 film – Good Night, and Good Luck – no less), Strathairn is a respected veteran due for a triumphant return and if SPC plays its cards right, this is his ticket.
Here are my 2024 Oscar predictions in Best Actor for June 2023.
Other top contenders: Matt Damon – Air (Amazon Studios), Zac Efron – The Iron Claw (A24), Jamie Foxx – The Burial (Amazon Studios), Christian Friedel – The Zone of Interest (A24), André Holland – The Actor (NEON), Wagner Moura – Civil War (A24), LaKeith Stanfield – The Book of Clarence (Sony Pictures), Kôji Yakusho – Perfect Days (NEON)
Other contenders and/or possible 2024 releases:
Without U.S. distribution: Paul Bettany – The Collaboration (TBD), Ralph Fiennes – Conclave (TBD), Anthony Hopkins – One Life (TBD), Benoît Magimel – The Pot au Feu (TBD), Pierre Niney – The Book of Solutions (TBD), Jeremy Pope – The Collaboration (TBD), Aswan Reid – The New Boy (TBD), Peter Sarsgaard – Memory (TBD), Ben Whishaw – Limonov: The Ballad of Eddie (TBD)
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