Welcome to MovieJawn’s Split Decision! Each installment, Ryan will pose a question to our staff of knowledgeable and passionate film lovers and share the responses. Chime in on Twitter, Facebook, our Instagram, with your pick!

This week’s question: What are your favorite performances from a 2022 movie?

Keke Palmer in Nope

Kiki Palmer’s central performance in Jordan Peele’s Nope that elevated her into the heavens, like the pull of a UFO tractor beam. In Peele’s third film, she plays Emerald, one of a pair of siblings mourning the mysterious death of their ranch-owning patriarch who conceives of the idea of capturing a UFO on film to propel herself into the fame and renown she’s craved. Palmer imbues Emerald with pathos and heart, turning what could be a self-centered caricature into a protagonist to root for, so enjoyable on screen that she steals the narrative by film’s end from Daniel Kaluuya’s introverted hero. Bright and engaging, she’s a joy whether she’s brazenly fronting out swiping a fake horse from their neighbour or doing a last-ditch motorcycle run against a terrifying threat, easily making her one of the most delightful characters of the year. –Chris Haigh, Contributor

Cate Blanchett in Tár 

Blanchett gives a tour de force performance that shows exactly what makes Tár tick. It is simply impossible to take one’s eyes off the actress during the film’s entire 157 minutes because she swaggers through Tár with such gusto and bravado it is bewitching. Blanchett, in an Oscar-worthy turn, relishes her every scene, especially an amusing moment where she plays the accordion. Her face is a malleable canvas that conveys so much emotion — haughtiness, exasperation and exhaustion, adoration and adulation, as well as absolute rage and pain — sometimes within the same scene. Watching her listen to musicians’ auditions and express agony or ecstasy, or have a meltdown in an airplane bathroom, Tár’s every emotion is visible. Arguably, she can be at her most expressive when she is poker faced. A scene of Tár threatening her young daughter’s bully at school reveals how she is at once both in control and out of control. -Gary Kramer, Staff Writer

Jonathan Tucker in Palm Trees and Power Lines

This movie played Sundance and hasn’t been picked up for distribution, as far as I know. This should be a crime. Joe Biden should put everybody who owns a distribution company in prison. The film, written and directed by Jamie Dack, stars Lily McInerny as a teenager who, like every teenager, thinks she’s more mature than she actually is. Jonathan Tucker plays a man twice her age. He seduces and grooms her and the movie follows their incredibly ghastly relationship. It’s rough. It is a brutal movie. And a big part of the reason it works, besides Dack and McInerny’s work, is that Tucker never plays his character as a creep. The film would be easier to watch if it was about somebody like, say, Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones. You could write the film off. But Tucker is playing a “nice guy” who, in a romcom, wouldn’t have to take advantage of a high school kid. He’s a realistic piece of trash. The most chilling part of a chilling movie comes when McInery’s character says sunsets are cheesy and Tucker’s character convinces her to get excited about them. In a story about two adults, it would be played like he was opening her eyes up to the world. In a story about an adult preying on a child, it’s him playing innocent to catch her off guard and snare her. It makes my stomach turn. And that’s because Tucker approaches the role in a way most would never think to. –Alex Rudolph, Contributor

Correction: Momentum Pictures is releasing the film on March 3rd, 2023.

Mia Goth in Pearl

Whatever you think of the film itself (I loved it), you can’t deny that Mia Goth really knocked it out of the park. Unlike X, the earlier pairing of Goth with director Ti West from 2022, Pearl rests entirely on Goth’s shoulders. I haven’t seen it since the theater, but I struggle to think of a single scene she’s not in. This is quite a contrast to her work in the ensemble cast of X, and a significant challenge for any actor. It’s genre work, meaning she’s unlikely to receive any awards recognition, but her performance could go toe-to-toe with any nominee. –Clayton Hayes, Staff Writer

Bill Nighy in Living

A remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 masterwork Ikiru would not work unless you have a lead actor who can channel quiet dignity underlined with a borderline apocalyptic sense of loss. No one else could play this role like Nighy does here. He’s always been one of those supporting actors you love who has never been given the spotlight, and he puts on a masterclass in acting in this role. Nighy’s work here is all subtlety, told through the most minute of gestures, the way he carries himself, and the way he can bring life to his stony face with the utmost amount of delicacy. –Ian Hrabe, Staff Writer

Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin and Kristen Stewart in Crimes of the Future

These are my two favourite performances of the year, and it’s for the same reasons - they are both completely surprising and unpredictable at every turn. Their physicality, and their line deliveries of absurd, surreal dialogue are never boring or expected. Their characters both have something in common too, in that Keoghan’s Dominic has a big crush on Siobhan (Kerry Condon), and Stewart’s Timlin clearly has a fascination with Viggo Mortensen’s Saul Tenser. Stewart approaches this with a breathless, stuttering quality to her line readings, speaking in scattered bursts that force their way out of her clenched jaw. There’s also an unforgettable scene where she is overcome and puts her fingers in Mortensen’s mouth. 

Keoghan delivers McDonagh’s lines perfectly - his accent of course matching their lyrical quality. When he has supper at Padraig and Siobhan’s cottage and comes out with “touche” - a word they never would have expected him to know, or when he finally goes for it with Siobhan and ends it on the heartbreaking “well, there goes that dream” - Keoghan’s naivete and innocence just shine through. He comes across as much younger and dumber than he really is and delivers a perfect ‘village idiot’ who has never left his isolated island. Another great acting moment from Keoghan is when Padraig reveals that he tricked a man into leaving the island by telling him his Daddy has been run over by a bread truck. Dominic looks crushed as he realizes that the one nice man on the island isn’t kind after all. These two scene-stealing supporting performances are the best of the year - both unhinged in different ways, but completely compelling and make absolute sense in the worlds they are in. Both tune-in to difficult dialogue and characterization, that not everyone could pull off - but they nail it.–Fiona Underhill, Contributor

Alan Cumming in My Old School

We’re already familiar with actors taking on the roles of real people in dramatic films based on true events. This was the original intent, many years ago, when there were plans (ultimately scrapped) to film the story at the center of the documentary My Old School. But I think the documentary was ultimately the best way to tell it. Though this form of filmmaking isn’t one that often yields memorable performances (we’ve all seen cheesy and bland re-enactments in lesser films), My Old School is a welcome exception. Alan Cumming’s performance, lip-synching to the words of “Brandon,” the film’s central subject, is captivating and complements the mystery of the strange and fascinating tale the film weaves. I can only imagine how difficult it would have been to emote and move to the precise timing of someone else’s voice and mannerisms, but Cumming does it seamlessly. His performance as Brandon feels authentic and fits right in with the dynamic appearances of the other real teachers and former students interviewed in the doc, who all bring an enthusiasm and humour to their appearances. It also goes well with the film’s exploration of real-world performances, and how people – especially Brandon – perform in their daily lives. I was already a fan of Alan Cumming before this film, but my admiration of his talent, his expressiveness, has only grown with this addition to his filmography. – Katharine Mussellam, Contributor

Taylor Russell in Bones and All

To star in a film alongside the It Boy Timmy Chalamet and have my eyes tied to you is an impossible task that even Saiorse Ronan or Florence Pugh in Little Women (2019) weren’t able to complete. In Bones and All, Taylor Russell commands the screen like no other actor in 2022. I’m a big “read the book before seeing the movie” kind of person, and read Bones and All in one sitting, finishing in the parking lot of the theater on opening night of the film. The book was fantastic, but nothing could have prepared me for the life that Russell brought to Maren. Despite its gruesome narrative, Russell manages to anchor the film in empathy and realism, a tall task for a role that requires her to perform acts of cannibalism. Maren is a soft-spoken social outcast, but Russell portrays her with unbounded nuance. She’s shy but ridiculously street-smart, navigating life on the margins with caution and savvy; she’s approachable but reserved, experiencing a compelling and heartbreaking romance. Russell’s depictions of Maren’s cannibalism display the vast spectrum of her range, emotionally cycling from restraint, unbridled pleasure, then immense guilt for what she’s just done, followed by intimate moments of humanity, love, and a very real and visceral sense of what it’s like being a young woman growing up in an inhospitable world. To me, Russell manages to portray a lot of what coming-of-age leads often try and fail to do, even while engaging in literal cannibalism. A lot of people will be scared off from this film because of its content, and for some reason the recent hate the film is receiving online, but this film is the most romantic film of 2022, and Russell is a star that I cannot wait to see flourish. –Billie Anderson, Staff Writer

Paul Mescal in Aftersun

Paul Mescal turns in the performance of the year in Aftersun. Playing Calum, a young single father on vacation with his 11 year old daughter, he plays a man doing his best for his daughter but who seems to be struggling immensely internally. Anyone who has ever suffered silently in the midst of something they were supposed to be enjoying can connect with Calum. As the film unfolds with the lucid uncertainty of a memory, we are left to mostly intuit Calum’s inner state from his body language and facial expressions. That’s hard to do, and Mescal fully brings this character to life regardless. - A. Freedman, Contributor

Austin Butler in Elvis

Austin’s depiction of Elvis Aaron Presley is haunting. 

There have been a ton of side by side clips shared of Austin and Elvis since the release of Baz Luhrmann’s lavish motion picture that are borderline eerie. In watching Austin’s superb portrayal of the Memphis rock ‘n roller, it was hard for me to not think he was possessed by the spirit of Elvis himself. Austin’s performance has stuck with me much after I walked out of the cinema on July 9. The motion picture enticed me to take a trip down memory lane and revisit my love of Elvis songs. I have not been able to listen to an Elvis Presley number for over twenty years since losing my grandfather to a horrible battle with cancer, and in finding the music once more, I realized how lost I was without it. 

I truly can’t wait to see what Austin does next as it is clear by his dedication in Elvis, that his star will shine bright. –Rosalie Kicks, Editor In Chief