Current:Home > Contact-usFrom Amy Adams to Demi Moore, transformations are taking awards season by storm-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
From Amy Adams to Demi Moore, transformations are taking awards season by storm
View Date:2024-12-23 16:48:50
TORONTO - From canine obsessions to aging in monstrous fashion, high-profile actress transformations are having a moment.
At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, noteworthy turns and ferociously different portrayals are on the menu for comeback players like Pamela Anderson and Demi Moore, as well as frequent Oscar nominee Amy Adams. And it’s no secret that, especially in the best actress category, embracing the dark and/or peculiar often plays well with the Academy. (We see you, Natalie Portman in “Black Swan," and are still a little freaked out to be honest.)
So which transformative roles will we be talking about through awards season?
Join our Watch Party!Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox
Pamela Anderson wipes away the makeup for 'The Last Showgirl'
Let’s start with Anderson, who plays a veteran Las Vegas performer nearing the end of her run in “The Last Showgirl.” In some ways, it’s barely a stretch to see Anderson in feathers and not much else, given her famously sexy, skin-baring roles in “Baywatch” and “Barb Wire.” Yet it’s the offstage version of her character, and a chance at a real dramatic role for a change, where Anderson makes a meal out of meaty material.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
As she has in real life, the actress embraces a no-makeup mindset and a more natural look in those scenes where her middle-aged and struggling Shelley ponders what’s next in her life and tries hard to be a mom for her estranged 22-year-old daughter (Billie Lourd).
Another subtle but truly different outing: Alicia Vikander in the futuristic sci-fi thriller “The Assessment.” She plays a buttoned-up government employee tasked to test a couple (Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel) to see if they’re fit to be parents.
The trials the wannabe mom and dad go through range from annoying and sleep-depriving to downright heinous, and Vikander channels her inner kid in inspired ways, acting bratty, throwing her food and melting down constantly. It’s a funny and impressive feat, especially in contrast with the more serious revelatory scenes of the film.
Demi Moore, Amy Adams are a sight to behold in unconventional roles
Then there’s Moore, earning rave reviews for her go-for-broke performance in the buzzy body horror flick “The Substance.” Like a Jane Fonda workout video meets “The Thing,” the thriller casts Moore in a meta role, that of a former movie star and now aging TV fitness celebrity who’s deemed too old for her gig. (“Jurassic fitness” is a term that’s thrown around.) She takes a black-market drug that results in the appearance of her younger, more attractive self (Margaret Qualley), and Moore’s body goes through changes of the extremely gnarly and gruesome kind.
The fact that she’s a Hollywood icon back in the spotlight again puts her on the Oscar radar, and this kind of wonderfully bizarre outing is what best actress nominations are made of.
It’s Adams, however, who might have the best chance to get the call for Oscar night. And wouldn’t it be delightful for her to finally get a win – after six previous nominations – for playing a mother who’s turning into a dog?
In “Nightbitch,” Adams’ stay-at-home mom is already struggling to keep her sanity when she notices fur on her back and a few extra nipples. And it’s not even like she becomes a werewolf: A lot of the “transformation” is subtle and internal. She nails a physical role that explores the difficulty of motherhood but also allows her to growl, bark and eat like a real canine, and it’s hard not to love every intriguing character decision Adams makes.
Hollywood has been known to throw a bone to actresses who really go for it and throw convention out the window, and in that vein, Adams and her fellow thespians have plenty to chew on.
veryGood! (275)
Related
- Why was Jalen Ramsey traded? Dolphins CB facing former team on 'Monday Night Football'
- Tobey Maguire's Ex Jennifer Meyer Shares How Gwyneth Paltrow Helped With Her Breakup
- ‘We were built for this moment': Black women rally around Kamala Harris
- Every Time Simone Biles Proved She Is the GOAT
- Chris Evans Shares Thoughts on Starting a Family With Wife Alba Baptista
- Horoscopes Today, July 21, 2024
- Calls for Maya Rudolph to reprise her Kamala Harris interpretation on SNL grow on social media
- Yemen's Houthi-held port of Hodeida still ablaze 2 days after Israeli strike
- 12 college students charged with hate crimes after assault in Maryland
- 2 killed when small plane crashes after takeoff from Long Island airport
Ranking
- Pennsylvania House Republicans pick new floor leader after failing to regain majority
- Mark Carnevale, former PGA Tour winner and golf broadcaster, dies a week after working his last tournament
- US Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey is resigning from office following his corruption conviction
- 'The Sopranos' star Drea de Matteo says teen son helps her edit OnlyFans content
- Investigation into Chinese hacking reveals ‘broad and significant’ spying effort, FBI says
- Toronto Film Festival lineup includes movies from Angelina Jolie, Mike Leigh, more
- Bangladesh's top court scales back government jobs quota after deadly unrest
- Blake Lively and Gigi Hadid Shut Down the Deadpool Red Carpet in Matching BFF Outfits
Recommendation
-
NBPA reaches Kyle Singler’s family after cryptic Instagram video draws concern
-
Man is arrested in the weekend killing of a Detroit-area police officer
-
Safeguarding the heartbeat: Native Americans in Upper Midwest protect their drumming tradition
-
Oscar Mayer Wienermobile flips onto its side after crash along suburban Chicago highway
-
King Charles III celebrates 76th birthday amid cancer battle, opens food hubs
-
Yemen's Houthi-held port of Hodeida still ablaze 2 days after Israeli strike
-
Darren Walker, president of Ford Foundation, will step down by the end of 2025
-
For Appalachian Artists, the Landscape Is Much More Than the Sum of Its Natural Resources