Sam Rockwell – The Way Way Back
Sam Rockwell is one of the most under-appreciated, hardest working and best actors of his generation. For years and years he has provided great performance after great performance and for too long he has gone unrecognized. This year he managed to charm again in The Way Way Back.
Although he is essentially playing the same wise-cracking, ultra confident, anti-authoritarian rebel that he we usually see him play, no one does it better or as convincingly as Rockwell. As Owen, he elevates and alternates that persona beautifully as the character slowly develops into the father figure for the awkward teenager Duncan. Together they each learn from one another and Rockwell makes that transformation palatable and also unnoticeable, the line between the wisecracks and the more serious weight of being a father is invisible.
Sooner or later Rockwell is going to deliver a performance that voters, prognosticators and critics will not be able to ignore and he will be collecting awards left, right and center. Right now though, Rockwell stands alongside the likes of Gary Oldman, Stanley Tucci and his Way Way Back co-star Allison Janney as one of those reliable, super talented performers that don’t get the recognition they deserve.
