As I mentioned when discussing the Gotham guys, the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown is just eking into awards competition this year. All eyes are on Timothée Chalamet, but we should also be watching his co-star, Monica Barbaro. I will keep saying it until the world catches up—she is a STAR. Everyone has held space for Timmy-Bob in the Best Actor race all year, but get ready to completely reconfigure Best Supporting Actress after A Complete Unknown starts screening. Barbaro stars as Joan Baez, and I suspect she’ll emerge as a strong contender by next week.
I’m not discounting Elle Fanning, who stars as Dylan’s other love interest Sylvie Russo (a fictionalized version of Suze Rotolo), but Monica Barbaro is going to get the lion’s share of attention from A Complete Unknown. It’s partly because she’s newer and shinier—most people haven’t seen her since Top Gun: Maverick; a LOT of people are about to be shocked to connect the lady pilot to Timmy-Bob’s folk queen girlfriend—but it’s mostly because Monica Barbaro. Is. A. STAR.
How do I know? Because I saw Top Gun: Maverick and then I saw the Netflix series FUBAR, in which she co-stars with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s not great, but it convinced me that Maverick wasn’t a fluke. Then I found some of her other work, and while none of it is particularly distinguished, in EVERY case Monica Barbaro jumps off the screen. I watched her multi-episode arc on Stumptown, a series anchored by Cobie Smulders and charisma tornado Jake Johnson, and she more than holds her own. Even up against Arnold, she’s the only thing worth talking about out of FUBAR. Got a crap rom-com? Monica Barbaro can make it cute. Got a quirky comedy? She’ll get laughs. Need a sad-eyed woman in your depressing drama? Guess who you should call. Get used to seeing Monica Barbaro, she’s about to become ubiquitous.
Another Gotham rookie is filmmaker Vera Drew, the one person I was most excited to see at the ceremony, where she won Breakthrough Director for her film, The People’s Joker. The journey Vera Drew went on with this film is amazing, read about it here. The film itself is a parodical work, using Gotham City as the setting for a trans coming of age tale which Vera co-wrote, directed, edited, and stars in. Check out the trailer:
Yeah, it looks how it looks. It’s crowd-funded and low-budget and Vera is obviously problem-solving with limited resources, but it’s one of the best written films of the year, the performances are great, the editing is good—Vera has edited for the likes of Scott Aukerman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Tim Heidecker, and Tim Robinson—and Vera’s direction is solid. The only “problem” for the film is the obviously low-budget visuals, but even that Vera turns to her advantage, creating a unique aesthetic that honors all the eras of Batman, while also adding a wildly cool new Joker look to the canon. The People’s Joker is on VOD, and you should watch it because Vera Drew is majorly talented, and this will hopefully springboard her to more writing/directing/acting opportunities. Give this woman actual money to realize a vision, and I bet we’ll see something truly special emerge. I mean, she made The People’s Joker with like, three cents, a roll of duct tape, and half a pack of gum, and it’s pretty damn cool. I would love to see what she can do with fewer hurdles in her path. Vera Drew is definitely someone to watch.
