A little theme is arising and that theme is(are?) these halfway point posts (I’ve already posted one you can read). Most people will be doing best films of the year so far and best performances and worst of the year so far lists, so I’m going to do something that people aren’t doing: most underrated performances. Some of these may not exactly be underrated because they’re in acclaimed films and for my money, I haven’t seen every 2026 release, so my opinion isn’t exactly the most authoritative, but I think it’s good enough and these performances deserve some kind of spotlight. Now, I won’t do multiple performances from the same film. That’s no fun. I’ll be limited to one performance per film. Just to make everything fresher and less expected of what’s to be on less (and also to hide my bias towards some films). Now, let’s get into the performances!

Curry Barker – Customer Service Representative (Obsession)

Aha! Didn’t expect this one, did ya’? I’m off to the races with this one! One would think I would highlight Michael Johnston as his spotlight is stolen from a best of the year kind of performance in his co-star, Inde Navarrette, as the wildly unpredictable Nikki, but that’s too predictable. The next thought would be Cooper Tomlinson as Ian or Megan Lawless as Sarah, but no, I’m going for the director himself. Barker has done a lot of sketch work in his YouTube videos, so he is not adverse to performing and for the most part, he has always portrayed a nonchalant dude that usually goes too far in some goofy way. Here, his character as a customer service representative to the mystical One Wish Willow (or OWW) is pretty much carries the same attitude and it’s one you expect from a customer service worker. However, there is something very chilling in the air once the representative reveals more details about how the OWW works. His detachment which starts off as comedic becomes more and more unsettling as the horrific phone call goes on. His delivery of “Do you want to talk to her?” and what follows is quite disturbing stuff. Familiar territory for his fans becomes something much more sinister for everyone else. It’s quite awesome stuff.

Maxine Peake – Dottie (I Swear)

With I Swear being mired in controversy earlier this year and getting a less than notable US release, it feels like this film went under the radar. But I don’t think it deserves all the bad press it’s gotten. The film is a simple, sweet, but mostly educational look at Tourette’s that is meant to make you feel all the things (mostly cry). It’s a big crowdpleaser and even then, the attention has been on Robert Aramayo who plays John Davidson, (deservedly so by the way). But I also feel the film would not be as strong without the casting of Maxine Peake as Dottie, his motherly figure after his real mother wanted to get away from him. She approaches him with as much unconditional love as you would expect from a mother and to his surprise, she’s very understanding of his condition. Her mix of warmth and Scottish humor adds to the film. But she also doesn’t steal the spotlight from Aramayo either, she just gently gives him the time to shine. But let’s not let her performance be forgotten either.

Christos Passalis – Eris (Hold Onto Me)

With Hold Onto Me receiving not much talk at an already muted Sundance this year, it saddens me because the film itself is simple, yes, but the emotions this Greek film made me feel were pretty strong and all of that came from the two lead performances in Petrova and Passalis as their relationship grew closer and closer. The two’s relationship starts off as transactional. Petrova’s Iris gets to spend time with her conman father in Passalis’ Eris, but he also doesn’t want anything to do with her. Trying his best to shake her off like some gnat. But with Passalis’ charisma, he draws both Petrova and the audience in. Through his scams and clever plans and the way Petrova goes along with them, you can’t help, but smile. But when the film ends, the film really sores its highest, delivering the most beautiful moment in the entire film and it comes from Passalis’ performance in that moment.

Chris O’Dowd – Mopple (The Sheep Detectives)

You thought I was only going to go one voice performance? Think again! The Sheep Detectives is not the film you think it is. Based on the marketing, I expected something fairly dumb and meant for children, but the film is so much more than that. The voice cast is stacked and a number of them give out great performances, but one that hasn’t gotten the love it deserves is Chris O’Dowd’s lovely performance as Mopple. This sheep has the “unfortunate” ability to not forget things like the other sheep does and being the adult in the audience, you can see where this is all going. But the film kind of dissuades from ever getting an inkling of what it is with its silly tone and cute sheep. Mopple also isn’t the most intelligent character like his co-stars, Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) or Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) in which he literally stumbles around at one point with a clue on his head (the clue being a shirt) and gets stuck trying to eat. But then he delivers this wonderful monologue to Dreyfus’ Lily about memory and remembering both the good and the bad. His “I can remember my mother’s face.” is delivered like a cherished moment that is preserved as fresh as when it was first created and swells my heart just thinking about it. And then when I rewatched the film, I noticed every moment of him saying white lies to prevent the pain the herd so desperately avoids. It’s a delightful voice performance.

Juno Temple – Susan (Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die)

With an ensemble film like Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, it’s going to be hard to stand out, especially in something that fully accepts its genre filmmaking like Gore Verbinksi’s time-traveling anti-ai comedy. But Juno Temple does as the grieving mother of a school shooting victim. With the film’s most poignant and risky section, Temple is leading the charge. While she doesn’t get many moments to shine and one could say her co-stars, Sam Rockwell (The Man) and Haley Lu Richardson (Ingird), have more complete performances, Temple has one moment that moved me more than I thought I would going into the film. A monologue where she talks about her son and what made him so special to her. As she encapsulates her grief in one monologue, she compacts the emotions further as the film goes on, eventually leading some really terrible decisions that hurt the crew she’s with because she wants her real boy back.

Riz Ahmed – Prince Hamlet (Hamlet)

Riz Ahmed is one of our greatest actors. There’s always something that draws us in wherever he’s onscreen. Never feeling like he’s below his co-stars, he always meets them where he’s at and when gets a moment to lead film, he shines. When he gets an opportunity to play one of the theatre’s greatest characters, he’s going to find a way to meet the challenge and here he does. The film acts a vehicle for Ahmed with its modern setting and highlighting South Asian culture, but it’s all the better for it. In this age of angry young men isolating themselves into deeper pits of loneliness, it makes sense that Hamlet self-sabotages and gets even more and more angry at this tragedy begins to fully engulf him. His first soliloquy is one of confusion and hurt that quickly turns to anger. And his long-awaited “To be or not to be…” is a fervent step on the gas as he races down the highway and screams every bit of pain out of him. But the highlight of the film, which includes not just his performance, but the whole scene has gone down as one of my favorites of the year so far, is when he appears at his uncle Claudius’ wedding. His spiral fueled by a quiet rage as he disrupts the whole scene. Waving a microphone at each of the guest before rudely interrupting them. Ahmed’s performance is must-see alone for that sequence and will be hard to top.

Sally Fields – Tova Sullivan (Remarkably Bright Creatures)

While this performance isn’t exactly overrated (it’s definitely in the running to win an Emmy), the film has been forgotten in the vast library of Netflix’s catalogue, so I’m going to count it. You really can’t get better casting that Fields as Tova. Having read the book before seeing the film, it was pretty easy to imagine Field breathing life into the words that Shelby Van Pelt wrote. As a woman struck with crippling mix of grief and guilt, Fields pulls it on with the best performance in a long time. While at first, she can seem a little pushy and a loner-type, but it stems from this hurt. Fields does a wonderful job with her eyes, looking into the distance or at her son’s room, frightened and overcome with a fear that she may not ever overcome this current season in her life. But there’s more to her performance than a few sad looks or a heartbreaking monologue, she’s Sally Fields! A dynamic actor who’s able to bring in the humor needed for many scenes and her chemistry with Lewis Pullman (Cameron Cassmore) shows that. But it also allows to see the more motherly side of her character. Her look of awe in Cameron as he plays in the bar at open mic night, the advice she gives him and the way she scolds him, are all parts where you get to see that side come out and also work in the film’s favor to help endear us.

Jonathan Blair – George Whitefield (A Great Awakening)

Hold on, hold on with your pitchforks! Yes, I am putting a faith-based film performance in here. Sue me! But Jonathan Blair’s George Whitefield is one I don’t think I’ll forget and that is for one reason only: his voice. Clearly a stage actor first and the film exaggerates that with its sound design to make his voice sound booming. If it played in Dolby, the bass in his voice would probably reverberate in my bones. Whitefield was the one who helped jumpstart the Christian evangelist moment in America, so of course, they needed to find someone who was a gifted orator and what a voice Blair has. Even folks who aren’t fond of the film can appreciate this guy’s voice and for someone who really liked the film (I know, biased), I was totally on board. Combining Blair’s voice and complete confidence in himself, it’s hard not to get to swept up by what he does here in the film and want to evangelize the world.

Andrew Scott – James Stagg (Pressure)

It’s very clear the people wanted to show off Scott for this stage-to-screen adaptation that they had to hire Fraser to ensure that it would make money rather than its seemingly absurd plot of a weatherman being important to the invasion of D-Day. Well, Scott makes you believe. He is incredible in this film. His performance is a wonderful marriage of stage and screen acting as he understands the basis for where the play originated and then adapts his acting for the film. He carries himself with wonderful restraint throughout and he does get his showier moments where he shouts and gets a nice monologue here and there, but the golden part of his performance is where he received some news through a phone call. You don’t hear a word, but you understand everything through his facial expressions. The weight of the possibility of a devastating loss knock the wind out of him and he crumbles. But he also understands the stakes of this operation and you can feel it weigh on him as the film goes on. Scott is one of our finest actors and he’s delivers in more ways than you can expect in this film.

Sterling K. Brown – Man (Is God Is)

This is why I put that disclaimer in the beginning because this whole film is underrated and I could put the two other women, especially Kara Young, but she’s been the main focal point of praise for the film, so I’ll go with someone I’m a little biased towards since he is from St. Louis, Mr. Sterling K. Brown himself. I feel like he’s always kind of fit this category for the longest time because he’s just that good. But with what we expect from Brown is that he is good-natured, charismatic and gentle. Which was made famous from roles This is Us and the mixed Waves. He uses that to his advantage here. He knows that we know him for these things and manipulates us, even despite his actions and what other characters say about him. One moment he’s able to disarm us by using everything we know about him as an actor and then he flips on a dime, as the abusive monster that everyone’s been saying he is. He’s terrifying and he knows it. Not many performances will top his this year.

Ian McKellen – Julian Sklar (The Christophers)

Sir Ian McKellen has kind of skirted on by. I mean, he’s been either the best part of something or done something that’s just fine. We haven’t seen his capabilities as an actor for quite a bit of time because I think directors just want a recognizable old man in a part rather than a capable thespian. We finally get to see his acting chops go to work. I feel like we got glimpses of it in things like The Good Liar, but it’s not enough there. We see he is capable of being clever, we see him get to deliver snide comments and we get to see him deal with an internal conflict. I’m sure he understands being an artist himself, but this conflict of being unable to move forward drags him backward. Watching this conflict unfold before his eyes is excellent, but also there’s one moment in the film that I go back to is when he talks to Michaela Coel’s (Lori Butler) character about whether she’s been lying or not. The betrayal in his eyes and every line he delivers in that scene can be felt really strongly. But with Soderbergh’s direction, he’s also able to excel in delivering his lines. It feels like he’s been given new life. It helps when you have Coel in the same film as you.

Michaela Coel – Sam Anselm (Mother Mary)

Speaking of Michaela Coel, she’s excellent in two films that came out this year and while I prefer The Christophers as a film, she delivers a better performance here. The role feels curated for her to rock it as her capability to pull the audience in with her narration and every moment she’s on screen. That surprised me because of someone like Anne Hathaway (Mother Mary) working opposite of her. The spotlight was fully hers. She devours each line and sharp barb with scintillating intensity. Her monologues come from a place of betrayal and the metaphors that ingrained into them, she dances around and/or with them like she’s doing a short solo during a ballet concert. She’s completely mesmerizing and one of the best parts of the film.

And that’s it! Those are the performances that stuck out to me and should get more praise. I am hoping at least one of them do get just as much praise by the time the year comes to an end. If you’d like, check out the films these performances are in and I hope you feel the same way. Here’s to more great acting as the year rolls on!