The Big Picture
Oscar Isaac is one of the greatest actors of his generation. The Emmy nominee impressed us in projects including Dune from director Denis Villeneuve, Scenes from a Marriage with Jessica Chastain, Moon Knight in the MCU, and as Miguel O’Hara in the smash hit Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Clearly, the in-demand actor is very busy. So busy, in fact, that there was actually a time when he ended up shooting two of his best projects at the same time: Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Annihilation. Yes, these are two vastly different movies, both with Isaac delivering radically different performances. The movies themselves have been praised by most audiences and critics, but Isaac’s work in them cannot be understated. He’s a powerhouse of a presence, whether it be in his comedic chops or his ability to alienate and unsettle viewers with ease. How he was able to deliver these two performances so close to each other isn’t just impressive, it further solidifies his place as one of the most reliable people working in movies.
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ and ‘Ex Machina’ Prove Oscar Isaac’s Range
Before Isaac became the household name that he is today, he was actually carving away at his craft for years and years. Isaac’s acting career began in the late ’90s when he appeared in the crime drama Illtown. From there, he would appear in films like All About the Benjamins, Lenny the Wonder Dog, and The Nativity Story, where he played Saint Joseph. Isaac also spent his early years studying acting at The Juilliard School, where he would continue refining his craft. The early 2010s saw him skyrocket in popularity after playing significant parts in movies like Robin Hood and Drive. In 2013, Isaac would star in the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece Inside Llewyn Davis, and his career would be set. Oscar Isaac was both here to play and here to stay.
While he would film two of his best movies simultaneously a few years later, 2015 would see Isaac’s first year as a true mainstream presence. He starred in Ex Machina, a science fiction thriller written and directed by Alex Garland that follows a genius tech developer as he administers the Turing test between one of his employees and artificial intelligence. (Yes, things go very wrong.) Ex Machina shows Isaac’s versatility as an actor. Here, he’s likable, then he becomes untrustworthy, only to make you laugh the next second until he turns around and becomes a total jerk. That’s also putting it nicely. Inside Llewyn Davis declared Isaac’s arrival, but Ex Machina was the touchdown.
Oscar Isaac’s Star Wars Character Poe Dameron Is a Franchise Best
Well if Ex Machina was Oscar Isaac’s career touchdown, then Star Wars: The Force Awakens was him spiking the ball and celebrating with his team (aka the world because we’re all team Oscar Isaac). Isaac isn’t in The Force Awakens as Poe Dameron too much, but when he is, he’s the most likable, fun presence in the entire movie. At first, you expect him to just be the new Han Solo (Harrison Ford), but he actually ends up getting to do his own thing. He’s just a good-natured pilot with a lot of heart; there isn’t an ounce of antihero to be found in him. Scenes where he stands up to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), gets to work a buddy cop shtick with Finn (John Boyega), and celebrates being reunited with BB-8 are just a few of the moments that made this character one of the best in the sequel trilogy.
If only we knew how much more Dameron we’d get in the follow-up. After walking out, we all knew that there would be getting another Star Wars movie, but no one knew that Isaac would reunite with Alex Garland. Maybe if we knew that we’d be getting another Isaac-Garland collaboration in a Star Wars double hitter in just a few years, then you never know, world peace might have been achieved? And so it was, Isaac would film both Garland’s Annihilation and Star Wars: The Last Jedi at the same time.
‘Annihilation’ Features a Chilling Oscar Isaac Performance
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Isaac detailed that the films were not only shot at the same time but that they were shot in the same studio. There were even days when he would be filming one movie, and then have to head straight to the other after having wrapped work for the day. Thankfully, neither movie was given priority over the other. As a matter of fact, Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and producers Ram Bergman and Kathleen Kennedy were all highly accommodating with Isaac’s busy schedule, giving him and Alex Garland the freedom to move forward with working on Annihilation. The whole dual experience actually seems like it was a positive one for Isaac. He even said it had a real “classic” (Hollywood) feel to it, equating it all to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, when Pee Wee (Paul Reubens) walks around on a studio lot with tons of different actors in various costumes walking around.
If you were to sit down and watch the two movies back-to-back, it would be a pretty jarring double feature. In Annihilation, he plays Kane, a man who has spent months in “The Shimmer,” a mysterious quarantined zone that nothing has ever returned from after going in. Kane, on the other hand, is the first to return, and when he comes home to his wife, Lena (Natalie Portman), something is very, very off about him. There are flashbacks littered throughout Annihilation that show Kane to have been a good husband to Lena, but by and large, Isaac is a sinister force in this movie. Upon returning home, Kane is disoriented, carries a real alienating air about him, and quickly appears to be physically deteriorating. Without spoiling things, Isaac’s performance only becomes more horrifying as the movie goes on. Watch out for a brutal scene involving a camcorder, as well as an interesting accent change in the second half. Isaac really pulled out all the stops here, and it’s masterful work.
‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Makes Oscar Isaac’s Poe a Leader
If you’re still planning your double feature and haven’t seen either of these movies, maybe you already get the idea that you should not start with Annihilation. That movie is great, but boy is it just oppressive and bleak. Instead, you should first check out Isaac’s work in The Last Jedi. There’s not much that Isaac does differently here than in The Force Awakens, but he is given way more screen time. Here, Poe Dameron’s biggest storyline involves standing up to Vice Admiral Holo (Laura Dern), who ends up taking the role of Supreme Commander after General Leia (Carrie Fisher) goes into a coma.
It’s exciting to watch Poe not just be the light and fun wing of his second Star Wars adventure, but to actually take on a meaningful role. By the end of the movie, Poe shifts from being the sequel trilogy’s signature, good-natured X-wing pilot to a responsible leader. No matter what you think of the polarizing The Last Jedi, we can all agree that Isaac rocks in it. This is the role that made him one of the most likable leads in Hollywood — what more could you want? The Last Jedi and Annihilation are the perfect one-two punch to prove Oscar Isaac’s abilities as an actor. He has an incredible, wide range of performances, and in these two movies alone, he shows so much of what he’s capable of achieving. In case you’ve never seen either (you probably have), then fire up this double feature. Have a neck brace ready though… you’ll get whiplash!
