15 best TV actresses of 2018
By Reed Gaudens
Amy Adams as Camille Preaker in Sharp Objects
The Role: Camille Preaker is a mess. She’s also a reporter, a cutter, and a raging alcoholic. Girl has got issues. And when her editor sends her on assignment to investigate a series of child murders in her old town of Wind Gap, Missouri, things get much worse.
Based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects follows Camille’s rapidly fraying sanity as she tries to uncover the truth about the murders. She stays with her wealthy but emotionally abusive mother Adora, and old wounds begin to open and fester. However, as she’s frequently intoxicated, Camille isn’t the most reliable of narrators when it comes to her past. Navigating the blurred lines between truth and fiction would have spelled disaster for an actress less skilled or not fully committed to the ugliness of this role, but Adams nails it.
Why She’s One of 2018’s Best: Adams is one of the most gifted actresses of our generation. It’s a crime that she’s never been honored with an Oscar. A crime, I tell you! But, barring disaster, she’ll surely be presented with an Emmy for her brave and raw portrayal of Camille in Sharp Objects.
Camille goes beyond the usual definition of “anti-hero” in the lexicon of TV tropes. She’s not a hero. She’s human. She’s a broken woman who has suffered greatly throughout her entire life because her own mother was broken, and her grandmother was broken, etc etc. Adams distills this generational breakdown into a sharp and searing self-hatred, understanding that self-harm is often a coping mechanism of last resort, not something to be pitied.
Even in moments where Camille tries to dull her senses with booze or drugs, Adams fills her eyes with a brightly burning fire. She’s always on the lookout, hyper vigilant to the world around her, refusing to play victim to anyone other than herself. Adams’s ability to so believably tap into the difficult depths of mental illness makes her electric to watch, even when that electricity burns us with the pain of empathy and understanding.
—Erin Qualey, Hidden Remote Staff Writer