FYC: Bryan Tyree Henry in ‘Causeway’

“I guess we’re just two wounded birds”—Charles and Eddie

When the Oscar nominations were revealed earlier this year on January 24, the best supporting actor recognition for Bryan Tyree Henry was probably the most eye-catching this side of Andrea Riseborough’s  controversial nod for best actress. While Henry’s work in Causeway was routinely praised by those who saw the film, and there was a flicker of heat behind his candidacy, I just didn’t know if enough people had seen it. 

To be completely frank, I hadn’t seen the film and didn’t know much about it at all when the Oscar roll was called. Of course, that’s on me, but look, in the modern world of streaming options, it’s impossible to keep up with every single film out there. Before I pulled Causeway up on Apple TV, I took a quick look at the critical consensus, which I found to be largely positive, but modestly so. Many critics found the film to be too restrained and cautious, while praising the performances of Jennifer Lawrence and Henry. 

After having finally watched the film, I understood that take, but largely disagree with it, at least  in half. While there can be no doubt that the two leads elevate the film (you could argue they are the film), I found the tenuous nature of the movie, as directed by Lila Neugebauer, to be intentional. 

Lawrence plays Lynsey, an Afghanistan war vet who returns to her hometown of New Orleans to recover from a brain injury she suffered when an IED blew up her military vehicle just twenty minutes from her base. Lynsey’s main goal is to get back to the military, the one place in life where she has felt useful. 

As Lynsey’s physical recovery goes from needing help in the bathroom to being largely self-sufficient, she meets James (Henry) a kindly mechanic who offers her a fair deal on fixing the overheated 1985 pickup truck she sputters into his station. Thus begins a slow unfolding friendship between two people who from the outside would look like they have nothing in common. But they seem to recognize something in each other. A sense of loss. A history of trauma. 

This shared connection doesn’t just provide Lynsey with a confidant, but also a reason to not feel sorry for herself while she recovers. She sees in James a kindred spirit who was also in a terrible accident on a causeway in New Orleans that left a family member dead, and cost James his fiancée and a leg. 

I suppose it’s worth noting that Lawrence is past her white-hot streak that lasted from 2010’s Winter’s Bone to arguably 2017’s mother! that included four Oscar nominations (and a win for Silver Linings Playbook), and of course the massive financial success of The Hunger Games films. To my mind, her work here in Causeway is her best performance since Winter’s Bone. 

But I think a great deal of the credit for Lawrence’s beautifully nuanced work has to go to Henry. These two actors not only found a connection on screen, but also a perfect meld with the characters they play. Except for one sequence where a tearful Henry tells the whole story of the accident on the causeway, the connection between the two never threatens to turn romantic (in part because Lynsey is a lesbian). Causeway is a deceptively simple story about two wounded birds who find each other and gingerly move forward in friendship. There is a part of both of them that wants companionship and isolation, because in isolation, you can’t be hurt.

My favorite scene in the film is when James takes Lynsey back to his place after he’s had one too many drinks. He suggests to Lynsey, at far too early a point, that maybe she should move in, because as James puts it, it would be nice to have coffee with someone in the morning, a smoke at night, and occasionally make dinner together. Henry delivers these lines expertly. We understand that he is just drunk enough to suggest something that neither of them are ready for, but in his haphazard way, might be something they both need. 

This is beautifully subtle work by both Lawrence and Henry that feels real. It’s true, Causeway is a small film about people hoping to connect, to, “make a friend,” in a world that is so confusing and random that driving through the desert during a war or in a causeway while at relative peace can turn into acts that lead to tragedy. 

While there wasn’t much of a campaign for Lawrence to get into the best actress Oscar race, clearly Apple got just enough eyes on this film to net Henry a surprise nomination. When I say “surprise” I don’t mean that an actor of Henry’s talent is an unlikely nominee, but, for this quiet film about two people who greet each other with kindness and recognize the hard battle that they are both facing, to score a nomination just for playing a regular person is cause for celebration. 

Henry has been on the rise for years now. His turn on Atlanta was a coming out party, and his work in Widows, Joker, and If Beale Street Could Talk, showcased his flexibility and range. But it’s Causeway that has brought him to full national attention among lovers of film. It’s an inspired nomination from a group (the Academy) that often produces nothing more than the obvious when the Oscar finalists are announced. 

I doubt that Henry has even the slightest chance of winning. Were I a betting man, I would place my chips on Ke Huy Quan for Everything Everywhere All At Once. Personally, as much as I loved Quan’s work in EEAAO, I’m partial to Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin. But were the incredibly unlikely to happen, and Bryan Tyree Henry’s name were to be called when the seal of the envelope is broken, I wouldn’t only be smiling, I’d likely rise from my chair and yell with joy at my TV while making my dog very nervous. 

Henry is that good and that worthy.