Archie Madekwe

Put a helmet on Archie Madekwe in Gran Turismo (2023) and he becomes more interesting to watch. As Jann Mardenborough, he is a quiet, watchful lead in a sports film that takes few chances with its story. Neill Blomkamp gives the races speed and weight, while Zach Baylin and Jason Hall supply the familiar underdog obstacles in the familiar order. Madekwe's best acting happens inside the helmet, where his face holds our attention without much help from the writing. We would like to see that restraint given something less predictable to work against.

The earlier work includes Simon in Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019) and Kofun in See (2019–2022), his first major television lead. We recommend Aster's folk horror with reservations about its length, but Florence Pugh is the reason it works as well as it does. Madekwe's smaller part there is not where we would send someone to understand his acting. The clearer evidence comes in 2023, when the leading role in Gran Turismo sits beside his supporting turn in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn.

As Farleigh Start in Saltburn (2023), he plays the cousin on sufferance, the one person who understands what the Cattons' money is doing to everyone. We were frustrated when the film kept him at the edge of the frame, because Farleigh is the character whose view of the family we most wanted to hear. Fennell mistakes rudeness for satire, yet Farleigh gives her something worth pursuing about belonging to this family on uncertain terms. In Gran Turismo, David Harbour's coach Jack Salter supplies the conviction the film needs; here, we wanted more time with Madekwe.

Lurker (2025), Alex Russell's thriller, adds a leading role as Oliver and a producing debut. We would like the move into producing to bring him scripts that ask more of his quietness. Give him someone as perceptive as Farleigh, and let him stay in the scene.