“I could watch them for eternity”: the two 2010 acting performances Milly Alcock compared to “heaven on screen”
Following a brief cameo at the end of James Gunn’s Superman, Milly Alcock finally got her own movie as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl in 2026, although it didn’t go really well.
It has severely underperformed at the box office, with projections claiming that it will lose anywhere between $85m and 125m. It hasn’t set critics alight either, despite a promising lead performance. I saw it when I was drunk, and I still knew it wasn’t great, but Alcock has carried herself like a star throughout, and I hope this doesn’t dent her career too badly.
As part of the monumental press tour for Supergirl, which has seen its star dive into the murky world of superhero fandom, Alcock was cornered by the fine folk over at Letterboxd. As is their way, they asked her for her ‘Four Favourites’, which sent the young star into something of an existential spiral.
“I’m trying to think of the perfect combination of fun, sexy, cool, but educated,” she said, before admitting, “I don’t know if I can come up with that”.
She eventually managed to muster the required number of picks, starting with Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice. She then opted for another fairly recent release, the joint Spanish-French production, Sirāt. Then came the original version of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, which she described as “funny, stupid, wacky, cuckoo bananas, cool”.
For her final choice, she went back to the 2010 romantic drama Blue Valentine, where, in her opinion, the chemistry between the two leads was simply too much to ignore. “Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in that film are just like heaven on screen,” she swooned, “I could watch them for eternity”.
Directed by Derek Cianfrance, Blue Valentine follows Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) as they attempt to navigate their rocky romantic relationship, the story presented in two linear, but distinct timelines: one from the beginning of the pair’s marriage, when things are still quite rosey, and one from further down the line, where they are struggle to keep themselves together as well as raise their young daughter, Frankie.
As is the case with any romantic film, the onscreen relationship between the two leads is crucial to the success of Blue Valentine. Williams had received the script eight years before the film came out, with Gosling coming aboard four years prior, with one of the other names considered for the role of Dean being Channing Tatum, which seems entirely unlikely with the power of hindsight.
Williams was going through a really tough time in her personal life when her partner, Heath Ledger, passed away in 2008, leaving her to cope with the grief and raise their young daughter alone. It’s possible that she could have channelled this emotion into this heartwrenching Oscar-nominated performance.
Blue Valentine has many famous fans, from Florence Pugh to Paul Mescal. It is widely regarded as one of the best films of the 2010s, as well as one of the greatest romantic movies ever made; Alcock clearly has excellent taste and is in excellent company.
