15. Alden Ehrenreich – “Hail, Caesar!”
Before he was cast in the impossible position of playing a younger Han Solo in the upcoming reboot/spinoff, actor Alden Ehrenreich had been making strong, under-the-radar impressions for the last few years. That changed when he became the breakout of the latest film by the Coen Brothers, “Hail, Caesar!” Playing the role of the slightly witless Hobie Doyle, a Western actor who was more a stuntman than performer and then asked to perform in a prestige drama, he managed to go toe-to-toe with actors such as Ralph Fiennes and Josh Brolin without losing his step, and oftentimes stole scenes. Beyond one of the best-staged scenes of 2016 in a purposefully frustrating back and forth between he and Fiennes, his star power shone through in his quieter moments, where he captured the magical charisma of old-school stars. His performance is unassuming and the physicality he displays shouldn’t go unrecognized. He’s so good that the scene where we watch a clip of one of his films as he serenades a moon is reminiscent enough of the films to which the Coens are paying homage that it would be easy to believe Ehrenreich would have fit right in with the Hollywood crowd of old.
14. Emma Stone – “La La Land”
It’s almost easy to overlook or dismiss a performance such as Emma Stone’s winsome turn in Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land.” She demonstrated much of the skills that have been lauded before, beyond the singing and dancing, and she puts on a girl-next-door charm that we’ve come to expect from the actress, but this time there’s a beaten-down maturity and a tangible sense of vulnerability that makes her all the more appealing. With her bright, orb-like eyes and mischievous grin, she brings an enthusiastic energy to her performance as Mia, imbuing her with a sense of urgent ambition and a desire to capture her dreams. The whole, big theme of the film is to center on “those who dream,” and with Stone’s magnetism, she’s able to convey that Mia is one of those dreamers. That plus her effortless ability to nail comic moments and her obvious chemistry with Ryan Gosling put her into the category of one of the year’s best, even if on first viewing it isn’t as showy as some of her fellow counterparts’ performances.
13. Naomie Harris – “Moonlight”
Barry Jenkins’ sublime “Moonlight” takes a premise that’s ripe for a bland urban melodrama and finds unique, devastating, and ultimately hopeful humanity within them. The tragic figure of the “crackhead mother” is usually a go-to cliché, inserted into the story as a quick way for the audience to identify with the young protagonist’s plight. These characters are often, in movies, one-dimensional, depicted as a form of selfish evil. Yet Naomie Harris’ heartbreaking performance as the drug-addicted mother of Little/Chiron/Black breaks through all of these tropes and shows the audience that someone who’s a tried-and-true fuck-up can also be a person who truly cares about their family, and that the two are not always mutually exclusive. Even at points where she appears to be at her most self-centered and hurtful, there’s always a glimmer in the performance that shows the character loves her son more than anything in the world, and would do anything to give him a better life. Her failure at doing so results in her hating herself more than anything else, ready to cling to anything that would allow her to forget this pain for even a moment. Harris digs deep into the complexities of this character and comes up with neither a Mother Mary figure nor the devil. What we end up with is a deeply flawed human being, but a human being nevertheless.
12. Riley Keough – “The Girlfriend Experience” and “American Honey”
As the granddaughter of Elvis Presley and step-daughter of Michael Jackson, it would have been quite easy for Riley Keough to become a talent-free socialite, the sort of person who turns up at parties and gets in the tabloids and doesn’t do much else. Instead, she’s on a remarkable run, starting with “Mad Max: Fury Road” last year, that’s made her one of the most impressive young actresses at the moment. She impressed this year with a supporting turn in Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” as the brittle, suspicious ostensible leader of the film’s mag crew, but she really exploded as Christine, the law student who begins working as an escort in Amy Seimetz & Lodge Kerrigan’s masterful series “The Girlfriend Experience.” It’s a fascinating, mature performance, with Keough always keeping her just at arms length from the viewer: always composed, always in control, a ruthless ambition and near-sociopathy simmering beneath the surface but often otherwise inscrutable. It could make Christine a blank, a cipher, but Keough makes her into an enigma, a puzzle that you’ll never solve, and a TV anti-hero that deserves a place in the hall of fame with Walter White, Tony Soprano, et. al. With new movies from Steven Soderbergh, Trey Edward Shults, David Robert Mitchell and Charlie McDowell next year, Keough’s likely just getting started.
11. Colin Farrell – “The Lobster”
For every stereotypically over-the-top Colin Farrell performance (“True Detective“ Season 2, “Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them,” “Fright Night”), he never lets us forget what a brilliant actor he truly is with an off-beat and surprising choice every few years. In 2016, that was “The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ English-language debut, a dystopian romantic drama about a hotel where single people are forced to pair up or be turned into animals. Of course, it’s about much more than its premise — at heart, it’s a sharp and absurd cultural commentary — and Farrell holds the whole thing together as pathetic singleton David. He gives an unforgettable performance that at once fits into Lanthimos’ deadpan, dry style while maintaining a flicker of humanity and sorrow behind David’s eyes. There’s even a tiny bit of hope, and constant yearning for acceptance, after he joins the faction of rebellious singles in the forest, and connects with a woman played by Rachel Weisz. It’s a performance that requires every faculty of Farrell’s — intellectual, soulful, emotional, and especially physical, as he awkwardly comports his portly body around. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, his performance already verges on brilliance simply in how he wholeheartedly attempts to perform his daily tasks with one hand cuffed to his belt (to learn that two is better than one). Perhaps the most surprising thing of all, though, is that Farrell snagged a Golden Globe nomination for his work in this challenging film, which is far from awards bait. Nice to see merit and bold experimentation getting recognized by the HFPA.
