The Best Film Performances Of The Decade [2010s] - Page 7 of 7

10. Steven Yeun, “Burning
Steven Yeun is a handsome and appealing actor who can play a variety of roles, from a rightfully incensed environmental militant in Bong Joon-ho’s spectacular “Okja” to a wary, cynical wage slave in last year’s “Sorry to Bother You.” However, nothing Yeun has done to date could have prepared us for the skin-crawling menace he exudes in Lee Chang-dong’s critically heralded “Burning,” where he plays one of the most morally bankrupt and downright reptilian characters to ever grace a movie screen. There are two male characters at the center of “Burning,” the primary one being Yoo Ah-in’s listless, somewhat awkward aspiring writer Lee Jong-su. The other is Yeun’s Ben: a smooth operator with a cocksure demeanor and a fat bankroll who admits midway through the film, in a moment of terrifying candor, that he enjoys burning abandoned greenhouses – for the deceptively simple reason that he can. Yeun’s performance here exposes the terrifying underbelly of the modern Alpha Male archetype, and the scene where he exudes a chilling yawn during one of the movie’s most pivotal scenes will be lodged in our nightmares for quite some time. Yeun never asks the audience to like or understand Ben – he’s a villain, plain and simple, although there’s something about his self-assurance and mellow demeanor that belies just how evil he might be. Yeun is an actor on the rise, and while we’re sure that he will doubtlessly do more great work in the years to come, it’s hard not to feel like “Burning” will be viewed as a high watermark of his career – no matter where he chooses to go. – NL

9. Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
She’s in pain. The Queen has gout, a bad temper, and two ladies that she couldn’t possibly surprise between. Being able to call Olivia Colman “Oscar Winner Olivia Colman” now feels pretty good, considering she delivers one of the most volatile, scathing, grossly entertaining and yet somehow still poignant performances of the decade. As a royal who is hurting, a lot of Colman’s work is facial and vocal. Her eyebrows are knit perhaps 90% of the time, her mouth plastered into a near-permanent scowl – the kind that you’d only imagine as drawn by a caricaturist, impossible to maintain to such extremes. It’s in the delivery in her lines, too: the shrill bark as she scorns a worker in the palace; the matter-of-fact tone with which she addresses her confidantes to inform them of her change of heart. She’s at once selfish and lonely, a little old lady and a small child who just needs to be understood. Period dramas often suffer in translation, either when actors put in jarringly contemporary performances, or struggle to adapt to the era and deliver watery imitations instead of any authentic feeling. But Colman is a hurricane from start to finish – perfectly at ease with director Yorgos Lanthimos following a first partnership on “The Lobster”, but clearly entirely entrusted with the drama here. Not everyone can be a queen – but few have the c*ntstruck power of Olivia Colman. – EK

8. Joaquin Phoenix, “You Were Never Really Here”
The thing about Joaquin Phoenix is that as soon as he appears in a film, it’s near-impossible to focus on anything else. In Lynne Ramsay’s hard-boiled thriller “You Were Never Really Here”, this is a good thing – as the steely hitman Joe, tasked with saving the daughter of an important man, concentration is absolutely key. Phoenix commands attention with heavily intimidating body language: a camouflaging beard; broad and offensive shoulders; clenched hands around the handle of a hammer. In lesser hands, this would be another brusque, forgettable performance, perhaps even relegated to the background while a wiry guy in a suit would do all the emotional blackmail in excessively speedy dialogue. But Phoenix is totally in control, holding courage, violence, regret, and loneliness built up over years, just waiting to break out when the target is right. It’s a dangerous performance, remaining calm when things seem at their worst – purely because he knows things aren’t even getting close to hell until he’s had a say about it. If there was ever one man not to fuck with, it is this one, at this time, in this place, born from this actor. – EK

7. Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
There’s not a single scene in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s deeply personal, gut-wrenching drama “Biutiful” that doesn’t require Javier Bardem to completely bear his soul. With his angular, haunted features, Bardem has always been a fascinating actor to watch. One of our most unique working actors, Bardem has been able to gravitate between classically handsome, endlessly charming leading man in films like “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and downright chilling character actor in films like “No Country for Old Men,” which gave him his first Oscar. But as dynamic a performer as Bardem consistently is, it was his role as the terminally ill criminal Uxbal in “Biutiful” that cemented him as one of our most essential actors. Iñárritu’s film is undeniably bleak and can often feel punishing, but Bardem transcends the difficulty of the material through his brutally honest and committed work, infusing the film with a heart and soul it might have otherwise lacked in a less capable actor’s hands. There are countless powerful moments where Bardem has to completely give himself over to Iñárritu, but the scene that finds Uxbal in his final moments of life with his daughter by his side, slowly drifting into another life, that is the most heart-shattering moment of the film and Bardem’s career. His deep, distinct voice turns to a whisper. He barely has any control of his body left. But his daughter can’t sleep and he knows it’s the last time he’ll ever be able to comfort her back to sleep. It’s a scene that could have been played for a multitude of maudlin emotions, but in the hands of Iñárritu and Bardem, it’s a cathartic moment of relief. A man who has carried a lifetime of sin and pain is finally free. – MR

6. Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia
A whirling dervish of emotions ranting from effervescent to emotionally crippled, Kirsten Dunst gets to have her cake and eat it too in “Melancholia.” Cliché as that might sound, it really is the case in Lars von Trier’s staggering meditation on fate and obligation in the face of annihilation, which doesn’t necessarily require a world-ending event (everyone dies, after all), yet one is provided in the film all the same. Broken into two parts, “Melancholia” spends the first with bride Justine (Dunst) on her wedding day, where her detached and unmoored demeanor belays a sedate, almost content nihilism. The second portion features Justine in full depressed debilitation, barely able to function, yet still at the mercy of this inescapable fate. If Justine’s actions in the first chapter are a metaphorical foreshadowing of a world that will engage in a childish, futile struggle against the inevitable, her actions in the second portion bring home the cold, hard reality of acceptance and despair in the face of the same. Dunst won the 2011 Best Actress award at Cannes for her turn, as she carries all of this, nakedly (literally, at times): acting as the spiritual guide to a film that rests its intentions on her shoulders. -WC

5. Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen’s pummeling historical drama “12 Years a Slave” is itself a kind of balancing act. It is a rapturously stylized work from a former visual artist that never loses sight of the human atrocities and deep sense of rage and sorrow that exist at its center. It is also a film filled with some rather big performances – Michael Fassbender’s unapologetically evil Edwin Epps comes to mind – that never goes so huge as to lose sight of its central social themes. “12 Years” is a film filled with great turns from great actors, though there may have been none more surprising at the time than the one given by a little-known performer named Lupita Nyong’o. Nyong’o plays Patsey –a hard-working servant who nevertheless suffers under the odious, sadistic rule of Fassbender’s plantation owner, enduring all manners of cruelty and humiliation at his hands. And yet, as envisioned in McQueen’s film, Patsey is no victim. She is someone who harbors a deep sense of pride, even if her ignorant white overseers have done their best to strip her of those qualities. Nyong’o captures this woman’s emotional fortitude with unflinching clarity. The actress would go on to give stranger performances in more broadly accessible work (her villainous turn in Jordan Peele’sUs” comes to mind), but her work in McQueen’s film is some of the best work she may ever do. – NL

4. Cate Blanchett, “Carol”
There’s something utterly antagonizing about the impenetrable sophistication of Cate Blanchett. Often leading pictures as a strong, unemotional figure of power, Blanchett can at times lose the viewer in an act of sheer intimidation. Todd Haynes’ gorgeous romance “Carol” sees Blanchett’s defenses totally crumble. As the title character, the actress begins with a familiar aura of privilege and grace, but once her love for the young photographer/shop clerk Therese develops – this married woman rediscovers desire in a viscerally heartbreaking fashion. She’s well-matched opposite Rooney Mara, as the pair perform their characters through soft glances and whispered confessions. Mouths smile while closed, and the crease of an eyebrow in a moment of pleasure, eyes closed, is performed with such delicacy that intimacy rolls off the screen in waves. It’s in the pair’s distant affection and yearning for each other that the impossibility of the relationship feels so devastating. It feels like one of Blanchett’s most soul-bearing performances by far. The clothes may be more lavish and enveloping than ever – but the artist is as vulnerable as she’s ever been. – EK

3. Isabelle Huppert, “Elle
If you read this site regularly, you don’t need us to tell you what a queen Isabelle Huppert is. She’s a legend of international cinema, having given first-rate performances in everything from Michael Haneke masterworks like “The Piano Teacher” to zany philosophical farces like “I Heart Huckabee’s” and even the De Palma-esque psychological thriller “Greta.” Huppert enjoyed some of the best reviews of her career for her work in Paul Verhoeven’sElle,” and frankly, it’s not hard to see why. As upsetting as the film can sometimes be, “Elle” is easily one of Verhoeven’s best films since his glorious late ’80s/early ’90s run, and the movie simply wouldn’t work without Huppert’s chilly, battle-hardened lead performance acting as its guiding light. Huppert plays Michelle LeBlanc, who is attacked and horribly raped in her home in the film’s stomach-turning opening scene. Michelle works as a developer at a company that manufactures video games that traffic in the same grim, violent misogynist imagery that may have inadvertently contributed to her assault. Michelle refuses to cooperate with the police – after all, we all know how sensitive and delicate the police can be when dealing with this sort of issue – instead opting to unveil the identity of her attacker on her own. Verhoeven handles the thematically tricky material in “Elle” with a surprisingly un-sensational hand (one that is all the more shocking when you consider this is the guy who gave us “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls”), and Huppert does nothing less than give one of the finest performances of her career as this wounded, outraged woman who refuses to be silenced or sidelined. – NL

2. Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight
A few of us had seen Mahershala Ali in a supporting capacity before “Moonlight”: in films like “Predators” and “The Place Beyond the Pines,” and also hamming it up to rather delicious effect as the bad guy on the first season of the Netflix superhero show “Luke Cage.” And yet it does not feel hyperbolic to say that Barry Jenkins’ heart-shattering humanist triumph was effectively the film that introduced Ali’s considerable talents to the world at large. As Juan, the Liberty City-based drug dealer who takes a closeted, wayward youth named Chiron under his wing, Ali embodies a man of powerful paradoxes. He sells narcotics to pregnant women, and yet his heartfelt explanation of why someone may have directed a hateful epithet at Chiron is thoughtful enough to bring a tear to your eye. Throughout the film, Ali masterfully balances his imposing physique with an exposed emotional susceptibility. We remain confident that, in the years to come, Ali’s turn in Jenkins’ sophomore film will be considered the high watermark of a career that is now only getting started. – NL

1. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s turn in “The Master” is not, in fact, the actor’s final performance – that distinction goes to “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2.” And yet, many cinephiles view Hoffman’s galvanic work in Paul Thomas Anderson’s evocative parable about faith as his “last” performance. There’s something both cumulative and conclusive about Hoffman’s performance here: it is a coda for a career spent playing flawed men at war with their basest desires. Lancaster Dodd, the cult leader who serves as the more conceited foil to Joaquin Phoenix’s untethered acolyte Freddie Quell, is, at first glance, a man of intellect and fine taste. And yet, Dodd eventually reveals himself to be a fraud of extraordinary proportions. He’s a bad father, a brutal drunk, and a man who may not even believe in the hopped-up spiritual poppycock he’s shilling. “The Master” indisputably contains some of the finest moments of Hoffman’s career: see the moment near the end where he painfully sings along to “Slow Boat to China,” a mid-movie interlude where he faces off with Phoenix and produces a jailhouse meltdown for the ages, or that iconic moment where he derisively refers to one of his dissenting followers as “Pigfuck.” Hoffman left this world far too soon, but to know he’ll be remembered for this performance (among others) is a small but genuine form of consolation. – NL

Honorable Mentions
Great performances all (to quote Dame Helen Mirren). “And the Oscar goes to Daniel Day-Lewis for—” Okay… all kidding aside, as you’ve no doubt seen us mention numerous times throughout this ‘Best Of’ series, whittling these lists down to a set number of favorites is a near-insurmountable task. We’ve done our damnedest to highlight the performances we see standing the test of time, but, of course, all art is subjective, the performative kind perhaps most of all. 2019 being as great as it was (for movies, that is) also didn’t help. We would have loved to include Awkwafina or Zhao Shuzhen for “The Farewell,” and while May Queen, Florence Pugh may not have gotten in for “Midsommar” or “Lady Macbeth,” we imagine we’ll be talking about her work all throughout the next decade; the same goes for Haley Lu Richardson, impressing in both “Support the Girls,” and “Columbus” (the pair would also be perfectly cast as sisters in something, just saying…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=325sorV06IY

There were several films where we wanted to include a few different actors, as well as several actors with an array of different performances to consider. Jonathan Pryce is great in the “Two Popes,” but honestly our heart lies with his performance in “Listen Up Philip” along with Jason Schwartzman, both of them playing too monstrously funny asshole narcissists. Team “Foxcatcher” is a perfect example: how does one single out one actor between Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum’s triumvirate of trembling performances? Also riding the Bennett Miller train, Brad Pitt barely missed for his subtle star-power turn in “Moneyball.” So did Jesse Eisenberg for Sorkin and Fincher’s “The Social Network.”The late, great James Gandolfini left us with a phenomenal, heartfelt performance in Nicole Holofcener’s “Enough Said.” Sometimes the choice for a given performer was obvious, but other times… not so much. How do you decide between Ryan Gosling doing his best Alain Delon in “Drive” or his incredible work in Damien Chazelle’sFirst Man?” What about Emma Stone in “La La Land;” we theoretically could have put Gosling in there too; see the problem? On that note, we’re upset we can’t include both Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons for their shouting matches in “Whiplash.”

Taking world cinema into account things get even more complicated. Bong Joon Ho’s long-time collaborator Song Kang-Ho does some of his absolute best work in “Parasite” (name an actor better at looking agape; go ahead, we’ll wait). You have Kim Min-hee’s tremendous performances in Hong Sang-soo’s “On the Beach Alone At Night,” and Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden” or Zhao Tao’s never wanted to be a gangster journeyin Jia Zhangke’sAsh is Purest White.” Penelope Cruz was phenomenal in Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” as was Joanna Kulig in Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Cold War.” We went with Adèle Haenel for “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” but very well could have included Noémie Merlant as well. Again, all the gems released this year certainly made making this list no easier. – Andrew Bundy