30. Christian Bale – “Vice” [Review]
Last time the chameleon Christian Bale got called up for on team Adam McKay he played an idiot savant. For “Vice,” McKay’s latest about former Vice President Dick Cheney, Bale plays the Veep as a silent but deadly force, who is also a mediocre boob who eventually acquires a taste for power. Radically changing his appearance once again to become an unrecognizable blob, Bale put on 40lbs, shaved his eyebrows and sports a bald cap — that’s all the surface fun stuff. But his real magic trick is embodying the locked-jaw unpleasantness and soullessness of a man without a heart. – Rodrigo Perez
29. JK Simmons – “Counterpart” TV [Review]
It took a preposterously long time for JK Simmons to win his Oscar (for “Whiplash“) but one of the side-effects was that demand for the always-in-demand stalwart has intensified. Stroke of genius then, for Justin Marks to dream up “Counterpart” which is a clever alternate-universe thiller, but if it had only been an excuse to give us two Simmonses, would also have been worth it. The “one version is mild-mannered; the other is a devious psycho” dual-role thing could feel contrived, but Simmons has made a career alternating between hardasses (“Oz“) and softies (“Juno“) and “Counterpart” lets him, brilliantly, play both ends against the increasingly gray-area middle.
28. Elizabeth Debicki – “Widows,” [Review] “The Tale” [Review]
Confession: I am a bit in love with Elizabeth Debicki, the most fascinatingly tall actress in Hollywood. Seriously, her height is a potent asset that proves her versatility: Sometimes she uses it to magnify her character’s self-esteem issues, as with her dextrous turn as abused wife Alice in “Widows.” And sometimes it gives her an otherworldly elegance that dazzles — never to more sinister effect than in Jennifer Fox‘s “The Tale” in which Debicki delivers one of the line readings of the year when she’s asked why she didn’t save her young charge from abuse, and replies, coolly from that great height, “Nobody saved me.”
27. Amy Adams – “Sharp Objects” TV [Review]
Camille Preaker, Amy Adams‘ character in Jean-Marc Vallee’s “Sharp Objects” miniseries is unusual in that her unglamorousness is not an affectation, it’s an integral part of the character. A recently institutionalized alcoholic, she is sullen, hostile and defines herself in opposition to the genteel femininity that her mother foists on her younger sister — in part so her long-sleeved sweaters can cover the self-harm scars all over her body. Adams, who can, and has, played Disney Princess-pretty in the past, embodies the character’s demons and self-loathing so thoroughly and commits to the grimy physicality of Camille’s joyless perma-hangover vibe that even the shows least convincing twists have this core of grit to ground them.
26. Charlize Theron – “Tully” [Review]
Just when we were starting to forget the physical transformations of which the gorgeous and golden Charlize Theron is capable, here she comes with “Tully,” which reunites her with her “Young Adult” director Jason Reitman and gives him his best film since “Young Adult.” As the harried, underslept, self-neglectful Marlo, the mother of a newborn and two other kids, Theron goes all-in on the exhaustion: Marlo is the kind of wrecked that movie motherhood never suggests is possible, with her physical degradations (leaky boobs, baby weight, greasy hair) so unsparingly showcased that it must be a source of intense comfort to anyone who’s been through anything like it.
25. Richard E. Grant – “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” [Review]
You could probably argue that yes, Richard E. Grant’s sure-to-be-Oscar-nominated turn (and lord, we hope that happens: few have expressed such genuine joy and gratitude in the face of awards season as Grant has this year) is essentially just a version of Withnail from “Withnail & I” three or four decades on. But that ignores the fact that 1) Withnail is one of the greatest comic performances of all time so it’s not exactly unwelcome to see Grant do something in a similar register, and 2) the pathos, warmth, cowardice, and loneliness that Grant gives Jack Hock in Marielle Heller’s wonderful film. He’s a man who’s been spinning lies so long that he’s even fooled himself, and his final reunion with Melissa McCarthy’s Lee Israel when everything has finally caught up with him is one of the most moving scenes in cinema this year.
24. Danai Gurira – “Black Panther” [Review]
It’s been a banner year for alumni of “The Walking Dead,” with Steven Yeun giving a revelatory turn in “Burning” and Danai Gurira, who is also series regular, literally killing it as Okoye, the ferociously loyal and madly skilled spear-warrior general of the all-female Wakandan special forces unit, the Dora Milaje. She’s funny, fierce and fair-minded, a straight-up hero, but Gurira’s Okoye also gives “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” two of their most affecting moments: in the first when she comes face-to-face with her lover on the battlefield, and in the second when she lets out that cry of anguish seeing her beloved King T’Challa disintegrate into dust. Once she gets over her grief, though, she’d look great in that panther suit…
23. Bradley Cooper – “A Star Is Born” [Review]
While co-star Lady Gaga is getting buzz for her breakout performance including from us, if we were forced to pick a performance MVP in Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut it would be Cooper himself, for the gravelly gravitas he brings to the film’s most tragic role. Not only carrying off the singing and gigging portions of the film with raw, rock-star charisma, Cooper plays Jackson Maine with all the jaded fatalism of a man who’s been on the road so long that he hardly recognizes home anymore, except in those brief moments when the harmonies between him and Ally just happen, giving him a high he’ll chase until he’s far, far from the shallow and in too deep to get back.
22. Carey Mulligan – “Wildlife” [Review]
The frustrations of being a bright and attractive woman trapped in a slowly failing marriage in the early ’60s have never been so acutely brought to life as in Carey Mulligan‘s razor-sharp, minutely nuanced performance in Paul Dano‘s deeply impressive directorial debut, “Wildlife.” Mulligan exudes a kind of unknowable glamor in the eyes of her slightly dazzled son (an excellent Ed Oxenbould) from whose perspective the film is told, while at the same time embodying the thwarted ambitions of a woman who wants a bigger life. Her Jeanette can be deeply unsympathetic, but she is never less than fascinating and never less than her own creation.
21. Willem Dafoe— “At Eternity’s Gate” [Review]
Let us never forsake the greatness of the underappreciated Willem Dafoe (who actually learned to paint for this role). The magnificent 63-year-old actor plays famously troubled artist Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s latest and it’s not so much a performance as it is a channeling of an ecstatic, fragile essence (often not employing much dialogue). Dafoe’s delicate artist faces skepticism, ridicule, and illness, and all of it pierces and pains him deeply. But the character is “touched” and can seemingly tap into the grace and spirituality flowing from nature in a way mere mortals will never understand. Malick would be proud. – RP