Listmania ‘10! Performances Of The Year
It’s tempting to think of 2010 as the year that women ruled cinema. That would almost certainly be too bold a statement, but it’s worth noting that when collating my favourite performances of the year I had to think for a while before getting my usual six candidates for Best Performance From An Actor, but there were so many strong performances from women in well-written and conceived roles that I had to prune out some of my absolute favourite work of the year. Apologies to Catherine Keener (Please Give), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), Rachel Weisz (Agora), Aggeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth), Michelle Yeoh (Reign of Assassins), Kristin Scott Thomas (Partir), Marion Cotillard (Inception), and Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole).
Compare that to the actors I left out: Colin Farrell, who was great in Neil Jordan’s Ondine, Riz Ahmed and Kayvan Novak for providing the heart that powers Four Lions, Kôji Yakusho for his badassery in 13 Assassins, Aaron Eckhart for providing the understandable histrionics in Rabbit Hole, and Will Forte for his shameless work in MacGruber. And yes, I’m serious on that last one. It’s one of the funniest comedic performances I’ve seen in years, truly shameless and 100% full-on. Still, that’s not as big a list, considering the meatiest roles usually go to actors. I’m certainly not so optimistic / delusional to think that this is evidence of some kind of sea change, but it is heartening, and one of the best things about cinema in this otherwise quite low-key year. The lack of good roles for non-white performers, however, is deeply depressing. Perhaps I’m not watching the right films, but even so, I can’t think of anyone of “colour” (sorry, that always sounds patronising coming from someone as white as me) who was given a meaty role this year. It almost makes me pine for Precious. Almost.
I’ve subtly changed my annual performances list by stressing it’s the performance that matters, not the performer. In the past it’s seemed like I’ve been dissing the person and not their work. There are some people that I’ve listed in the “Worst” category here that have just had a bit of a crappy year, or were directed poorly. It’s no reflection on the person: I just think that something went wrong in the conception of the role. Yes, this is another of my regular caveats. And so, here we go, with what might be my favourite performance of the last 10 years. Yes, she’s THAT GOOD.
Best Performance By An Actress: Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Honorable Mentions:
Annette Bening - The Kids Are All Right
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
Greta Gerwig – Greenberg
Carey Mulligan – Never Let Me Go
Emma Stone – Easy A
Best Performance By An Actor: Ben Stiller – Greenberg
Honorable Mentions:
Andrew Garfield – Never Let Me Go
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Mark Ruffalo - The Kids Are All Right
Ryan Gosling – Blue Valentine
Casey Affleck – The Killer Inside Me
Best Performance By A Supporting Actress: Olivia Williams – The Ghost Writer
Honorable Mentions:
Dale Dickey – Winter’s Bone
Mia Wasikowska – The Kids Are All Right
Rebecca Hall - Please Give
Chloe Moretz – Kick-Ass
Ellen Page – Inception
Best Performance By A Supporting Actor: Zach Galafianakis – It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Honorable Mentions:
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Andrew Garfield – The Social Network
Jackie Chan – The Karate Kid
Nicholas Cage – Kick-Ass
Eddie Marsan – The Disappearance of Alice Creed
Best Individual Voice Work – Steve Carell – Despicable Me
Best Voice Cast / Direction: Toy Story 3
Best Cameo: James Franco / Mila Kunis – Date Night
Most Likeable Cast: Going The Distance
Worst Performance By An Actress: Milla Jovovich – Resident Evil: Afterlife
Dishonorable Mentions:
Cameron Diaz - Knight and Day
Julia Roberts – Eat, Pray, Love
Sarah Jessica Parker – Sex and the City 2
Katherine Heigl – Killers
Jennifer Aniston – The Bounty Hunter
Worst Performance By An Actor: Brendan Fraser – Extraordinary Measures
Dishonorable Mentions:
Gerard Butler – The Bounty Hunter
Benicio Del Toro – The Wolfman
Aaron Johnson – Chatroom
Ashton Kutcher – Valentine’s Day
Chris Messina – Devil
Worst Performance By A Supporting Actress: Uma Thurman – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Dishonorable Mentions:
Jamie Winstone – Boogie Woogie
Taylor Swift – Valentine’s Day
Heather Graham – Boogie Woogie
Jessica Alba – Machete
Brittany Daniel – Skyline
Worst Performance By A Supporting Actor: Sam Neill – Daybreakers
Dishonorable Mentions:
Steven R. MacQueen – Piranha 3D
Aasif Mandvi – The Last Airbender
Jackson Rathbone – The Last Airbender
Jackson Rathbone - Twilight: Eclipse
Tom Selleck – Killers
Worst Individual Voice Work: Jim Sturgess – Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole
Worst Voice Cast / Direction – Despicable Me
There are a lot of terrific actors in this movie, and Steve Carell’s work is so perfect I feel like giving everyone else a break, but in general the jokes are either hammed up or allowed to die (I’m looking at you, Russell Brand), and the cutesiness is way overplayed. It’s what stops the movie from being truly satisfying. A pity.
Worst Cameo – Eli Roth – Piranha 3D
Least Likeable Cast: The Switch
Again, a lot of terrific actors, some of whom are SoC faves, but in something this unpleasant and badly conceived, no one stands a chance. We just wanted every character in the film to fall into a threshing machine. Not a good thing to have in a romcom.
Most Incomprehensible Cast: The Expendables
Just for Stallone alone, but poor Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren — neither of whom are the best speakers of English — complicate matters further. Jason Statham and Mickey Rourke are mumblers at the best of the time too. I’m still not 100% sure what the movie was really about.
Breakthrough Performance by an Actress: Jennifer Lawrence - Winter’s Bone
Breakthrough Performance by an Actor: Patrick Fabian – The Last Exorcism
“Where Have You Been?” Actor of the Year: Michael Keaton – The Other Guys / Toy Story 3
Scenestealer of the Year: Craig Robinson – Hot Tub Time Machine
Most Entertaining Performance in a Terrible Movie: Pierce Brosnan – Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Most Wasted Actor: Kim Coates - Resident Evil: Afterlife
Best Accent: Kim Cattrall – The Ghost Writer
Worst Accent: Jake Gyllenhaal - Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Best Performance By Hott Sam Rockwell: Iron Man 2
Best Replacement For Another Actor Who Was Controversially Removed From A Franchise: Don Cheadle - Iron Man 2
Best Replacement For Another Actor Who Left A Potential Franchise To Star In A Shitty Mr. & Mrs. Smith-Esque Disaster: Angelina Jolie – Salt
Best Performance From An Actress Brought In To Replace A Less Famous Actress And Then Asked To Do Almost Nothing Challenging Because The Entire Franchise Is Just Awful, Let’s Face It, But Still, She Was Good, As She Always Is: Bryce Dallas Howard – Twilight: Eclipse
Best Performance From One Of Those Rapsters That The Kids Like These Days: Sean “P. Diddy” Combs – Get Him To The Greek
Hammiest Performance By Michael Sheen: Tron: Legacy
Soon to come: crew contributions of the year, featuring my completely not surprising Best Director pick.
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Shades of Caruso Mini-Blog- Listmania ’11! The Best Movies Of The Year December 31, 2011
Admit it: the ONLY reason you created the “Most Entertaining Performance in a Terrible Movie” category was because you wanted an excuse to post that Centaur Pierce picture again, wasn’t it?
As for poor Bryce Dallas Howard, I am still waiting for her to be in a film that’s actually worthy of her talent. She’s sort of the female Paul Bettany, except she hasn’t even had her Master and Commander yet.
Perhaps, though no one ever needs an excuse to print a post of Pierce Centaur-Brosnan. I want a t-shirt with him on it, standing on a clifftop looking at a sunrise and drinking from a 2 litre bottle of cheap retsina. It will contain a mysterious power greater than that of Three Wolf Moon. I urge you to watch that POS movie just for the five minutes that he’s in. He was good value for money last year. He was amusingly Blairsleazy in The Ghost Writer and was the only good thing about the atrocious Remember Me. I’ve grown fond of Mr. Brosnan over time.
As for Bryce, I hope you realise you inspired Daisyhellcakes to taunt me by saying that the fragrant Ms. Dallas Howard looks like a female version of Paul Bettany, and then scour the Internet for pictures “proving” this. As a fan of Bryce’s face, this was most distressing. (Agreed on the film front. When The Village is the closest you’ve been to being in a good film, an intervention is needed.)