Top Ten List: Best Actor 2011

10. Tom Hardy for Warrior - Hardy, who has previously done such great work in films like Bronson, is electric in Warrior. As a mysterious former Marine who joins the ultimate MMA battle, he is like a caged lion in the ring, all aggression and rage and heart.

09. Michael Fassbender for X-Men: First Class - I know, I know. Fassbender again?? But he was great as the young Magneto, a former prisoner of the Nazi's who starts out as a friend to Professor X but ultimately becomes a very very (sexy) bad man.

08. Michael Angarano for Ceremony - This movie made me realize that in a few years Michael Angarano is going to be just like Sam Rockwell. Watching his performance here, as a young man in love with an older soon to be married woman who shows up at her wedding to wreck havoc, you would think you were watching a young Rockwell. And that's definitely a good thing.

07. Ryan Gosling for The Ides of March - In the second of Gosling's one-two punch this fall, he played a good man working for a bad politician. So when he decides to fight back and manipulate certain events, what does that make him? Luckily, Gosling is just as good as the script, so it's fun trying to figure it all out.

06. Joseph Gordon-Levitt for 50/50 - I've been a fan of Gordon-Levitt's since day one, years ago when he was a young kid on 3rd Rock from the Sun. He did the indie circuit, and wowed everyone with performances in Brick and then moved on to blockbusters like Inception. It's great to see him flexing his considerable acting skills in a very good (highly underrated) comedy about cancer.

05. Ryan Gosling for Drive - The first of Gosling's amazing performances this past fall, he stars as a mysterious man only known as the driver. He's a stunt car driver who gets caught up in a huge scheme involving the local mob and a very scary Ron Perlman and an even scarier Albert Brooks. He doesn't have much dialogue but the movie is still so alive thanks to his expressions and subtlety.

04. Brad Pitt for Moneyball - I don't always like Brad Pitt. For every Fight Club and Seven, there are movies like Seven Years in Tibet and all those awful Oceans movies. But this is the perfect role for Pitt - an aging golden boy, former star who is trying desperately to hold onto to his former glory days on the baseball field and craft a new generation.

03. George Clooney for The Descendants - Clooney is perfection as Matt King, a man struggling with his wife being in a coma she may not come out of, two semi-out of control daughters and a big upcoming real estate venture. This is the single best performance of his career and the reason why he'll most likely win an Oscar in a few weeks.

02. Leonardo DiCaprio for J. Edgar - DiCaprio should win an Oscar for his very versatile performance as J. Edgar Hoover. Unfortunately, the movie is lackluster and so he probably won't win that long, long, long deserved Oscar. However, that doesn't make his profound performance any less impressive.

01. Michael Shannon for Take Shelter - Michael Shannon is transcendent in Take Shelter, as a family man who suddenly begins having nightmares of the end of the world. Is he losing his mind like his schizophrenic mother? Or is he a modern day prophet? This performance is so restrained, so quiet, so simple (not over the top like he can be once in a while), so intense, so beautifully done. It's a shame he's not a bigger star because if he was Hollywood's best character actor would give Clooney a real run for his money in February.