Best Actor 2018

05. John Cho in Searching - I wasn't expecting to enjoy Searching quite as much as I did, and a lot of that has to do with Cho's performance as a desperate father looking for his missing daughter. He experiences almost every emotion you can imagine during the running time of the film - from loving, to exasperated, to worried, to pleading, to angry. It's a wonderful performance that starts so subtly and continuously builds with power and emotion.

04. Ryan Gosling in First Man - This performance is a gem, and it might just slip under the radar and garner Gosling no recognition, which would be a shame. Gone is the movie star charisma that makes Gosling so lovable. Instead it's replaced with a singular silence to play Neil Armstrong, a man who shunned the spotlight, and was laser focused on one thing - getting to the moon. It may seem like Gosling isn't doing much with his strong and silent performance, but there are moments when his humanity will still rip your heart out.

03. Bradley Cooper in A Star is Born - Cooper seemingly did it all with this movie - he wrote it, directed it, co-wrote the songs, AND he gives his best performance ever as boozy folk singer Jackson Maine. This performance has an old Hollywood swagger to it, playing a deeply flawed individual with a warts and all intimacy. His chemistry with Lady Gaga is electrifying, and she might steal all the awards season love, but he gives one hell of a performance in his own right.

02. Rami Malek in Bohemian Rhapsody - Say what you will about the movie (critics hated it, fans loved it, I was somewhere in the middle), but Malek's transformation into Freddie Mercury is spectacular. He not only looks and talks like him, but he moves like him too, with the sexy strut of a rock god. This isn't just play acting, this is is something much more. This is Malek completely becoming Mercury, someone we all know so well. His performance is mesmerizing.

01. Daveed Diggs in Blindspotting - Diggs' performance is great from the first scene, but it's that spectacular ending that left me breathless and wanting to re-watch the movie over and over again. Diggs starts out as a lovable felon. He's almost done with his parole, and while he's done something bad, we never think of him as a bad guy. He's kind and funny and hard working. Then he witnesses a police shooting of an unarmed black man, and it turns his whole world upside down. By the time we reach that explosive conclusion, Diggs has given one of the most compelling performances of the year. Diggs is a superstar. I can't wait to see what he does next.