Top Ten Best Performances of 2020

10. Julia Garner as Jane in The Assistant - The Assistant is not an exciting movie.  In fact, not much explicably happens as we follow Garner's put upon assistant throughout a day in her life working for a Harvey Weinstein-esque producer in New York City.  Still, her performance is so taut and controlled, it steadies the movie into becoming compulsively watchable, especially when it's unsettling nature creeps up on you. 

09. Mia Goth as Harriet Smith in Emma. - I've seen Mia Goth in a few different projects now, and she always seems to play someone who is a little strange or a little weird.  I honestly wasn't expecting this kind of performance from her - so pure and innocent, and full of joy.  She inhabits the naivety, childlike wonder and hopeless romanticism of Harriet so perfectly. 

08. Ben Affleck as Jack in The Way Back - As an alcoholic construction worker reeling from a phenomenal personal loss, Affleck is utter, heartbreaking perfection as the messed up Jack.  It's a performance that is so engrossing and so simply outstanding, that it often elevates the story, which is sort of formulaic, but with Affleck at the center, is never boring. 

07. Eliza Scanlen as Milla in Babyteeth - As far as I'm concerned, Scanlen is going to be a huge star.  How someone can go from playing evil Amma in Sharp Objects to sweet Beth in Little Women is beyond me, but now add in this layered and powerful performance as a dying teenager falling in love for the first time, and you are left with someone whose future is very bright.  I read a review where they referred to the movie as "delicate, but never precious" and I think that is an apt description of Scanlen's powerful performance as well.  

06. Anya Taylor-Joy as Emma in Emma. - Taylor-Joy has always seemed like she is of another time or place, so transferring her back to the time of Jane Austen seems like a perfect decision... and it is.  Though we've seen it before, this version of Emma seems absolutely modern, and Taylor-Joy is perfect as the haughty, tunnel vision matchmaker.  She is funny and clever and you just can't take your eyes off of her. 

05. Hayley Bennett as Hunter in Swallow - In a movie that feels like a spiritual successor to Rosemary's Baby, Bennett slays as Hunter, a newly married woman who starts eating inedible things.  Swallow may not sound like a good movie, but it happens to be an unsettling slow burn of a film, with Bennett further making a case for herself as one of the most exciting working actresses today.  

04. Elisabeth Moss as Cecelia in The Invisible Man - **Sigh**  Maybe one day Elisabeth Moss will find a movie that is as good as she is.  Because right now, her talent far outweighs any movie project she has ever been involved with.  She has a knack for choosing great TV roles on great TV shows (Mad Men, Top of the Lake, Handmaid's Tale), but the movies she has been in are below par.  However, she is always great in them, and that is the case here as well.  I found The Invisible Man to be merely average, but Moss is stunning, as usual.  If you want evidence, you only need to watch the first 10 minutes where she wordlessly escapes from an abusive relationship in the dead of night.  She is terrified but determined and resilient.  It's utter perfection.  

03. George MacKay as Ned Kelly in True History of the Kelly Gang - Remember when Marcia Gay Harden invented acting in The Mist?  Watching MacKay carry this movie on his back and act circles around everyone and be simultaneously sensitive and violent, brooding and emotive is sort of like that.  

02. Sidney Flanigan as Autumn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always - This is a movie and a performance that I keep coming back to.  I just can't get either out of my head.  As a 17 year old from rural Pennsylvania with an unwanted pregnancy, this slow and subtle movie follows Flanigan as she travels to New York City to get an abortion.  Her performance is so powerful, made even more so by how small it is.  There are no big emotional outbursts, no yelling, no screaming, no "meaty" actor scenes.  In fact, the most powerful scene is when Autumn has to answer a questionnaire administered by a clerk at the clinic.  The camera never leaves her face as she is asked progressively more excruciatingly intimate questions that she has to answer with either "never," "rarely," "sometimes," or "always."  It's one of the quietest scenes of the year, and one of the most unforgettable. 

01. Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon as Alison, Gabe and Blair in Black Bear - All the passive aggression and aggressive aggression, the bizarre love triangle argumentative spirit, the subtle sexiness, the manipulation and, just, general mind fuckery.  This trio gets all the mind blown, fire emojis.