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.  

Best Lead Actor and Actress 2019

Lead Actor

05. Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Maybe people don't take Leo seriously because of the whole teen idol / Titanic / dates exclusively 20 year old models thing. But besides all that, he is one of our best actors and best movie stars. His role as a washed up TV actor in Once Upon a Time, requires a movie star with superb acting chops, and he delivers. There is a long sequence that features his work on a Western and he is top notch in every single moment of that film. Plus, he's totally badass with a flame thrower.

04. Brad Pitt in Ad Astra - In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pitt was charming and cool and tough. In Ad Astra, he is quiet and interior and sad. Both performances are extraordinary. Obviously, I prefer the quiet, pretty movie to the talky, loud movie. Like DiCaprio, Pitt is a rare breed - a movie star who is actually a great actor as well, hindered by his good looks a little bit, maybe. This beautiful and sad space movie is a slow, sad fever dream and Pitt nails it.

03. Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems - Look, I'm as surprised as you are. I wondered if my undying devotion to the gritty raw power of the directing Safdie brothers would outweigh my ambivalence bordering on disdain for Adam Sandler. The Safdie brothers manage to draw out a performance from Sandler that is so impressive, it may change the way you look at him. Honestly, Sandler kills it on a jeweler with a gambling problem who has a really, really rough few days. And if the fast talking, charm he oozes doesn't convince you he could give a heavy weight acting performance, just watch the expression on his face when he's watching his daughter in her high school play. Dude has been quietly hiding all this ability for decades.

02. Joaquin Phoenix in Joker - To this day, I cannot decide if I liked the movie Joker, or if I was just so blown away by Phoenix's performance, that it made me believe I saw a better movie than I did. Because Phoenix is THAT GOOD in this role. Between his physical transformation, and his quiet building rage, he delivers one of the knock out performances of the year. Heath Ledger may be a better Batman villain Joker, but Phoenix has to deliver in every single scene of the movie - and he does - giving a daring portrait of mental illness, all capped off with a stunning final showdown.

01. Adam Driver in Marriage Story - The saddest part of Marriage Story is the fact that Driver is going to lose his Best Actor Oscar to a guy playing a clown. Adam Driver is the kind of actor you can't take your eyes off of, ever since he stormed through the HBO series Girls, elevating that mess and becoming the only reason to watch it. Since then, he's become a bonafide movie star. He's excellent in everything, but in Marriage Story, he is perfect. He's playing a good man and a good father, who is just not a great husband, and he is perfection from the small intimate moments, to the big, huge fight scene, to singing sad songs from Company at karaoke. Give him all the awards!


Lead Actress

05. Awkwafina in The Farewell - Like Sandler, I never thought Awkwafina would be on a list for best acting, but 2019 was a weird year, and here we are. She's very funny, but in The Farewell she gets serious, as a Chinese artist living in America, who has to travel back to China after her beloved grandmother becomes terminally ill. Instead of telling the grandmother she is dying, the family stages a fake wedding as an excuse for everyone to return to China. The movie is heartwarming and sad and bittersweet and lovely, and Awkwafina carries it along on her shoulders as the most unwilling of participants. She's a revelation here.

04. Saoirse Ronan in Little Women - Every little girl growing up, reading Little Women a dozen times, wanted to grow up to be Jo - tough, resilient, smart, but also stubborn, lonely, quick to anger, unwilling to fall in love (even with the super cute boy next door). Jo, like all the March sisters, is a complicated woman. She's not just one thing, refusing to succumb to her destiny to be the romantic heroine of her life story. She wants more than that in a time when women didn't get that chance very often. Ronan - who is arguably the best actress of her generation - nails it all, from the cockiness to the neediness, from the strength to the sadness. She's the perfect Jo, and she makes it all look easy.

03. Lupita Nyong'o in Us - If you haven't seen Us, I urge you to do so as soon as possible. It gets a little weird, but if you give in to the weirdness, it definitely pays off. And a big part of why you should watch it is this women right here, who gives a stunning, high wire act like performance as two separate characters - a hard working, constantly worried, tough mom... and her wild eyed untethered counter part, a character who only communicates in guttural sounds and animalistic movements. It's a pleasure to watch an actor be so fearless on screen.

02. Florence Pugh in Midsommar - Let's rename 2019 as the year of Florence Pugh. She elevated spoiled brat Amy March to someone almost likable in Little Women, and she embodied the overwhelming nature of grief in Midsommar. From start to finish, it appears as though she went through hell for her Midsommar performance, and she is stunning in every frame. From grieving and unsure little girl, to the queen who rides alone at the end, and everything in between, there isn't a false note. I don't know what it is about director Ari Aster, but he has a knack from getting career best performances from his leading ladies (see also: Toni Collette in Hereditary).

01. Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell - Like Pugh, Moss gave two killer performances this year. The second, the better of the two, is as a former junkie and self-destructive rock star, trying to make a comeback. I didn't love the movie - I thought it was too long and bordered on indulgence, but Moss is amazing. She is relentless, raging through the movie with an all-encompassing manic energy, devouring every inch of the screen. Even if the movie around her isn't great, you can't take your eyes off of Moss.

Best Supporting Actor and Actress 2019

Supporting Actor

05. Tracy Letts in Ford v Ferrari - It should come as no surprise that I think Tracy Letts is a national treasure, not only as a playwright, but also as an actor. After his layered, heart-warming performance as Lady Bird's dad two years ago, he should (FINALLY) be on everyone's radar. Ford v Ferrari tries to get by on the movie star charisma of Christian Bale and Matt Damon, and it mostly does, but Letts - as Henry Ford II - steals every scene that he is in. His crowning moment is the range of emotion he portrays in a single scene - being driven in a race car for the first time. It's a masterclass in acting and a pleasure to watch.

04. Timothee Chalamet in Little Women - Thank goodness we were blessed with a Little Women retelling when Timothee Chalamet is the perfect age to portray romantic leading man Laurie, because he is effortlessly perfect for the role of lovesick boy and charming, drunken, womanizing (as much as you can be those things in a family movie) young romantic suitor. With his delicate beauty, and endless talent, he mesmerizes as Laurie, and makes it look easy. The entire movie is cast so well, but Chalamet is utterly perfect for this role. He has one great, big scene, that is impressive, but it's the little moments - the under the breath comments, the flirtations - that really make this character.

03. Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man in San Francisco - As a sensitive artist, Majors breaks out in a big way in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, one of the most underrated, must-see movies of the year. He's quiet and watchful for the majority of the movie, but has a truly impressive, big scene near the end, which will change the way you look at him and the movie. Keep your eye on him, because he's going to be huge.

02. Song kang-ho in Parasite - The entire ensemble of Korean thriller Parasite is truly impressive, but it's Song kang-ho who steals the movie in a big way. As a down on his luck father, fighting to make a buck to help his family, he saunters on to every frame like he's Korea's answer to Daniel Day-Lewis. By the time you get to THAT TURNING POINT and that AMAZING ENDING, you won't be able to stop thinking about him or his performance.

01. Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Let's call 2019, the year I finally started loving Brad Pitt. And Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - and his killer tough, cool guy performance - is one of the many reasons. Is anyone more effortlessly cool than Brad Pitt in this movie? He's a stunt man and personal driver to a movie star who gets mixed up with the Manson family, all while kicking ass. And did I mention the "fixing the roof shirtless scene"? Because, Jesus, he's beautiful.


Supporting Actress

05. Juliette Binoche in High Life - I'm not sure I can recommend High Life as a movie. Sure, it's got a really great twist ending, but it's also slow and long and not exactly fun to watch. But if you are looking for the ballsiest, gutsiest, most daring, out there performance of the year - look no further than Juliette Binoche, who absolutely kills it as a controversial scientist. She is remarkable to watch.

04. Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers - I wanted to watch Hustlers mostly to see if Lopez is as good as everyone on Twitter says she is... and she is. From doing sexy strip dances to Fiona Apple songs, to playing mama bear to a bunch of wayward strippers, to seducing and destroying the lives of men - she drips and oozes with unabashed movie star magnetism and sex appeal. I firmly believe no one else in all of Hollywood could have played Ramona, the stripper with NO heart of gold, better than Lopez.

03. Elisabeth Moss in Us - The first time we see Elisabeth Moss in Us, she is little more than a cliche - spoiled rich wife and mother who has a subtle disdain for her husband and spoiled brat twins. The next time we see Elisabeth Moss in Us, she is an absolute force to reckon with. I think Moss is one of the most gifted and exciting actresses to watch right now. From stealing the entirety of Mad Men away from Jon Hamm, to her next level work on Handmaid's Tale, she has been the queen of television of the 2000's. Hopefully, soon she will be a movie star, too.

02. Florence Pugh in Little Women - Justice for Amy! In every other adaptation of Little Women, Amy has been portrayed as a one dimensional brat, spoiled and unlikable. But with this retelling, we finally get a layered portrait of Amy - a complicated girl living in a complicated time, struggling with sibling rivalry and trying to marry rich to save her poor family. Pugh makes Amy tough, and yes, a little snotty, but she brings such a vivacity to her performance, that you see the tender and loving side too. Being a woman - and a sister - is complicated, not just black or white - likable or unlikable - and Pugh knocks it out of the park.

01. Laura Dern in Marriage Story - Laura Dern took a little time away from being the only good thing about season two of Big Little Lies to give a bat out of hell performance in Marriage Story. As a savage, killer divorce attorney she manages to be kind and killer, polite and deadly, sweet and savage all while wearing killer heels. If she didn't have your vote for Best Supporting Actress before the trial scene, that will seal the deal. Dern is a national treasure and kills it in every moment of this movie.

Best Actress 2014

05. Elisabeth Moss in The One I Love - For embracing the duality of her role with the utmost of ease. For playing a real woman full of mood swings and emotion who is smart and complicated and not always likeable. For that wicked / sweet smile at the end.

04. Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow - For playing a bad ass heroine with depth and complexity.  For being the only woman (ever??) to steal a movie away from superstar Tom Cruise.  For the "Let's reboot" scene.

03. Scarlett Johansson in Under The Skin - For being sexy and stunning and utterly controlled. For exuding a total lack of emotion that somehow still makes her sympathetic. For the restaurant scene.

02. Reese Witherspoon in Wild - For giving a fearless, gritty, de-glammed performance flawlessly. For playing a haunted woman filled with regret and loss struggling to find her true self. For the scene where she meets the little boy on the trail.

01. Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl - For playing three roles in one; the perfect wife in flashbacks,  the enigmatic missing woman and the brilliant possibly sociopathic true self. For being a ballsy, fearless,  dark, twisted revelation. For the cool girl speech.