New blood is
vital to the film industry – young storytellers with no fear of failure and
young actors with the energy and spark to try anything. Young people are great
for the arts because they do not know any better. Certain things should not
work and sometimes probably should not even be attempted, but if you are
starting at the bottom and there is nowhere to go but up, taking the biggest
risk you can is really the only plan.
That having
been said, this list of performers is almost all seasoned veterans. As I wrote
Tuesday in the Best & Worst feature, when established actors take chances,
there is little more invigorating. Two of the actors I mentioned in that piece
top this list. Acting is often associated with vanity and beauty and all their
related issues, but that is not what I associate with art. Art is ugly,
dangerous, and confrontational. It should scream out for recognition from its core,
not its surface. The following performances cry out for attention because they
come from places of pain and truth, usually buried deep inside but unearthed by
these fantastic performers.
Before we
move on to the list, here are five more performances worth checking out:
Katherine Waterston in Inherent Vice; Mark Ruffalo in Foxcatcher;
Andy Serkis in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Mia Wasikowska in Tracks;
and Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything.
10. Chris
O’Dowd in Calvary
Of all the
lost souls Father James encounters over the course of Calvary, Jack
Brennan, played by Chris O’Dowd, seems both the most lost and the most in need
of being found again. O’Dowd embodies this contradiction with grace and
subtlety. Many of you will know him only from his comedy work, in particular as
Kristen Wiig’s love interest in Bridesmaids, but this performance
is about a thousand miles removed from anything like that. Here, O’Dowd
brilliantly captures the soul of a desperate man in search of anything to
repair the damage done to his life.
9. Michael
Keaton in Birdman
There is
certainly a meta-cinematic angle at play in Michael Keaton’s performance in Birdman,
with Keaton, a former megastar for playing Batman in the early 1990s, playing a
washed-up former superhero-movie star. That reading of the film exists and is
fun to ponder, but it does a disservice to the edgy, complex character Keaton
creates in Birdman. He is not Riggan Thompson, but he understands
him on a level none of us could hope to. That some may be unable to distinguish
the two is a credit to Keaton’s performance.
8. Lisa
Loven Kongsli in Force Majeure
Forgive the
play on words, but Lisa Loven Kongsli’s performance in Force Majeure is
a tour de force. I have already written a bit about her work in the film
(here), but it bears repeating. Kongsli is a relatively untested film actress
with only a handful of features to her name, but she is the beating heart and
wounded soul of Ruben Östlund’s
black comedy. Her contribution is nothing short of a miracle, and though there
are flashier roles on this list, Kongsli is the one who does the most with the
least. While the rest of her family’s world spins out of control, she is the
one left to sort out the pieces, and as she does, Kongsli invests the character
with sharp wit, cool calculation, and deep empathy.
7. Julianne
Moore in Still Alice
Julianne
Moore is among the most reliable actresses working in the business today. Even
when the films around her are lacking, she devotes herself fully to her craft. Still
Alice is a film worthy of that devotion, and Moore does not
disappoint. She plays a brilliant woman struck in her prime by early-onset
Alzheimer’s. We see her at her best and at her worst as the disease ravages her
mind, and through it all, Moore gives us the full picture of a woman who loses
everything she held dear but only rarely has the faculties to realize it. It is
devastating, immaculate work of the kind we have come to expect from Moore but
should treasure none the less.
6. Brendan
Gleeson in Calvary
With every
performance, Brendan Gleeson just gets better and better, such that I hasten to
call Calvary his career-topping work because he is capable of
magnificence every time he appears on screen. It is enough, then, to say this
is his best so far. He plays Father James, a Catholic priest in a town without
faith. The locals try to beat him down and bring him to their level, but they
cannot. His large build commands attention wherever he is in the frame, so even
as the townspeople try to belittle him, it is bred into his DNA that he will
stand tall. Gleeson is expert at using his body as part of the character,
imposing his will simply by being imposing, though the town continues to slip
from him.
5. Philip
Seymour Hoffman in A Most Wanted Man
It is
impossible to discuss Philip Seymour Hoffman’s work in A Most Wanted
Man without feeling the pangs of sadness at the knowledge we will
never see him lead a film again. Though the despair will linger, we have the
work, and his final starring turn is among the best work he ever did. As a
German intelligence officer tasked with preventing terrorist attacks, Hoffman
has the walk, the talk, and the weary energy of a man who has been at this too
long but who does not know what else to do. The character is built in silence,
as Hoffman slumps his shoulders, shuffles his feet, and scrunches up his face
to clue us in to who this man was and is. It is a masterclass in subtlety and
understatement, and when he finally does erupt, we remember what made Hoffman
so great, and we feel sad once more.
4. Michael
Fassbender in Frank
With Hoffman
gone, the title for “best actor of his generation” is up for grabs, and if I am
on the nominating committee, Michael Fassbender gets my vote with no runner-up.
From Shame to Hunger to 12 Years a Slave, Fassbender has
proved time and again that he can grasp the soul of pain and reflect it back to
us through film. How refreshing, then, to see him pull a complete 180-degree
turn from anything he has done before. As Frank, the leader singer of the best
band you will never hear of, Fassbender drips pure joy and manic energy. With
his face covered nearly every minute he is on screen, Fassbender conveys
everything he needs to with his body and his voice. Even behind a mask, the
character is nothing less than fully present, and that is thanks to Fassbender’s
tremendous talent.
3. Timothy
Spall in Mr. Turner
This
may well be the definitive portrait of the artist as an old man. JMW Turner has
reached the pinnacle of his profession, then watches it all fade into nothing.
As Turner, Spall captures essence of the highs and the lows, the successes and
indignities, as he takes us on a 25-year journey through the character’s life.
What makes it all the more remarkable is that Turner, while notoriously prickly,
is the least expressive character in the film. He communicates by grunts, grumbles,
and grimaces, yet through Spall, the audience experiences the full range of
emotions of a man whose surface rarely changes but whose feelings run as deep
as anyone’s.
2. Jake
Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler
No one
transformed himself more for a role this year than Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. As Louis Bloom, the
logical result of a gold-star, self-esteem culture manifested in human form,
Gyllenhaal is unrecognizable. He is a gaunt, angular, predator of the night,
preying on the pain of others with no moral compass to guide him through the
darkness. He is not evil. He is worse. He is a sociopath who sees the world as
his inheritance. His persistence and self-belief are his weapons, and he wields
them expertly.
From 2013’s Prisoners to Enemy earlier in 2014 to Nightcrawler,
Gyllenhaal has taken on the kinds of roles other actors in his position would
shun. At this point in his career, he could do anything he wants. In choosing
these parts, Gyllenhaal is reaffirming a commitment to craft over commerce, and
that will always be commendable.
1. Charlotte
Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac
Though she has been acting for 30 years, you
may not be familiar with Charlotte Gainsbourg, and that is okay. If pressed to
name the most popular films she has appeared in, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21
Grams and Michel Gondry’s Science of Sleep would probably top the
list. As much as she might deserve to be, she will never be one of the most
famous actors in Hollywood. However, she is one of the most adventurous,
passionate actors you will ever see on screen.
I have written before about her
collaborations with director Lars von Trier. He makes dense, angry, challenging
films about dense, angry, challenging people. In von Trier, Gainsbourg has
found an ideal partner, and together, they have stretched the perception of
what is possible in film acting. As a sex addict whose addiction has finally
gotten the best of her in Nymphomaniac, Gainsbourg elevates her
performance to the level of art, then transcends that. She is a walking,
talking totem to pain, misery, and disappointment, all of which ooze out of
every pore. When we talk about performances that scream out from their cores,
this is what we mean. This is the best performance of the year.
Check back tomorrow as Last Cinema Standing's Year in Review concludes with the Top 10 Films of the Year.
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