By now, we know the theme of this year-in-review project is more what is missing than what is here. Among the acclaimed performances I have yet to see are Frances McDormand in Nomadland, Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman, and Steven Yeun in Minari. There are others, and I look forward to catching up with all of them in the months to come. None of that, however, takes away from the tremendous work I was able to see in 2020 and which we celebrate below.
First, five more excellent performances that I saw in 2020 that did not quite make the top 10 (alphabetically): Radha Blank in The 40-Year-Old Version; Julia Garner in The Assistant; Jude Law in The Nest; Noémie Merlant in Portrait of a Lady on Fire; Shaun Parkes in Small Axe.
The Top 10:
10. Carrie Coon as Allison O’Hara in The Nest
Carrie Coon, so good in her smaller film roles over the years and as the star of HBO’s The Leftovers, finally gets a role in which she can unleash the full breadth of her talents. As a woman who slowly realizes the depths of her husband’s delusions and the faulty foundation on which her life has been built, she is tremendous. Coon lets the character’s quiet reserve fester until it explodes into fury and that fury precipitates action as Allison takes back her life.
9. Sharlene Whyte as Agnes Smith in Small Axe
The underrated final portion of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, Education, is a searing indictment of “educationally suboptimal schools” in the UK, where mostly children of color are sent by a white school system that no longer wants anything to do with them. Sharlene Whyte is phenomenal as a mother who learns of the “education” her son is receiving at his school and resolves to do something about it. Whyte never softens the character’s harder edges, depicting a woman whose life may be difficult but who will go to any lengths for the welfare of her children.
8. Delroy Lindo as Paul in Da 5 Bloods
Delroy Lindo has been in movies and on television for more than 45 years, but too rarely has he been the lead, and never has he been given a character of this much nuance and depth. Lindo brings great pathos to the character of a Trump-supporting Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD who loses his mind in the jungle. The lengthy monologue he delivers directly to the camera toward the end of the film is among the finest pieces of acting of this or any other year, and Lindo makes it look effortless.
7. Adèle Haenel as Heloïse in Portrait of a Lady on Fire
It would be difficult to argue against Adèle Haenel as the finest actress working in French cinema today. The 32-year-old Parisian is a seven-time Caesar Award nominee (the French Oscars equivalent) and two-time winner. She has been great in everything from minor roles to leads, and as the repressed muse of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, she makes the case for global superstardom. Whether she wants it or not is up to her, but the strength and passion of this performance are proof enough that there is nothing to hold her back.
6. Viola Davis as Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Viola Davis can do anything. I do not mean that only in the acting sense. I feel like you could ask her to perform surgery and she would do a fine job of it. Such is the intelligence and confidence she imbues all of her characters with, and Ma Rainey is just further evidence. Ma Rainey is a woman who knows her worth and refuses to settle for less than her due, and like the great jazz performers depicted in the film, Davis uses all the notes in the scale to bring the character to life.
5. Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia Kass in The Invisible Man
From Florence Pugh in Midsommar to Lupita Nyong’o in Us to Toni Collette in Hereditary, horror films have given us some of the most extraordinary performances by actresses in recent years. I am not sure what it says about the industry for that to be true -- or rather, I could not speculate in this small space -- but whatever the reason, the genre continues to offer up complex, powerful female leads that are missing from so much of the rest of cinema.
Of course, it requires great performers to take advantage of these characters, and Elisabeth Moss has shown time and again that she is one of the finest performers we have. The role of Cecilia could be that of a typical scream queen in a lesser movie, but Moss and the filmmakers are committed to showing the character’s slow descent into madness and finally her rise to empowerment. Moss is expert at depicting every frayed nerve in her character as Cecelia is hunted and terrorized but never loses sight of the inner strength she possesses.
4. Renée Elise Goldsberry as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton
Any single member of the featured cast of Hamilton could appear on this list. They are all uniformly superb. Renée Elise Goldsberry, however, makes such an impression when she is on stage that the character of Angelica casts a large shadow over the entire show, despite appearing in relatively little of the lengthy production. “Satisfied” is a show-stopping number in every sense of the word, commanding the audience’s full attention as Angelica rewinds the clock and tells part of the story from her perspective.
It is one of the more experimental flourishes in the Broadway smash, but with Goldsberry at its center, we are with it every step of the way. The performance is a vocal masterclass, with Goldsberry using every syllable like a painter uses brush strokes. What the film version makes clear, though, is the depth of the portrayal. The pain, the regret, the betrayal, the forgiveness, Goldsberry has internalized the character to the point where it exists in the smallest movements, as well as the grandest flourishes.
3. Riz Ahmed as Ruben in Sound of Metal
From his work in the blackly comic satire Four Lions to the deranged phantasmagoria that was Nightcrawler, two things have always been abundantly clear about RIz Ahmed: He is a wonderfully physical performer and an intensely smart performer. Ruben, a heavy metal drummer losing his hearing, requires both of those traits, and Ahmed absolutely shines.
Ruben’s life is dedicated to movement, whether physically behind the drum kit or geographically while on tour. There is no stillness, so when he becomes figuratively imprisoned by the loss of his hearing, he reacts like an animal caged. He knows he needs help, but he cannot quiet his mind long enough to ask for the kind of help he truly needs. Ahmed executes all of this with Newtonian precision: He is a body at motion that wants to remain in motion, but he cannot stop the outside forces of life.
2. Sidney Flanigan as Autumn in Never Rarely Sometimes Always
We talked about that scene last time in our Quotes and Moments column, but go back and watch it again. It cannot be overstated how much Sidney Flanigan is doing in that moment to bring us into Autumn’s world, as she relives all the traumas and disappointments of a short but brutal life. Eliza Hittman’s camera never looks away, which means the audience never looks away, as Autumn breaks down before our very eyes. Through it all, Flanigan, the 22-year-old first-time film actress, never steps wrong.
The film, though, is more than a single scene, and Flanigan’s performance is more than a single moment. Autumn’s breakdown would not hit as hard for us if Flanigan had not invested the time and work into all the small moments that come before it. She creates a character of strength and resolve, forced to protect herself, like so many others, by putting up seemingly insurmountable emotional walls. Flanigan builds these walls so skillfully that when they do come down, as they must, it is shattering.
1. Chadwick Boseman as Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
It might be tempting in some corners to call this a stunt, to suggest Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death in some way contributed to his placement at No. 1 here. That temptation, however, would only occur to folks who have not seen this movie. As good as one might hope Boseman would be in his final onscreen appearance, he is better. This is a performer doing career-best work, working at the peak of his skills, and we are left wondering only how high the peak could have gotten.
In Da 5 Bloods, Boseman plays a soldier, but it is here as Levee where he feels like a man at war -- at war with himself, at war with those around him, at war with the world. He fights, using every ounce of strength within him, to put on a show for all to see. The swagger, the shoes, even the music, it all hides the pain he dares not show. Finally, when that pain is released, it is like a crack opening in the very crust of the earth, and he spews the red-hot magma of his rage over everyone and everything in his vicinity.
Of course, it begins with August Wilson’s beautiful words, but there is a short list of actors talented enough to bring their full depth into the open. James Earl Jones could do it. Denzel Washington could do it. And here, Chadwick Boseman has done it. The “Your god ain’t shit” monologue deserves to go down in history with the great film speeches. Boseman makes it equal parts frightening and pained. Simply, it is the kind of work great actors do, and damn was he great.
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