This wasn’t the best year for this category, but it
got better the closer we got to the end, and some of the best performances came
from the most unexpected places.
Runners-Up:
Harris Dickinson in
Beach Rats is a great as a young, gay man trying to pretend to
exactly like his idiot friends – with fairly dire results. Colin Farrell in The Beguiled has a complicated role, where he has
to be different things to each of the different women in the film – and does it
brilliantly. Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger
does great work, in a tired genre, as a man trying to get his life together
after being disabled in the Boston Marathon bombing – he makes this man a
person, not a saint. Tom Hanks in The
Post makes his role as Ben Bradlee look effortless, which it couldn’t have
been, since this is further outside his comfort zone than normal. Tracey Letts in The Lovers finally gets
a leading role, and shows the great work he’s being doing in support for a
while now translates nicely. Gary Oldman
in Darkest Hour is great, in a larger than life performance as Winston
Churchill on the brink of catastrophe. Adrian
Titieni in Graduation is great as a father, who tries to do whatever
possible to get his daughter into a school in England, even as the rest of his
life unravels. Vince Vaughn in Brawl in
Cell Block 99 is a large, nearly silent lunk in this film – and it’s the
best work of his career.
10.
Andy Serkis in War for the Planet of the Apes
Andy Serkis will always be best known for his
motion capture work as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings movies – that character
became so instantly iconic, and because when they came out, that sort of work
was fresh and new, he essentially invented a different kind of performance.
Yet, his greatest work as an actor has been in the new Planet of the Apes
trilogy as Caesar. I still think his best work is in the first film – Rise of
the Planet of the Apes (even if, as a film, it’s probably the weakest of the
trilogy) – but here, playing Caesar as a leader of the apes, who will do
anything to protect them, he delivers a stirring performance – one that fully
gets the humans on the audience on his side. This is the rare blockbuster
series that I think will age well – and Serkis is a major reason why.
9.
Hugh Jackman in Logan
James Mangold’s Logan is basically the superhero
version of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven – with the hero realizing that his time
has passed him, and it’s time to move on. In order to make that work, you
really do need a performance like the one Jackman gives in this film. For
nearly 17 years, we’ve watched as Jackman’s Wolverine has been pretty much
invincible, as he hacks and slashes his way through one X-Men movie after
another (sometimes to the films detriment – as he isn’t always the most
interesting character). Here though, he has aged, everything hurts, and he can
barely hold everything together. But then, he finds in a little girl, a reason
to fight (so, okay, it’s not quite Unforgiven – Logan remains noble). Jackman
has always been a charming actor, but rarely has been given the opportunity to
be much more than charming. Here, he digs deep, and delivers the best
performance of his career – and really, one the best the superhero genre has
ever seen, in part because we’ve never quite seen a movie like this, and in
part because Jackman was ready to go there. 
8.
James Franco in The Disaster Artist
It would have been easy for James Franco to just do
an impression of the ever strange Tommy Wiseau in The Disaster Artist – just
don a fake accent and bad black wig, and mock the man who is known as the
writer/director/producer/star of the worst film of all time. But Franco doesn’t
do that – not entirely. Sure, Franco has a lot of fun with Wiseau and every
strange thing about him, and the performance really is hilarious, and a spot on
impression. But he also digs deeper into Wiseau’s humanity – showing us a
dreamer, with no self-awareness. He has the resolve to see his vision through
to the end – but not the talent, and he never really realizes the mistakes he’s
making. Yes, it’s a softer portrait of Wiseau than the book – and perhaps
softer than he deserves – but there is a part of Franco that admires Wiseau –
and he brings that to the screen so that you will too.
7.
Colin Farrell in The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Colin Farrell’s performance in The Killing of a
Sacred Deer is a study in inactivity couched in privilege. He plays a surgeon
who has taken under his wing the son of a patient who died on his table
(perhaps his fault, although he’ll never admit it) – only to have that young
man come back at him with a threat – he needs to choose one of his family
members to die, or else they all will. As one thing after another happens, to
lead everyone to believe the threat is real, and unstoppable, Farrell’s surgeon
does, well, nothing. He cannot fathom that he’s going to be punished, and puts
all his faith in science, and then basically goes about his time. Because of
Yorgos Lanthimos’ style, which requires actors to be flat and emotionless in
their delivery, Farrell has to delve deeper in other ways to make this
character clear. It’s not quite at the same level as his work in The Lobster
last year (which was, after all, a better film) – but close. More proof of just
how great Farrell is right now – and how many chances he’s taking. 
6.
Claes Bang in The Square
I have a few, minor quibbles with The Square –
mostly that it’s too long, and doesn’t quite know where and when to end – and
yet I do think that Claes Bang is pretty much perfect in its lead role. It’s
the type of performance that seemingly changes from scene to scene, not because
the character doesn’t make sense, but because he finds himself in one insane
situation after another, never quite knowing how the hell he got there, or how
the hell he can get himself out. This is a performance that ranges from
hilarious to horrifying, and back again often in the same scene. The movie
itself is great – but it teeters on the edge of becoming little more than a
collection of strange sequences, with no through line. But Bang is that through
line – he keeps the whole thing going from one horrifying set piece to another.
5.
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name
Between this and his performance in Lady Bird, this
year was a great coming out party for young Chalamet. He is great in Lady Bird
– playing that guy in high school we all know – but he is even better here. I
particularly liked him in the first hour of this film, when he’s trying to hide
his feelings for Oliver, and trying to pretend everything is normal – when it’s
not. It’s a subtle performance, full of longing – and instant chemistry with
Hammer. Of course, everyone will talk about that final scene – and with good
reason, it’s a feat of acting to just sit there, for minutes on end, and hold
the camera. Chalamet is a star in the making – and shows just how good he can
be here.
4.
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out
Another of the great breakout performances of 2017
was Daniel Kaluuya’s work in Get Out – a performance that is subtle and sneaky
in all sorts of ways. The British actor, who I basically only knew from one
episode of Black Mirror, plays his character in Get Out as a man who is simply
trying to be nice – trying to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, all the
while knowing that there is something just not quite right about everything
going on. He gets his bigger moment’s sure – applause lines late in the proceedings
– but he’s at his very best early, when he’s trying to navigate this house, and
figure out just what the hell is going on. It’s not a performance that calls
attention to itself – I honestly worried he would be completely ignored this
awards season – but it is a brilliant one.
3.
Harry Dean Stanton in Lucky
I can think of no better sendoff for the legendary
Harry Dean Stanton than Lucky – a movie custom written for Stanton, which gives
the character actor a late, great leading role. In the film, he plays the title
character – a 91 year old man, who still smokes every day, drinks every day,
and walks around his small Texas town. He’s outlived his peers, has no family
to speak of, is a lifelong atheist and afraid of death. The movie follows him
on his routine for a few days – and in doing so, becomes a quietly moving film
about this man. Stanton is the only actor who could have delivered this
performance – and he does so in one of his best performances. Stanton will be
missed of course – but I’m grateful we got this film before he died.
2.
Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread
If this is indeed to be Daniel Day-Lewis’ swansong
from acting, than he picked a hell of a role to go out on. His performance as
Reynolds Woodcock, temperamental genius, who requires everything to be exactly
perfect or else he becomes insufferable, truly is one of Day-Lewis’ great
performance. He seems like a man who we know completely from the outset – he
doesn’t hide his attitudes, his opinions, his wants – but he hides something
far greater about himself, even in plain site (in the end, it’s still somewhat
hidden). As Woodcock, Day-Lewis begins the performance as one of those toxic
men we’ve heard about – the monster genius – but it’s far too complicated to
leave it at that. This is one of the deepest, darkest performances of
Day-Lewis’ career – and one of the best.
1.
Robert Pattinson in Good Time
No one is more surprised than I am that Robert
Pattinson has turned into a great actor, and more willing to take chances than
many of his peers. He was horrible in the Twilight films, but the level of
stardom he achieved in them has allowed him to take chances in films directed
by the like of David Cronenberg and James Gray, among others. In the lead role
of the Safdie brothers Good Time, he plays a would-be bank robber, who over the
course of a long night, tries to rescue his brother, and himself into one bad
situation after another – almost of all of which, he gets out of – mainly
because black people are always there to take the film. Yes, in the film, he is
white privilege personified. He is also charming and funny and despicable, and
horrible – and full of a nervous energy, perfect for this film that wants
desperately to be a 1970s New York crime movie – and pretty much nails it.
Pattinson is quite frankly stunning in Good Time – a great performance in a
great film and proof that Kristen Stewart isn’t the only one who is leaving
Twilight behind, on the way to better thing.
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