We're already halfway through 2017 and I still haven't finished my year-end lists for 2016. I'm putting the final touches on the Top 10, which will hopefully be up within the coming days if my schedule permits it. But for now, enjoy my favorite performances of last year! Behold:
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening (20th Century Women) - Communicates a million shades of hilarity, resentment, openness, and reticence within single reaction shots and line-readings.
Sonia Braga (Aquarius) - Who appears 30+ years/30+ minutes post-prologue and achieves a sense of enduring ease necessary to survive.
Viola Davis (Fences) - Backgrounding Rose with attentive care in first-half scenes and wearily finding her voice in the second.
Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) - Sustains and brazens through Ade’s precarious comedic tone/setpieces, fluidly transitioning from chagrin, amusement, self-containment, and self-abasement.
Isabelle Huppert (Elle & Things to Come) - Two specific women, equal forms of restraint and nerve, both confounded and intrigued by their reactions.
Matches with Oscar: 1/5. (Viola nominated in Supporting; Bening M.I.A.)
Runners-Up: Portman (Jackie), Stone (La La Land), Steinfeld (The Edge of Seventeen) Adams (Arrival), Negga (Loving), Field (Hello, My Name is Doris), Beckinsale (Love & Friendship), Hightower (The Fits)
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Farrell (The Lobster) - Serves the mandates of Lanthimos’s signature sardonic expressionism while adding revealing layers to David's odd predicament.
Ralph Fiennes (A Bigger Splash) - Arrives with such a dogged force of combatively charismatic energy, Harry immediately demands love and exasperation.
Vincent Lindon (The Measure of a Man) - Avoids easy sympathies, whether during muted desperation for income or tacit acceptance of pitiless capitalistic hierarchy.
Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight) - That guarded posture and laconic gaze are so mesmeric yet both communicate decades-long, tensed-up internal tempering.
Denzel Washington (Fences) - A showboat to be sure, but sharply attuned to this detail as part of Troy's flaw/charm.
Matches with Oscar: 1/5.
Runners-Up: Driver (Paterson), Roth (Chronic), Mortensen (Captain Fantastic), Gosling (La La Land), Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins), Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Bernal (Neruda), Simonischek (Toni Erdmann)
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Rossy de Palma (Julieta) - Connects vividly to the knotted histories in Marian’s thread and leaves biggest impact in compacted scenes.
Greta Gerwig (20th Century Women) - Retains her signature charm and comic styling, but refuses to depict Abbie’s pitfalls as cuddly quirks.
Naomie Harris (Moonlight) - Who plays the imposing mother without overwhelming Chiron’s POV nor losing focus of the tiny moments.
Riley Keough (American Honey) - Reads completely authentic as a supervisor who builds her workers up then spitefully tears them down.
Molly Shannon (Other People) - Sells emotional arcs and lived-in relationships, eschewing sitcom-y caricatures and vague mawkishness to win us over.
Matches with Oscar: 1/5.
Runners-Up: Garcia (Little Men), Kidman (Lion), Colman (The Lobster), Fanning (20th Century Women), Moore (Maggie's Plan), Spencer (Hidden Figures), Dickie (The Witch), Zeggers (The Club)
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight) - Quietly and heartbreakingly conflicted through avuncular guidance of Little and as complicit supplier of domestic anguish.
Tom Bennett (Love & Friendship) - A hilarious scene-stealer who crafts inventive ways of remaining generous to castmates and specific to character.
Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) - As endearing as his on-screen persona, but with more wits and range; jives beautifully to Coens.
Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea) - Has to process a lot without fully understanding his own feelings about grief, uncle, growing up.
André Holland (Moonlight) - Guides those amazing interactions with Rhodes towards a rich place of compassion; final embrace says everything.
Matches with Oscar: 2/5.
Runners-Up: Henderson (Fences), Foster (Hell or High Water), Robinson (Morris from America), Crudup (20th Century Women), Shannon (Nocturnal Animals), Harrelson (The Edge of Seventeen), Labeouf (American Honey), Hamilton (Captain Fantastic)
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