The Best Movie Performances of the 21st Century

Here's The Ringer List

Thoughts?

 

Denzel in Training Day in the top 10, works for me

 

Gut reactions are:
-A bit of posthumous Lynch overcorrection for that 1 spot
-I think DeNiro is better in the Irishman and should be in a higher spot
-I gotta see Tar

 

I think leaving out Denis Lavant for Holy Motors is pretty crazy

 

Ali in moonlight should be higher

 

Omissions List

Enough with this Game Night shit!

 

Cage in adaptation. should be higher

Some weird picks in the first 30 or so

 

Bjork in Dancing in the Dark comes to mind first.

 

The dual roles for Adaptation should be higher. Cage had other good films this century but Adaptation is such a brilliant takedown of everything sacred in Hollywood and Cage is 100 percent game in the role.

 

How is Mickey Rourke not on here for The Wrestler? That is such a devastating performance, and he managed to do it while having a simpleton as his director.

 

Amy Dunne and Patrick Bateman are easily top 10/top 20, also as I've said before analytical lists kinda miss what people actually watch

 

Some of my favourites in no real order.

Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love. Casting the two most beautiful actors and then tricking the audience that this is a romantic film. A wonderfully deceptive film and performance. Maggie Cheung was in lots of mediocre movies in the 80s and early 90s, and she always elevated even the weakest material.

Cillian Murphy in The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Possibly the best film of the 21st Century?

Zhao Tao in Ash is the Purest White. She's incredible in absolutely anything she does, and it's strange that she pretty much exclusively works on her husbands films, and never anything else.

Anthony Hopkins in The Father. I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, and the final scene where's he's crying for his mum is so heart-wrenching.

Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu in Everything Everywhere all at Once. I love how sincere all these performances are in an absurd film.

Sean Wong Tsz-Lok, a child actor in Time Still Turns the Pages. Your heart will break, a perfect child performance, so all the credit to him and the director.

Kim Min Hee in On the Beach at Night Alone, or Right Now Wrong Then or any other Hong Sang Soo film. A bit like Zhao Tao, she pretty much exclusively acts in Hong films now, and she's always mesmerising.

Garance Marillier in Raw. A grotesque and hypnotic performance.

Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur. Nobody does "smiling while breaking your heart" like Olivia Colman. This is a particularly tragic character and performance.

Leila Hatami & Payman Maadi in A Separation. Two perfect performances where you're not sure who to root for, wonderfully complex and layered.

Leslie Manville in Another Year. Absolute pain in the arse, but you feel so sorry for her.

Eric Cantona in Looking for Eric. The best performance playing yourself?

Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank. The best amateur / debut performance of the 21st Century?

Stephan Graham in This is England. Vile and heartbreaking, Stephen Graham is good in literally anything.

Jeon Do-yeon in Secret Sunshine. An incredible portrayal of grief and forgiveness. The central "forgiveness" scene in this will take your breath away.

Ken Takakura in Riding Along for Thousands of Miles. A very underrated Zhang Yimou film, with a great understated performance.

Vincent Lindon & Juliette Binoche in Both Sides of the Blade. Both of these are always the best thing in everything they're in, and this has some capital A Acting from both.

That's far too many.

 

All right we are going to need more about this.

 

I’ve probably said it’s In the Mood for Love before, but The Wind that Shakes the Barley is a perfect film for me. A messy, complex portrayal of civil war that doesn’t dodge the brutality and difficult choices of war.

It starts as “simple” and unifying against the British rule, but becomes far more difficult in the second half, as it becomes a civil war. As it’s a Ken Loach film, it’s also about a revolution against Capitalism, is the goal to get the Brits out of Ireland or to actually enact real change to the country. Unlike other Ken Loach films, there’s no pretending this is an easy choice.

There’s two debate scenes here that really stick out for me, one where they overrule an independent Irish court because they need the money for the revolution, and the second where they have to choose to accept the treaty or go on fighting, this time against Irish lads.

Incredible film.

 

I haven't watched it in years. I might need to watch it again.

 

Loving that they added Sandler for Uncut Gems but he should also be on for PDL

 

I love Naomi Watts in MD obviously but Laura Dern in Inland Empire (#19) is the more impressive achievement imho

 

may be recency bias but Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths

 

Anthony Hopkins in the father for sure. Also went in not expecting much but was blown away.

 

Naomi Watts should not be #1 either

 

I love that pick for number 1. Would have had her 2 just behind DDL in TWBB but I’m just happy to see Watts recognized for that performance.