From diabolical tech terrorism to brutal slave ownership, the actors that make up this year’s best traversed a wide canvas of creative and cinematic choices.
Director: Drew Goddard
Cast: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford
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Richard Jenkins / Bradley Whitford
The Cabin in the Woods
Like a well seasoned comedy team, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford provide the provocative meta center of reference for this delightful deconstruction of hoary old horror movie tropes. As bureaucrats forced to find unwilling victims for their dark God overlord’s fright night enjoyment, this bland, button down duo delivers in both the standard laugh dynamics as well as grounding the otherwise outlandish premise in all manner of office space specificity. By the end, when Hell has been literally unleashed and they must fend for themselves, their true weasel-like nature comes forth. Until then, they are the jaded post-modern movie audience, cynically commenting on everything they see while enjoying the gory, blood and guts ride along the way. Bill Gibron
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Dennis Christopher
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Christoph Waltz
Django Unchained
Christoph Waltz suffers from something we critics like to call “Werner Herzog Syndrome”. Like the well-known German auteur, this amazing actor could read literally anything — a grocery list, a summons, 50 Shades of Gray — and make it sound inherently interesting and entertaining. Here, he plays an ex-dentist turned bounty hunter whose making a killing — both figuratively and financially — among the outlaw attributes of pre-Civil War America. Taking on Jamie Foxx’s sullen slave as an apprentice, he spends most of the time talking about his career choices, his sense of duty, and in one memorable moment, the art of negotiation. Again, like Herzog, one could list to Waltz blather on and on and never once grow bored. In this case, the character created by Quentin Tarantino benefits from such a superb vocal presence. Bill Gibron
Director: Adam Shankman
Cast: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Åkerman, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise
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Tom Cruise
Rock of Ages
Granted, the movie is awful. Any junky jukebox compilation of ’80s hair metal would definitely suffer from an overdose of vocally challenged Hollywood performers. But as the aging, out-of-touch rocker trying for yet another career comeback, Cruise gets it. He has the swagger and the savvy, but he also understands the notion of adulation lost and the deep seeded desperation to get it back. Watching his Stacey Jaxx struggle to get the recognition that fuels his engorged ego is like revisiting Cruise’s career circa the beginning of the new millennium. No other superstar carries as much personal baggage as the Saint of Scientology, and with this performance, the actor channels his challenges to create one of the most honest portrayals of past glories ever. Bill Gibron
Director: Ang Lee
Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Gerard Depardieu, Rafe Spall
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Suraj Sharma
Life of Pi
The bundled nerve center of Ang Lee’s masterful Life of Pi is Suraj Sharma, who plays the titular Indian teenage boy with a sense of bravery and commitment that belies his years and his lack of previous onscreen experience. Sharma convincingly embodies Pi’s mingled fear and wonder at his isolation on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with only a tiger as tense company. But Sharma is not merely a Spielbergian vessel for wide-eyed awe. He lets us into Pi’s lively mind as he adapts and formulates solutions to his hardships. Sharma’s Pi Patel is an active survivor who is in control of his own story, both in the living and in the telling. Ross Langager
Director: Gareth Evans
Cast: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Donny Alamsyah ,Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Tegar Setrya, Ray Sahetapy
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Yayan Ruhian
The Raid: Redemption
When people talk about this violent, brutal Indonesian action flick, they are always going on about star Iko Uwais and director Gareth Evans. In 2009, the duo introduced the martial art pencak silat to moviegoers with their excellent Merantau, and this fight filled fracas is no different. But the real find here is Ruhian, who plays the unstoppable fist force Mad Dog. Small in stature but long on knuckle to nose endurance, his fight scenes with star Uwais are marvels of human endurance. Like watching wire fu for the first time, or seeing Jet Li deliver a carefully choreographed beatdown, there is a joy in such savagery, an appreciation of the stunt work wonders that come with such precise pummeling. Uwais is already famous. Here’s hoping Ruhian gets the cult call out he deserves. Bill Gibron
10 – 6
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe
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Display Width: 250Javier Bardem
Skyfall
Is Raoul Silva the first gay Bond villain? It sure seems that way, considering the near seductive sequence the baddie shares with our celebrated superspy. As he slowly circles his MI6 prey and suggests unseemly things, we get the distinct impression of someone going slash via some 007 fan fiction. But then a truer motivation is revealed via one of the most disturbing make-up/CG shots ever, as Silva’s acid ravaged jaw line is sickeningly revealed. As he did in No Country for Old Men, the Oscar winner wears his evil out in the open, so all can see it. But it’s the hidden attributes to the usually predicable Bond antagonist that end up creating a truly memorable madman. Bill Gibron
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts, Joe Anderson, Nonso Anozie, James Badge Dale
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Liam Neeson
The Grey
There are several Internet memes about Liam Neeson, mostly involving his “I will find you and I will kill you” monologue from Taken. The most thorough of these memes acknowledges the actor’s history of powerful characters. As Qui-Gon Jinn, he trained Obi-Wan and discovered Anakin Skywalker (later Darth Vader). As Ra’s al Ghul, he trained Bruce Wayne (later Batman). He achieved godlike/Christ-like status as Zeus and Aslan. This collection of characters is fun to review, but we could identify in them a legitimate throughline in Neeson’s career: Audiences like to see him in control. This is certainly true of Taken, the 2008 film by Pierre Morel that caused Neeson to ascend in popular imagination to the action star Olympus with the likes of Chuck Norris.
In Joe Carnahan’s The Grey, Neeson is John Ottway, a wolf killer who embodies the actor’s “alpha” status but with an important variation. Ottway is at death’s door throughout the film, first by choice and then through fate, and he must confront what it means to be in control of his own survival and the survival of those who depend on him. In short, The Grey provides the entertainment value of Neeson as the leader of a band of survivors, but it does so within a greater philosophical framework about the role of human agency in disastrous circumstances. Carnahan has referred to Ottway’s plight with phrases like “God helps those who help themselves”, but the character’s existing sorrows have deadened his faith and will to live. Neeson is extraordinary in the role. Doubtless informed by the real-life loss of wife Natasha Richardson in 2009, Neeson turns Ottway into one of the most compelling reluctant heroes of recent memory. He accepts the responsibility of survival even at the moment of his deepest doubts. For this actor accustomed to being in control of the action around him, The Grey is a striking late-career breakthrough. Thomas Britt
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo Dicaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Dennis Christopher
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Leonardo Dicaprio
Django Unchained
It’s nice to see Leo having fun for once. Over the last few years, he’s been channeling an increasingly troublesome inner darkness into wonderful work in Revolutionary Road, Shutter Island, and Inception. With last year’s J. Edgar misstep behind him, the world’s other, non-Pitt heartthrob is back doing the dandy — in this case, a cold, calculated and cruel version of the otherwise gentile Southern swell. As Calvin Candie, Dicaprio initially seems like a minor threat. But in a single, bloody outburst, he becomes the ultimate evil, a crazed con man who can’t quite let anyone get the better of him, or his human property. Buoyed by his faithful man servant, Stephen (a marvelous Samuel L. Jackson) he is ready to take on anyone, including a visiting bounty hunter and his freed slave assistant. Bill Gibron
Director: Tom Hooper
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen
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Hugh Jackman
Les Miserables
Much has been made of the Les Miserables cast singing all of their songs live on set, but it’s a key aspect that cannot be overlooked when considering Hugh Jackman’s incredible interpretation of an age-old character. We’ve known for some time Jackman has the pipes to do more than just carry a tune, and anyone who saw The Fountain knew he could handle the heaviest of dramatic material. What we hadn’t seen was a complete transformation on par with his disappearance into the heart-of-gold thief Jean Valjean. There was no trace of Wolverine, Van Helsing, or even Leopold in Hugh’s haunted visage throughout the lengthy Les Miserables, and even though he didn’t have any of the best songs, I dare anyone to say he’s not the film’s leader. Ben Travers
Director: David O. Russell
Cast: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert DeNiro, Chris Tucker, Jacki Weaver
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Bradley Cooper
The Silver Linings Playbook
You know Bradley Cooper means business when it’s been half an hour into Silver Linings Playbook and he hasn’t taken his shirt off once. His first true attempt at “serious” acting turns out to be a remarkable comedic performance. Cooper plays Pat Solitano, a young man who has just been released from a mental institution after an “event” which had him almost kill a man. We see him trying to fit back into a world he’s been away from and which he doesn’t understand. Cooper delivers David O. Russell’s zingers with manic gusto and we joyously watch him disappear under the skin of this lovable lunatic. Jose Solis
5 – 1
Director: Leos Carax
Cast: Denis Lavant,Édith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue, Élise L’Homeau
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Display Width: 250Denis Lavant
Holy Motors
Denis Lavant becomes a human chest of wonders in Leos Carax’s love letter to cinema. The versatile actor plays Oscar, a mysterious man whose work consists of carrying out odd scenarios using makeup, costumes and strange props. During the span of a day we see him become a homeless man, a doppelganger assassin, a revolting creature of the sewers and a doomed lover, among others. The intention of Carax’s film is mostly left to be determined by each viewer, but the passionate abandon with which Lavant gives in to the whims of his director makes for a beautiful ode to the craft of being a thespian, especially when it makes us realize that all of us could be Oscar, changing our makeup and costumes to adjust to the different roles life demands of us on a daily basis. Jose Solis
Director: Rian Johnson
Cast: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo, Jeff Daniels
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Looper
Why wasn’t Bruce Willis’ face altered to look more like Joseph Gordon Levitt? Given Willis’ longevity in the business, and action-movie prowess, I’m sure producers believed that making Willis more recognizable, thus altering the appearance of their lead star to reflect Willis’ plainness, would draw more movie goers than if Bruce Willis was made to look like Levitt. That was a mistake, because Levitt’s performance as Joe is so much more mesmerizing than Willis’ typical brute and ironic arrogance—practically the same in almost everything he does. Not to say that Willis is bad in Looper but rather generic after having watched Levitt’s wonderful turn as a hit man who plays it close to the vest. It’s a true testament to Levitt’s talent that under all that make up and CGI altering, he provides one of the most brilliant performances of his career. Enio Chiola
Director: Ben Lewin
Cast: Helen Hunt, John Hawkes, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Adam Arkin
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John Hawkes
The Sessions
In the past, such a role would be considered pure Awards Season pandering. After all, actors give their (usually working) right arms to play sick, dying, or handicapped. So it’s refreshing to see Hawkes hold back on the hanky material. Instead, he takes his paralyzed poet character and turns him into a fully functional, if physically incapacitated human being. The theme of sex and normalcy are constantly countermanded by Hawkes transformation (he used various tricks to imitate his character’s curved spine and mangled mannerisms. But at the heart of his work is a deeper understanding of what makes someone feel like less of an outcast. From his wonderful work in Winter’s Bone to his enigmatic cult leader in Martha Marcy May Marlene, this is a performer on the verge of a major league breakout — if he hasn’t done so already. Bill Gibron
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader
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Daniel Day-Lewis
Lincoln
The most haunting performance of the year was also the most ambitious. When you get down to it, how do you create a cohesive character onscreen out of various facts and legends? Daniel Day-Lewis’ Lincoln goes beyond the stereotypical folksiness and gravitas of our image of the man — a cross between Henry Fonda’s plangent Young Mr. Lincoln and the ballpark announcer stance of the Lincoln in Disney’s Hall of Presidents. The Lincoln of Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg, and Tony Kushner is a kind and crafty politician; a reluctant hero like Spielberg’s Oskar Schindler. The movie abounds with memorable scenes, but few as extraordinary to me as the one in the first seven minutes of the movie with the British actor David Oyelowo as freed slave who engages Lincoln in a moral showdown that sets the tone for the entire film. It’s a performance that’s momentous as it is moving. Farisa Khalid
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Madisen Beaty
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Joaquin Phoenix
The Master
If James Dean and Marlon Brando had somehow conceived a child, there is no doubt that that child would have been Joaquin Phoenix, whose portrayal of the troubled veteran Freddie Quell in P.T. Anderson’s The Master is as brutal and shocking as it is real. Like many Anderson characters, Phoenix’s Freddie is a man searching for love in quite literally all the wrong places, a man who cannot handle even the slightest hint of rejection or even disapproval. Phoenix’s ferocity, combined with his troubled, pre-pubescent behavior, makes Lancaster Dodd’s (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) third-acting disarming of Freddie, beating him to an emotional pulp by reminding him of a lost love whilst singing “Slow Boat to China”, all the more powerful. This is Phoenix’s On the Waterfront. Kevin Brettauer