The Best Male Film Performances of 2010

Film: Shutter Island

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max Von Sydow

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List number: 20

Display Width: 200Leonard DiCaprio
Shutter Island

There’s little subtlety to Shutter Island. Martin Scorcese’s take on a B-movie potboiler. From the beginning of the film, the overbearing score screams out to us that things are not right on the titular island. DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels with the same overbearing intensity. We know early on that he’s haunted by both the memory of his dead wife and his experiences in World War II. Daniels seems right on the edge of losing it, and trying to investigate a disappearance at a hospital for the criminally insane doesn’t seem like the best place for him. Especially when nobody will help him with the case. As the story goes on and Teddy’s behavior gets more and more extreme, DiCaprio shifts effortlessly from quiet breakdowns to violent rage. All the while nightmarish dreams and confused flashbacks prey on Teddy, and DiCaprio plays it straight, keeping his character believable even as events on the island make less and less sense to him. Without DiCaprio’s assured performance, Shutter Island could well be indistinguishable from its B-movie influences. Chris Conaton

 

Film: True Grit

Director: Joel and Ethan Coen

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hailee Steinfeld, Barry Pepper, Josh Brolin

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List number: 19

Display Width: 200Jeff Bridges
True Grit

How, exactly, do you top an iconic turn by a mythic Hollywood legend? To make matters worse, we’re talking about Western idol John Wayne, his only Oscar winning role, and a film many feel is the last word on the pre-post modern traditional Western. The answer is Jeff Bridges. Building off the book by Charles Portis and the era-specific language in Joel and Ethan Coen’s masterful script, the artist formerly known as The Dude shows that 2009’s Award Season recognition for Crazy Heart was no career overview. In fact, his Rooster Cogburn manages the near impossible. With his graveled growl and rough rider rawhide persona, he manages to make us forget that Wayne was ever set in said saddle to begin with. Now that’s acting. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Director: Mat Whitecross

Cast: Andy Serkis, Naomie Harris, Ray Winstone, Olivia Williams, Noel Clarke, Toby Jones

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List number: 18

Display Width: 200Andy Serkis
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Andy Serkis has carved out something of a specialty for himself playing roles where you don’t actually see him on the screen: he was the actor behind the CGI Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and also for King Kong’s facial expressions in Jackson’s 2005 film of the same name. But after his blistering performance as New Wave rocker Ian Drury in Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll Serkis should be in high demand for more traditional roles as well. He’s a revelation as Drury, creating a character as demonic in his cruelty (having been dealt a harsh hand in life, Drury seemed determined to pass the pain on to those closest to him) as he was committed to his music. Sarah Boslaugh

 

Film: The Runaways

Director: Floria Sigismondi

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, Stella Maeve, Scout Taylor-Compton, Michael Shannon

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List number: 17

Display Width: 200Michael Shannon
The Runaways

Do yourself a favor before sitting down to this otherwise ordinary biopic of the ’70s all girl rock group. Go out and find Edgeplay (an actual documentary on the Runaways) and then queue up The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a film about legendary LA radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. Why? Because after seeing the original music scene miscreant Kim Fowley in action, you will be devastated by how accurately Michael Shannon captures the man’s pre-Malcolm McLaren Svengali surrealism. With dialogue loaded with quotable (if PC questionable) putdowns and an aura that suggests drug-induced decadence, the underappreciated actor turns the otherwise opportunistic promoter/songwriter into a Greek glam tragedy, a seemingly accurate talent scout whose lesser qualities undermined his Simon Cowell-like insights. Strident self-destruction has never looked — or sounded — so mesmerizing. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Get Low

Director: Aaron Schneider

Cast: Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray, Lucas Black, Scott Cooper

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List number: 16

Display Width: 200Robert Duvall
Get Low

You would think that Robert Duvall couldn’t pull anything else out of that battered old hat with the “Crusty Old Codger” sign stapled to it, but Get Low would prove you wrong. The film is a crisply-made but underwhelming piece about a codger (Duvall) in a small Southern town whose temper and hermetic isolation has made him a thing of legend — and that’s before he announces that he’s going to have a funeral party (when he’s still breathing) at which everybody can come and tell stories about him. The script demands Duvall’s character to have a witch-like quality for twigging to everybody’s unexpressed thoughts, and very quickly it’s apparent that Duvall’s darting eyes and evil-humored brow are up to the task — that deep, bourbon-rinsed voice doesn’t hurt, either. That the film works at all is almost entirely due to Duvall’s bad-tempered, biblical presence. Chris Barsanti

 

15 – 11

Film: Buried

Director: Rodrigo Cortés

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Ivana Miño, Robert Paterson, José Luis García Pérez, Stephen Tobolowsky

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List number: 15

Display Width: 200Ryan Reynolds
Buried

One man + one coffin = one riveting thriller? That equation would never add up for Buried had it not been for Ryan Reynolds’ incredible turn as Paul Conroy, a trucker working in Iraq who’s kidnapped and held for ransom six feet underground. Director Rodrigo Cortes’ camera roams up and down the 7×2 foot prison (providing plenty of flattering shots of Mr. Reynolds much touted physique), but it never finds its way out. It doesn’t matter. Reynolds’ is more than up to the challenge. By varying his reactions only slightly and keeping his character in an appropriately consistent state of panic, Reynolds commands the screen and makes Buried worthy of being anything but. Ben Travers

 

Film: Biutiful

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

Cast: Javier Bardem, Blanca Portillo, Maricel Álvarez, Rubén Ochandiano

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List number: 14

Display Width: 200Javier Bardem
Biutiful

“You see yourself disappearing more and more from what you know you are, and becoming more the person that you created. That’s not to say that I was suffering what Uxbal suffered. I’m not him. But it is to say that there is no room for something else. There is no room for anything else other than being him and because you’re portraying somebody in a movie like this, who goes through so many personal journeys, emotional, heavy ones there’s no way that you can escape, to be honest. So the transformation was from being an actor and trying to pretend to be someone else to becoming that person for a good three months. I’m not him. Thank God I’m not him. But there is no way — or I don’t know the way — to portray that without putting yourself in that place. But that’s what we do. That’s our job. Some characters are easier. Eat Pray Love. You go there and you have fun and you do a tone. Others are the ones that really leave some marks on your skin and this is one. Uxbal is for sure the hardest [role] that I’ve done. “

Javier Bardem, December 2010 Matt Mazur

 

Film: Never Let Me Go

Director: Mark Romanek

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling, Nathalie Richard

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Display Width: 200Andrew Garfield
Never Let Me Go

It’s not hyperbolic to say that Andrew Garfield’s performance as Tommy in Never Let Me Go is transformative, heartbreaking and more moving than entire films as a whole. The fact that this brilliant performance is at the center of such an artistically successful film is just icing on the cake. Towards the end of the film, when a twitching Tommy, crestfallen beyond all description, leaves a car to run into the road and let out a primal scream, it’s as if Garfield threatens to tear apart the film reel, and cinema as a whole, with this one display of emotion. With his anguished cry, his too-real tears and the powerfully honest feelings behinds the words he speaks, Garfield is poised to become a star of the highest order. When that happens, it would do people well to remember this standout performance. Kevin Brettauer

 

Film: Blue Valentine

Director: Derek Cianfrance

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Mike Vogel, John Doman, Ben Shenkman, Faith Wladyka

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Display Width: 200Ryan Gosling
Blue Valentine

There are many moments of complete romantic rapture and grace throughout Derek Cianfrance’s intimate, bruising film, but one memory will no doubt linger once you’ve left the theater after seeing Blue Valentine: Gosling, as Dean, plays a love song on a ukulele for ladylove Cindy (Michelle Williams) on their first official date. In this scene, the actor has several challenges, all of which he approaches with a gusto that is breathtaking to watch. The singing, the playing, the romancing, the puppy dog eyes, the sensuality, the strength, and most importantly, the vulnerability are all present within the sequence, contained in Gosling’s beautiful immersion into the working class antihero he is so gamely and so adeptly portraying. Dean is not all cocky bluster, smart-mouthiness, and physical transformation gimmickry, there is, in fact, a deep radiance emanating from within his burning heart, a deep desire to be loved for who he is and not for what he can be. With a flash of his smile, his hang-dog expressions, and lanky, sexy swagger, its not only Cindy that falls for this complicated man, but the audience as well. Gosling truly evokes some of the screen’s greatest actors with his haunted, assured work here: Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, and even a little touch of Marcello Mastroianni. Matt Mazur

 

Film: Cyrus

Director: Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

Cast: John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, Catherine Keener, Matt Walsh

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Display Width: 200Jonah Hill
Cyrus

Thanks in large part to Judd Apatow, audiences know that Jonah Hill is a skilled, natural-born natterer. Hill’s most notable roles to date, in films such as Knocked Up and Superbad, are defined by their talkativeness. His characters rarely think before they speak, but they can be guaranteed to speak. In Cyrus, however, Hill changes his game. As Cyrus, the 20-something son of overly accommodating mother Molly (Marisa Tomei), Hill is often silent. He is especially so in his passive aggressive response to the threat posed by his mother’s romantic relationship with John (John C. Reilly). As the romance grows, Cyrus finds a variety of subtle ways to act out, most of which involve testing the patience of his mother’s paramour. The brilliance of Hill’s performance is the intensity of the silent menace he becomes. That which initially seems like a case of arrested development appears as something much more sinister, and by the climax of the film, we understand the weight of his anguish and the lengths to which he will go to put his world back together. His reactions might be irrational, yet Hill finds something real and honorable in Cyrus’s battle for his mother’s affection. Thomas Britt

 

10 – 6

Film: The American

Director: Anton Corbijn

Cast: George Clooney, Violante Placido, Thekla Reuten, Paolo Bonacelli, Irina Björklund

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Display Width: 200George Clooney
The American

Anton Corbijn’s The American is nothing if not stylish film and the ever-elegant George Clooney is the key to making it work. Clooney plays a weapons builder (named either Jack or Edward, it’s not clear which) who specializes in custom jobs for people about whose motives it would be best not to inquire. The camera loves Clooney, of course, but it also loves watching him building a custom rifle in his shop, celebrating the careful workmanship of a man who is only one step removed from a hired killer. Equally important, when the story requires him to step outside the extreme reserve which has been his character’s dominant characteristic Clooney has more than enough charm to sell the transformation. Sarah Boslaugh

 

 

Film: The Town

Director: Ben Affleck

Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper

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List number: 9

Display Width: 200Jeremy Renner
The Town

As the bad-seed buddy to Ben Affleck’s tough-guy-going-good Doug McRay in the year’s best bank heist flick (a higher compliment than it might seem), Jeremy Renner’s Jimmy Coughlin is the living embodiment of the friend you want at your side in a sketchy bar, but aren’t so sure about otherwise. Renner plays Jimmy as all id and bad ideas and misplaced tribal loyalty, the kind of hand grenade whose pin is always about to fall out (a brave, smart choice by director Affleck, who knew that Renner was going to upstage him in every scene). His appeal is perfectly encapsulated in the scene where Doug busts into Jimmy’s apartment, asking for his help in beating up some guys for reasons that Doug can never explain, to which Jimmy’s businesslike, half-bored reply is only, “Whose car we takin’?” Chris Barsanti

 

Film: Carlos

Director: Olivier Assayas

Cast: Alexander Scheer, Nora von Waldstätten, Ahmad Kaabour, Christoph Bach, Susanne Wuest, Anna Thalbach, Julia Hummer

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Display Width: 200Edgar Ramirez
Carlos

Illich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos, was a superstar among terrorists and the subject of the movie marathon (originally created as a mini-series for French television) Carlos directed by Olivier Assayas. As the film runs over five hours and covers two decades of Carlos’ life with action taking place in perhaps a dozen countries and almost as many languages it would be easy to get lost among all the assassinations and hostage takings and revolutionary movements, particularly if you didn’t major in The History of Modern Terrorism in college. Fortunately the narrative is held together by Edgar Ramirez who pulls off the role of Carlos with great panache: he’s by turns charming, ruthless, gloating, disdainful and misogynistic, effortlessly shifting gears as the occasion requires. Facial hair and bad fashions come and go, the gut increases and the girlfriends change, but Ramirez is always Carlos, providing continuity while everything around him changes. Sarah Boslaugh

Film: 127 Hours

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Clémence Poésy, Lizzy Caplan

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List number: 7

Display Width: 200James Franco
127 Hours

When you first experience this true-life take on the terrifying misadventures of mountain climber Aron Ralston (you know, the guy trapped under a boulder for five days before cutting off his own arm), you are smitten by the stylistic choices of Danny Boyle. In combination with cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle and the actual locations, the film looks marvelous — so much so that you could easily overlook the raw power in Franco’s fierce performance. It’s definitely a turn that takes several viewings to appreciate. More than just a sunny slacker extreme freak, the actor’s take on Ralston is both soulful and understated, using the adrenaline rush mentality of someone like this to mask a backstory of pain and personal regret. By the time he does a bit of pocket knife surgery, he’s earned his freedom… figuratively and literally. Bill Gibron

 

Film: The Social Network

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rooney Mara, Rashida Jones, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella

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Display Width: 200Jesse Eisenberg
The Social Network

For several years now, Jesse Eisenberg seems to have been lumped in with Michael Cera, both for their resemblance to each other and for their predilection for playing mumbly, shy, somewhat detached characters. With The Social Network, though, Eisenberg has firmly established himself as an actor with range. His take (along with director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin) on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is profoundly different from his previous roles. Eisenberg creates a full person in Zuckerberg, a genius who has no patience for those who can’t keep up with his intellect or his computer skills. That lack of patience translates into a paucity of social skills as he flounders around at Harvard, dating awkwardly and trying unsuccessfully to get into the school’s clubs. But those computer skills lead him to become the world’s youngest billionaire. Eisenberg’s steady presence at the center of the film allows us to both admire Zuckerberg for his amazing abilities while also convincing us that he’s a jackass. And somehow, we still almost sympathize with him in the end. It’s a tough trick, but Eisenberg pulls it off with aplomb. Chris Conaton

 

5 – 1

Film: I Love You Phillip Morris

Director: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Cast: Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro

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List number: 5

Display Width: 200Jim Carrey
I Love You Phillip Morris

Jim Carrey will never be on the list of America’s greatest living actors — Ace Ventura will always lurk on his resume — but it’s hard to swallow that fact after witnessing the one-man carnival that he brings to town in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa’s I Love You Phillip Morris. An evil little twist of a story about a real-life scammer, Carrey’s Steven Russell is all grin, patter, confidence, and appetite as he rockets from being a suburban husband to blazingly-flamboyant Miami club creature and eventually serial jail breaker. Carrey’s polished con-man shtick would be treat enough were it not for how much heart he hurls into the over-the-moon romance with gentle-souled cellmate Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), who Russell almost loves enough to stop breaking the law for. Carrey is less performer here than squib of mercury, all burn, appetite, and good humor. Unforgettable. Chris Barsanti

 

Film: Mesrine

Director: Jean-François Richet

Cast: Vincent Cassel, Ludivine Sagnier, Michel Duchaussoy, Myriam Boyer, Cécile De France, Gérard Depardieu

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Display Width: 200Vincent Cassel
Mesrine

With the smug sensuality of a young Brando and the cocky, assertive arrogance of Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, Vincent Cassell tore through Mesrine like a Porterhouse steak, savoring each morsel as if it were his last. In one scene, disgusted that the death of Pinochet made the front page over his own arrest, Cassell, as Mesrine, laughs at Pinochet, decrying the brutal leader’s legacy, as if to say that his own crimes will be remembered long after all the tyrants are gone. That sort of brash attitude is just par for the course for Jacques Mesrine, and one of many believable moments Cassell has while clearly relishing the role of the infamous and ill-fated gangster. Much more terrifying, though, is a moment in the first installment when he shoves a gun into his wife’s mouth, and no one, not even Mesrine, is sure if he will pull the trigger. Kevin Brettauer

 

Film: The Fighter

Director: David O. Russell

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Jack McGee, Frank Renzulli

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Display Width: 200Christian Bale
The Fighter

American Psycho. The Machinist. Rescue Dawn. None of these movies proved to be blockbusters, so the only reason people recognize the titles is because of one name: Christian Bale. He’s been paired with the best adjectives available for working actors, yet he’s never even been nominated for an Oscar. This will undoubtedly change when this year’s nominees’ list is unveiled. Bale may even win with his riveting, poignant, and humorous portrayal of Dicky Eklund in The Fighter. He deserves it. From the moment he appears onscreen, he owns it. This claim may be a bit overused, but what you see in Bale’s performance is like nothing you’ve witnessed before. Dicky’s got a big personality, and Bale brings it to life without overdoing it. Watching him work is like watching a magic trick. Even though you don’t know exactly how he does it, the joy comes from the show itself. Ben Travers

 

Film: Winter’s Bone

Director: Debra Granik

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes, Lauren Sweetser, Garret Dillahunt, Dale Dickey, Shelley Waggener

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Display Width: 200

John Hawkes
Winter’s Bone

There is something at once wild and deathly still about Hawkes’ rogue uncle Teardrop in Debra Granik’s visionary Winter’s Bone. Though he moves with the stillness of a ghost, even as he shovels meth up his nose, the wraithlike Teardrop’s power lies in his ability to unnerve those around him, in the unexpectedness of his ruthlessness and cunning. Hawkes, a character actor who is likely most known for playing Kenny Powers’ brother in season one of the HBO sitcom Eastbound and Down, pieces his character in the film together meticulously, sewing the mannerisms, the gestures, the voice, the facial expressions, and the physicality of Teardrop together like a tailor cutting a fine suit meant to fit like a glove. When he is onscreen, the viewer is transfixed by this dangerous dealer and addict, with gleaming, black eyes like an Ozarks king snake. Teardrop is torn between being a violent boogeyman and helping his brother’s daughter Ree (Jennifer Lawrence) find her father before her family home is taken by debtors, and every unpredictable decision Hawkes makes only adds to the deathly ambiance of one of 2010’s finest films. Matt Mazur

 

Film: The King’s Speech

Director: Tom Hooper

Cast: Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Michael Gambon, Geoffrey Rush, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Ehle

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Display Width: 200Colin Firth
The King’s Speech

In the hands of anyone other than Colin Firth, this role would be the very definition of mannered Merchant/Ivory grandstanding. A modern King of England, celebrated for his strength during World War II but hiding a horrible secret: stammering. It’s enough to get your Anthony Hopkins-ing and your Derek Jacobi-ing. But thanks to the terrific, textured take by Firth, as well as able support from co-stars Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, this mundane monarch with a psychologically deep speech defect becomes a champion of choice and perseverance. Even as he is jumping around on one foot and swearing up a storm, he remains dignified, determined, and somewhat defeated. If heavy hangs the head that wears the crown, Firth’s ruler is routinely downtrodden. But when he finally overcomes, the epiphany is humbling and heartfelt. Bill Gibron