The Best Male Film Performances of 2011

Film: Margin Call

Director: J.C. Chandor

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgely, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

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Display Width: 250Jeremy Irons
Margin Call

As the CEO of an investment bank just before the financial crash, Jeremy Irons may be the most indelible movie villain of the year. There is something leonine and outwardly dignified about his presence, but this hides a ruthless insistence on scrambling over everyone else to get out of the collapsing market, regardless of the consequences. Margin Call is full of greedy and selfish characters in higher and higher places, making excuses for their own unscrupulousness. This culminates in a quite astonishing speech by Irons near the end of the film, in which he picks at a meal while calmly, even callously, justifying to his head of sales (a doubtful, conflicted Kevin Spacey) the crash he has just triggered. He’s thoroughly convincing in the role, and all the more horrifying because of it. Andrew Blackie

 

Film: The Beaver

Director: Jodie Foster

Cast: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Riley Thomas Stewart, Cherry Jones

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Mel Gibson
The Beaver

Mel Gibson’s greatest pain in life is now the knowledge he would have won an Academy Award for his touching, commanding performance in The Beaver had he not lost all public support due to his incredibly off-putting real world behavior. I mean, this easily could have been the indie-turned blockbuster of 2011 given its quirky premise paired with relatable characters. Gibson anchors the main protagonist beautifully. He manages to be funny, vulnerable, and honest from one moment to the next — even within the same line. He is Walter. He’s also the Beaver. The two are both bonded and unique thanks to Gibson’s tour de force. If only he would have allowed himself to receive the accolades he deserves. Ben Travers

 

Film: Warrior

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn

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Nick Nolte
Warrior

Nick Nolte has made a career out of playing blustery, burdened men who tend to have a penchant for the bottle. From 48 Hours to Afflication, and even in Tropic Thunder, Nolte has succeeded again and again with similar subjects by tweaking them slightly for each performance. In Warrior, the vastly underappreciated family drama from director Gavin O’Conner, Nolte is a cleaned-up version of his past characters. Paddy Conlon has made unspeakable (and largely unmentioned) mistakes, but he’s trying to get better. Nolte is in controlled-mourning mode, speaking softly and dropping his confronter’s gaze. Yes, he’s given a few opportunities to break the silence — his hotel scene is one of the year’s more remarkable cinematic moments. Even during the calm before the storm, though, he’s never been more powerful. Ben Travers

 

Film: Hugo

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Christopher Lee, Frances de la Tour, Richard Griffiths, Jude Law

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Asa Butterfield
Hugo

You’re the star of Martin Scorsese’s foray into fantasy filmmaking. He’s also going to use the au currant gimmick of 3D as part of his plan. Oh, and the movie is actually a love letter to cinema, a restatement of the importance of imagination and creativity in the typical Tinseltown by committee experience. And you’re just 14. How do you do it? If you’re the British born Asa Butterfield, you prove that age doesn’t define an actor — acting does… and then you deliver one of the knock out performances in the history of family film. Little Hugo is so haunted by the death of his dad that he can’t connect with the world. He spends his days like a hermit avoiding everything and anyone. His awakening, thanks to an automaton and a female friend, is the subtext which makes this movie soar. Butterfield’s turn cements it. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Moneyball

Director: Bennett Miller

Cast: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chris Pratt, Kathryn Morris, Robin Wright, Tammy Blanchard

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Brad Pitt
Moneyball

I have not read the book on which Moneyball is based, nor have I seen many pictures of the real Billy Beane, so I cannot say that Brad Pitt transformed into Beane for this movie. What Pitt certainly does do is carry the movie with his performance, the key to which lies in the way he chews tobacco and slouches in his chair; the twinkle of “are you kidding me?” in his eye when his boss tells him that almost beating the Yankees is good enough. These physical details form the performance that makes a good enough script and quality direction into a movie worth re-watching. So if you tell me that Pitt is nothing like the real Beane, I’d say change the name of the film, the name of the character, change “based on” to “inspired by.” Just, whatever you do, don’t change the performance. Tomas Hachard

15 – 11

Film: Red State

Director: Kevin Smith

Cast: Michael Parks, Melissa Leo, John Goodman, Michael Angarano, Nicholas Braun,Ronnie Connell

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Display Width: 250Michael Parks
Red State

We can thank Quentin Tarantino for bringing unsung veteran actor Michael Parks to the fore in the last decade. Parks’ dynamic performances in Tarantino’s films (particularly his dual roles in the Kill Bill saga) prepared the way for his work in Kevin Smith’s bullet-riddled Red State. Smith alienated both critics and distributors with a rogue approach to unveiling his first horror film, and his carnivalesque distribution tactics created a lot of hype for a film that is ultimately not wholly coherent in its satirical aims. But Red State is very much worth watching for the performance of Parks in the role of cult leader Abin Cooper.

Cooper leads a congregation of family members in a “church” situated within a heavily armored and fortified compound. Such cult situations never end well, and as characters die and the body count climbs, Red State references the furor of Fred Phelps and the apocalyptic showdown at Waco. Yet before that chaos sets in, Parks delivers a fifteen minute one-man show of a sermon. In this message to his flock, this performance within a performance, Parks sounds measured, even logical, in setting out Cooper’s justification for punishing perceived evils. He subverts scripture, fixating on Noah and the flood, but forgetting the Noahic covenant. In short, his is a God of destruction alone. The horror of Red State is in the preacher’s commanding, cunning manipulation of his followers. Parks’ interpretation of the role turns what could have been a cartoonish villain into a master class on the toxic nature of false prophets and mind control. Thomas Britt

 

Film: Warrior

Director: Gavin O’Connor

Cast: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kevin Dunn

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Tom Hardy
Warrior

Brute force defines Bronson and Bane, two already iconic film characters brought to life by Tom Hardy. As Tommy, the AWOL Marine turned mixed martial arts champion in Gavin O’Connor’s Warrior, Hardy employs his trademark physical strength as an outgrowth of the character’s emotional void. Resentful to a fault, Tommy is fueled by past hurt and anger, which have festered and destroyed any bond he might share with his father (Nick Nolte) and brother (Joel Edgerton). Warrior provides Hardy with a good number of opportunities to show off his dominance in physical combat, but the actor especially shines in his portrayal of a man who’s dead inside. The concluding match of Warrior — in which Tommy’s glaciated heart and soul begin to thaw — caps off the best third act I’ve ever seen in a sports film. Thomas Britt

 

Film: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Director: David Yates

Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Matthew Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, David Bradley, Jim Broadbent, Ciarán Hinds, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Clemence Poesy, Julie Walters, Bonnie Wright

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Alan Rickman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Alan Rickman’s portrayal of double agent Severus Snape stands as a prime example of an actor who imbues a supporting character with so much depth and pathos that he almost steals the whole film with only a fraction of the screen time of the main cast. While known for his voice, Rickman’s eyes in Snape’s final moments tell the character’s entire story. Moreover, it’s Rickman’s subtle pauses when he doesn’t use the full power of his vocal timbre that conveys the complexity of J.K. Rowling’s creation brought to life. Snape is played with such sharp wit and cold intensity — a man driven to make amends for his sordid past while maintaining the façade of a wizard of dubious intent. In revealing his true motivation, Rickman’s Snape is allowed a rare display of unbridled emotion: a glimmer of tragic gratitude for his atonement and a singular moment of peace in an otherwise painful existence. Lana Cooper

 

Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Cast: James Franco, Brian Cox, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton

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Andy Serkis
Rise of the Planet of the Apes

It’s not like Andy Serkis needed another role to prove his prowess as the king of motion capture acting. Between his work as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and as the titular character in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, his reputation was already secure. Playing the chimp Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, though, Serkis had to carry not just the action, but a great deal of the emotional content of the film. Long sections of the movie are dialogue-free, and Serkis conveys so much with his facial expressions and body language that viewers don’t even miss the spoken words. His performance as Caesar is utterly convincing. He moves and acts like a chimpanzee, albeit a super-smart one. James Franco may get top billing in the credits, but Serkis is the real reason why Rise of the Planet of the Apes was such a success, both creatively and commercially. Chris Conaton

 

Film: The Guard

Director: John Michael McDonagh

Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, Rory Keenan

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Brendan Gleason
The Guard

You wouldn’t want to be the victim of a crime in the small town on the west coast of Ireland where Brendan Gleeson’s cop is the law of the land. It’s not that he’s lazy, far from it, but the majority of crimes he witnesses are the stuff of pure banality, and it’s hard for the man to get himself motivated to follow through. Gleeson’s work in John Michael McDonagh’s scabrous comedy is so smoothly competent that it’s nearly invisible, though no less awe-inspiring — a genius hidden, just like his character. Chris Barsanti

10 – 6

Film: 50/50

Director: Jonathan Levine

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Philip Baker Hall, Matt Frewer, Anjelica Huston

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Display Width: 250Joseph Gordon-Levitt
50/50

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten a lot of accolades over the past few years, from his breakout role in the high-school noir Brick to the sad-sack hero of (500) Days of Summer to the unlikable title character of this year’s indie Hesher. But his performance as Adam in 50/50 may be his best work yet. Levitt has the difficult job of playing a man who gets cancer at age 27 and selling all of those emotional beats while still being in a comedy. His chemistry with both Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick is great and fun. But it’s the subtler stuff that makes Levitt so good here. It’s the way he displays such ambivalence when getting chemo with a group of guys old enough to be his father, or his frustration with his overbearing mother (a great Anjelica Huston), and even the extreme awkwardness of having a one-night stand when the cancer saps most of your energy. Levitt’s ability to slide between light and dark and good days and bad days without letting Adam descend into a maudlin, woe-is-me sympathy magnet is a big part of the reason why 50/50 is so good. Chris Conaton

 

Film: Rampart

Director: Oren Moverman

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Francis Capra, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robert Wisdom, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi

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Woody Harrelson
Rampart

A raging racist, assassin-for-hire, violent thug, horrible husband, worse father, lying drunkard, self-aggrandizing liar, and inveterate womanizer, the character Woody Harrelson plays in Oren Moverman’s elliptical corrupt-cop drama is a scumbag par excellence. But what makes the (depressingly little-seen) film and Harrelson’s performance so memorable is not the sum total of his badness — we’ve seen this guy and his ilk before, particularly in the work of co-writer James Ellroy, who specializes in tough good-bad guys like him — but the oily vehemence with which he inhabits it. The zooming spiral into a hell of his own creation is pure Dante. Chris Barsanti

 

Film: Drive

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks

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Albert Brooks
Drive

It’s a cliche by now — the comic who wants to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor. Bill Murray’s done it. So has Eddie Murphy. Even as far back as Don Rickles and Jerry Lewis you have funnymen putting on the air of danger for a new sense of self. So it’s no surprise to see Mr. Brooks, a man whose made his name as the “Thinking Man’s Woody Allen” to suddenly turn sinister. What’s shocking is how effective he is as the foil to Ryan Gosling’s neo-noir hero. As part of Nicolas Winding Refn’s update on the ’40s and ’50s genre type, Brooks bathes in a combination of silly and splatter. One moment, he looks like a schlub. The next, he’s metering out murder in a way that will chill you to the bone. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Shame

Director: Steve McQueen

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie

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Michael Fassbender
Shame

Naturally, and unfortunately, the controversy of the NC-17 rating given to Steve McQueen’s second film Shame cast a pall over the film. To many, Shame is just “the film with a lot of sex” or “the film where you see Michael Fassbender naked a lot.” Both are true, but neither truly define what the movie is about. Yes, Fassbender’s character Brandon is a sex addict. That addiction, however, is not his problem but the primary symptom of his problem. The strength of the film, as well as Fassbender’s performance, is that whatever it is in Brandon’s past that leads him to do what he does is never quite clear. His character is an enigmatic cipher, one that at the film’s conclusion still leaves the viewer rife with questions. Like the scars on the wrist of Brandon’s sister (Carey Mulligan, giving an equally powerful performance), his lust is only the superficial layer of his deep emotional issues. Brandon is not just distant in his cold sex life; he’s distant to everyone, even to his own sister. Fassbender’s engrossing performance is one that reminds us that what can seem to be our worst problem may be only a red herring for the lingering wounds that shape our lives. Those wounds often cut so deep that we even stop telling ourselves that they’re there, just like Brandon does. Brice Ezell

 

Film: Meek’s Cutoff

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Hendereson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson, Rod Rondeaux

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Bruce Greenwood
Meek’s Cutoff

Bruce Greenwood defined “chameleonic” in 2011: he was completely unrecognizable as the monster from outer space in Super 8 and practically disappeared behind a huge beard and hat to play, real life, fur trapper/explorer Stephen Meek in Meek’s Cutoff. Kelly Reichardt’s minimalist Western loosely recreates one of Meek’s most adventurous journeys through the Oregon desert and Greenwood plays the part of group leader with a hint of cockiness and bravura. As the travelers realize they might be lost, Meek unleashes upon them a xenophobic distraction to keep them from finding his flaws and rebelling, reminding us of the Obama administration’s tendency of entertaining instead of governing. Throughout, Greenwood turns Meek into a superb performer, who hides behind the impenetrable shield provided by his symbolic authority. At a certain point in the movie we understand that Meek’s group will probably never reach their destination but Greenwood’s paradoxical charisma makes us feel we would follow him anywhere. Jose Solís Mayén

5 – 1

Film: The Artist

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, Penelope Ann Miller

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Display Width: 250Jean Dujardin
The Artist

Jean Dujardin covers such an emotional range in The Artist that he would deserve to be on this list even if he had done it with the help of dialogue. But, of course, he moves from swaggering egomaniac, to downtrodden sad sack, to resentful cauldron of pride, to lovestruck fool, all without speaking a word. There are reasons apart from Dujardin that The Artist did not end up as a gimmicky imitation of silent films, but nevertheless Dujardin’s ability to make his physical acting evocative and real to life rather than a mere screen exercise was essential As the centre of the film’s arc, he keeps us enthralled at every moment, his smile and frown carrying a charm and splendor that goes beyond mere expressions of emotion. Tomas Hachard

 

Film: The Descendants

Director: Alexander Payne

Cast: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, Nick Krause, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges

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George Clooney
The Descendents

No one does middle-aged malaise better than George Clooney. With his classic Hollywood good looks and ability to parlay said ‘prettiness’ into a slow burn descent into melancholy, he’s become an awards season fixture. While he and the movie he made two years ago — Up in the Air — remains an sadly unheralded masterpiece (watch it now and see if you don’t agree), he’s upped the ante once again with this Alexander Payne adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings’ novel. As the soon to be single father dealing with two unhappy daughters, Clooney commands every frame. When confronting his dying wife’s lover, he’s even more luminous. Rarely has an actor been able to be both charming and challenged at the same time. Clooney can do it in his sleep. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Cast: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong

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Gary Oldman
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

It’s about time Gary Oldman was given his due. Granted, his recent forays into feature filmmaking — the noxious Red Riding Hood, The Book of Eli — have placed him on the precipice of irrelevancy, a ledge currently monopolized by Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro, but every once in a while, he reminds us of the spunky young lad who turned Sid Vicious into a tragic punk idol. As John le Carre’s seminal spy, George Smiley, in Tomas Alfredson’s clever big screen adaptation, he transforms into a creaky Cold War fixture out to discover the mole within their secret spy midst. With his aging face and forceful presence, he is the perfect guide through this wicked web of intrigue. But more than this, Oldman retakes the role back from the original TV Smiley, Sir Alec Guinness, and truly makes it his own. Now that’s quite an accomplishment. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Take Shelter

Director: Jeff Nichols

Cast: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Katy Mixon, Shea Whigham, Kathy Baker, Ray McKinnon, Lisa Gay Hamilton

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Michael Shannon
Take Shelter

Michael Shannon has given us barely contained rage in Boardwalk Empire. We’ve seen him overtaken by paranoia in Bug. His performance in Jeff Nichols’ Take Shelter forcefully synthesizes these two qualities into the body and mind of a man trying to be the head of a household while losing touch with reality. For much of the film, Shannon goes inward, playing Curtis as a man increasingly trapped by his cataclysmic visions and uncertain of their meaning. When he begins to act on the visions of storms, dog attacks, and other horrifying events, the effects on his family and friends are heartbreaking. Several films released in 2011 dealt with what might be called domestic disaster. The best of these were Melancholia and Take Shelter. Whereas Kirstin Dunst masterfully transitioned from depressed catatonia to oblivion-seeking superciliousness across a two-act arc, Shannon goes the slow-burn/volcanic route and uses a Lion’s Club dinner-set, table-flipping outburst as the culminating eruption of his building madness. Curtis is a man fundamentally unsure of the line separating real life from paranoid fantasy, and Shannon keeps the audience in that same position, up to and beyond the film’s final frame. Thomas Britt

 

Film: Drive

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks

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Ryan Gosling
Drive

For a while now, Gosling has been the almost-superstar waiting for the moment when his ample indie cred and superficial Hollywood hunkiness merge into a mesmerizing bit of acting. It almost happened in The Believer, and came equally close with Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl. Now, with this disarming take on classic film noir, he enters the stratosphere, rarified air shared with such equally adept luminaries as Jack Nicholson (Chinatown) and Jason Patric (After Dark, My Sweet). Here, as the unnamed driver for hire, he comes across as cold, calculated, cynical, and cruel. But when given a chance to open up and help out a young mother and her son, he transforms into a complicated character worthy of every bit of performance praise. At the start of this film, we feel like we’re in for one long and very violent ride. By the end, we care more about Driver than the reason he drives. Bill Gibron