NYT: The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century

Kind of shocked that Philip Seymour Hoff wasn’t in the mix

Ed Harris is the greatest living American actor (only because he's still working, and Gene Hackman has retired). Fuck this list.

Is this a ranked list?

where the fuck is channing tatum he is the only good actor

I think I need two separate lists to work with, Best Actors and Best Movie Stars, several ppl on this list aren't really the former but certainly qualify as the latter

Keanu Reeves? Woah!!! #onethread

Hoffman should definitely be here.

Voting for Day-Lewis purely on the strength of his two PTA collaborations (I still haven't seen Lincoln). Elsewhere, I can think of one performance each that I've really liked for a few of these--McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me, Ali in Moonlight, Kidman in Birth--but no one I'm consistently wowed by from one film to another.

I don’t even think about movies this way

My favourites are Phoenix and Ali. My two favourite actresses, Elizabeth Moss and Carrie Coon, aren't on there.

Shirley and Invisible Man is a good one-two much of Moss for the 2020

*punch

With both, their best work is on TV, and I don't know if they factored that in (they ought to).

No Gandolfini on the list! Well, he’s no Melissa McCarthy

Whether I agree with it or not, I like that McCarthy's on the list. Movie critics are usually incredibly shitty about judging comedic performances.

I love Keanu but no way is he one of the top 25 actors of the 21st century. Think he would agree with me.

Because You Can Count on Me (2000) gets in just under the wire, I'd consider both Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo.

Heath Ledger

They must have meant living actors, right?

Willem Dafoe? lol

Seconded

several of these seem like "we liked them in the 90s, so they're grandfathered into this list"

That was my first reaction to Dafoe, too, but when I looked up his filmography, he has done a few significant films since 2000. I can sort of see it.

Yeah, I thought about voting Day-Lewis, and then realized that I was mostly thinking of his early performances and I've avoided his 21st century movies because for the most part they seem like overhyped star vehicles.

I did like Phantom Thread and There Will Be Blood

apparently I can only vote once for Viola Davis -- honestly I think that the greatest test of acting ability is a TV series ...

I could see voting for Davis. She's done some really great work. I'm looking forward to seeing Ma Rainey's Black Bottom on Netflix next month.

Marion Cottilard
Sarah Paulson
Adèle Haenel

I'm glad the Swinton blurb singles out Julia. Great movie and her best performance.

Re Hoffman:

We LOVE him, promise. But we had to make a lot tough choices and one choice we made was to stick with actors who are alive. Otherwise we would have also chosen Toshiro Mifune, Bette Davis, Ruby Dee, Gary Crant, Michael Lonsdale, Laurence Olivier, Setsuka Hara, James Cagney, Miche https://t.co/qw2kzQ07pX

— Manohla WE ONLY CHOSE LIVING ACTORS Dargis (@ManohlaDargis) November 25, 2020

Cary Grant and Bette Davis, two of the best actors of the 21st Century.

lol. silly list

Oscar Isaac? I can't pinpoint one movie where I would say he was great.

Binoche would be in my top five.

wow, she's not on the list?!

Cary Grant and Bette Davis, two of the best actors of the 21st Century.

― Gerneten-flüken cake (jed_), Wednesday, November 25, 2020 7:55 PM bookmarkflaglink

he said GARY CRANT, cant u READ

Ruffalo is one that I would have included (largely on the strength of YCCOM, but he's been good in a lot of things since).

Dafoe is very good in both The Florida Project and Pasolin, and I wasn't even crazy about either of those films. The Lighthouse and At Eternity's Gate have their fans as well (haven't seen either).

its sad to learn this way that meryl streep has died

it's ok, you're with friends now

Does Gary Crant make lo-fi hip-hop beats to study/relax to?

I don’t even understand that tweet since most of those actors died before 2000?

I didn't realize Joaquin Phoenix was still alive. Yes I know River Phoenix died, I'm not confusing them. I just assumed they had both died.

xpost they didn't understand their own tweet either

Shit list but Deneuve or Swinton take this easy for me

i picked one of the people i'd never heard of

He is also known for portraying Sagat in Street Fighter (1994).

He is the only actor to appear in all six of Marvel's Netflix television series.

A few of the missing include Kaitlin Dever, Merritt Wever and Toni Collette... and that's just the cast of Unbelievable!

which is to say this is a very silly list

03. Daniel Day-Lewis
04. Keanu Reeves

i like keanu as much as anyone but this is a pretty hilarious juxtaposition

Keanu absolutely belongs on this list

Tempted by Huppert, Day-Lewis, Swinton & Isaac, but Kidman wins this wins for me on range and role choices. My write-in would be PS Hoffman, or another character actor like Jared Harris or Ciarán Hinds.

Casey Affleck

My 10 favourite, I think (sorry, all English-speaking; just don't keep up enough with non-English films), and my favourite performances:

1. Philip Seymour Hoffman (the must-be-living rule makes no sense to me; Almost Famous, Punch Drunk Love, Capote, The Ides of March, The Master)
2. Carrie Coon (The Leftovers, Fargo, Gone Girl, The Nest)
3. Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me, Zodiac, The Kids Are All Right, Margaret)
4. Laura Linney (You Can Count on Me, The Squid and the Whale, Ozark)
5. Nicole Kidman (Margot at the Wedding, Rabbit Hole, Boy Erased, Big Little Lies)
6. Mahershala Ali (House of Cards, True Detective, Moonlight)
7. Joaquin Phoenix (The Master, Her, Joker)
8. Greta Gerwig (Greenberg, Damsels in Distress, Frances Ha, Mistress America, Maggie's Plan, 20th Century Women)
9. Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, Listen Up Phillip, Us)
10. Adam Driver (Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis, While We're Young, Paterson, BlacKkKlansman)

Quite sure I overlooked someone.

I'm lucky enough that I got to see PSH when he was in Long Day's Journey into Night on Broadway, and it was among the most tremendous performances I've ever seen any human being give. He was really something.

My mom actually called me sobbing when he died!

He was better than good in even the most minor stuff (Red Dragon, Love Liza, Moneyball); honestly, I think he should top any list for this century.

No mentions of Laura Dern so far????

I'm not her biggest fan, but for Certain Women, Big Little Lies, and Marriage Story alone--forgot to list that for Adam Driver--I could see that. (There was some TV film, too.)

Inland Empire! Twin Peaks! Enlightened!

she was great in Inland Empire, Enlightened, and Twin Peaks: The Return

:)

glad to see Zhao Tao and Kim Min-hee on this list

He was an obviously massive actor, but he wasn't faultless. PSH in Punch-Drunk Love was awful.

Agreed. I also think Love Liza is one of his major films, but that's a very personal bias-- that film rips me to shreds every time.

I found him scary in Punch-Drunk Love. Probably the one film of his I flat-out didn't like was Lumet's last.

He's brilliant in the far-from-flawless film Flawless as well.

xpost yeah, well that movie was just awful from top to bottom

have to see it again, I barely remember it

Voted Saoirse Ronan to annoy all of you

DDL, Saoirse, Joaquin or Zach

Saoirse is amazing. Her performance in Brooklyn is really something. I like the film too actually. It's old-fashioned good but it does what it does extremely well.

I don't know if I've voted yet, tbh, but Saoirse and Melissa were up there. Not that I think that Melissa is the greatest actor or anything but I'm a huge fan of Can You Ever Forgive Me? and I enjoy her a lot in that and more generally.

One of these four...

Isabelle Huppert
Zhao Tao
Viola Davis
Tilda Swinton

appreciated the greta gerwig mention -- I don't know where she stacks up really, but I loved her in FRANCES HA so much

I’d find it hard to pick among:

Isabelle Huppert
Daniel Day-Lewis
Song Kang Ho
Joaquin Phoenix
Tilda Swinton
Willem Dafoe
Mahershala Ali

But my write-in is Laura Dern.

Zhao Tao obv but acting is nonsense and this list is nonsense

Oh and no lovely Adam Driver = get the fuck out

acting is nonsense and this list is nonsense

I don't put much stock in the list, NV, but I think acting is hugely underrated when it comes to understanding why you love the films you do. There was an immense body of theory that came along in the '60s and '70s centered around the director; over time, I drifted away from that and began to realize how many of my favourite films were mostly about the performances.

Which would go a long way, for me, to explaining why Mad Men and The Sopranos were more important to me this past decade (I was late) than almost any film: multiple directors, but an amazing core ensemble and a supporting cast that was continually changing and always great.

theatre requires actors, movies require personalities, but I do agree that great performances are at the core of my favorite films/shows.

I think the personality vs. acting point is true sometimes, but I wouldn't want to pin down where that line is. That was the view of John Wayne for a long time, but I think the general consensus now is that he gives performances of subtlety and depth in The Searchers, Red River, and other films. And I know I didn't put Carrie Coon second on my list because she's some definable personality I respond to; she's just a great actress.

I mean certainly there are tons of movie actors that are capable of and deliver great acting performances, sure. I just meant it's easier to get by with just a personality in film if you're not necessarily great at your craft (without the movies suffering for it). I am actually shooting my first movie (an amateur hobby production, not something that will be seen anywhere) after years of theatre and it's so bizarre to me. I had a hard time adjusting.

some of that in theatre for sure (Ethel Merman), but seems less true in modern age of theatre.

I'm a big treat em like cattle guy but I like acting well enough really, even if it's just being memorably movie star-looking

i like acting and am sort of good at it so inevitably i feel nothing but contempt toward the entire discipline

I'm a semi-retired theatre kid who hates actors

One of these four...

Isabelle Huppert
Zhao Tao
Viola Davis
Tilda Swinton

― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Friday, November 27, 2020 10:57 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Agree with this list.

Binoche's absence is insane given how her range has expanded since she said fucknit to cutie-pie Miramax fare.

My daughter's a would be professional actress I guess but she's mostly in it for the singing and dancing, the good bits.

lol singing is how I got roped into it as a kid. they pulled the School Board out of choir for Music Man.

PSH in Mission Impossible III is a classic performance

Writing > acting > looking right > directing

But you couldn't drop any of em neither

Plenty of great films with shaky or non-actorly acting, not so very many with poor technical work

I definitely have an easier time looking past mediocre/ordinary direction than bad performances. I love all the performances in Broadcast News, and it could have been directed by anybody (from a technical standpoint; I'm sure James Brooks had a major hand in guiding those performances). I'd contrast that with something like De Palma's Femme Fatale, where--I know I will reap the wrath of at least one person here--the performances (and writing) are so ludicrous, I couldn't care less about the flashy, definitely auteurist direction.

Film is not theatre is how I break it down

And that's without going full auteur theory, but imo the defining elements of film are to do with the medium, not the necessary moving parts

But I should stop being dogmatic or lol playing dogmatic, hard and fast rules are for schmucks

Plenty of great films with shaky or non-actorly acting, not so very many with poor technical work

― Bandscamp Fryday (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 28 November 2020 17:21 (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Think, tho I'm sure I could pull dozens of personally-adored examples either way, that I just flat disagree with that tbh.

Course, as to what's "directing", sure who knows.

Loads

Bonus loads there fyi

Film is not theatre is how I break it down

The record is not the song.

Binoche is by far the least excusable omission here. So good in so many different kinds of roles.

(My guess is that looking at the studied diversity of the list, they just couldn’t have two French white women.)

Sorry, THREE French white women.

Which, I mean, I love Deneuve, but why is she on a 21st century list?

thought hard and i’m gonna go with tilda

Which, I mean, I love Deneuve, but why is she on a 21st century list?

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra)

Like Deneuve, she's looser and more fun now than she ever was. I've loved her work in the last 20 years.

er, like Binoche.

Went with Daniel Day Lewis. He towers over the rest of this list, and his performance in There Will Be Blood alone is enough, but Lincoln and Gangs of New York just pile on. I haven't seen Phantom Thread yet, and this reminding me to do so.

How the heck is Hoffman not on this list?! Ledger? DiCaprio? I mean DiCaprio's filmography post 2000 is probably one of the most consistently outstanding resumes I've seen when looking at any actor or actress, and got his Best Actor Oscar in the process. Dump Reeves and Dafoe... jeez.

Yeah, I'm just going to say: Keanu Reeves is not a good actor. Sorry.

keanu rules

U spelled "rulz" rong

Love Keanu but no actor

Octobeard you really should catch PT

I love Keanu enough to have gone to see Man of Tai Chi at the cinema AND enjoyed it, and he was brilliant in A Scanner Darkly, but no way does he belong in the list of 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century, sorry.

I love Keanu. It's okay to love someone's whole vibe but think they're not an excellent actor. Nic Cage same way for me at least.

Keanu is the uncarved block of Hollywood and that's a compliment.

I think I need two separate lists to work with, Best Actors and Best Movie Stars, several ppl on this list aren't really the former but certainly qualify as the latter

― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Even if you like Daniel Day-Lewis more than I do--especially if you do--I'd count The Gangs of New York as a minus, not a plus.

I had to look up most of these actors to see if I had seen any of their movies. I'm definitely more focused on directors and their films, I don't recall ever watching a film just because of who was performing in it.

My favourite film featuring any of these actors (since 2000) is Les Destinees Sentimentales, but Huppert is a supporting player in that. So I voted for Zhao Tao, largely for the scene in The World where she is looking at her smartphone.

I loved her confronting the woman who stole her belongings in Ash Is Purest White

Yeah, I'm just going to say: Keanu Reeves is not a good actor. Sorry.

I don't know, the story he tells Lori Petty in Point Break is pretty convincing.

All boxes checked!

Kind of shocked that Philip Seymour Hoff wasn’t in the mix

No Gandolfini on the list! Well, he’s no Melissa McCarthy

you've probably avoided some bad news about them by not reading articles

Whether I agree with it or not, I like that McCarthy's on the list. Movie critics are usually incredibly shitty about judging comedic performances.

yeah, especially satisfying that they went so hard on Spy in the piece

Which, I mean, I love Deneuve, but why is she on a 21st century list?

if only there was any kind of answer to this in the mini-essay about her approach and performances

How the heck is Hoffman not on this list?! Ledger?

I could give you some bad news but you obviously don't read threads or articles (or display names, or tweets)

wait what happened to Heath? WHAT HAPPENED TO HEATH

his acting got worse so they left him off this list

Christ, you scared me for a minute!

Even if you like Daniel Day-Lewis more than I do--especially if you do--I'd count The Gangs of New York as a minus, not a plus.

My favorite thing about that film was Day-Lewis' acting in it, and his character. The rest of it around him seemed a bit much, but as a villain and a personality, he felt larger than life and I couldn't wait to see every second of his time on screen in it.

I don't recall ever watching a film just because of who was performing in it.

Not a judgement, just an observation: I'm guessing you'd have a hard time finding someone who shares that viewpoint.

I imagine one of the only times that was true for me was Dancer in the Dark.

I watched The Bishop's Wife last week cuz #CaryGrant. I should've stayed away because Loretta Young.

I'm in this camp, actors rarely if ever have anything to do w/ my seeing a given movie

"Actors doing the sort of thing they especially excel at" is a different factor to "actor is listed somewhere in credits"

I've watched so many movies just because it looked ordinary at worst (obviously I draw the line somewhere) and had Gene Hackman or Audrey Hepburn or somebody else I really like.

Instead of the director's cut of Superman II I watched, I would much rather have seen the Gene Hackman cut, with all the scenes of his that were discarded.

https://archive.org/details/supermanii-restoredinternationalalternativecut2005

times when i have watched a film specifically to see an actor in it tend toward the old (Mitchum, Chevalier, Welles) or action (Jaa, Chan) or because they ARE the show (Marx Bros)

Willem Dafoe? lol

― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:53 PM (five days ago)

Seconded

― Robert Gotopieces (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:56 PM (five days ago)

several of these seem like "we liked them in the 90s, so they're grandfathered into this list"

― Lover of Nixon (or LON for short) (Neanderthal), Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:56 PM (five days ago)

That was my first reaction to Dafoe, too, but when I looked up his filmography, he has done a few significant films since 2000. I can sort of see it.

― clemenza, Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:59 PM (five days ago)

What's wrong with him? He's one of those few I'm always happy to see.

agree, and loved him in The Lighthouse

Apparently he's great in Abel Ferrara's latest.

Keanu is an interesting case because he is entirely himself on screen and is always a compelling presence, and his wick performances have added a lot of shading to his stock character. he obviously doesn’t have “range,” but there’s something to be said for doing one thing extremely well

this was an interesting argument about the virtues of reeves, and really did change my thinking about him: https://www.rogerebert.com/features/bright-walldark-room-february-2016-the-grace-of-keanu-reeves-by-angelica-jade-bastién

Keanu’s failed performances are those that push him toward a theatricality against his natural instincts. They also tend to be the kind of roles actors use to challenge or prove themselves—difficult accents, lush period pieces, reliance on verbal dexterity (...) Total Film writes dismissively that “you can visibly see Keanu attempting to not end every one of his lines with ‘dude.’"

ROFL

btw, need to copy paste the link, think the accent makes it screw on ilx

*screwy

"Meryl Streep Isn’t on Our List of Greatest Actors. Here’s Why."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/insider/best-actors-list.html

An explainer!

Gary Crant!

I don't see Scoot McNairy on this list

voted song kang ho

I don't see Scoot McNairy on this list

Very disappointed his career hasn't taken the Sam Rockwell trajectory (in terms of visibility) I expected it to.

I am somewhat perplexed that Michelle Williams isn't on this list given that she has approximately 500 Oscars

Oscar nominations?

She has three fewer Oscars total than Green Book won last year.

Citizen Kane (10.0)
Mank (6.0)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (7.0)
Hillbilly Elegy (5.5)
Affairs of State (2.0)
Blume in Love (6.5)
Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (5.0)
The Parallax View (7.0)
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (6.5)
The Net (6.5)

I have no excuse for last rating, other than to say it’s an example, for me, of some of what I was trying to say in this thread: NYT: The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century. Early in her career, I really liked Sandra Bullock.

Oops, wrong thread.

Julianne Moore turned 60 this week.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Departed from my initial post and voted for Nicole Kidman, possibly edged in that direction by seeing The Killing of a Sacred Deer (I want to give her credit for Eyes Wide Shut, too, which came out in the summer of '99 and maybe was still playing somewhere in January of 2000).

clem's accidental post above had me genuinely trying to work out which of these actors could have possibly appeared in Citizen Kane for oh, at least 10 seconds

God this list sucks.

List this God sucks

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

04. Keanu Reeves 5
21. Catherine Deneuve 1

never change ilx

1 dude in the top 5? I'll take it.

voted for Zhao Tao, would have liked to see Kim Min-hee get a vote or two

04. Keanu Reeves 5
21. Catherine Deneuve 1

never change ilx

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 30 December 2020 00:24 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

1 dude in the top 5? I'll take it.

― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Wednesday, 30 December 2020 00:49 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Never change ilx

Whatever, dudes suck and you know it.

🎶Some dudes will
Some dudes wont 🎶

1 dude in the top 5? I'll take it.

― On average, this critic grades 8.3 points lower than other critics (Eric H.), Wednesday, 30 December 2020 00:49 (one hour ago)

Never change ilx

― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Wednesday, December 30, 2020 1:21 PM (one hour ago)

two Irish actors in the top 5? never change, ILX

this is not a poll to take too seriously