NYT: The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century

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.)