Year in review: The 25 best performances of 2021

Will Smith’s been chasing Oscar glory since his breakthrough big-screen performance in “Six Degrees of Separation”. His talent has never been in doubt, but his choices have occasionally been confounding. Considering that both of his children have been in the cruel glare of the media spotlight, Smith’s a spot-on choice to play the father of Venus and Serena Williams. Smith’s played dark characters before, but there’s a jagged edge to his portrayal here. We understand the circumstances that fuel his protectiveness, but the ferocity is nevertheless frightening. And yet his daughters’ lives depend on the fear he can strike into the truly powerful. 

As the year-end awards get dished out, it seems unfair that the ensemble of “Mass” - Martha Plimpton, Jason Isaacs, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney - must be singled out. The four-character drama about the parents of a school-shooting victim meeting with the parents of the shooter is a team effort. Each actor has drilled deep into the sorrow of their character, and considered how it manifests when challenged. That’s what’s at stake in this movie: the unshakable love for one’s child even when they’ve committed an unspeakable crime, and the capacity to forgive. These actors never strike a false note.

She’s not the worst person per se, but Reinsve’s Julie is certainly a challenge. She’s got a license to act out, but Reinsve knows less is more and parcels out the craziness as appropriate. The mushroom scene is a stunner, particularly if you’ve imbibed said substance. Julie would be a nightmare as a girlfriend, but you’d be drawn to her the second she enters a room. That’s the energy of Joachim Trier’s film, and it’s why we’ll line up for anything Reinsve does from here on out.

Menace is easy for a man of Domingo’s stature. Coating that innate quality with charisma, to the extent that the character feels trustworthy, is one hell of a trick. Riley Keough’s broad performance affords Domingo a bit of cover; it’s a sleight-of-hand deal where we’re watching her and not paying attention to the silent guy at the wheel of the car. When Domingo finally gets down to brass tacks, it’s on. The moment where he makes the girls say his name (“Abegunde Olawale”) as a mantra is cult-leader crazy. There’s another level to this man’s menace, and we never want to see it.

What starts as a thankless role blossoms into a nuanced portrait of a woman who finds her purpose because of her husband’s ineptitude. For two acts, Comer plays a hapless victim; when it’s time to tell her side of the story, we see that she is a savvy landowner who’s treated as property by her idiot husband and his lascivious rival. When Comer expresses her contempt for her husband, who’s placed her life at stake in a trial-by-combat, the entire finale becomes a pathetic spectacle. We’re rooting for Damon because her life depends on it, but he gains nothing on the field of battle. Comer’s final moment with her child is a lovely bit of perseverance. To hell with these men.

This is a performance that takes on a profoundly tragic dimension if you were an avid fan of “The O.C.” Adam Brody was an adorable underdog as Seth Cohen, which makes him an unbearably sad Encyclopedia Brown in this strangely soulful detective flick. Brody goes way beyond the boozy, hard-hearted archetype; he’s a thirty-one-year-old failure who squandered his brilliance as a know-it-all little shıt. It’s alarming to see Brody beat down and living out of a bottle, but this is the stuff second acts are made of.

This was the star-making performance of 2021, so of course we’re barely talking about it. Sennott is a boundary-shattering stand-up comic, but the ease with which she settles into the role of the neurotic bisexual Danielle is the stuff of a born actor. She has to contend with her moneyed male client and her ex-girlfriend, both of whom have very little skin in the game due to their prospects. Sennott plays her situation with an uneasy insouciance; she’s a skilled liar, but is she this good? 

“Seagull on the tire, can you hear my prayer?” Dornan was vilified for his passionless portrayal of Christian Grey in the “Fifty Shades of Grey” movies, but material matters, and he roared to life in “Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar” as a murderous henchman turned lovelorn simp. Hollywood is lousy with actors who can’t make light of their image, but Dornan is having the time of his life with Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo. The movie wouldn’t have hit its delirious heights without him.

No shade on Francesca Annis, but Rebecca Ferguson is the Lady Jessica we’ve been waiting for. As the Bene Gesserit matriarch of the Atreides clan, Ferguson provided the emotional throughline to Denis Villeneuve’s unavoidably convoluted first chapter of “Dune”. It’s a grounded performance that aches with love for her son, while pulsating for survival. Ferguson has been the MVP of two “Mission: Impossible” films, but we’re just scratching the surface of her talent.

Garfield once brought the entirety of the San Diego Convention Center’s Hall H to tears with a heartfelt speech about how much Spider-Man meant to him. If he’s not sincere, he’s the world’s greatest bullshıt artist. Jonathan Larson is a god amongst theater folks, and Garfield takes on his endlessly inventive and generous spirit to an all-consuming extent. This is a possession. Garfield can do it all. 

Pablo Larraín has a pretty rich scam going: offer talented actors an iconic role, and let the awards campaign do the rest. “Spencer” is a character study devoid of insight; it’s a tabloid-deep study of a tragic figure undone by tabloid attention. But it flatters its lead, and the tabloid-tested Stewart knows her character’s pain. She’s wonderful, but she’s always wonderful. She’s given transcendent performances in films directed by Olivier Assayas and Kelly Reichardt, but it takes a facile, Larraín-directed biopic to get awards voters to pay attention? K-Stew deserves better.

Is there anything Cumberbatch can’t do? He’s already iconic as his generation’s Sherlock Holmes and Stephen Strange, but these roles are child’s play for a man who can play an abusive rancher like Phil Burbank in Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog”. Cumberbatch sinks into the cruelty of this character to a degree that threatens to taint his crowd-pleasing turns. The west might not be what it is today without him, but we are well rid of his ilk. 

Gaga’s propensity for burlesque explodes in her portrayal of Patrizia Reggiani, the cigarette-inhaling “Black Widow” femme fatale who tried to assassinate her way into the Gucci firmament. It’s a striking contrast from her rags-to-riches performance in Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born”; she’s got wild chemistry with Adam Driver, and takes over a movie with over-the-top turns from Al Pacino and Jared Leto. Gaga’s the goods. More please. 

Paul Schrader reignited Ethan Hawke’s career with “First Reformed”, and it appears he’s put Oscar Isaac back on the map with “The Card Counter”. Isaac plays a war criminal who’s buried his guilt in gambling, a lifestyle that makes an odd risk-averse sense to him. It’s a nice slow burn for an actor who’s been weighted with histrionics for much of his career. He gets to coast on his charm a bit, which leaves you wondering why he’s not one of the biggest movie stars on the planet.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tilda Swinton are a match made in art film heaven. There’s not another Academy Award-winning performer who’d gleefully give themself over to the Thai filmmaker’s deliberate process as Swinton does here. The movie requires an immediate buy-in; Swinton has to sell the jarring bang that drives her out of bed as worthy of a nervous breakdown. Once that’s accomplished, Weerasethakul gets to envelop in this winding, otherworldly mystery. 

Cheadle’s played many a killer (most notably Mouse in “Devil in a Blue Dress”, a role he’ll tell you he’d love to revisit), but in this twisty piece of pulp fiction he gets to inhabit a down-and-dirty character working a long game that stretches beyond his adversaries’ view. Curt Goynes is a bad man, but he’s fixing to get better by re-acquiring a piece of St. Louis land that used to belong to his family. What he has to do to get there clashes with his morals, which Cheadle makes clear with every carefully calculated beat. The whole movie’s a Swiss watch of shıtty behavior, and Cheadle plays skillfully behind the beat every step of the way.

McDormand just steamrolled Chloe Zhao to win her third Best Actress Oscar, so it’s nice to see her getting directed again in this expressionist take on ye olde Scottish Play. It’s difficult to think of an actor ripping through role after role with such brazenness, yet exhibiting clear respect for her costars (thank god for David Strathairn in “Nomadland”). Washington gives McDormand room to wipe the floor with him, but she answers his reticence with an understated fury. These two magnificent actors give you an entirely new and exciting interpretation of a play that refuses to become irrelevant.

It’s a thrill to see one of our finest living actors hurl himself into one of Shakespeare’s most thankless roles. This is not meant as a slight. It takes a tremendous amount of confidence for a movie star of Washington’s magnitude to commit to this role, knowing full well everyone’s there to see Lady Macbeth. Coen’s pared down the script, giving Washington a direct throughline from prophecy to fulfillment. There’s nary a moment of joy in Washington’s interpretation. He’s fated to become the king, but he’d rather not.

Joe Wright hooks up with the Dessner brothers for a musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac that would feel totally unnecessary if not for Peter Dinklage’s go-for-broke portrayal of the physically challenged romantic. Dinklage’s stature is the major impediment, which is a much-needed change of pace from the old big-nose shtick. He’s not the most gifted singer going, but he’s immensely charismatic. You want so dearly for his happiness, and you yearn for Dinklage to be treated as the A-list star that he so clearly is.

The women of “West Side Story” are the best part of any worthwhile adaptation, but Zegler, with her pie-eyed innocence and immaculate singing voice, is a Maria for the ages. It’s not enough for Tony (a very good Ansel Elgort) to fall in love with her; we need to go head over heels for her. To that end, Zegler is wild and bright, going mad, shooting sparks into space. What a dazzler.

We’re doing this again? Affleck should’ve been nominated last year for his pitiless performance as an alcoholic high-school basketball coach in “The Way Back”. This year, he’s turned in a meme-worthy portrayal of a libertine count in Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel” (which he also co-wrote). Let there be no doubt: Affleck’s a superb actor. His line readings may be amusing in “The Last Duel”, but beyond the facade there’s a failure of a man who’s helpless when confronted with the realities of the world outside the walls of the estate he’s inherited. Affleck brings all of this home. He knows sadness.

We love KiKi, and she’s at her very best as an inn proprietor who succumbs to alcoholism as a means of coping with the cruelty of her husband’s brother. Dunst is a remarkably versatile actor, and she gets to utilize the full range of her talents in Jane Campion’s revisionist western. In a year where women have undercut the fooleartedeness of men, Dunst’s performance looms large.

Nicolas Cage made a nifty little comeback a few years ago with “Mandy”, but he hunkered down and gave a truly great performance this year in “Pig”. This is straight, unvarnished Cage; he’s a grief-stricken former chef who’s only friend in this miserable life is a truffle-hunting pig. When that’s taken away from him, you get to see Cage process the sadness rather than avenge it. How is he going to survive this? Cage and the filmmakers give us a sliver of hope in the final scene.

Haddish could easily be here for her outlandishly funny turn in “Bad Trip”, but we’ve seen her comedy fastball. Her performance in Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter”, however, is sly and sexy. It’s not so much a question of “where has this been” as it is “why haven’t directors exploited this”. Haddish is a firecracker who contains multitudes. Turn her loose. Pair her with Oscar Isaac again. Whatever it takes to duplicate this revelatory turn.

Sam Richardson popped this summer as the nervous nellie in "The Tomorrow War", but those that know revered his David Naughton-esque turn in "Werewolves Within". He strikes sparks with Milana Vayntrub - aka Lily from the AT&T commercials, who's hopefully not so rich that she won't retire from the business altogether - before attempting to maintain order in the middle of a small-town werewolf attack. Richardson's just flat-out funny in a manner that recalls Eddie Murphy or Steve Martin. He's going to be a great big movie star.