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Open Thread

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Just watched a bit of Rounders, and it reminded me of back when I thought Ed Norton was just great. I still do, but h has not distinguished himself lately. Then I started to think, who are the greatest actors of the last ten years, and while there are a ton of people I like, I would have to say that Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Daniel Day Lewis are probably the two best. I asked DougJ, and without me mentioning Hoffman or Lewis, he mentioned Johnny Depp.

There are lots who I think are fun- I love almost everything Damon does, and I think probably one of the better performances from someone ever was Clooney in O Brother, but I think Hoffman and Lewis have chops the others do not.

You?

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124Comments

  3. 3.

    Hill Dweller

    I’d probably go with Lewis, Hoffman and Bardem.

    Mathieu Amalric and Ben Whishaw would get honorable mentions.

  5. 5.

    BGinCHI

    Clooney in The American and Michael Clayton. You can hate on him, but those are really good films with a solid lead.

    PSH is a really good actor. Sam Rockwell too.

    Worst working actor, last 10 years (choosing amongst famous actors): Al Pacino. Hands down.

    Hey Al, yelling is not a synonym for acting.

    Best actor working right now though has to be the guy who plays David Brooks in that op-ed farce. That guy is amazing.

  13. 13.

    BGinCHI

    Oh, shit. Sorry Mark. We forgot Mark Ruffalo. Smart and liberal too.

    Amazing in You Can Count on Me. And Zodiac.

  15. 15.

    Jenny

    @Paul:

    I can’t think of a movie Gary Oldman didn’t make better.

    He was a good guy, but I never liked “Different Strokes”.

  19. 19.

    policomic

    I would second Cheadle and third Clooney (don’t hate him because he’s beautiful).

    I recently saw Ides of March, which stunk on ice IMHO, but the acting was mostly great: Clooney (who also directed and co-wrote the ridiculous script), P. S. Hoffman, and Paul Giamatti, who I would also put on the shortlist.

    Marisa Tomei was good in it too, but this post seems to be about male actors, so maybe that’s a topic for another thread.

  21. 21.

    jeff

    until Johnny Depp quits doing shit movies for Tim Burton, he’ll never become a great actor. He’s apparently married to him, though.

  24. 24.

    Jules

    I agree about Hoffman and Lewis.
    Gary Oldman.

    Johnny Depp was making amazing films and then he did Pirates. The Libertine was that last interesting thing he has done.

    Tom Hardy.
    I think that Benedict Cumberbatch is a brilliant actor, but so far has been under the radar, I think that will change in the next couple of years.

  25. 25.

    BGinCHI

    @jeff: Burton is the most overrated director of the last 20 years. Fucking terrible.

    Even Brian DePalma looks smart next to him.

    And someone should also point out that Jeff Bridges is a pretty fucking good actor. And whoever mentioned Bardem. That guy is nails.

    I’ll also admit to being a Steve Zahn fan. Him and Cheadle in Out of Sight. Awesome.

  26. 26.

    noabsolutes

    I agree about Alan Rickman. He’s a better actor than he has any reason to be. And Javier Bardem, besides being a hunk, is rather good at what he does.

    Also, too: women act. Tilda Swinton, for instance? Kind of blows a lot of these guys out of the water. And Julianne Moore has distinguished herself head and shoulders above most actors of her generation, if not as an individual just as an example of a real actor’s actor. If you look back a decade plus, Angela Bassett obviously deserved some Oscars but more importantly, did an amazing job in big and little pictures.

  30. 30.

    burnspbesq

    @Paul:

    I can’t think of a movie Gary Oldman didn’t make better.

    Waiting for “Tinker, Tailor” before I make a judgment.

  40. 40.

    burnspbesq

    He’s getting on in years, but I’d still pay good money to watch Denzel read the phone book.

  41. 41.

    BGinCHI

    @wasabi gasp: Macy’s performance in Fargo, especially.

    No one flees the interview like that guy.

    We also need a thread for actors who died young. Like Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    @BGinCHI:

    We also need a thread for actors who died young. Like Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy.

    I take it you don’t watch “Parks and Recreation.”

  47. 47.

    BGinCHI

    @Jenny: You must mean when he was playing the trumpet in St Elmo’s Fire. I thought it was just saliva that dripped on his pants.

  54. 54.

    Steeplejack

    @jeff:

    Amen. And it wouldn’t hurt him to bring the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to an end.

    Looking on IMDB, it’s a little surprising how little great work Depp has done since 2000. He had Before Night Falls and Chocolat that year and Blow in 2001, but since then it has been mostly Hollywooden cheese: From Hell, the Pirates movies, the Tim Burton partnership (Willy Wonka? Really, Depp? Really?) and some phone-it-ins like The Libertine and Public Enemies. I didn’t see Sweeney Todd, so maybe he completely redeemed himself with that one.

    And, for chrissakes, he’s got a remake of 21 Jump Street in production. Oh, the humanity!

  55. 55.

    Bettencourt

    A lot of great names mentioned here, particularly Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ben Foster and Steve Zahn.

    And not that it matters, but Tilda Swinton looks absolutely stunning in person.

    Just saw the posts that appeared while I was writing this. I should add Sam Rockwell to the list, wonderful actor. And I highly recommend The Damned United. Sheen (Michael) is great in it, and Timothy Spall and Jim Broadbent are great as always (they’re so brilliant they make me wish I liked Mike Leigh films more).

  56. 56.

    burnspbesq

    @BGinCHI:

    Ronan S. Farrow, Washington, DC, graduated with double majors in philosophy and biology from Bard College in 2004. He was the college’s youngest graduate ever, at age 15. He is now its first Rhodes Scholar. He graduated from Yale Law School in 2009, where he edited the Yale Journal of International Affairs. He is currently Special Advisor to the Secretary of State for Global Youth Issues, and before that was Special Advisor for Humanitarian and NGO
    Affairs. He has been a political commentator on three networks and in many national publications, and is a songwriter and guitarist. He grew up with fourteen adopted siblings from seven countries speaking six languages. At Oxford, Ronan plans to do a D.Phil. in international development.

  58. 58.

    Steeplejack

    @BGinCHI:

    Out of Sight is a great movie through and through. And that includes, God forgive me, Jennifer Lopez. She held up her part.

    And the movie was helped by the fact that they stayed pretty faithful to Elmore Leonard’s book. Ditto that for Get Shorty.

  59. 59.

    centerfielddj

    Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance in There Will Be Blood is completely in line with what the director/writer wanted to express. There is no greater accomplishment by an actor.

    His performance also stands, brilliantly, on its own. Daniel is on the screen nearly every moment, and he POSSESSES that screen. The best performence of a truly great career, and it’s a lucky break that the Academy rewarded him for it.

    “There are facts: water is wet, the sun is hot…and Daniel Day Lewis in this film is great.” – Quentin Tarantino

  60. 60.

    Will

    Philip Seymour Hoffman
    Paul Giamatti
    Sean Penn
    Sam Rockwell
    Sasha Baron Cohen (think about it)

    Some folks are including actors whose prime was prior to the past decade. Gary Oldman was probably the best actor of the 90’s, but what has he really done this past decade other than some Harry Potter and Batman movies? Same feeling about William H. Macy.

  62. 62.

    Scott P.

    Only Philip Seymour Hoffman could have played the romantic interest of Leonardo di Caprio in Titanic.

  65. 65.

    handsmile

    Man, this is just cruel. I’ve spent the better part of the past two hours on DougJ’s song covers thread, and now this….

    Daniel Day-Lewis is an eminently sensible nomination, but to be persnickety, if we are considering the “greatest actor of the last ten years”, it should be mentioned that the man has appeared in just four films in that period. One of these, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, is a decidedly minor affair, and as for Nine, well, careers have been destroyed for less.

    Of actors who have come to prominence and critical acclaim since 2000, I would have to vote for Javier Bardem.

    Now if we take a longer view, then I’m placing all my chips on the number that BGinChi called at #25 above: Jeff Bridges. No actor, not DeNiro, not Hackman, not D. Hoffman, not Michael Caine (well maybe him), has matched Bridges’ extraordinary range of roles coupled with the extraordinarily persuasive embodiment of those characters, since his performance in from 1972. Simply peruse the filmography at this Wikipedia profile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bridges One of the greatest actors in American film history.

    As for that noble breed of thespian known as “character actors”, how fortunate we are that such contemporary paragons as Jim Broadbent, Bill Macy, and Don Cheadle appear so frequently before us on the flickering screen.

    Now off to clean up the kitchen and then to bed. I’ll check back later in the morning for the slagging.

  67. 67.

    Bettencourt

    Soderbergh is indeed great, and I particularly recommend one of his most obscure but finest films, King of the Hill, from 1993.

    And William H. Macy was extraordinary in Fargo. But I don’t know if he’s done anything lately to compare with it.

    Sacha Baron Cohen is amazing, but though his role in Scorsese’s disappointing Hugo is largely thankless, he has perhaps the film’s most genuinely emotional moment, where he tells Emily Mortimer about his war wound. For just those few moments, there’s something to marvel at in Hugo besides the amazing 3D.

  68. 68.

    Steeplejack

    @BGinCHI:

    I like me some Soderbergh. I’ll go see anything he does, and thath includes clunkers like the remake of Solaris.

    I just DVR’d The Good German and am looking forward to that.

  70. 70.

    Bondo

    Leonardo DiCaprio is probably tops of the past ten years for men.

    I’m a big fan of Shahrukh Khan if you like Bollywood.

    As for the women, she’s young but Saoirse Ronan has just been amazing so far, as has Elle Fanning.

  71. 71.

    BGinCHI

    @Steeplejack: I know folks will hate on this, but I thought “The Girlfriend Experience” was fucking brilliant. Smart as hell and has the feel of non-fiction. Soderbergh makes that film look so easy and real that you get lost in what he’s doing. It deserves a close look. He’s a master. The Underneath is really great too.

  72. 72.

    handsmile

    That fourth paragraph in my #65 comment should read: “…since his performance in The Last Picture Show from 1972.”

    Tired mind, tired eyes, fail at proper editing.

  73. 73.

    Califlander

    Denzel Washington. Liked every role he’s played, even the ones where I don’t like the character.

    Nick Cage used to be one of my favorites — sort of a latter-day Bogart. Haven’t really cared for anything I’ve seen him in after Lord of War, but that’s still in the 10-year window.

  75. 75.

    Nylund

    No one can play as many disparate roles as PSH. Look at him in Boogie Nights, The Talented Mister Ripley, The Savages, Capote, Punch Drunk Love….somehow he can pull off a rich playboy, a scary criminal, a pathetic loser, and Truman Capote. It’s an amazing range. Daniel Day Lewis can do that too. Ed Norton has some variety, but a lot of his characters end up being very similar. William H. Macy seems to increasingly play the same character. I like Paul Giamatti too.

    I’m hesitant to mention his name in the same comment as those above as he’s nowhere near there caliber, but I really liked Ryan Gosling in Half-Nelson and thought he was pretty good in Lars and the Real Girl as well. Besides those two though, he hasn’t done too much that excites me (I’m still unsure how I feel about Drive).

    I almost always enjoy Mark Ruffalo.

    And while I might simply be biased because I’m madly in love with her, I’m often impressed by Charlize Theron, especially in movies like Monster and North Country.

    I absolutely hate George Clooney in his comedic roles (with the exception of the Fantastic Mr. Fox…if that counts), but I have to admit, he’s very good at being “George Clooney.” It works in things like Michael Clayton, Syrianna, Up in the Air, Three Kings, A Perfect Storm, etc. Maybe even the “Oceans” series. You know what you’re going to get and it’s usually executed solidly enough. Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman, etc. are kind of like that too. Morgan Freeman is great at being “Morgan Freeman.”

    Oh, and I have a soft spot for Casey Affleck, especially in The Assassination of Jesse James and Gone Baby Gone.

  76. 76.

    Adolphus

    @burnspbesq:

    “I can’t think of a movie Gary Oldman didn’t make better.”
    Waiting for “Tinker, Tailor” before I make a judgment.

    Gary Oldman has been awesome since he did Sid and Nancy in 1986.

    What the hell are you waiting for to make a judgement??

    Paul Giamatti for the win since American Splendor and Man On the Moon.
    Steve Buscemi even made The Island smell good.

    For younger actors I got my eye on Jason Gordon-Levitt. Best pleasant surprise since Depp moved off of 21 Jump Street. And for those of you dissing his relationship with Burton, sure Burton has seen better days and those better days saved Depp from a career of teen huskiness. Depp in Burton’s Ed Wood was awesome as was Depp in it. Also, Depp has done lots of non-Burton movies like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Bennie and Joon, Deadman, Cry Baby, etc etc.

  77. 77.

    Steeplejack

    For work done in the last 10 years, I’d have to go with George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matt Damon, Javier Bardem and maybe Christian Bale.

    A lot of these guys, you start looking on IMDB, and they haven’t done much in the last 10 years, e.g., Malkovich, or they’ve got Depp syndrome, discussed above.

  78. 78.

    Adolphus

    @Bettencourt:

    And William H. Macy was extraordinary in Fargo. But I don’t know if he’s done anything lately to compare with it.

    The Cooler
    Thank You For Smoking
    State and Main
    and
    Wag the Dog

    He was awesome in all of them and all since Fargo.

    The Cooler is especially good if you haven’t seen it.

  79. 79.

    Steeplejack

    @BGinCHI:

    I thought Clooney was good in The American, and I liked the look and feel of the movie, but, man, the plot was pretty thin.

  80. 80.

    patrick II

    @Steeplejack:
    “You wanted to tussle. We tussled. ”

    I liked Lopez’s in some of her early movies — before she became a diva. she seemed to have a smart working girl thing going in “Oot of Sight”, “Money Train”, and she did good work in “The Cell” and “U-Turn”.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    Now, don’t get me wrong, when Gary Oldman is good, he’s very, very good, but when he’s bad, no one can go further into “WTF was that?” territory.

    In other words, Tiptoes.

  82. 82.

    burnspbesq

    @Adolphus:

    Being the best thing in a bad movie (Sid & Nancy) doesn’t impress me.

    Oldman was brilliant in “The Professional,” but that was a pretty undemanding role. What’s he done since?

    If he can find something in George Smiley that Sir Alec didn’t find, then I will be ready to hop on the bandwagon.

  84. 84.

    Joseph Nobles

    @burnspbesq: And “American Splendor” for Giamatti.

    @Adolphus: For Macy, check out season 1 of the US “Shameless.” After seeing the US version first, I just now finished the first season of the original, and I don’t know whose Frank Gallagher I like more. Both kick ass.

    And I think you mean Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and I totally concur.

  85. 85.

    freelancer (iPhone)

    It’s funny, I loved the Solaris remake, but aside from that I think Soderbergh is the most overrated, pretentious director in Hollywood. His films bore me to know end and I just think for the most part, they’re over stylized pablum.

  87. 87.

    tara

    @Adolphus:

    I think you mean Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And yes, I’ve always liked him, even when I didn’t like the movie itself. I’d also agree with BGinCHI that Jeff Bridges should really be on this list.

  89. 89.

    Triassic Sands

    Best actors of the last ten years?

    I’d say Daniel Day-Lewis fails to qualify because he’s appeared in only four films in the last ten years. I’ve seen all four, though I slept through most of “Nine” and can’t say much of anything about his performance in that film. He deservedly received no recognition for the “Ballad of Jack and Rose.” (Unless a “Best Actor” award at the Marrakech International Film Festival qualifies as recognition. I guess the hash was particularly strong that year.) Years ago, I thought Day-Lewis was possibly the finest actor working at that time, but his most recent work has not impressed me. I thought he was poor in “Gangs of New York” and not much better in “There Will Be Blood.” He was nominated for Oscars in both films and won for “There Will Be Blood,” but I found both of his performances wanting — mostly as a result of what I considered over-acting — both seemed more like caricatures to me than genuine performances. (Obviously the Academy, which has never made a mistake, didn’t agree.) His great performances, in my opinion, all came before ten years ago, so by JC’s definition, he wouldn’t qualify for best actor of the last ten years. At best, he’s a fringe candidate.

    Hoffman would definitely get my vote. He’s appeared in so many films, in such a wide variety of roles, and he’s almost always so good that the film is worth seeing just to see him. He was robbed of an Oscar for his supporting role in “Charlie Wilson’s War.” (Javier Bardem won for “No Country for Old Men.” His was a fine, if somewhat bizarre performance, but as much as I like Bardem, I think Hoffman’s performance was better.)

    That raises the name of someone else who I think does belong on a list of best actors of the last ten years — Javier Bardem. He’s been mentioned a lot above and rightly so. He’s given many fine performances and unlike Day-Lewis his career is not heavily weighted to films more than ten years old. In films like “Biutiful,” “The Sea Inside,” “No Country…,” and “Before Night Falls,” Bardem has turned in very fine performances.

    Russell Crowe also easily (IMO) beats out Day-Lewis. I’m surprised no one has mentioned him yet. In the same time Day-Lewis has appeared in only five films, Crowe has been in eighteen, with three Oscar nominations and one win. I don’t remember thinking Crowe was ever bad in a film, even if his performance wasn’t Oscar-worthy. Crowe’s awards do stretch the ten-year limit, but I’m comparing him to Day-Lewis going back to, say, 1997.

    One other possible contender: Paul Giamatti. He’s been very, very busy over the last ten years (IMdB gives him 36 acting credits, including a TV mini-series, since 2001). His failure to get a nomination for “Sideways” was unforgivable. WTF, they gave Clint Eastwood a best actor nomination that year over Giamatti. (I think Eastwood is one of the more over-rated directors working today — he’s good, but only good, not great — but he isn’t now and never has been a great actor. I don’t see how anyone could, with a straight face, claim his performance in “Million Dollar Baby” was better than Giamatti’s in “Sideways.” But then, tastes do vary.) By all accounts, Giamatti deserved an Oscar nomination for “American Splendor,” a film I didn’t see. Giamatti is a strange bird, but his performances are usually quite good. I think Giamatti is a better actor than a number of people mentioned above.

    I don’t like Johnny Depp particularly. He may have deserved a nomination for best Keith Richards impersonation, but Best Actor? C’mon. I haven’t seen “Sweeny Todd…,” but Depp didn’t really impress me in “Finding Neverland.” He’s OK, but not, in my opinion, among the great actors of the day.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    Chris Cooper. Okay, Lone Star is outside the 10-year mark, but he’s worked with & stood up to just about every second actor / director mentioned here. I’ll probably pay to see the new Muppet Movie just for him (okay, and Miss Piggy) even though the Twee-Off between Amy Adams and Jason Siegel makes me slightly nauseated just thinking about it.

    But he’s not a Movie Star, a quality I define as the ability to draw the viewer’s eye, even under unpromising circumstances. As an illustration, both Clooney (Roseanne, ER) and Denzel Washington (Chicago Hope) had TV ensemble roles with a bunch of perfectly adequate performers, but they stole their scenes without even breaking a sweat.

    My not-a-film-buff guess for a new Movie Star would be Chris Pine. Not kidding. He made James Tiberius Kirk believable — as an ADD trainwreck-waiting-to-happen, yes, but you could imagine smarter, more experienced people following him just out of morbid curiosity. And he spent a good chunk of Unstoppable alone on the screen with Denzel Washington without disappearing, something Clive Owen (Inside Man) couldn’t manage.

  93. 93.

    DanielX

    Russell Crowe, certainly.
    Woody Harrelson – yup
    Jude Law – see Enemy at the Gates and The Holiday for contrast
    Viggo Mortensen – almost frightening ability to change character in the same role – A History of Violence

  94. 94.

    Breezeblock

    Lots of actors mentioned (though I saw only one mention of Downey Jr, he was stunning in Chaplin).

    I’d like to add Steve Buscemi as underrated, though he’s usually a supporting actor (I don’t get HBO), but check him out in Living in Oblivion or Trees Lounge.

  95. 95.

    dan

    Everyone is forgetting Alec Baldwin, cause, I guess, people think comedy is easy. It’s not and he’s great (though, not PSH-Clooney-Bridges great).

  96. 96.

    dan

    @burnspbesq: What’s he done since? Just little underground independant films – like Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and 2.

    And The Fifth Element. And http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000198/

  98. 98.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    I’ll go for range:

    Johnny Depp: Cry Baby (John Waters) to Pirates (Disney) to Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton)

    Jeff Daniels: Dumb and Dumber, Gettysburg, Speed. Stupid comedies to historical drama, to thrillers. I don’t know anyone else who can match that.

  99. 99.

    Tom

    Maybe wouldn’t qualify for the past ten years (though he had two GREAT roles — Gone Baby Gone and The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford), but for the next ten, I’d put money down on Casey Affleck.

  100. 100.

    Don K

    I’m going to call out Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a promising actor, not yet a great one. After 3rd Rock wrapped in ’01, I’m sure he could have had his pick of TV sitcom roles, and that would have been the easy (and most immediately remunerative) way out. Instead he went to work out of the public eye in low (under $1 million) budget films. In ’03-’05 he had three really good performances in Latter Days, Mysterious Skin, and Brick. Now, having worked on his dramatic acting chops, he’s begun appearing in some big-budget movies.

  101. 101.

    LGRooney

    JGL, Giovanni Ribisi, Elijah Wood, and, although many like to scoff because he is too popular, I get annoyed when people discount the skills of Brad Pitt.

  103. 103.

    Hawes

    Daniel Day-Lewis is only a great actor because Chuck Norris allows it to happen.

    Oldman’s OK, but he’s sort of a British Al Pacino for me, especially when he’s playing villains. Much better playing characters like Commissioner Gordon than playing crap like the bad guy in Book of Eli.

    Matt Damon impresses me more and more each movie he makes. His scenes in the hospital in Contagion were perfect.

    Agree about Jeff Bridges. How can you out-ham Robert Downey, Jr. in Iron Man and then do Crazy Heart?

    On the female side, anything with Laura Linney in it immediately must be better than it looks, even if it looks good.

  104. 104.

    Montysano

    I’m late to the party, so I’m probably seconding what’s already said.

    George Clooney is the real deal. Three Kings is one of the finest (anti?) war films ever. Michael Clayton is a favorite; the final scene between Clooney and Tilda Swinton is as good as it gets. Plus, of course, O Brother, Burn After Reading, The American, etc.

    Paul Giametti for American Splendor and Sideways.

    Is Matt Damon a great actor? I dunno, but the Bourne series was great moviemaking.

    And yes, Geoffrey Rush. I savored every second that he was on the screen in The King’s Speech.

  105. 105.

    Svensker

    Matt Damon has surprised me — he’s turned into a good actor.

    Johnny Depp I’ve never understood — he just looks stupid, to me. I’d say it was an age thing but my 84 year old MIL thinks he’s hawt… Can’t stand the guy.

    And feel the same way about George Clooney. Handsome, but a complete stiff. Also, too, doesn’t he give off humongous gay vibes? Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does turn down the sizzle factor to zero, for me.

  106. 106.

    Kyron Huigens

    Paul Giamatti. Remember all those Woody Allen movies in which he paired himself as the male lead opposite some stunningly beautiful female lead — and destroyed what little credibility his film had to begin with? The schlubby guy just does not get the girl, I’m sorry. But see Barnie’s Version, and watch Paul Giamatti totally pull that off, opposite Rosamund Pike.

  107. 107.

    Mister Papercut

    @BGinCHI: Actually, now that you mention Talladega Nights (not a phrase anyone was expecting to pop up in this post, I’ll bet), I’m going to throw a vote John C. Reilly’s way. He can do from the silliest comedy to serious drama equally well. I’ve just found I enjoy him in anything I see him in and look forward to seeing what he can pull off next.

  109. 109.

    Raenelle

    @BGinCHI: There are two actors, if they’re in a movie, I watch the movie: Sam Rockwell and Jeff Bridges. Ryan Gosling is edging into that territory, so far. He’s impressing me the way Ed Norton used to.

  110. 110.

    Can't Be Bothered

    Jesus christ, monnkey balls. NOBODY has said Heath Ledger!? Nobody!? He turned in the best performance of the decade in Brokeback.

    Here is a list of the best performances of the past decade, b/c I already had it made as I like making lists about stuff like this, but no movies from 2010 onward are included. The best ensemble performance of the decade is quite easily the Assassination of Jesse James. I’m frankly rather surprised by the repeated votes for PSH and Paul Giamatti. They play sad sacks of shit well but… they both have maybe one or two great performances and a smattering of solid ones. I mean, shit, PSH wasn’t even the better Capote in the two films made at that time.

    Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, The Dark Knight, Candy)
    Daniel Day Lewis (There Will be Blood, Gangs of New York)
    Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
    Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James)
    Meryl Streep (everything, but Doubt in particular)
    Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
    Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)
    Jackie Earle Hailey (Little Children)
    Christian Bale (The Machinist, American Psycho, Rescue Dawn)
    Terrence Howard (Hustle and Flow)
    Tom Hanks (Cast Away)
    Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast, House of Sand and Fog)
    Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings)
    Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
    Sam Rockwell (Moon, The Assassination of Jesse James)
    Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean)
    Helen Mirren (The Queen)
    Adrien Brody (The Pianist)
    Tim Robbins (Mystic River)
    Brad Pitt (Snatch, Burn After Reading, The Assassination of Jesse James)
    Ray Winstone (The Proposition)
    Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt)
    Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
    Jeremy Renner (Dahmer, Assassination of Jesse James, The Hurt Locker)
    Jeff Daniels (The Squid and the Whale)
    Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
    John Malkovich (Burn After Reading)
    Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading)
    Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings)
    Cate Blanchette (Notes on a Scandal)
    Chiwetal Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things)
    Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine)
    Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises)
    Sharlto Copley (District 9)
    James Franco (Pineapple Express)
    Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums)
    Jack Black (High Fidelity)
    Ben Foster (3:10 to Yuma)
    Samantha Morton (In America)
    Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me)
    Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond)
    Garrett Dillahunt (The Assassination of Jesse James)
    Paul Schneider (The Assassination of Jesse James)
    Edward Norton (25th Hour)
    Amy Adams (Junebug)
    Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
    Michael Douglas (Wonder Boys)
    Jeremy Davies (Solaris, Rescue Dawn)
    Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac, Wonder Boys)
    Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums)
    Woody Harrelson (Zombieland)
    Thomas Hayden Church (Sideways)
    Bill Murray (The Life Aquatic)
    Mike White (Chuck and Buck)

  111. 111.

    Michael

    I’ll second a lot of people here on Clooney and Bridges for leads, PSH for second-string.

    For actors on the rise, I’m looking for big things from Ryan Gosling in the next decade. If you haven’t already, watch Half Nelson

  114. 114.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Clive Owen though he has seemed to fall off the Earth,Charlie Hunham(sp) from Sons of Anarchy and Timothy Olyphant from Justified are pretty good actors who need some good roles on the big screen.

  115. 115.

    Howlin Wolfe

    @Anne Laurie: I scrolled down the comments looking for a mention of Chris Cooper, because I’m a fan of his work. In American Beauty, October Skies, and that movie (with Meryl Streep) where he played some sort of Florida outdoor-savvy redneck, can’t remember the title. All 3 roles were different, and well played.

  118. 118.

    handsmile

    @Howlin Wolfe: (#115)

    The movie title is Adaptation, directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman from Susan Orleans’ non-fiction work, The Orchid Thief.

    Chris Cooper is indeed a superb actor, but I think he just doesn’t appear often enough for his name/achievement to register broadly. Similar in that regard is David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck), another brilliant actor too little appreciated.

  123. 123.

    thelonius

    The big 2 mentioned on the front page deserve the props, but Clooney’s got way more skills than he’s given credit for, nobody goes interior the way he doe.

  124. 124.

    virag

    giamatti is at the bottom of any list for me. his scenery chewing is painful in any context. i have an irrational fear of him starring as shane macgowan in a sublimely horrible studio-produced biopic about the pogues.

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