5. Sonia Braga – “Aquarius”
Among the many disappointments of “Luke Cage” a few months back, it managed to cast the great Brazilian actress Sonia Braga as Rosario Dawson’s mother, and then give her almost nothing to do. But Braga probably wasn’t fussed, because she gave what many have called, quite rightly, the performance of her career in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Aquarius.” The director’s follow-up to his breakthrough feature “Neighboring Sounds” stars the “Kiss Of The Spider Woman” actress as a woman in her 60s who is the last inhabitant of the titular apartment block, where she’s spent four decades and raised a family, and where she now refuses to leave, to the frustrations of the developers who want to knock it down and rebuild it. It’s a lovely, quiet, atypical film about the links between memory and place, and about the passage of time, but it’s elevated even further by Braga’s mighty turn. There are so few great roles written for older woman, but this is one of them — hard, vulnerable, sexy, afraid of mortality, proud, self-conscious, graceful — and Braga builds Clara into a person who feels utterly, utterly real, and one who the filmmakers, and audiences, are quite understandably fascinated by.
4. Mahershala Ali – “Moonlight”
Whether on screens small or large, Mahershala Ali was everywhere in 2016: Netflix’s “House Of Cards” and “Luke Cage;” Justin Tipping‘s “Kicks;” Gary Ross’ “Free State Of Jones;” and, soon, Theodore Melfi‘s “Hidden Figures.” But the best work he’s done this year without question is found in Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” where he plays Juan, the surrogate father figure for Chiron, a young, shy, incalculably lonely boy growing up in Miami. Ali infuses Juan with warmth we can sense before he even speaks his first lines in the film; he’s compassionate, laid-back, and, for reasons that Jenkins mercifully never articulates, immediately concerned for Chiron’s well-being, an imperfect guardian in the kid’s confusing, loveless, and unforgiving world. He’s also in the film for only a fraction of its duration, which just reinforces the efficacy of Ali’s portrayal: It’s no small thing to make a lasting impression when the character you’re playing has such a short shelf life. But that’s exactly what Ali does, and that’s exactly why critics are going justifiably nuts for him in “Moonlight,” and in everything else he does, too.
3. Annette Bening – “20th Century Women”
We know Annette Bening is great — always has been, always will be. But she’s a very specific and special kind of great in “20th Century Women,” as the woman whose life spans most of the century, and whose life sees as many evolutions as it does during that time. The film seems a tribute to filmmaker Mike Mills’ mother, as much as “Beginners” was a tribute to his father, and oh, what a tribute to have Bening give one of her finest performances in your honor. She finds the perfect sweet spot in comedy and drama, which is what makes her performance so real, the kind of embodiment where you’re suddenly gripped by a memory of your own mom or aunt or grandmother. Ruling her tiny Santa Barbara domain with a tart tenderness, Dorothea is nurturing and no-nonsense, or as her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann) would say, by way of an excuse, “she was raised in the Depression.” Dorothea, though set in her ways (you can try to pry the cigarettes from her hands), is curious about the world, about her son and his music, her young female surrogate daughters (Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning) with their feminism and complicated sexuality, about her hippie handyman William (Billy Crudup). It’s almost impossible to pick a favorite line reading or reaction shot of Bening’s from the film, each one a graceful, perfect surprise, so let’s just agree that her confused-then-joyful dancing to the Talking Heads is the moment we can all cherish together.
2. Casey Affleck – “Manchester By The Sea”
There are big, showy performances that get lots of attention simply for their pyrotechnical extravagance, performances where actors get so completely lost in their character that you can’t help but wonder where the character stopped and the actor began. And then there are the performances that are so low-key, so perfectly modulated, that, if the acting wasn’t so astounding, would probably barely register. That is certainly the case with Affleck’s how-the-fuck-did-he-do-that turn in “Manchester By The Sea.” Kenneth Lonergan‘s postcard-sized American epic about grief and responsibility could have drowned in sadness, but it’s Affleck’s performance as a man whose brother dies, leaving him to take care of his young nephew, that makes the whole thing gripping, warm, and funny instead of just mournful. Affleck’s character has another tragedy in his past, and it’s a testament to the performance that he is able to play that question alongside the narrative. He’s like a human Mystery Box. And his bursts of emotion — rage, sadness, and a tender hilarity — are startling and real and go to show you that while he may be somewhat subdued, there’s a volcano burbling just below the surface, ready to blow.
1. Isabelle Huppert – “Elle”/”Things To Come”
Which is odder: that Isabelle Huppert has two performances to her credit in 2016 that are each so masterful that deciding on which is better is an impossible task; or that they are, details and specifics aside, functionally similar? In Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle” and in Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Things To Come” alike, Huppert plays women beleaguered by life’s amoral vagaries; their fool husbands leave them to gallivant about with younger women, their layabout sons are strangers to them, they struggle with discourtesies dealt against them in their professional lives, and the relationships they have with their mothers are so unhealthy that calling them “toxic” would be generous. Grant that “Elle” and “Things To Come” are, likenesses aside, completely different films about completely different ideas; the latter is a rhythm-of-life movie, whereas the former blends the rape-revenge niche with vicious social satire. But Huppert is the connective tissue that binds the pair together, a happy, or perhaps bizarre, accident that nonetheless serves to remind us all of her seemingly endless gifts as an actress. She runs the emotional gamut from one film to the next, carnal, savage, shattered, listless, invulnerable but exposed, a woman on the verge of collapse who refuses to succumb to her instabilities. Huppert’s career spans four decades and change, plus a heap of awards and accolades, but with “Elle” and “Things To Come,” she could well be having her best year yet.
Honorable Mentions
This honorable mention section is going to run deep, as there were many performances that we just couldn’t squeeze onto the list — there are only so many capsules we can write. First and foremost, we adored the reunion of Kate Beckinsale and Whit Stillman in “Love & Friendship,” and the killer combo of a truly brilliant Jesse Plemons and Molly Shannon in Chris Kelly’s debut “Other People.” Logan Marshall-Green and Tammy Blanchard gave memorable turns in Karyn Kusama’s chilling “The Invitation,” while Blanchard also stunned in “Tallulah.”
Comedian Craig Robinson gave a wonderfully sensitive dramatic performance in Chad Hartigan’s “Morris From America,” and André Holland was an integral part of the incredible “Moonlight.” On TV, we loved the supporting performances of John Turturro and his eczema on “The Night Of,” and Lakeith Stanfield on “Atlanta.” Hailee Steinfeld ruled “The Edge Of Seventeen,” while Mackenzie Davis gave us chills in “Always Shine.”
Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek made a fine pair in “Toni Erdmann,” and while we made room for Fiennes on the list, we also adored the wordless performance of Tilda Swinton in “A Bigger Splash.” He may be dancing away with acclaim for “La La Land,” but Ryan Gosling won us over in Shane Black’s LA noir “The Nice Guys.”
Running through the rest of the list: Hiroshi Abe, “After the Storm;” Zhao Tao, “Mountains May Depart;” Oulaya Amamra, “Divines;” the four lead actors from “Happy Hour;” Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse in “Swiss Army Man;” Susan Sarandon in “The Meddler;” Ralph Ineson, “The Witch;” Gillian Jacobs, “Don’t Think Twice;” Sam Neill, “Hunt For The Wilderpeople;” and Song Kang-Ho, “The Age Of Shadows.”
Click here for our complete coverage of the Best Of 2016
– Katie Walsh, Oli Lyttelton, Andrew Crump, Oktay Ege Kozak, Gary Garrison, Will Ashton, Kimber Myers, Allyson Johnson