Best of 2014 - The Best Performances

Tim Falkenberg January 7th, 2015 - 8:07 AM

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Divisions for leading and supporting roles? Actors and actresses? Dramas and comedies? Who needs em!

We’re here to celebrate the best acting performances 2014 had to offer, regardless of the role they came in. And there were some great performances in 2014. Some came from expected places; with others, we celebrated the breakout of a new star. Here are some of our favorites:

Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in Get On Up

Chadwick Boseman embodied James Brown so completely, I forgot that he doesn’t really look a thing like him. He was by turns audacious, electrifying, and amazing. Boseman never shied away from the darker side of Brown’s life (nor did the film) but he was also able to bring to the front the sheer intensity and joy of Brown’s performances. His physicality in the role was matched by his emotional intensity in both the high and low points of Brown’s story.

— Kerry Kelaher Fredeen

Essie Davis as Amelia in The Babadook

It’s no small feat to play a woman who may want to murder her only child and make her completely sympathetic. But Essie Davis pulls it off, more than competently showing us a desperate character slowly descending into madness and isolation due to a demonic entity – or possibly only her own loosening grip on reality.

— Erik Paschall

Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustave in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Playing M. Gustave, the impeccably polished concierge of perhaps the most extraordinary fictional hotel ever conceived for the cinema, Fiennes taps into something altogether special and charming and alive, creating quite possibly the strongest performance ever cobbled together in a Wes Anderson film to date. The character himself is a fascinating curiosity – that of an erudite (possibly bisexual) hospitality clerk who finds himself in a whirl of trouble when the death of one of his hotel friends finds him in possession of a great work of art – yet Fiennes grabs the role, one that could have just as easily been another part of Anderson’s production design, and summons such charm, smarm, and guile throughout. “You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity,” M. Gustave says, and Fiennes reminds us the statement is still true.

— James Tisch

Jake Gyllenhaal as Lou Bloom in Nightcrawler

In Nightcrawler Jack Gyllenhaal invites us to experience the mentality of Lou Bloom, an ambitious thrill-seeker and self-described “fast learner.” Is he in over his head, or is he actually five steps ahead of everyone else? It’s almost impossible to know for sure until the dust settles. Lou’s apparent social awkwardness masks a cold calculating mind that sees people exclusively as assets in his own personal story of self improvement. Rather than just being another slimy business man, though, Gyllenhaal portrays Lou with chilling earnestness, like he sincerely believes that he is doing nothing wrong so long as he comes out ahead.

— Charlie Burroughs

Tom Hardy as Ivan Locke in Locke

A film from earlier this year that’s not getting nearly the attention it should, Locke is a movie that rests solely on the shoulders of Tom Hardy (it’s just him in a car talking to people over the phone) and shows why he is easily one of the best actors working today. We know him as Bane, we know him as Bronson, but Locke gives Tom Hardy the even more challenging role of “the everyman.” Very few actors can make a truly average guy seem compelling, but Hardy succeeds with style. It’s the flawed and beaten humanity he showed in this film that makes me genuinely excited to see him become The Road Warrior in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

— Brett Harrison Davinger

Michael Keaton as Riggan Thompson in Birdman

As the center of a cinematic hurricane, Michael Keaton has to deliver on a multitude of levels. He has to go from beleaguered straight man to volcanic madman, often at the drop of a hat. That he is able to navigate the character’s many, and at times puzzling, turns while still making Riggan Thompson a believable and likable three-dimensional human being is a triumph, one that comes straight out of Keaton’s performance and public persona.

— Gabriel Urbina

Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything

Eddie Redmayne disappeared into the role of Stephen Hawking so effortlessly and beautifully. Every gesture made, every syllable uttered was completely on target. He not only provided accuracy, but emotion and humanity as well. I cannot imagine a more honest and genuine performance. If I were in the particular position of power, I would have given him an Oscar on the spot.

— Rachel Lutack

Mark Ruffalo as David Shultz in Foxcatcher

Steve Carell and Channing Tatum will be getting most of the awards attention this year – though the Golden Globe nomination for Ruffalo is nice – but Ruffalo gives the strongest performance in Foxcatcher. He is the true emotional center to Bennett Miller’s film about John DuPont (Carell) and his relationship with David (Ruffalo) and Mark Schultz (Tatum). Ruffalo’s performance is best encapsulated in a scene where he’s asked to lie about his opinion of John DuPont for a documentary. His performance is the most subtle force to be reckoned with this year.

— Tyler Lyon

J.K. Simmons as Terence Fletcher in Whiplash

Terence Fletcher is a character well versed in pushing his students, or if necessary, breaking them. But as they say with jazz music itself, it’s really about the notes you don’t play. What makes Simmons’ performance one of the year’s best are his moments of silence, his moments of slow deliberation before he makes a decision, or lets out a stinging comment. As Fletcher, Simmons always looks like he’s playing a long, slow game of mental chess with Andrew. From the moment he first sets eyes on Andrew practicing alone in class, there’s no doubt that Fletcher sees Andrew as a promising, untouched talent waiting to be tested. But to reveal that would be a mistake, so Fletcher masks it in tough, often cruel criticism. He’s acting on two fronts. And while Simmons’ is impressive when he’s ragging on his students with an almost palpable contempt, he’s more impressive when he’s trying to play nice. Those niceties are what make his torturous methods in later scenes so believably evil and emotionally satisfying to watch.

— Eduardo Ramos

Timothy Spall as J.M.W. Turner in Mr. Turner

Timothy Spall delivers a transformative performance as the painter William Turner. Crafted out of careful stares, grunts, and a weighty trudge, Turner is one of the most well realized characters ever put on film. Effortlessly and simultaneously encapsulating both the corporeal and etherial natures of the man, Spall has breathed life into Turner in a way few films can hope to match.

— John Wedemeyer

Uma Thurman as Mrs. H in Nymphomaniac Vol. 1

She won’t get nominated for any big awards, and truthfully, she doesn’t deserve to because despite my feelings, the sample size was too small; nevertheless, Uma Thurman in Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 delivered the scene stealing performance of the year as the overly spiteful, sarcastic, and bitter Mrs. H. She’s only in the film for the single scene, but it is a marvel. With Lars Von Trier’s writing and direction, Thurman hits all the right notes as she tours her children around the house of the woman (and sex addict) for whom her husband left her. Almost every line she utters in the scene is a zinger, delivered with such masked contempt as she tries (and often fails) to keep her composure in front of her children but still use her own kids as weapons as a last attempt to guilt and shame her husband and his “whore.” Expertly acted, and if she had a few more scenes in the film with even half the quality, she’d be the actress of the year.

— Eduardo Ramos

See more of the Best of 2014

Best of 2014 – The Best Performances