Top 15 Male Performances of 2015

Here is a selection of the best male performances I saw in 2015. There were, of course, many more to choose from, so do feel free to list your favorites as well!

15. Sylvester Stallone – Creed

as Rocky Balboa

I bought into it. I bought into the age, the guilt, the reluctance – I bought into Stallone’s restrained rediscovery of Rocky Balboa. The scene where Rocky explains why he won’t seek treatment for his cancer is likely to make Stallone a frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. No arguments here.

14. Tom Courtenay – 45 Years

as Geoff Mercer

You wander around. You think. You take up smoking again. You keep to yourself, except in moments of weakness near bedtime. You shuffle around the attic, searching. Searching for a picture, a memory. You think. You remember. You sit alone, alienating those who love you. You think about the life you once had, and the life that could have been. And you try to not drive away those who matter most to you.

13. Félix de Givry – Eden

as Paul

Eden covers nearly two decades in the underground electronic music scene, and star Félix de Givry is present for damn near all of it. Paul is a DJ who refuses to conform to audience tastes, which greatly strains his career, his personal relationships, and his general well being. Paul isn’t a very likeable guy, but Givry’s compassion for the part makes us plead for Paul to wake the hell up and succeed.

12. Bryan Cranston – Trumbo

as Dalton Trumbo

Trumbo is one of those end-of-the-year-Oscar-hopeful-biopics that rarely interest me. But Cranston won me over early. He encapsulated the struggles of the famed, blacklisted screenwriter to shattering results. Seriously, what can’t Bryan Cranston do?

11. Tom Noonan – Anomalisa

as...

Anomalisa hasn’t been released wide yet, so I risk describing Noonan’s contribution to the film, in fear of giving too much away. I will say that in order for Anomalisa to work, Noonan has to do an extraordinary amount with a single instrument. I’m still stunned any actor could pull this off.

10. Karl Glusman – Love

as Murphy

One of the biggest criticisms facing Gaspar Noé’s Love is that it is full of stilted performances. This is an argument I revisit every few years. Some people find the natural performances of first time actors to be wooden, cold, and dull. I often find them to be real. In Love, Glusman talks how real people talk, and behaves how real people behave, contradictions and all. I completely believed Noé’s ploy for naturalism in Love, which certainly includes Glusman’s courageous work in it.

9. Walton Goggins – The Hateful Eight

Chris Mannix

Of the many hateful people in The Hateful Eight, Walton Goggins’ Shane Mannix stole the show. He’s a truly repugnant character beyond all redemption, until, perhaps, he’s not. I’ve been a champion of Goggins’ work since his incredible turn in The Shield, and I’m so happy his career has taken off in all the best ways.

8. Liev Schreiber – Spotlight

as Marty Baron

With Marty Baron, there wasn’t a lick of the brooding intensity Liev Schreiber often brings to his performances. Instead, the actor played an earnest, sensible man striving for the truth. A real editor’s editor. I harped on Schreiber’s every word in the film, including his final monologue, which remains the highpoint of the entire film.

7. Michael Fassbender – Macbeth

as Macbeth

I have trouble with Shakespeare. It’s my own fault, I just can’t get into the complicated vernacular. But when you put Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender in a film together, I’m sold. And if anyone was going to (finally) make me respect Shakespeare’s challenging prose, who better than my favorite living actor?

6. Jason Mitchell – Straight Outta Compton

as Eazy-E

I had never heard of Jason Mitchell before seeing Straight Outta Compton, but from the film’s first scene, which showcases a tense drug scene gone awry, Mitchell had me hooked. Simply put, the film was most alive whenever Mitchell was on screen. Here’s to hoping he has a long a fruitful career.

5. Jacob Tremblay – Room

as Jack

Jacob Tremblay’s fearless turn in Room is one of the best child performances in years. Just seven years old when the movie was shot, Tremblay proved to have more conviction than many adult actors currently making millions per picture. I can’t believe Tremblay’s performance isn’t being considered more strongly for awards.

4. Tom Hardy – The Revenant

as John Fitzgerald

John Fitzgerald is a bad man. He does vile, selfish things in The Revenant. Things that are hard to watch, and even more difficult to comprehend. But, because Hardy is such an engrossing actor, I was able to understand the depths of Fitzgerald’s depravity. Hardy is the best kind of performer; when he plays flawed men, he never asks you to forgive them. After all, bad men rarely think what they are doing is bad. As Fitzgerald, Hardy made me understand why his character would do the things he does, no matter how awful they are. Hardy is an actor who doesn’t judge or beg for forgiveness. He truly, simply, is.

3. Benicio Del Toro – Sicario

as Alejandro

Who the hell is Alejandro? Who is this guy wearing the fancy suit, saying little, acting with zero hesitation in combat? Picking apart Del Toro’s layered performance in Sicario was one of my favorite things about the film. And when all is revealed, I was surprised I had rooted for such a man, but, at the same time, I was glad I did. That’s the work of a masterful performer at play.

2. Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs

as Steve Jobs

If you look at this list, most of the performances are supporting ones. And honestly, for a while there, Fassbender’s turn as Steve Jobs was the only truly great lead male performance I saw in 2015. This is for multiple reasons. The fact that he mastered Aaron Sorkin’s breathless dialogue is certainly one of them, but moreover, I love how Fassbender played a man full of emotional contradictions. One of his final scenes, atop a parking garage with his on-screen daughter, remains a highlight of the year. All of Jobs’ complications are right there on display, not to mention, for perhaps the first time, his ability to be vulnerable.

1. Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

as Hugh Glass

What if you’re five feet away from witnessing the worst thing you can imagine, but you’re physically powerless to do anything about it? What if you’re wrestling nature, knowing you have no chance at winning? When do you give up? When do you let go? What motivates you to move forward? Is it revenge? A futile quest for peace? These are the challenges written all over Leonardo DiCaprio’s tortured face in The Revenant. Though Hugh Glass does speak intermittently, he often chooses (or is forced) to absorb what is happening. And in order for us to understand what the character is thinking (and how he feels about it) you need an actor who’s able to convey this level of emotional expression flawlessly. That’s DiCaprio in The Revenant. It’s a role that will be remembered as one of the actor’s very best. And, as many of have justly said, if Hugh Glass doesn’t win DiCaprio the Oscar, nothing worthy will.

2015 in Review

Top 10 Films of 2015

Top 15 Male Performances of 2015
Top 20 Female Performances of 2015
Top 10 "Rotten" Films of 2015