I’m always a little uncomfortable talking about performance. Acting is not an area of expertise for me, so I certainly don’t feel qualified to criticize a professional actor’s performance, even if I didn’t like it. It’s easier to know when someone’s great, and this list was surprisingly, to me, the toughest to narrow down. I decided to pair performances in the same movie in a single entry just so I could honor a few more and I still want to give honorable mentions to Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club, Sharni Vinson’s badass turn in You’re Next and the boys in Lone Survivor.
Read William Bibbiani’s picks for the Best Performances of 2013.
Read Witney Seibold’s picks for the Best Performances of 2013.
Read Brian Formo’s picks for the Best Performances of 2013.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
Fred Topel Picks the 13 Best Performances of 2013
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13. Scarlett Johansson & Joaquin Phoenix, Her
It really is extraordinary how evocative Johansson was with just her voice. Maybe that was cheating, since she is an actual human and not a computer operating system. Phoenix had a tough job himself, making us sympathize with a man dating his computer, and commanding the screen since the whole movie is a reaction shot on him. There’s no Samantha to cut away to.
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12. Ashley Bell, The Last Exorcism Part II
I think Ashley Bell is an actor to watch. She has given herself completely to every role I’ve seen her in, most notably as Nell in these movies, but even playing a hostage in The Marine 3 I have never seen a supporting actor struggle that hard against terrorists. In Last Exorcism II, Bell runs the full spectrum from post traumatic stress to happy bubbly girl right back around to possessed demon.
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11. Andrea Riseborough, Oblivion
I just discovered Andrea Riseborough this year. I liked her in Disconnect but she’s totally captivating in the otherwise forgettable Oblivion. Really, the whole movie should have been about Tom Cruise’s relationship with this mysterious significant other on the hovering home ship. I’ve got some homework to do. She’s this interesting in every movie, right?
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10. Amy Seimetz, Upstream Color
You know, I’ve been an Amy Seimetz fan since I saw her in A Horrible Way to Die, elevating a serial killer movie with a very real performance of a character in recovery. Upstream Color demands even more and Seimetz brings it. First she’s the victim of truly bizarre brainwashing, then a lost soul just trying to get her life back together. She is endearing as a childlike worker bee and equally heartbreaking as the victim of it all, with a little bit of hope.
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9. Michael Eklund, Errors of the Human Body & The Call
Michael Eklund is another actor who gives it his all no matter what size the movie. In the big Hollywood thriller The Call, he plays a serial killer with intensity I haven’t seen in David Fincher’s films. Look at his audition on the DVD. Every director should court that sort of method preparation. In the indie genetic drama Errors, Eklund restrains himself for a very, very slowwwwwwwww burn and he modulates the subtleties expertly.
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8. Lady Gaga, Machete Kills
Just kidding.
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7. Ashton Kutcher, Jobs
Poor Ashton Kutcher can’t win. If he’s too natural, people just say he wasn’t acting at all. If he transforms himself too much, they say he’s just doing an impersonation. I thought he did great as Steve Jobs in a movie I was much more fond of than most people. More than the physical stuff, which was impeccable to me, Kutcher captured the emotion of the Steve Jobs portrayed in this film: obsessive about innovation, childish when it came to human feelings.
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6. Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke, Before Midinight
As much as Before Midnight is a script movie, credit has to go to the actors whose performances were so emotional that they made us care. Delpy was endearingly playful until she had to be volatile and frightening, which we needed to believe if we were to fear for the fate of this relationship. Hawke let the cracks in his sarcastic Generation X persona show, but more importantly his strength and resolve in fighting for Jesse and Celine at all costs, even when she says the most hurtful thing she possibly could.
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5. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
We know Cate Blanchett is great, but the levels of despair and denial in her character Jasmine are pretty unprecedented, even for she of Elizabeth and The Gift. When we meet Jasmine, she is abrasive and obnoxious, but the more we get to know her, both in the present and the past, we see the layers of artifice give way to a melancholy form of insecurity, and the veneer of privilege give way to total insanity.
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4. Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
I wasn’t in love with the movie but I knew when I saw Nyong’o as Patsey that I was discovering a great new talent. Patsey suffers the most in the film and through Nyong’o’s performance we see the strength and despair that would have been a daily struggle for Patsey. I’m excited to see what she’ll do next.
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3. Amy Adam's Cleavage, American Hustle
This may sound like a sexist joke, but really the extent of the plunging neckline and strategically placed side boob are part and parcel of how Adams uses her entire body to embody this character. It is the sexiest performance of the year, this in a year that gave us Blue is the Warmest Color. Adams is brilliant all around, commanding her body, her face and her voice in every moment she is on screen.
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2. Adele Exarchopoulos & Lea Seydoux, Blue is the Warmest Color
Cannes gave them an award together so I guess I can do the same. Seydoux was so good in this movie I thought she was a newcomer. It turns out I have seen her in many movies before. She was just so unrecognizable and natural that I thought I was discovering her. Exarchopoulos is newer and is entirely captivating as we go through the character Adele’s awakening, passion, insecurity and heartbreak.
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1. Brie Larson, Short Term 12
I think this was the breakthrough performance of the year. Larson is so powerful in the lead role, appearing as a ferociously compassionate caretaker in a foster center. When we learn what drama she herself has endured, Larson plays it with subtlety, never making a show of how deep it is. It’s enough to make me feel like ferociously leading a charge to get Larson’s work recognized this year.
