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15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

We’ve compiled a list of the finest film performances delivered by actors this year, at least until this point.

Cate Blanchett
Photo: Sony Pictures Classics

Today, Cate Blanchett makes a vibrant return to capital-A acting in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, a zeitgeist-y star vehicle the Oscar winner expertly pilots. To mark the occasion, and to acknowledge that more than half of 2013 is behind us, I’ve compiled a list of the finest film performances delivered by actors this year, at least until this point. For me, the 15-wide roster grew into something eclectic and surprising, and here’s hoping you share the feeling. Ace turns that came close to making the cut include Gael García Bernal in No, Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby, Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha, and Miles Teller in The Spectacular Now, while Mud’s Matthew McConaughey and Berberian Sound Studio’s Toby Jones are among the possible contenders whose work I didn’t see before publication (and, yes, I saw Fruitvale Station). What remains is a mix of triumphs both male and female, lead and supporting, all of which set the bar high for the performances still to come this year.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

15. James Franco in Spring Breakers

James Franco is deep in the business of self-parody these days, playing James Franco in This Is the End, and doing some variation of the same with cheeky guest spots in everything from The Iceman to the upcoming Lovelace. But, as proven by his grill-rocking, cornrow-sporting turn in Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, the actor is at his best when burying his ubiquitous persona. However indelible the lines of Franco’s Scarface-loving Alien (at least one of you has a friend with a “Look at my sheeee-it!” T-shirt), Spring Breakers is Korine’s show, and that Franco seamlessly blends into the film’s neon fabric initially dulls his impact. In retrospect, though, the disappearing act is quite an achievement, proving Franco was in perfect step with his friend and helmer, and warranting that tired, oft-hyperbolic praise of a performer “vanishing” into his role.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

14. Elizabeth Debicki in The Great Gatsby

In The Great Gatsby, Australian newbie Elizabeth Debicki may look like she’s doing her best imitation of Blanchett in The Aviator (right down to the golfing and the Hepburn accent), but, in fact, she’s making a splendid breakthrough as a soon-to-be-meteoric star. As Nick Carraway’s (Tobey Maguire) would-be lover, Jordan Baker, a not-that-innocent bystander to the story’s central triangle, and a statuesque embodiment of the hollowness of status, Debicki is grand, chic, and altogether riveting, the key revelation in a deftly selected cast that gives breath and life to Fitzgerald’s classic figures.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

13. Keith Stanfield in Short Term 12

Something’s wrong in the photo above. Critical darling Brie Larson (left) is grabbing all the kudos for her gritty work in Short Term 12, but she, not her co-star Keith Stanfield, should be the one out of focus here, as Stanfield is your top reason to catch this SXSW favorite. A first-time actor, the plausibly tough, yet sad-eyed, young standout stars as Marcus, a senior resident of the film’s teenage foster care facility, whose abuse from his mother has left devastating emotional scars. As of this writing, Stanfield’s rendition of Marcus’s soul-baring personal rap, and his handling of a scene that sees Marcus receive a symbolic, cathartic haircut, are two of the tear-jerkiest filmic moments of 2013. If justice prevails, Stanfield, like Marcus, will walk away from Short Term 12 with a glistening future.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

12. Kate Lyn Sheil in Sun Don’t Shine

It’s not easy to describe precisely what Kate Lyn Sheil is doing in Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine, a modest thriller that casts the busy fringe actress as the morally bankrupt Bonnie to Kentucker Audley’s wildly upstaged Clyde. By turns ingratiating, horrifying, unbound, and restrained, Sheil’s performance has equal airs of inexperience and professionalism, which only end up serving her character, the childlike, yet cunning, half of a couple with a deadly secret. With her wide, searing eyes and passionate fits of fear and jealousy, Sheil occasionally recalls Isabelle Adjani’s mad turn in Possession, or, at least, suggests a woman possessed.

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15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

11. Melissa McCarthy in Identity Thief

Like her new film, The Heat, if Melissa McCarthy’s Identity Thief proves anything, it’s that the Bridesmaids breakout’s talent is neither fluke nor fad, and that her shuffle from bit parts to major roles has been richly deserved indeed. As Diana, a conwoman in everywoman’s clothing, McCarthy gives a performance leagues better than anything to be expected in a mainstream, early-in-the-year release, padding a typically sketched character with layers of hilarity and pathos. Continuing to straddle the line between the knowing and the offensive in regard to her weight, McCarthy is terrific in simply penned moments of remorse and confession, adding tearful depth to her ace timing and formidable physical comedy. She owns Identity Thief with a turn of limitless surprise, making an otherwise adequate comedy soar as a star vehicle.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

10. Ohad Knoller in Yossi

If you thought melancholy enveloped Ohad Knoller’s Yossi at the end of Yossi & Jagger, a film that wrapped with the surviving half of the titular couple unable to openly mourn his lover, you’ll be walloped by what the character exudes in the lonesomely titled sequel, which picks up 10 years after the events of the first movie. Also directed by Eytan Fox, Yossi boasts the most heartbreaking performance from the deeply gifted Knoller, whose accentuated age and weight gain prove reflective of how much Jagger’s loss has crushed Yossi’s already shaky self-worth. Humiliated by degrading dates and attractions from female co-workers, Yossi is handed salvation in the Adonis-like form of a young soldier, who sees past Yossi’s flaws and self-imposed limitations. If it sounds like a fairy tale, it’s grounded by Knoller’s fearlessly humanistic portrayal, whose peak is a literal baring-all that requires every iota of courage and submission.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

9. Julie Delpy in Before Midnight

It feels a bit wrong to only single out half of the Before Midnight duo, as one performance simply couldn’t exist without the other. Ultimately, though, while Ethan Hawke’s newest go-round as Jesse is his most well-worn and humane, it’s Julie Delpy’s razor-sharp and regularly frustrated third take on Celine that burrows deep into your memory. While proudly owning the beautifully imperfect physique of a 40-something mother of two, Celine is the aggressor, the malcontent dreamer, the paranoid girlfriend, and the pseudo-feminist caretaker, who’s about as likely to crack as that bottle of wine waiting for the couple in a Grecian suite, which becomes more battleground than love nest. Playing intensely rehearsed scenes she co-scripted herself, Delpy astonishingly melds these attributes into a woman who’s cinematic, but unmistakably flesh and blood. She makes us swoon for Celine all over again, flaws and all.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

8. Pierce Brosnan in Love Is All You Need

Susanne Bier isn’t exactly subtle with Love Is All You Need, her uneven, Sorrento-set screwball rom-com that milks (err, squeezes) the life-gives-you-lemons metaphor for all its worth. It spreads to widower Philip (Pierce Brosnan), the film’s sour, fruit-selling, Denmark-based curmudgeon, who’s familiarly tamed when he falls for Ida (Trine Dyrholm) the cancer-fighting mother of his son’s fiancée. But Brosnan isn’t bound by a single cliché of his archetype, and having gracefully left the machismo of Bond and Remington Steele behind him, the Irishman proves ready to embrace roles of great emotional maturity. Like Philip, Brosnan lost a wife in the past, and in a scene that sees Philip recall for Ida key things about his spouse, Brosnan summons up true emotion that transcends any Method-y artifice. It’s his finest moment ever as an actor.

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15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

7. Gabby Hoffmann in Crystal Fairy

Absent from buzzworthy movies for what feels like eons, former child star Gabby Hoffmann makes a stunning comeback in the trippy curio Crystal Fairy, starring as the eponymous, hippie-esque hanger-on who accompanies Jamie (Michael Cera) and his Chilean friends (played by director Sebastián Silva’s three brothers) as they head for the beach to get high on San Pedro cactus juice. Based on an actual person, Crystal becomes the movie’s mystical moral center, and it’s Hoffmann’s mastery of the small moments that make her performance so remarkable. Watch as Crystal stealthily and sympathetically pours the San Pedro juice from the cup of a friend who’d rather not drink it, or as she finally drops an emotional bomb of a revelation about a past incident of sexual abuse. Without an ounce of vanity in sight (Crystal’s overall unshaved body hair is Hoffmann’s current preferred state), the actress seems to have returned from nowhere with a profound understanding of humanity, and that’s the must-see gift she bestows on the film.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

6. Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby

Sure, he may look like Robert Redford, but will you ever again be able to read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby without envisioning Leonardo DiCaprio as the tragic antihero? When casting was announced for Baz Luhrmann’s grandiose, pop-infused adaptation, it made perfect sense that DiCaprio would play the dashing, tailored host-with-the-most, who only has eyes for the unreachable beacon that is Daisy Buchanan. But few could have predicted just how fully this leading man would capture the pitiful pain of the delusion-plagued title character, whose desperate grasping for the impossible American dream has made him an icon of the ages. While standing on the pebble-covered beach of his absurd, sprawling estate, and insisting to Nick (Tobey Maguire) that one can indeed relive the past, DiCaprio’s Gatsby is a man of profound, ironic misfortune, and it’s thanks to the actor’s ace channeling of the text.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

5. Tashiana Washington in Gimme the Loot

Handily holding her own amid a cast that’s almost entirely male-dominated, breakout novice Tashiana Washington is a natural at conveying the learned toughness of Sophia, a New York girl who was raised among boys, and, as a means of social and literal survival, adopted much of their traits, so she could (somewhat) acceptably pursue the graffiti-writing she loves as much as they do. Asserting that de-glamming isn’t nearly half of the actor’s battle, the gorgeous Washington pairs her rough-and-tough look with a sea of bottled-up feelings, including rage against the machine of the class system, and budding love for her confidant and best friend, Malcolm (Ty Hickson). In Adam Leon’s naturalistic SXSW hit, there’s a scene on a stoop between Sophia and Malcolm in which Washington seems to miss a line, and yet the cameras keep rolling while the actress rolls with it. Her quick rebound plays like the indie version of live theater, and winds up aiding Sophia’s unsure footing when it comes to her growing attraction. Even a stumble is perfect in this green, but exceedingly great, performance.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

4. Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

If you can’t imagine the regal Cate Blanchett in shambles, hurriedly talking to herself, like one of those poor, unfortunate souls you see in the corner of the subway car, then you certainly haven’t seen Blue Jasmine, which, in time, will probably come to be known as the source of the definitive Blanchett performance. An unwittingly self-destructive victim plummeting from reality, Jasmine (whose name isn’t even her real name) is all that remains of the posh empire funded by her late, Madoff-ish husband (Alec Baldwin), unless you include the Hermes scarves and Louis Vuitton bags she can’t bring herself to part with. A whirling intersection of the fallen 1 percent and the growth-challenged Hannah Horvath type, the antiheroine crumbles at the thought of any major life decisions, and whether in chirpy flashback or devastating present-day, Blanchett serves up powerhouse schizoid moments that’d make Elizabeth I bow and Sheba Hart blush. By the time Jasmine shudderingly asks, on the verge of collapse, for her signature, snob-motif drink, demanding, “Who do I have to sleep with around here to get a Stoli martini with a twist of lemon?!” you’re laughing through the torment of watching a woman disintegrate.

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15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

3. Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt

Having already shown American viewers his way with hauntingly layered composure on NBC’s Hannibal, Mads Mikkelsen takes things even deeper with his sympathetic role in Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, giving Lucas, his wrongfully demonized small-town teacher, a wealth of dimension that’s so restrained, it’s even frustrating. After being accused of sexual misconduct by his friend’s confused young daughter, Lucas, by way of Mikkelsen’s marvelous instincts of when and how to emote, goes through the motions of damage control in a manner that’s markedly civilized when compared to his finger-pointing, witch-hunting neighbors. Like the wild prey he ironically becomes, the seemingly gentle single father only reacts when forced into a corner, and when he does, the result is as agonizing as it is cathartic. Mikkelsen’s captivating efforts deservedly won him the Best Actor prize at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

2. Andrea Riseborough in Shadow Dancer

Taking that Mikkelsen-esque approach and running with it to the breaking point, Andrea Riseborough gets her Falconetti on in James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer, playing MI5-targeted IRA member Colette McVeigh in a near-wordless fashion that’s all about what’s emitted from her utterly indelible face. In Riseborough’s hands, Colette is an unbreakable enigma, whose nuance-laden stoicism is the core of this tense and sparing thriller’s uncertain allegiances. Safely rebounding from the generally poor reception of Madonna’s W.E., which, in highlighting the notorious Wallis Simpson, foreshadowed Riseborough’s taste for risk, the brunette Brit has had a busy year, with additional parts in Disconnect and Oblivion. But it’s this knockout, seat-pinning turn that blows any doubts of the scary-smart actress’ gifts to smithereens, like an unexpected bomb left silently on the stairs of a subway stop.


15 Best Performances of 2013 So Far

1. Suzanne Clément in Laurence Anyways

It’s bad practice to make premature declarations, but to hell with it: The thought of 2013 offering a better performance than Suzanne Clément’s in Laurence Anyways seems as absurd a fantasy as Paula Deen being invited to the premiere of Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Of the many brilliant choices made by director Xavier Dolan, including practically back-burnering the transition of his transgendered title character (Melvil Poupaud) in favor of exploring her relationship with Clément’s Fred (sit and digest all that bird-flipping to heteronormativity), the bravest and greatest is his ultimate positioning of Fred as the sympathetic lead, a move that yields indescribable rewards from his fiercely talented leading lady. Take your pick of a scene that, with due respect, stands heads and tails above any from anyone else on this list: The subtext-swathed outburst at an elderly waitress who thinks belittling small talk is acceptable; the shattering revelation of [spoiler alert!] an abortion that further tears open proceedings that already feel like a gaping wound; or the centerpiece, flip-flopped coming-out dazzler, wherein a dolled-up Fred makes a fateful choice to be spectacularly numb, and Clément exudes enough fabulosity for 10 films. As portrayed by the actress, the feelings of this character—whom you’ve never seen before, despite the common presumptions—are so terribly palpable that even the memory of them can elicit tears. As someone else behind the scenes here put it, this performance, also rewarded at Cannes, is legendary.

R. Kurt Osenlund

R. Kurt Osenlund is a creative director and account supervisor at Mark Allen & Co. He is the former editor of Out magazine.

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