Best Movies of 2023 – The Best Performances of 2023
In my continued analysis of the best movies of 2023, here are my picks for the best performances of 2023. Every year this is the toughest list to make and every year I feel bad about leaving some performances off. While I loved performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Taraji P. Henson, Natalie Portman, Abby Rider Fortson, Alma Pöysti, Adam Driver, and Aaron Pierre, among many others, I think the performances I chose are all truly great and deserve all the recognition their place as some the best performances of 2023.
Like previous years, I have broken the performances down by category, much like the Oscars, with Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress. For each category, I will list the “nominees” and then pick a winner and go further in-depth as to why that actor gave the best performance in their category. I love all these performances and you’ll see a nice mix of performances that might end up getting some recognition at the Oscars and some that will be completely ignored by the Academy, despite being worthy. Here are my picks for the best performances of 2023.
Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz – Ferrari
Viola Davis – Air
Patty LuPone – Beau is Afraid
Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
WINNER
Rachel McAdams – Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Rachel McAdams’s performance in Kelly Freemon Craig’s coming-of-age dramedy is far from the flashiest performance of the year (or even this category), but it’s one of the most complicated and complex performances McAdams has ever given. She plays Barbara Simon, the mother of Margaret Simon (Abby Forson), a girl just trying to make it through life as an eleven-year-old after her family moved from New York City to the suburbs of New Jersey in 1970.
McAdams’ performance is a brilliant juggling act. She is playing the mother of a daughter who experiencing a lot of changes in her life and must navigate the range of emotions she is feeling and the events she goes through. She is the daughter of a mother and father who have all but disowned her for marrying a Jewish man. And she is a woman trying to adjust to her new life in the suburbs. We see Barbara struggle with all of these emotions but is forced to internalize them to keep her house together. McAdams gives a delicate performance that is loaded with emotional power. Her monolog to Margaret about why her parents don’t see her or her family is heartbreaking and McAdams’s greatest moment as an actor. This is a natural, beautiful performance that reminded me of all the great mothers I have encountered in my life.
Best Supporting Actor
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Milo Machado Graner – Anatomy of a Fall
Glen Howerton – BlackBerry
Charles Melton – May December
Donnie Yen – John Wick: Chapter 4
WINNER
Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer
Last year, I gave Ke Huy Quan my Best Supporting Actor win for his unbelievable performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once. He would go on to win the same category in one of the best Oscar wins in recent memory. Part of what made Quan’s win great was his comeback narrative. The once-former child actor had almost left Hollywood until his role in Everything Everywhere All at Once came to him.
I’m not saying Downey Jr. has the same comeback narrative as Quan, not even close, but his performance in Oppenheimer was more of a reminder performance. It was a reminder of how good of an actor Downey Jr. can be. It was a reminder that he was an Oscar-caliber actor before joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that he still has that in him. Downey Jr. is outstanding as the snake-in-the-grass politician Lewis Strauss. Downey Jr. owns the final third of Christopher Nolan’s film, slowly peeling back the layers of Strauss’s motivations to show us his true character. Though he played one of the greatest cinematic heroes of the 21st century, Downey Jr. showed he could play a conniving villain just as well.
Oppenheimer is a film loaded with great performances, but it’s Downey Jr. who stood out above the rest and I hope he is given more roles like this in the future.
Best Actress
Lily Gladstone – Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall
Great Lee – Past Lives
Cailee Spaeny – Priscilla
Teyana Taylor – A Thousand and One
WINNER
Sandra Hüller – Anatomy of a Fall
With two great performances in Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, Sandra Hüller may have had the best year of an actor in 2023. In a category that was weaker than in past years, Hüller gave far and away the best lead actress performance of the year. She plays Sandra Voyter, an author who is suspected of murdering her husband and the film looks at the court proceedings as well as how this case affects her relationship with her partially blind son.
Director and co-writer Justine Triet doesn’t give us an answer to what happened. We never see the husband die and all we have to base our judgment on are the events and stories that take place in court and what we learn about Sandra throughout the film as a person. Whether or not Sandra killed her husband has split viewers and Hüller’s balancing act or a performance is the reason for that. In one scene, you’ll think Sandra did it, and for good reason. The next, you see the raw emotion Sandra is feeling over the death of her husband and what her son is going through. Hüller never tips her hand and you never know what is a lie, what is the truth, and what is real. In a courtroom drama loaded with mystery and questions, Hüller is front and center and her masterful performance only makes the mystery more compelling and more confusing. This is, for my money, the best performance by any actor in 2023.
Best Actor
Dave Bautista – Knock at the Cabin
Zac Efron – The Iron Claw
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy – Oppenheimer
Keanu Reeves – John Wick: Chapter 4
WINNER
Paul Giamatti – The Holdovers
This was my toughest category to pick a winner. If you ask me tomorrow who I thought gave the best lead actor performance in 2023, my answer might change. But as I write this, Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s dramedy The Holdovers is my winner, and it might be the finest performance of his career.
Giamatti plays Paul Hunham, a curmudgeonly teacher at an isolated prep school who is responsible for looking after a student (Dominic Sessa) who can’t go home for winter break. Hunham is also gifted with a lazy eye that continuously switches back and forth and a disease that makes him smell like fish. None of the staff likes him, and his students dislike him even more.
Giamatti’s performance is a perfect combination of everything we love about the versatile actor. He brings a gravitas to the role and recites lines like he was reading Shakespeare. He’s a gifted (and underrated) physical actor, which makes for some of the funniest moments I saw in any movie in 2023. And most importantly, Giamatti finds empathy in the cranky Hunham. Despite being rude and a pain in the ass, we never once dislike Hunham and hope that he can find happiness throughout the movie. This is a marvelous, layered performance by Giamatti that I love even more every time I see it.
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