Best Leading Performances of 2016

Still catching up from 2017 before I jump into the Oscar season of 2016. Some very quick thoughts!

Actress

Amy Adams, Arrival

A beautiful performance that, due to the twists in the movie, has to hold a whole lot inside of it. I can't wait to watch it again.

Annette Bening, 20th Century Women

One of the most distinctive mothers ever put on screen.  Bening is so good at playing a specific character when others would turn to archetype.

Isabelle Huppert, Things to Come

She was great (and Oscar nominated) in the provocative Elle, but even better in Things to Come, a quiet but revelatory movie about a woman in later middle age who finds her life has changed.

Ruth Negga, Loving

A quiet performance, as Mildred Loving but oh the things she can do with those eyes. The two scenes on the telephone are remarkable.

Emma Stone, La La Land

Few actresses could pull off the right mix of classic and modern to sell a modern day musical, but Stone is one of them. Charming from start to finish, and particularly revelatory in the "Audition" scene.

My winner: Bening
Runner-Up: Negga

Runners Up: Kate Beckinsale (Love and Friendship), Sonia Braga (Aquarius), Krisha Fairchild (Krisha), Natalie Portman (Jackie), Rebecca Hall (Christine)

Matches with Oscar: We agreed on Stone, Negga, and Huppert (although for a different role), while Portman was on my runner-up list.  Oscar also went with its traditional Meryl Streep slot in Florence Foster Jenkins, which was good but not one of her best.


Actor

Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Over a year later, I'm still haunted by this performance. In his method and emotional acting, he's like a modern-day Brando.

Joel Edgerton (Loving)

Like Negga, Edgerton gives a quiet but revelatory quiet perfectly suited to the story and the film its in.

Colin Farrell (The Lobster)

The marvelous movie The Lobster couldn't pull of its tricky tone without a great deadpan performance at its center. Farrell gives his best performance ever.

Peter Simonischek (Toni Erdmann)

It's hard to describe this father-daughter movie, but suffice it to say it wouldn't work half as well without the performance of the prankish father trying to form a relationship with his self-serious adult daughter.

Denzel Washington (Fences)

A master class performance perfected on the stage. Watching, Fences, it's clear Denzel is one of our greatest actors.

My winner: Affleck. I was completely team Denzel last Oscar season, but Affleck's performance has stuck with me more.

Runner-Up: Washington

Runners Up: Josh Brolin (Hail, Caesar!), Adam Driver (Paterson), Andrew Garfield (Silence), Ryan Gosling (La La Land), Chris Pine (Hell or High Water)

Matches with Oscar: Just Affleck and Washington, with Gosling as one of my runner-ups. The other two nominated performances went to decent performances in movies I did not enjoy: Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge and Viggo Mortenson in Captain Fantastic.