By Roger Costa
WILLEM DAFOE
A formidable, versatile, hypnotizing performer, Willem Dafoe reaches perfection with his bohemian role in “Late Fame” directed by Kent Jones. Dafoe manages to deliver the most touching, profound and heartbreaking performance of the year as a once-poet who finds fame at a late circumstance. He grabs you by the heart, and the experience is unforgettable.
DENZEL WASHINGTON
Fact is he doesn’t care about Oscars or prizes any longer. Fact is he said he doesn’t watch movies anymore. However, Denzel delivered another mesmerizing work in Spike Lee’s modern adaptation “Highest To Lowest”. As a famed music producer in a moral conflict when involved in a kidnapping, Denzel devours every bit of his role, reassuring us the reason we GO TO THE MOVIES!
JESSE PLEMONS
As the traumatized sociopathic in “Bugonia”, Plemons proves to be among this generation’s most committed performers, going on a bizarre, deeply intense transformation to deliver a masterclass in acting. The film is not so great, but Plemons is incendiary, dangerous, terrifyingly good.
HARRY MELLING
Embodying the queer emotional universe with truthfulness, grace and charisma as the lonely protagonist in “Pillion”, Melling conquers the audience’s heart with his touching and hilarious character. As he is experiencing a submissive, kinky love affair, the actor goes full-metal-radical with explicit sex, delivering the boldest and most courageous performance of the year. But it’s the transition from rejection to acceptance that makes it remarkable, allowing him to shine immensely.
ADAM BESSA
A revelatory performance, Adam Bessa plays a Syrian refugee on a revenge spiral. Believing he met the man who tortured him in the past, he articulates a plan to avenge his dignity in “Ghost Trail”, a taut French thriller. Bessa exudes in acting perfection.
And…. LEE BYUNG-HUN “No Other Choice”. WAGNER MOURA “The Secret Agent”. ABOU SANGARE “Souleymane’s Story”. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE FOLLY “Gavagai”. THEODORE PELLERIN “Lurker”. WILL ARNETT “Is This Thing On?”. JOSH O’CONNOR “The Mastermind”. EVERETT BLUNCK “Griffin In Summer”. JOAQUIN PHOENIX “Eddington”. NICK OFFERMAN “Sovereign”. TIM ROBBINSON “Friendship”. GEORGE CLOONEY “Jay Kelly”.
JULIA ROBERTS
As an intellectual psychiatrist at Yale, Julia Roberts is ravishing in “After the Hunt”, a twisted and racial spin on the me-too movement drama directed by Italian darling Luca Guadagnino. Though the film is not as good as it should be, Roberts carries it all on her shoulders, making it interesting and appealing. You just can’t take your eyes away from her.
ESZTER TOMPA
Deeply melancholic and on a moral crisis, Eszter Tompa gives a lovely, affecting turn as a city worker struggling with consciousness in Radu Jude’s satirical “Kontinental 25”. A wonderful work of unique naturalism and balanced personal tragedy and cynical humor.
KATHLEEN CHALFANT
As an elderly woman fading away with an intense diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in the heartening “Familiar Touch”, Chalfant takes control of every frame as well as the audience’s affection, delivering a memorable performance that is ultimately immortalized by its tenderness and truthfulness.
SYDNEY SWEENEY
A star-making and Award-worthy performance, Sweeney proves her higher skills in the boxing drama “Christy”. An irregular but poignant biopic, Sweeney drops the “beautiful blonde” stigma to give life to a brilliant portrait of abuse, fame and personal conflicts. Her performance is captivating, intense and utterly affecting.
ANAMARIA VARTOLOMEI
One of the most beautiful women in cinema, Anamaria is perfect as infamous sex-symbol diva Maria Schneider in the incoherent but entertaining “Being Maria”. She carries the film with charisma, sensuality, assurance and a tempestuous emotional disorder that is as disturbing as it is wonderful.
And…. KEKE PALMER “One of Them Days”. ALICIA VIKANDER “The Assessment”. AMANDA SEYFRIED “Seven Veils”. DIANE LANE “Anniversary”. RENATE REINSVE “Sentimental Value”. NAOMI WATTS “The Friend”. JENNIFER LAWRENCE “Die, My Love”. JAMIE LEE CURTIS “Freakier Friday”. IMOGEN POOTS “The Chronology of Water”. DAKOTA JOHNSON “Materialists”. EVA VICTOR “Sorry, Baby”. BANEEN AHMAD NAYYEF “The President’s Cake”. MALOU KHEBIZI “Wild Diamond”.
JACQUES DEVELAY
As the ironic and mysterious priest in the provocative “Misericordia”, French actor Jacques Develay embodies the most fun, eccentric and undeniably unforgettable priest ever seen in cinema history. He delivers the most unexpected scene ever!
STELLAN SKARSGARD
As the patriarch in “Sentimental Value”, Stellan delivers one of the year’s most sensitive, deeply wounded and explosive performances. Also, it’s one of the most celebrated. A film director making amends with his daughters while struggling to develop a new work. He embodies it with perfection and exuberance.
CARLOS FRANCISCO
The heart and soul of “The Secret Agent” is Black Brazilian actor Carlos Francisco, playing both the projectionist and the grandfather, a key role in Kleber Mendonca Filho’s Cannes winner thriller that might as well include him among the year’s most fascinating scene stealers.
MICHAEL SHANNON
There’s a strong force all around Shannon’s work and artistry and in “Nuremberg” that becomes richly intensified. Shannon is a naturally perfect actor who masterly coordinates the emotional layers of his characters. Here, he scores another goal.
MICHAEL STUHLBARG
Here is another fantastic, versatile, complete performer who is always on top of his game. Whether he is ready to defy anyone, make you cry or laugh out loud, Stuhlbarg is the remedy in “After the Hunt”, the intellectual and uneven sex-scandal drama by Guadagnino. Playing the observational husband of Julia Roberts, Stuhlbarg proves to be one of our greatest cinematic treasures.
And…. TRACY LETTS “A House of Dynamite”. ALY MURITIBA “Night Stage”. RICARDO TEODORO “Baby”. EDMUND DONOVAN “Late Fame”. BENICIO DEL TORO “One Battle After Another”. ALEXANDER SKARSGARD “Pillion”. FABIO ASSUNCAO “Motel Destino”. PAUL RUDD “Friendship”. SEAN PENN “One Battle After Another”. TOM WAITS “Father Mother Sister Brother”. ADAM SANDLER “Jay Kelly”.
CHARLOTTE RAMPLING
Just by contemplating at her gaze by the window is enough to shatter everything, any hidden emotion, any doubt. Charlotte Rampling is astonishing and impeccable as the mother who awaits her daughters for an unusual “tea-time” in Jim Jarmusch’s triptych “Father Mother Sister Brother”. She could just be silent would be enough to speak volumes. For that, she deserves an Oscar and all praises this season.
GRETA LEE
Think of the greatest and most gorgeous Hollywood divas of the golden era. Greta Lee storms out the screen with elegance, sensuality, vibrancy and creativity as the only female member of a writer’s club in Kent Jones’ refreshing “Late Fame”. Whether she is dancing, singing, flirting, listening to her peers, or trying to escape an abusive marriage, Lee takes control of every scene she is in with incredible force and elegance. You simply can’t resist her charm. Once there was Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Now, there is Greta Lee!
SAJA KILANI
Giving life to the tragic drama of a young girl in the line of death amidst the Palestinian/Israeli deadly conflict, Jordanian actress Saja Kilani takes the audience through the most horrifying situation depicted in film this year (the final hours of a 6-year-old girl trapped in a car, surrounded by war tanks and corpses) with impeccable control and full soul. As Rana, the Emergency Center volunteer at the center of “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, Kilani gives an impressive and heartachingly humane performance that will hypnotize you and shatter you at the same time.
AMY MADIGAN
One of the most entertaining Hollywood blockbusters of the year, “Weapons” is partly excellent for its bizarre character, Aunt Gladys, a scary and utterly convincing turn by Amy Madigan. Her character became a phenomenon, a cult among horror fans. Now, she is in the books next to Jason, Freddy, and many other iconic terrifying psychos we love to watch.
LUCIE LARUELLE
In the Dardenne Bothers’ Cannes-winner “Young Mothers”, non-professional teen actress Lucie Laruelle plays a Black teen living at a shelter and awaiting better days with the father of her baby- who’s been recently released from a juvenile facility. Embodying the struggles, hopelessness, desperation and vulnerability of a young soul in search of a way out, without any professional techniques but the directors’ guidance, Laruelle enhances the screen with her presence, giving truthiness and veracity to every line, gesture and agony of her character.
And…. ZOEY DEUTCH “Nouvelle Vague”. LAURA DERN “Is This Thing On?”. INGA IBSDOTTER LILLEAAS “Sentimental Value”. CRISTA ALFAIATE “Grand Tour”. CATHERINE FROT “Misericordia”.
THE BEST PETS:
Rooster in “The President’s Cake”
Cat in “Caught Stealing”
Dog in “Good Boy”
Bulls in “Afternoons of Solitude”
(Note: I have seen 404 new movies in 2025 so far. I haven’t seen “Hamnet”, or the Christmas-release films yet. My list of Best of the Year comes in early December.)
Excellent list