18) Adam Driver in Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Adam Driver has recently made a stunning resume for himself, starring in Girls and turning up in the likes of Lincoln, Inside Llewyn Davis and not one but two Noah Baumbach movies. But these were all light and/or comedic roles – just what could J.J. Abrams have been thinking when he cast this gangly, awkward-looking actor best known for his sense of humor as the new Star Wars villain?
Turns out Abrams knew exactly what he was doing: The Force Awakens‘ new Big Bad is no out-and-out villain, but an angry, agitated big kid who’s been brainwashed into committing deeds he’s not always certain are just.
And though we’ve never seen him play anything like this before, Driver relishes the opportunity to give the Star Wars saga its first truly complicated bad guy. Here’s a 32-year-old convincingly making Kylo Ren look and act like a petulant teenager, complete with temper tantrums, moody stares and fits of sheer, confused rage.
17) Charlize Theron in Mad Max: Fury Road
We were all expecting the star of Mad Max: Fury Road to be someone else. The ruthlessly intense Tom Hardy, most likely, or – judging by the demented early trailers – Nicholas Hoult in full-on maniac mode. Surprisingly, though, the most dominating figure in the new Mad Max film isn’t Max or his lunatic enemies, but a brand new hero, in the form of Charlize Theron’s Furiosa.
Sharp, shaven-headed, an independent warrior with a robotic hand: Furiosa was cinema 2015’s feminist icon. And while George Miller’s barnstorming action movie doesn’t need much in the way of powerhouse acting to work, Theron invests Furiosa with the passion and anger of an actress who’s spent too long watching the boys get to have all the fun in these types of movies. It’s a towering, blockbuster turn, perfectly complementing the blockbuster of the year.
16) Joel Edgerton in The Gift
If you want to check out some of the great overlooked films of 2015, The Gift would be a good place to start.
A chilling, Haneke-esque psychological thriller set in sunny Los Angeles, the film’s writer/director/producer/actor Joel Edgerton somehow juggled all his many roles and still had his indie project done and out in cinemas just six months after he’d finished shooting. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that he filmed his own part in just seven days, and in that short time found his best performance to date.
Playing off of the also-great pairing of Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall, Edgerton is supremely creepy as the old high school ‘friend’ of Bateman’s happily married Simon. Edgerton makes Gordo, a squirm-inducingly awkward character, horribly fascinating to watch, keeping his inscrutable, dead-eyed stare on right until the climax.
Then Gordo gleefully reveals his true intentions, and Edgerton allows himself to have the most fun he ever appears to have had on-screen.