GREAT PERFORMERS: THE BEST ACTORS OF 2021

For this year's Great Performances in the New York Times magazine, the chief film critic, A.O. Scott made the selections all on his own. And his choices are inspired and inspiring, singling out actors who gave us remarkable performances that were truly uncanny and complex. There were the performers who have been receiving plenty of critical praise and award buzz; an almost unrecognizable Will Smith in "King Richard"; the very British, Benedict Cumberbatch as an unpleasant Montana cowboy in "The Power of the Dog"; Kristen Stewart delivers an unexpectedly transformative performance with the American actor playing the late British Royal, Princess Diana; Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga play off of each other brilliantly in the period drama, "Passing"; another acting team, Joaquin Phoenix and Gaby Hoffmann are siblings trying to sort out their complicated past through her son in "C'mon C'mon" and Denzel Washington shaking up his Hollywood routine by playing the Scottish lord who would become King in the latest Shakespeare re-telling, "The Tragedy of Macbeth".

But there were some pleasantly surprising choices that Scott made looking outside of conventional American cinema; Hidetoshi Nishijima has made a major impression in the three-hour long, Japanese drama, "Drive My Car" based on a short story by Haruki Murakami; Katia Pascariu and her dazzlingly turn in the Romanian comedy with the great English translated title, "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn"; the sisters, Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz playing a daughter and her mother who meet as children in Céline Sciamma's lovely dramatic-fantasy, "Petite Maman"; The comedian/musician, Bo Burnham with his inventive Netflix special, "Inside" that he made completely by himself in his home during quarantine and Honor Swinton Byrne in the rare art-house sequel, "The Souvenir Part II".

Last year, largely due to the movie business essentially put on hold, the selections for Great Performers issue included performers that we were watching for the first time outside of cinema. This list is made up almost entirely of cinematic performances as we were able to finally return to the theaters this year. But not everyone was ready to come back, making the movie business remain on shaky ground. Yet there were still many movies that reached cinemas; some new Hollywood fare and 2020 holdbacks that were seen by a wide audience and made some big money. But smaller, indie films struggled, unable to reach their full potential as their audience decided to wait until they could stream. With a new COVID variant beginning to surface, effecting the vaccinated and non-vaccinated at a worrying rate, it is unclear what the new year will have in store. Yet I am hopeful that we will continue to adjust and be able to move forward carefully.

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NYT: The Great Performers Issue 2021