The Schmear Hunter's "Best Performances of 2024"

Factual and definitive, of course.

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Don’t “Best Performances” lists suck? If you blindfolded me and asked me who made it onto the major publications’ lists, I think I could predict them all, and I know you could too.

While I bet you discerning readers can guess a few of the incredibly talented performers included here, I am certain that there are some surprises ahead.

Highbrow, lowbrow, hackers, spies, wigs, folk singers, cantors, attorneys, and beverages worthy of commendation.

35 entrants ahead. No spoilers.

Enjoy!

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Josh O’Connor — La Chimera / Challengers
O’Connor did a lot for scruffy, smelly men in 2024, first in a rumpled linen suit that he made iconic, as arthouse Indiana Jones in Alice Rohrwacher’s wondrous La Chimera. Then he did it again as cuck-king Patrick Zweig, lover of churros, Dunkin’ Donuts, and blistering backhands in Challengers. The more odious and pungent he is, the more intoxicating an aura he seems to emit.

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Manny Jacinto — The Acolyte
The much-maligned Acolyte — mostly maligned by bad-faith incels — had some real flashes of brilliance, making it arguably the second-best Star Wars show aside from Andor. One part of that was Manny Jacinto as a hunky, unorthodox mystery man, who challenged what we think of as a hero or villain in the Star Wars canon. Too bad we won’t see how this story progresses, as The Acolyte was canceled.

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Zoe Ziegler — Janet Planet
This could easily go to Julianne Nicholson too, but it’s little Zoe Ziegler’s owly face, framed by way-too-big glasses, that I’ll remember most when I recall Janet Planet, a film about memory, youth, parents, and art. Ziegler is caught between childhood and adulthood, and that fraught navigation plays out memorably across her face, especially in the film’s closing shot.

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Milk — Babygirl
Milk has had a long and storied career, from A Clockwork Orange to Inglourious Basterds, and after a quiet couple of years — where almond and oat milk surged — Milk is officially back thanks to Babygirl, where it’s nervily ordered by Harris Dickinson’s character for Nicole Kidman’s “Romy.”

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Anne Hathaway — The Idea of You
We’ll keep this short because I don’t even like this movie, but I can concede The Idea of You is nothing without the warm, sunny, gorgeous core that is Anne Hathaway here in full East Side L.A. mom mode.

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Ken Leung — Industry
So many of Industry’s performers — like the show itself — made the leap in Season 3, but perhaps none more than Ken Leung, whose Eric Tao gets to show all-new layers of monstrosity, patheticness, conniving, and devastation. Leung was more than up for the challenge, electrifying every scene he was in with a penchant for unpredictability.

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Jessica Gunning — Baby Reindeer
“Nipple.” Martha is both ridiculous and repugnant and also worthy of our sympathy, and that’s a tightrope walk that Jessica Gunning walks incredibly deftly. She seared herself into Richard Gadd’s character’s mind and into ours when Baby Reindeer shocked the world back in April.

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Guy Pearce — The Brutalist
The Brutalist is a deadly serious movie, but someone having a blast in this is Guy Pearce, an Aussie playing a stiff-lipped, highfalutin Mid-Atlantic American with the aplomb and affect of James Mason or Cary Grant. His smiles turn to snarls here disarmingly quickly, and he’s my pick for Best Supporting Actor.

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Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane — Between the Temples
Schwartzman and Kane, two Semitic icons, are Harold and Maude for the age of the Safdie brothers in Nathan Silver’s dark comedy — a film so humanistic, bizarre, and oddly touching that you have to pinch yourself from thinking you were transported back to the ’70s cinema of Elaine May or Woody Allen. This shouldn’t work; these two characters shouldn’t work! And that’s what makes this film’s success all the more special.

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Anna Sawai — Shōgun

Would we all lay our lives on the line for Mariko? After watching Shōgun, I think that’s a resounding yes. Anna Sawai was utter perfection in the role, playing every layer of the character — her fragility, her strength, her heart — so well that she garnered a much-deserved Best Actress award at the Emmys.

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Nicholas Hoult — Juror #2
Hoult quietly had one of the strongest years on screen between Nosferatu, the highly underrated The Order, and especially Juror #2, where troubling moral panic consistently registered in his crystal-blue eyes.

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Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin — Sing Sing
The first time you meet Divine Eye, he’s intimidating a fellow inmate and displaying some impressive “performance” chops to sufficiently menace. You sense, even if the character doesn’t know it yet, that that chest-puffing will translate gorgeously to the stage, and that’s exactly what happens in Sing Sing. First-time actor Maclin is raw and believable, bringing so much soul and veracity to a film that already had both in spades.

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Justine Lupe — Nobody Wants This
Hot rabbi this, perky podcaster that. We all know the real star of Nobody Wants This is Succession’s Justine Lupe as Kristen Bell’s sister. Lupe had all of Nobody Wants This’ best lines (and best line delivery), and not expanding her role in Season 2 would be a shanda.

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Sebastian Stan — The Apprentice / A Different Man
Regardless of Oscars, Sebastian Stan might be the winner of 2024 for his bold, risk-taking performances in both The Apprentice and A Different Man…

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