No love for Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy?

I'm surprised that Mulligan made this list, especially since you didn't seem to comment much on her acting during your original review of the film. Not a criticism just a curiosity. Also, I could have sworn that Woody Harrelson would have made this list since you gushed almost rapturously about his work in Rampart; I was expecting to see his name in a prominent spot on the list. Ditto for Clooney.

Jessica Chastain deserves some kind of mention. She's done so many great movies this year. And she's been excellent in all of them! Well, I haven't seen Take Shelter or Coriolanus, but she was superb in The Tree of Life, The Help and The Debt. What a remarkable year she's had.

Also, as much as I loved Robert Forster's work in The Descendants, my favorite performance in that movie probably comes from Judy Greer. God, I adore her in that movie!

Here are my favorite performances: Ryan Gosling in "Drive," Gary Oldman in "Tinker, Tailor," Rooney Mara in "Dragon Tattoo," Juliette Binoche (who deserves a spot on James' list) in "Certified Copy," Michael Fassbender for "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method," Min-sik Choi for "I Saw the Devil," Ben Kingsley for "Hugo," Kseniya Rappaport for the criminally underseen "The Double Hour," and Michelle Williams for "Blue Valentine."

Yeah, I was hoping for some Gosling love too. He's fantastic in Drive and The Ides of March was a high profile release that James loved (I haven't seen it). He was also the best thing about Crazy Stupid Love.

Re: Fassbender. James cited Shame and X-Men. Let's not forget that for 2011 he was also in A Dangerous Method (have you seen this, JB?) and Jane Eyre. Serious question: can any actor in the history of cinema boast of having 4 high profile performances of this calibre in a single year? He's also in Haywire which is a Steven Soderbergh film that saw festival release in 2011 and is headed for a 2012 release. Mind you, the January release date could be a sign of suckage. But still! 4.5 movies in a year. And he's probably fantastic in all of them!

Gosling, Chastain, Harrelson, Oldman all just missed the final cut. If I had expanded to 15, they all would have made it.

I have not seen A DANGEROUS METHOD. For reasons known only to SPC, it has not screened here. Nor is a screening planned before it opens next weekend, so I'll see it Friday. Goes on my 2012 list.

Fassbender was good in JANE EYRE, but didn't turn my head; hence, it wasn't mentioned as one of the films that got him on the Top 10 list. Same for Mulligan and DRIVE.

I wasn't too enamored with Michelle Williams' performance in My Week with Marilyn, although it's not all her fault. I thought it was a poorly written movie.

Some of my favorite performances of the year (I'm gonna list more than 10):


Male:

Demian Bichir in A Better Life
Matt Damon in We Bought a Zoo
Jake Gyllenhaal in Source Code
Michael Fassbender in X-Men: First Class (haven't seen Shame yet)
Tom Hanks in Larry Crowne
William Mapother in Another Earth
Willem Dafoe in Fireflies in the Garden
Ryan Reynolds in Fireflies in the Garden
George Clooney in The Descendants
Sam Worthington and Jesper Christensen in The Debt
William Fichtner in Drive Angry
Chris Hemsworth in Thor
Tom Hardy, Joel Edgarton and Nick Nolte in Warrior (unlike James, I can't really single any of them out because each 3 are equally powerful IMO)
Ryan Gosling, George Clooney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in The Ides of March
Gosling for Drive too as well (and probably Albert Brooks from Drive too)




Female:

AnnaSophia Rob in Soul Surfer
Kristin Wiig in Bridesmaids
Brit Marling in Another Earth
Viola Davis in The Help
Jessica Chastain in The Help, The Tree of Life and The Debt
Octavia Spencer in The Help
Bryce Dallas Howard in The Help
Judy Greer in The Descendants
Robin Wright in The Conspirator
Amber Heard in The Rum Diary (also loved her in Drive Angry)

No mention of Saoirse Ronan in Hanna? If you're listing people for a body of work, Jessica Chastain is clearly the one. I only saw her in two of her many performances, The Tree of Life and The Help, and she was great in both and supposedly is even better in Take Shelter.

Alan Rickman (HPDH7.2)

Just throwing the name out there.

how about Kevin Spacey in 1995?
Usual Suspects
Seven
Swimming With Sharks
Outbreak

Morgan Freeman, 1989
Glory
Driving Miss Daisy
Johnny Handsome
Lean On Me

Jimmy Stewart had some great years
1954: Rear Window, The Far Country, The Glenn Miller Story
1950: Harvey, Broken Arrow, Winchester '73
1940: The Philadelphia Story, The Mortal Storm, The Shop Around The Corner
1939: Mr Smith Goes To Washington, Destry Rides Again, It's A Wonderful World, Made For Each Other

I noticed that nobody has mentioned Meryl Streep in this article or thread.

I can think of three reasons:

1) 'The Iron Lady' came out in the States just after the new year.

2) 'The Iron Lady' and it's title role are unworthy of praise.

3) People have finally realised that Streep is actually really overrated.

Just pointing it out, since people are normally up her ass about what she does

and no Oscar nom for any of them....

Me, I'm just disappointed that the performances of Chastain and Michael Shannon in "Take Shelter" got overlooked.

Negative on #3. Haven't seen The Iron Lady but I do plan on seeing it soon. I don't know how I will feel about the movie, but I can tell from the trailer and ads that Streep will give a hell of a performance. Then again, I'll begrudgingly admit that I thought the same about Dicaprio in J. Edgar and looked how turned out.