--- description: These are TIME's picks for the top 10 movie performances of 2017, including Saoirse Ronan in "Lady Bird" and Bob Odenkirk in "The Post." title: The Top 10 Movie Performances of 2017 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ad63f62e49285d4/6988f360bc6cfc11a53e427e/movie-performances.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Top 10 Movie Performances of 2017  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Dec 7, 2017 7:10 PM CUT  Sony Pictures Classics; A24 (2); Amazon Studios; 20th Century Fox; Photo Illustration by Kim Bubello  by [Stephanie Zacharek](/author/stephanie-zacharek/)  ## Stephanie Zacharek Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Film Critic Dec 7, 2017 7:10 PM CUT Sometimes people say to me, “The movies are so bad this year!” and I deflect. Never, in any year, do I say to myself, “The movies are so bad this year!” I [never have trouble finding enough to love](http://time.com/5045566/top-10-movies-2017/ "undefined"). But even if, in some mythical year, I were to feel true despair over the state of all moviedom, I would still know that actors are always there for me. If a director gives a movie its overall shape and tone, actors are the ones who breathe life into that vision. Here are some of my favorite performances, a mix of lead and supporting, of 2017: ## 10\. Meryl Streep  NOR\_D35\_071717\_313277\_R2 – Meryl Streep stars as Kay Graham in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE POST. Photo Credit: Niko Tavernise. 20th Century Fox There’s both flinty resolve and sly, whisker-licking humor in Streep’s portrayal of Washington _Post_ publisher Katharine Graham in _The Post_. Graham, who suddenly found herself having to learn how to play hardball in a man’s world, was a woman both of her time and ahead of her time. Streep captures the complexity of that dance, with every ladylike step and shrewd sidelong glance. ## 9\. Bob Odenkirk  NEW YORK, NY - JULY 24: Bob Odenkirk is seen filming 'The Papers' on July 24, 2017 in New York City (Photo by Alessio Botticelli/GC Images) Alessio Botticelli—GC Images/Getty Images Although journalists are often heroic figures in the movies, they’re rarely very glamorous in real life. In [Steven Spielberg](http://time.com/4968684/steven-spielberg-documentary-hbo/ "undefined")’s _The Post_, Odenkirk, as Washington _Post_ journalist Ben Bagdikian, captures that valiant ordinariness perfectly. Even his vaguely stooped carriage says “Just get the story”—and when he does, you feel nothing but joy. ## 8\. Millicent Simmonds  WonderStruck Amazon Studios In [Todd Haynes’ radiant and sweet _Wonderstruck_](http://time.com/4784811/cannes-todd-haynes-wonderstruck/ "undefined"), Simmonds plays Rose, a 12-year-old deaf girl living in Hoboken, N.J., in 1927\. [Simmonds is deaf herself](http://time.com/4997245/millicent-simmonds-wonderstruck/ "undefined"), and to watch her face—to see how, as Rose, she virtually breathes in the world around her, as if sounds and visuals were color values you could absorb into your very being—is to step over a border you perhaps didn’t even know existed. [_Read TIME’s review_](http://time.com/4989049/wonderstruck-is-tender-vital-filmmaking/ "undefined") ## 7\. Tiffany Haddish  Universal Studios Comedian Haddish—from _The Carmichael Show_ and _Keanu_— is Dina, the wildest girl of all in Malcolm D. Lee’s _Girls Trip_, and the one you’d most like to hang with. Her smile is as cheerful as a spilled bag of Skittles, but it’s delightfully naughty too. She[ elevates go-for-broke raunchiness to an art form](http://time.com/5048703/top-10-fictional-characters-2017/ "undefined"). [_Read TIME’s review_](http://time.com/4864477/girls-trip-review/ "undefined") ## 6\. Lois Smith  No Merchandising. Editorial Use Only. No Book Cover Usage Mandatory Credit: Photo by Passage Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock (8999214a) Jon Hamm, Lois Smith "Marjorie Prime" Film - 2017 Passage Pictures/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Smith gives us two terrific performances this year. In Michael Almereyda’s _Marjorie Prime_, she’s a widow with dementia who pieces bits of her life together in her last days by quizzing her husband (Jon Hamm), an artificial-intelligence creation; her eyes’ misty glow reminds us that the things we’ve forgotten are as much a part of us as those we remember. And in Greta Gerwig’s _Lady Bird_, she’s pure delight as a radiant, generous nun with a great sense of humor. With her as his bride, Jesus is one lucky guy. ## 5\. Laurie Metcalf  Laurie Metcalfe in Lady Bird A24 Being the mom who’s mostly responsible for holding a family together often means being the killjoy. And that’s the job of Metcalf’s Marion in [_Lady Bird_](http://time.com/5038968/lady-bird-breaks-rotten-tomatoes-record-best-reviewed-movie/ "undefined"): she’s the one who always counts the money, and the one who always has to say no. Metcalf, a longtime theater actress who may be best known for her role on TV’s _Rosanne_, shows us the sense of isolation behind Marion’s thorniness—and how much she’d prefer to say yes. ## 4\. Willem Dafoe  A24 As the long-suffering motel manager Bobby in Sean Baker’s _The Florida Project_, Dafoe—driven near crazy by the residents of the property he tends, especially Brooklynn Prince’s pint-size scamp Moonee—projects an aura of careworn grace. When he cracks a crabby, reluctant smile, it’s as if the heavens had opened. [_Read TIME’s review_](http://time.com/4970463/florida-project-review/ "undefined") ## 3\. Armie Hammer  Sony Pictures Classics In _Call Me by Your Name_, Hammer’s Oliver is the casual American summer visitor who throws Timothée Chalamet’s Elio for a loop. Lanky and confident, with a Pepsodent smile, he’s part rakish paramour, part free-spirited escape artist. Yet Hammer signals Oliver’s veiled vulnerability beautifully. Even though he’s older and presumably wiser than Elio, you suspect that of the two, he’s the one who will end up suffering more for love. You never catch him brooding, but that doesn’t mean he’s not hurting. ## 2\. Timothée Chalamet  Sony Pictures Classics When, exactly, does adolescence flip to adulthood? The moment is as fleeting as the silvery flash of a minnow. Yet it’s that moment that Luca Guadagnino captures in his lush, ardent [coming-of-age romance _Call Me by Your Name_](http://time.com/5042707/call-me-by-your-name-shape-of-water-fearlessly-display-love/ "undefined"), and Chalamet, one of his two lead actors, gives that almost inexpressible point of passage a human face. As 17-year-old Elio, Chalamet is equal parts youthful guilelessness and premature masculine swagger, as if he were just trying adulthood on for size, not yet sure he wanted to commit. It’s a lovely performance, as casually intense as a light summer sunburn. ## 1\. Saoirse Ronan  Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird A24 In Greta Gerwig’s bittersweet coming-of-age comedy _Lady Bird_, Ronan plays Christine, a Sacramento teenager who’s had it with everything: her complex, cranky mother; her low-on-the-totem-pole social status; her really-not-so-bad Catholic school. But as Ronan plays her, you feel for Christine every minute, even when she’s being totally impossible. Beneath all that free radical exasperation, her face is radiant, open and alive. **_Read more:_** [_How Talent—and a Little Luck—Got Saoirse Ronan to Hollywood_](http://time.com/collection-post/4352564/saoirse-ronan-next-generation-leaders/ "undefined") [_Read TIME’s review_](http://time.com/5006939/lady-bird-captures-joy-pain-coming-of-age/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5047536/top-10-movie-performances-2017/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5047536/top-10-movie-performances-2017/"},"headline":"The Top 10 Movie Performances of 2017","datePublished":"2017-12-07T19:10:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:58:18.326Z","description":"From Bob Odenkirk in 'The Post' to Saoirse Ronan in 'Lady Bird'","url":"https://time.com/5047536/top-10-movie-performances-2017/","keywords":["movies","top-10-2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ad63f62e49285d4/6988f360bc6cfc11a53e427e/movie-performances.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Stephanie Zacharek","jobTitle":"Film Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/stephanie-zacharek/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6ad63f62e49285d4/6988f360bc6cfc11a53e427e/movie-performances.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"top-10-movie-performances-2017","caption":"","creditText":"Sony Pictures Classics; A24 (2); Amazon Studios; 20th Century Fox; Photo Illustration by Kim Bubello","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5047536/top-10-movie-performances-2017/","name":"The Top 10 Movie Performances of 2017"}}]}] ```