--- title: Great Film Performances of the Year | TIME description: TIME film critic Richard Corliss picks the best acting performances of the year, including ones that weren't nominated for the Oscar canonical: https://time.com/video/vadmhD65/ og:title: Great Film Performances of the Year og:description: TIME film critic Richard Corliss picks the best acting performances of the year, including ones that weren't nominated for the Oscar og:url: https://time.com/video/vadmhD65/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vadmhD65/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Great Film Performances of the Year twitter:description: TIME film critic Richard Corliss picks the best acting performances of the year, including ones that weren't nominated for the Oscar twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/vadmhD65/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Great Film Performances of the Year > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Great Film Performances of the Year [Watch (HLS stream): Great Film Performances of the Year](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/vadmhD65.m3u8) (8:03)  _Published 2010-03-06. TIME film critic Richard Corliss picks the best acting performances of the year, including ones that weren't nominated for the Oscar_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Korean Film Critic and 'Parasite' Translator Says Oscar Nomination is 'Something Nobody Imagined'](/video/vK7BTMBq/) ### Korean Film Critic and 'Parasite' Translator Says Oscar Nomination is 'Something Nobody Imagined' [Great Performers On Their Favorite Performances](/video/gDMXBuPy/) ### Great Performers On Their Favorite Performances [Richard Corliss on the Best Holiday Movies and TV](/video/v7XJGFE7/) ### Richard Corliss on the Best Holiday Movies and TV --- ## Transcript >> I don't know if you're my friend. >> Hi, this is Richard Corliss of TIME magazine. Around Oscar time, we focus on some of the top performances of last year. >> Baby, I don't know. >> Let's have a look, shall we. I'm a long time admirer of Jeff Bridges and I don't dis his performance as a dried- up country singer in Crazy Heart. >> How'd you learn music? >> My daddy. He had his old Washburn Stealth string. He couldn't play like [ unk ] you know, picked it up, started fooling with it- guess that's how. >> Right. >> I just regret that on Oscar night, it will be rewarded over more gritty performances. -[ unk ] Miller. >> It's the kind of crinkly lulling role that Bridges could do in his sleep. He did it in mine. -[ unk ] born Bad. When I die, my tombstone will have my real name on it. Until then, I'm just gonna stay Bad. >> You wanna do what? >> You heard me. >> Shouldn't we at least talk about this? >> What do you think we're doing? >> The Best Actress category pits a prime movie queen, Sandra Bullock, against the veteran diva, Meryl Streep. >> I was only a file clerk. [ unk ] >> And both are playing real- life women who triumph at a man's game: coaching athletes, preparing French cuisine. >> I do. I do. >> As Julia Child, Streep gives a loving and full- bodied performance. >> What is it that you really like to do? >> Eat. >> Of her 16 performances that have been nominated for an Academy Award, this is one of the strongest and sweetest. >> And you are so good at it. >> I am good. >> Look at you. Now how good you are. >> Growing in front of you. >> Stop the car. >> Sandra Bullock had never been nominated before taking on the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy. >> Big Mike. Hey, my name is Leigh Anne Tuohy. My kids go to Wingate. You said you were going to the gym. >> The Memphis mom who finds a homeless black teenager, adopts him, and- >> Big Mike- >> makes him into a football star. >> Because it's warm. >> Do you have any place to stay tonight? Don't you dare lie to me. >> The film was a surprise monster hit, but it had something more important going for it. Cheers for Bullock for showing the burning ambition and let us say the " balls" of a tough male film hero. >> Seen that look many times just about to get away. >> Come on. >> I got an English essay to do by tomorrow morning. >> Carey Mulligan- everyone says she's the new Audrey Hepburn. -[ unk ] is the sound of sweat dripping onto [ unk ]- >> There is no new Audrey Hepburn. >> Cello. >> There was only the Audrey Hepburn. >> I thought we agreed that cello is my interest [ unk ]- >> But Carey Mulligan is one of the freshest, most charming actresses to come out at a long time. >> Can I stop going to the youth orchestra then? >> No. No, no. The youth orchestra is a good thing. That shows you're a joiner inner. >> Yes, but I've already joined in. So now I can stop. >> Considering that Mulligan in her early 20's was playing a princess of an elite girl school in London who falls for a much older man who may have ulterior motives. >> Hello. Look [ unk ] who wouldn't take a lift from the strange man, but I'm a music lover and I'm worried about your cello. So what I propose is put it in my car and walk along side me. >> Mulligan promised much for the future and delivered right now. >> How do I know you won't just drive off with the cello? >> Good point. >> If a rat were to walk in here right now as I'm talking, would you greet it with a saucer of your delicious milk? >> From anonymity to Oscar, Christoph Waltz made a sensation as the German officer in Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds. >> Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere he would hide but there are so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. >> His character Colonel Hans Landa- >> The reason the- >> gets a bit of a scalp treatment at the end of the movie. >> and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. >> But Waltz is forehead and shoulders above the competition. >> I'm aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity. >> Yes, sir. You have indeed called the correct number, how may I help you? >> For almost 30 years, Colin Firth has been a comfortingly sexy presence- Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and in Bridget Jones' Diary- but until now he didn't get the performance of a lifetime that actors dream about. That's the one here as a gay man bereft of his lover and facing what may be his last day in A Single Man. >> On his way to town, Jim lost control of his car. It was instantaneous apparently. >> Ah. >> But even when considering suicide, one does want to dine well. -[ unk ] what you and Jim had together was wonderful but- >> So he has a meal of reminiscence with Julianne Moore. >> Jim and I were together for 16 years and if he hadn't had died, we'd still be together. >> Never more glamorous than in this role as an old friend from London. >> I know how much the two of you love each other. I suppose I'm just jealous that you and I never had that kind of love. >> Who may need a little nudge to realize that her life is incomplete. >> Actually, I've never had that kind of love with anybody. >> Julianne Moore's performance is complete. It lacked only an Oscar nomination- those bastards. >> Precious, you're gonna stand up there and look down at me like you're a woman? You don't know what real women do. Real women sacrifice. >> There she is at the top of the stairs, the mother from hell- >> Now, [ unk ] about that, you fat bitch. >> Mo'Nique. There is Gabourey Sidibe as Precious- an illiterate, morbidly obese teen who is impregnated by her father for the second time. >> Sidibe had never so much as audition for a role before she got this part and she comes on screen with tornado force: unafraid, unashamed, unequalled. >> You askin' me. >> Lady, my other school told me to come here [ unk ] says alternative school. >> Then there's this career defining, self- critiquing performance by George Clooney who seems to be so sure of himself that he can cast our idea of him into the part of a man whose job is firing people into a recession. >> My card the system automatically prompts the desk clerk to greet me with this exact statement: " A pleasure to see you again, Mr. Bingham ." See our business- >> And what is the reward he gets for this? >> allots $ 40 each for- >> No Oscar. >> I plan on grabbing as many miles as I can. >> Okay, you got to fill me in on the miles thing. What is that about? Are you talking about like frequent flyer miles? >> You really want to know? >> I'm dying to know. >> I don't spend a nickel, if can help it, unless it somehow profits my mileage account. >> And here's Anna Kendrick- -[ unk ] saving up for Hawaii? South of France? >> refugee from the Twilight movies- >> Not like that. The miles are the goal. >> in a grownup role as the woman who thinks she knows best how to bring George Clooney home. >> That's it? You're saving just to save? >> Let's just say that I have a number in mind and I haven't hit it yet. >> That's a little abstract. What's the target? >> I'd rather not. >> Is it a secret target? >> It's 10 million miles. >> Okay. 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