Great Performances: 2004

Paul Bettany, Dogville


Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Red Lights


Julie Delpy, Before Sunset


Gael Garcia Bernal, Bad Education


Esther Gorinton, Since Otar Left


Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village


Maia Morgenstern, The Passion of the Christ


Michael Parks, Kill Bill: vol. 2


Coralie Revel, Secret Things


Mark Wahlberg, I <3>

Great Performances: 2003

Shohreh Aghdashloo, House of Sand and Fog

Oksana Akinshina, Lilja 4-Ever


Monica Bellucci, Irreversible


Angela Bettis, May


Sonny Chiba, KiLL BiLL: vol. 1


Olivier Gourmet, Le Fils


Catherine O’Hara, A Mighty Wind


Peter Sarsgaard, Shattered Glass


Campbell Scott, The Secret Lives of Dentists


Lambert Wilson, Not on the Lips

Great Performances: 2002

Nicolas Cage, Adaptation.


Ronit Elkabetz, Late Marriage


Maggie Gyllenhaal, Secretary


Isabelle Huppert, The Piano Teacher


Danny Huston, ivans xtc.


Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven


Samantha Morton, Morvern Callar


Summer Phoenix, Esther Kahn


Ludivine Sagnier, 8 Women


Andy Serkis, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Great Performances: 2001

Juliette Binoche, Code Unknown


Steve Buscemi, Ghost World

Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, In the Mood for Love (OK, this is cheating, but would YOU tear them apart?)


Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums


Jude Law, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence


Piper Perabo, Lost and Delirious


Charlotte Rampling, Under the Sand


Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There


Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr.


Tom Wilkinson, In the Bedroom

Great Performances: 2000

This spring, I hit upon the idea of spotlighting on this blog some of my favorite performances from the past decade. Soon thereafter I made up a handful of rules- only one performance per film, only one film per actor, ten performances per year, etc.- and set down to work.

However, time constraints have prevented me from penning commentary to go along with the performances, so I've decided to simply post the lists in the hope that you will begin discussion/debate of the inclusions and exclusions. I'll be posting one of these every day until we reach 2007, and encourage each of you to chime in with opinions.

So we begin with 2000:

Gillian Anderson, The House of Mirth

Javier Bardem, Before Night Falls


Björk, Dancer in the Dark


Ellen Burstyn, Requiem for a Dream


Billy Crudup, Jesus' Son


Tom Hanks, Cast Away


Denis Lavant, Beau Travail


Laura Linney, You Can Count on Me


Issey Ogata, Yi Yi


Jeffrey Wright, Shaft