Top 10 Film Performances (that I've seen) in 2009 By JesusAlonso [9 more lists]

With movies yet to see like Precious, Crazy Heart, The Blind Side, Julie & Julia... will be updating.

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1

Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) in Inglorious Basterds

Christoph Waltz IS the performance of 2009. How do you survive a cast like Inglorious Basterds and become the one everybody loves yet fears? It's a show off, balanced performance at the same time, and one that lets the others room to breathe and build every scene he's in. One of the few examples were Oscar actually got it 100% right.

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2

Wikus (Sharlto Copley) in District 9

Directly, one of the best film debuts ever. It's difficult to believe Copley can manage so many layers in this character, can handle the evolution of his character from xenophobia to empathy in a believable way and be so unexperience in filmmaking. One of 2009's biggest Oscar slap in the face is to nominate District 9 for Best Picture and not nominate the main reason why it works.

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3

Giulio Andreotti (Toni Servillo) in Il Divo

After a tone of make up - which shamefully it's the only Oscar nom the movie had - there's Servillo balanced impersonation of one of the best known - and most feared - real life politicians in Europe's recent history. Another case of "would have been locked for an Oscar" performance, if in english and by an anglosaxon actor.

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4

Malcom Tucker (Peter Capaldi) in In the Loop

Holy sh*t. Capaldi is a bulletfast machine of swearing in this satire in which everyone is perfect, and he steals them off with outstanding ease.

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5

Gloria (Carmen Elías) in Camino

A mother and a monster for the ages. Based upon several real life mothers, Gloria is the face of faith or of fanatism, Javier Fesser and Carmen Elías leave you the free option to choose. It's Elias talent which makes unforgettable and believable how a mother would proudly offer her pain and her family to her faith. Disturbing. I must mention that barely off this list is Mariano Venancio's performance as her husband in the same movie.

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6

Enrique (Antonio de la Torre) in Gordos

The typichal performance that, if english spoken, and by Sean Penn and Robert de Niro, would be an Oscar lock. However, this is a spanish actor in a challenging spanish movie. Weight earn and loss THROUGH the movie by most actors, plus de la Torre plays a flamboyant gay man that basically doesn't really know what he wants. In a great cast, he's a special class.

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7

Brüno (Sacha Baron Cohen) in Brüno

If not as "likeable" and "enjoyable" as Borat, Brüno dares to go to places Borat didn't. It's a balls-out, suicidal performance that is full of improvisation - one of acting's most difficult techniques, when you think about it: interact not with actors but real people that must be unaware you're joking on and manipulating them. The movie was a failure, but Cohen's performance is top-notch.

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8

Rorsach (Jackie Earle Haley) in Watchmen

In which is one of the biggest challenges for an actor in 2009, Haley makes the impossible, make believable a legendary comic-book character. The movie is 100 times more alive when Rorsach is on screen, and that's not only thanks to the screenplay.

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9

Professor Larry Gopnick (Michael Stuhlbarg) in A Serious Man

Michael Stuhlbarg is one of the surprises of the year, this basically unknown actor - for the masses - totally carries this movie over his shoulder and transmits the anguish and emotional free fall of a man that just wants to be happy and good.

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10

Lena (Penelope Cruz) in Broken Embraces

Penelope may have it easy... the movie itself is constructed for her to show off her beauty and her talent. She literally eats the screen often, she's giving us all the range of emotions Almodovar can think of, and confirms that Cruz might have been way underrated as an actress for decades (probaby it's his third best performance after 1998's La Niña de Tus Ojos and 2008's Vicky Christina Barcelona).

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