The 2013 RopeofSilicon Movie Awards

How do you declare a winner among these six contenders? Is Michael B. Jordan‘s heartfelt and authentic portrayal of Oscar Grant in Fruitvale Station any better than Oscar Isaac‘s ability to gain the audience’s sympathy while at the same time playing a bit of a dickhead, couch-hopping artist in Inside Llewyn Davis? What of the compassion and anger you feel for Mads Mikkelsen‘s wronged character in The Hunt and compared to another wronged man and his will to survive in Chiwetel Ejiofor‘s performance in 12 Years a Slave. Finally, how can you say one is better when comparing the soft-hearted soul of Joaquin Phoenix‘s Theodore Twombly in Her to the balls-to-the-wall madness Leonardo DiCaprio embodied in Martin Scorsese‘s The Wolf of Wall Street. To name a winner I can only choose one, and it wasn’t easy.

As impossible as it is to decide, I had to go with Mikkelsen and I’ll quote my review of the film for my reasoning why:

Mikkelsen is astounding, walking a line of frustration versus simply attempting to exist the best he can amid the hell swirling around him. He brings us into the heart of Lucas early and we sympathize with him just as much as we understand where the rest of the town (thanks to an impressive supporting cast) is coming from, which causes a level of torment in our own hearts.

It’s always interesting to compile lists of the best performances, broken down by gender. The men seem so easy with a bounty of names to choose from while the women seem to receive high caliber roles so infrequently it can sometimes be a struggle to make a list of five.

When it comes to the best of 2013, it’s hard to say any actress put as much of herself on the line as Adele Exarchopoulos in Blue is the Warmest Color. As well, her co-star, Lea Seydoux, deserves recognition as well as the clip from the film included here so clearly proves in what, for me, was the scene that really hammered home how truly great both of these women were in their respective roles.

Obviously, the award season is doting on Cate Blanchett for her work in Blue Jasmine, and she was undoubtedly great in the role, but I feel I found so much more in several other female lead performances this year. Of those I’ve listed above, it’s almost shameful Berenice Bejo has been overlooked… perhaps things would be different had Weinstein had his hands on The Past and not Sony Classics.

Certainly a performance like Julie Delpy‘s in Before Midnight has a lot to do with my connection to the character going in, but to deny her effect on me as an audience member while watching would be disingenuous. It’s these subjective opinions that make looking at the “best” from a personal perspective all the more interesting than what the Oscars offer come the end of the year.

When considering whom to crown the “best” in the supporting actor category I found myself second guessing my decision to go with either Jared Leto or Jonah Hill, especially when compared to the likes of Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave and the mystery and ambiguity Jake Gyllenhaal brought to his character in Prisoners.

Both Leto and Hill were able to use something more than just their knowledge of their character to help them along the way, Leto by losing a ton of weight and wearing women’s clothing throughout and Hill popped those gleaming white choppers into his mouth. Granted, this is part of the acting process, dressing up and stepping into someone else’s shoes, but is the performance any less great if an actor is able to use a little more to get them into character? I don’t think so, but I felt it was an interesting question.

As for why I went with Leto, there was just something about the way he played that character, filled with confidence, fear and compassion that helped make Dallas Buyers Club as good as it was. Certainly, Matthew McConaughey was great, but without Leto opposite McConaughey’s portrayal of the homophobic Ron Woodruff, the film’s ability to tell its story through the people involved rather than the disease affecting them would have fallen to pieces.

What an absolutely powerful line-up of performances. As tough as it was to declare a Best Actor winner, determining between these six performances was damn near impossible.

Suzanne Clement‘s performance in Xavier Dolan‘s Laurence Anyways has been overlooked for reasons I can’t explain. She is so truly amazing in such an utterly wonderful film, I can only hope my mentioning of her performance and the film once again will get you to see it for yourself. Just watch the clip I’ve included here, she’s a powerhouse of emotion and within the confined walls of Dolan’s film she runs the gamut.

Two other performances I want to also make sure are noted are Pauline Berlet‘s performance in Asghar Faradi‘s The Past and Melonie Diaz in Fruitvale Station.

Berlet is a little too obscure to gain any traction with the Hollywood award race and Sony Classics didn’t do much to promote The Past, but her performance as Berenice Bejo‘s daughter gets to the emotional core of one of the best films of the year. As for Diaz, as much as people poured most of their praise on Octavia Spencer, I felt Diaz was the true female standout of the piece. She deserves more attention than she’s been given.