Best of 2010 - Supporting Actors

Best Supporting Performance of 2010 – Actor

A little bit of the steam of all these posts is taken out now that the Oscar nominations have been given out but it’s not about Oscar nominations it’s about being recognized by the Reeltime Report and I know that these actors will be very thankful that I recognized their performances, whether the academy did or didn’t.

Supporting categories are always the tough because there just aren’t many meaty supporting roles.  One could make the argument that the better acting takes place in the supporting roles because the acting is not written in to the role, rather, the character has to be brought to life to a greater extent than the main character.  Whether you agree with that or not, these five actors stood out even amongst their main characters this year, in the humble opinion of this blogger.

5. Andrew Garfield – The Social Network – The performance starts off slow in this movie as he is just the ‘best friend/sidekick’ role.  However, he slowly gets more into the role and turns in a really good performance.  The scene where he attacks Zuckerberg in the Facebook offices is enough to get on this list alone, the rest of it only adds to this solid performance.  It definitely makes me excited for his future work, particularly the new ‘Spider-Man.’

4. Jonah Hill – Cyrus – Where did this come from?  My dad always told me that a lot of times comedic actors are the best actors because it takes more to make someone laugh than to make them cry.  The theory made sense all my life but was completely solidified here as Hill showed true talent.  He was funny, nuanced, and emotional all in the same role in the same film.  Hill in this film showed a self-awareness as an actor I didn’t know he had and he will surely be turning out big things in the future.

3. Christian Bale – The Fighter – This is the supporting performance that is getting all the publicity at this point.  Bale has been looked over for solid performances in the past and he finally gets his due this year with this nomination.  Throughout the movie I was questioning the role, until the scene where he gives a cake to his old crack addict friends, then I saw clips of the real Dicky Hedlund and the performance was remarkable.  Bale has truly solidified himself as one of the best character actors of our generation.

2. Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech – File this under the ‘no-brainer’ list for performance that everyone was sure would get a lot of pub come awards time.  Rush has the Oscar pedigree, the talent, and was surrounded by other great performances and a great movie.  Rush played this role to perfection and showed why he is a chameleon-like actor slipping completely in to every role he plays.  A great performance by Rush here only made better by the ‘back-and-forth’ between him and Colin Firth.

1. John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone – This one I did not see coming.  All the buzz around ‘Winter’s Bone’ was around the movie and Jennifer Lawrence, but this role was what stole the show for me.  I am not exactly familiar with John Hawkes and maybe that’s what helped this role but he really did throw down a great performance with one of the most intense acting scenes I have ever seen on film.  Hopefully, this will put Hawkes on the forefront and he will get more/better roles in the future.  Definitely deserving to be atop this list.