The New Yorker's Best Performances of the 21st Century

Ah, Brody and his "Norbit" love. He has a strange taste in general but sometimes, it makes such lists interesting. It feels original and personal. Obviously some of these wouldn't appear on mine (or even come close) but that's the case with every list there is. Nice to see the love for Gerwig, Paquin and Wiig's performances. I wonder if he truly thinks Lohan is better than McAdams and Caplan in "Mean Girls" or he just felt that her work is underrated or something and decided to give her a recognition.

Not sure if I like his inclusion of a TV performance and saying he did put it because it's "made by a filmmaker, Lena Dunham" though.

But that Samantha Robinson shout-out

I'm ok with with number one, but Joaquin Phoenix in The Master and DDL in There Will Be Blood should have been there too.

Well, the overwhelming majority of these are actually pretty defensible and I quite like a few picks (Portman, Isaac, Lindo, Murray, Eisenberg). But the hottakes are just too much combined with who he left off. Is he really going to look people in the eye and tell them Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls is a better performance than DDL in There Will Be Blood? That's contrarian horseshit. And it's not like I don't like Lohan in the movie. Haven't seen Norbit, The Break-Up, or Girl's Trip but I have a feeling it would be the same type deal. This would have been an interesting and unique enough list with the other picks without those kinds of blatant attempts to be inflammatory either.

Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me she wasn't??? Enough with this elitist bs. 

She was the lead actress in one of the most popular, most quoted, most remembered, most beloved movies of the 21st century. She held that movie together. A less talented and charismatic performer would have fallen flat. Her transformation throughout the movie was spectacular and having a sister who had a similar experience, it was very realistic (not an easy thing to achieve in a "cute teen movie"). All at the age of 18. "Being likeable and cute"???? How fucking condescending. Watch the movie again you twat and this time maybe try to erase the image of Lindsay that the media brainwashed you into seeing. (Does everyone remember how they were all just foaming at the mouth trying to get a picture of her vagina each time she exited her vehicle?????)

Ask any random person who was better and considering it seems like you never get off the internet, you may be surprised at the answers.

And before you bring it up,  a competent lead performance is one that engages the audience and keeps them watching. If people you ask haven't seen There Will Be Blood or turned it off, that's on Daniel.

Lmao. And this is why we don’t take lists like this and the NYT best actors of the 21st century seriously. Pretty meaningless.

him snubbing DDL for lindsay lohan is extremely, unfathomably based but i would have picked I Know Who Killed Me over Mean Girls for her tbh tho ig both are kind of iconic in their own way.

otherwise: some really good picks, anna paquin in the top 10 is well deserved. i really like brody as a critic and that comes across well in lists like this.