Men of the year: The best male performances of 2007

Lest anyone who just happens by here thinks I'm somehow slighting the ladies, they got their day yesterday, so please feel free to scroll back and see who made that list too.

As I tallied up a year full of great male performances, there were three glaring omissions in my viewing calendar that rose to the top; you won't find Sam Riley from "Control," Casey Affleck from "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" or, most embarrassingly, Don Cheadle from "Talk to Me" simply because I haven't seen those yet.

With those conditions in mind, and the further one that I limited my choices to one from each movie (except in the honorable mention), here are my ten favorite male performances from 2007 (and, as always, please feel free to add any I may have overlooked.)

Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Picking just one dude from this epicly good movie seems like a crime, but those are the rules I set going in, and I do think he rose to the top of this amazing cast. To me, his portrayal of Anton Chigurh is just the essence of evil, and best expresses the complete abhorrence of violence that is at the core of the Coen brothers' admittedly very violent (and stunningly beautiful) movie.


Michael Cera, "Superbad"
I'm still waiting for the time that George Michael Bluth will be too old to play the straight-laced teen, but it hasn't come yet. He was almost as good in "Juno," but as the sounding board/punching bag to Jonah Hill in the funniest movie of 2007 (hint: that means you will very likely see it in my best of 2007 movie list coming Monday), he's just pitch-perfect. Though I don't know in the world he's going to pull it off, he's set to (possibly) play a 14-year-old as Nick Twisp in the film adaptation of one of my favorite novels, C.D. Payne's "Youth in Revolt." Here's hoping they at least start filming soon!

Chris Cooper, "Breach"
I've seen this one twice now, in fittingly different circumstances. I didn't fully appreciate it during my private screening of one during its one-week-or-so run in Macon, but it was just the perfect movie to watch while crammed on a very long flight to South Africa this summer. The movie is at times just as suffocating as that experience, but Cooper just manages to draw you in anyway with his absorbing portrayal of uber-spy Robert Hanssen.

Robert Downey Jr., "Zodiac"
Despite being handicapped by its early-calendar release and length (which you'll never hear me complain about), this flick seems to be building some possible dark-horse buzz as a Best Picture contender, which would make me very happy. Of the trio of stars at its core, Mr. Downey's journalist just best epitomized the obsession behind the drive to find the Zodiac killer.


Idris Elba, "Tyler Perry's Daddy Little Girls"
The better of Tyler Perry's 2007 movies somehow gets only a 3.3 out of 10 in the user rating at the IMDB. 3.3? Sheesh. I know his fairy-tale flicks aren't for everyone, but they're almost as smart as they are funny, and Idris Elba, a k a the late Stringer Bell on "The Wire," steps comfortably into his world as a mechanic who's also trying to care for his titular "Little Girls."

Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"
I'll only confess to crying once in a movie theater this year, and it came when Emile Hirsch's Christopher McCandless turns his back on the world for the last time, rejecting the fatherly love of Hal Holbrook's Ron Franz. No actor made a bigger impression in a shorter time in 2007 than Holbrook did in this flick, and to me that's just the textbook definition of a great supporting actor.

Daniel Day Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
I'm still not sure how exactly I felt about Paul Thomas Anderson's epic take on the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil." It's certainly amazing movie making, but it would have left me more than a little cold if it weren't for the incredible performance of Mr. Lewis, who only seems to emerge every three years or so. Here, you'll find it hard to take your eyes off his face as he slowly devolves from enterprising oilman to a madman consumed by greed and other vices. Easily the best performance of 2007.

Peter O'Toole, "Ratatouille"
The closest thing to a true moment of grace in 2007 came when O'Toole's Anton Ego finally takes a bite of the titular "Ratatouille," and it's one of the many charms that has made this Pixar flick linger as my favorite flick of 2007. A true dark horse for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination, but he's certainly got my support.

Simon Pegg, "Hot Fuzz"
I like to laugh, and I'm not going to start apologizing for that anytime soon. I suppose this nomination should be split between Mr. Pegg and his partner in crime, Nick Frost, but it was Pegg's channeling of David Caruso and other demons that just made Edgar Wright's spoof of '80s actions flicks work so well.

Reece Thompson, "Rocket Science"
I almost typed "Superbad" instead of "Rocket Science," but even though I did see those two flick on the same weekend in Minneapolis this summer, they couldn't be more different entrants in the arena of great teen flicks. As the alter ego of director Jeffrey Blitz, young Mr. Thompson stammers his way to easily one of the most memorable performances of 2007.

Honorable Mention (and be warned, this will be a bit long): Irfan Khan, "The Namesake"; Glen Hansard, "Once"; Emile Hirsch, "Into the Wild"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton"; Titus Welliver, "Gone Baby Gone"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; J.K. Simmons, "Juno"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"; Paul Dano, "There Will Be Blood"; Josh Brolin, "No Country For Old Men"; Jonah Hill, "Superbad"; and Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, "American Gangster"