The 20 Best Film and TV Performances of 2024 (So Far) (2024)

Tadanobu Asano, “Shogun” (TV)

“Shogun” is an epic of power and politics, of the kind where characters often seem like their expressions have been crafted by master sculptors, so noble, cunning, and/or perceptive are they. It is vital for a story like this to have a true scoundrel in the mix. Tadanobu Asano is that and more as Kashigi Yabushige, the mid-level samurai playing all sides of the conflict that could see his nominal lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) come to control the throne of Japan. Yabushige might be the most unsubtle schemer in any room, but his reactions are invariably the most relatable, which makes him as much of an audience surrogate as stranded English interloper John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis).

The naturalism of Asano’s expressions and body language is extraordinary, especially when communicating past a language barrier with Blackthorne. He invariably seems like the performer in every scene who is most present, most unpredictable, most alive. Yet Asano always grounds his character’s antics in a warrior’s bravado, such that it’s completely understandable the culture that would produce the Eight-Fold Fence would produce Yabushige, too. Perpetually tired of this Christian nonsense, and yet possessed of the best shit-eating grin in all the Japans, Asano’s take on the flighty lord of Izu contains multitudes; and he makes us love Yabushige for it. —SS

Sarayu Blue, “Expats” (TV)

Sarayu Blue has been a welcome presence on TV for years — but something about the empty rooms in which so much of “Expats” takes place seems to have unlocked something within her. As Hilary, she’s funny and charming but embittered and cringe-worthy (often simultaneously, as in her wine-fueled heart-to-heart with her housekeeper during a blackout). Most importantly, Blue shades Hilary’s pristine exterior with exhaustion from the burdens of her life (even of life itself), even as she keeps buying flowers, having lunch, and trying to remain true to some idea of herself. It’s a virtuosic performance that lingers. —MP

Léa Drucker, “Last Summer” (Film)

Catherine Breillat’s psychosexually reckless return to form, “Last Summer” stars the great French character actress Léa Drucker as a child sex crimes attorney falling freely into an affair with her 17-year-old stepson, Théo (Samuel Kircher). Anne (Drucker) cuts a bourgeois figure, idling the summer away at her family’s holiday getaway outside Paris, but that’s all toppled when the very transgressions she seeks justice for in the workday become her personal undoing at home. There’s a fantastic late scene when Anne is confronted by her husband, Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin), who’s now tuned into the deceit and sexual abuse going on. Breillat holds on Drucker’s face as Anne silently cascades from near-panic to grimly confident resolution as she starts to foist on Pierre the rhetoric she uses to defend abused young women as a lawyer, contorting that language to her benefit and making herself the victim of a conspiracy. And the way Breillat fixes the camera on Drucker in an earlier moment of sexual ecstasy, when reframed in the later context, showcases Drucker’s tremendous range and gift for playing a woman for whom the ground is coming out beneath her. —RL

Paul Dano, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (TV)

It would be enough to have Paul Dano in a cameo in Francesca Sloane and Donald Glover’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” as a character named “Hot Neighbor” — but trust Dano to take that moniker and what’s on the page and turn it into a magnetic guest arc. From the first time they meet him, John (Donald Glover) and Jane (Maya Erskine) are in awe of the neighbor (especially Jane, much to John’s chagrin).

While the series charts their marriage through the months with each episode, Hot Neighbor remains the one bizarre constant in their chaotic world, even as he gets too close. From initial charm to cautious suspicion to an absurdly wonderful final turn, Dano exemplifies how much fun the guest stars must have had on this series and helps “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” level up in overall quality. Sadly, the season’s events do not pan out in Hot Neighbor’s favor, but we hope he finds a new dream (Dano whispering “It’s my Moby Dick”? Cinema). —PK

Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks” (TV)

As one-half of the greatest comedy duo on TV right now, Einbinder has always been strong opposite Jean Smart. But as the simultaneously clueless and prescient Ava Daniels, she took things up a level this season, and it was a blast to watch. Simultaneously able to knock out a great, offhand-seeming line — “We will take their money, though,” she says about rich Democratic billionaires — as well as deliver a crushing heart-to-heart, Einbinder is just as key as Smart to keep the show grounded, emotional, and hysterically funny. Fans need only look at the finale — spoiler! — where Ava’s breakdown over her relationship, or lack thereof, with Deborah Vance explodes in tears and rage to show how much richer Ava has become over three seasons. And if that weren’t enough, her tough blackmailing scene, and Einbinder’s cold final-seconds stare, expertly raise the stakes while feeling perfectly in character. It’s an earned growth that viewers can’t look away from. —ES

Lily Gladstone, “Fancy Dance” (Film)

It was hard not to have high expectations for the Erica Tremblay film when part of Gladstone’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” awards run was basically telling people “If you like me in this, you will love me in this Sundance 2023 film struggling to find distribution.” Her campaign worked, with Apple finally picking the film up for this summer, and the verdict is Gladstone absolutely was telling the truth. Playing a queer Indigenous woman doing her best to shield her niece from learning of how her mother has gone missing, with no authorities looking for her—a fate all too familiar to women of their background—Gladstone maintains a stoicism that has become a signature. But she is far from cold. It is almost as if the way she shows boundless love in every scene with her young co-star Isabel Deroy-Olson blends fact and fiction. One can tell this is not just another role to her. —RL

Renée Elise Goldsberry, “Girls5eva” (TV)

It takes a very special skill to portray oblivious self-involvement endearingly — and three seasons into “Girls5eva,” Renée Elise Goldsberry has officially joined the ranks of Megan Mullally and Jane Krakowski. She dug even deeper into Wickie’s shallowness this season, painstakingly explaining that the lies she told about her embattled childhood were never actually lies or blithely booking Radio City Music Hall for the band’s big comeback show. But Goldsberry never forgets Wickie’s innate kindness, even as she adds a delirious topspin to the mile-a-minute one-liners and pop culture deadpans that define the show’s comedic sensibility. —MP

Jessica Gunning, “Baby Reindeer” (TV)

“Baby Reindeer” may be helmed by the voice and experience of Richard Gadd, but the Netflix juggernaut wouldn’t be what it is without Jessica Gunning. Another actor may have portrayed the intensity of stalker Martha, but Gunning’s performance never lacks for humanity and deep emotion, demonstrating the empathy she found for the character. Martha is dangerous and misguided, but she’s also charming and worthy of compassion.

Gunning told IndieWire in June that she looked to inspiration in “Misery” and “King of Comedy,” and tried to imbue Martha with the concept of limerence, a form of obsessive attachment.“I think if I was to draw a stalker or write a stalker, I would assume whenever they interacted with the person that they were obsessed with, they would always be really gushy and praising and in awe of that person,” Gunning said. “When [Martha] says ‘Your comedy is a bit shy, actually’… in her mind, she knew him better than anyone. They’re meant to be.”

Gunning said she’s so proud to have played Martha that she’ll be fine never to work again — but we’re betting this is just a pivotal moment in a long and brilliant career. —PK

Manny Jacinto, “The Acolyte” (TV)

In a July interview, “The Acolyte” creator and head writer Leslye Headland told Inverse, “If I can get Manny Jacinto, this will work. If I don’t, this character won’t exist.” It was Jacinto’s screen test that prompted Headland to rewrite The Stranger, the quasi-Sith villain hiding in plain sight for the first half of the series and unmasked (also unsleeved) in Episode 5. For the first few episodes, Jacinto’s Qimir is a goofy, greasy liaison between Mae (Amandla Stenberg) and her masked master; once revealed, he’s a smooth, sinister, and seductive spokesperson for the Dark Side, with all that dangerous charisma directed at Mae’s twin, Osha. Jacinto trained extensively for the role’s physical demands, practiced code switching between Qimir and the Stranger (apologies to the cashier at his local grocery during that time) — and then, of course, had to lie about all of it for months. Thanks to his performance, as early as that screen test, Star Wars fans got an irresistible new villain and even a Reylo redemption arc. All that’s left is a second season… —PK

Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, “Sing Sing” (Film)

A lived-in quality is not the foundation of every great acting performance, but it is hard not to leave the new A24 release from Greg Kwedar in awe of how well Maclin is able to convey the full range of his character’s experience as an incarcerated individual who finds salvation through theater. Playing a version of himself opposite recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, the man also known as Divine Eye is the definition of a revelation, skillfully guiding the audience toward the connection between the story the film is telling, and the true experiences of inmates whose lives have been changed by programs like Rehabilitation Through the Arts. And it is not in a cloying way either. His character’s redemption takes one by welcome surprise because of how repugnant he reads when he’s first introduced. —MJ

Julianne Nicholson, “Janet Planet” (Film)

Annie Baker has always been a writer whose silences speak louder than her words. In both theatre and film alike, her characters wallow in the massive oceans that exist between the limits of their ability to articulate and the true depths of their feelings. The knotty relationship between a hippie single mom and her clingy daughter at the heart of ‘Janet Planet’ is no exception, and Julianne Nicholson more than rises to the challenge that Baker’s material presents.

As the eponymous Janet, she divides her attention between three unique male suitors and a maturing daughter who wants more from her than she’s able (or willing) to give. Equal parts genuinely loving and frustratingly avoidant, Nicholson’s Janet reveals herself to be as confused as her daughter about what she actually wants from the world. But just like Janet’s pungent organic soaps that can almost be smelled through the screen, her social blemishes and impurities are just the costs of living a life undiluted by the artificial niceties of polite society. For better or worse, Janet is a creature in her natural habitat, and Nicholson proves to be the perfect muse for one of her generation’s greatest naturalists. —CZ

Katy O’Brian, “Love Lies Bleeding” (Film)

There’s nothing more relatable in Rose Glass’ audacious thriller “Love Lies Bleeding” than the first time we — the camera, the audience, co-star Kristen Stewart — lay eyes on breakout star Katy O’Brian as bodybuilder Jackie. Sure, it’s O’Brian’s body that first catches our attention, but the way she holds it and moves through the world are the main attractions. That’s somebody, she tells us with just a turn of the head or a cock of the arm, and that’s the truth. But for all of the obvious hardness of Jackie’s buffed-out bod, it’s the soulful side of O’Brian’s performance that truly stands out.

When she blows into Lou’s (Kristen Stewart) nowhere Southwest town, her arrival signals that massive change is on the way. Most important: the deeply held emotion that Jackie brings into Lou’s stalled-out life. As the pair fall in love, it’s hard not to fall for O’Brian herself, a fearless and empathetic performer who seamlessly finds her way both through the intricacies of love and the crazy swings Glass opts for in the final scenes. It’s a towering performance, in more ways than one. —KE

Josh O’Connor, “Challengers” (Film)

Putting a slutty new spin on the wayward dirtbag schtick he first displayed in “La Chimera” (an incredible swerve after playing the thoroughly sexless Prince Charles in “The Crown”), Josh O’Connor embodies penniless rich boy Patrick Zweig with a primitive edge that somehow makes the fallen tennis star easier to root for with every fault.

Hunched and unkempt where his squeaky-clean rival is stiff and sponsored, Patrick is the scruffy, sexually destructive id in a love triangle that only gets sharper after the other two sides get married, and O’Connor’s performance is so perfect for its refusal to apologize for what his character is really playing for — or the fact that he’s playing for keeps.

All cheeky smiles, knowing looks, and backhanded gamesmanship, O’Connor turns Patrick into a white-collar bad buy who probably wouldn’t seem dangerous in the context of any other sport on Earth, but here feels as wild and disruptive as a primal scream during a serve toss. Patrick may not be a model of sportsmanship, but he’s one hell of a competitor, and boy is it fun to watch as he fights to come out on top. —DE

Glen Powell, “Hit Man” (Film)

Powell has already his big star bonafides every which way he can — “Top Gun: Maverick” to “Anyone but You,” with this week’s “Twisters” another cowboy hat-clad cherry on the top of a remarkable ascent — but it’s this year’s other big Powell performance we’re most admiring of.

In Richard Linklater’s Netflix treat (co-written by Powell to boot), the star’s best attributes all coalesce into one performance that sees him doing a little bit of everything, and shining at each point along the way.
When we first meet Gary Johnson, the reserved college professor is best described as “mild-mannered,” should anyone pay him enough attention to even describe him. But Gary moonlights as a tech wonk for the New Orleans police, and when he gets unexpectedly pulled in to go undercover as a fake hitman, something sparks.

Under the guise of a guy who doesn’t exist, Gary gets to play every facet of his personality, even the ones he never knew existed. Powell has tons of fun donning a variety of hilarious costumes — and even one, as the alluring “hitman” Ron, that feels more real than his real life — but what’s most impressive is the commitment he brings to each bit, big or small. We already had an inkling he could do everything, but “Hit Man” seals that idea, and with a bullet. —KE

Carrie Preston, “Elsbeth” (TV)

Carrie Preston had years to prepare for “Elsbeth,” and yet I doubt anything she did on “The Good Wife” or “The Good Fight” fully prepared her for the “Columbo”-esque CBS procedural Robert and Michelle King cooked up. Yes, her character Elsbeth Tascioni came to be (and returned nearly two dozen times) in the Kings’ “Good” franchise, but those were both legal dramas. This, the first season of Elsbeth’s own show, is a different beast entirely — one that not only has the irrepressibly chipper attorney working alongside the cops to solve crimes, but also pushes a quirky supporting character into a weekly lead position. Preston handles each shift with grace and command, refusing to let go of the colorful personality that charmed audiences to begin with, while dialing up Elsbeth’s inquisitiveness in ways that build out the character.

Being polite yet nosey helps make for a convincing and admirably dogged detective, but extending her prying questions to those she’s close with also rounds out Elsbeth as a caring, thoughtful friend. With an addictive pep and envious wardrobe, there’s no doubt “Elsbeth” has what it takes to enjoy a lengthy run on broadcast, and Preston deserves her flowers for making it possible. —BT

Léa Seydoux, “The Beast” (Film)

French actress Léa Seydoux is known for characters who exhibit an eerie, calm cool amid chaos, a certain sangfroid that is definably only hers even in much bigger studio fare like this year’s “Dune: Part Two” or the latest James Bond films that threaten to swallow any actor whole. But her triple-threat performance in Bertrand Bonello’s “The Beast” — as a woman vainly chasing love in 1910, 2014, and 2044 — is her most superbly realized work yet, and matched by a director who ended up making a kind of documentary about the actress on top of his already layered, time-spanning sci-fi screenplay. As Gabrielle in any era, whether in the Belle Epoque days of Paris or in 2044 when she submits herself to an artificial intelligence that will wipe out any strain of emotion, Seydoux remains constant. Where her co-star George MacKay is asked to modulate his performance over three periods of time, whether as an incel in the near-present-day or an emotional void of a worker drone in an AI-addled future, Seydoux stays the same and is often enticingly unreadable. Which makes the film’s very last scene, when Gabrielle finally realizes the totality of her failed pursuit of love, all the more shattering when Seydoux finally lets out a “Twin Peaks”-finale-level scream into the void. —RL

Justice Smith, “I Saw the TV Glow” (TV)

Jane Schoenbrun’s tender and terrifying trans allegory “I Saw the TV Glow” owes as much to David Lynch as it does to 1990s Nickelodeon and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” And it wouldn’t work without Smith’s withdrawn but finally exploding turn as miserable suburbanite teen Owen, whose body-and-soul-consuming obsession with a young adult TV series called “The Pink Opaque” entwines with the coming-to-terms of his own sexual and gender identity. You could read the film’s ambiguous ending as either hopeful or harrowing, as an adult Owen, trapped in a soulless job at a kids’ entertainment center and in a heterosexual marriage, lets out a cathartic scream that shuts the room down. Then, limping through a lineup of glittering arcade games, he profusely apologizes for the outburst. The scene may tell us that Owen is doomed forever to a repressed life, or that he’s finally gotten in touch with his inner self. But it’s actor Smith’s slippery interpretation that leaves you as unsettled and questioning as Owen is. —RL

Nell Tiger Free, “The First Omen” (Film)

We’re going to be ringing the bell on Arkasha Stevenson’s “The First Omen” for as long as it takes for audiences to get hip to what, admittedly, might sound like a tough sell. Another prequel to a beloved horror franchise? We’ve done this before, right? But not like “The First Omen,” which manages to be both a faithful addition to all that Damien Thorn lore that came before and a truly chilling standalone horror film about the price of faith.

Much of that is owed to Tiger Free’s sharp performance, which follows her as starry-eyed novitiate Margaret Daino who travels to Rome to finish up her training as a nun, thus taking her next step into her beloved Catholic faith. But things are off from the start, and Tiger Free’s Margaret serves as a canny entry point into increasingly fraught occurrences. Mostly, she sells all of it, from the initial joy of her trip to the steady realization that something is very, very wrong.

First-time feature filmmaker Stevenson doesn’t skimp on giving her leading lady some big swings to take, including a revelatory sequence in which Margaret watches a birth that goes right to her head (and soul). Balancing shocking special effects with Margaret’s own reactions, the sequence is wildly effective and deeply unnerving, but never — and this is essential — over the top. That’s no small feat when we’re talking about a film in which the Antichrist is born, but Stevenson and Tiger Free realize that scariest thing of all is real human emotion, all of which the star exudes with ease. —KE

Alanna Ubach in “Ted” (TV)

Not only is her Boston accent the best of a very disparate bunch (and by “best” I mean consistent, appealing, and at one with the gahbled greatah Massachusetts dialect made populah by countless cinematic classics), but no matter the scene in “Ted,” Alanna Ubach is always finding extra laughs. The veteran character actor always nails the comedic cadence of a joke, slipping in a quiet comment that’s funnier than the actual punchline or proudly touting a personal accomplishment that only her sweet little soul cares about.

But just as valuable are her silent contributions, like when she invents appropriately exaggerated reactions to the plethora of insane comments her family shouts about. Ubach elevates her put-upon mother and housewife, Susan, again and again, without stepping on her co-stars’ lines or calling unjust attention to herself. She lives in the bones of her character to such an extent that it’s a delight just to see how many different ways she can contort her permanently agape piehole to express horror, joy, or embarrassment. Any Bostonian would be proud to claim her as their own. —BT

Hoa Xuande, “The Sympathizer” (HBO)

Duplicity is a tricky task for any actor. Characters who are lying to other characters often have to sell that lie well enough that the audience believes they’ll get away with it, but not so well that the audience believes the lie themselves. We still have to see the character sweat a little bit. We have to see the pressure they’re under to pull off their ruse. We have to know they’re lying even when they’re lying so well in the scene that the story continues sans suspicion.

But that’s just the beginning of the challenge. From a big-picture point of view, every actor is tasked with deception. They have to convince you, the viewer, they’re someone they aren’t. So if they’re also tasked with lying in character, that means they’re lying twice — at least. Maybe it’s a bunch of lies. Maybe there are so many lies, they don’t even know who they are anymore. Maybe the line between who they present to others and who they know themselves to be is pushed to a breaking point.

That, in a nutshell, is the task given to Hoa Xuande in “The Sympathizer.” As The Captain, a North Vietnamese spy embedded in the South Vietnamese army, Xuande plays a young man who’s already dedicated his life to a set of principles. He’s a communist, yet he has to pretend to hate communists, or else his mission will fail, his countrymen will die, and he’ll be buried right next to them. The amount of pressure he’s under is unimaginable, and yet he’s become so respected —so trusted —behind enemy lines that lying is no longer enough. He has to be confident. He has to show conviction. He has to believe the lies he’s telling… and somehow hold onto the nascent identity he formed before spending years pretending to be someone else.

Part espionage thriller, part extreme coming-of-age saga, “The Sympathizer” is somehow even more complicated than I’ve made it sound. And yet Xuande’s clear-eyed performance is unquestionable. Whether he’s seething with rage or chuckling with arrogance, the Captain’s evolving understanding of himself is always as crystal clear to us as it is to him. We can see him questioning information in real time, just as we can see him reach conclusions. Both an audience proxy and a unique individual, the Captain carries “The Sympathizer” through a sea of deceit to rest on the shores of uneasy truths. It’s a remarkable turn from an actor who Hollywood should be fighting to cast again and again. —BT