With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months of the year and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 18 performances by male actors that we liked the most thus far this year. It should probably suffice to say that this list was much easier to come up with then the forthcoming female list since the competition wasn't as fierce. (Four key films I missed that might have played into these categories were The Rider, Lean on Pete, You Were Never Really Here, and Paddington 2)
5 LEADING ACTORS
(Jan 1st through June 30th releases)
Daniel Giménez Cacho as "Don Diego de Zama" in Zama
Though I didn't much care for this film, Giménez Cacho, the talented Mexican/Spanish star (of Blancanieves and Cronos fame... and the unseen narrator of all time Mexican classic Y Tu Mama Tambien) delivers as the frustrated sickly officer of the Spanish crown longing for a transfer that may never come.
Alden Ehrenreich as "Han Solo" in Solo
Mimicry is overrated. It's better to get the spirit of a thing than to duplicate the tics. He manages the former though the script fights against it, refashioning Han as a hero at the beginning.
Ethan Hawke as "Reverend Ernst Toller" in First Reformed
Those barely visible cracks in his austere facade are so well placed and add up to a harrowing disintegration.
Meinhard Neumann as "Meinhard" in Western
Perhaps this is less an acting achievement than simply being onscreen but he's totally affecting nonetheless as a everyman loner in this study of Europe through the lens of its masculine genre
Alex Sharp as "Enn" in How to Talk to Girls at Parties
12 SUPPORTING ACTORS
Josh Brolin as "Thanos" in Infinity War
While it would be nice if Brolin would be asked to play something other than a cartoonishly loathsome sociopath again (three in one year! when we know he can do so much more), he is surprisingly good under the mo-cap opting for restraint and matter-of-fact genocidal confidence rather than boo-hiss overkill.
Winston Duke as "M'Baku" in Black Panther
It's tough to steal a picture that is firing on so many cylinders with the whole bustling ensemble on point. But he nearly does with sly humor and forecful personality as the would-be usurper turned ally
Andy Garcia as "Mitchell" in Book Club
I'm not sure what it is about Diane Keaton that so regularly brings out loveability in her romantic screen partners but the trick works again here. Garcia is sexy, flirty, totally keyed into his scene partner and best yet somehow utterly believable as a rather unbelievably perfect bachelor prospect.
Donald Glover as "Lando Calrissian" in Solo
Like Ehrenreich he captures the feeling without coming across as a faded xerox (though I wish everyone involved would shut up about Calrissian's bisexuality or pansexuality or whatever; there's nothing within this performance or in Billy Dee's that suggest anything other than playboy heterosexuality. Why do mainstream filmmakers continue to pretend that they're actually giving us LGBTQ representation when they're absolutely not? I wouldn't even complain but THEY ARE THE ONES WHO KEEP BRINGING IT UP!)
Michael B Jordan as "Erik Killmonger" in Black Panther
One great performance after another with this fresh movie star. Somehow still waiting on a nomination from ANY mainstream showbiz organization outside of critics groups (unless you count the MTV Movie Awards where he's 3/1).
Jorge Lendeborg Jr as "Nick" in Love, Simon
So sweetly vulnerable and lovesick. It's always a treat when male actors go all in to their feelings. And do it with humor!
Cedric Kyles (aka Cedric the Entertainer) as "Reverend Joel Jeffers" in First Reformed
First Reformed is not "funny" ever, per se, but he brings just the right amount of annoyed levity to his scenes with his troubled fellow Revered. That chair spin when he'd had it slayed me. I'm betting that wasn't in the script and it's brilliant.
Abraham Lewis as "Vic" in How to Talk to Girls at Parties
Though the girls get most of the showiest stuff in this movie, he's a standout among the boys when he unwittingly realizes how much sexual experimentation he's been doing.
Ron Livingston as "Drew" in Tully
Just perfect as the weary video-game playing but fully decent husband who doesn't quite know what to do about, or for, or with his depressed wife. Especially when Tully arrives courtesy of his wife. What's gotten into her?
Alessandro Nivola as "Dovid Kuperman" in Disobedience
Still one of Hollywood's least recognized but most reliable secret movie weapons. So many layers here. A simpler film and actor would paint him as the bad guy. But Nivola and this rich movie, won't provide you with easy targets in this sobering take on repressed sexuality, religious devotion, and adult sadness when memories of youth shake up the picture.
Jay Pharoah as "Nate Hoffman" in Unsane
Unsane is unpleasant enough that I instantly targeted him for doom in his first scene. But he's giving the most successful and sympathetic performance among the ensemble as they all orbit the tetchy unravelling star.
Alex Wolff as "Peter" in Hereditary
Arguably as good as Toni Collette, especially once tragedy strikes. The longtime fraught mother/son relationship is superbly excavated by both of them. His portrait of a haunted broken young man is terrifying even before we've seen a ghost... or demon... or shadow or whatever it is that is happening to this family.
1 CAMEO OR LIMITED ROLE
(this category indicates under 3 scenes or who have voice-only roles)
Philip Ettinger as "Michael" in First Reformed
He gets just 1½ scenes but he's the radicalized fault line that opens up the film's emotional abyss. Just excellent without ever pushing the scene into the easy place of "disturbed". Here's hoping filmmakers, TV showrunners, and stage producers (he also does theater) notice and begin exploring his surely vast potential.