There are so many fantastic, unheralded performances on TV and in the movies, it's hard to narrow the list down. We're living in the golden age of entertainment and the abundance of material, especially on TV, has a cumulative effect that seems to push performances past mere paycheck status. We are seeing actors go all out, in many different ways, in an effort to separate themselves from the pack. And not all of them are noticed. Here are the top unsung performances of the year, go back and check them out.
1. Bokeem Woodbine - Fargo
Court jester or philosopher? Woodbine went Shakespearean on Fargo this year as Mike Milligan, a Kansas City mob enforcer tasked with taking down the murderous Gerhardt family in South Dakota. The actor's signature gruff voice and silky delivery proved a perfect match for the silver-tongued Milligan, a man just as deadly with his words as his bullets. Woodbine has always been around, but we've never seen him like this, and the role could lead to big things for the actor.
2. Maura Tierney - The Affair
From roles on Newsradio in the '90s to Rescue Me in the 2000s, Tierney has always been a reliable character actor. But The Affair has given her a chance to unload the clip. In the show's second season this year, Tierney's role as Helen Solloway expands and we see how the spoiled rich girl is actually a thoughtful, mature, lost person who just wants to be loved. Her vulnerability in dealing with her impending divorce feels true and Tierney brings it all across. Her Golden Globe nomination this year proves critics are paying attention. Now it's time for audiences to follow suit.
3. Justin Theroux - The Leftovers
Theroux's wide-eyed intensity on The Leftovers is the reason the show's metaphysical edge works so well. He makes you believe. The HBO series is perhaps the most underrated on television and its pulsating second season pivots on a disappearance and Theroux's character, Kevin's mysterious involvement. It's a performance on the edge of sanity.
4. Mads Mikkelsen - Hannibal
Mikkelsen simply doesn't get enough credit for doing justice to the character of Hannibal Lecter, one of literature's greatest villains already immortalized onscreen by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs. Mikkelsen plays Hannibal's madness down, lending him elegance and, on the show's third and final season, a humanity that Hopkins never came near.
5. Christopher Abbott - James White
One of 2015's best independent films was James White, a deeply intense character study of a regular guy whose life is crumbling around him. Abbott, the erstwhile Girls star who left the show for more challenging roles, found his directorial counterpart in Josh Mond, who uses Abbott's face the heighten emotional cues throughout the story. It's a brave, polarizing performance full of anger and honesty. Critics loved the movie, but audiences have yet to discover it.
6. Greta Gerwig - Mistress America
Gerwig co-wrote this film with her boyfriend, director Noah Baumbach and, like their last feature together, Frances Ha, they use New York City as the inspiration for a big personality. Gerwig stars as Brooke Cardinas, a 30-year-old overachiever who escorts her new step-sister to be around the city. Brooke is one of the great comic characters of the year, sharp-tongued and obliviously arrogant in that wonderful popular girl way.
7. Jake Johnson - Digging for Fire
Johnson, one of the most likable actors working today, gets deep in Digging for Fire, in more ways than one. The film follows him and his wife as they each lead separate adventures while housesitting for a rich client. Johnson, as Tim, finds a gun and a human bone in the yard which sends him down an emotional rabbit hole of self-discovery that hits home.
8. Hunter King - A Girl Like Her
Hunter and her younger sister Joey are two of Hollywood's most talented freshman actors. Joey is the one with the marquee roles, but Hunter showed she deserves studio attention as well with a layered performance in the little-seen indie drama A Girl Like Her this year. She plays the film's bully, a mean girl who's the impetus behind a classmate's attempted suicide. She's a little monster in many ways, but King gives the character heart as well, a stunning development for this kind of story.
9. Oscar Isaac - Ex Machina
Genius/philosopher/meathead... Isaac is many things as Nathan in Ex Machina. He's the man behind the machine—the inventor of the world's first artificial intelligence and the CEO of the film's Google-like search engine company. But, in talking to him, Nathan comes off like a high school gym teacher. He drinks heavily and hits the heavy bag. But it's the combination of these two sides of his personality that makes the performance so special.
10. Kathryn Hahn - Transparent
Hahn is one of those actors you love to see show up in a movie or on a TV show. She's known for her comedy work (Step-Brothers, Parks and Recreation), but the 42-year-old actress is just as good in dramatic roles and her turn as Rabbi Raquel on Transparent is proof. She's kind and patient, but the incredible dysfunction of the Pfefferman clan (mainly Joshy) tests her resolve and Hahn wears it all on the outside. She's also great in Peter Bogdanovich's She's Funny That Way this year.
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