Go meta or go home. That was the memo to male actors in 2014. Those who skewered themselves were rewarded; those who tried coasting on that old charm (Robert Downey Jr. in The Judge; Johnny Depp in Transcendence; George Clooney in The Monuments Men) were laughed out of cinemas. That's why Birdman leads Michael Keaton and Edward Norton (the former as an unstable former superhero star staging a disastrous comeback and the latter as a difficult thespian who prioritises the truth over basic human decency) are likely to earn Oscar nods. It's why Ben Affleck's incriminating, real-life s***-eating grin was actually the secret weapon of Gone Girl. It's why method actors Michael Fassbender and Jake Gyllenhaal were so effective in their individual tales of artistic obsession run rampant, Frank and Nightcrawler. Heck, it's why Will Arnett's bro-ish Batman is getting his own Lego Movie spin-off.
Then there were the character actors finally given their big leading roles: Timothy Spall as the irascible British painter in Mr. Turner; Calvary's Brendan Gleeson, playing a good priest in a bad town; SNL graduate Bill Hader as one-half of a poisonously yet perfectly matched brother-sister partnership in The Skeleton Twins; J.K. Simmons as a despotic jazz instructor in Whiplash (the likeliest eventual Oscar-winner of this whole bunch).
Best of all, however, was the leading man turned character actor: Ralph Fiennes delivered a towering performance in Wes Anderson's devious black comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel, as the slick-speaking, barb-tongued, sexually-adventurous hotel concierge desperate to clear his name of murder, or, should that fail, to at least make away with his recently bequeathed riches. There was maybe no more fun to be had at the movies in 2014 than watching Fiennes on screen; apologies to the 22 other names mentioned below (and especially the three gentlemen who belong to a still-embargoed film).
Honourable Mentions:
Will Arnett in The Lego Movie, Hannibal Buress in Bad Neighbours, Jemaine Clement in What We Do in the Shadows, Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, Ethan Hawke in Boyhood, Shia LaBeouf in Fury, Michael Parks in Tusk, Antoine-Olivier Pilon in Mommy, Paul Rudd in They Came Together, Mark Strong in The Imitation Game, Miles Teller in Whiplash, Hugo Weaving in The Mule, Noah Wiseman in The Babadook.
10. Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner
9. Ben Affleck in Gone Girl
8. Edward Norton in Birdman
7. Brendan Gleeson in Calvary
6. Michael Fassbender in Frank
5. Bill Hader in The Skeleton Twins
4. Michael Keaton in Birdman
3. J.K. Simmons in Whiplash
2. Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler
1. Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel
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Go meta or go home. That was the memo to male actors in 2014. Those who skewered themselves were rewarded; those who tried coasting on that old charm (Robert Downey Jr. in The Judge; Johnny Depp in Transcendence; George Clooney in The Monuments Men) were laughed out of cinemas. That's why Birdman leads Michael Keaton and Edward Norton (the former as an unstable former superhero star staging a disastrous comeback and the latter as a difficult thespian who prioritises the truth over basic human decency) are likely to earn Oscar nods. It's why Ben Affleck's incriminating, real-life s***-eating grin was actually the secret weapon of Gone Girl. It's why method actors Michael Fassbender and Jake Gyllenhaal were so effective in their individual tales of artistic obsession run rampant, Frank and Nightcrawler. Heck, it's why Will Arnett's bro-ish Batman is getting his own Lego Movie spin-off.
