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MALE:

1. Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood"

Daniel Plainview's character is undeniably nasty. He has taken his wildcatting ways into the American West, and through manipulation and mean-spiritedness, he's become rich and irredeemable. Yet there is much more to Day-Lewis's turn as the larger than life tycoon than channeling John Huston or updating his Bill the Butcher persona from "Gangs of New York." In fact, the nuances presented by the actor are so complex and layered that it takes nearly three hours for filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson to get through them all. -  Bill Gibron

2. Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men"

If Satan had a badly coiffed assassin/servant here on Earth, he/it would definitely resemble hitman Anton Chigurh. Carrying an air powered bolt gun and a cartoonish `70s bowl cut, he's the most unassuming personification of immorality ever to do the red guy's dastardly dirty work. And once the die has been cast, he is capable of the most horrendous and vile acts imaginable. Without the histrionics (but with all the horror) associated with such a character, the Spanish born actor flawlessly captures the manner of pure, unearthly evil. It's unsettling to behold. -  Bill Gibron

3. Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises"

Viggo Mortensen is riveting as Nikolai, the taciturn driver for a Russian mob family. He's either a psychopath or a humanist, the heir apparent or a potential traitor pulled by warring loyalties. Rather than amplifying these conflicts into melodrama, Mortensen reels us in by playing his sympathies close to his tattooed and chiseled chest. Whether fighting for his life or against his feelings for Anna (Naomi Watts), Nikolai appears resigned. With each shrug, Mortensen hints at a turbulent world burbling inside Nikolai. -  Michael Keefe

4. George Clooney in "Michael Clayton"

Played by George Clooney, the "fixer" at a big New York law firm is convincing and engrossing as a man who's trying to keep a colleague sane, pay off debt collectors, help raise his son and watch his own back. Though harried and something of a maverick, Michael Clayton is not self-righteous, and his vulnerabilities are richly portrayed. Nominated for a Golden Globe, a Best Actor Oscar should be next for Clooney. -  Michael Keefe

5. Casey Affleck in "Gone Baby Gone"

As a neighborhood P.I. pursuing the truth about a missing little girl, Affleck's thick accented bravado hides a young man vulnerable to the contrivances and conspiracies around him. While he may talk tough, everything else about his slight framed facade suggests being way out of his league. Minus the quirk and period piece setting, Affleck is free to explore, artistically -  and what he finds is devastating. -  Bill Gibron

6. Simon Pegg in "Hot Fuzz"

Simon Pegg might be the greatest triple threat in the movies right now: he's a convincing action hero, a comedian with wicked sharp timing, and a dramatic actor with the range to play a commitment-phobic slacker in "Shaun of the Dead" and an officious police officer in "Hot Fuzz." No matter how bizarre the situation, no matter how perverse the joke, Pegg is up to the challenge. How many actors could keep a straight face while a massive shoot-out is laying waste to a cozy English village, or sell us on a quasi-love story with the schlubby Nick Frost? -  Jack Rodgers

7. Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War"

For readers of George Crile's obscenely readable book on the little-known Texan congressman who almost single-handedly got the U.S. to help the Mujahedin to defeat the Soviets, it came as a shivering delight when Hoffman was tapped to play Gust Avrakotos, Wilson's man in the CIA. Hoffman plays Gust perfectly as the full-bore, foul-mouthed, mustachioed, Commie-hating, large-gutted son of Greek immigrants he was in the book. It's an audience-pleasing hoot, particularly in the too-few scenes that pair him with Tom Hanks' sly politician, whom Gust is more than happy to do the dirty work for. -  Chris Barsanti

8. Max Von Sydow in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

In Julian Schnabel's brilliant film, Von Sydow broke my heart and reduced me to a weeping puddle on the floor. The great Swedish actor conveys a lifetime in five minutes or less. As an octogenarian "locked in" his apartment, reliant on others for assistance, in flawless French Schnabel equates Papinou's sad life to the plight of Mathieu Amalric's character, who is "locked in" his own body. If any older, revered actor ever deserved to win a make-up Academy Award for, essentially, a cameo, it is Von Sydow. -  Matt Mazur

9. Ben Foster in "3:10 to Yuma"

In the original "3:10 to Yuma" (1957), Charlie Prince, Ben Wade's lieutenant, is a minor presence. In James Mangold's remake, the role is expanded into a menacing counterpart to Wade's (Russell Crowe) more charming and intellectualized villainy. Ben Foster plays Prince with complete commitment, not only providing menace, but also evincing a fanatical devotion to Wade. While hardly holding back on his psychopathic tendencies, Foster underscores Prince's loyalty, making it easy to think that Wade should have done better by him. -  Shaun Huston

10. Sam Riley in "Control"

You can easily spot the uneducated fools in the theater when watching "Control"; they're the ones smirking when Sam Riley (playing Joy Division's doomed singer Ian Curtis with incomparable tenderness and eerie preciseness), is in the throes of musical possession on stage, marching spasmodically in place to the band's hypnotic beat. There are times when Anton Corbijn's sumptuously gloomy, black-and-white portrait of the short life of punk's epileptic poet laureate threatens to veer into musical bio-pic cliche; but each and every time, the unadorned soulfulness in Riley's haunted eyes brings it back to heartrending truth. -  Chris Barsanti

FEMALE:

1. Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There"

It would be next to impossible for any actor to play Bob Dylan. The singer songwriter remains an enigma in a medium that easily tolerates such mysteries. Now add the notion of capturing him circa 1965, in the midst of his influential heyday -  and give the role to a woman. That's exactly what director Todd Hayes did for his epic mock biopic, and the results were revelatory. Blanchett gets completely lost in the role, relying on her own interpretation of the underlying public persona to redefine Dylan's many facets. It's a stunning performance. -  Bill Gibron

2. Ashley Judd in "Bug"

Private sex tapes aside, it's pretty darn rare these days for a Hollywood star to put something out there that's legitimately shocking. Sure, Halle Berry and Charlize Theron won praise and awards for "de-glaming" to play people with real problems, but neither performance came close to where Ashley Judd dared go in the final act of "Bug" -  someplace scary and nasty and raw and, yes, really shocking. A place where most hungry up-and-comers, much less their handsomely compensated A-list heroes, wouldn't dare venture without a parachute or a life jacket or the guarantee of an Oscar at the end of the tunnel. -  Josh Timmermann

3. Julie Christie in "Away from Her"

In the `60s, her work in "Darling," "Dr. Zhivago" and "Petulia" catapulted her to the top of the era's A-list. Yet after more mid-`70s triumphs, she seemed to quietly disappear from the limelight. In 1998, her work in Alan Rudolph's "Afterglow" earned her yet another Oscar nod. Now, almost a decade later, her heartbreaking performance as an Alzheimer's patient in Sarah Polley's poetic film has critics buzzing anew. Still stunning at 66, the aging actress proves that she's a rather quiet diva of the dramatics, making the potentially maudlin subject matter of the story into something quite magnificent. -  Bill Gibron

4. Jodie Foster in "The Brave One"

Many misinterpreted Neil Jordan's vigilante drama as a feminized "Death Wish" riff, when the truth is far more disconcerting. Certainly, Foster uses past action heroism as a frame of reference, but then she adds unexpected moments of mistrust and tenderness to what is a true portrait of a woman on the verge of the biggest breakdown of her sheltered life. From finally seeing the city she loves as a source of terror to witnessing her own descent into murderous madness, it's the kind of tour de force work we've come to expect from this amazing two-time Academy Award winner. -  Bill Gibron

5. Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton"

George Clooney's Michael Clayton and Tilda Swinton's Karen Crowder have at least one thing in common: they've both made careers out of doing errands for the wealthy, the powerful, and the corporate. In two of the best scenes, the film cuts between Karen practicing and preparing for important talks and the actual delivery of her remarks. When she starts having people killed, we see how this performance has swallowed Karen whole, compromising her humanity. Swinton never plays Karen for pity, but rather shows the tragedy of valuing institutions over people. Karen embodies the film's critique of corporate America, perhaps even better than the title character. -  Shaun Huston

6. Tang Wei in "Lust, Caution"

If you told an actress that, for one part, she would be required to summon both the buttoned-down, quietly agonizing sexual suppression of Maggie Cheung in "In the Mood for Love" and the frequently unbuttoned, not so quietly agonizing sexual uninhibitedness of Maria Schneider in "Last Tango in Paris," she'd almost certainly take a pass. Somehow Ang Lee readied newcomer Tang Wei for that tremendous challenge and, somehow, she pulled it off with emotional precision to spare. -  Josh Timmermann

7. Nicole Kidman in "Margot at the Wedding"

Calling an actor's work career-best is risky. Calling Kidman's work in "Margot" her best is not only accurate, but astounding, given her output since 1995 could all reasonably be called "career-best," too. The actress reinvents herself from the outside in for the prissy, self-absorbed writer who crashes her estranged sister's wedding. In an inspired, wild bit of casting Kidman is dark, funny and inventive opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh. She isn't afraid to upturn the dark corners of Margot's damaged psyche, nor of tarnishing her reputation by playing an almost unredeemable harridan. -  Matt Mazur

8. Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone"

At first, Amy Ryan's Helene McCready is better at playing the grieving mother than she is at actually being one. For all her tears and bile, she seems but a small piece in the puzzle of her daughter's disappearance. However, once "Gone Baby Gone" turns from procedural to morality play, Helene takes on new meaning. Ultimately, she stands as an argument both for and against her right to her child. Ryan's ability to convey Helene's transformation without making her likable at any point gives the story more depth than any of the film's more self-consciously profound moments. That she achieves this with so little screen time is remarkable. -  Shaun Huston

9. Ellen Page in "Juno"

Plenty have complained about Diablo Cody's too-smart-by-half screenplay for "Juno," which channeled "Heathers" when it wasn't screaming "Behold my cleverness!" The reason that doesn't matter? Ellen Page. Although not her breakthrough role (critics who missed her in 2005's stalker thriller "Hard Candy" should have their licenses revoked), it definitely announces her as a force to be reckoned with. Devastatingly cynical or meltingly vulnerable as the situation demands, she invests the role of the not-as-smart-as-she-thinks teenage mom with more gravitas and humanity than the slick script could even conceive of. -  Chris Barsanti

10. Jennifer Jason Leigh in "Margot at the Wedding"

Known for playing women-on-the-verge in dark art house pictures, and for working with many modern masters, Leigh has the reputation for being able to handle playing rough, raw characters that other, less experimental actresses would shy away from. In "Margot," as the glowing Pauline, however, she does a 180 and turns in the most sweetly nuanced, gentle and funny performance of her career. Credit director Noah Baumbach for being able to show viewers this candid, relaxed side of the always-edgy actress, but credit Leigh even more for stepping outside of her comfort zone and playing fearlessly against type as a soft, feminine, nurturer. -  Matt Mazur

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