list-o-mania
from the cluttered wishing to be categorized brain of Nathaniel R
Compiled in September/October 2005 using a complex mathematical formula [snort] involving number of films, clarity of obsession, quality of work, and other *undefinables* (such as previous films, awards show appearances, publicity, tv, & stagework) that influence me even though the list is meant to be about 2000 through summer 2005 only for more on the workings of this list -check out the introduction
Actresses of the "Aughts" 30-21 |
30 Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren is arguably the sexiest 60-year-old on the planet (your other option is Charlotte Rampling @ #49 who one can certainly make a case for). It isn't only that Mirren is still willing to explore her sexuality without the apologetic coyness of the films surrounding her, like say Calendar Girls (2003) or TV films like The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone. There is something lustfully alive about her onscreen, even when she is playing stifled characters like Mrs Wilson in Gosford Park (2001). That's her best performance this decade and a welcome reminder of how startling her emotional clarity can be. I hope I can call her the sexiest 90-year-old working 30 years from now.29 & 28
"Teen Starlet Explosion"
Lindsay Lohan and Evan Rachel Wood
On the soundtrack to Herbie the Love Bug (2005) Linday warbles suggestively "I want to come first!" 29th place will have to do for now. But it's a high high ranking for a girl who I refused to admit existed for years. I was bitter, you see, when Hollywood thought it a wise idea to remake The Parent Trap. I managed to deny this girl's existence right up until Freaky Friday (2003). At first my love for the film was all about the Oscar nomination-worthy work from Jamie Lee Curtis (#92) but a second viewing opened my eyes to an underrated co-starring turn from Ms. Lohan. The girl can act. By the following year with the artistic, comedic, and financial success of Mean Girls (2004) the whole world seemed to want Lindsay to come first. Lindsay, unfortunately, doesn't seem to know what she wants. Nevertheless, if this bright and talented young actress wises up in time her future will be very very bright. My unsolicited advice? Stop partying. Stop trying to be a generic blonde anorexic starlet when you're a singularly bewitching young redhead. Start working with A list people. Take some supporting roles. Next year's Prairie Home Companion? Great choice. Well done.
The flip side of Linday's mainstream-friendly comedy explosion is the R-rated indie turmoil of Ms. Evan Rachel Wood. Now, it's very possible that in real life Lohan is working the Wood wildgirl terrain while Evan Rachel sits at home in a very PG way. But, we probably won't ever know. Evan Rachel Wood is already a very serious and committed actress. She first blew me away on TV's underappreciated Once & Again as a sweet but troubled adolescent, struggling with aneroxia nervosa. Her transition to film in Pretty Persuasion (2005) and especially thirteen (2003) has shown her to possess an astonishingly beyond-her-years command of the craft. My unsolicited career advice? Now that we've seen the jet-black sexual side, try a light comedy. Bring out your inner Lindsay (onscreen only!) next time --just to keep people guessing.
27 Maggie Gyllenhaal
Though Maggie didn't do anything for me in the crowded John Waters misfire Cecil B Demented (2000) -my first exposure to her-- she registered the next year with Donnie Darko (2001) playing opposite her real life brother Jake. By 2002 with the multiple releases of Adaptation, Secretary, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and, above all else, Secretary she solidified a loyal fanbase and won Hollywood's admiration (and a breakthrough silver medal here) . Since 2002 I've admired her but I haven't felt particularly passionate through Mona Lisa Smile or Casa de Los Babys viewings (2003). But this past summer, I finally found 'the wow'. She is sneakily moving and fascinating to watch as a opportunistic singer in Don Roos' Happy Endings. See it and be won over. Buy the soundtrack. She sings as well as she acts.
26 Catherine Keener
You know I really must ask Catherine's forgiveness. Though I have been fond of her since Living in Oblivion (1995) I kind of always figured she peaked with Being John Malkovich (1999). How much further could her take-no-prisoners megabitch persona possible have gone? She got a well deserved Oscar nomination for that film (and should have won the statue). But I digress. You see I underestimated the flexiblity of her gift. Even should "Maxine" from Malkovich remain her greatest performance, she has added some rather lovely shadings to her actors persona in the past few years. The same abrasive Catherine Keener was front and center in Lovely & Amazing (2002) but it didn't sting as much. There were softer edges appearing out of nowhere which kept me guessing and kept the characterization in focus. Full Frontal (2002) was less successful, a retread of other roles, but she was still hilarious. And then, just this year, she surprised with a total about-face. It's still Catherine Keener onscreen but there's barely a trace of Maxine anywhere in her frazzled silly single mother in The 40 Year Old Virgin or in her serious and watchful Harper Lee in Capote. I can't wait to see how many more flavors Ms. Keener uncovers in her work.25 Franka Potente
Ranking these actresses has to be one of the hardest things I've done on this website. When in doubt about where a certain leading lady should go, I find myself asking the following three questions:
1) How much do the other actors suddenly seem peripheral to my interest when this woman is onscreen?
2) How strong is my desire to see her performance succeed in each movie?
3) How badly do I need to see her again when the film ends?
With this hypnotically watchable German actress my answers are:
1) Wait...there are other actors in this film?!? Who knew?
2) Very badly.
3) Desperately. I'll even watch a horror movie if she's in it.
I've rooted for this German actress to stay in the lights of international fame since the big success of Run Lola Run in 1999. In The Princess and the Warrior (2001) she reteamed with her Lola director (and then boyfriend) Tom Tykwer and sold me on her range. There is none of Lola in this films protagonist "Sissi" but she's just as fascinating to watch. When she left Germany for American films I held my breath. But her brief role in Blow as Johnny Depp's blond girlfriend was convincing. And then, with the Matt Damon Bourne films (2002 & 2004) she wiped away any doubt that she would be great no matter what language she's speaking or which country she's filming in. I hate horror movies but I sat through the entirety of the very sickening London subway set Creep (2004) just to keep looking at her.24 Natalie Portman
Young starlets can prove so disappointing as they grow up onscreen. For every Jodie Foster there's hundreds of "whatever happened to...?"s So, despite being very impressed with this delicious actress through the second half of the 90s my heart immediately began to sink when she started stinking it up in the Star Wars prequels in 1999. By the time the second one rolled around, Attack of the Clones (2002), I had written her off as a former prodigy gone sour. But then, suddenly, in Cold Mountain (2003) in a very small role she managed to give the film's very best performance as a terrified widow. I fell back under her spell. Next up was her intoxicatingly sweet spin in Garden State followed quickly by her Oscar-nominated sprite gone wild in Closer. By the time Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005) rolled around I merely shrugged her awfulness away. I had learned to trust Natalie Portman, bad Star Wars performances be damned.
23 Meryl Streep
She just won the Film Experience Readers Poll for "Favorite Actress of All Time" . So we'll rave about her very soon in a tribute page. But back to the chart at hand. Once you try and rule out Angels in America due to the TV association --(it's not easy to forget is it? She's so freaking excellent in it) you realize you can't place here at at the very top where she's accustomed to being placed. But there's still four years left in the decade and you can never rule la Streep out. She's been proving since the 70s that she's either 'The. Best. Actress. That. Ever. Lived.' or 'One of the Best Actresses That Ever Lived' --either way, y'know, "Cheers and well done Mary Louise!"
Peak: Oscar-worthy in Adaptation and nearly so in The Hours (2002). Nadir: Her scenery-chewing in The Manchurian Candidate. Spit out that sofa Streep, the other actors need something to sit on.22 Renée Zellweger
Ole Squinty-Eyes. She has been my friend, my love, and now [sigh] a mere skeleton of what she once was and my mortal enemy. Still, though Squinty and I have fallen from meet-cute love (Jerry Maguire, 1996) to over-the-top hate (Cold Mountain, 2003) ... there's no denying the peak of her charms as Nurse Betty (2000) or as Bridget Jones (2001). It is perhaps fitting that when our friendship came to a crashing spiteful end in 2002, she was at first touchingly fragile (White Oleander) and then, as if in confirmation of my darkest suspicions, cold and shameless from that point forward (Chicago). Our divorce has not been amicable but I'd be lying to claim that the marriage was anything less than passionate.21 Ziyi Zhang
Here's a weird conundrum for you. I'm not entirely convinced that Ziyi Zhang (or Zhang Ziyi if you fell for her in 2000) is that special as actresses go but here she sits, porcelain pretty in the top 25. So why is she placing so very high? The films, my friends, the films. One of the not-so-secret secrets of building legendary careers is that in order to truly ascend (and stay there) you need to be in great ones, films that will stand the test of time. So far so good. Ziyi has demonstrated the great fortune of major roles in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and 2046 (2005) all of which seem pretty likely to remain prominent in some way, either as highlights in auteurist retrospectives or as classics of their particular form. The next few years will tell the tale of the extent or her talents. Is she an extraordinarily lucky beauty with very limited range (as her semi-blank turn in Daggers insinuates) or an extraordinarily talented beauty (as her fiery pathos in 2046 suggests)? I'd wager that the answer will be clear very soon. Up next: Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and The Night Banquet (2006)
next page (20-11)
Top 100 Actresses of the Aughts So Far
(Compiled in Sept & October 2005)
100 -91 / 90-81 / 80-71/ 70-61 / 60-51 / 50-41 /
40-31 / 30-21 / 20-11 / 10-6 / 5-1
In Anticipation of Best of the Decade Lists in 2010
