Let’s Talk Cinema: The 2010’s

Just recently, I discovered a word for something I’ve been dealing with for years but never knew had a name. Whenever I have a deeply emotional experience—whether it’s music, reading something that cuts me deep in the soul, or most often watching a movie or TV show that just wrecks me—my body erupts in goosebumps and chills. This strange little “condition” is called frisson. It’s a psychophysiological response to rewarding stimuli, which causes tingles, goosebumps, and maybe even pupil dilation. Anyone else have this problem, or am I out here alone vibing with goosebumps?

I first noticed it as a teenager. I sang in choirs, did solos in churches, schools, theaters, even coffee shops. Inevitably, there’d be that one note, that one chord progression, that one lyric—and chills would shoot up my spine. When I fell in love with film around 2008, I realized it wasn’t just music that elicited this reaction in my body—great acting could destroy me in the same way. Doubt sealed the deal: Philip Seymour Hoffman (God rest his soul) vs. Queen Meryl, and Viola Davis bursting through the screen to go toe-to-toe with her too? GOOSEBUMPS EVERYWHERE. I thought it was strange at the time, but it never went away. As of two weeks ago, thanks to TikTok, I am now a self-diagnosed frisson junkie.

As wild as it sounds, frisson has basically become my compass for what I find beautiful in the world. If a performance, speech, song, or story physically moves me, it’s fantastic in my book. Sometimes it means tears, sometimes it just means sitting there in stunned silence, but the point is: it made me feel. A film can still be good without giving me goosebumps, but the ones that do? Those are the ones I live for. And that’s why, for me, a great film boils down to two things: acting and writing.

Now, let’s get this straight—I’m not a critic. I don’t claim to know how to properly analyze cinematography, sound design, or editing (though I admire people who do these things). My goal here is to share how art moves me, because it can impact and help other people, and also it is fun. What wows me might bore you, and that’s fine. Art is subjective. I’m not here to convince you I’m right; I’m here to tell you what I felt, and maybe if you are nice to me, I’ll explain why too!

Which brings us to the Oscars.

We’ve already ranked the Best Picture and Screenplay winners of the 2010’s. We even talked about blockbusters that got ignored. But now it’s time for the spicy stuff: ranking the acting winners. Not the nominees, not the snubs (we will get to that soon)—just the winners. And let’s be honest: the Academy often gets it wrong. Sometimes hilariously so. Still, these are the winners we’re left with, and it’s fun to argue about them forever and ever. In acting, I want to be surprised, gutted, overjoyed, or flat out awestruck —whether it’s campy and over-the-top or quiet and devastating. The 2010’s winners are a mix of all of the above.

A reminder of the Oscar acting winners of the 2010’s:

Best Actor

• 2010- Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
• 2011- Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• 2012- Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• 2013- Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
• 2014- Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
• 2015- Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
• 2016- Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
• 2017- Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
• 2018- Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
• 2019- Joaquin Phoenix, Joker

Best Actress

• 2010- Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• 2011- Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• 2012- Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• 2013- Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• 2014- Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• 2015- Brie Larson, Room
• 2016- Emma Stone, La La Land
• 2017- Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• 2018- Olivia Colman, The Favourite
• 2019- Renee Zellweger, Judy

Best Supporting Actor

• 2010- Christian Bale, The Fighter
• 2011- Christopher Plummer, Beginners
• 2012- Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
• 2013- Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
• 2014- J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
• 2015- Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
• 2016- Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
• 2017- Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• 2018- Mahershala Ali, Green Book
• 2019- Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best Supporting Actress

• 2010- Melissa Leo, The Fighter
• 2011- Octavia Spencer, The Help
• 2012- Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
• 2013- Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
• 2014- Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• 2015- Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
• 2016- Viola Davis, Fences
• 2017- Allison Janney, I, Tonya
• 2018- Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
• 2019- Laura Dern, Marriage Story

***JERM’S OFFICIAL RANKINGS***

BEST ACTOR

1. Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
2. Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
3. Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
4. Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
5. Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
6. Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
7. Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
8. Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
9. Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
10. Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Casey Affleck is, without question, my favorite Best Actor winner of the decade. And that’s only grown truer since I became a dad. When I first watched Manchester by the Sea, I was newly engaged, dreaming with my now wife, about our future kids. As a father, that police station scene hits like a freight train I’ll never recover from. The unimaginable grief, the hollow ache—it’s burned into my brain. And it’s not abstract for me. I knew a family who lived through a similar tragedy. That made the film feel less like fiction and more like a warning, a brutal reminder of how fragile everything is. Affleck’s performance is grief incarnate, and it’s unforgettable.

Gary Oldman, sure, he hammed it up, but sometimes ham is delicious! Colin Firth was equally great, and the moment when Lionel dares sit in St. Edward’s chair against King George’s dismay? ALL. THE. CHILLS. Joaquin Phoenix’s bathroom “orchestra” scene in Joker is seared into my memory—unhinged brilliance.

Daniel Day-Lewis and McConaughey gave strong performances, nothing groundbreaking but solid, nonetheless. Leo… listen, I’m salty. He should’ve won for The Wolf of Wall Street AND What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Instead, they handed him a consolation prize for The Revenant. Eddie Redmayne delivered a delicate, Oscar-bait performance in an Oscar-bait movie. Rami Malek didn’t convince me as Freddie until the Live Aid sequence, which was undeniably electric. And Jean Dujardin? He was charming, but The Artist felt like a Blow Pop—sweet and tasty with some gum in the middle, but after a few minutes gets old and stale.

Some of these wins aged beautifully. Others aged like milk. But Casey Affleck’s? Timeless.

BEST ACTRESS

1. Natalie Portman, Black Swan
2. Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
3. Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
4. Emma Stone, La La Land
5. Olivia Colman, The Favourite
6. Renée Zellweger, Judy
7. Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
8. Brie Larson, Room
9. Julianne Moore, Still Alice
10. Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

This category always causes chaos and passionate responses. I am sure my list may ruffle some feathers, but whatever.

Natalie Portman in Black Swan is unreal, terrifying, an absolute tour de force. The only Aronofsky film I’ll ever admit to liking, and she’s the reason. Although, admittedly, my heart rooted for Annette Bening, and I suppose my heart will always root for her until I see Oscar Winner Annette Bening in a trailer—it is sort of a going down with the ship relationship here.  But, objectively, Portman delivered a performance for the ages, that will forever be haunting.

Frances McDormand and Cate Blanchett were powerhouses in their respective films, both ferocious, layered, and unflinchingly brilliant. Emma Stone in La La Land gets flak as a “flavor of the moment” ingénue win, but she gave a tender, grounded performance that elevated the entire film, and of course helped make the film one of the very best of the 21^st century.

Now, Olivia Colman. My wife has video evidence of me absolutely losing my mind when she won. Equal parts overjoyed (because Olivia had the best performance that year), and devastated (because Glenn Close was ROBBED on her 8th nomination). Glenn literally dressed like an Oscar, and looked stunning! She was ready. She had the narrative. She was the narrative. And then they ripped it away. Brutal, and that look on her face was heartbreaking. But it gave us one of the greatest, funniest, most heartfelt acceptance speeches ever, so I guess there’s that.

Renée and Meryl? High camp wins. Renée’s comeback was lovely, Meryl’s Weinstein-powered third Oscar was… fine, but not her best. I am forever rooting for a fourth and fifth Oscar for the Queen of the Oscars to break the record! Brie Larson was good in Room, but honestly, I just can’t stand her as an actress. Julianne Moore, I love her, thrilled she has an Oscar—but that should’ve been Rosamund Pike’s for Gone Girl. And then we arrive at Jennifer Lawrence, who, I’m sorry, delivered the most egregious win of the decade. No one will ever convince me she didn’t win because she was the beautiful face of the major box office hit The Hunger Games franchise, and of course, Mr. Weinstein.

Some aged well, some didn’t. But Natalie Portman remains untouchable.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1. Christian Bale, The Fighter
2. J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
3. Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
4. Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
5. Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
6. Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
7. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
8. Christopher Plummer, Beginners
9. Mahershala Ali, Green Book
10. Mahershala Ali. Moonlight

I’ll never forget seeing The Fighter—within those first five minutes I turned to my friend and whispered, “Christian Bale is winning the Oscar.” And sure enough—boom. He was Dicky Eklund. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

J.K. Simmons was equally undeniable. “Am I rushing or dragging?” lives rent-free in my head forever (and, uncomfortably, often pops up while singing songs in church). Christoph Waltz in Django was effortless brilliance—the man eats Tarantino dialogue for breakfast. Sam Rockwell finally got his due after decades of being criminally overlooked, and honestly, I hate that I love Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Brad Pitt, though he doesn’t really do anything in the film that stretches him, he just sort of morphs into Cliff Booth in a way that you can’t tell if Cliff is Brad or if Brad is Cliff, and I love that! You just wanted him to be in every scene, so much so that David Fincher, wants to take Tarantino’s character and give Cliff his own film—I can’t wait for Pitt’s role reprisal!!!

The bottom five? Fine, respectable, more subtle performances, but nothing spectacular. And okay—confession time: I don’t get the Mahershala Ali hype. At all. Both Oscars felt more like riding Best Picture momentum than actual mind-blowing performances. He’s good, but two statues good? No.

Still, Bale and Simmons? Legendary.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1. Viola Davis, Fences
2. Melissa Leo, The Fighter
3. Octavia Spencer, The Help
4. Allison Janney, I, Tonya
5. Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
6. Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
7. Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
8. Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
9. Laura Dern, Marriage Story
10. Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Viola Davis. If you tell me she’s in something, I’m watching it. No questions. Fences, Goosebumps on goosebumps.

Melissa Leo gave the kind of perfectly tailored supporting turn that reminds us why this category exists. Octavia Spencer’s warmth was unforgettable and hilarious, and Allison Janney chewed through I, Tonya with glorious abandon, I am still laughing about that stupid bird. Lupita Nyong’o—What a debut! Gutting, heartbreaking, unforgettable.

Anne Hathaway, say what you will about her as an Oscar chaser, or her awful viral gown she wore when she won, or her horribly unaware self-righteous attitude whenever she talks, she nailed that song. Getting your hair buzzed off while singing in real time in front of a camera, would legitimately have been miserable, and everyone bought it. It sounds like I am picking on her, maybe a little bit, I just know what it feels like to buzz your head for the first time and hate every minute of it (I started balding in my early 20s). Okay, I’ll stop now, she was great, and I am happy for her. I just wished when I was getting my head buzzed for the first time I would have been on screen singing, maybe I too “could have been a contender, I could have been somebody”.

Patricia Arquette gave a fine performance, in a fantastic film, but definitely more of a career win. Alicia Vikander should’ve won for Ex Machina, not the snoozefest of The Danish Girl. Laura Dern and Regina King, I love them both, but those wins had very little to do with the performance—one was pure Nepo, and the other was a “Thank you for your service.”

Still, I’m happy these women got their golden men, but nobody is happier than Anne Hathaway, I am sure. But nobody owned the decade like Viola.

At the end of the day, these winners move on, do more movies, live their lives, while we sit here dissecting their wins. But acting is what breathes life into movies. They give us the lines we quote, the performances that stick in our cultural veins, and yes—the goosebumps that keep me chasing films in the first place.

For every campy win, every career Oscar, and every overlooked legend, there’s still that magic moment where someone steps onscreen, gives everything, and leaves us breathless. That’s why we keep coming back. Cinema, for me, isn’t about technical perfection, it’s about the goosebump moments. I’ll gladly keep chasing that feeling—that moment when a performance knocks the wind out of me and leaves me in awe.

Now it’s your turn, my friends: Rank the acting Oscar winners of the 2010s. And as always—Let’s Talk Cinema.