We currently live in a time full of heartache and confusion, where governments, conglomerates and the media appear to be getting less trust-worthy with every passing day. With that being said, there has never been a more prescient moment in modern history where satire is needed more than right now. Satire is at its best when it finds the perfect balance of anger and humour, seeking to point out the many hypocrisies strewn around our society. But rather than allow the public to view these double standards as something to be feared, satire allows us to twist and shape them into nothing more than an object of ridicule.

One of the most common outlets of this brand of humour that has been expertly exploited for many centuries is the bourgeoisie. The bourgeois lifestyle is commonly depicted as morally deficient, wealthy consumerists whose sole objective to hold onto or possibly advance their social prestige by any means necessary, even if it means more hardship for the lower classes.

Cinema has been a clear exponent of culture that has highlighted the appearance of conspicuous consumerism that runs rampant from the upper-middle class to the aristocracy. Some of these films have provided audiences with a view of this moral and intellectual decay that resides within the chief benefactors of capitalist society and, as a result, produced some of the finest films ever made that still provide an important message to the masses to this day.

1. My Man Godfrey (1936)

On a personal note, one of my favourite subgenres of cinema is the classic screwball comedies that were commonplace during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Screwball comedy is in of itself satire to its very core as it spoofs the traditional concept of love stories with elements such as escapist themes, farcical situations and an over-abundance of face-paced witty dialogue. Yet despite these tropes that in the wrong hands would only be used as a weapon of ridicule, instead it makes the romance feel more believable, these characters are far from perfect but we fall in love with them because of their flaws. And one of the finest films ever to perfectly blend mismatched romance with social commentary is Gregory La Cava’s masterpiece, My Man Godfrey.

The film follows the titular Godfrey, played impeccably by William Powell, a so-called ‘forgotten man’ who despite coming from a wealthy background, dropped out of high society after suffering heartbreak over a love affair gone bad. After becoming a vagrant living on a dump with other homeless men, his luck turns around after being offered the position of butler to the Bullocks, a family of socialites that espouses the spoilt and decadent lifestyle that comes with being part of bourgeoisie.

The family’s two daughters are the ones that provide the most difficulty for Godfrey; the eldest Cornelia is cruel and overindulged to the point that she takes sadistic relish in her attempts to discredit the newly appointed butler. The younger daughter Irene, played by the legendary Carole Lombard, on the other hand is completely smitten with Godfrey from the moment she lays eyes on him. Her scatter-brained yet kind-hearted eccentricity bounces beautifully off of Godfrey’s poised and calm demeanor until he finds himself reciprocating her love, even if it is in his own stoic way.

The film’s romance is always a joy to watch but the film’s main majesty lies in its themes and morals. In the end the Bullocks are saved from financial ruin thanks to the foresight of Godfrey, and are left with the knowledge that their lavish lifestyle would have meant their complete ruin had it not be for the kindness of a ‘forgotten man’.

2. The Rules of the Game (1939)

There are not many films in the entire history of cinema that has earned such a revered status as Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game. This classic comedy of manners has reached a legendary reputation among film lovers, not only because of its deserved critical appreciation but also the incredible story behind its rediscovery.

Back in 1939, Renoir was seen in his home country as France’s finest director that could do no wrong, however after the release of The Rules of the Game he was heavily lambasted by not just audiences and critics but the French government who saw it as damaging against the nation’s values at the time. This reception caused the film to be cut drastically and was left to be forgotten as nothing more than a cinematic failure. Thankfully in 1956, original material for the film was found and under Renoir’s supervision, the classic was all but restored to its original form.

The film’s plot depicts members of the French upper class and their servants during a lavish hunting weekend on the eve of World War II. Renoir uses the film’s moments of comedy with exquisite expertise, from the character’s repartee to its slapstick sequences, but it never at any point allows the humour to override the movie’s message. Throughout the film’s runtime, the aristocracy are presenting as being overly callous and self-absorbed even when certain doom is staring them in the face. It’s easy to see why the French public derided the film so vehemently, because one of their prized artists had the temerity to question his nation’s values at such a frightening time.

Filmed between the Munich Agreement and the official outbreak of war, Renoir saw the Nazis were getting closer and closer while the upper class in France, Britain and the United States continued to ignore the threat of fascism, and got upset when he forced them to entertain the idea of accountability. This film should be a starting point for any budding satirist, when true evil is staring you in the face, alert the rest of society to it before that evil consumes us all.

3. Mon Oncle (1958)

It truly pains me that Jacques Tati doesn’t have the worldwide recognition as a genius auteur on a wider scale. Commonly described as the French equivalent of Chaplin or Keaton, and while I understand to be classed in the same discussion as those two icons is a huge compliment, I can’t help but feel that statement still undermines the talent Tati possessed. Sure, the obvious similarities can be made that like Chaplin and Keaton, Tati wrote, directed and starred in his own films, which are still admired to this day. But in a career in cinema that spanned fifty years, Tati only made six-feature length films. Fortunately for us, the six pictures in question are fully deserving of their lasting glory. While I believe his magnum opus to be Playtime, his 1958 satire of consumer society Mon Oncle, deserves a reputation of equal stature.

Mon Oncle sees Tati reprising his famous role of Monsieur Hulot, a naïve yet loveable character who frequently clashes with the ever-growing reliance of technology in an increasingly modern world. This film sees Hulot visit his sister’s family who live in an absurdly designed house filled with trendy yet impractical gadgets as a way of being perceived by their neighbours as living a bourgeois lifestyle. His sister’s young son is quickly taken to Hulot’s bumbling mannerisms and fastens himself to his uncle at all times, dismayed by their son’s infatuation with his uncle, his mother and father seek ways to keep Hulot occupied, which of course leads from one hilarious disaster to another.

The genius of not just this film but Tati’s brand of visual comedy in general, despite a noticeable lack of dialogue throughout, Mon Oncle is packed with plenty of sights gags within every scene while the film’s beautiful use of colour and lighting not only accentuates the jokes but also aids the story. I implore all of you reading this who hasn’t seen any of Tati’s films to go watch them immediately. And even if you have, go watch them again. In a time of such uncertainty and despair, there is no better cure for melancholia than the works of Jacques Tati.

4. La Dolce Vita (1960)

I realise that I’m not breaking any new ground when I say that Federico Fellini is one of the greatest filmmakers ever to have lived, but he also ranks as perhaps the most unique. The Italian filmmaker spent his entire career in films developing his own signature style that will become ingrained into the very fabric of cinema. Blending baroque images within dreamlike sequences, it is obvious to any film-lover that he inspired many of the most revered and imaginative directors still working today, such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch. One of his best, if not Fellini’s greatest film, is his 1960 epic comedy-drama La Dolce Vita. The film retains Fellini’s trademark style yet hits on themes and subject matter that feels just as current sixty years later.

La Dolce Vita follows a journalist, played by Italian screen legend and frequent Fellini collaborator Marcello Mastroianni, as he spends seven days and nights in the company of movie stars, intellectuals and the aristocracy. This causes the journalist to go on a journey of self-discovery as he seeks out love and happiness, but instead only finds excess and debauchery along the way.

This is in many ways Fellini’s most savage film, an angry takedown of the glitzy culture of celebrity that existed in Rome after coming out of an intense period of poverty and suffering after World War II. Perhaps the most startling scene of the film that makes this point is the very first one, which sees a statue of Jesus flying over the capitol whilst suspended from cables on a helicopter. Christ’s arms are outstretched as if he was blessing the city only for the scene to cut to Rome’s godless ‘café society’ as they revel in their immoral lifestyle.

The film’s final scene is equally poignant, as it shows the journalist, now fully corrupted by the high life, kneeling on a beach as he sees a young, looking girl who to him represents angelic innocence. The girl calls out him only for her words to be lost to the sound of crashing waves and wind. The journalist ultimately shrugs and rejoins the party of revelers, now fully consumed and corrupted by ‘the good life’.

5. Daisies (1966)

If there has ever been a film movement that fully embodied the ethos of revolution by highlighting themes that were so certain of angering their nation’s government, it has to be the highly influential Czechoslovakian New Wave. Many films that came out during this movement were met with heavy censorship from the ruling communist government as they saw them as highly damaging to the morale of the country’s youth.

If by damaging they actually meant corrupting, then they would be right and the cinema of Czechoslovakia led to much of the political unrest of the nation, known as the Prague Spring, as its youths felt disaffected by their leader’s decadent lifestyles as they were left to wallow in destitution. Much of these films displayed these themes through a blend of dark and absurd humour, and no film better exemplifies this than Věra Chytilová’s 1966 surrealist masterpiece, Daisies.

Daisies is simultaneously a classic work of anarcho-feminist filmmaking as well as an absurd satire of the bourgeoisie. The two protagonists of the film are two teenage girls who inexplicably decide on a whim that they will become bad. Their exploits from that point forward involves going on dates with elder men only to mock them relentlessly while stuffing themselves with rich food, getting drunk at a 1920’s themed nightclub which annoys the venue’s esteemed clientele to finally coming across a large banquet only to engage in a ridiculous, childish food fight. Perhaps the funniest reaction to come out of this film was that 21 parliament deputies objected to the extravagant waste of food during its filming.

The movie’s beautiful Dada-inspired imagery mixed with its chaotic brand of slapstick comedy results in a film that is far more important to the art of cinema than many would have thought on first viewing. Chytilová is truly deserving of her status as a feminist icon whose work will continue to inspire countless numbers of women to stick their middle finger up to the face of the patriarchy, or perhaps to more appropriate, slinging a custard pie in their face.

Let’s face it; the first year into the second decade of the 21st century hasn’t been exactly promising for cinema. In fact, the movie business is in a slump unlike ever before because of the recent pandemic that has seen the release of many films being pushed back or even cancelled completely.

While I remain optimistic that once everything is relatively back to normal, until then I have taken the opportunity to go back and see what are the best movie performances of the 21st century so far. I will be splitting the list into two, male and female performances, simply because we have been treated to so much great acting over the past two decades that I decided that just one list was not going to be enough.

I’m sure lists like these will encourage readers to leave comments reprimanding me for leaving off their favourite performances. So in the interest fairness, here is a shortlist of female performances that just missed my top ten but should still be recognized for the huge impact that they left. In no particular order, the runners up are: Leila Hatami (A Separation), Björk (Dancer in the Dark), Viola Davis (Fences), Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank), Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose), Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia), Kim Hye-ja (Mother) and Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin).

10. Yalitza Aparicio – Roma

Every now and then, an actor/actress bursts onto the scene with a performance so special that the whole world takes notice. One such performance was in 2018 with Alfonso Cuarón’s semi-autobiographical film Roma. But rather than making the film about this own childhood within a middle-class household in Mexico City, the film instead follows the family’s housekeeper Cleo. The role is one required a true breakout star as Cuarón auditioned 110 indigenous women for over a year before he finally found his leading lady. A twenty-four year old aspiring pre-school teacher called Yalitza Aparicio.

Aparicio admitted that before Roma she had zero acting experience or training and even stated that the only reason she auditioned for the role was because she had nothing better to do. These statements are incredibly hard to believe while watching the film, as it is immediately made clear that Aparicio has been blessed with the skill and talent that would take most performers a lifetime to perfect. Despite the many hardships Cleo faces over the film’s runtime, she always tackles her labours with extreme grace. She is seen as not only the moral centre of the film but also for the family that employs her.

Though they may underappreciate Cleo at times, in the end they realise the significance she holds to all of them after she almost sacrifices herself to save two of the children from drowning in perhaps the most famous scene in the movie. Overnight, Roma catapulted Aparicio as both a worldwide star and an icon for indigenous Mexicans. Although it is unlikely that she will continue her career as an actress, at least she leaves behind a single role that will live in the memory of cinephiles forever.

9. Kate Winslet – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Kate Winslet is certainly one of the most unique as well as acclaimed actresses working today. She achieved fame very early on in her career with her performance in James Cameron’s megahit Titanic. But with the exception of the film that launched into stardom, you will be hard pressed to find her in big studio releases.

In fact, over the years she has tended to gravitate towards smaller independent films that focus more on fully developed characters than outlandish special effects. However, one such film from her filmography that managed to blend both these traits presented the actress with her best performance yet, this is the highly influential 2004 sci-fi romance masterpiece Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Directed by the visionary Michel Gondry and the screenplay by the genius Charlie Kaufman, the film follows an estranged couple that falls back in love despite erasing their memories of each after their relationship broke up the first time. During this stage in her career, Winslet already had a reputation as specializing in playing unsympathetic ‘difficult’ women, so in a deliberate attempt to play against type she plays Clementine Kruczynski, a free spirit who frequently changes her hair colour depending on her mood.

While it is easy on the surface to disparage the role as playing into the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ stereotype, Winslet does justice to the script by reiterating that Clementine is a deeply flawed character, what with her reckless behavior and alcohol dependence. Despite these traits, the audience can’t help but find themselves falling for Clementine just her partner does, after all she is as much fascinating as she is endearing. Needless to say, Eternal Sunshine is a special film that defines a generation of filmmakers and Winslet’s performance is certainly a huge part of the movie’s enduring legacy.

8. Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave

While we have seen plenty of breakout stars from the past decade, both male and female, I can’t think of one who made such an incredible impact in their first role in a major motion picture than Lupita Nyong’o. She has enjoyed plenty of success so far in her career; including supporting roles in box office titans such as the Star Wars sequel trilogy, The Jungle Book and Black Panther. Her leading role in Jordan Peele’s Us also deserves a mention as it was one of the best pieces of acting I’ve ever seen in a horror film. But if you want to see her finest performance to date then you will have to go back to Steve McQueen’s 2013’s slavery-based epic 12 Years a Slave.

Nyong’o plays Patsey in a role that would be incredibly difficult if not traumatic for any actress to play, as she is the victim in many brutal scenes involving sexual, physical and emotional abuse. With that being said, it is a testament to Nyong’o’s strength and resiliency as she fully commits to the role, which leaves the audience scarred from her harrowing performance.

There is one scene in particular that stands out as the moment Nyong’o solidifies herself as one of the leading actresses of her generation, this is where she stands up to her monstrous master after leaving the plantation simply to get a bar of soap so she can bathe herself. The scene is so gut wrenching that it is enough to turn even the most hardened critic to tears. 12 Years a Slave is undeniably an uncomfortable film but it is one that everyone should watch all the same and while it is full of brilliant performances, it is Nyong’o who at the heart of the story steals every scene she’s in.

7. Charlize Theron – Monster

If I had to say which actress defined the last decade in cinema, I would have to say Charlize Theron. Given her success in both blockbuster tent poles as well as earning the reputation as an indie darling, it is no surprise how Theron became one of the most valuable stars in Hollywood today. Her output in the past decade has been nothing short of impressive; whether it being as an alcoholic depressive in Young Adult, a badass feminist icon in Mad Max: Fury Road or just simply hilarious in Long Shot. However, despite her fantastic work in the 2010s, she is yet to produce a performance as close to perfection that she did in her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos in Patty Jenkins’ 2003 biopic of the notorious serial killer.

Aileen Wuornos was a former prostitute who murdered seven of her male clients within a single year and was subsequently executed for her crimes. Theron’s performance of Wuornos has been described over the years as perhaps the greatest transformation any actor has undergone to play a role. Theron gained thirty pounds, shaved her eyebrows and wore prophetic teeth for role, making her completely unrecognizable from the glamorous starlet people saw her as at the time.

But to me, what makes the performance so legendary is how she shows Wuornos as a woman plagued by personality disorders; it may in fact the most realistic depiction of mental illness in film history. Theron is both frightening and sympathetic in the role of a woman who at no point seems comfortable in her own mind and body. Unsurprisingly, it earned Theron her only Academy Award to date, but with an actress as talented and fearless as her it won’t be long until she adds another Oscar to her already vast collection of awards.

6. Sandra Hüller – Toni Erdmann

It is exceedingly rare for a foreign language comedy to breakout into English speaking markets, even rarer for one with a run time twenty minutes shy of three hours. But somehow, Maren Ade’s German comedy-drama Toni Erdmann managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible.

It was met with acclaim from critics both in Europe and America and won big at the Cannes Film Festival and European Film Awards before earning an Oscar nomination for Best Film in a Foreign Language. Much of the film’s praise was for it’s impressive character development, especially when it came to the character of Ines Conradi, played by Sandra Hüller in one of the finest performances of a comedic foil in recent memory.

The film follows a practical joke loving father who tries desperately hard to reconnect with his estranged work-driven daughter by creating an outlandish alter ego named Toni Erdmann. At first Hüller plays the straight-laced Ines as exasperated by her father antics and frustrated by her sexist work environment, however as the film progresses she gradually removes her mask by allowing herself to be taken in by her Father’s absurd antics.

This leads to her taking more power in the work place as well as seeing the pain behind her Father’s comedy. What is so impressive about her performance is that she never allows herself to fall into cliché as the humourless career woman, if anything the audience takes her side throughout the film and wants her to break out of the mundane structure of her life and accept the world’s craziness just as her father has. Hüller is the beating heart of a film that’s as beautifully funny as it is a masterpiece of complex character study.

Let’s face it; the first year into the second decade of the 21st century hasn’t exactly been promising for cinema. In fact, the movie business is in a slump unlike ever before because of the recent pandemic that has seen the release of many films being pushed back or even cancelled completely.

While I remain optimistic that everything will be relatively back to normal soon, I have taken the opportunity to go back and see what are the best movie performances of the century so far. I will be splitting the list into two, one for male and another for female, simply because we have been treated to so much great acting that I decided that just one list was not going to be enough.

I’m sure lists like these will encourage readers to leave comments reprimanding me for leaving out their favourite performances. So in the interest of fairness, here is a shortlist of male performances that just missed my top ten but should still be recognized for the huge impact that they left. In no particular order, the runners up are: Tom Hanks (Cast Away), Bruno Ganz (Downfall), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel), Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love), Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight),  Michael Fassbender (Shame) and Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street).

10. Denis Lavant – Holy Motors

You will be hard pressed to find a stranger movie that came out in the past decade, or perhaps the past century, than Leos Carax’s 2012 fantasy comedy Holy Motors. The film follows a man who appears to be an actor that inhabits multiple roles throughout a single day. These roles include a range of characters including a homeless beggar, a motion capture artist, a man on his deathbed and in a notably surreal scene a Chinese gangster and his doppelganger that each end up killing each other. To plays these roles would take a character actor of such chameleonic quality that hasn’t been seen since Peter Sellers. Enter Denis Lavant.

Carax described the casting of Lavant as “If Denis had said no, I would have offered the part to Lon Chaney or to Chaplin. Or to Peter Lorre or Michel Simon, all of whom are dead.” After watching the film, it is easy to understand the point he was making. Lavant possesses one of the most distinctive faces ever put on film, along with his impressive physicality which would make him a dream actor for any director to work with.

Out of all the characters Lavant plays in the film, one in particular stands out. That of course being Monsieur Merde, a grotesque sewer dweller that bears more similarities with a Chaney-esque monster than an actual human being. What is so impressive about Lavant’s performance is that every role he plays feels completely grounded no matter how absurd they are on the surface. Holy Motors is a surreal masterpiece that everyone should watch, if not just for Lavant alone who proves to be the modern day ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’.

9. Denzel Washington – Training Day

Not many actors have earned as much praise and respect over their career from both critics and audiences as Denzel Washington has. A titan of both stage and screen, Washington has earned almost every major award there is for an actor to win. His performances in Glory, Malcolm X and Fences should especially be regarded as some of the best work any actor has ever put on film. However, Washington’s crowning achievement came in 2002 with the film Training Day, where he played Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris who is perhaps the most corrupt cop in the history of cinema.

It’s very rare for Washington to play the role of a villain, so watching him give a performance that’s so cruel and despicable should almost be seen as the modern equivalent of Henry Fonda in Once Upon a Time in the West. Over the film’s runtime, we see Harris convince his rookie partner into smoking marijuana laced in PCP, dispensing his own twisted sense of justice on criminals and intimidating the local neighborhoods so much that he resembles a mob kingpin than a police officer.

But the scene that solidifies this role as Washington’s greatest to date is where the people who once lived in fear finally turn on him. Washington plays the scene with so many emotions that it’s like he’s going through the five stages of grief. From empty boasts of grandeur to offering money to the crowd to do his bidding before finally accepting that his empire has truly crumbled. Most actor’s dream of a role like this in that it acts a full showcase for their talents and Washington took that opportunity and made himself a legend with it.

8. Choi Min-sik – Oldboy

Perhaps the single biggest breakthrough in film from the past two decades has not been from a single actor or director, but in fact an entire movement. I am talking about the astounding global success of South Korean cinema, which eventually culminated earlier this year with the success of Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite being the first foreign film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. However, all movements needed a starting point and this came with Park Chan-wook’s 2003 thriller Oldboy. A film known for its impressive action sequences, powerful themes and especially an extraordinary performance from it’s leading man, Choi Min-sik.

Choi plays Oh Dae-su, a man who has mysteriously been imprisoned for fifteen years until being released from captivity for seemingly no reason. A now mentally unhinged Dae-su seeks revenge for his kidnapping and subsequent torture but instead unveils a conspiracy that will eventually strip him of the last strand of his sanity. Choi plays a man possessed with the sense of vengeance, with his unkempt hair and wild, burning eyes he is a man who will seemingly go to the ends of the earths and is prepared to kill anyone who stands in his way of learning the truth.

Choi proves to be an actor capable of such unpredictability that it would be impossible to guess what he’s going to do next, whether it’s the scene of him scoffing down a live octopus to battering an almost endless stream of thugs with a hammer. He delivers a haunting performance of such unadulterated madness, perfectly encapsulated by the shot his demented smiling face that will be haunt the minds of film lovers forever.

7. Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino is a director who is famous for many things; one of the most notable is the ability to create instantly iconic roles for actors to give the best performance of their careers. Some of the most acclaimed of these being Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Uma Thurman in Kill Bill and Samuel L. Jackson is just about every movie he’s done with QT.

However, to me the finest character Tarantino ever created was Col. Hans Landa, a high ranking Nazi officer and the personification of the banality of pure evil. The director said himself that he believed no actor could be capable of pulling off the role. That was until he met Christoph Waltz, and the rest as they say is history.

To say that playing Landa was a breakout performance for Austrian native would be putting it mildly, it damn near catapulted him to superstardom. He won almost every major acting award going, including the Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, as well as Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. And it’s easy to understand why Waltz was met with so much adulation.

The audience is immediately intimidated by Landa but can’t help but drawn in by his playful charm. His meticulous and cerebral way in which the ‘Jew Hunter’ catches his prey is similar to a cat toying with it’s food, sadistic to his very core. What is most unsettling about Waltz’s performance of Landa is how he shows that the SS officer doesn’t really care about the Nazi ideology; he just does his job because he’s good at it.

6. Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory

Throughout it’s history, cinema has produced some truly wonderful partnerships between a director and an actor. One of the most celebrated that is still going strong to this day is Pedro Almodovar and Antonio Banderas, two names synonymous with Spanish cinema. Previous team-ups by the two have led to some of the best works of the two’s careers; films like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and The Skin I Live In. But their most recent work together, 2019’s Pain and Glory may very well be both men’s magnum opus.

Banderas plays Salvador Mallo, a celebrated director loosely based on Almodovar himself. Mallo is very much on the decline not just in his career as a filmmaker but also in his health as he is in throws of a heroin addiction as well as suffering from multiple physical ailments. At a time in his life where he feels such isolation and emptiness, the director relives some of the most vivid memories from his life. There, Mallo looks back at these key moments; from his childhood spent with his adoring mother, his first adult love and its heartbreaking end, as well as his discovery of film and subsequent success.

Banderas is effectively playing Almodovar and while he sports the director’s trademark spiked hair and eccentric clothes, the actor bears his soul on screen delivering a performance that perfectly balances realism with romanticism. In a career full of great performances, this is easily Banderas’ most challenging role to date and one that will live in the memory for many years to come.

One of the most noticeable aspects of cinema that came out of the last decade was that the horror genre had seriously picked up its game. With auteurs such as Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Jennifer Kent and Jordan Peele leading the way into perhaps a new golden era of terror. However over the years, some of the greatest filmmakers of all time have made an indelible impact into the world of horror by producing some of the finest films not only in the genre, but also in the history of cinema itself.

Out of fairness, I have decided to leave out Hitchcock’s Psycho, Kubrick’s Shining, Spielberg’s Jaws and Scott’s Alien simply because their vast influence has already been noted and written about to the point of oversaturation. That is why I have made the decision to include films that while they are still classics, have either been unfairly judged alongside the previously mentioned masterpieces or for some reason or another, have simply not been viewed as much by mainstream audiences.

1. Hour of the Wolf (1968, Ingmar Bergman)

We start the list with quite possibly the single most celebrated and revered film director ever to have lived, Ingmar Bergman. The Swedish auteur’s expansive filmography is littered with masterpieces that continue to be studied and enjoyed by film lovers across the world. Lauded for the ability in his work to examine the human condition by raising difficult questions for the audience answer for themselves. His films tackle themes such as existentialism, religion and most notably in his 1968 horror film Hour of the Wolf, insanity.

The plot follows a married couple on the brink of complete collapse as a result of the husband’s deteriorating mental health. The husband, played by the legendary Max von Sydow, is the epitome of a tortured artist. He’s a painter who draws sketches of the horrifying creatures he sees in his nightmares. The wife, played by the equally legendary Liv Ullman, is on the brink of a mental breakdown herself due to the stress of looking after her ailing partner.

As the film progresses, the horrific visions become more and more real, and by the time at night called ‘Hour of the Wolf’, the demons are fully running amok. Critics and movie theorists posits that the husband represents Bergman himself, while not the director exactly, more of an alter ego. It is common knowledge that Bergman suffered from mental health issues all his life, even being hospitalized at one point for severe depression. So it is not difficult to transpose the director into the place of his protagonist, meaning we as an audience are actually watching the legendary filmmaker fighting his own demons onscreen instead.

2. Don’t Look Now (1973, Nicolas Roeg)

Over the years, Nicolas Roeg’s reputation as an influential filmmaker only seems to be getting stronger. Cutting his teeth as a cinematographer, working with acclaimed directors Roger Corman, John Schlesinger and Francois Truffaut among others. But by the end of his career, many of Roeg’s films as a director has inspired some of the leading directors today, including Danny Boyle, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott. But out of his entire filmography, there is one film that stands out from the pack.

Adapted from a short story by the acclaimed author, Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now is now seen as one of single most important horror films ever made. The movie’s two leads, Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, each portray perhaps the most realistic depiction of grief in the history of cinema, but to me it’s Roeg who proves to be film’s real star from behind the camera. His sheer revolutionary use of flashbacks and flash-forwards evokes confusion and distress in the audience that instantly puts them in the protagonist’s shoes. Not to mention his composition shots are simply works of genius, showing the full introspection not just into the character’s fragile psyche but also into film’s location itself.

Roeg makes great use of Venice’s classical architecture, crumbling buildings and twisting alleys so that the city presents a haunting atmosphere, filling us with a constant sense of dread, building and building until the film’s iconic climax, cementing Don’t Look Now as an all-time masterwork in psychological terror.

3. Deep Red (1975, Dario Argento)

Dario Argento is perhaps the most recognizable name to come out of the giallo genre. He is seen as one of the defining directors of horror and was positioned by many critics as being the heir apparent to Hitchcock as the new ‘Master of Suspense’. While his recent work has been seen a major deterioration of the director’s reputation, his earlier films are still seen as masterpieces. Perhaps the most famous of his films is the occult classic Suspiria, but the movie that preceded it is often argued as his true magnum opus, Deep Red.

Deep Red has all the traits of a great giallo film; these include beautiful cinematography, vivid colours and of course lots and lots of violence. The movie stars David Hemmings as a pianist turned sleuth who investigates a series of gruesome murders by a black glove-wearing psychopath. The most notable scenes in the film are the slayings themselves, whether it’s being hacked to pieces by meat cleaver, drowned in a scalding hot bath or someone’s head being crushed by speeding car.

The most iconic scene in the film however involves perhaps the creepiest-looking doll in cinema history (that’s right, take that Annabelle). The reason I believe why some people prefer Deep Red to Suspiria is because this is Argento at his least restricted, with every gruesome death it feels like the director is having the time of life. It would almost be disgusting if we weren’t all along for the ride enjoying it with him.

4. Eraserhead (1977, David Lynch)

It’s safe to say that after its release in 1977, David Lynch’s Eraserhead evoked a strong reaction from cinemagoers. It was as much praised as it was reviled, but everyone who has seen it unanimously agrees one one thing, there had never been another film quite like it. To this day, Eraserhead continues to leave audiences stunned, sickened and most likely confused by its surreal images of body horror that has gone on to solidify Lynch’s reputation as the mad genius of cinema.

The film is full of nightmarish moments that have become ingrained into the memories of anyone who has seen it. These include perhaps the most awkward dinner scene in film history that includes a miniature turkey squirming and oozing blood as it’s being carved into, a newborn that resembles an overgrown sperm than it does a human child and of course who can forget the disturbing yet soothing rendition of ‘In Heaven’ from a deformed character credited as ‘Lady in the Radiator’.

The film should also be praised for its frequent uses of dark humour, including a particular scene where the main character’s eraser-shaped hairstyle becomes a self-professed prophecy when he dreams of his decapitated head being taken to a pencil factory. Stanley Kubrick went on record calling Eraserhead his favourite film of all time, if that isn’t enough of a reason to check this movie out then I don’t know what is.

5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979, Werner Herzog)

F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu is generally seen not only as one of the most impactful horror films ever made, but perhaps the greatest German movie of all time. At least that is what director Werner Herzog felt, that is why in 1979, he decided to direct a remake of Murnau’s masterpiece as a loving homage to his cinematic idol. Herzog had already earned a reputation as a leading figure in German cinema, his films Aguirre, Wrath of God, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser and Stroszek still hold up as classics to this day. But still, it seemed like a huge step at the time for one of Germany’s best young filmmakers to remake the most influential film in the country’s history.

Herzog reunited himself with his long-time onscreen muse, the controversial Klaus Kinski who plays the iconic role of Count Dracula with such intense menace that at times he surpasses Max Schreck’s portrayal of the iconic character. The film also includes an impressive supporting cast including legends of European cinema, Isabelle Adjani and Bruno Ganz.

Not once does Herzog’s Nosferatu suck the life out of the original’s legacy but instead breathes new life into it, as well as making perhaps the single greatest remake of a classic horror film ever, just think of the ground that covers. The movie contains the right amount of grimness and gore that you want in a vampire flick, while also postulating on themes of abject loneliness and immortality, that positions Dracula as a tragic character, albeit a frighteningly monstrous one.

Some of the most memorable performances in the history of cinema have come from great actors playing the dastardliest of villains. Whether it’s the sublime subtleties of Anthony Perkins’ performance as Norman Bates, the masterful physicality of Heath Ledger’s Joker or even the unforgettable voice of James Earl Jones coming out from behind the mask of Darth Vader.

However, it is not uncommon for even the best actors in the industry to fall short of the mark when playing the ‘bad guy’. Here are some examples of thespians misjudging the type of performance needed from them, or even in some cases, being completely out of their depth.

10. Chloë Grace Moretz – Carrie

To call Carrie White a villain seems to be more than a little harsh, after all she was product of an overbearing religious mother and the victim of constant torment from her sadistic school bullies. However, if you end up murdering your schoolmates and teachers it’s probably fair that she is made out to be the villain in what should have been her redemption story. The original Brain De Palm film is a bona fide masterpiece of horror, where Sissy Spacek plays the titular Carrie in what is now seen as one of the all time greatest performances in a horror film. When a remake was announced to come in 2013 with Chloë Grace Moretz taking over the role, it’s fair to say that hopes were high. Turns out, we really should have lowered our expectations.

Spacek played the role with such an incredible amount of awkwardness, so much so that she seemed more like an alien from another world than a troubled high schooler. Whereas it’s impossible to see Moretz as anything other than cool, to the effect that it’s utterly ridiculous to see her as the victim of mass bullying. Equally wrongheaded is the film’s direction to show Carrie as a ‘nottie-turned hottie’, or to present the troubled teenager’s discovery of her telekinetic powers as a superpower rather than a curse. Thankfully Moretz’s career hasn’t been affected too much by the film’s failure and continues to be a rising force in the movie business, Carrie however remains a blemish on an otherwise impressive career for an actress that’s not even past twenty-five yet.

9. Topher Grace – Spider-Man 3

After the huge success of Spider-Man 2, which still seen to this day as one of the best superhero movie ever made, the expectations going into the third film of Sam Raimi’s franchise could not have been higher. Then with the announcement that the web-slinger’s greatest foe, Venom would make his cinematic debut in the film, the excitement of Marvel’s fan boys only grew. So imagine the disappointment when they saw one of the most beloved comic book super villains of all time being reduced to a snarling glob of waste.

To be fair to Topher Grace, the end result of his performance as Venom was not entirely his fault. According to reports that came out after the film’s release, Raimi was never a fan of the character and only put him in the movie because of studio insistence, which in turn relegated Venom to one of three villains in the movie and was arguably the most ineffective and uninteresting of the bunch.

Raimi defended Grace by stating that Venom represented the dark side to Spider-Man. However the whole point of the character is that he is a terrifying violent psychopath, three traits that nobody would ever associate to Topher Grace, who instead played the role as a sniveling little weasel. Granted Tom Hardy’s version as the character in not the full vindication that the fans wanted, but it’s still a huge improvement over Grace’s bungled performance.

8. Cate Blanchett – Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

There is absolutely no argument that Cate Blanchett is one of the best working actors today. She has proven time and time again of having unparalleled range while displaying an almost chameleonic immersion into the characters that she plays. Her immense talent has earned multiple awards, including two Oscar wins out of seven nominations. However when, it comes to her mainstream, summer blockbuster work, it’s fair to say that her work is hit and miss.

Her performance as the Soviet agent, Irina Spalko in the fourth Indiana Jones movie was in hindsight, not the best vehicle to showcase Blanchett’s acting abilities. For most of her screen time, she is relegated to being to being perhaps the most boring Russian villain in movie history, and that’s saying something.

Despite her attempts to give the character any kind of personality, she instead comes across as hammy. But perhaps the most damning indictment of this performance is that it comes in a franchise that has provided a wide array of classic villains who gave the audience a sense of menace that put everyone’s favourite archeologist in serious peril, there was however no feeling of this with Spalko who in the end was so uninteresting that it was impossible to take her as a threat to one of cinema’s greatest heroes.

7. Morgan Freeman – Wanted

Having a filmography that stretches back forty years, Morgan Freeman has built his reputation over those four decades to become one of Hollywood’s most well respected actors. Having being in many acclaimed films, his work with Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, the latter earning him his only Oscar to date, being the standouts in a very impressive career. However what he is not famous for is his reputation as a movie villain, Freeman tried to rectify that with the 2008 action film, Wanted, albeit to a less than stellar response compared to his previous work.

Wanted was praised at the time for it’s stylish action scenes and crass humour, but watching back with present eyes, it’s a blend of distasteful ‘lad’ humour that only thirteen-year-old boys would find amusing and set-pieces heavily inspired by much better action films, The Matrix being the most obvious. Freeman’s performance as the leader of a shadowy organization of assassins, who later turns out in a less than shocking twist to be the big bad, was singled out as a positive when the first reviews came in.

But again on rewatch, the actor is sleepwalking his way through the film, signifying that he could not care a single iota about how the movie turns out. That seems to be a constant trend in his recent movies, as it seems like it’s been years since we have seen a truly motivated performance out of an actor with such a prestigious pedigree as Freeman.

6. Helmut Bakaitis – The Matrix Reloaded

It is hard to think of a more revolutionary action film than 1999’s The Matrix, with it’s elaborate set-pieces, visual effects, cinematography and sheer value for entertainment, the Wachowski’s had truly struck gold. In the years since, the original film is still seen rightfully as a classic of the genre, however it has also become difficult to differentiate the film from its two sequels, which are nothing more than huge disappointments that only damage the reputation of the first film in the trilogy.

The one question that the first movie raised that fans clamoured to the sequels for an answer was who created the Matrix? Who is the puppet master in charge of our protagonist’s fate? Just who is exactly was the Architect? In the first sequel, we got that answer and the Architect revealed himself, portrayed on screen by Helmut Bakaitis. Yes, that Helmut Bakaitis, German born actor and star of Australian soap opera, Home and Away.

It’s fair to say that The Matrix Reloaded was Bakaitis big break into Hollywood and introduction to a worldwide audience, and it’s fair to say that within an almost ten minute scene where the Architect spouts endless exposition to Neo, cinema-goers everywhere where stunned as to how an actor with zero screen-presence and next to no reputation could land such an important role in one of the most highly anticipated sequels ever made. And to think Sean Connery turned the role down, oh what could have been.