My Favorite Performances of the Year

Cannonball with Wesley Morris

The New York Times

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Arts

4.8 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s show, Wesley reveals his favorite film performances of the year — but his list is not an ordinary best-of list. He zeroes in on the specific details that make a performance great. Like, who did the best acting in a helmet this year? Who were the most convincing on-screen best friends? And who refused to play it safe? Find out in our first annual Cannonball Great Performers special.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Wesley Morris and this is Cannonball.
0:06.8	Today, lights.
0:09.6	Camera.
0:11.4	Acting.
0:31.1	It's the end of the year, and if you're a certain kind of critic, that means you're summing up the whole thing with the best of the year list.
0:33.2	I love lists.
0:38.3	I love superlatives, and yet sometimes a plain old best isn't quite cutting it.
0:40.0	For one thing, it's vague.
0:42.2	Best actor?
0:43.2	Okay.
0:43.9	Talk to me about what best is doing here.
0:46.7	And so, the New York Times Magazine has this annual tradition
0:49.8	that we call great performers,
0:52.2	where every year I watch as many people acting in movies
0:55.1	as my eyes can handle.
0:57.2	I think it's probably even more than that, honestly.
1:00.1	And I think about what exactly is making the best one so great.
1:04.8	What is the best way of explaining what's going on
1:07.6	with how excellent this one performance is?
1:10.8	The last time we did this, for instance, I thought Margot Robbie's performance in Barbie
1:15.7	wasn't best actress. It was Best Nervous Breakdown. And the guy who played Ken, Ryan Gosling,
1:22.8	I gave him not Best Actor, but Best Theft of a Movie, because he kind of stole that thing. And this
	...

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