Shashwat

Having already talked about my favourite performances by the boys more than half-way through the year, let's now move to the women. We've had a lot of bang-on performances by actresses this year, from Zoe Kravitz's thrilling enigma in Kimi to the sensuous urban coolness of Deepika Padukone in Gehraiyaan.  However, it is only my decision to water it all down to top five that results in the ignoring of a number of significant performances by women this year.  5. Julianne Moore (When You Finish Saving the World)  In Jesse Eisenberg's brilliant comedy about a narcissistic pair of mother and son who are desperately obsessed at finding affection elsewhere, the narcissistic mom Evelyn is played by Julianne Moore. A social worker running a shelter home, Evelyn is a sensitive woman who can at times be too consumed by the nature of her work to truly understand her son and his passion.  While opinions about the sting of drama and comedy informing Moore's performanc...

Gendered division of any aspect of life is wrong on various levels, but somehow with respect to cinema, it feels absolutely perfect. Cinema is diverse art, and gendered appreciation of the art is a part of the diversity. When we say 'actors' and 'actresses' rather than 'male and female actors', we acknowledge their personal spaces and thus is becomes interesting to note the patterns where they are different and similar in their skills.  Here are my five favourite performances by actors this year, ranked in order of preference.  5. Robert Pattinson (The Batman)  We have seen the iconic caped crusader being performed multiple times with different flavours and yet different attractions. While some of them slipped under the radar due to the much more capable actors who existed in their films, others succumbed to the generic same-ness seen in previous renditions or the other comic books. Pattinson is quite different though. He channels Matt Reeves's v...