Not really an actual ranked top 25 list (though I make a case for the “top” 10). Rather, this is just sort of a half-assed list of some of the more memorable and fun characters the silver screen has graced upon us over the past ten years. With so many great characters and roles to choose from, whittling this down to just 25 is damn near impossible (hence the cheating of a few honorable mentions at the bottom). Still, these names are hard to argue with; but if you’ve got a couple of characters we might’ve missed, by all means drop them into the comment section at your leisure. Remember though, these are great, memorable characters, not necessarily great, Oscar worthy performances.
25) V (V for Vendetta)
24) Ronnie J. McGorvey (Little Children)
23) Randy “The Ram” Robinson (The Wrestler)
22) Brick Top (Snatch)
21) Marv (Sin City)
20) Giselle (Enchanted)
19) Haley Stark (Hard Candy)
18) Miranda Priestly (The Devil Wears Prada)
17) Charlie/Donald Kaufman
16) Elvis Presley (Bubba Ho-Tep)
15) Bob, Dick, Barry (High Fidelity)
14) Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)
13) Royal Tenenbaum (The Royal Tenenbaums)
12) Barry Egan (Punch Drunk Love)
11) Juno (Juno)
10) Penny Lane (Kate Hudson)
One of the more interesting characters from one of the best films of the decade, Penny Lane is sort of every hippie-fangirl dream. She gets to travel with all the popular bands, dates a guitarist and seems to be the most carefree person on the planet. Yet she’s completely shrouded in mystery and intrigue. We don’t even ever get to find out her real name. The original “band-aid” is Kate Hudson’s only great role/performance to date (NINE is still on the horizon) and it’s a character that is the glue that holds together all of the other characters in Almost Famous.
9) King Kong (Andy Serkis)
A great character doesn’t necessarily have to be human; heck, it doesn’t even have to be a real creature. Mythical or not, King Kong is 100 tons of expressive emotion brought to life partly with staggeringly fantastic CGI and partly with the amazing abilities of Andy Serkis. The way Kong plays off of Naomi Watts is incredibly engaging and heartfelt (maybe that says something great about Watts as well) and the look is totally photo realistic. And he still has, in my opinion, the best fight scene/action sequence of the decade.
8 ) Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis)
Can’t have a top 10 list without Daniel Day-Lewis in here somewhere. Some would argue for Daniel Plainview (There will Be Blood), but Bill the Butcher is so much more interesting and showy without being ridiculous. Yet at the same time the intensity and insanity leveled straight at the screen (and the hundreds he slaughters) is practically unmatched.
7) Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney)
Probably George Clooney’s finest moment to date. Agreed that The Coens give him a lot more to work with than most screen writers and directors, but it’s Clooney who makes Everett come to life. With his high brow, know-it-all attitude and definitely not an uneducated man, he still finds a way to be bumbling yet clever and goofy but suave. Just look at that face and the expressions that go with them. Priceless.
6) Capt. Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)
From the moment Capt. Jack nonchalantly steps off his sinking boat into port and swaggers up the dock looking for a pint, we’re all instantly in love with Sparrow. He has a drunken suaveness to his gait and his mannerisms that can’t help but put a smile on your face and wit to his tongue that evokes joy on every screening.
5) Napolean Dynamite (Jon Heder)
Did you know someone at least sort of like this in high school? I bet you did; which makes Jon Heder’s Napolean Dynamite all the more funny – he’s relatable. The situations he’s put in aren’t really all that odd or fantastic; he simply takes a normal situation and makes it hysterically uncomfortable that few characters could ever do.
4) Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale)
The business card scene. The musical artist and album review monologues. The obsession with dinner reservations. The pure dancing joy in the preparation before axing someone in the face. End of discussion.
3) Entire cast from Best in Show
Impossible to choose a best character from this movie. Sure everyone has their favorite, but I bet that favorite wavers from viewing to viewing. And when we say entire cast, we mean that almost literally. From the hotel desk clerk to Parker posey to Fred Willard to the old guy who doesn’t even say anything. Comedy gold through and through.
2) Joker (Heath Ledger)
Ledger ends his short-lived career with a real whopper. Easily one of the most iconic villains of all time is brought to an unflinching, carefree evilness, but still managing to keep that warped sense of humor intact. The Dark Knight is a good action, super hero movie (arguably the best ever); but take Ledger out of the role and you’re left with very little to truly cheer about.
1) Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem)
If The Joker is an iconic villain simply for his long life and well known facial features, Anton Chigurh became an icon overnight due to the normally attractive Javier Bardem transforming himself into sheer creepy. Tack on the fact that it’s a brilliant Coen Brothers script and it’s a character for the decade. The haircut alone would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that if you meet Chigurh, that haircut is probably the last thing you will ever see.
– - honorable mentions: Wall-e (Wall-e), Don Logan (Sexy Beast), Kym (Rachel Getting Married), John Oldman (The Man from Earth), Ashley Johnson (Junebug), Harry Lockhart/Gay Perry (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang), Peter Evans (Bug)
This discussion currently has 26 responses.
December 15, 2009
[...] Row Three has compiled a list of the 25 Awesome Characters of the Decade. [...]
December 17, 2009
Honorable Mention for
1. Denton Van Zan (Matthew McConaughey) in Reign of Fire. Dude was awesomely over the top.
2. Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) in Ichi The Killer who beat Heath Ledge to the slit-mouth look by over half a decade.
3. The Host – A really, really big tadpole with teeth = Awesomeness.
4. Gollum – surprised he isn’t on the list. The benchmark creation of digitally created (mo-cap) performances
5. Anton Ego (you needed two Anton’s on your list)
6. Nicolai Tesla (David Bowie in The Prestige) -> Pure Awesomeness.
December 17, 2009
Anton Ego = ooo, good pick. Forgot about him.
How about Riddick in Pitch Black too.
December 17, 2009
I definitely disagree with this. Gollum was easy, he basically looks like a man with his hair shaved. I think Hulk was a far more ambitious and succesful achievement, a real CGI creation. I mean Gollum is basically the same as Keanu Reeves in A Scanner Darkly, only with no hair.
December 17, 2009
“The benchmark creation of digitally created (mo-cap) performances”
(this)
December 17, 2009
But I will say that Avatar does raise the bar considerably, but I find the effects much more directly descended from what Muren did with Hulk, than what WETA themselves did with Gollum.
Hulk had moments of subtlety.
December 17, 2009
Rewatched Ladykillers recently (twice) and while he’s a complete cartoon character, I’ve really become attached to GH Dorr as a character
Only bringing him up because I doubt anyone else would
December 17, 2009
I didn’t bring it up, but I totally agree. I love that performance, and quite like the movie as well.
Actually speaking of the Coen’s Andrew had Fred Melamed’s Sy Ableman on his best peformance list, and he certainly deserves to be one of the most memorable bits of awesomeness in the decade, even if he was introduced in the final quarter of the final year!
December 17, 2009
Where the @#%& is Daniel Plainview?!?!?!
December 17, 2009
Oh, you mentioned him… I apologize.
December 17, 2009
“Some would argue for Daniel Plainview (There will Be Blood), but Bill the Butcher is so much more interesting and showy without being ridiculous. Yet at the same time the intensity and insanity leveled straight at the screen (and the hundreds he slaughters) is practically unmatched.”
It’s been a while since I saw Gangs of NY, but I dunno how you can say that Plainview is more or less ridiculous than Bill The Butcher. They are both waaaaay larger than life characters in fascinating worlds. I’d say that Plainview is 10x more frightening (and therefore awesome).
December 17, 2009
Disagree once again. Plainview is in a believable/real/regular/subdued world and emerges completely insane. Far too showy of a performance for that movie. (tangent: as PT Anderson movies go, I’ll take the “insanity” of Barry Egan (Sandler) over Plainview anyday). Butcher however is already in a topsy-turvy world and his “larger than life” charisma fits perfectly with the tone of the rest of that movie.
It’s been years since I’ve seen the movie as well, but I remember liking it quite a bit – funny that most around the webs seem to despise that movie. I’ll have to watch again sometime early next year.
December 17, 2009
Drew, it’s nice to see you posting here lately.
Whatever it is people find so fascinating about D. Plainview it’s lost on me.
December 18, 2009
Yeah i’ve become a pretty big fan of this site.
I’m a huge fan of PT Anderson so that could be part of the reason I like that character so much, but you know showy or not I just really enjoyed Lewis’ performance from an entertainment point of view, I thought he was awesome. I also noticed you put Royal Tenenbaum on the list Andrew. That movie is in my top 5 all time list, and I loved Hackman in it, but I actually think my favorite character would be Richie Tenenbaum. There’s just something about Luke Wilson in that movie… and in that beard… that just gets me.
December 18, 2009
As over-the-top as Plainview can get, there’s just so much more to the performance than that. There are so many subtle things that Lewis brings to that role – his voice, mannerisms, simply the way he uses his eyes in certain scenes…all brilliant.
December 18, 2009
C’mon folks, the voice-overed trailer where he gives his ‘pitch’ to the village with an already flowing oil-well is so bloody good that he deserves to be on any ‘best of the decade’ performance list for that scene alone.
December 18, 2009
Naw, I don’t thinks so. Great actors do more than give great monologues. They create characters. DP is one dimensional.
“I like milkshakes!” is no replacement for a real character.
December 18, 2009
How ’bout David Carradine as the Titular “Bill”.
December 18, 2009
I am equally baffled by the ‘dismissal’ of Daniel Plainview. He is one-dimensional by choice, he has plenty of opportunities and significant choices (forks in the road) to become a ‘human being’ but the characters greed and desire to compete destroy everything. I think that the character is wonderfully multidimensional, but the point of the story is that he, the character, makes very poor choices. The movie is one of the key examinations of unfetter capitalism as a dark (gothic?) tale.
December 18, 2009
George Clooney as Mr. Fox
it might not be a movie but James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano
Bill Murray in Lost In Translation
Casey Affleck as the titular Bob Ford
Brad Pitt as the titular Jesse James
Stunt Man Mike
Oh Dae Su (great name)
Billy Mitchel in King of Kong (controversial)
December 18, 2009
@ He is one-dimensional by choice
no no, good performaces, good characters are never one dimensional. They are paradoxes.
December 18, 2009
@ There are so many subtle things that Lewis brings to that role – his voice, mannerisms, simply the way he uses his eyes in certain scenes
none of those things were subtle.
December 18, 2009
“C’mon folks, the voice-overed trailer where he gives his ‘pitch’ to the village with an already flowing oil-well is so bloody good that he deserves to be on any ‘best of the decade’ performance list for that scene alone.”
Wow. I think I took some flak from you guys for saying the same exact thing about Liam Neeson.
December 18, 2009
Hahahahaha. Touche Andrew, Touche.
December 18, 2009
“none of those things were subtle.”
Hmmm…okay, if not subtle, how about overlooked? I’ll add another one, too: mesmerizing. If nothing else, Lewis as Plainview is damn fascinating to watch.
January 6, 2010
v from v for vendetta should be just a little higher