Sing along – “It's the most critical time of the year.” If you desire, you could read hundreds of articles giving away critics awards, making top ten lists, and assembling Oscar predictions for the best of 2008, but it can be difficult to separate the best performances from the ones that are just well-marketed. In an effort to separate the For Your Consideration campaigns from the work that will honestly be remembered beyond next year's award season, we're here to break down the best of the four major acting categories, starting today with the best actor and actress categories. (Our picks for best supporting actor and actress are coming tomorrow.)

Before we get started, two overall statements need to be made. One, I'm tired of great performances in bad films being lauded. To me, a great performance is a part of the fabric of the entire experience. A stand-out acting turn in a movie that doesn't work is like a solo home run when your team loses by ten runs. It doesn't have a real impact. With the fading economy and variety of choices this year, why spend a day's earnings to see a movie that is ultimately not that good? Consequently, you won't find Clint Eastwood's work in Gran Torino on this list or Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's turns in Revolutionary Road - and know that every movie mentioned deserves three stars or more. Second, I'm increasingly exhausted with one or two scene roles being compared with full supporting roles. Are Viola Davis in Doubt and Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road riveting and amazing? Absolutely. But how on Earth do you compare what they accomplished with what Kate Winslet in The Reader or Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight do with well over an hour of running time? Should I take their best ten minutes? Davis and Shannon are the best things about their individual movies, but the "Judi Dench Award" for ten minutes of screen time won't be given here.

--Brian Tallerico

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BEST ACTOR OF 2008

The names at the top of the list for most critics groups this season have been relatively consistent - Penn and Rourke. And they're definitely deserving. I'm not going to rock that boat. But what has been interesting this season has been the disagreement about the other three lead actors who deserve year-end acclaim. Some groups have gone with Leonardo DiCaprio (not me) or Frank Langella's bone-deep work in Frost/Nixon and, if this list was spread to six, Frank would get in. Consider him the runner-up. Other notable performances this year came from, in no particular order, Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Sam Rockwell in Snow Angels (and he's not bad in Choke or Frost/Nixon either), Chiwetel Ejiofor in Redbelt, Michael Fassbinder in Hunger, Francois Cluzet in Tell No One, Philip Seymour Hoffman in both Doubt & Synecdoche, New York, Brendan Gleeson & Colin Farrell in In Bruges, Danny Glover in Honeydripper, Ben Kingsley in Elegy, and Ed Harris & Viggo Mortensen in Appaloosa.

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Four runner-ups/nominees in alphabetical order:

Josh Brolin as George W. Bush in W.

Oliver Stone's W. has its problems but everything that works about the film is there in Josh Brolin's fantastic performance. There are dozens of actors who would have taken a role as juicy as "Dubya" and turned it into a caricature, but Brolin consistently tries to find the human being under the well-known image. What's most interesting about W. is the distinction that Brolin and Stone make between the public and private personas of its lead character. The material that we've all seen before - the "fool me once" line, "Mission Accomplished" - sounds familiar and is done pretty much as an impression, but the two-dimensional public portrayal of Bush wouldn't have worked behind-the-scenes, in the heart of the movie between George Jr. and George Sr. That's where Brolin shines, as the man-child who went all the way to Iraq to impress his daddy and still came up short.

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Benicio Del Toro as Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Che

Actors used to always get acclaim for physical transformations. "Gain twenty pounds, get an Oscar!" I'm glad that the trend towards "weight loss as acting" has changed, but it almost seems like we've gone too far to the other extreme and have completely discounted when an actor completely physically transforms into a role. The effort that Benicio Del Toro puts into Che is remarkable on both an emotional and physical level. He's in nearly every exhausting scene of a four-hour-plus movie, the main goal of which is just to give the audience the feeling of what it was like to be near Che. Steven Soderbergh's excellent film is not a political polemic or a historical epic (although it has elements of both) as much as it is a recreation of two important chapters in the life of a massively influential figure of the 20th century. It's a dangerous, risky film that challenges traditional viewer expectations, and Del Toro carries most of the weight of the film in a performance that always feels genuine. Some have complained that Che, Part Two is just Del Toro wandering around the Bolivian jungle and mumbling. They're not looking hard enough.

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Richard Jenkins as Walter Vale in The Visitor

Arguably the most emotionally resonant lead actor performance of the year came from the great Richard Jenkins as Walter Vale. In Thomas McCarthy's excellent script, Jenkins is given a role that easily could have turned melodramatic in a less-talented man's hands. Think about where The Visitor could have gone. It's a movie about a man who learns to live again due to his interaction with a musically-inclined illegal immigrant and his girlfriend and mother. On paper, it could have been a Lifetime TV Movie. But Jenkins grounds the film in a believable, character-driven reality. We believe Walter in every single frame and through every baby step he takes towards opening the doors to his closed heart. Each slight move that Walter makes - allowing Tarek to stay, playing drums with him, getting close to Mouna - feels completely believable. What's so great about Jenkins' work in The Visitor is that it's stunningly easy to believe that he exists before the opening credits and after the closing ones roll. It's THAT three-dimensional and would have been the best actor performance of the year in many seasons past.

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Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler

Don't call it a comeback. Okay, maybe you can call it a comeback. Did you know that in an alternate universe, Nicolas Cage played the lead in The Wrestler? It wouldn't be nearly the same film without the career baggage that Mickey Rourke brings to the best performance of his career. Rourke is mesmerizing in every single scene as a man who can only find solace in wrecking his body in a wrestling ring. You start to forget that he's acting. As Randy sweats and bleeds in the ring, it actually takes a minute to remember that none of it is real. He brings the pain, exhaustion, and commitment of "The Ram" to life. It's the most genuine performance in years and that's what truly sets it apart. Let's hope Rourke turns it into a springboard for other great roles.

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THE BEST ACTOR OF 2008: Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in Milk

Just barely stealing the thunder from Mickey Rourke is another '80s icon, Sean Penn, in arguably the best performance of his career. Think about that for a minute. The best of SEAN PENN’S career. But it’s hard to argue with. The man will win his second Oscar. Consider it a lock. Just as Rourke makes you believe his pain in The Wrestler, Penn pulls an amazing disappearing act into the soul of Harvey Milk. Less than halfway through Gus Van Sant's masterful film, you forget that you're watching Penn and completely believe his note-perfect performance. His disappearance into Milk is essential to the success of a film that is about a movement more than a martyr. Without Penn's riveting work, the film wouldn't be nearly as powerful.

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BEST ACTRESS OF 2008

For one of the few times in movie history, lead actress was arguably a more crowded category than lead actor. It was a great year for female roles with young actresses standing proudly next to some of the greatest that ever lived. Two of the most impressive belonged to a pair of beautiful actresses who were certainly not being taken seriously when they starred in junk like Underworld and Sahara - Kate Beckinsale and Penelope Cruz. We saw another side of Cruz in her award-worthy work in Volver, but her one-two 2008 punch of Elegy and Vicky Cristina Barcelona was arguably more impressive. And Beckinsale returned from mainstream junk to the arthouse fare that first gained her prominence with two of the best performances of the year in Nothing But the Truth and Snow Angels. Other notable female lead performances came courtesy of Emily Mortimer in Transsiberian, Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frances McDormand in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day and Burn After Reading, and Angelina Jolie in Changeling. But none made my top five.

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Four runner-ups/nominees in alphabetical order:

Anne Hathaway as Kym in Rachel Getting Married

The star of The Princess Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada scored the role of her career when Jonathan Demme cast her as the tragically damaged heroine of Rachel Getting Married. Kym is not your typical movie junkie escaped from rehab. That’s easy. Yes, like a lot of addicts, she believes she's worthless. But she’s trying to reconcile her past with her future during her sister’s wedding. A life-altering incident has made her believe that she's unlovable even by God. Take that kind of soul-deep pain and throw it into arguably the most love-filled wedding in the history of cinema. It's an incredible centerpiece for one of the best films of 2008, and Hathaway doesn't make a single false move.

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Meryl Streep as Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt

With "Sister A." in the adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of John Patrick Shanley's Doubt, Meryl Streep gives her best performance since Angels in America on the small screen and Adaptation on the big one, arguably longer. She's the moral and emotional backbone of a story about the complexity of faith. Other actresses would have portrayed Sister A. as a caricature of a Catholic school teacher with a ruler to rap her student's hands. But Streep, as she always does, adds depth to the unwavering commitment of a woman questioning her own doubt. In a film of excellent performances all around, she stands out and watching her go head-to-head with Hoffman in the final, searing dialogue exchanges is like watching a heavyweight bout. She wins in a knockout.

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Kristin Scott Thomas as Juliette Fontaine in I've Loved You So Long

I've Loved You So Long doesn't so much feature an excellent performance as feel like it was built completely around it. Perhaps more than any performance of 2008 (except maybe Rourke’s), Thomas' work makes it impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Her "cool," detached exterior is perfect for a woman who has gone through a tragedy that has made it impossible for her to feel. She doesn't just have a problem opening up to her sister, she physically can't do it. As Juliette feels warmth from the world she returns to after a stint in prison, she completely sells the slow drip, the baby steps towards normalcy that makes the film riveting. And the final scene, when the slow drip towards emotional stability turns into a stream, is one of the most impressive acting turns of the year. Like a lot of performances on this list, it's the believability over the melodrama that makes it so remarkable. Think about the overly emotional notes that a lot of actresses would have hit with the same part. The subtle chords hit by Thomas are all the more powerful.

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Michelle Williams as Wendy in Wendy & Lucy

Maybe it was Dick. Maybe it was Brokeback Mountain or Wim Wenders' Land of Plenty, but Michelle Williams has become one of the most interesting actresses of her generation, and she gives the performance of her career in Wendy & Lucy, the tragic tale of a woman on the economic fringe of society. Wendy is a drifter who loses track of her best friend and travelling companion, her dog Lucy. Wendy is just trying to make ends meet and find her way to Alaska, but this is no mythologizing of the traveler a la Into the Wild, but it's also not melodrama at all. It's a character study about a person who most of us would drive by as they hitchhike on the street. As she always seems to do, Williams disappears into the role, giving one of the most genuinely heartbreaking performances in years.

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THE BEST ACTRESS OF 2008: Sally Hawkins as Poppy in Happy-Go-Lucky

Rarely has an actress embodied a complex character as thoroughly as Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky. After spending months creating Poppy with writer/director Mike Leigh, Hawkins clearly knows this woman inside and out and vividly brings to life a character that refuses to submit to an easy description. Some critics have written off Poppy as a "happiness fascist," a woman just trying to make everyone else happy, and they have completely missed the mark. There's SO much more to Poppy than just giggling, smiling happiness. Yes, she wants to make everyone a little cheerier and believes that there's no harm in trying to do so, but she also recognizes the pain in the world – in the homeless man, in the abused child, and in her own family. Poppy exists outside of the frames of Happy-Go-Lucky in every way. She is the most fully-realized, three-dimensional character of the year and that makes Hawkins the most award-worthy actress of 2008.

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What do you think? Did we miss some obvious choices? Are you enraged that we overlooked the great Kate Winslet, Clint Eastwood, or Jason Statham in this trio of career-defining roles with In the Name of the King, Death Race, and Transporter 3?

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