20 Incredible Performances From 2015

1) Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs

Great performance, average film? That’s what some are saying about Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs, now that the dust is starting to settle and critics come to evaluate the year past. But even if you’re one of the people that think the Jobs biopic is a middling affair surrounding a standout performance, you’ve got to admit that performance is still one magnificent display.

Of course, with Michael Fassbender in said title role, it should really have surprised no one. So good in Jobs that he overshadows his other searing 2015 turn (in Macbeth, where he’s mad-eyed and raging), Fassbender would be a shoo-in for the 2016 Best Actor award if he wasn’t up against Leonardo ‘Where’s My Oscar?’ DiCaprio for The Revenant. He’s hard, unsympathetic, and still so curiously compelling.