Awards season greetings! What you have here is the Gold Standard's first batch of acting power rankings where, yes, this week, it's a man's man's man's world. (We'll get to the women next week.) These are the performances that people are talking about, counting down toward the ones that are my absolute favorites — and may well be yours. But don't get hung up on the order of the rankings. Just make sure you watch the movies.
15. Brendan Fraser, "The Whale": If you've been following film festival coverage this fall, you know that the movies have been long — and the standing ovations for Fraser have been really long. The applause may be as much about the veteran actor's comeback as the work, a touching performance as a morbidly obese man trying to make peace with his daughter that's housed in a thin, calculating drama. But the combination of prosthetics and a feel-good revival story make Fraser a formidable contender for a movie that will be a tough sell for voters and audiences.
14. Ben Whishaw, "Women Talking": Whishaw has played Hamlet and Q, Paddington and Keats and, in Sarah Polley's upcoming "Women Talking," he's the sole male member of an exceptional ensemble, playing a kind teacher whose primary job is to listen. No surprise: Whishaw turns the role into a deeply moving portrait of empathy.
