7. Stephen Dorff - Somewhere (2010)
Who is Stephen Dorff? After years of forgettable, over-acted supporting roles in the likes of
Blade and
Public Enemies, he seems like one of those people whos famous but Im not entirely sure what for. He first came into the public eye after his breakthrough in
Backbeat, and he wasnt even very good in that. Well, at least in
Somewhere Dorff justifies his semi-fame. Sofia Coppolas elegiac tone-poem tells of a fading, ageing B-movie star attempting to reconnect with his daughter after years of neglect, and Dorff portrays the man as shattering, stuck in a Hollywood black hole of his own creation and lackadaisically going for reclamation of his soul. Johnny Marco's passionless traipsing around sunny L.A. haunts doesn't require much from the 39 year old Atlantan, but Dorff invests the role with a curious sense of detachment and despair, and he has a believable relationship with sparring partner Elle Fanning. Maybe Dorff is just playing Dorff, but its a hell of a natural performance, and an enormously sad one that perfectly fits the tone of Coppolas film.