14 Awesome Performances In Otherwise Awful 2015 Movies

1. Bradley Cooper - Burnt

The Movie: Far from the Best Picture contender many expected it to be at the start of the year, this limp cooking drama suffers from an unbearably obnoxious lead character, an abundance of subplots and an overt adherence to redemption drama cliches. The cast (including Emma Thompson, Omar Sy, Daniel Bruhl and Sienna Miller) is largely wasted, the food porn's not great (last year's Chef has it easily beaten), and the resolution doesn't feel especially earned. Plus, how can we root for a character we don't like? The Performance: Bradley Cooper is terrific at playing huge douchebags, as he proves once again here, entirely convincing as an intense, Gordon Ramsay-esque chef with a fiery temper and zero tolerance for incompetence. Even though the film writes itself into a litany of dull corners, Cooper does get a few scenes to unleash his acting ferocity upon audiences, cursing out his kitchen in entertainingly irate fashion. Perhaps with a better movie overall, he might've ended up in the awards conversation this year, but instead, he's starred in a film that's destined to be mostly forgotten except for lazy Netflix viewings on a rainy Sunday. Which performances did you love from movies you hated over the past year? Shout them out in the comments!