15 Best Movie Performances Of 2018 (So Far)

2. Laura Dern (The Tale)

Though Jennifer Fox's searing auto-biographical drama won't make Laura Dern eligible for a Best Actress Oscar - due to debuting on HBO in the U.S. - she's practically a lock for the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

Playing Fox as she makes horrifying discoveries about her own past of childhood abuse, Lern gives arguably the best performance of her career, aided by an unrelentingly heartbreaking script and direction from Fox.

To be fair, everyone here is fantastic, but it's Dern whose front-and-center performance holds the audience captive for almost two hours, in one of the most frank and viscerally upsetting depictions of sexual abuse recently put to screens big or small.