Charlize Theron: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

2. Imperator Furiosa - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

George Miller clearly has a thing for the provocative. Long after Mad Max "ended", the director with the singularly dusty vision of Dystopia was trying to get a fourth in the franchise made, even after Mel Gibson past his Use By date. The reward - for Miller and for fans - is the stunning, and it has to be said entirely disarming Fury Road.

The film is unrestrained and nostalgic, a career killer for anyone involved had it not gone to plan, and the fact that stars as big as Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy signed on is not so much brave as it is defiant. Their enthusiasm for the project, which has screened in Cannes of all places and promises to very probably be this year's Dredd, shows in the finish product, which is delightfully vulgar, and as provocative as a punch to the face.

In the void left by Hardy's "restrained" performance as Max - he's hardly the most loquacious of fellows - Theron takes up the reigns as the real protagonist. This is her story, which Max joins as the force of nature muscle, and once more she's at her best as the wounded heart of the plot. She is a terrier, with her back against a wall that probably isn't fit for purpose, and the scars really do show.