Dissecting The New York Times' Greatest Actors of the 21st Century List

I’m late to the ballgame here, but I was really trying hard not to comment on N.Y. Times film critics A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis’ piece titled “The 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century (So Far)“. The list was clearly motivated by woke aspirations and I honestly don't think it should be taken any more seriously than a random film blogger’s own list of the best actors working today (cue mine below), alas, it’s The Times, which means people are uniformly taking these acting picks to heart.

Can you take seriously a list of the finest actors around that includes the likes of Keanu Reeves and Melissa McCarthy? Of course not. A.O. and Manohla apparently picked the cream of the crip of acting via a woke checklist perspective. They wanted to be as inclusive as possible because their Times masters are constantly watching over their backs 24/7, they have to appease, no, lick the derrieres, of the progressive-left editors, otherwise, they can be in big trouble.

The white cisgender male honorees are just down to five in their list. They named 12 women, two South Korean actors, and one from China. They went for four African American actors And three Latin-American stalwarts, Oscar Isaac, Gael Garcia Bernal and Sonia Braga. The inclusion of Wes Studi, a veteran Native American actor, most famous (if you want to call it that) for a minimal role in Michael Mann‘s Heat, is a total farce and I have nothing against the guy, he’s good at what he does.

The honorees, in this order, are Denzel Washington, Isabelle Huppert, Daniel Day Lewis, Keanu Reeves, Nicole Kidman, Song Kang Ho, Toni Servillo, Zhao Tao, Viola Davis, Saoirse Ronan, Julianne Moore, Joaquin Phoenix, Tilda Swinton, Oscar Isaac, Michael B. Jordan, Kim Min-hee, Alfred Woodard, Willem Dafoe, Wes Studi, Rob Morgan, Catherine Deneuve, Melissa McCarthy, Mahershala Ali, Sonia Braga, and Gael Garcia Bernal.

There’s no DiCaprio, Streep, Pitt, etc — what a God-almighty AWFUL list. Mine, listed below, should be the bee’s knees in terms mandatory and seminal acting recognition. It’s not that hard to make up a list of the 25 best working actors/actresses of the 21st century, so long as you don’t stoop to forced-upon woke-ism and outright racially-minded posturing:

Daniel Day-Lewis, Viola Davis, Joaquin Phoenix, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Isabelle Huppert, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Lupita Nyong'o, Gary Oldman, Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton, Amy Adams, Javier Bardem, Alfre Woodard, Idris Elba, Tom Hanks, Frances McDormand, Kathy Bates, Charlize Theron.

For the PC police out there, that’s 5 African-Americans, 12 female, and 11 male.