25 Actors Who Should Snag an Oscar, but Won't

It’s easy enough to predict who will snag an Oscar—but more interesting are the unconventional performances that are just as good, but will never be so honored. In New York, Bilge Ebiri and Logan Hill list this year’s 25 best, most likely to be overlooked, performances:

• Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass: “Any 13-year-old girl unleashing a tornado of foul-mouthed violence would’ve been shocking, but Moretz offered way more.”
• Joaquin Phoenix, I’m Still Here: “Everybody ridiculed Phoenix for his fake attempt to become a rapper, but we all failed to realize that we were witnessing the role of a lifetime: raw, uneasy, painful to watch.”

• Jim Carrey, I Love You Phillip Morris: “He somehow stayed admirably grounded, in what is certainly his most human performance since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
• Tom Hardy, Inception: “His portrayal of the forger Eames was fleet-footed, winning, almost off-handedly human; he seemed to be the only one among these tormented characters even capable of cracking a smile.”
• Ethan Hawke, Brooklyn’s Finest: “Hawke—once the poster child for submerged, understated pretty boys—gave the most snarling, breathlessly desperate performance of the year.”
• Mia Wasikowska, Alice in Wonderland: “She was the sole revelation of Tim Burton's mostly disappointing adaptation.”

Click for the complete list, or for more Best of 2010.
(More Kick-Ass stories.)