From Sean Penn’s menace to Michael B Jordan’s dual brilliance, from Sam Rockwell’s scene-stealing cameo to Owen Cooper’s breathtaking breakthrough. Man About Town picks out the best male screen performances of 2025.
Michael B. Jordan in Sinners
Image courtesy of Warner Bros
Michael B. Jordan has been compiling an outstanding portfolio of performances across the last 15 years, but Sinners is undoubtedly his crowning moment to date. In a daring dual role as Smoke and Stack, playing both sides of the moral coin, the 38-year-old, working with director Ryan Coogler for the fifth time, is the magnetic driving force behind the action-horror-social-drama mish-mash, cementing his position as one of Hollywood’s most undeniable modern leading men.
Sean Penn in One Battle After Another
Image courtesy of Warner Bros
Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling epic One Battle After Another has illuminated the year’s cinematic virtue, with cerebral storytelling, pitch-black humour, and one hell of an ensemble cast, led by Leonardo DiCaprio. But even amid the most scintillating cast of the year, double – perhaps soon triple – Oscar-winner Sean Penn radiates brightest. As the emotionally feeble, intently vicious Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, the veteran thespian snarls and spits, idiosyncratically terrifying, the hands-down villain of the year – if not the decade.
Tramell Tillman in Severance
Image courtesy of Apple TV+
He may be 40 years old, but for most of us, Tramell Tillman only became an unmissable screen presence thanks to his watershed turn in Ben Stiller and Apple TV’s irreverent dystopian drama Severance. As Seth Milchick – Emmy-winning for the role – he comes into his own amid an emphatic entourage that also boasts Adam Scott, John Travolta and Patricia Arquette, featuring more prominently in the sophomore season’s narrative, embellishing its twisting turbulence.
Owen Cooper in Adolescence
Image courtesy of Netflix
Jack Throne and Stephen Graham’s Adolescence rocked society this Spring. Each of the four unique episodes is shot in one continuous take – a stylistic drive that insatiably draws the watcher into its disturbing and all-too-familiar story that follows a 13-year-old boy accused of murdering a classmate. Said teenager, Jamie Miller, is played by Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated newcomer Owen Cooper, now considered arguably the biggest talent of his age bracket. Such high praise is justified – the 16-year-old delivers a complex, layered performance worthy of the accolades and career launchpad that has ensued.
Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent
Image courtesy of CinemaScópio
Best known for his charismatic but sinister turn as Pablo Escobar in hit Netflix show Narcos, Brazilian character actor Wagner Moura is receiving plenty of Oscar buzz – and a Golden Globe nomination – for his deeply human, thought-provoking turn in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s intimately sprawling political caper The Secret Agent. Under multiple different aliases across the picture’s 160-minute runtime, the 49-year-old anchors the work, breathing vitality into what could be an otherwise dense script.
Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon
Image courtesy of Sony
Writer-director Richard Linklater and Hollywood star Ethan Hawke have collaborated multiple times – most famously and effectively on the beloved Before trilogy. And this latest creative union – more a play than a film, taking place in one evening in a single location – further decorates both men’s distinguished catalogues. Hawke delivers his best work in years as Lorenz Hart, the utterly charming and cripplingly frustrating fabled American lyricist.
Sam Rockwell in The White Lotus
Image courtesy of Max/HBO
Mike White’s HBO juggernaut The White Lotus entered its third season in rip-roaring style, yet again one of the most talked-about and divisive shows of the year. Set in Thailand, the latest series of Mike White’s dark comedy boasted an A-list cast led by the likes of Jason Isaacs and Man About Town cover star Walton Goggins. Yet arguably the standout is Sam Rockwell, who, although only appearing in a few episodes, is deathly funny as sober Buddhist gone rogue, Frank. That drink scene monologue he delivers to Goggins’ Rick Hatchett? Absolute TV gold.
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù in My Father’s Shadow
Image courtesy of BBC Films
Breaking through as a one-man action aficionado in Gangs of London, British-Nigerian Man About Town cover alum Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù shows the breadth of his talent with this quietly authoritative performance in Akinola Davies Jr.’s wonderful debut film, My Father’s Shadow. The first-ever Nigerian film selected for Cannes official lineup is a beautiful, meditative effort, kept grounded by Dìrísù’s refreshingly imperfect protagonist, Folarin.
Noah Wyle in The Pitt
Image courtesy of Max/HBO
The medical drama craze seemed a thing of the past. But the genre has been revamped and rejuvenated by one of its most synonymous actors – ER’s Noah Wyle. The Pitt is a visceral and vastly entertaining multi-Emmy-winner, including the nod for Best Leading Actor in a Drama Series for Wyle, whose experience, emotional intelligence and craftsmanship are a pleasure to witness.
Robert Aramayo in I Swear
Image courtesy of StudioCanal Films
Kirk Jones’ I Swear is perhaps the most important and impactful British film of the year; a docudrama following John Davidson, a Scottish man diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome at a young age, before becoming an activist. A rising actor Robert Aramayo is full of compassion in the leading role, heartbreaking and hopeful, doing justice to the character and shining a light on the often stigmatised condition.
Ellis Howard in What It Feels Like For A Girl
Image courtesy of BBC
One of the BBC shows of the year, queer drama What It Feels Like For A Girl is electric and compulsive, funny and ferocious – essentially TV viewing. The newcomer cast is brilliant, especially 29-year-old Ellis Howard, who adds gravitas and eccentricity to the at times challenging but greatly uplifting story.
Frank Dillane in Urchin
Image courtesy of BFI/BBC Films
Frank Dillane’s depiction of rough sleeper Mike in Harris Dickinson’s raw and rich directional debut, Urchin, is a star-making turn. An anti-hero for the modern day, Dillane presents his on-screen counterpart as a troubled but charismatic young man who makes bad decisions but is kind at heart.
Bryan Cranston in The Studio
Image courtesy of Apple TV+
Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen’s glorious comedy series The Studio is a hilarious disassembling of Hollywood. The cameos are peerless – from Martin Scorsese to Zoë Kravitz and Dave Franco – but none come close to Bryan Cranston’s hysterical appearance as tyrannical CEO, Griffin Mill. The Breaking Bad legend is clearly having a great time as the chaotic studio autocrat, bringing laugh-out-loud laughs every time he blesses the screen.
Jon Pointing in Big Boys
Image courtesy of Channel 4
Jack Rooke’s BAFTA-winning comedy drama series Big Boys came to an immensely satisfying end this year, delivering its third, final and best season. Jon Pointing, alongside the equally excellent Dylan Llewllyn, is brimming with charm and character, putting Rooke’s razor-sharp, resonant script to good use.
