I have a working list of my favorite actors readily available. They include Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis, Al Pacino, Gary Oldman, Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Ryan Gosling. On any given day, this group could share some overlap with this one: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Kevin Spacey, Sam Rockwell, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Jim Carrey, Sam Rockwell, Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Giamatti, and Russell Crowe. I also love to watch Andrew Garfield, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Josh Brolin, and Mark Ruffalo. And I can’t forget Benicio Del Toro, Michael Shannon, Denzel Washington, and Jeff Bridges. Brad Pitt continually impresses me, and Michael Fassbender is already stunning. Of course, I’m sure I’m leaving off some of the greats. Ok…so after throwing out more than 30 names, I guess my list is not as pinned-down as I thought it was. At any rate, I say all this to say that sometimes I find myself at a loss with regard to my favorite actresses. After looking a bit, I now realize that there are much more names jockeying for positions than I originally anticipated. In fact, many of them can stand toe-to-toe with their male contemporaries. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Meryl Streep (Sophie’s Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer)
Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal, I’m Not There)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine, Brokeback Mountain)
Samantha Morton (The Messenger, Synecdoche, New York)
Laura Linney (You Can Count on Me, The Savages)
Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore)
Joan Allen (The Contender, The Upside of Anger)
Diane Keaton (Reds, Annie Hall)
Amy Adams (Junebug, The Fighter)

I also want to mention Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole, The Hours), Melissa Leo (The Fighter, Frozen River), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right), Annette Bening (American Beauty), Natalie Portman (Closer, Black Swan), Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr., 21 Grams), Laura Dern (Citizen Ruth, We Don’t Live Here Anymore), Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves), Charlize Theron (Monster), Jennifer Connelly (House of Sand and Fog), Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense), Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich), Vera Farmiga (Down to the Bone), and Reese Witherspoon (Election, Walk the Line). Ellen Page (Juno), Emma Stone (Easy A), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart) are forces on the rise. And, surprisingly perhaps, Kate Beckinsale (Nothing But the Truth, Snow Angels) can do a lot with the right material. This list shows, you’ll be glad to know, that we have equally formidable talents on both sides of the gender isle.

-Rob