Best Performances

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Moviemgl
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Re: Best Performances

Post by Moviemgl »

So it's a Performance thead. Love it. Just my 2 cents for 2009. 2 names: Sam Rockwell, Nicolas Cage. These 2 actors gave hands down the best performance by an actor in 2009. I think many of you will agree. I mean who else? Btw I haven't seen A Single Man, but these 2 were definitely better than Bridges or Renner or you name it. Please feel free to enlighten me.

Moviemgl
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Re: Best Performances

Post by Moviemgl »

And Waltz. These 3 were equal.

caocao
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Re: Best Performances

Post by caocao »

There are really too many to list but here goes. I'll skip some of my favorites that have already been mentioned.

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Heath Ledger - the Joker [The Dark Knight]

It's a such performance that's become a pop icon of sorts I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned. Or maybe I'm not.

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Gene Hackman - Royal Tenenbaum [The Royal Tenenbaums]

"I've had a good run."

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Tom Hanks - John Baskin [Big]

The best man child performance out there.

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Meryl Streep - Susan Orlean [Adaptation]

Her character has to go to so many different places in this wild script. I doubt anyone could've done it as well.

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Jennifer Connolly - Sarah Williams [Waking the Dead]

I probably would have a hard time moving on from this girl as well.

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Kate Winslet - Clementine Kruczynski [Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind]

Complex. I want nothing to do with this character and am totally attracted to her at the same time.

Some of my other faves:

Chris Cooper - John Laroche [Adaptation]
Sir Ian McKellan - Gandalf [Lord of the Rings]
Burt Reynolds - Jack Horner [Boogie Nights]
Claire Danes - Sookie [Igby Goes Down]
Martin Landau - Bela Lugosi [Ed Wood} + Judah Rosenthal [Crimes and Misdemeanors]
Brad Pitt - Mickey O'Neil [Snatch]
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Freddie Miles [The Talented Mr Riply]

miss jesus
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Re: Best Performances

Post by miss jesus »

Neat thread. Seen a bunch I give big thumbs up to, particularly Timothy Hutton in Ordinary People. I looooove that movie, and especially him in that. Want to give him a hug and tell him it's okay, every time I see it. Also raising my glass to Citizen Kane, The Lives of Others and Aguirre.

your don't need to be as pointlessly detailed as mine.

Pointless detail?!? That's my favorite!!!

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Stellan Skarsgard in Erik Skjoldbjærg's Insomnia
Understated when it needs to be, crazy and violent when it needs to be. Seeing him in this was one of those film experiences that made me say to myself, "why haven't I seen every film this guy has been in yet?"

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Roger Guenveur Smith in Bill Duke's Deep Cover
A very eccentric and extremely entertaining performance. I started out picking Laurence Fishburne in this movie, but then I remembered Eddie. Oh, Eddie. Smith is far from a well-known actor, but he's been in a bunch of Spike Lee movies and he's just good in everything. This movie, by the way, was written by Michael Tolkin and is definitely a superior cop movie. I highly recommend it.

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Angela Lansbury in John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate
As close as I was to saying Laurence Harvey in this movie, Lansbury is the one who blows me away in this--to the point that I have to say something to somebody every time I watch it. She's so sweet and nice in everything else I've ever seen her in. And here, she's the most evil, horrible mother: what a heartless scheming dragon lady she is in this! It makes you all the more sympathetic for Laurence Harvey that he has to put up with her, and deal with the blowback of her sick plans, and still call her 'mother.' And she is motherly. In a really stomach-turning way.

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David Thewlis in Mike Leigh's Naked
Did somebody say this one already and I just didn't see it? This performance basically is the movie, and it's astounding. A character with so many facets that you can't just feel one way about him. I love him, I hate him, he expresses my innermost unspoken feelings and then does something so horrible that it fills me with disgust. Yet he makes it all work. It's rich and real and totally cohesive. You don't even have to buy it because he's not selling it, it's just what he is. Just incredible.

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Bob Hoskins in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa
What a great character. George is recently paroled and looking for work when he's told that he has to escort a call girl around. He hates it, he hates her, he just wants his old jobs back and his wife back, but he can't have them. And things change, no matter how desperately you cling to the idea of who you are and what you want. An award-winning performance, and for good reason. This movie also features the hip new song "In Too Deep" by Genesis, Michael Caine, and a very young Lester Freamon.

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Robin Wright-Penn in Nick Cassavetes' She's So Lovely
The elder Cassavetes had a lot of juicy, distinctive roles for women in his films. This one, made from his script, is no exception. Maureen isn't well-balanced. And she deals with her crazy husband by getting hammered and being reckless. She's clumsy, she's not so smart, and I just love her. She knows that her life isn't good for her, including her husband, and one day she turns it all around. It's like two performances in one, and they're both terrific.

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Mickey Rourke in Alan Parker's Angel Heart
Sure, it's just a horror movie. But the story, and the dreamlike presentation Parker chose require Rourke to do a lot of dramatic heavy lifting. It's a pretty selfless performance. Not much I can elaborate on without spoilers. This one deserves at least as much credit as Nicholson in The Shining, though, in my book.

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Gena Rowlands in John Cassavetes' Opening Night
A film in which an actress who is aging and feels her power and dignity slipping away is stuck in a play that seems designed to make her feel worse about everything in her life. She goes through rehearsals in which an ex-lover slaps her, take after take. The author is condescending to her. Her friends can't help her. And the sudden accidental death of a fan who reminds her of herself doesn't improve anything. According to the stories, Rowlands was as hammered as she looked in the climactic opening night sequence. I sometimes question what kinds of acting I value, whether method or realism or just pretending is more praiseworthy...but when I see a film like this one I find it doesn't matter. It's just mesmerizing.

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Willem Dafoe in... I can't pick just one!!!
Seriously, is he ever bad? He was even entertaining in Speed 2 for crying out loud. I have literally never regretted watching a film he was in. I know, I just said 'Speed 2,' but he's always fascinating to watch, and his ethic for choosing projects seems to result in him appearing in a ton of movies that are just damned interesting. He always gives it his all, from what I can tell. I was originally going to say only Shadow of the Vampire, because every time I watch it I'm floored again at how creepy he is, and how he actually makes me believe that he's a vampire. In The Last Temptation of Christ, he depicted an idea of Christ that I hadn't had before, that seemed so different and so much more believable than the bullet points how-this-relates-to-you-and-your-sins version that churches today describe. And he makes sense. Dafoe is an actor that seems completely uninterested in vanity and is more interested in the craft than anything, and because of that, he has put in so many good performances. Sorry to cheat, I just wanted to share the love.

drawkward86
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Re: Best Performances

Post by drawkward86 »

1. Marie Falconetti as JOAN OF ARC in The Passion of Joan of Arc (Unbeatable)
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2. Martin Sheen as KIT CARRUTHERS in Badlands (I thought he was unbeatable until I saw Falconetti. And even then it's pretty much a toss-up)
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3. Q'Orianka Kilcher as POCAHONTAS in The New World (So transcendant I think she might be an alien, yet every inch a princess. I thought she was unbeatable until I saw Badlands)
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4. Frances McDormand as MARGE GUNDERSON in Fargo (The most lovable screen persona of all time, effortlessly revealing herself one step at a time as also one of the smartest)
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5. Anthony Hopkins as MR. STEVENS in The Remains of the Day (Hannibal Lecter was great. Stevens is a quietly hilarious, heartbreaking masterpiece)
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6. Heath Ledger as ENNIS DEL MAR in Brokeback Mountain (so devastatingly good I don't ever want to think about it)
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7. Jeff Bridges as HIS DUDENESS in The Big Lebowski (My idol, both actor and character.)
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8. Julianne Moore as KATHY in Far from Heaven (how can you be so plastic and so heartbreakingly sincere at the same time? I dunno, ask Julianne Moore. Also, HUGE bonus points for Lebowski. Huge.)
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9. Joan Allen as LAINE HANSEN in The Contender (overcomes the preachiness of the movie even when she's the one doing the preaching -- which is often. Has she ever made a false move? This woman is the Pope of acting as far as I'm concerned: completely infallible.)
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10. Paul Scofield as SIR THOMAS MORE in A Man for All Seasons (Eloquence and dignity personified like they've never been before or since. Both humble and humbling, and so heartbreakingly human.)
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11. Jeremy Irons as CLAUS VON BULOW in Reversal of Fortune (Oy, that voice! Two words: "Just kidding.")
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12. Michelle Williams as ARLENE in Dick (no, I'm not kidding! the timing, my god, the timing!)
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13. Mo'Nique as MARY in Precious (the hype is all true and I'm not the least bit sorry)
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14. Bette Davis as MARGO CHANNING in All About Eve (for somehow rising above the ocean of pettiness that could so easily have drowned this character and making her into one of the grand dames for all time)
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15. Alicia Silverstone as CHER in Clueless (Again, totally serious. How many other times have you ever seen an actor totally OWN a movie body and soul the way she does this one? And it's not like she has no competition)
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16. Michael Caine as JASPER in Children of Men (A sage who provides this bleak but hopeful film its vital emotional center. Once the movie's over, the role seems in the memory to be SO much larger than it is, and not just because it's Michael Caine -- not that it hurts.)
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17. Joan Allen as ELIZABETH PROCTOR in The Crucible (My only two-fer! And who better to earn it? Joan Allen might not be my favorite actor, but I could never say that she's not my favorite actor, if that makes sense. This movie is a bit of a melodramatic mess, an adaptation of a brilliant play that never should have been or needed to be made. Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Scofield do as well as they can and come out with their dignity well intact. But whenever Joan's on screen it's a masterpiece. That scene in the courtroom is so good it makes me want to tear my hair out.)
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18. Dianne Wiest as HELEN SINCLAIR in Bullets over Broadway (I think I'll take Helen's advice here and not speak.)
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19. Max von Sydow as FREDERICK in Hannah and her Sisters (It's not at all a large role -- almost a cameo -- and has been outshone by the film's Oscar-winners (both of whom made this list for other reasons). But at the end of my favorite Woody Allen film -- one of my favorite films, period -- this self-loathing, others-loathing, desperately intellectual shell of a man is the character who stays with me. The break-up is so real I can barely watch it.)
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20. Tie -- Olivia de Havilland and Hattie McDaniel as MELANIE HAMILTON and MAMMY in Gone with the Wind (I can't choose between them. McDaniel, clearly the older and wiser of the two actresses, is essentially perfect and the obvious choice, and I think she, not de Havilland, was indeed the right choice for the Oscar. And there's no doubt in my mind that Vivien Leigh's performance is truly great and more than accomplishes the Herculean task of carrying the film's four-hour weight. But as I've gotten older de Havilland's, though far from perfect, is the performance that has grown and changed the most with me. Scarlett and Mammy may dominate every scene they're in (and when they're together, fuhgeddaboudit), but Melanie is the film's emotional center. We, like the film and its characters, don't want to be away from her long, and, even as Gone with the Wind has become less meaningful and personal for me as I've gotten older, Melanie's death has become one of the most unbearable for me to watch.)
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Body-of-work awards for actors I love but can't seem to find a spot for on this list:
Emma Thompson, Josh Brolin, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kate Winslet, Karl Malden, Robert Donat, Judy Davis, Woody Allen, Steve Buscemi



Please let me know what you think!

MmzHrrdb
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Re: Best Performances

Post by MmzHrrdb »

I have a lot:
Kathy Bates in Misery
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Jack Nicholson in The Shining
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William Hurt in A History of Violence
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Edward Norton in American History X
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Hugh Jackman in the Fountain
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Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
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Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler
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Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream
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Jennifer Connely in House of Sand and Fog
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Ben Kingsley in House of Sand and Fog
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Sean Penn in Mystic River
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Naomi Watts in 21 Grams
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Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises
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Tommy Lee Jones in No Country for Old Men
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John Goodman in Barton Fink/The Big Lebowski
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Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
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Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
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Marlon Brando in The Godfather
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Burt Lancaster in Elmer Gantry
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Sergi Lopez in Pan's Labyrinth
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Guy Pearce in Memento
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Jeff Goldblum in The Fly
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Warren Beatty in Bugsy
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Mark Wahlberg in The Departed
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Bryce Dallas Howard in The Village
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Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump
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ok I think i'm finally done, but I've probably forgotten a lot.

by Devol
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Re: Best Performances

Post by by Devol »

Marlon Brando in "Candy"

lisa-
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Re: Best Performances

Post by lisa- »

performances aren't something i directly think about when watching films. there are four that stick out as truly astonishing however:

gena rowlands, a woman under the influence

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david thewlis, naked

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bjork, dancer in the dark

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emily watson, breaking the waves

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Ocelot
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Re: Best Performances

Post by Ocelot »

A lot of great ones have been mentioned, but there are a lot that don't seem to be mentioned enough, if at all:

Joaquin Phoenix - The Master
Leslie Nielsen - Airplane!
Christopher Guest - This Is Spinal Tap
Alan Rickman - Die Hard
Kevin Kline - A Fish Called Wanda
Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading
Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Peter Capaldi - In the Loop
Matt Damon - The Informant!
Andy Serkis - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Nicolas Cage - Vampire's Kiss
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
Alec Baldwin - Glengarry Glen Ross
Alfred Molina - Boogie Nights
Daniel Bruhl - Rush
Peter O'Toole - The Stunt Man
Tom Atkins - Night of the Creeps

Comedy performances don't get enough recognition. I'm also gonna admit that I don't understand the universal praise for Falconetti.

ShogunRua
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Re: Best Performances

Post by ShogunRua »

Ocelot wrote:Brad Pitt - Burn After Reading


Good performance, but probably only my fifth favorite in that film, behind George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and John Malkovich.

Ocelot wrote:Alec Baldwin - Glengarry Glen Ross


Same thing. Great, memorable appearance, but everyone in that movie was so damn brilliant. Jack Lemmon would be my favorite, followed by Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, and Ed Harris, with Baldwin 5th. Alan Arkin had a damn good performance, too!

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