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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 2, 2023 16:24:40 GMT
I think in a lot of ways you see Brando in Widmark Widmark's screen persona was well-established years before Brando got onto the scene, starting with his crazed, Oscar-nominated debut in Kiss of Death. Brando had nothing to do with Widmark.No, but that isn't what I actually said - when I say you see "Brando in Widmark" it assumes you/me/we know their career timelnes ............. so Brando - the more famous, influential and imitated actor had nothing to do with Widmark .................but Widmark had something to do with Brando - the more famous, influential and imitated actor.........Capisce, paisan?
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Post by SeanJoyce on Sept 2, 2023 16:37:46 GMT
^Well then it'd be you see a lot Widmark in Brando
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 3, 2023 6:42:07 GMT
The cast of Miller's Crossing (1990) - special mention of John Turturro - rewatch You would think a lot of people would hate Miller's Crossing.......and yet I don't know anyone who does.......what's more it not only stands up to repeated viewings, those viewings make it seem more distinct and less stylized - that's how sure its stylization is played. Imagine any of this cast not being convincing and it would seem a mere language pull of gimmicks with all that talk of "What's the rumpus?" and "cracking wise"........but all of them - Finney, Polito, Byrne, Turturro, Harden etc. - sell it and play it so well you just eventually accept this as this movie's own world. It rings true by playing so strongly towards the "false"...... John Turturro gives one of his best performances - as a genuinely memorable and despicable, selfish and weak character - drawn as the exact opposite of the lead (the very fine) Gabriel Byrne who amusingly takes the beatings that Turturro deserves actually........Turturro only has a few scenes but no two of his scenes play out the way they start and and they all end memorably. It's often said that American actors don't like to play weak - or show weakness.......Turturro here shows it, denies it, shows it again and it's tied to everything he says or does ......it is again written in such a way that in his final scene he is drawn as the oopposite of Byrne's Tom but weirdly similar and connected: in denial of who he really is - and has done - and thinking he can transcend it........both are mistaken....... When I first saw Miller's Crossing I think I thought it was great but too convoluted.....now it just seens great and about convolution (and happenstance) ..........which isn't the same thing at all.......
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 7, 2023 18:41:45 GMT
Jane Birkin & Gerladine Page in the Director's Cut of Love on the Ground (Jacques Rivette) - 1984 - rewatchTylerDeneuve .........one of Birkin's cleverest turns and in which Chaplin has to equal her (and does).......this movie exists in a horrible cut version but if you see it in the near 3 hour cut it makes more sense and is more playful, less rushed, less frantic and more singular......sort of a lesser Celine and Julie Go Boating but not without its own charms and a lot of theater, acting and even "horror" reflective references examined recurringly......with great intellect and wit....... Fine, difficult (and sloooooooooow), ultimately rewarding film......in ts full cut
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 8, 2023 7:21:50 GMT
Thomas Jane in 1922 (2017) - rewatch I believe there's another man.......... inside every manThere's actually 3 men total - at different points - in Thomas Jane's Wilfred James - a character that makes this sort of like a male version of Pearl in where he seems a historical harbinger of self-destroying evil.......of course the difference is Pearl isn't destroyed ........Wilfred James not only takes a life he takes 4 himself included Jane is so good here and eerily silent as if he sees things he can't convey so is dumbstruck - he becomes a kind of poster boy of moral rot........I've reviewed this performance before and I am pretty sure I said how good he is at playing dumb.......not condescendingly but genuinely ........ Great stuff to revisit pre-Halloween - and people misunderstand this movie too - what makes it greatish is it builds to a logical end........there are no twists or surprises.......just a void........
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 14, 2023 7:54:34 GMT
Jeanne Moreau in The Old Lady Who Walked In The Sea (1991) - rewatchAn inferior sort of version of Chabrol's later, better The Swindle - with the same lead actor - the great Michel Serrault this movie is almost entirely saved by Moreau (Cesar winner for this) - who is fascinating, foul mouthed and dangerous........in every way....... The movie gets better the more you see it - it's a lot darker when you think back on it - but she's great and complex from the start whether you fully buy into it or not......
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Post by mhynson27 on Sept 14, 2023 14:04:15 GMT
De Niro in The King of Comedy.
The more I think about it, the more I'm confident that it's my favourite performance of his.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 17, 2023 21:53:21 GMT
Naila Schuberth as Hannah in Dear Child (2023) on NetflixI've only seen 4 of the 6 episodes - but I'm already calling her Little Huppert tbh Tipped by wilcinema - and he ain't wrong folks: Remarkable - and remarkably quickly in how striking this performance is - in its composure, consistent and evident technique, its intelligence and conveying a sort of wide eyed fear - or possibly not knowing enough to even truly understand what she should fear and perhaps may not (?) - in a way she's robotic and yet deeply moving That's not an unclear performance or a contradictory one actually - at all - rather it's a complex, suggestive one.......
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 21, 2023 7:23:13 GMT
Keve Hjelm in Raven's End (1963) - rewatchOne of several special performances in this famous Swedish film - that is a portrayal not just sharply horrible but horribly tragic and suggestive of a whole class of marginalized, worn down men. A great performance in how it conveys his alcoholism - and that's just a start .........also about - and shaped by his inept parenting, marriage, work and Hjelm is at times deeply sympathetic while always being monstrous
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 22, 2023 22:37:30 GMT
David Dastmalchian in Late Night With The Devil (2023)Mattsby , cheesecake , Tommen_Saperstein , @horrorfans etc. My fave horror film this year I think ....... This may not be streaming yet (?) but it totally should be for Halloween.......this is a GREAT idea for a horror movie even though THIS horror movie isn't that scary itself .........it is instead creepy and sharp with a couple jolts but also in its Rupert Pupkin satire mixed with horror in a kind of Faustian pact with various devils......... This is actually much better as a movie than Talk To Me is ......and it's got more on its mind too including the 1970s, and 70s celebrity culture and the weird detours of "yeah this REALLY happened" (it didn't but it totally could have!) A lot of fun and if they wanted to play it darker and more specific could have a horror classic.......maybe will show up on Shudder or something........definitely worth seeing when it does........ Dastmalchian is marvelous in this part - a perfect mix of smug and desperate ......and how the camera captures his "act"
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Sept 23, 2023 2:00:07 GMT
@ pacinoyes ooh hadn't heard of this one. Sounds really interesting! I mostly know Dastmalchian as *that creepy guy* from Villeneuve's movies so it's nice to see him with a leading role, especially in horror with those shifty features lol. Just went down a rabbit hole with his wiki page and he's insanely prolific. He's appeared in 6 releases in 2023 Competing with Cage maybe... not streaming anywhere yet sadly and I couldn't even find a trailer for it, but thanks for the shoutout. Will definitely be on the lookout.
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Post by cheesecake on Sept 24, 2023 22:25:19 GMT
David Dastmalchian in Last Night With The Devil (2023)Mattsby , cheesecake , Tommen_Saperstein , @horrorfans etc. My fave horror film this year I think ....... This may not be streaming yet (?) but it totally should be for Halloween.......this is a GREAT idea for a horror movie even though THIS horror movie isn't that scary itself .........it is instead creepy and sharp with a couple jolts but also in its Rupert Pupkin satire mixed with horror in a kind of Faustian pact with various devils......... This is actually much better as a movie than Talk To Me is ......and it's got more on its mind too including the 1970s, and 70s celebrity culture and the weird detours of "yeah this REALLY happened" (it didn't but it totally could have!) A lot of fun and if they wanted to play it darker and more specific could have a horror classic.......maybe will show up on Shudder or something........definitely worth seeing when it does........ Dastmalchian is marvelous in this part - a perfect mix of smug and desperate ......and how the camera captures his "act" This has been on my radar since it popped up on on this list. Really looking forward to it. Dastmalchian is having a baller year.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Sept 25, 2023 13:39:34 GMT
Kaitlyn Dever in No One Can Save You (2023). She is able to convey a wide array of emotions in a performance that has virtually zero dialogue. Fear, anxiety, trauma, a wanting of normality, and much more. So much expressed just in her eyes.
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Post by themoviesinner on Sept 25, 2023 15:54:54 GMT
Franco Nero in The Case Is Closed, Forget It (1971)A truly mesmerizing and heartbreaking showcase of a rich, idealistic man, slowly devoured by the corrupt, inhuman system, as he tries to survive in prison. Watching his transformation from a man ready to fight for his beliefs and what he thinks is right to someone timid and frightened is truly fantastic and the last shot where we can see the main character's disappointment and disgust with himself for his fear and inability to act is definitely something that one cannot easily forget. One of the best performances of the 70's.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 29, 2023 1:26:51 GMT
Sandra Hüller in Requiem (2006) - rewatchFantastic performance by Hüller who neither leans too much into the physicality of epilepsy, the accompanying mental illness or the demonic "possession" yet makes you feel all 3 are manifesting themselves in her ........when she dances (2 extraordinary scenes) she is both rigid and unhinged........at several points she is a young woman and a frightened child.....her happiness is etched with great sorrow simultaneously at every moment she passes "a test"........this series of contradictions - in every way - makes you feel her constant uneasiness and unsteadiness......... An exceptionally smart piece of work.........
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 12, 2023 8:48:18 GMT
Nacho Sánchez in Manticore (2022) - First time watchIncredibly disturbing story with no blood and possibly no murder (?) which is still a horror on several levels. It reminded me very much of the great A Wolf At The Door (2013) from Brazil - still on TUBI - watch it ffs .. - although this Spanish film removes all the tropes of genre pics that film subverts........and instead hides several things in plain sight...... In fact we do not see the act or acts committed that drive the later plot turns really - and indeed those acts are not crystallized until 75% into the runtime even - they are only hinted at and alluded to and for one character they relive their own backstory through the act a kind of (again, disturbing) dependent transference. Sánchez is all placid, jangling frayed nerves - panic attacks and on some level panicking.........his performance is deeply sad and deeply complicated.......he's great and awful ........but he doesn't hit a false note......his reaction shot to an image he sees nar the ending is gutting and wordless.......this is how you underplay a part........
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Post by JangoB on Oct 12, 2023 20:14:27 GMT
Sandra Hüller delivers and then some in Anatomy of a Fall - her performance completely lives up to expectations. I'm particularly impressed by how she uses the smallest facial expression changes and, even more importantly, her voice which she keeps at a very specific softness... until she doesn't. Absolutely in love with her portrayal and hoping for big things for it. And I also watched Requiem a few days ago and she's indeed great there as well. And that was her feature debut!
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 14, 2023 11:15:57 GMT
Nacho Sánchez in Manticore (2022) - First time watchIncredibly disturbing story with no blood and possibly no murder (?) which is still a horror on several levels. It reminded me very much of the great A Wolf At The Door (2013) from Brazil - still on TUBI - watch it ffs .. - although this Spanish film removes all the tropes of genre pics that film subverts........and instead hides several things in plain sight...... In fact we do not see the act or acts committed that drive the later plot turns really - and indeed those acts are not crystallized until 75% into the runtime even - they are only hinted at and alluded to and for one character they relive their own backstory through the act a kind of (again, disturbing) dependent transference. Sánchez is all placid, jangling frayed nerves - panic attacks and on some level panicking.........his performance is deeply sad and deeply complicated.......he's great and awful ........but he doesn't hit a false note......his reaction shot to an image he sees nar the ending is gutting and wordless.......this is how you underplay a part........ So this guy ^ doesnt have a lot of movies - and not many I could find but other than this ^ ace portrayal (Goya nominated, lead actor btw) - he's in a Netflix film called Seventeen (2019) about 2 brothers that is sweet, gentle - if too predictable road pic - a surprisingly well-done film many people would like I think......... Sanchez is pretty terrific in Seventeen too in the believable, likable rapport as the older brother..........an actor to keep an eye on.........on the basis of these 2 works - Manticore especially, but he suggests a real thought in how he approached and executed both parts ........
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 15, 2023 18:06:45 GMT
Robert Ryan in On Dangerous Ground (1951) - rewatch Ryan - the greatest overtly masculine actor at playing the psychological angles of the disturbances of that masculinity - deeply disturbed, dangerous men - heroic or villainous - was only 41 or maybe 42 when he filmed this movie - but he seems far older......as if an endless burden is placed on his shoulders that he can't shake off and is draining him. When Ryan plays this type of volatile guy - and he played it a lot - it suggests both a backstory and allows a full arc - either a dead end or redemptive one.......here it's redemptive but before that you aren't sure if Ryan (like Widmark) might hurt himself, his girl, someone he's interrogating .....or a stranger. In a great scene where Ryan is conspicuously left alone with an interogation - something that has happened a lot you imagine (again, backstory) - and the worst has happened - Ryan is shot from the POV of his hands - not his eyes or over the shoulder but his hands......the director - Nicholas Ray - a behaviorally astute director who could film a whole movie on Ryan's thoughts - switches to a POV of Ryan articulating those thoughts.....and they aren't pretty..... Ryan suggests so much and Ray helps him too - his hands can wound - someone else's hands can heal......and Ryan can only drop his hands to someone who "appears" weaker than him.......there's fascinating roughness to Ryan that is missing from almost all his peers .....so much so that you don't see the full fruition of his acting style and the characters he played until you've revisited all or most of them for a rewatch......
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Post by stephen on Oct 17, 2023 16:38:03 GMT
One of the most stomach-churning projects I've seen in years, the BBC's four-part series The Reckoning shows the viewer no mercy when it depicts the horrifying atrocities committed by Jimmy Savile, and how he was enabled by the powers-that-be that looked the other way for decades. What makes it so brutally, viscerally effective is Steve Coogan giving a career-best performance as a true monster in human skin. There is a moment in the first two episodes where Coogan's Savile is literally dressed as a courtroom jester in a hospital ward, and it is one of the most starkly unnerving visual moments I've ever seen. What is so horrifying is just how matter-of-fact Coogan portrays Savile, and how he's not only fully aware of the privilege afforded to him, he is fully willing to toe the line to test just how far he can go, whether it be blithely comparing himself to the Pied Piper to straight-up assaulting people in a crowded room. I can see why people are critical of the BBC for releasing a series about this monster, but Coogan's portrayal is singularly fantastic in its unpleasantness.
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 17, 2023 18:28:50 GMT
One of the most stomach-churning projects I've seen in years, the BBC's four-part series The Reckoning shows the viewer no mercy when it depicts the horrifying atrocities committed by Jimmy Savile, and how he was enabled by the powers-that-be that looked the other way for decades. What makes it so brutally, viscerally effective is Steve Coogan giving a career-best performance as a true monster in human skin. There is a moment in the first two episodes where Coogan's Savile is literally dressed as a courtroom jester in a hospital ward, and it is one of the most starkly unnerving visual moments I've ever seen. What is so horrifying is just how matter-of-fact Coogan portrays Savile, and how he's not only fully aware of the privilege afforded to him, he is fully willing to toe the line to test just how far he can go, whether it be blithely comparing himself to the Pied Piper to straight-up assaulting people in a crowded room. I can see why people are critical of the BBC for releasing a series about this monster, but Coogan's portrayal is singularly fantastic in its unpleasantness. It is really great and that's partially because as actors always say "you can't judge the people you are playing" - Coogan captures this spectacularly well in its directness ...........this is Jimmy Savile irl (below).........and Coogan balances the "fun" and "not fucking fun at all - scary af, on-camera in front of you" in front of your very eyes...........an astonishing example of a national delusion which is an underlying theme too. The biggest compliment I can give him is - it's Peter Sellers worthy really:
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 18, 2023 21:37:45 GMT
Ralph Fiennes in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartet's (2022)Not merely a great 1 man performance by the actor who gave the best performance I ever saw on a stage of one of my favorite poets - but a unique one too - in the tour de force manner of maybe Cate Blanchett - and very few others - where Fiennes reads the text and sort of acts it out across his face and body. I say this a lot but there are all kinds of acting and we tend to talk about the same kind of acting all the time - ie the post-Brando school of naturalism........but life is not always naturalistic - think Depardieu in Tartuffe or more recently Hunter in TToM or the mesmerizing Chastain performance in Salome which achieve a kind of horror outside of mere fright.....a kind of humor outside of just laughter..... Fiennes kind of does that here but across a great range of emotional playing abd in particular his voice is a dazzling weapon here as he twists, elongates and underlines words in a way that makes you realize how many different ways there are to perform text and the multiple meanings you can wring out of that text.......... if you're a great actor ..... TylerDeneuve would appreciate this I think .........I mean it's not just "poetic".........it's literally poetry
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 21, 2023 8:16:46 GMT
Mattsby who I think would love the performance.....the movie is a more divisive thing........... Laure Calamy in The Origin of Evil (2022)Call My Agent! star who has now become a César Award winning force of nature is ace here in a Chabrol-like piece of surprising and unrelenting nastiness. Right from the start - Calamy dazzles in a great phone call scene where she seems like she might burst out of her skin.......this movie has a sneaky pull - in one scene the camera is placed on the floor so you see her and her possibly real life rich father - weak of body but seemingly of sound (but aggressive and casually racist) mind - who she has never known (that's the plot, it's very House of Gucci) - leave a room and someone else, the maid - leaves the adjoining room where she was listening to them talk..........that kind of touch makes everything ratchet up a notch and feel claustrophobic........and Calamy herself acts in a claustrophobic and crackling way: All surface level tension and agitated stress in her sad eyes - she is fantastic at illustrating class difference not merely indicating it. An entire chunk of this movie involves her acting in a complex way - presenting a side of herself that is not what you would think and she is particularly adept at not losing character consistency.......there are also elements of Greta, Talented Mr. Ripley and many other films in the Chabrol manner ( La Rupture, speaking of fncked up families - for one) Great performance in an interesting movie......and I wouldn't be surprised if this got an American remake btw.....
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Post by stephen on Oct 21, 2023 15:46:30 GMT
I know people are getting riled up about my criticisms levied against DiCaprio's affectations in Scorsese's latest, but what augments it even further is that he's largely working against two tremendous performances from his screen partners. But in particular, I want to single out Robert De Niro's portrayal of crooked cattle kingpin William Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon. All while looking like Harry S. Truman's evil twin, De Niro exudes a grandfatherly affection that feels almost gentle at times, something I've never really considered De Niro to be capable of. But that's what I think makes his menace all the more terrifying. De Niro's Hale is so entrenched in his own greed and malevolence that it's routine to him, as casual as taking a breath. You can see why this man gained trust with the Osage so easily and readily; his patriarchal charm suffuses his every action, to the point that you are never really sure where his genuine care ends and his machinations begin. Is his decency all a sham? Or, more chillingly, is it legitimate but he is capable of overlooking it in favour of a quick buck? I have criticized De Niro's somnolence these last few decades, but this is far and away the best thing he's done since his 1990 twofer in my estimation, and could even challenge as his best performance under Scorsese's direction.
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Post by wallsofjericho on Oct 21, 2023 15:54:46 GMT
I know people are getting riled up about my criticisms levied against DiCaprio's affectations in Scorsese's latest, but what augments it even further is that he's largely working against two tremendous performances from his screen partners. But in particular, I want to single out Robert De Niro's portrayal of crooked cattle kingpin William Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon. All while looking like Harry S. Truman's evil twin, De Niro exudes a grandfatherly affection that feels almost gentle at times, something I've never really considered De Niro to be capable of. But that's what I think makes his menace all the more terrifying. De Niro's Hale is so entrenched in his own greed and malevolence that it's routine to him, as casual as taking a breath. You can see why this man gained trust with the Osage so easily and readily; his patriarchal charm suffuses his every action, to the point that you are never really sure where his genuine care ends and his machinations begin. Is his decency all a sham? Or, more chillingly, is it legitimate but he is capable of overlooking it in favour of a quick buck? I have criticized De Niro's somnolence these last few decades, but this is far and away the best thing he's done since his 1990 twofer in my estimation, and could even challenge as his best performance under Scorsese's direction. He felt like a combination of Daniel Plainview and Noah Cross.
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