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Post by JangoB on Feb 16, 2024 16:32:54 GMT
Two duets for the ages: A rewatch of Three Colors: Red reminded me of how astonishing Jacob and Trintignant are in the main roles. Especially Jacob who portrays someone you rarely see on film or in real life - a person who seems to experience every event and every conversation directly through her soul. She's like an orchestra of emotions. And then I have to single out the most contentious married couple I've seen in a while - Max von Sydow and Ghita Nørby in Jan Troell's Hamsun. Both actors are, as they say, on fire here with Sydow giving one of the best and most transformative performances of his exceptional career (extra points for never allowing himself to make the character likeable) and Nørby portraying some of the most genuine bitterness I've seen in eons.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Feb 17, 2024 21:53:08 GMT
Robert DeNiro in The King of Comedy. The ranking DeNiro’s Oscar nominated performances thread made me want to revisit this. Such a travesty this performance isn’t included amongst his nominations. Delusional, sad, pathetic, desperate, lonely, all balanced and fully embraced by DeNiro.
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Feb 18, 2024 16:01:41 GMT
Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall. I know she's Oscar-nominated and has been widely acclaimed, but it still feels to me like this performance has somehow been underrated (edit: lmao, turns out I'm like the fourth person to mention her in this thread, guess I missed all those!). Going into the movie, I was completely unprepared for how much she would floor me. She's given an impossible task in playing a character whose chief characteristic is being private and unknowable, and exploring what happens when such a deliberate enigma finds herself thrust into a very public spotlight with every minute detail of her life suddenly put under intense scrutiny. Hüller plays the character as cold and nurturing, funny and tragic, amorous and repressed all at once; in much the way the film itself excels at the type of wishy-washy tonal hodgepodge that I increasingly find exhausting, but here totally works with such a high degree of command and confidence. She has several moments where the facade collapses and gives way to an intense emotional breakdown (getting parmesan out of the fridge, in the car, etc.) that could so easily be histrionic or hammy in another actor's hands, but Hüller makes those moments totally devastating, not least of all because they're so often fleeting (she can switch back to composure just as quickly) and are genuinely sudden instead of telegraphed from a mile away. And while I think that: a.) the movie isn't as ambiguous as many have made it out to be, and b.) the ambiguity isn't exactly the "point" of the movie, Hüller has a handful of moments where it's impossible to read her motivations, or where her behavior can invite multiple interpretations, that it's easy to understand why the movie has had such a Rorschach like effect on audiences. And all of that's not even to mention the impressive multilingual gymnastics and the effect it has on how we perceive the character; the moment in the courtroom where she defiantly switches to English, because the complexity of what she has to express can't possibly be conveyed in a language she doesn't have mastery of, shows such striking vulnerability. Honestly hard for me to pick between her, Gladstone, and Murphy for my performance of the year, but I really can't remember the last time one year had a trio that struck me the way each of those three has. Couldn't have said it better myself. I wish the movie was stronger but my god Huller was astonishing, completely anchoring the movie. Performance of the year so far.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 24, 2024 9:19:05 GMT
Violetta Schurawlow in Cold Hell (2017) There are very few movies where a female character steals a (non-Porn) exploitation film.........Shareefa Daanish in the vomit-inducing gore fest on steroids Macabre (2009) is one.......Désirée Nosbusch in Der Fan (1982).......well Schurawlow cheats a bit in this film that both is exploitation and character study ........it kind of resembles Argento's last (final?) masterpiece THe Stendhal Syndrome (1996) a bit...... The first 1/3rd of this movie is a great giallo and then it pivots to an action pic - a verrrrrrrrrrry uncomfortable action pic that is both feminist and exploitative of that approach........and is also simultaneously grisly, sexy, endearing, slow, boring and exciting .......what a strange movie! .......it's all those things in 90 minutes and Schurawlow is a genuine bad ass female anti-heroine....loved the character and her no nonsense performance .......this is an action role where if she were a guy people would be jizzing over it like she was John Wick or something ....
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Post by themoviesinner on Feb 28, 2024 18:24:36 GMT
Maika Monroe in God Is A Bullet. Incredible portrayal of a broken, damaged soul hidden behind a cold, aloof demeanour. Turns a grim, nihilistic and unpleasant revenge thriller into something soulful, giving it much needed pathos. One of the best performances of 2023.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 18:36:40 GMT
Maika Monroe in God Is A Bullet. Incredible portrayal of a broken, damaged soul hidden behind a cold, aloof demeanour. Turns a grim, nihilistic and unpleasant revenge thriller into something soulful, giving it much needed pathos. One of the best performances of 2023. I haven't seen this but thanks for the rec ......... I love her ..........both Monroe and Mia Wasikowska are similar to Jessica Lange in that their background includes things outside of acting (in Monroe's case, it's athletics) - which gives them both.....I think? .......a sort of different slant on how to act and use their physicality on screen etc. ......and not be so literal - or just "naturalistic" but to kind of float outside and around parts in how they think through them.........capable of being really unique when they are each at their best anyway imo.....
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Feb 28, 2024 23:13:28 GMT
The cast of Big Country (1958); especially Jean Simmons and Burl Ives, who is life.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 29, 2024 11:58:34 GMT
Joan Crawford in Possessed - rewatch on TUBI (1947)One of those great(ish) post-World War 2 movies - when basically all females in noir anyway were totally kind of disturbed (um) - Possessed is an uncommonly satisfying film ......both in its content and in how it visualizes the content. The movie has many pleasures - the most obvious of which is Crawford playing it for all that it's worth - but also weird pleasures like Van Heflin coming THISCLOSE to telling Crawford's character - "Baby I know you love me, but I'm a doctor! ffs and you're loopier than a God damn roller coaster, ok?" One of those movies that is entirely about making you terrified of the main character.......for her too........and which makes you feel guilty for being terrified of her and these things are going to take........time.......lots an lots of time..........and which simultaneously ends by making you terrified of watching movies where medical mental conditions will be talked about so much by men in white coats that you think you may need them yourself Fascinating, in many ways......
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Post by Nikan on Feb 29, 2024 12:49:46 GMT
Joan Crawford in Possessed - rewatch on TUBI (1947)One of those great(ish) post-World War 2 movies - when basically all females in noir anyway were totally kind of disturbed (um) - Possessed is an uncommonly satisfying film ......both in its content and in how it visualizes the content. I was thinking about seeing the 30s version... have you seen that one too?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 29, 2024 13:52:25 GMT
Joan Crawford in Possessed - rewatch on TUBI (1947)One of those great(ish) post-World War 2 movies - when basically all females in noir anyway were totally kind of disturbed (um) - Possessed is an uncommonly satisfying film ......both in its content and in how it visualizes the content. I was thinking about seeing the 30s version... have you seen that one too? I've seen the 30s film with Joan and the same title but that's not a version of this ........and also that doesn't have as many funny photo moments tbh.........
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 3, 2024 20:43:34 GMT
The entire ensemble of The Quiet Family (1998) - including Choi Min-sik and Song Kang-ho - 1st time watchI never saw this whole thing before - and it is pretty wonderfully dark, quite funny and kind of scary too in its own way (and its own way is relentless oneupsmanship).......the cast is excellent and it plays as Death Obsessed Fun........would be fun to watch with Goths actually...... Good stuff, extremely well played and a great last scene too........
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Post by Nikan on Mar 3, 2024 22:06:36 GMT
Barry Sullivan in Forty Guns (1957) - Came for Stanwyck, but stayed for him...
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Post by Archie on Mar 4, 2024 22:39:00 GMT
These two magnificent beasts. The only reason to watch the movie, really.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Mar 5, 2024 21:21:32 GMT
Ernest Borgnine in Marty. Understated and sensitive performance that perfectly encapsulates loneliness. Came across so genuine with no false notes, whether it was his desperate wanting to not be alone, or trying to act like he fits in with his friends who have polar opposite feelings and viewpoints than him. Very touching and a great job of covering his insecurity and good heartedness.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 9, 2024 9:02:57 GMT
Julianne Moore in S1, E1 of Mary & George (2024)The great Julianne Moore appears in the first scene - unwilling to cut the umbilical cord just yet (literal, metaphorical) - in the 2nd scene she cuts a noose - which oddly connects (literal, metaphorical) that both binds and kicks off this rollicking, borderline frantic episode - less than an hour that just flies by. Kind of an eerie, incestual, and quite funny royal House of Gucci -type origin story of awful people doing awful things and how they got that way..... Mary & George is a period piece for people who love them AND find them not enough fun.........but this is GREAT fun.......and Moore - in a viperous, delicious performance with line readings spat out with so much zeal she's practically giddy at how much there is to be done. A fantastic, profane performance - she seems to have invented the word "Fuck" in this shows first 15 minutes given how memorable it is from her mouth........she is utterly in period and utterly modern and salacious. She is also incredibly photographed here - either holding her "Second Son" in that bloody post-birth - offset by the crimson - or by candlelight - a memorable scene in which she "spies" and soon I reckon do much more than that..... in the very next scene it's fireplace light...... TylerDeneuve : This is TWO performances in a row by Moore now that Nicole Kidman maybe could have played - and I think would very much want to play .........am I the only one that sees this? Thoughts please! I'm only one episode in though .......
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 13, 2024 10:42:48 GMT
Andrew Scott in Vanya - National Theatre Compnay Filmed Staging (2024)An exhausting, one man take on Uncle Vanya ( TylerDeneuve ) - that strips the play of all its intricacies and has Scott playing across parts with the language modernized.......it's sort of a Cliff's Notes stunt and doesn't really work exactly but Scott TOTALLY works...he is incredibly energetic (and weary, natch), frazzled and kinetic here and imaginative too as he cleerly incorporates stage props into his monologues This performance is also wildly funny - which you know - Vanya isn't usually.......ths is not great acting as comedy....it's great acting that uses comedy............ so it is gloriously bitchy specifically ......it "enacts wit" Olivier nominated performance btw......one of the only good thing from an actor's POV I've come across in 2024 along with Julianne Moore in Mary & George (see previous post)
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Post by ireallyamsomething on Mar 13, 2024 20:48:56 GMT
Andrew Scott in Vanya - National Theatre Compnay Filmed Staging (2024)An exhausting, one man take on Uncle Vanya ( TylerDeneuve ) - that strips the play of all its intricacies and has Scott playing across parts with the language modernized.......it's sort of a Cliff's Notes stunt and doesn't really work exactly but Scott TOTALLY works...he is incredibly energetic (and weary, natch), frazzled and kinetic here and imaginative too as he cleerly incorporates stage props into his monologues This performance is also wildly funny - which you know - Vanya isn't usually.......ths is not great acting as comedy....it's great acting that uses comedy............ so it is gloriously bitchy specifically ......it "enacts wit" Olivier nominated performance btw......one of the only good thing from an actor's POV I've come across in 2024 along with Julianne Moore in Mary & George (see previous post) I saw this recently and I guess wasn't in the right frame of mind for it and the performance, while undeniably impressive was a lot to process in one viewing, but still I was a bit underwhelmed overall. Maybe because Uncle Vanya is one of my favorite plays (and among those works of art which left a huge impression on me) I have a certain attachment or expectations from it. The whole conceit of one actor playing all the parts felt a bit distracting from the overall emotional power of the original work I think. As an experiment it's perfectly fine, but I also wondered how it would play for people who weren't very familiar with the play.
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Post by ireallyamsomething on Mar 14, 2024 11:48:40 GMT
Laure Calamy in Full Time (2021)I think I am especially drawn to these sorts of performances where there may not necessarily be big, showreel-type scenes but one just has to observe a character as they go about their life. This reminded me of the Dardenne brothers' work obviously, though the music here makes it feel even more like a propulsive thriller (will she get a ride? will her boiler be fixed? will her card be declined?). And Calamy, in a brilliant performance, holds it all together. She's constantly in motion, because that's what she has to do to survive (and she's still running out of time! which I could relate to though I don't even have to take care of kids . In another film we might have seen some scenes of her interacting more deeply with her family or her colleagues, but this film doesn't allow us or the central character the luxury of that time and space. The character is desperate and flawed too, as there are people who are getting affected along the way due to her actions, but the overall system is really the main culprit - where for millions of people there aren't many options but to run and hustle without being able to stop and breathe for a while.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 16, 2024 21:17:20 GMT
Kate Winslet in The Regime (2024)A genuinely singular performance in a show that doen't match her - you maybe can't imagine anyone doing these days, this way..............and if you think it's worth watching it's worth watching FOR her......the satire on this show is too easy and overstuffed but Winslet is doing an inspired send-up of Margaret Thatcher crossed with a suppressingly goofy Madeline Kahn or something Some of the dialog is mordant wit to a ludicrous degree."have we met before?"...."deja vu..........or .......in a dream?".......she deadpans.....and this is the first time I've seen Winslet in a sort of screwball comedy form - this role suggests Maggie Smith a bit actually......I can't quite recommend this so far.......2 episodes in.......but I can defintely recommend the lead An extremely conceptual, extremely intelligent performance within a performance ........
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Drish
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Post by Drish on Mar 16, 2024 23:58:29 GMT
❤️😍😘
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Post by ibbi on Mar 19, 2024 18:15:57 GMT
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Post by Archie on Mar 21, 2024 0:19:57 GMT
Is it controversial to say that this is a top 10 Kubrick performance?
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Post by stephen on Mar 21, 2024 0:40:50 GMT
Is it controversial to say that this is a top 10 Kubrick performance? I think he's the MVP of The Shining and yeah, I think he's a reasonable pick, especially in a post- Strangelove filmography. Philip Stone absolutely dominates his screentime as Delbert Grady, and the way the mask just slips and his menace bleeds through is horrifying. Frankly, I think he makes Nicholson look like a rank amateur in their scene together.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 21, 2024 14:05:44 GMT
Luis Tosar in Cell 211 (2009) - on TUBI 1st time watch A great Luis Tosar performance as a guy trapped inside a prison riot who plays both sides of the fence. Much of the movie is shot in excruciating close-ups and you get a sense of Tosar's desperation and jumping out of his own skin fear he's losing control. Major actor, a signature role and a very entertaining, watchable film .......Tosar is also wildly jacked up for this role - extremely physically imposing which he incorporates into his acting too He's a marvelous actor.....
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Post by JangoB on Mar 26, 2024 1:07:11 GMT
Not only a truly all-caps GREAT performance (Cher who?) but also possibly the funniest on-screen crying of all time. Haven't seen the movie in years... Floored by Hunter upon this rewatch.
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