Thoughts on The Machinist?

I really like it quite a lot. I found it completely engrossing and it's an arrestingly ugly looking film, which is worth much more than just its ending. Also, Bale is giving a performance, which is a lot more than just a weight loss gimmick; there's real subtle depth going on. Jennifer Jason Leigh is really good too, which almost never seems to get mentioned.

It's about a 7.5 but it's best moments are kinda awesomely and uniquely spooky and the performance is revolutionary in film history. I am not kidding. I have a friend who said that Bale here should have been stopped (by who - the director? studio?) from what he did because he was hurting his own health.

That shows you that even if it was a gimmick (wasn't) it was a discomforting gimmick to watch and to share in the experience of what the actor is going through. Funny how audiences expect an actor to do an accent or lose "some" weight or gain "some" or some other bullsh it but for that film what Bale was doing was artifice but without the distance. The viewer can't ignore it, can't get space from it, and it is the performance that established him as the heir to DeNiro in that regard.

It fit the role, added to the role uniquely/thematically and expanded on a quality in-between the dialog and therefore added to the film. That's what actors should do - take him out of that film, it's a stunt movie. With him the stunt act that he performed gives it all of its wallop. Bravura stuff.