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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2022 15:29:42 GMT
PromNightCarrie - In my mind, Schneider here, along with Adjani in The Story of Adele H. and Rampling in Under the Sand, are the greatest performances ever committed to film. I love that you highlighted this performance.
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Post by PromNightCarrie on May 16, 2022 17:30:52 GMT
PromNightCarrie - In my mind, Schneider here, along with Adjani in The Story of Adele H. and Rampling in Under the Sand, are the greatest performances ever committed to film. I love that you highlighted this performance. I haven't seen Rampling, but good taste on the other two. Adjani's is one of the best ever, for sure. And I had to highlight it. When I love something, you know I'm passionate about it. What a star and talent Romy Schneider was. Gone too soon. IMO one of the most captivating faces too.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 17, 2022 8:33:09 GMT
Robert De Niro - Midnight Run (1988)Rewatched this recently, and would probably put it among De Niro’s top 10 performances. Terrific chemistry with Grodin, and is great in a lot of his reactions, with facial expressions hilariously showing different shades of exasperation and frustration. He’s also very funny in the way he often looks like he’s restraining himself from impulsively spouting the first thing that comes to his mind. You can see him trying to remain civil, but really wanting to say what he originally had in mind. There’s a touch of sadness to the performance as well, the way he behaves awkwardly around his estranged daughter, and trying to act nice to his ex-wife before tensions flare up again.
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Post by Viced on May 18, 2022 22:22:37 GMT
Chow Yun-fat in A Better TomorrowHoly shit... I have a new idol. Certainly one of the coolest performances ever. And then out of nowhere, he's totally heartbreaking when you see him limping around and cleaning windshields. But thankfully... the swagger and badassery swiftly make a seamless comeback.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 19, 2022 20:47:08 GMT
Robert De Niro (really the whole cast) – Jacknife (1989)Been watching some of De Niro’s lower-tier great performances... surprised this one doesn’t get talked about more. It’s kind of a tricky role in a way – he has to play someone charismatic and funny/playful but also sensitive, gentle, and kind, while also suggesting a backstory of someone who was something of a loose cannon, is currently recovering from trauma and trying to be more disciplined in controlling himself, but is still slightly unhinged. It’s a delicate balancing act, and he’s able to bring all the pieces of his character into a believable whole. Every moment, regardless of how different his behavior is from scene to scene, seems consistent with who this guy is.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on May 20, 2022 22:27:53 GMT
Robert De Niro - The Wizard of Lies (2017)So I have to take back what I said earlier about putting Midnight Run among De Niro’s top 10 performances, because I think this one just edges it out for me. This actually makes for a good "companion performance" to The Irishman in a way. Here, we’ve got De Niro’s characteristic charisma tinged with the sociopathy of someone in denial of his own evil. Very casual and matter-of-fact in the way he admits his actions while refusing to acknowledge certain potential consequences, and also confidently convinced of the dishonesty of others too. He’s just as skilled at lying to himself as he is to everyone else (like a seasoned, manipulative salesman) - the way he pauses before saying the word “crime” as if unable to come to grips with the fact that he’s a criminal. Like a politician, he’s an expert at deflection, feigning anger at his son’s entitlement in order to avoid revealing his own secrets. But we see his confidence cracking in scenes like when he finds out that his sons refused to sign the bond – the way he stammers and trails off in his speech, obviously hurt and confused by his sons’ disloyalty.
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Post by akittystang on May 22, 2022 19:40:41 GMT
Working on a Lyne montage and revisited Unfaithful for the first time since it came out. All of his films hit very different because I was watching all his stuff when I was like 13. Lolita is fucking disgusting, btw. Anywho, Unfaithful. Diana Lane is an absolute revelation and I am so thrilled she was recognized for it. The facial expressions she has are next level -- that train scene. Frankly, and I feel gross anytime I say this, but I think it's one of his best, if not his best, film. I remember watching it totally cold, no idea where it was going to go, hadn't read the book and I was kind of in disbelief but couldn't stop watching. It was beyond unethical to use Dominique Swain at the age she was for that role. That being said, she stole the entire movie in my opinion, and should've gotten at least a nomination if not a win. Not sure how 9 1/2 weeks is viewed here, but I would love to see this released. Fatal Attraction still holds up but I think I prefer its alternate ending. Had Nicole Kidman won the prior year, I think Diane would have won the year she was up for the award. In all likelihood. She was so good in that movie.
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Post by stabcaesar on May 25, 2022 17:51:48 GMT
The whole cast was exemplary but Tierney was simply iconic. Judith Anderson was also effortlessly masterful. The male cast members were good too though I'm not sure if I'd been blinded by Dana Andrews' hunkery lol.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 3, 2022 8:22:21 GMT
Maika Monroe Watcher (2022)She has already been memorable or more than that in the modern horror classic It Follows and totally stole the heroine role (not the movie though come on) in Greta opposite an exceptional, supercharged villainess Huppert no less. In this movie - great at times and mostly quite good despite some contrivances and "just don't question it too much" BS - Monroe is deeply affecting, deeply sympathetic and you are scared for her and scared of her too. The camera also loves her - you climb in her head and think along with her - crucially, as a sole lead - as she is put in (increasingly preposterous) positions along the stylish but decayingly ominous locales ...........which mimic her mental state. She's a movie star .....and this role could have been played by a young Jessica Lange .....who would have hit similar notes of the threats both external and internal.
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Post by ibbi on Jun 4, 2022 21:07:22 GMT
Let's see Meryl Streep and Helen fucking Mirren do this at 96:
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 7, 2022 0:11:21 GMT
Rose Leslie & Harry Treadaway - Honeymoon (2014) - on TUBIPretty good thriller / horror with a slight let down ending but the part right before that ending is kind of awesome in a Paranormal Activity 3 sort of way. The two stars are really well matched - Treadaway is playing the Ewan McGregor part (about as well as he might tbh) and Leslie is a marvel of sex appeal with wan looks into nowhere in particular and ominous culinary botches. This movie - directed by the person who did Fear Street Trilogy - Leigh Janiak - gets by on young people convincingly selling their marriage. It sets up what comes later by having this newly married couple fnck - a lot - and convincingly........and while they are doing that what comes up - having a family, the "I have a headache" excuse, the level of commitment when the honeymoon is "ending"......and that spins into something darker (and more convoluted). If you told me they were a real couple I'd believe it though........ when things start to turn in the script Leslie's character disappoints you in a way that really hurts - by messing up French Toast AND Coffee - and that dude is supposed to be happy about this "til Death do we part" stuff? The movie is structured almost like a psycological thriller / horror parody of a relationship arc - how well do you know this stranger sleeping in your bed - and every fight is a sort of more darker version of typical fights (Where were you? Who were you with? Why are you behaving like this? Are you ok, baby?) Interesting movie - not great but I enjoyed it - and these two made it memorable......the script also has a lot of things inserted into it that it circles back to - smartly (the hollow carved ducks, the tape at the beginning, the couples flirtations and repeatable behavior which we notice before we are told to notice it. It also smartly - mostly avoids showing too much - one of the best moments is when a character merely TELLS us something.......and we fill in the rest. Side note: This was not in any way "elevated horror" - at all - it easily could have been made in the 70s.......on a shoestring budget - except in the 70s they wouldn't have gotten two Brits to play Americans on their honeymoon.....but.......
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jun 7, 2022 3:28:17 GMT
Marilyn Monroe - Don't Bother to Knock (1952) & Bus Stop (1956)
The 1952 noir also stars Widmark but Monroe holds the whole thing up on her shoulders playing a shy babysitter with a mysterious past and serious dark streak. What elevates the material from could've been a perfectly enjoyable noir with a campy femme fatale psycho is how it dissects the Monroe character's delusions and links them to her traumatic past, thus humanizing her and respecting her pain/experience. This has the added effect of giving Monroe much more to work with and a challenging character arc that has to balance all these competing factors. You're scared of her (and enjoying it) but also feel for her. Monroe gives voice to the character's heartbreak and you can read the pain on her face. She's living in the past and can't accept the reality of her tragedy, and it makes her lash out in desperation and denial. She's a woman desperate for connection and love and to re-live an innocent past. Bus Stop is not nearly as good a film but Monroe's performance is even better and hits closer to home. Monroe plays a woman from the Ozarks with big Hollywood dreams who finds herself stuck in a Phoenix cafe performing for petty cash. Monroe is charming and funny but she also understands her character's loneliness and the hopelessness of her dreams. When the leading man (who's a rapey mess but that'll keep) tells Monroe's character that her sexual past doesn't matter as long as they love each other, she responds, sobbing, "That's the sweetest, tenderest thing anyone ever said to me." And she means it and as a viewer you feel it. And those aren't tears of joy. It feels like Monroe breaking the 4th wall.
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Post by wallsofjericho on Jun 11, 2022 9:49:52 GMT
Lady Gaga- House of Gucci
I know people are a bit divided on this but I think she's absolutely fantastic. She looks so comfortable on screen with legends like Pacino and Irons. She's plays so many different dimensions of the role whether it's being charming, sexy, vulnerable and she's precise in detailing the character's downfall without any obvious signals in the script. My runner up to Alana Haim that year. Superb performance.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 12, 2022 17:08:11 GMT
Ioana Bugarin & Emanuel Parvu - Miracle (2022)
What's something people misunderstand about acting? Well, to me, the biggest thing is they misinterpret the character vs. the actor and the two performers of this sensational film both achieve something striking: Bugarin achieves a transcendent quality you almost never get from an actress - her performance - not the character, but her actual acting work achieves a kind of grace. She is so silent - so noticeably still - that her every movement or glance takes on a seismic resonance. If anything she evokes Binoche - or someone like that - she stands apart. Parvu - achieves something quite different but equally rare. In his role and in how he builds this cop character - he dares you to kind of hate him .......not merely for what he does, but for how he does it. On IMDB - and maybe MAR - I would say that Al Pacino in Heat is a great performance (that's not even in his top 10 btw because his top 10 cuts so deep) because he plays "the hero" as "a villain" (very rare in modern American films)........that's why you maybe don't get Heat on first viewing........or him IN Heat at least .........well: Parvu is doing that and I'm guessing he will not be as acclaimed - at first - because of it (and Bugarin is so memorable) - by people who want him to play it in a different way..........and while that's an opinion - I'm pretty much saying it's the wrong one to have. While watching the movie you may bristle at his choices.........in retrospect.......I'd say you're more likely to not change one thing about those choices. They're both unforgettable performances.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 14, 2022 18:10:35 GMT
Renate Reinsve in The Worst Person in the World. The naturalism she brings to every scene makes her character feel so very real. Even if you don’t agree with some of her actions she feels so relatable just by the way she conveys her feelings.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jun 14, 2022 22:01:45 GMT
Val Kilmer in Tombstone. The fact that Kilmer wasn’t even nominated for Best Supporting Actor, when he should have been the runaway winner, is quite ludicrous in retrospect. Only made worst when Tommy Lee Jones won for The Fugitive. Kilmer just commands every scene he’s in whether with his perfectly delivered dialogue or just his mere presence. He’s so believable as a ruthless killer bubbling beneath his calm and humor demeanor.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 21, 2022 20:44:18 GMT
Robert Duvall – Tomorrow (1972)Impressively controlled performance, and one that seems almost like a forerunner to Hanks in Forrest Gump in a way – where the actor has to sustain a specific tone, and still be convincingly expressive within that tone. Duvall delivers his lines with a deep southern drawl and a strikingly low voice that never feels affected, but rather natural to the character (To me, it was nearly unrecognizable as Duvall’s voice). It’s a great internal performance where you can see the character’s wheels turning behind the stoic exterior, and he also manages to inflect the overall tone of the performance with small indications of emotional shading: bashfulness, tenderness, frustration, yearning, unease, playfulness... definitely one of Duvall’s best.
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Jun 21, 2022 23:33:42 GMT
Gerardo Taracena in Apocalypto. What an absolute despicable bastard. The whole cast was great but Taracena was hitting Klaus Kinski levels here.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 24, 2022 8:16:28 GMT
Ayako Wakao - Women Are Born Twice (aka A Geisha's Diary) - 1961 on Youtube One of the loveliest actresses in film - in any country, in any era - and here she's very gentle and grounded as a woman who we not only see thinks a lot but feels a lot. Very light of touch and subtle - what people used to call "a young person with an old soul" portrayal - she carries this movie and keeps it afloat - this is 60 years old - and she fascinates with her modernity and her grace. It's an amazingly well rounded performance of almost non-acting, but merely inhabiting. There is almost nothing "big" here to play and yet you can't stop watching her - Wakao was remarkable as an actress but also as a presence....... as a symbol - particularly from what I've seen - in the 60s (though I have a lot more to see). Still alive at 88 btw......she's becoming an obvious all-timer personal favorite .....
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Post by stabcaesar on Jun 24, 2022 18:17:08 GMT
It's astonishing how Wyman managed to make a bored, middle-aged woman so sympathetic and loveable. You just can't help but root for her and her smokin' hot bf.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 25, 2022 4:25:54 GMT
Isabelle Huppert - The Lacemaker (1977) -
One of her very best - which makes it by definition one of THE very best - this sensitive, perceptive performance encapsulates everything acting "can't be" in American movies - she is playing grace, playing acceptance, playing fragility. There is no big emotion within her conception - it's a triumph of small brushstrokes........exquisite detail and focus and silences. The closest I can think of to this in the era is Adjani in The Story of Adele H. - quite a double feature those would make. They break your heart - click your fingers - just like that. Just watched this for the first time, and "grace" was one of the words that came to my mind too while watching Huppert here - the way her movement and touch is always gentle and unassuming. I also like how she's not just playing "shy," but rather suggests someone who thinks and feels very deeply yet lacks the initiative to externalize or express more openly, giving mostly small smiles and timid laughter. I love how she uses certain details in shaping the performance too - like the way she demurely avoids prolonged eye contact with François initially when they're first getting to know each other, then is later able to comfortably gaze at him more directly once they've been together for a while.... and at the end reverts back to her more distant demeanor, but in a different sort of way - alternating between moments of prolonged eye contact and looking away/staring into the distance, as if suggesting that she can hold a connection for only a moment before being pulled back by the weight of her own reserve, sinking back into her own thoughts, receding into herself, unable sustain the energy it takes to maintain that connection.
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Post by stabcaesar on Jun 26, 2022 14:57:32 GMT
Incredible chemistry. Best Elizabeth Taylor performance I've ever seen from her, and Rock Hudson was very underrated. I find him much better than James Dean, who was fantastic in the first half but became a caricature in the second.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jun 28, 2022 0:17:42 GMT
Jessica Chastain - Jolene (2008)Not sure if I’d quite call this a “great” performance, but certainly a very good one, and among Chastain’s best. The role requires her to be convincing across a tricky 10-year span from teenage years to adulthood, playing a character who is initially much younger than Chastain’s own age at the time, but who can carry herself as older. She starts as wide-eyed, chipper, sexy, but child-like (the way she cries, physically struggles, and expresses wonder and curiosity). She’s naïve, open, and accepting to a fault, and is believable as the character assumes several different “roles” even as the film veers wildly between tones and strains plausibility.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 2, 2022 21:12:13 GMT
Rakel Lenora Fløttum The Innocents (2021 / 2022)The lead performance in a film with 4 - FOUR (!) - good ones from child actors - this is like a kids version of Cronenberg's Scanners. The movie is a nightmare at first - child cruelty, animal cruelty (one unwatchable scene, be warned), etc. and then it morphs into something else (another nightmare!) and so does Fløttum in what she then has to portray and convey. This was the first "cool" movie I've seen in a while - not necessarily a great one - though I think this is in the 90s on RT, but one that you can explain / describe in pop cultural terms - like I said "Scanners" or "Carrie" for kids......this movie is written and directed by the guy who co-wrote The Worst Person In The World - and it's very smart in the world it creates for these little devils.......and how when you're a kid, all you see is other kids.....the "adult" world only exists to get in your way or as a background. At several points, you're not sure what will happen and multiple guesses would be logical and equally frightening. A fine movie, if you can go with the premise .....and if anybody couldn't go with it, it's me and even I liked it - so there you go....... Fløttum gives a turn that is fully arc'd, covers a lot of ground, and is "like" an adult without straining to be an adult. She has a wider range of scenes, and emotions to cover. One of the best child performances I've seen in a while - and like I said there's 4 good ones in this movie .........the kids sell this so well.....
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 4, 2022 12:17:34 GMT
Miou-Miou Memoirs of a French Whore aka La Dérobad (1979)
Not a great movie - more like Arthouse Eurotrash tbh - but some great scenes and all of them feature her this César winning turn - her only win in 10 nominations. Miou-Miou is an actress who never, ever tried to oversell - especially in her great 70s/80 run - impossibly lovely without being glamorous or movie star sexy actually. She was often beaten up, humiliated, treated awfully in movies sometimes shockingly so .........but she never played to that, she just played the scenes as they existed. This is a typical performance in that mode - she owns this dark material........ In this movie she does something quite rare - she plays someone if not stupid, rather intensely gulliblle and misguided - but us knowing more than her makes her more interesting, not less.........and she downplays the sadness........it simply "is". The movie is exploitative bleak trash - but the performance is willing to go anywhere the director asks - when she injures herself or takes a beating - it feels real........and you can bet she'd do as many takes as needed ........it's that kind of actor commitment. Also, how her face breaks from wide eyed to hardened - you could call this misogynist filmmaking - but it is a performance that accepts it and indeed says the point of the film is an intense misogyny anyway. This film was the peak era of this kind of thing - bleak, on some level pornographic or even "sick" films - Friedkin's Cruising, Roeg's "Bad Timing" and many others - all which could be given 1 star in a review or 4 stars - and you totally get why. The middle of the road wholesomeness of movies in 2022 seems like a whole different, much safer and duller world tbh......
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