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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 13, 2022 15:02:42 GMT
James Caan in ThiefAs good as Caan is in this movie - he is revelatory in 2 scenes specifically: Where he loses his composure in trying to adopt a child - where he's a seething cauldron of mixed emotions towards himself and hypocrisy, beauracracy and in a steely, unsentimental kiss-off to Tuesday Weld that is perfectly played and the kind of scene Michael Mann would often write and tweak in his future movies.........there are all kinds of parallels between the Caan character and Neil McCauley especially....... RIP
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 18, 2022 14:05:13 GMT
Aubrey Plaza in Emily The Criminal (2022)
A great-ish performance of a complex character in a not particularly great movie - Aubrey Plaza is at her rangiest here - using almost none of her slacker charms of what you've loved about her so far ..........and playing a part almost missing in indie dreck these days: the defined female role without knowing wink to an audience already built in. The movie itself is a trite examination of capitalism (surprise, it's against it!) but Plaza as the embodiment of those fncked out and fncked over by capitalism - and its tributaries - prison system, massive debt, low wages is kind of riveting. Like this year's - better (imo) - Watcher - this is a film where the actress must fill out the part against genre tropes and transcend them. At one time this role would have been played by a male - here, Plaza expressly acts like a male herself - aware of her limitations physically - she's in danger, often and right at the start - but also her appeal physically to men by being a woman (financially, sexually), but mostly aware of her intellect and how others will misunderstand or underestimate it. Her character makes the plot twists - in the 3rd act sort of BS - but her embodiment of that character makes it seem "movie possible". She suggests - more than suggests actually - a kind of mania by repetition - how many injustices inflicted upon her create a steely resolve we only see as the plot goes along - and it's not a "healthy" one either. Fine work and it's the performance that justifies the movie existing anyway (again, like Watcher) - it's the singer not song - here it's the character not the film so much.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Jul 20, 2022 4:33:28 GMT
Ian Charleson in Chariots of Fire. I didn't love the film, but I loved his captivating, dignified presence.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 23, 2022 9:35:28 GMT
Luis Tosar Even The RainI have said before this guy is one of my favorite actors to watch - even if he's in garbage or has a small role. This is neither garbage or a small role but is the kind of thing that often is merely acting noble and then you sit back and collect rewards for it. As always, Tosar is far better than that and invests what could be a simple arc with more interest detais and detours - so you think back on how his character changes and why and how. Lots of his stuff is on Netflix including some iffy material - and some stuff that shows up for him that isn't him (um) -and a new one in August ...........hmmmmmm, something to watch in August I guess - like I said always watch him - regardless of project - you never know when he'll uncork some terrific work
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Post by sirjeremy on Jul 23, 2022 16:16:04 GMT
Emma Thompson in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande (2022)
Adeptly balancing her character's vulnerability, naivety, judgmental side, and unknowing sexiness, the ever reliable Emma Thompson elevates what is an occasionally clunky script, and gives one of her very best performances to date.
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Post by stabcaesar on Jul 30, 2022 17:43:55 GMT
Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday. Absolutely phenomenal. Helen Mirren was great too but I couldn't find a gif.
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 7, 2022 0:42:48 GMT
Hayley Mills - Tiger Bay (1959)I've seen this movie at least 4 or 5 times and every time I see it, I always forget how complicated Mills is in this because she has to act one way while presenting something else. Great kid performance and what was up with 1959 UK films being such weirdly fascinating time capsules? (Sapphire, etc)
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Post by pacinoyes on Aug 19, 2022 8:16:25 GMT
Tang Wei and Park Hae-il in Decision to LeaveThe performances are hidden and linger when you reflect back on them .......the femme fatale does not exude sex (there is no sex in the movie actually).......the detective does not exude coolness exactly or even necessarily competence. While you watch them you are aware that Park is manipulating us by how he moves the characters around.......later - days later - in retrospect you think back on how damaged and frail they are. These performances resonate far more later than they hit me at first when I thought it was all the Park show ....in some ways, that's the best kind of acting - hidden in plain sight.
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Post by stephen on Aug 19, 2022 14:41:52 GMT
A bit off-the-beaten path, but goddamn, this performance still gives me chills. Felt the need to replay a bit of it last night and oh, it's still my favourite game and Lori Alan's fierce, steely performance as The Boss (modeled after Tyler's beloved Charlotte Rampling, no less) is an all-timer as far as video games go.
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Post by stabcaesar on Aug 19, 2022 18:18:05 GMT
So repressed and soulful. I couldn't look away.
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Post by hugobolso on Aug 19, 2022 18:23:34 GMT
Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and in the adventures of priscilla queen of the desert (1994). A very young Guy Pierce was more than OK, but just a little annoying for my taste.- But Stamp and Weaving were the highlights.-
Any way that movie doesn't aged well.-
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2022 19:05:02 GMT
Jane Birkin in Dust (1985) - A fascinating portrayal of isolation, repression, terror... A perfectly calibrated performance worthy of Tennessee Williams - Birkin's fits and stops of passion are deeply, heartbreakingly felt. The Venice jury of 1985 stated that she deserved the Volpi Cup, but couldn't award it to her because they had already chosen the film for the Silver Lion. Indeed, as a result of this, no female acting prize was given at all. Madness!
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Post by stephen on Aug 22, 2022 19:10:18 GMT
Jane Birkin in Dust (1985) - A fascinating portrayal of isolation, repression, terror... A perfectly calibrated performance worthy of Tennessee Williams - Birkin's fits and stops of passion are deeply, heartbreakingly felt. The Venice jury of 1985 stated that she deserved the Volpi Cup, but couldn't award it to her because they had already chosen the film for the Silver Lion. Indeed, as a result of this, no female acting prize was given at all. Madness! Which is so weird, considering that other films have won both awards at the festival (notably The Master winning Director and joint Actor). But what's even weirder is that they gave special mentions to three other performers (Sonja Savić, Galya Novents and Themis Bazaka) and weren't even willing to throw one of them a bone.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Aug 26, 2022 17:45:52 GMT
there's a handful of great performances in Gaslit but Shea Whigham deserves his own post. He plays Nixon footsoldier and zealot G. Gordon Liddy, who spirals into paranoid psychosis in prison and comes out the other end singing in German and threatening Watergate witnesses with pencils. Truly a highwire act from Whigham but he controls it every step of the way and completely holds your attention while doing it. He's a Nixon-obsessed fascist boogeyman on which to project our anxious derision, but he could've been *only* that and he isn't, because Whigham elevates him way beyond caricature and navigates his fears, aspirations and demons. Certainly the broadest characterization on the ensemble but also the creepiest, funniest, and most ambitious.
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Post by stephen on Aug 26, 2022 18:06:29 GMT
there's a handful of great performances in Gaslit but Shea Whigham deserves his own post. He plays a fictionizalized Nixon footsoldier and zealot G. Gordon Liddy, who spirals into paranoid psychosis in prison and comes out the other end singing in German and threatening Watergate witnesses with pencils. Truly a highwire act from Whigham but he controls it every step of the way and completely holds your attention while doing it. He's a Nixon-obsessed fascist boogeyman on which to project our anxious derision, but he could've been *only* that and he isn't, because Whigham elevates him way beyond caricature and navigates his fears, aspirations and demons. Certainly the broadest characterization on the ensemble but also the creepiest, funniest, and most ambitious. Fictionalized? G. Gordon Liddy was very real.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Aug 26, 2022 18:26:14 GMT
there's a handful of great performances in Gaslit but Shea Whigham deserves his own post. He plays a fictionizalized Nixon footsoldier and zealot G. Gordon Liddy, who spirals into paranoid psychosis in prison and comes out the other end singing in German and threatening Watergate witnesses with pencils. Truly a highwire act from Whigham but he controls it every step of the way and completely holds your attention while doing it. He's a Nixon-obsessed fascist boogeyman on which to project our anxious derision, but he could've been *only* that and he isn't, because Whigham elevates him way beyond caricature and navigates his fears, aspirations and demons. Certainly the broadest characterization on the ensemble but also the creepiest, funniest, and most ambitious. Fictionalized? G. Gordon Liddy was very real. I meant fictionalized version, but I think that might be wrong too haha. The guy was a nutcase
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 4, 2022 1:10:26 GMT
Isabelle Huppert in Mama Weed .......on TUBIA very slight, mildly entertaining, very silly Pop Entertainment movie - that often crosses over into flat out annoying - that The GOAT utterly dominates and saves.......and gets to play across a lot of different things: Funny, slightly sad, loving and warm-hearted, sexy and more........and real good at her job among them. She reminded me very much of DePac in their Midnight Run / Sea of Love era where they are not doing their Oscar baity best work but are so comfortably masterful in what they convey - you notice everything they do and know on some level they are the best - awards or not, Oscars or not..........which then compliments / supplements their greatest work anyway. If Isabelle Huppert didn't give this performance - I don't know who could do this exactly - the thrill is in watching her keep this thing afloat. Here you notice how Huppert listens - which is what she does for a living and hears what matters - while tuning out what doesn't. In this movie she has 4 subtle, smart listening scenes in a row at the start - with her boss / lover, with her daughter, her elderly Mom (Call My Agent's Liliane Rovère), and with her Mom's nurse. When her daughter tells her to live in the present - it guts her because she knows that's her problem.......in a remarkable scene later she recounts her husband's death by making an inappropriate visual joke of him dying into his salad that she then stops on a dime and pivots into something genuinely mournful. She is also effortless at acting to cover what she's doing - and in going from French to Arabic, and acting with her new dog and calling her boss "Sweetheart".....it just slipped out! ........this is one of her most comfortable and freewheelingly wacked-out - and least tortured - performances. A star turn ..... in the best sense.
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Post by stabcaesar on Sept 4, 2022 16:09:49 GMT
I have no words for this episode.
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Post by stephen on Sept 4, 2022 16:27:07 GMT
I have no words for this episode. Worst Emmy robbery of the decade. Even Dinklage knew that award was Banks's.
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Post by JangoB on Sept 4, 2022 20:45:34 GMT
Saw two amazing performances today: Lena Endre in Faithless where I particularly want to single out a monologue in which she describes a tough talk with her daughter - some of the rawest, most deeply felt acting I've seen in a long time and Charlotte Rampling in Swimming Pool where she brings such fascinating and sly colors to her character that I couldn't help but smile pretty much every time she was on the screen
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Post by PromNightCarrie on Sept 5, 2022 0:21:56 GMT
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth I had already seen this movie 4 years ago due to a recommendation when I was discussing with someone cold-hearted bitches in film and she told me to watch this to truly see one. I didn't realize until recently that this is the same girl who went on to do Midsommar, so I must say she's building up an interesting resume already. Rewatching this performance only improved upon my first positive impression from it. The girl carried. She already has here this amazingly self-possessed presence, so I'll start with that. But what I didn't give enough credit to before was the way Pugh keeps you so plugged into her character through every heinous, cruel, selfish action. Watch her in moments like where she's forcing the tears and rubbing her face to look redder and tear-stained (after the most horrific scene) - as an audience member you're repulsed, but you still don't lose distance from her at all. You're hanging in completely and the way she plays this moment (along with many others) shows that she masters at underscoring her character's motivations. I think to play so cold and at the same time effortlessly carry this movie, keeping us glued to her the entire time makes her deserving of high praise. So I wanted to dole some out here after seeing the film again.
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Post by stabcaesar on Sept 19, 2022 16:45:06 GMT
These two again. I can't get over how good they were in this movie (Sunflower).
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Post by akittystang on Sept 20, 2022 0:35:10 GMT
Florence Pugh in Lady Macbeth I had already seen this movie 4 years ago due to a recommendation when I was discussing with someone cold-hearted bitches in film and she told me to watch this to truly see one. I didn't realize until recently that this is the same girl who went on to do Midsommar, so I must say she's building up an interesting resume already. Rewatching this performance only improved upon my first positive impression from it. The girl carried. She already has here this amazingly self-possessed presence, so I'll start with that. But what I didn't give enough credit to before was the way Pugh keeps you so plugged into her character through every heinous, cruel, selfish action. Watch her in moments like where she's forcing the tears and rubbing her face to look redder and tear-stained (after the most horrific scene) - as an audience member you're repulsed, but you still don't lose distance from her at all. You're hanging in completely and the way she plays this moment (along with many others) shows that she masters at underscoring her character's motivations. I think to play so cold and at the same time effortlessly carry this movie, keeping us glued to her the entire time makes her deserving of high praise. So I wanted to dole some out here after seeing the film again. Thanks for reminding me to watch this again. I had forgotten she was the lead in that movie; I have no idea why I forgot in the first place. I remember being horrified/repulsed by character (and she was damn good at being that awful). I looked up her filmography, and this is only her fifth acting credit on IMDb? Good God.
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Post by akittystang on Oct 3, 2022 5:37:51 GMT
Regardless of your opinion on Blonde, Ana De Armas in Blonde is great but I expected that. Rebecca Hall in Resurrection? Uh. Oh my god. I wasn't expecting that.
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thomasjerome
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Post by thomasjerome on Oct 3, 2022 9:46:29 GMT
Regardless of your opinion on Blonde, Ana De Armas in Blonde is great but I expected that. Rebecca Hall in Resurrection? Uh. Oh my god. I wasn't expecting that. I guess you haven't seen "Christine" and "The Night House" then?
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