Favorite Performances

[Athena]

Some great performances have already been mentioned. I have one that comes to mind easily: Ulrich Mühe in The Lives of Others. An all around great movie about East Germany, but his performance was incredibly moving and real. He died within one year of the film's release. 

[Snowprince]

Loved Ed Harris as Astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff.

 

A very powerful and underrated performance, IMO, was Tony Curtis as Iwo Jima flag raiser Ira Hayes in The Outsider. I thought it more poignant than Adam Beach's in Flags of Our Fathers.

 

I can watch Humphrey Bogart's Capt. Queeg in The Caine Mutiny over and over again and never tire of it. Jose Ferrer's also as defense attorney Barney Greenwald, for that matter.

 

Jack Lemmon as Joe Clay in Days of Wine and Roses, and Ens Pulver in Mr Roberts are both must see's whenever they're on.

 

Natalie Wood in Love With the Proper Stranger is an all time favorite. 

Edited September 19, 2014 by Snowprince

[NumberCruncher]

Loved Ed Harris as Astronaut John Glenn in The Right Stuff.

I give favorite performance status to the whole cast of that movie--there wasn't a weak link to be found. Ed Harris, Sam Shepard, Fred Ward, Pamela Reed, Dennis Quaid, Barbara Hershey, Scott Glenn, Kim Stanley...the list goes on and on. That's one of the movies I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it.

[VCRTracking]

I was always moved by John Glenn's wife played by Mary Jo Deschanel(mother of Zooey and Emily).

[zillabreeze]

Wow, Saw The Drop this morning and was introduced to Tom Hardy. He is terrific and I'm on a mission to find his other work.

[Rick Kitchen]

Wow, Saw The Drop this morning and was introduced to Tom Hardy. He is terrific and I'm on a mission to find his other work.

 

He was in Inception, but my favorite role of his was in Warrior, where he played opposite Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte.  He was also the villain in The Dark Knight Rises, and stars in the upcoming Mad Max movie.

 

I haven't seen The Drop yet, but it's based on a Dennis Lehane book, so it has to be good.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Rick Kitchen

[Oreo2234]

I loved Tom Hardy in Warrior. He's great in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy too.

 

Hardy's co-star in The Drop, Matthias Schoenaerts, was incredible in Bullhead. 

Edited September 21, 2014 by Oreo2234

[zillabreeze]

Matthias Schoenaerts redefined "scary ass dude" for me in The Drop; Noomi Rapace was also new to me and was very good. Actually, everyone brought their A Game - I enjoyed it immensely and it's not a genre I normally seek out.

I stayed leaky eyed knowing it was the last of James Gandolfini. I have never seen The Sopranos, and only started paying attention after he died. We sure lost a good actor with his passing.

[PepSinger]

Jessica Chastain broke my heart in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them. She gives such a haunting performances, and her heartbreak and grief just radiate throughout her body without her needing to say a word.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Echoing the "Wow..." about Tom Hardy in The Drop. He was okay in Inception, but when

Bob shoots that dude in the throat

I was like, "Wait, what? Damn!"

[Shannon L.]

 

Jessica Chastain broke my heart in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them. She gives such a haunting performances, and her heartbreak and grief just radiate throughout her body without her needing to say a word.

I was watching The Help last night and her scenes are my favorite.  Going from ditzy to serious to heartbreaking--she made me believe all three. 

 

I also saw Mask again a couple of nights ago and Cher never ceases to amaze me in that movie.  Talk about an Oscar snub (even if she did get it the next year). 

[PepSinger]

 

I was watching The Help last night and her scenes are my favorite.  Going from ditzy to serious to heartbreaking--she made me believe all three.

She was the best thing about that movie other than Viola Davis, IMO.

[drmka9]

For a comedic performance, I absolutely adore Allison Janney in Drop Dead Gorgeous. Everything about her Loretta is hysterical, but she's never over-the-top with it. Seeing Janney in non-Loretta performances still weirds me out a bit.

[DiamondDoll]

I know Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is always considered a great Marilyn Monroe film, but personally I thought Jane Russell was magnificant in it. She was funny, warm and accessable, easily better than Marilyn who got all the credit for the film. 

 

Also Josh Hutcherson has been incredible in the Hunger Games movies. He brings his all to the role of Peeta and makes him the emotional centre of the film. JLaw/Katniss is the heroine but Peeta is the heart and soul of the film.

[RedKoolAide]

Natalie Wood in "Splendor in the Grass". She was heartbreaking, beautiful, and vulnerable. The movie was beautifully shot and I think Warren Beatty did a good job in his film debut, but for me, Natalie carried that film. It made me appreciate her as an actress.

[Jazzy24]

I loved all the actors in the movie 12 Angry Men I didn't know that listening to 12 men yell, discuss and debate for over an hour could be so engaging. Everyone's part was memorable.

[Crs97]

Every performance in Good Night and Good Luck is a favorite. Still heartbroken that David doesn't have an Oscar. I have loved him since Passionfish.

[JBC344]

I loved all the actors in the movie 12 Angry Men I didn't know that listening to 12 men yell, discuss and debate for over an hour could be so engaging. Everyone's part was memorable.

Just re-watched this a month or two ago and loved it just like I remembered.  It is also a movie that would lend itself to another good remake.  I think the last one was 10-15 years ago.  I would love to see a bunch of A-listers take it on, this update of course would have to include women.  George, Denzel, Deniro, Meryl, Julianne, etc would be interesting.

[VCRTracking]

 

I loved all the actors in the movie 12 Angry Men I didn't know that listening to 12 men yell, discuss and debate for over an hour could be so engaging. Everyone's part was memorable.

 

My favorites are always Jack Klugman as the juror who came from a bad neighborhood similar to the defendant, and E.G. Marshall as the cool, cerebral accountant.

 

I love Amy Adams in a lot of things but I really love her in American Hustle, and not just because of the plunging necklines she always wears!

[Schweedie]

I love Amy Adams in a lot of things but I really love her in American Hustle, and not just because of the plunging necklines she always wears!

 

 

I love Amy Adams in everything, pretty much, but my favourite was Junebug. She's just so freaking adorable it almost hurts.

 

Re: Jessica Chastain:

 

I was watching The Help last night and her scenes are my favorite.  Going from ditzy to serious to heartbreaking--she made me believe all three.

 

 

I second this. I think part of it was due to the chemistry she and Octavia Spencer had, but she was just wonderful. Everyone in that film was, really. Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis killed it.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Because I can't say it enough (as evidenced by several of my posts in various threads here lol), Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday in Tombstone

 

 

spaceytraci1208, check your TV schedule, because Tombstone comes on tonight at six PM on AMC.

Edited October 4, 2014 by Cobalt Stargazer

[spaceytraci1208]

spaceytraci1208, check your TV schedule, because Tombstone comes on tonight at six PM on AMC.

And in spite of having the movie on DVD, I'll probably tune in :)

[topanga]

I brought this post over from another thread:

 

 

Ha! I made a bad deal with my kid for the first week of summer break & watched all 5 Twilight movies 5 nights in a row. I don't know if I can watch anything with KStew in it for a long, long time. I declared myself Team Anyone But Bella. Ugh.

 

That's parental abuse right there!  Alert the authorities!

 

I'm not sure I love my daughter that much (although she would rather be flayed alive than watch Twilight).  I might be subject to a Reese Witherspoon or Kristen Bell movie marathon (which isn't the worst of things), but more likely it would be a reviewing of Harry Potter or LoTR series.

 

That made me think. Which actors would make me sit down for a five-movie marathon?

 

• Denzel Washington, for sure. My five would be Man on Fire, Devil in a Blue Dress, Training Day, Deja Vu, and Mississippi Masala.
• Angeline Jolie. Salt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Girl, Interrupted, Pushing Tin, and Shark Tale (animated)
• Nia Long. Big Momma's House (don't ask), The Best Man, The Best Man Holiday, Boyz n the Hood, and Soul Food

 

Whose movie marathon would you watch?

 

 

[raezen]

Just watched the movie Drive on Netflix and I have add Albert Brooks performance to my favourites. It's a performance that I didn't expect from him, I'll admit.

Edited because I'm an idiot. This is what happens when I'm not posting from my laptop and can't check IMDB.

Edited June 10, 2015 by raezen

[Rick Kitchen]

Just watched the movie Drive on Netflix and I have add Mel Brooks performance to my favourites. It's a performance that I didn't expect from him, I'll admit.

 

That's Albert Brooks.  :D

[ToxicUnicorn]

Which actors would make me sit down for a five-movie marathon?

Tough question! 

 

I've got Ed Harris on my mind from reading the last page (his Gene Kranz is one of my favorites as well).  Maybe him?  Maybe William Macy?  They are among my favorite actors.  I love Kyle Chandler a lot, too, although only from tv, and I was so impressed with B. Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, although I thought his Star Trek movie was pretty awful.  Still, all these guys seem to have range.  

 

Funny, for actresses, I think of older ones.  Judi Dench?  Kathy Bates?  The "youngest" one I love to pieces is Kristin Scott Thomas.

Edited June 10, 2015 by ToxicUnicorn

[proserpina65]

Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential - that was the first time I'd seen him in anything other than  Gladiator, and I was stunned by the subtlety and nuance of his performance.  He should've won an Oscar for that role.

 

Kenneth Branagh in Henry V - I'd never seen him at all before that film, and the immediacy of his performance was astonishing.

 

Juliet Stevenson in Truly, Madly, Deeply - the emotional honesty of her performance was incredible, and she had no difficulty holding her own against Alan Rickman, which is a feat in and of itself.

[caracas1914]

A performance that still seems fresh and raw when I see it (and I've seen it dozens of times) is Vivien Leigh in "A Streetcar named Desire." Yes, that film made Brando a star and eveyone was good in it (Kim Stanley, Karl Malden) but Vivien's Blanche Du Bois is just so fucking memorable. Gives me thrills how Vivien nailed the fragile and delusional persona of Blanche. It's a role that can be so easily overacted but the camera loved Vivien and her Blanche had such genuine pathos and subtle nuances.

From what I hear the director Elia Kazan really didn't want her for the screen version, but for once the PTB were right on.

Edited June 11, 2015 by caracas1914

[caracas1914]

The talk of Kristin Scott Thomas made me realize how rare it is to have an actor be memorable in a speaking role in more than one language, especially not their native tongue. Mind you, I think Sophia Loren did fine in English, but I thought her best acting work was in her native Italian.

Whereas Kristin IMO has been just as superlative in several of her French speaking roles.

[Crs97]

Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential - that was the first time I'd seen him in anything other than Gladiator, and I was stunned by the subtlety and nuance of his performance. He should've won an Oscar for that role.

I first saw him in "The Insider" and there is something mesmerizing about him on screen. He should have multiple Oscars by now.

Kenneth Branagh in Henry V - I'd never seen him at all before that film, and the immediacy of his performance was astonishing.

Totally agree. It felt like he came out of nowhere, and I can remember being blown-away by that movie and his performance. It should have won everything that year. I would say that I feel about "Driving Miss Daisy" winning over "Henry V" like many feel about "Shakespesre in Love" and "Saving Private Ryan," but Henry wasn't even nominated for best picture. Travesty!

[ToxicUnicorn]

A long time ago, I watched Dead Again, with new_to_me actors Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson. Their intensity and charisma leapt off the screen, dumped me off my couch, and left me gaping. I have had high expectatiins from English actors ever since. [Although I hated Branagh in Harry Potter..such a disappointment,] For a long time, though, I thought neither of them could do anything wrong.

As for Driving Miss Daisy, I find Morgan Freeman pleasant, but completely overrated. In everything.

[proserpina65]

I first saw him in "The Insider" and there is something mesmerizing about him on screen. He should have multiple Oscars by now.

 

I've never seen American Beauty, so I can't say that Russell was robbed that year, but Kevin Spacey had better have given the performance of a lifetime to justify winning over Russell.

[Rick Kitchen]

 

Juliet Stevenson in Truly, Madly, Deeply - the emotional honesty of her performance was incredible, and she had no difficulty holding her own against Alan Rickman, which is a feat in and of itself.

 

I adore Truly, Madly Deeply, and both performances are delicious.

 

Another great Stevenson performance is in the film The March, which is about a huge crowd of Africans marching across the desert in order to get to economic freedom in Europe.

[caracas1914]

Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in " La Vie en Rose" just blew me away.   It's an amazing performance.

[spaceytraci1208]

Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show is awesome. His intro scene alone is enough to make it a top 10 performance for me.

[ChaseMCP]

Colin Farrell in In Bruges. He brings a great restlessness to every scene he's in that you can can almost feel it. Any time I watch it I'm also reminded of how glad I am that he sobered up and is doing well for himself because now I always look forward to his next performance. Ralph Fiennes was excellent in the movie too, a great comedic role for him. I hope The Grand Budapest Hotel leads him to more comedy parts because he's surprisingly hilarious. 

 

Someone a while back mentioned Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill, and I second that. That was the role that I kept holding onto whenever he was starring in yet another dumb rom-com. ATtK showed that he was capable of doing more than that and I kept waiting. Last year between the Oscar win and his role in True Detective I couldn't help but think, "yes, I knew it!" 

 

Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss in Jaws. All of them worked so perfectly together, I can't imagine anyone else in the roles.

 

People usually remember him for the more crazy roles, but my favorite Jack Nicholson performances were his earliest ones. Don't get me wrong, he's great in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (another favorite performance) but my absolute favorite of his is The Last Detail. Again, he had a great energy and brought a lot of life to the role.

 

So many more, but I gotta stop myself for now. 

[caracas1914]

Bette Davis in "All about Eve" it's hard to conceive any other actress in the role, who could have combined both the toughness and yet oh so transparent insecurities and vulnerabilities of Margo Channing. While everyone always talks about the campy, flashy "acting" of Bette Davis, it's her quieter scenes (such as the famous car scene where she talks about how sooner or later every female has to work at being a woman) and the love scenes with Gary Merril that stand out with me.

[SallyAlbright]

Leonardo DiCaprio has been so good for so long, that it still blows my mind he doesn't have at least 2 Oscars. While the wait continues, these are some of my favorite performances:

 

The Basketball Diaries: He is so young and so absolutely devastating as a teenage heroin addict. This performance just gives me chills and makes me want to take care of him!

 

What's Eating Gilbert Grape: Again, quite young Leo but so so good. He stole the movie from Johnny Depp, IMO.

 

The Aviator: I was initially worried by his being cast in this film, but I thought he carried it beautifully and nailed Hughes' descent into madness.

 

The Wolf of Wall Street: This is one of the more comedic performances I've seen him give, and he killed it. That Quaaludes scene as tries to get into the car had me in tears.

 

Also fantastic: The Departed, Shutter Island, Django Unchained, Blood Diamond, Catch Me If You Can. He's probably my number one choice for "one actor's movie marathon I'd sit through."

[caracas1914]

"The Lady Eve" with Barbara Stanwyck, it's amazing that it's plausible that Henry Fonda would think she's two different women in that movie. She's sexy, funny and yet rises to the dramatic moments when she has to. And those legs!

Whenever I think of comic timing, I think of Stanwyck in that film.

[cpcathy]

I adored Leo in Gilbert Grape, he really should have won the Oscar that year.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Which actors would make me sit down for a five-movie marathon?

I finally came up with an answer : Fred Astaire.  Unconventional, perhaps, to choose a funny looking, singing dance man, but he exudes charm and his dancing is sublime.  I don't get tired of his films because I am always looking forward to the next dance number and the filler in between is fluff with style.  I think I could last 5 movies.

 

Haven't thought of a single other answer that I am 100% confident I could stick to at any time, at a moment's notice.

[Shannon L.]

 

which actors would make me sit down for a five-movie marathon?

I'm even surprising myself here, but Tom Cruise.  He may be bat shit crazy in parts of his personal life, but I do love many of his movies:  Rain Man, Edge of Tomorrow, Jerry Maguire, the Mission Impossible movies, just to name a few.

Edited August 4, 2015 by Shannon L.

[Athena]

I finally came up with an answer : Fred Astaire.  Unconventional, perhaps, to choose a funny looking, singing dance man, but he exudes charm and his dancing is sublime.  I don't get tired of his films because I am always looking forward to the next dance number and the filler in between is fluff with style.  I think I could last 5 movies.

 

Haven't thought of a single other answer that I am 100% confident I could stick to at any time, at a moment's notice.

 

I honestly would go with a classic actor too: Audrey Hepburn, Astaire, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart....

 

Partly is that I've seen a lot of each actor's oeuvre. There's a lot to choose from. It doesn't necessarily mean those movies are "better", but it's also nostalgia factor for me. I grew up watching more classic movies.

 

I'll have to think of some modern ones, but Meryl Streep seems to be one. I like the choice I get from an established actor.

[ChelseaNH]

Val Kilmer gets me a marathon of Top Secret!, Real Genius, Willow, Tombstone and Heat, with a bonus offering of Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

[Sharpie66]

Harrison Ford will get for five movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Witness, The Fugitive, and, for a very young Ford, American Graffitti.

[blixie]

For me Reese Witherspoon: Man in the Moon, Freeway, Election, American Psycho, Pleasantville

[ChaseMCP]

Tom Hanks is my five movie man: Forrest Gump, A League of Their Own, The Green Mile, Catch Me If You Can, Toy Story movies (they count!). Then there are movies of his like Philadelphia and Saving Private Ryan that I'll watch but not in a marathon because those are emotionally draining. And then there are ones like Big and You've Got Mail that I wouldn't seek out to watch but would totally watch if they were on because they're fun. 

 

Then there's the "I may or may not be interested in this movie, but I will totally see it because [insert actor] is in it and is bound to give a great performance" test and Tom Hanks is one of those actors for me. So is Meryl Streep. 

Edited August 23, 2015 by ChaseMCP

[Schweedie]

I think Brad Pitt might be my five movie marathon man: Seven, Twelve Monkeys, Snatch, Fight Club, Burn After Reading. And having just seen Burn After Reading recently, I actually think that could be my favourite performance of his. Just utterly hilarious. His face when he gets punched by John Malkovich is a thing of beauty.

[raezen]

Oh, Brad Pitt was hilarious in Burn After Reading. "Hah, he thinks it's a Schwinn! "

[vb68]

 

What's Eating Gilbert Grape: Again, quite young Leo but so so good. He stole the movie from Johnny Depp, IMO.

 

I think I have said this before in other threads, but I went to see the movie with my Mom, who taught  learning disabled kids, and she completely believed he was one.  She didn't believe me at first that he was just an actor.

 

Holly Hunter in Broadcast News.  Can't believe no one has mentioned that.  Pure genius.  I always lose it when the producer gets really snide with her, "It must be nice to walk into a room and always know that you are the smartest person and always know best."   And then her reaction of "Nooooooo.  It's awful!"