Topic Question
Added 2022-02-12 20:07:35 +0000 UTCWhat is your favorite performance by a male and why?
Comments
Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).. Pierce Brosnan did a good job in the 1999 remake, but he had no chance to compete against the 60s King of Cool. I will never get tired of watching the chess scene with the incomparable Faye Dunaway, either, including that kiss- but that was not the question...
Klaus Gehrmann
2022-02-14 01:08:30 +0000 UTCGary Oldman as Smiley in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Incredibly subtle, yet intoxicating performance. Imo, this is the perfect spy movie: Mental calmness/sharpness dragging the viewer into a web of suspicion and paranoia. Gérard Depardieu in Cyrano de Bergerac. It might well be that the character was the last perfect cinematic embodiment of a (tragic) romantic hero. An unsurmountable swashbuckler and yet there shines the light of an infinitely tender and poetic soul. A fantastically powerful, yet incredibly nuanced performance. For his exceptional accomplishment Gérard Depardieu would have deserved to win the Oscar for best actor (though being nominated). Definitely his best performance ever. Also a legacy and remembrance of what cinema can be.
Laro
2022-02-13 21:49:49 +0000 UTCBill Murray in Groundhog Day. Most characters change from the beginning of a story to its end, but few do it as invisibly as Phil Connors. He starts out thoroughly unlikeable (despite Murray's inherent charm), and ends up completely lovable. The nature of the story means this journey takes a VERY long time, and Murray plays Phil's incredibly gradual transformation perfectly. He always seems a *little* different from one loop to the next, but never *too* different. Even though this is essentially a fairy tale, nothing about Phil's evolution seems unbelievable. The fact that he's doing all of this in a comedy makes it all the more impressive, because he can't rely too much on pulling at the audience's heartstrings to get them on his side. Although the comedy is sometimes broad, the change we see in Phil over time is terrifically subtle. It's just a brilliant performance by Murray.
Derek H.
2022-02-13 18:44:25 +0000 UTCDenis Lavant in Holy Motors It’s a performance that’s a deconstruction of performance itself. And Lavant has the range and dexterity to give all of Carax’s abstractions another gear. It’s like 10 roles in one. This hyper circus performer like physicality, this subtle intensity, and deep vulnerability. It’s a towering example of a mind meld between a filmmaker and a performer. Just genius !
jared Clarke
2022-02-13 15:27:58 +0000 UTCRussell Crowe, The Insider. At the time, Crowe was a highly unusual choice to play Jeffrey Wigand, a middle-aged ex-scientist turned whistleblower on a tobacco company in Michael Mann’s riveting 1999 docudrama. With a thickened gut and a receding gray hairline, Crowe, in an astonishing transformation, sheds his magnetic virility to portray an awkward, rather colorless man—someone born and bred for the corporate environment. Though miles away from his violent characters in Romper Stomper and L.A. Confidential, Crowe gives Wigand a simmering, prickly volatility, a quality that brings forth fascinating dimensions as it fuels his own stubborn nobility and the frustration of those around him. As the tobacco company intimidates Wigand with threats of lawsuits, and eventually launches a vicious smear campaign in order to discredit his testimony, Crowe’s performance gains in power as he sinks further and further into depression, culminating in a devastating climactic scene where he rages in despair against Big Tobacco about everything he’s lost. Russell Crowe, one of the great actors of the last 30 years, has given plenty of amazing performances, but he’s never gone so deep to unearth such complexity in such a heartbreakingly ordinary man. It’s the best work he’s ever done.
Bennett Oliver
2022-02-13 05:51:03 +0000 UTCHeath Ledger in The Dark Knight. This performance was intoxicating....the emotions and mannerisms leaked through the screen and infected viewers in an unprecedented way. I believe no performance in the last 20 years has persisted in this generation's collective consciousness quite like Ledger's. Heath created a Joker that blended every interpretation before him yet created something entirely new and unique. He danced a fine line of being truly menacing, yet deliciously charismatic. His Joker conveyed real desperation and anguish without being needy or pitiful.You can tell Heath (the actor) was in tremendous pain (the actor was bleeding into character) but it’s not in your face. Heath really had one criteria to meet (the first criteria listed below) yet he went so far beyond what was required. Criteria 1: satisfy comic book fans with comic booky, cartoony voice, mannerisms – check Criteria 2: satisfy common movie goers (critics) with intense, visceral, terrifying villain portrayal – check Criteria 3: impress the academy with oscar worthy delivery in scenes like the interrogation scene – check Criteria 4: use method acting to inhabit character and make audience believe you actually ARE the Joker, and the Joker IS YOU – check Criteria 5: bring an emotional depth to the role as if you were van Gogh painting his pain and sorrow into his work. – check
Michael Smith
2022-02-12 23:21:01 +0000 UTCThe answer that comes to mind for me is Al Pacino in Heat as Vincent Hanna because his performance changes the atmosphere of the entire movie. I haven't seen the original script, but given the fact all Michael Mann films are incredibly self-serious, I find it unlikely Vincent's character was originally intended to be so funny and insane. Pacino had a reputation at the time for being a lunatic but his style was appropriate for this character — a work-obsessed maniac who is vaguely unhinged. Without sprinkling scenes like "IT'S CAUSE SHE'S GOT A... GREAT ASS" or "You do not get to watch... MY. FUCKING. TELEVISION." the movie might've been kind of dull. It was also very fitting this movie was about two career professionals facing off (Vincent the cop, Neil the criminal) and the film starred two indisputable masters of the craft: Pacino and Robert DeNiro. That movie is one of my favorite examples for good casting and how a powerful performance from an actor can elevate a film.
Arthur Augustyn
2022-02-12 21:41:08 +0000 UTCYeah, I'd say without thinking too hard on the question this would be my go-to pick as well. There's a reason Tarantino despaired about the role, believing he had made the story unfilmable because there was no actor who could play the part. Later he said Waltz "gave me my movie back." Really a once in a lifetime performance and role.
Arthur Augustyn
2022-02-12 21:16:54 +0000 UTCSimon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead. I think he put in an Oscar-worthy performance and I’m not being facetious. Performing comedy that really lands is an underrated skill in itself, but he also turned in serious, gut-wrenching dramatic acting. Most impressively, he often did both at the same time! But because it’s a zombie-comedy, of course his accomplishments would be overlooked or even discounted. But I find him endlessly entertaining here, which matters the most in the end.
Steven Aguilera
2022-02-12 20:57:28 +0000 UTCI’m a sucker for bad guys and I have to go with Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Bastards. Every moment he’s on screen I’m glued to him almost as if no other performer matters. He shows such range in that performance alone.
Matt G
2022-02-12 20:48:04 +0000 UTCRex Harrison in My Fair Lady. He has me grinning like an idiot every time he opens his mouth. No performance I've seen nails that timeless British jackass wit like him. Plus, speaking most of his musical numbers fits the character so much better that I'm surprised more musicals haven't done it.
Wolfman Brandon
2022-02-12 20:41:45 +0000 UTC
