Best Acting Performance

FreakyJim said:
You all have mentioned pretty much every big acting performance in the history of cinema, I'll just throw in some rather not very well known (or well thought of ) ones that spring to mind

Laura Dern in Wild at Heart
Willem Dafoe in The Last Temptation of Christ
John C. Reilly (Magnolia)
Jodie Foster (Contact)
Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story)
Bryce Dallas Howard (The Village)
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Heh, I'd hardly consider them great.
 
My personal favourites are:

Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump
Anthony Hopkins - Silence Of The Lambs
Sylvester Stallone - Rocky
Leo DiCaprio - What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Johnny Depp - Pirates Of The Caribbean
 
Everyone has gone for films, so I'm going to throw a few TV performances in.

Andre Royo - The Wire
Michael Imperioli - The Sopranos
Richard Schiff - The West Wing

There's plenty of other brilliant performances in those three shows, but those stand out for me.
 
duffer said:
Bryan Cranston as Walter White is something pretty spectacular. The transformation of the character over the seasons is amazing.
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I actually think Aaron Paul is the stand out performer. His performance has been incredible.
 
duffer said:
Bryan Cranston as Walter White is something pretty spectacular. The transformation of the character over the seasons is amazing.
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Had to google that, I've not started on Breaking Bad yet, but it's on my 'to watch' list.

The character transformation is the reason I mentioned Michael Imperioli in The Sopranos, though, fantastic development.
 
Günter Lamprecht - Berlin Alexanderplatz
Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips - I, Claudius

Must-sees.

Nick, BB should be the next thing you get to. Really phenomenal entertainment, great drama.
 
Do TV actors have an advantage of working on their character for far longer?

To stand out in one movie is probably the hardest thing to do.

DDL in just about everything he does, takes some beating.
 
Denzel Washington in Training day
Edward Norton in American History X
Russell Crowe in A beautiful mind
Leonardo Di Caprio in Shutter Island
Christian Bale in The Machinist

Are the ones that come to mind.
 
Brwned said:
Günter Lamprecht - Berlin Alexanderplatz
Derek Jacobi, Sian Phillips - I, Claudius

Must-sees.

Nick, BB should be the next thing you get to. Really phenomenal entertainment, great drama.
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I've seen glowing reports on it from people whose opinion on such things I pay attention to, yourself included, which is why Season 1 is on my HDD, and I'll definitely be starting it soon.
 
You should, it starts slowly but gets pretty damn good and you'll be hooked before you know it.
 
James Cagney - White Heat
Robert Mitchum - The Night of the Hunter
Javier Bardem - The Sea Inside, Biutiful
Choi Min-sik - Oldboy
Tahar Rahim - A Prophet
Romain Duris - The Beat My Heart Skipped
River Phoenix - My Own Private Idaho
Naomi Watts - Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams
Isabelle Huppert - The Piano Teacher
Ingrid Thulin - Cries & Whispers
Gong Li - Raise the Red Lantern
 
Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher. Arguably the greatest characterisation of all time.
 
Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Brad Pitt - Fight Club
Marlon Brando - The Wild One/ Godfather/Street Car/ In the Waterfront
Al Pacino - Godfather 2
Christian Bale - American Psycho
Johnny Depp - Donnie Brasco
Christopher Walken - True Romance/ King of New York
Dennis Hopper - True Romance
Michael Douglas - Traffic/Wall Street
Sidney Poiter - To Sir with Love
 
A few:

Humbrey Bogart - Casablanca
Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects
Henry Fonda - 12 Angry Men
Al Pacino - The Godfather, Donnie Brasco
Marlon Brando - The Godfather
Hugo Weaving - The Matrix

Probably my favorite actor Christian Bale made some impressing performances but I don't think that they are on Tier 1.
 
R_Kelly said:
William Fichtner was the stand out actor in Prison Break imo.
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Yeah he was class.


For me, it's got to be James Gandolfini in the Sopranos. I'm tempted to say that Livvie Soprano was an even better character and actor, but Gandolfini's performance was special in that you got pretty much a complete outlook of his psychology. You even got to know parts of his character that he wasn't even meant to be aware of; things he had to act out in tandem with very particular directing in order to put this across. His mannerisms and facial expressions are fantastic - those depressed sighs, raised eyebrows and resigned smiles...they tell a story far more complex than many films.

The change in his character throughout the series is so clear and so beautifully done, and the depth it goes into with the therapist at each point is excellent. It's just such a special achievement to get such an extensive look into one character as you did there and, to be honest, the ending was quite disturbing in light of that. After seeing the whole series:

I felt like it was me who died and not Tony Soprano!
 
Kim Cattrall in Mannequin. Her performance as a dummy was very impressive :D
 
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood (in fact, Daniel Day Lewis in pretty much anything)

Clint Eastwood - Unforgiven

Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
 
Randall Flagg said:
Do TV actors have an advantage of working on their character for far longer?

To stand out in one movie is probably the hardest thing to do.

DDL in just about everything he does, takes some beating.
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Yeah, surely. Especially with someone like Kiefer Sutherland in 24, whereby he's had, what, 10 years to get to grips with his character with very little variation? I'm surprised he doesn't go about his daily routine torturing terrorists and taking down whole units of trained units singlehandedly.

That's what gets me about Gandolfini in The Sopranos, though. The evolution of his character is genius - it's clear that he changes throughout, but the way he acts it is perfect and so subtle. It's not like he's just played the same character for 6 seasons straight, nor is it the case that he went from extreme to extreme with each passing season; there was just this fantastic evolution which kept sucking you into thinking he was a good guy no matter how many times it was proved to the contrary. It's difficult to describe...there is just such a complexity to the emotion he demonstrates in that series - it's like you could see the world weariness enshroud him as it progresses through the seasons, often covering wounds and giving way to what seems like compassion, only for him to then come off as a malicious sociopath just when you think there may be some good in him. With every expression he put on, you could see, say, the influence of his mother on his mood, or a very particular stress from his working life.

Just quality.
 
Giggsy PO said:
Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth. Terrifying.
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One of the most nuanced of performances. Incredibly - considering Goeth was such an evil person - Fiennes made him seem almost sympathetic (on occasion), as if he was a little boy dressed as an officer; at times, Schindler (Neeson) had a kind of father-son relationship with him, in terms of giving Goeth wise advice which Goeth lapped up. And check out the scene in which Goeth is looking at himself in a mirror, to see whether he measures up to the Nazi standard of an Imperial god-amongst-men...see not only the arrogance but also his doubt that he fits the bill, all played in psuedo-heroic gestures and expressions, with his eyes giving the game away. Ironically, fittingly, he looks like a fake, merely an actor. A brilliant, multi-layered performance by Fiennes.

ABGOETH.png
 
Mockney said:
Pacino's best performance is Dog Day, without a shadow of a doubt.
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How did he not get an Oscar in the 70's? Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Godfather 1 & 2.

I mean probably a victim of being in a strong era of performances but even so, genuinely could have had 4.
 
Leg-End said:
How did he not get an Oscar in the 70's? Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Godfather 1 & 2.

I mean probably a victim of being in a strong era of performances but even so, genuinely could have had 4.
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Yeah. He was far more interesting in those days too, before he got all shouty, vaguely hispanic and his hair started to out act him. I agree with whoever put Donnie Brasco up earlier though, that's a great modern performance from him. The stand out gangster actor in that film, and he's playing the understated, put upon, almost Fredo-like role. And he sold it perfectly.

John Cazale's always overlooked in those films too. I thought he was a stronger support than De Niro In Godfather II personally.

De Niro always gets a lot of credit for Raging Bull & Taxi Driver, but it's largely a lot of shouting and looking mean. I think his Russian roulette scenes in Deerhunter are probably the best thing he's done. He's amazing in them.
 
Curiously, I thought the celebrated Brando was the worst actor of the lot of them in the Godfather films, even outperformed by the likes of 'Tom' & 'Connie' let alone the stars.
 
Brando's fantastic in the Island of Dr Moreau. The bit where's he's eating out of a bucket on his head is hilarious. It also contains some of the worst pretend piano playing in cinema.

 
Mockney said:
Yeah. He was far more interesting in those days too, before he got all shouty, vaguely hispanic and his hair started to out act him. I agree with whoever put Donnie Brasco up earlier though, that's a great modern performance from him. The stand out gangster actor in that film, and he's playing the understated, put upon, almost Fredo-like role. And he sold it perfectly.

John Cazale's always overlooked in those films too. I thought he was a stronger support than De Niro In Godfather II personally.

De Niro always gets a lot of credit for Raging Bull & Taxi Driver, but it's largely a lot of shouting and looking mean. I think his Russian roulette scenes in Deerhunter are probably the best thing he's done. He's amazing in them.
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They are brilliant. Di di mau!! I thought De Niro was very good in The Mission too.
 
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