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Brie Larson’s work in Short Term 12 is a subtle tour de force of fragility & steeliness, both uplifting & heart-breaking. It's what makes her such a great Carol Danvers, especially when she goes full throttle on the real glee of being a superhero. And she deserved that Oscar!
Jennifer Lawrence has been criminally misused by Hollywood in many ways but look at Winter's Bone for a stirring performance, wherein she conveys the exhausting weight of her character's plight that's left her with an understanding of the cruel world well beyond her tender years.
The collaborations between Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler have highlighted his impeccable ability to be both a prickly character actor and a full-on A-List leading man force, something that's increasingly rare in the franchise age.
Meme all you want but the unchained elastic intensity of Nic Cage is iconic for a reason. There are few things more unnaturally charismatic than Cage giving it his all and his self-awareness of what that means. Turn to Mandy or Moonstruck for the delicate shades within.
John Travolta embodied an exciting kind of masculinity in the '70s that helped to pave the way for new generations of leading men. The petulant charm of Saturday Night Fever & Grease - sleazy but deeply insecure and always appealing - carried over to a new age in Pulp Fiction.
If you genuinely think Kristen Stewart is a bad actor, you're beyond help. Her near kaleidoscopic emotional range is invigorating and she can bring weight to even the flimsiest stories. Don't sleep on her comedic chops either.
Daniel Radcliffe has put in the work post-Potter to stretch his muscles as an actor of both stage and screen. Watching a guy who could have sleepwalked through his career throw himself into the weird and wonderful is exciting, & he has a fascinating physicality in comedic roles.
Adam Sandler, when he gives a damn, has alluring darkness to his on-screen presence that can be mined for emotional and dramatic heft. And so many of those comedies still work because few can do the broad spiral of madness that he has made his bread & butter.
Not enough of you have seen Two Lovers and it shows, otherwise you would understand how utterly devastating Gwyneth Paltrow can be. When she gets to wield that WASP-y edge & brittleness, she's brilliant. Don't sleep on Pepper Potts.
We get the action men stars we need and deserve and the always self-aware Vin Diesel has endured for a reason. What he does with Groot and The Iron Giant seems so deceptively easy but note those shades of pathos that are so tough to replicate.
Honestly, we have been too nasty to Chloë Grace Moretz, who has matured into a witty and engaging actress thanks to work in sinfully underseen works like The Miseducation of Cameron Post. If we still made noirs, she'd be a wickedly good femme fatale, trust me.
I can't say I'm a huge fan of Emma Watson but she grew with Hermione in a very real way, balancing that youthful arrogance with a weariness that felt so true to what's on the page. She's an absolute blast in The Bling Ring, poking fun at herself & vapidity as a personality.
Anthony Mackie has done great dramatic work (Half Nelson, The Hurt Locker, Night Catches Us), but there's something to be said about sheer presence, which is why he'll be a great Cap.
Jessica Alba's gotten a raw deal over the years (the perils of being boxed in as the "sex symbol"), but boy did she carry Dark Angel through its absurdities with a surprising force. I would love her to get a role like what Megan Fox got with Jennifer's Body.
Amy Adams can do ANYTHING. Who goes from The Master to The Muppets in one damn year?! She can be delicate, adorable, broken, luminous, calculating, forceful, strange, pensive, you name it. Get her that Oscar already.
Armie Hammer is a Ken Doll who is at his best when playing absolute pricks. He can utilize that WASP-y "perfection" so sharply, be it for the arrogance of the Winkelvoss twins or the coked up sleaze in Sorry to Bother You. And of course my eternal fave, The Man From UNCLE.
Marky Mark Wahlberg thinks very highly of himself (stop it with the messianic roles), but damn if that performance in Boogie Nights doesn't hold up to this day. His evolution from wallflower to dick-strutting maniac remains hugely gripping. #phrasing
Want to see Kevin Costner at the height of his powers? Watch Bull Durham. He's never been funnier or more charming, he's almost like a Billy Wilder anti-hero.
A Star is Born went through the full hot takes wringer but everyone could agree on how transformative a performance Bradley Cooper gave. The self-pity, the ego, the heart, the desperate pleading... It'd be unbearable if it wasn't so enthralling. Also he's great as Rocket Raccoon.
Scarlett Johansson has always had the presence and sensitivity of actresses years older than her from many decades ago. The ways she's played around with femme fatale tropes, from Under the Skin to Her, show the relish she has for such parts & the strangeness bubbling underneath.
Not a huge Ashton Kutcher fan but there's a reason he was the go-to guy for that abrasive, noisy "token douchebag" role for so long.
Are we seriously going to downplay the decade of deft growth and emotional warmth Chris Evans brought to Captain America? Are we really going to overlook how he showed the full range of the mental weight that defined Steve's arc? Not on my watch.
The Fault in Our Stars is SO not my thing, never has been, but I doubt you could have found a more perfect Augustus Waters than Ansel Elgort, who understood the false precociousness as well as the brittle fear of that character's plight.
Gal Gadot will define Wonder Woman for generations in a way no one actor has yet done for Batman. She's warm, wide-eyed but not naive, driven and just stubborn enough. She's a leader in that role and it practically radiates from the screen.
Did we all just forget that Angelina Jolie has an Oscar? Did we forget the fierceness of Gia, Girl Interrupted and, yes, Tomb Raider? Do we have no respect for the ways she can be both so controlled and utterly wild?
Wanna talk about someone who got seriously short changed by the tabloids? Sienna Miller. Look at High Rise, The Lost City of Z, The Girl, Factory Girl... Damn if she doesn't kill as Edie Sedgwick. Give her more to do than be "the wife", already!
Honestly, I think a lot of people have a very staid and restrictive idea of what “good acting” is and it benefits nobody to reduce an entire field to good/bad when the sheer layers and subtleties of what a film/performance need are overlooked in favour of glib shit-posting.
But hey, this thread probably took ten times the effort that Jezebel post did and it'll get maybe a tenth of the clicks so I dunno, maybe I'm the fool for even responding. But come on guys, at least try.
Well, this crashed my Twitter app multiple times!
No Soundcloud to if you want to do something nice, support @artsemergency, an amazing charity that mentors & supports marginalized young Brits to overcome barriers & find success in the arts.
arts-emergency.org/donate-2/
No Soundcloud to if you want to do something nice, support @artsemergency, an amazing charity that mentors & supports marginalized young Brits to overcome barriers & find success in the arts.
arts-emergency.org/donate-2/
It has been four days since I did this thread and the sheer amount of people who seem genuinely furious at me for saying Kristen Stewart is a great actor is exhausting. These people need Personal Shopper.
