Performances in movies that blew you away

SmokeyEyes

We watched There Will Be Blood again at the weekend and yet again I was totally blown away by Daniel Day Lewis in it. He's such a larger than life character in the movie and I honestly can't think of another performance that astounds me as much. You never feel like you're watching an actor in a brilliant performance, you completely believe he is Daniel Plainview and from start to finish I think the whole portrayal is incredible.

Was just wondering if you agreed or what performances really stick out in your head as being dazzling or that stayed with you for a long time afterwards?

yermandan

Most recently, Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave. Ruthless personified

delbertgrady

Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur.

MfMan

SmokeyEyes wrote: »

We watched There Will Be Blood again at the weekend and yet again I was totally blown away by Daniel Day Lewis in it. He's such a larger than life character in the movie and I honestly can't think of another performance that astounds me as much. You never feel like you're watching an actor in a brilliant performance, you completely believe he is Daniel Plainview and from start to finish I think the whole portrayal is incredible.

Was just wondering if you agreed or what performances really stick out in your head as being dazzling or that stayed with you for a long time afterwards?

Thought his performance in Gangs of New York was equally good.

Ben Kingsley in Gandhia and Sexy Beast, Paul Scofield in anything (though A Man For All Seasons in particular), Robert Mitchum in Night Of The Hunter, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, Orson Welles in The Third Man, Touch Of Evil, Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson in Schindler's List, Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom in The Ladykillers, John Turturro in The Big Lebowski, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Frances McDormand in Fargo

So many more....

SmokeyEyes

MfMan wrote: »

Thought his performance in Gangs of New York was equally good.

Ben Kingsley in Gandhia and Sexy Beast, Paul Scofield in anything (though A Man For All Seasons in particular), Robert Mitchum in Night Of The Hunter, Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, Orson Welles in The Third Man, Touch Of Evil, Kevin Spacey in The Usual Suspects, Ralph Fiennes, Liam Neeson in Schindler's List, Alec Guinness, Herbert Lom in The Ladykillers, John Turturro in The Big Lebowski, Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Frances McDormand in Fargo

So many more....

Great list...believe it or not I still haven't seen Gangs of New York!

MfMan

SmokeyEyes wrote: »

Great list...believe it or not I still haven't seen Gangs of New York!

It's a brilliant mess; Di Caprio and Cameron Diaz blew a Titanic-sized hole right through it.

krudler

Even though it's a total cliche at this point, Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, any time he was on screen he was mesmerising.

Gary Oldman in well anything really, the man is a chameleon. hard to imagine Drexl from True Romance and Smiley from Tinker Tailor are the same person.

e_e

Most recently: Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

Warper

It is hard to beat Day Lewis in There will be Blood

Other notables

Gary Oldman in Leon
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
De Niro in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull
Pacino in Scarface
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast
Woody Harrelson in Out of the Furnace
Joe Pesci Goodfellas

gugleguy

Denzel Washington as Paul Creasy in Man on Fire.

gugleguy

Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt in FiveMinutes of Heaven.

The Wild Bunch

Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke

nervous_twitch

So at the risk of being lampooned for giving a mediocre actor in a mediocre film such high praise, I think one of the strongest performances I've seen is Angelina Jolie's in Girl, Interrupted. Though she irritates me significantly as an individual, she brought a sociopath to life in the most entertaining and dynamic way. Given that the script was pretty woeful, it was quite the feat. Shame, really, the way it went; she was also great in Gia/Changeling/Tomb Raider.

Sleepy

Jim Carey's performance in The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind absolutely bowled me over because I was thoroughly unprepared for it. For all of their popularity, I've never particularly liked his comedies like The Mask or Ace Ventura and with the (enjoyable but lightweight) Truman Show having been the best I'd seen him prior to this I just never gave him any credit as an actor, I'd had him pigeon-holed as a physical comedian. Must watch it again soon.

Baze

Recently, it would have to be Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

You got the impression that when the cameras stopped rolling, she would continue on as her character as she seemed that immersed in her role. I don't think I have ever seen a better acting performance on screen. She almost seemed to be under hypnosis as was what came across as her utter unawareness of the camera. For someone who was only 19, it makes it all the more amazing.

Léa Seydoux was excellent in the film also and here's a (visually non-explicit) scene with both of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojJE84b75GM

DazMarz

Bruno Ganz in Der Untergang/Downfall

Hitler has been portrayed many times over the years. Even by the likes of Sir Alec Guinness, Charlie Chaplin and Robert Carlyle.

But nothing comes close to touching the sheer insanity and mood-swinging of his final days as Ganz. It is mesmerising to watch at times. The swing from a tender man who dotes upon children and women, to the raving lunatic moving his imaginary armies around on a map and screaming at his generals for not following his orders is stunning. From the man who confidently plans a life after the war (following the German "final victory"), to the broken, sad little man who realises the war is lost and his thousand year Reich will not even make it to twenty years. Ganz embodies this and is simply amazing.

If you ever listen to any of Hitler's actual speeches, you will be amazed at how much Ganz actually sounds like Hitler. I'm no linguistic expert, but it is widely reported that Hitler had a rather odd accent. To me, they all just sound German; I wouldnt be able to tell between a Munich accent or a Berlin accent. But according to many German film critics, Ganz captures Hitler's rare accent superbly. He listened to hundreds of recordings of Hitler and watched dozens of films that featured Hitler's speeches in order to capture the man. And it worked.

This is one of the best films ever, but it would have fallen apart (all other things being equal) if the central performance of Adolf Hitler had not been anything other than perfect. And perfection is what we get here. Even the little tics that Hitler apparently developed towards the end (a tremor in one of his hands, for example) are displayed by Ganz. If ever there was a case of forgetting you're watching an actor and getting a true feeling that you are actually watching history as a fly on the wall, well this is it.

A triumph of acting that is up there amongst the best performances ever.

Shorty69664

Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking.
I'll never understand how he didn't get the oscar that year

Warper

nervous_twitch wrote: »

So at the risk of being lampooned for giving a mediocre actor in a mediocre film such high praise, I think one of the strongest performances I've seen is Angelina Jolie's in Girl, Interrupted. Though she irritates me significantly as an individual, she brought a sociopath to life in the most entertaining and dynamic way. Given that the script was pretty woeful, it was quite the feat. Shame, really, the way it went; she was also great in Gia/Changeling/Tomb Raider.

Good shout she was great in that.

catallus

Plus one for Carrey in Eternal Sunshine;

Day Lewis in Lincoln; the makeup did a lot of the work but he was great in it.

Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown.

Tom Hardy in Bronson.

Joe Pesci in Casino.

dark crystal

Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and The Shining).

Christopher Walken in The Deer Hunter

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father.

dark crystal

catallus wrote: »

Tom Hardy in Bronson.

Ah yeah, that was something else. What a performance!

TheIrishGrover

Yeah, Jim Carey in ESOTSM was just fantastic. Actually both Winslett and Carey were fantastic. Characters completely reversed from what they usually play: Winslett the hyper extrovert and Carey the emotionally repressed character. fantastic choices and one of my favourite films.

Heath Ledger in TDK was fantastic but I pride myself on being one of the few who ALWAYS thought he was going to make a great Joker, that there was more to him than just being a pretty boy. Right from the start I thought he was a fantastic choice and this was mainly down to his acting in Lords of Dogtown. The movie based on the (excellent) documentary Dogtown and Z Boys. He was completely unrecognisable in that film (Maybe not physically but character-wise).


Oh, and Vince Vaughan in Zoolander

Mr. Incognito

Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds.

Will never be topped for me. English, German, Frence and italian.

"THAT'S A BINGOOOOOOOOO"

Kunkka

Robert Shaw in Jaws

Liam McPoyle

Harvey Keitel in The Bad Lieutenant automatically springs to mind, mesmerising stuff.

Peter Green in Clean,Shaven is probably the finest performance of a mentally disturbed individual I've ever seen.

Average-Ro

Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain.

I thought this was a stunning performance. His character of Ennis Del Mar ages a fair bit through the film (it's been a while since I've seen it but I think he'd be 40 or so by the end of the film)

For a 25 year old to be able to so believably capture the weariness and beat down nature that life can throw at you as you get older was what stunned me. I believed every second of his performance.

tunguska

John Heard in Cutter's way. Its unreal to think he ended up being more widely known for playing the Dad in home alone.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

Saw Dallas Buyers Club at the weekend, thought Matthew McConaughey was excellent and I've never much liked him.

Sir Gallagher

Christian Bales's early work was a little too new wave for my taste. But when American Psycho came out in '00 I think he really came into his own, commercially and artistically.

His performance is hillarious yet disturbing, we see a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gave his career a big boost.

He's been compared to Di Niro, but I think Christian has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor.

grohlisagod

+1 on Tom Hardy in Bronson, absolutely captivating.

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. The scene with English Bob in the jail is brilliant.

Pacino in Serpico.

krudler

Richard Harris in The Field, astonishing stuff

gugleguy

Nicholas Cage in:
8mm
Bringing out the dead

Gmol

Michael Douglas in Falling Down

TheMollusc

Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

MfMan

grohlisagod wrote: »

+1 on Tom Hardy in Bronson, absolutely captivating.

Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs.

Gene Hackman in Unforgiven. The scene with English Bob in the jail is brilliant.

Pacino in Serpico.

Thought Hopkins performance was hammy; equally, Hackman had become a snarling parody of himself by the time Unforgiven came along. Much better in French Connection. With a very occasional exception a lot of Pacino's best work came in the 70s.

Warper

Jennifer Lawrence in Winters Bone

JP Liz V1

Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus in Gladiator outshines lead Russell Crowe as the devious villain for me


Tom Hardy as Tommy in Warrior also another great performance from him

Gatling

e_e wrote: »

Most recently: Adèle Exarchopoulos in Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

Recently watched this have to say as a bloke she had some amazing displays especially in the last quarter of the movie


Christian bale in America psycho
Also Bale in Harsh Times

Alonso77

TheMollusc wrote: »

Michael Shannon in Take Shelter

+1, brilliantly played

Compu Global Hyper Meganet

Agree with a lot of the choices already made, particularly Heath Ledger as the Joker, Bruno Ganz in Downfall and Daniel Day Lewis in....well, in anything (lets face it, he is the greatest actor of all time). Also:

Michael Fassbender in Hunger: the monologue with the priest in which he recounts killing the foal as a boy is utterly compelling.

Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James (etc): Understated portrayal of a man who knows his days are numbered

Sean Connery in Finding Forrester: No real critical acclaim, but I just thought is was an effortless, natural performance.

Noomi Rapace in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: Utterly compelling - this Swedish version was predictably superior to the hammy Daniel Craig Hollywood remake.

Those are just off the top of my head. Plenty others out there!

deadybai

Christoff Waltz in Django Unchained and Christian Bale in American Psyco

Crimson King

Genuinly never rated him as an actor as he irritates me, and still does. But tom hanks in castaway was sublime.

Good shout on Naoimi Rapace too, stunning performance as lisbeth, even now can only picture her when I re-read those books recently.

trancemuzic

Tom Hanks was superb in Forrest Gump

Leonardo di Caprio in This Boys Life

Heath Ledger in Brokeback mountain

Sean Penn in Mystic River and I Am SAM

Will Smith was great in The Pursuit of Happiness

BobbyPropane

Christian Bale in American Psycho

Rubber_Soul

Joaquin Pheonix in The Master. The audit scene with himself and PSH completely blew me away.

SnowDrifts

Having read through the list thus far, most of mine have already mentioned. Particularly Day Lewis.... in anything, Ledger as Joker, Al Pacino in Scarface and De Niro in Taxi Driver.

Also worth a mention is Freeman in Shawshank and Spacey in American Beauty. Joaquin Pheonix as Johnny Cash was superb.

fruvai

SnowDrifts wrote: »

De Niro in Scarface and Taxi Driver.

He was so brilliant in that I didn't even realise it was him :pac:

colmufc

SnowDrifts wrote: »

De Niro in Scarface and Taxi Driver.

De Niro - scarface are you feeling okay

SnowDrifts

Al Pacino... you knew what I meant

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

delbertgrady wrote: »

Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur.

This was the first name that popped into my head when I saw this thread.

I think for two reasons this performance blew me away. 1 - It's an incredible performance, obviously. 2 - Much like Jim Carrey in ESOTSM, as some have mentioned, I'd only ever seen Colman do comedy up until that point, it came as a complete shock to me that she was capable of this.

I was reminded of this recently when I saw 12 Years a Slave. Lupita Nyong'o's performance made me feel similar things to Colman in Tyrannosaur. The "soap" scene and what happened after from 12 Years a Slave moved me in a way I can't even explain, there was no one emotion I could say I was feeling, I just knew I was feeling a lot. The same in Tyrannosaur when she breaks down and

tells him all the horrible things her husband did and how she just wanted to be a mum

markesmith

Won't trot out the usual De Niro / Pacinos here. Two of my faves by them are Once Upon a Time in America (De Niro as opium-addled Jewish gangster Noodles) and Pacino in Glengarry Glen Ross, a tour de force performance.

Pacino in GFII is probably my favourite performance ever.

Also, Nicholson in the Shining, Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Donald Sutherland in Novecento, Malcolm McDowell in Clockwork Orange, Nicole Kidman in The Others...

The kid in Idi i Smotri (Come and See) is phenomenal, that movie's a must-watch.

Finally, Bruno Lawrence in the Quiet Earth. Okay-ish movie, but the ending blew me away.