Best Scene: Dance magic dance.
9. Rutger Hauer in The Hitcher - Hauer is effective at being menacing in his charismatic way even if it asks far too little of him.
Best Scene: Opening.
8. Clancy Brown in Highlander - Brown basically gives two performances, one as a brute, one more so as a crazed villain. He's good at both even if there is a lack of cohesion.
Best Scene: Church
7. Chow Yun-Fat in A Better Tomorrow - Chow is charismatic and brings the only real emotional impact within the overall scheme of his film. It's only a shame he's not the lead.
Best Scene: Shoot out.
6. Michael Caine in Mona Lisa - Caine gives a properly menacing and sleazy performance.
Best Scene: Final confrontation.
5. Tom Noonan in Manhunter - Noonan gives a quietly creepy performance that gets under your skin by his calm.
Best Scene: Do you see?
4. Ray Liotta in Something Wild - Liotta takes over is film with ease giving a charismatic but properly threatening performance of a man going out of control in pursuit of his wife.
Best Scene: Home invasion.
3. Dean Stockwell in Blue Velvet - Stockwell gives a brilliantly idiosyncratic work that is so wonderfully one of a kind in its Lynchian goodness.
Best Scene: His scene.
2. John Goodman in True Stories - Goodman delivers the most compelling vignettes consistently in is first funny though later moving portrayal of a man searching for love.
Best Scene: "People like us" first try.
1. Alan Ruck in Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Good predictions Luke, A, Tahmeed, 8000's Ytrewq, Lucas, Harris & Bryan. Though within overall a light comedy Ruck gives a genuinely emotionally nuanced and in the end quite powerful portrayal of an depressed teenager finding is strength.
Best Scene: Killing the car.
Next: 2017 Lead
41 comments:
Louis: I predicted the bottom lineup correctly under Caine's review
Louis: Ratings and thoughts on the rest of the lead performances and supporting 4s and 3.5s.
Your Female Lead and Supporting Top 20s with ratings and other 4+ honourable mentions. (Where would you rank Chloe Webb in Sid And Nancy and Sissy Spacek in Crimes Of The Heart)
My request is Billy Bob Thornton in The Alamo (2004 Supporting).
Louis: Rating and thoughts on Forest Whitaker in The Color Of Money.
Louis: Your new rating for Christopher Lambert.
Joaquin Phoenix - You Were Never Really Here
Ethan Hawke - Maudie
Jamie Bell - Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool
Tatsuya Nakadai - Lear On The Shore
Sol Kyung-Gu - The Merciless
Bonus: Josh Brolin - Only The Brave
Vladimir Brichta - Bingo: The King Of The Mornings
Rating and thoughts on Jeffrey Jones in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Louis: My request is Chhabi Biswas in Devi for a backlog review (1960 Supporting). I hope you'll save Chatterjee too, but I'd rather wait for your thoughts on the film proper when I recommend it this time.
Tahmeed: You don't mind if I ask for rating confirmation for Sharmila Tagore when he sees it.
Luke: No problem from me at all.
Louis: Any changes to your Actress and Supporting Actress? For reference, this is what you had pre-Oscars:
Lead: Weaver for Alien
Matlin for Lesser God
Torres for Love Me Forever-5
Davis for The Fly
Spacek for 'night
Nogueira for Vera
Sukowa for Rosa Luxembourg
Outinen in Shadows
Bancroft in 'night-4.5
Ashcroft in Wind Blows-4
Supporting:
Rossellini in Blue Velvet
Wiest in Hannah-5
Tyson in Mona Lisa
Dern in Blue Velvet
Hershey in Hannah-4.5
Mirren in Mosquito Coast
Gisladottir in Sacrifice
van de Ven in Assault
Allen in Manhunter
Fleetwood in Sacrifice
Michael: Weaver was the only 5 in lead, I asked him about Matlin recently and she's still a 4.5. Hershey's a 5 and is currently in 3rd for Supporting.
Louis: I'm in the same situation as Lucas.
For 2017, I've heard good things about Richard Gere in Norman and Harris Dickinson in Beach Rats.
Harris: I can confirm Gere is the best thing about his very faulty film, but not very worthy of a review, I have him at 3.5.
Louis, I like that you're saving MBJ and JO'C! Cn't wait to see the film!
Also, what do you think of the trailer for HIM. It looks like "The Substance" meets, well any football film.
My Supporting suggestions:
Eric Tsang - Mad World
Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Mom
Mark Rylance - Dunkirk
Koji Yakusho - The Third Murder
Tommy Flanagan - The Ballad Of Lefty Brown
Alt. Guy Pearce - Brimstone/Bill Nighy - Their Finest/Shia LaBeouf - Borg Vs McEnroe
Louis: Could you add John Ingle and Pops Staples in True Stories, and Kiefer Sutherland in Stand By Me to your ranking?
I'll request Scott Wilson in In Cold Blood.
Louis how do you rank the films of Ryan Coogler?
Also, this Coogler MBJ collab got me wondering, what are your top 10 pairs of actors and directors that have collaborated multiple (more than 3 or 5) times?
Luke: Interesting. Torres's review definitely had me thinking 5
Anonymous: He gave thoughts on Jones here - https://actoroscar.blogspot.com/2015/12/alternate-best-actor-1962-tatsuya.html
Rating and thoughts on Joan Allen in Manhunter.
I would like to see Phoenix crack your top 3 for 2017. Granted a stack card, but such a haunting performance, that's on par with his work in The Master.
Louis: Your thoughts on these sequences from The Awful Truth.
"Jerry and Lucy drink and reminisce."
"Lucy pretends to be Jerry's sister."
"Riding police motorcycles."
"The final scene."
Also, gotta say it, Irene Dunne sure didn't look like she was in her late 30's when she made the movie.
I think Ruck was the actor who rose the most in the ranking, before he was #28.
I noticed that this year Louis has been posting more individual posts about the Succession actors.
Louis: No rush on this, but when you have the time, your final thoughts on 1986 as a movie year?
Louis: Could you add and rate When The Wind Blows.
Louis: I know you've given thoughts on the whole scene before, but could I have your thoughts on the moment where Mozart apologizes to Salieri on his deathbed from Amadeus? That's probably what seals the whole requiem sequence as the finest piece of acting I've ever seen.
Louis: Thoughts on the new Oscar guidelines. Perhaps Disney and Pixar's stranglehold on Animated Feature will finally come to an end.
Luke: The last three in a row have not gone to Disney or Pixar.
Matt: I'm aware of that, what I meant to say is that it'll prevent laziness from academy members going with generally the more popular studios like Disney and Pixar.
Luke: Should have been that way from the start, I'm glad to see it formalized.
Luke, your thoughts on Wrestlemania and John Cena’s win
Anonymous: Not a great mania. Night 1 was underwhelming until the main event, I really enjoyed the 1st half of Night 2 but went downhill after.
Best Match: Night 1 Triple Threat (The entire presentation from start to finish was exquisite)
Worst Match: Cena vs. Cody (I've no issues with the approach they took from a storytelling perspective but the ending was god-awful, No Rock payoff and Travis Scott sucks arse as a celebrity participant)
And I'm intrigued to see where Cena goes from here, I need Cena Vs. Punk one last time.
Luke:
Lavant - 4.5(I mean you get him doing his thing wonderfully well and the best moments of the film are him just being let loose. Whether that is his running dancing or his tricks, Lavant is just so magnetic in his idiosyncratic ways about himself that he just captures your attention every second of it and carries those scenes so effectively. The actual sort of emotional pull in terms of his hopeless romantic qualities while being a theoretical underling in a way matter less in terms of what the film is focusing on, yet Lavant still captures your attention and brings that modesty within the emotional needs that brings this authentic sincerity that grounds beautifully the broader nature of the character.)
Combs - 4(He just understands how to play this overt style so well once again, even here as he plays more so the straight man technically, though he ends up going insane. Combs though is effective in playing the straight man with the right genuine way to sell the style which is to play the fear straight and his reactions honest to the insanity of it all. He pivots most effectively as well however as we see him twist in a way that is convincing because I like how much he makes him more lost in his mind than having just suddenly turned evil or something so simple as that.)
Mastroianni - 4both(Each are different sets of expectations for his performance. His Fellini performance is working within his anarchic romantic spirit from him that we have seen elsewhere though tempered essentially by age. He handles that as well to be expected in a way that doesn’t reinvent the wheel but is expectedly very charming. As the beekeeper the nature of the piece is more direction oriented however Mastroianni punctuates it well by bringing his presence within this more subdued role, where his certain emotional exasperations and needs at the edges of the quiet dutiful choices that Mastroianni grants a certain impact through that stronger presence.)
Tseshang - (Very much working within the direction framework but he’s effective in giving a convincing performance even if I felt he was overshadowed by the overall vision.)
Scheider - (He’s perfectly fine in portraying the general emotions of moments and his own badass bits he gets eventually, however the role just is too thin for him to do much with it.)
Domingo & Diaz - (Both seem to sing well however their performances don’t really come to life beyond that.)
Whitaker - 4(He just creates the most interesting character in the entire film by the way he does the greatest hustle in the entire film. As he begins with this joking affable quality and you seemingly think he is just some random kid. Then when Eddie calls him on it, Whitaker’s switch to serious and just saying the money doesn’t matter is perfect in the way he’s almost too good at the switch that while denying he’s a hustle, he’s in fact admitting it by being such a perfect hustler in the moment by acting as the perfect not hustler. A fantastic trick that works due to Whitaker switching it so well, particularly the way his face changes when Eddie agrees to play more. He’s particularly great in the last moment where you see him with this initial false shame at the hustle as he leaves, only to end on his “do you think I need to lose weight” with a laugh being the ideal button as the man fully revealing himself.)
Glover - 4(Just some fun sleazebag stuff from him. I particularly enjoy that early on there’s a certain sloppiness in how he plays the moments as a guy who really doesn’t know what he’s doing entirely but presents himself in his small gang that he does albeit in a messy slimy way. As the film proceeds he effectively creates the danger by just revealing this cold cutting amorality that comes later on with the brightest of satisfied smile as he goes about it, leading to such satisfaction when he gets his, where his reaction of losing his smug assurance is a great bit thanks to Glover’s emotional collapse in the moment.)
Elliott - 4(Yet another BAFTA winning performance. This one sadly was far shorter than I was expecting it to be so, because he’s quite good early on in his sort of aged wisdom he brings in his interactions with Byrne where you sense the complication in his manner and the dignity of someone who has very certain expectations when it comes to journalism. When that changes in his last scene, he’s very effective in becoming just the distressed wreck where he is quite captivating in losing that quiet mentor type dignity. Sadly his performance is very much cut short.)
Sorel - 4(Most effectively creepy because he plays to everything with this overt horniness well bringing this demented hollowness about someone who is functioning on some entirely different plane both in terms of dimension but also his morality. Morel being the proper creeper in every sense of the word.)
Kraaijkamp - (His performance is the most interesting thing post the opening of the film as he brings a certain complexity of a man doing everything to not apologize for his actions leading to the death of a family. His performance brings this heroes bravado were everything he says has a degree of defense to it as he argues himself as everything he did is justified and creates the sense of a lack of regret based around actually something putting it all a bit too bluntly as someone who deep down does feel some but won’t show it.)
Hordern - 3.5(Wish there had been more of him as his chemistry with Bonham-Carter is most lovely in his somewhat imperious nature that gives way to genuine warmth and care in each subsequent meeting we get between them. Lovely work.)
Lambert is a 1.5.
I think I covered Allen before.
Actress:
1. Sigourney Weaver - Aliens
2. Geena Davis - The Fly - 5
3. Marlee Matlin - Children of a Lesser God
4. Fernanda Torres - Love Me Forever Or Love Me Never
5. Giulietta Masina - Ginger and Fred
6. Helena Bonham Carter - Lady Jane
7. Sissy Spacek - 'Night Mother
8. Ana Beatriz Nogueira - Vera
9. Barbara Sukowa - Rosa Luxemburg
10. Kati Outinen - Shadows in Paradise
11. Anne Bancroft - 'Night Mother
12. Peggy Ashcroft - When the Wind Blows
13. Sissy Spacek - Crimes of the Heart
14. Chloe Webb - Sid & Nancy
15. Kathleen Turner - Peggy Sue Got Married
16. Emmanuelle Beart - Manon Des Sources
17. Juliette Binoche - Mauvais Sang - 4
18. Diane Keaton - Crimes of the Heart
19. Nadia Mourouzi - The Beekeeper - 4
20. Julie Andrews - That’s Life
Supporting Actress:
1. Isabella Rossellini - Blue Velvet
2. Dianne Wiest - Hannah And Her Sisters
3. Barbara Hershey - Hannah and her Sisters
4. Cathy Tyson - Mona Lisa
5. Laura Dern - Blue Velvet
6. Helen Mirren - The Mosquito Coast
7. Guðrún GÃsladóttir - The Sacrifice
8. Monique van de Ven - The Assault
9. Joan Allen - Manhunter
10. Vera Mayorova - Dead Man’s Letters
11. Jennifer Grey - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
12. Susan Fleetwood - The Sacrifice
13. Carrie Henn - Aliens
14. Jenette Goldstein - Aliens
15. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - The Color of Money
16. Maggie Smith - A Room With A View
17. Piper Laurie - Children of a Lesser God
18. Barbara Hershey - Hoosiers
19. Nicoletta Braschi - Down By Law
20. Judi Dench - A Room With A View
J96:
Actor/Director Collaborations:
1. Mifune/Kurosawa
2. Ullmann/Bergman
3. Nakadai/Kobayashi
4. Hara/Ozu
5. Thulin/Bergman
6. Shimura/Kurosawa
7. Ryu/Ozu
8. Guinness/Lean
9. Wayne/Ford
10. Nakadai/Kurosawa
Coogler:
1. Creed/Sinners (Will have to see how Sinners holds up on re-watch to decide)
3. Black Panther
4. Fruitvale Station
5. Black Panther Wakanda Forever (The more I think about the film the more it wains.)
Side Note to all: Having seen his skill with the musical scenes I really hope Coogler gets to do Hamilton given he’s expressed interest in it.
Tahmeed:
One of my all time favorite cinematic moments, maybe my favorite of all time by the beautiful tragedy of it as Mozart humbled by his physical state is willing to be vulnerable in the moment and be wholly genuine in his appreciation of Salieri’s endeavors, even if the latter is still lying in his intention. Hulce is so gentle in the moment, so honest in his way in showing the appreciation, which countering that is Abraham’s reaction which is surprise and being taken aback and not knowing what to do. And while other moments of flattery seemed false to pretend to be the Iago like friend to Mozart, in this moment his earnest “you are the greatest composer known to me” Abraham so beautifully shows the young Salieri just speaking the truth with his own vulnerability. A different vulnerability though as in the moment you also see the shades of regret of realizing years of betraying his own passion by allowing his jealousy to be Mozart’s enemy rather than his champion as he could’ve been.
Luke:
LOVE IT, perhaps we can be spared a win like Saladana’s in the future when people actually see everything.
Tony:
Just an exceptionally varied year, where even the academy’s top two contenders of Hannah and Platoon are fascinating sort of alternative takes on the world with each daring in their own way with two unique filmmakers honing their craft. But then you have the off-beat brilliance of Blue Velvet and The Fly. You have great animated films in Mouse, Castle and Wind. You have fascinating hidden gems like the Sacrifice or Down By Love. You have great entertainments like Little Shop, Aliens or deep dramas with a facade of entertainment like Stand By Me. It is such a mix of different flavors that blend beautifully that there’s likely something for everyone and is a shining example of the oddball creations of the 80’s in just the right way.
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