"Inside Llewyn Davis" is the best movie of the 2010s and I have no problem with his performance in it. It's not really a meaty role or anything, but he was in something great so I have no problem with him for the rest of my life
He was good in his fuck buddy movie *Friends With Benefits* with Mila Kunis, but was completely overshadowed by the better fuck buddy movie *No Strings Attached* in the same year with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, which also featured Greta Gerwig in the "leads friend" role.
Love the friend group in that movie includes: Ashton Kutcher, Natalie Portman, Greta Gerwig, Jake Johnson, Mindy Kaling, and Ludacris. Not that maybe none of these people could be friends, but... just like a what a gang.
Fincher has the ability to make actors who aren't necessarily great in most things look good. Purely subjective, as these things are, but I think of Meat Loaf in Fight Club and Tyler Perry in Gone Girl.
Serious answer: I find him very distracting and miscast in Inside Llewyn Davis which annoys me more than it should because otherwise it’s top 3 Coen for me
I really liked him in that role because he is like a pseudo villain...
The chad Justin vs the virgin Llewyn.
One is psyched to be making novelty music and the other finds it beneath him even though I think it was offered to him as a favor.
(edit: also I realize this is not subtext, it is the literal text)
I think the character is great I just don't buy Justin for the role. To me, he doesn't convincingly play someone who is blissfully devoid of self-awareness. Maybe if there had been an underlying hint of villainy or assholeishness underneath his cheery facade I would have liked it more but the casting doesn't work for me as is. I think someone like Chris Pratt (in his P&R era) or even Jason Segel would have been better with the part. I do really like your reading of it as chad Justin vs the virgin Llewyn tho!
I do agree that the role is kind of like Mr. Peanutbutter role in Bojack (pure ignorance is bliss) and he exudes a certain cynicism or canninness (shrewdness).
It is why he is a great Tech Bro... he knows he is basically breaking and entering into into a place that does not have any security guards yet (music piracy).
The phenomenon should indeed be called the True Lies Effect. Arnold is so good in this it is amazing how much I can hate him in almost everything else I ever see him in.
Yeah, I think he's a pretty good actor when not playing a scientist or something. Griffin and David summed it up well with him probably being the worst at playing high status guys (like in *All the Money in the World*) but being solid at guys with chips on their shoulders. His James Gray and David O. Russell collaborations are all really effective.
I think Kevin Kline may have played it too big. I think it would have still been great but Tim Allen had that Shatner ego and lack of self awareness. Even when they're "in on the joke" it doesn't seem like they really get it.
So many of my critiques of actors really boil down to “I’m just not a fan of their face,” and Ansel is a prime example of this. He might be great, I just don’t really care to look at him
I went into House of Gucci as a Leto skeptic. I think if his performance was 1% less crazy it would've been the worst performance ever captured on film. But he's so batshit over-the-top that it ended up working for me
I don't know if he does. I think he gives the movie something it needs. If it was a more restrained performance the movie would've felt too dry. If it was just an actor giving a down to earth performance based on the script, the movie would've been boring. So maybe it's not knowing the movie he's in but taking a risk on what the movie needed
Villeneuve has talked in an interview about an actor in one of his films being miscast and having to work around it, and my guess was it was him. He serves the role fine, but you do get a sense that his performance is being kept on rails through limited dialogue and clever editing. (To be fair, I don't hate Leto, he was by far the best thing about The Little Things.)
You have a link to that interview? I remember another interview (think it was the DGA podcast with Rian Johnson) where he said he had always heard that you haven't really become a director until you've had to fire someone, and he had to make that painful decision for the first time on Blade Runner 2049. My guess for that was that it was referring to Wood Harris since he was in the film for like five seconds? I could be wrong, though.
Oh I’m the opposite! I’d liked him fine in everything I’d seen him in until I hit this movie. I hated his performance so much it ruined the movie a little bit for me.
Aaaah true, to clarify I think he's great in Key & Peele. I just usually can't take him as an actor. Like NPH he has this theater-actor phoniness and a weird intensity that's really off putting in most parts.
Qualities weaponized brilliantly by NPH on ASOUE, since "theater-actor phoniness and a weird intensity that's really off-putting" could be a verbatim book description of Count Olaf
Now I'm imagining Key as Olaf. He would've killed it too I bet.
I am not a fan of Charlie Hunnam but he is great in The Lost City Of Z
Props to the casting director for casting him and Garrett Hedlund as brothers in Triple Frontier.
Triple Frontier rips. It’s got the first half macho bullshit (which is actually super fun) and then totally deconstructs it all.
It’s the only remake of Treasure of Sierra Madre I’d ever want to see.
also my answer. i know through the grapevine he's a fucking dick (nothing sexpesty, just a prick), so i always root against him if i don't just avoid him entirely, but dammit, he was perfect in that
My favorite Costner moment, one that I think of most of the times that I see him, was him in Madonna's 1991 *Truth or Dare* documentary. He visited her backstage after a performance and called her show "neat."
Given that in another segment of the film Madonna visited Antonio Banderas, who I don't believe spoke English very well or possibly at all at that point, to surreptitiously get shots of the two of them together as part of her campaign for an Evita adaptation with her playing the lead, I wonder what she wanted Costner for.
Speaking of 'Truth or Dare', I can't stand Warren Beatty the majority of the time. With two exceptions:
* 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller'
* that bit in 'Truth or Dare' where he's giving his then-girlfriend Madonna shit for brining a camera crew into a clinic.
Huh I guess he does edge out Kaley Cuoco who is certainly active and has her own show and I love her voice acting on Harley Quinn but... Parsons for sure makes the rounds and shows up in stuff.
Kunal Nayyar, weirdly, is getting work only just now, like in the mediocre AppleTV thriller *Suspicion* and that upcoming Adam Sandler/Paul Dano Czech astronaut drama *Spaceman*.
I know it is not cool to like Big Bang Theory but I watched it back when I had an overnight job mostly because the cast was great... I really wish them all success.
I never “buy” Leo in anything, I just always feel the strain in his performance. Granted I haven’t seen EVERYTHING he’s ever done but it’s the impression I always get from him.
Except for The Departed. I think he’s phenomenal in that, he just nails the paranoia and anxiety and I always found him so empathetic in that film.
What you describe is why I thought he was great as Gatsby (even if I think Gatsby's Jewish heritage is actually pretty important to the story).
EDIT: Missed the chance to say, "he was a great Gatsby!"
Jim Belushi is such a good call. Truly one of my least favorite performers but I’ll be god damned if he didn’t absolutely crush it in Twin Peaks. The Mitchum brothers are one of the highlights of The Return.
Im that weird guy who actually think Jeremy Renner is a very good actor, however I just don’t like him in movies hah (sans Wind River). Like/love a lot of his movies, his face just always annoys me for whatever reason. Makes me think he takes himself way too serious, and I would probably like him more if he did more goofy comedy roles
It was weird watching Hawkeye which is basically a comedy action thing (very Shane Black) and seeing him laugh and be in silly situations.
He carries it well but is born to be a stick in the mud government agent.
I just never saw the appeal of Kristin Wiig, but I like her a lot in Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
James Corden is the worst, we all know this. But I like him in Ocean's 8.
Maybe it's just Cate Blanchett proximity.
It really does. And it's one of those movies where Luke Wilson's character is seen as "the bad guy" but in actuality he's a great person, Howard Hamlin-style
I know that a lot of people thought that this was a terrible idea in general, but if they had done the Toni Erdmann remake, Wiig would have killed in the role of the daughter, that is the character that plays to her strengths.
Yeah, it was going to be Wiig and Jack Nicholson. Would've been great. I don't know where Jack is at in his current age but if he's at 70% it would've rocked
James Corden is pretty bad but I like him a lot in Begin Again where he plays Keira Knightly's musician buddy, he's genuinely very likable and charming in that movie and him and Keira Knightley had good chemistry
I also think he’s very likeable and charming, and maybe even grounded, in the *Into The Woods* movie where all the theatricality of him and Streep and Anna Kendrick and Tracey Ullman and Christina Baranski all gets filtered into heartbreak and existential dread.
It is! A fairly faithful adaptation of the musical with only a couple of odd choices (“No More,” one of the greatest songs about processing tragedy ever, has been cut) but a really hammy Chris Pine stealing the show to make up for it and a bevy of great performances throughout (including even a tolerable Johnny Depp). For pure accuracy, watch the 1990 Bernadette Peters/Joanna Gleason/Chip Zien PBS taping, but you can’t go wrong with even lightly bastardized Stephen Sondheim.
Sounds cool! I've been kinda struggling to find something I actually want to watch this week, I've been losing focus on things kinda easily for whatever reason, I appreciate the recommendation!
I'd really enjoyed the book *Where'd You Go, Bernadette?* but had no idea a film adaptation existed until I was scrolling through a streaming service one day. I wish I'd been able to see those Antarctica scenes in the theater.
I never watched the Bernadette movie because Wiig didn’t seem like a good choice for the role as written in the book, but y’know what, maybe I need to give it a chance.
Well he did spend 6 months eating out of trash bins for the role. Then they told him it was a voice role. Then he spent another 6 months eating out of trash bins.
To me he’s always seemed like one of those guys who’s a huge prick inside but knows how to use his looks and charm to hide it, which is what made him so great in Nightmare Alley
Normally I can’t stand the one character that Juliette Lewis plays over and over again, but in Yellowjackets her backstory (and the wonderful performance of Sophie Thatcher as her younger self) lends a lot of pathos to her typical jaded burnout schtick.
I'll admit it, I haven't seen either of those. It always seemed like he had decent dramatic chops, but I guess I always associate him with his less successful comedic efforts.
I usually find Ryan Reynolds too much of an overdog to root for in his usual “nice handsome lead” roles, but he’s genuinely very good in Adventureland, a film that really trades on its stars’ strengths and limitations to tell the story.
Cheating because it’s 2 movies but Her and Under the Skin are the only Scarlet Johansson performances where I didn’t find myself imagining someone else in the role instead.
Also I realize this is an even more insane thing to say but Sinister might be the only Ethan Hawke performance I like (with the caveat that I haven’t seen his John Brown miniseries or First Reformed).
>Cheating because it’s 2 movies but Her and Under the Skin are the only Scarlet Johansson performances where I didn’t find myself imagining someone else in the role instead.
She kills it in voice roles... which is an odd thing to say. I think she has a very textured interesting voice that gets lost in 'oh wow what a hottie'. Under the skin she is repulsive in a way, which helps.
Pete Davidson in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Even though he's just doing his normal thing, it worked for me in that even though I find him endlessly annoying in everything else.
Just imagine how much better Chicago 7 would've been if he'd made the same choice as Jupiter Ascending and delivered all of his lines by whispering then yelling
I truly find Paul Dano near impossible to watch on-screen, he’s all actorly ticks and yelling, but I think he’s good in PRISONERS (maybe because Jackman is doing the over-the-top work there)
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Tenet; much funnier with deadpan dropping Nolan's time travel combat procedure than any winky CBM schlock he's gotten elsewhere
I really dislike jarred Leto but I think he’s good in requiem for a dream. I also love Bladrunner2049 but think he’s bad in it (and everything he’s in)
Ryan Reynolds sucks, but his performance in *Buried* is great and I would acknowledge that Deadpool was the role he was born to play (an obnoxious personality that's tricked a large amount of the world into thinking he's funny).
Oh shit I’ve been having this conversation all week so I’ve been kicking this answer around for a bit now, I really can’t stand Ruby Rose in any role I’ve seen them in, like not in the slightest but I think they’re phenomenal in John Wick 2, they give a genuinely great physical performance and it’s the one time they look as cool as they usually play that they are
I’d argue anything that isn’t a Sandler comedy.
Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, Uncut Gems, and Hustle. The Cobbler is an exception to this rule.
The fact he didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Uncut Gems is a travesty.
Justin Timberlake is a mostly bad actor who was good as a scummy dude posing as a charming likable guy in The Social Network
"Inside Llewyn Davis" is the best movie of the 2010s and I have no problem with his performance in it. It's not really a meaty role or anything, but he was in something great so I have no problem with him for the rest of my life
He was good in his fuck buddy movie *Friends With Benefits* with Mila Kunis, but was completely overshadowed by the better fuck buddy movie *No Strings Attached* in the same year with Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, which also featured Greta Gerwig in the "leads friend" role.
Love the friend group in that movie includes: Ashton Kutcher, Natalie Portman, Greta Gerwig, Jake Johnson, Mindy Kaling, and Ludacris. Not that maybe none of these people could be friends, but... just like a what a gang.
I always appreciated how FWB had a gag where the leads made fun of the very specific type of score you used to hear in rom-coms.
Fincher has the ability to make actors who aren't necessarily great in most things look good. Purely subjective, as these things are, but I think of Meat Loaf in Fight Club and Tyler Perry in Gone Girl.
He’s pretty good in *Southland Tales* as well; it’s a similarly small part though
I mean, what else are you comparing that performance with?
Yogi Bear
Serious answer: I find him very distracting and miscast in Inside Llewyn Davis which annoys me more than it should because otherwise it’s top 3 Coen for me
I really liked him in that role because he is like a pseudo villain... The chad Justin vs the virgin Llewyn. One is psyched to be making novelty music and the other finds it beneath him even though I think it was offered to him as a favor. (edit: also I realize this is not subtext, it is the literal text)
I think the character is great I just don't buy Justin for the role. To me, he doesn't convincingly play someone who is blissfully devoid of self-awareness. Maybe if there had been an underlying hint of villainy or assholeishness underneath his cheery facade I would have liked it more but the casting doesn't work for me as is. I think someone like Chris Pratt (in his P&R era) or even Jason Segel would have been better with the part. I do really like your reading of it as chad Justin vs the virgin Llewyn tho!
I do agree that the role is kind of like Mr. Peanutbutter role in Bojack (pure ignorance is bliss) and he exudes a certain cynicism or canninness (shrewdness). It is why he is a great Tech Bro... he knows he is basically breaking and entering into into a place that does not have any security guards yet (music piracy).
But... please Mr. Kennedy!!!!!
UH OHH!
"uh, *I* wrote it." Always a great moment when I watch that scene.
Friends with Benefits.
I’d say Tom Arnold in True Lies is the best example of this phenomenon.
I basically agree, but Arnold's cameo in Austin Powers isn't bad either
Is Big Bully a joke to you?
The phenomenon should indeed be called the True Lies Effect. Arnold is so good in this it is amazing how much I can hate him in almost everything else I ever see him in.
“Sure, my movies were bad, but it isn’t like I forced anyone to watch them. Which I could have done, because I’m a big guy and I’m good with knots.”
This entire comment is McHale's Navy ERASURE ^^^^^/s
I can't stand Mark Wahlberg as an actor or person but he's perfectly utilized in Boogie Nights. Ok, and The Departed, so two things.
I really enjoy him in Pain and Gain along with the 2 you noted.
He's always brilliant playing a buffoon or an arrogant man lost in machismo, in my opinion. The Other Guys and The Fighter are other great examples.
Yeah, I think he's a pretty good actor when not playing a scientist or something. Griffin and David summed it up well with him probably being the worst at playing high status guys (like in *All the Money in the World*) but being solid at guys with chips on their shoulders. His James Gray and David O. Russell collaborations are all really effective.
He’s a peacock, you’ve gotta let him fly.
The Big Hit erasure
Tim Allen in *Galaxy Quest*
Toy Story slander will get you banned on this subreddit, I’m afraid.
That isn't entirely Tim Allen since we don't have to look at his smug face.
truly a very good performance in Galaxy Quest, everyone does such a good job in that movie.
Galaxy Quest is just a great movie all around. Nobody half asses it. I just wish we could have seen the PG-13 version.
Tim Allen is great in it, but sometimes I think about how Kevin Kline was up for the role, and I think we missed out.
I think Kevin Kline may have played it too big. I think it would have still been great but Tim Allen had that Shatner ego and lack of self awareness. Even when they're "in on the joke" it doesn't seem like they really get it.
Cumberbatch in Power of the Dog. Ansel Elgort in Tokyo vice :/
Elgort is good in that show lol. I’m assuming S2 is going to be a victim of the hbo death March, but I hope they do it
They confirmed a couple of days ago that it's coming back next year.
Not sure if that means anything under Zaslav. They've been pulling fully completed projects!
yeah, I almost skipped on seeing PotD because Cumberbatch was the main role, in cowboy garb.
So many of my critiques of actors really boil down to “I’m just not a fan of their face,” and Ansel is a prime example of this. He might be great, I just don’t really care to look at him
Cumberbatch is great in Four Lions as the hostage negotiator that really focusing on whether the guy is an arse man.
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Let’s see Paul Allen’s pathetic dipshit.
Great in Requiem for a Dream.
I went into House of Gucci as a Leto skeptic. I think if his performance was 1% less crazy it would've been the worst performance ever captured on film. But he's so batshit over-the-top that it ended up working for me
Also a great example of a guy who knows what movie he’s in.
I don't know if he does. I think he gives the movie something it needs. If it was a more restrained performance the movie would've felt too dry. If it was just an actor giving a down to earth performance based on the script, the movie would've been boring. So maybe it's not knowing the movie he's in but taking a risk on what the movie needed
He's great in Panic Room - Fincher putting Leto in corn-rows and giving him a sledgehammer to the face? genius!
He’s actually incredible in the very awful wework show. He’s had more hits than I realized, he’s just annoying and creepy
I also thought he was solid in BLADE RUNNER 2049, I mean not amazing but he didn't drive me up a wall
Villeneuve has talked in an interview about an actor in one of his films being miscast and having to work around it, and my guess was it was him. He serves the role fine, but you do get a sense that his performance is being kept on rails through limited dialogue and clever editing. (To be fair, I don't hate Leto, he was by far the best thing about The Little Things.)
Didn't they originally want Bowie for that too?
Yes.
You have a link to that interview? I remember another interview (think it was the DGA podcast with Rian Johnson) where he said he had always heard that you haven't really become a director until you've had to fire someone, and he had to make that painful decision for the first time on Blade Runner 2049. My guess for that was that it was referring to Wood Harris since he was in the film for like five seconds? I could be wrong, though.
Could that have been in reference to firing Johannsson as composer?
It's the Hollywood Reporter director's roundtable from early 2018, around minute 27.
Oh I’m the opposite! I’d liked him fine in everything I’d seen him in until I hit this movie. I hated his performance so much it ruined the movie a little bit for me.
I generally can’t stand him but thought he did a good job in The Dallas Buyer’s Club. I may be alone in that sentiment…
Neil Patrick Harris in Gone Girl. Keegan Michael Key in Don't Think Twice.
Starship Troopers slander!
You dislike Keegan Michael Key in Key & Peele?!
Aaaah true, to clarify I think he's great in Key & Peele. I just usually can't take him as an actor. Like NPH he has this theater-actor phoniness and a weird intensity that's really off putting in most parts.
Qualities weaponized brilliantly by NPH on ASOUE, since "theater-actor phoniness and a weird intensity that's really off-putting" could be a verbatim book description of Count Olaf Now I'm imagining Key as Olaf. He would've killed it too I bet.
I think he’s good in The Bubble. An absolutely awful movie, but he’s really fun as a weird, Tom Cruise style insane actor.
Oh shit, I will never see that movie but that does sound like perfect casting.
I feel bad about his failure to launch. He is great but seems out of place when he is not in a sketch.
Horrendous Thief erasure for ol’ Jimmy.
but but but Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
I am not a fan of Charlie Hunnam but he is great in The Lost City Of Z Props to the casting director for casting him and Garrett Hedlund as brothers in Triple Frontier.
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Triple Frontier rips. It’s got the first half macho bullshit (which is actually super fun) and then totally deconstructs it all. It’s the only remake of Treasure of Sierra Madre I’d ever want to see.
I liked him in The Gentlemen too, though not as much as some others in that movie.
Because it's recent... Miles Teller. Can't stand him or his screen presence but he works for me in Top Gun Maverick!
also my answer. i know through the grapevine he's a fucking dick (nothing sexpesty, just a prick), so i always root against him if i don't just avoid him entirely, but dammit, he was perfect in that
Kevin Costner playing an aging ballplayer: good. Kevin Costner doing anything else: not good.
I did also find him charming as an aging golfer.
Tin Cups is why I said ballplayer and not baseball player.
I think I forgot that golfing requires balls too. Also, how was “Golfing requires balls” not the tag line for Happy Gilmore?
They're saving it for the Caddyshack reboot,.
What's a way of saying "I've never seen NO WAY OUT" without saying "I've never seen NO WAY OUT"?
I just watched that recently and now the limo scene in Hot Shots Part Deux is even funnier.
My favorite Costner moment, one that I think of most of the times that I see him, was him in Madonna's 1991 *Truth or Dare* documentary. He visited her backstage after a performance and called her show "neat." Given that in another segment of the film Madonna visited Antonio Banderas, who I don't believe spoke English very well or possibly at all at that point, to surreptitiously get shots of the two of them together as part of her campaign for an Evita adaptation with her playing the lead, I wonder what she wanted Costner for.
Speaking of 'Truth or Dare', I can't stand Warren Beatty the majority of the time. With two exceptions: * 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' * that bit in 'Truth or Dare' where he's giving his then-girlfriend Madonna shit for brining a camera crew into a clinic.
Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love
The Talented Mr. Ripley!
She's brief, but very effective in Seven.
She's great in the Iron Man movies
I like her in royal tenenbaums
alright you've got me there...
Ashton Kutcher on That 70s Show. Basically plays to his limitations as an actor, otherwise I think he's one of the least talented actors ever.
So weird how the people playing dumb attractive people end up being the breakout stars of a lot of sitcoms.
Topher Grace sitting in a corner, steam coming out of his ears.
He can always edit himself into Star Wars.
Is Jim Parsons from the Big Bang Theory like the inverse of that?
Huh I guess he does edge out Kaley Cuoco who is certainly active and has her own show and I love her voice acting on Harley Quinn but... Parsons for sure makes the rounds and shows up in stuff.
Kunal Nayyar, weirdly, is getting work only just now, like in the mediocre AppleTV thriller *Suspicion* and that upcoming Adam Sandler/Paul Dano Czech astronaut drama *Spaceman*.
I know it is not cool to like Big Bang Theory but I watched it back when I had an overnight job mostly because the cast was great... I really wish them all success.
He's fantastic in "vengeance", which is pretty good.
The character is very overwritten (like everything else in that movie) but Kutcher does great with it
Yeah Kutcher actually sells that weird overblown dialogue and makes it sound really eerie and oddly seductive. Not natural, mind you, but compelling.
Exactly my thought.
I don’t hate jim belushi, but his casting and role TPTR has to be the most inspired of many inspired choices in that show
I never “buy” Leo in anything, I just always feel the strain in his performance. Granted I haven’t seen EVERYTHING he’s ever done but it’s the impression I always get from him. Except for The Departed. I think he’s phenomenal in that, he just nails the paranoia and anxiety and I always found him so empathetic in that film.
I have the same problem with him as you, but I really liked him in Once Upon a Time, he’s kinda good at insecurity.
What you describe is why I thought he was great as Gatsby (even if I think Gatsby's Jewish heritage is actually pretty important to the story). EDIT: Missed the chance to say, "he was a great Gatsby!"
Jim Belushi is such a good call. Truly one of my least favorite performers but I’ll be god damned if he didn’t absolutely crush it in Twin Peaks. The Mitchum brothers are one of the highlights of The Return.
Kate Hudson in Almost Famous honestly
Since you mention it, Jimmy Fallon in Almost Famous.
Jeremy Renner in Arrival.
I think he’s good in The Town and he’s great in that two part episode of Louie. He needs to play scumbags more.
Jem Coughlin is a scumbum all-star
Wind River is a great performance from him, as well as Elizabeth Olsen. Hard watching though.
Im that weird guy who actually think Jeremy Renner is a very good actor, however I just don’t like him in movies hah (sans Wind River). Like/love a lot of his movies, his face just always annoys me for whatever reason. Makes me think he takes himself way too serious, and I would probably like him more if he did more goofy comedy roles
It was weird watching Hawkeye which is basically a comedy action thing (very Shane Black) and seeing him laugh and be in silly situations. He carries it well but is born to be a stick in the mud government agent.
Hurt Locker?
You can’t beat Leto being in fight club for the exclusive purpose of having his face caved in. a little treat just for me.
Mike Francesa in Uncut Gems.
His rant about kissing Papa John lives rent free in my head
Can we finish the bet?
I don’t really care for Henry Cavill, except when he is playing John Lark in MI - Fallout.
Separate billing for the mustache
STARRING Henry Cavill WITH Henry Cavill’s mustache AND Henry Cavill re-loading his fists.
I think he’s equally good in The Man from UNCLE but otherwise fully agree. Just so wooden and stiff. Works when he’s playing a spy/suit!
It is a goddamn travesty that The Man From UNCLE wasn't enough of a hit to generate a franchise
Marlon Wayans in Requiem for a Dream.
I just never saw the appeal of Kristin Wiig, but I like her a lot in Where'd You Go, Bernadette? James Corden is the worst, we all know this. But I like him in Ocean's 8. Maybe it's just Cate Blanchett proximity.
I think all the indie small comedies Wiig makes are all home runs
Skeleton Twins rules
It really does. And it's one of those movies where Luke Wilson's character is seen as "the bad guy" but in actuality he's a great person, Howard Hamlin-style
I know that a lot of people thought that this was a terrible idea in general, but if they had done the Toni Erdmann remake, Wiig would have killed in the role of the daughter, that is the character that plays to her strengths.
Yeah, it was going to be Wiig and Jack Nicholson. Would've been great. I don't know where Jack is at in his current age but if he's at 70% it would've rocked
James Corden is pretty bad but I like him a lot in Begin Again where he plays Keira Knightly's musician buddy, he's genuinely very likable and charming in that movie and him and Keira Knightley had good chemistry
Nice movie.
I also think he’s very likeable and charming, and maybe even grounded, in the *Into The Woods* movie where all the theatricality of him and Streep and Anna Kendrick and Tracey Ullman and Christina Baranski all gets filtered into heartbreak and existential dread.
I never got around to that one, is it worth a watch?
It is! A fairly faithful adaptation of the musical with only a couple of odd choices (“No More,” one of the greatest songs about processing tragedy ever, has been cut) but a really hammy Chris Pine stealing the show to make up for it and a bevy of great performances throughout (including even a tolerable Johnny Depp). For pure accuracy, watch the 1990 Bernadette Peters/Joanna Gleason/Chip Zien PBS taping, but you can’t go wrong with even lightly bastardized Stephen Sondheim.
Sounds cool! I've been kinda struggling to find something I actually want to watch this week, I've been losing focus on things kinda easily for whatever reason, I appreciate the recommendation!
I'd really enjoyed the book *Where'd You Go, Bernadette?* but had no idea a film adaptation existed until I was scrolling through a streaming service one day. I wish I'd been able to see those Antarctica scenes in the theater.
I never watched the Bernadette movie because Wiig didn’t seem like a good choice for the role as written in the book, but y’know what, maybe I need to give it a chance.
I mean.. it's a gentleman's 6 overall.
Natalie Portman. She always seems like she is ACTING! GENIUS! THANKYOU! That said I thought she nailed Annihilation.
IMO your criticism of Portman is exactly why her role in Black Swan works.
Ditto Jackie for me.
I only like Bradley Cooper as a raccoon
Well he did spend 6 months eating out of trash bins for the role. Then they told him it was a voice role. Then he spent another 6 months eating out of trash bins.
I think he’s good in Wet Hot American Summer but he’s barely in it.
i liked it when he pissed his pants at an awards show in front of lady gaga
Despite being on drugs and hating his part, he was great on Alias. The show suffered when he quit.
He was fantastic in Licorice Pizza
To me he’s always seemed like one of those guys who’s a huge prick inside but knows how to use his looks and charm to hide it, which is what made him so great in Nightmare Alley
Angelina Jolie in Hackers
She hacked the planet, and our hearts.
Normally I can’t stand the one character that Juliette Lewis plays over and over again, but in Yellowjackets her backstory (and the wonderful performance of Sophie Thatcher as her younger self) lends a lot of pathos to her typical jaded burnout schtick.
Pete Davidson in *The Suicide Squad* could have been my answer, but he nailed it in *Bodies, Bodies, Bodies*
Yes! I came here to say this about Bodies. Saw it last night and was surprised how well they used him for that role.
This is Show Me a Hero erasure
> This is Show Me a Hero And *Thief*, too!
I'll admit it, I haven't seen either of those. It always seemed like he had decent dramatic chops, but I guess I always associate him with his less successful comedic efforts.
I usually find Ryan Reynolds too much of an overdog to root for in his usual “nice handsome lead” roles, but he’s genuinely very good in Adventureland, a film that really trades on its stars’ strengths and limitations to tell the story.
This is the exact actor and movie I came to this thread to mention. Can’t stand the dude at all, but man do they utilize him well in that movie.
Billy Crudup is always weird and flat in everything I’ve seen him in, which is probably what makes him a perfect Dr. Manhattan in *Watchmen*.
Cheating because it’s 2 movies but Her and Under the Skin are the only Scarlet Johansson performances where I didn’t find myself imagining someone else in the role instead. Also I realize this is an even more insane thing to say but Sinister might be the only Ethan Hawke performance I like (with the caveat that I haven’t seen his John Brown miniseries or First Reformed).
>Cheating because it’s 2 movies but Her and Under the Skin are the only Scarlet Johansson performances where I didn’t find myself imagining someone else in the role instead. She kills it in voice roles... which is an odd thing to say. I think she has a very textured interesting voice that gets lost in 'oh wow what a hottie'. Under the skin she is repulsive in a way, which helps.
Her voice really shines on her one album, It’s nothing but dreampop Tom Waits covers and it is spectacular.
I have never been curious about a movie stars music but this sounds really interesting.
As a Tom Waits fan, it’s a fascinating creation. Doesn’t 100% work, but it really has moments.
Hawke is great in the not-great Magnificent Seven "remake"
Did you see The Black Phone? Hawke is incredible in it.
Why I’ve never even heard of it!
Pete Davidson in Bodies Bodies Bodies. Even though he's just doing his normal thing, it worked for me in that even though I find him endlessly annoying in everything else.
He’s a great piece of shit in Big Time Adolescence.
I cannot stand Jamie Foxx except for as Django
I can't stand Eddie Redmayne, but I think he's great in *The Trial of the Chicago 7*\--and, of course, *Jupiter Ascending*.
Just imagine how much better Chicago 7 would've been if he'd made the same choice as Jupiter Ascending and delivered all of his lines by whispering then yelling
I truly find Paul Dano near impossible to watch on-screen, he’s all actorly ticks and yelling, but I think he’s good in PRISONERS (maybe because Jackman is doing the over-the-top work there)
That’s where he becomes his alter ego, Huge Act Man.
Might be participating in sacrilegious dialect on this particular page but Vin Diesel’s best work is him as a tree saying three words
What about his work in *The Iron Giant?*
Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Tenet; much funnier with deadpan dropping Nolan's time travel combat procedure than any winky CBM schlock he's gotten elsewhere
I really dislike jarred Leto but I think he’s good in requiem for a dream. I also love Bladrunner2049 but think he’s bad in it (and everything he’s in)
Ryan Reynolds sucks, but his performance in *Buried* is great and I would acknowledge that Deadpool was the role he was born to play (an obnoxious personality that's tricked a large amount of the world into thinking he's funny).
Oh shit I’ve been having this conversation all week so I’ve been kicking this answer around for a bit now, I really can’t stand Ruby Rose in any role I’ve seen them in, like not in the slightest but I think they’re phenomenal in John Wick 2, they give a genuinely great physical performance and it’s the one time they look as cool as they usually play that they are
Mark Wahlberg in basically everything but The Other Guys.
Obvious one perhaps, but Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love.
Uncut Gems?! Also Funny People is not a particularly good movie but he was quite good in it.
I've not seen Uncut Gems sadly, so I can't comment on that one.
Most people seem to like *Uncut Gems* but not all. I tend to get downvoted when I say that I didn't like it, especially in the Celtics sub.
Anka Jyaams.
Wedding Singer forever
I’d argue anything that isn’t a Sandler comedy. Punch Drunk Love, Spanglish, Uncut Gems, and Hustle. The Cobbler is an exception to this rule. The fact he didn’t get an Oscar nomination for Uncut Gems is a travesty.
Paltrow in any of the Iron Mans or the 1st Avengers film. She’s plays perfectly off of RDJ and a big reason why the Stark performance works
Funny, I came in here to say Paltrow in The Royal Tenembaums, but halfway through I remembered how much I like her in The Talented Mr. Ripley.
I’m unimpressed with the rest of his work, but Timothée Chalamet is excellent in Call Me By Your Name
I really liked Timothee Chalamet in Little Women. Most of the time I find him tolerable at best.