Quantcast
Channel: Quickflix - News & Reviews » jean-louis trintignant
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

The Top 10 Male Performances of 2012

0
0

Top10Males

With 2012 coming to a close, it’s time to reflect on the year’s cinematic treats, and then crowbar each work of art into a numerical position on a comparative chart. Comedies versus dramas! Thrills versus chills! The great versus the very good! This is the business we list-makers have chosen. Come, shoulder the burden.

Stanislavski famously said, “I have no problem with the craft of acting being reduced to a silly list in which disparate performers in vastly different productions are compared and then ranked. Just try and limit the mentions of Matthew McConaughey.” I may be paraphrasing, but I will go ahead and assume the father of modern acting would be cool with my choices below. Yes, this is perhaps the most subjective craft in all of moviemaking. Thankfully, we’re not here to evaluate the specific intricacies of each actor’s decision making process, and then objectively state how that makes him better or worse than his peers. Rather, it’s a celebration of the twenty best (including honourable mentions) male turns of the year. And if we know anything about Stanislavski, he loved a good celebration. Wait, no, now I’m thinking of Kanye West. I think I’m confusing this Stanislavski guy with someone else. What did he sing again?

Honourable Mentions (in alphabetical order):

Mike Birbiglia in Sleepwalk With MeMichael Fassbender in PrometheusRichard Gere in ArbitragePhilip Seymour Hoffman in The MasterJames Howson/Solomon Glave in Wuthering HeightsMatthew McConaughey in Magic MikeBen Mendelsohn in Killing Them SoftlyLiam Neeson in The GreySuraj Sharma in Life of PiMichael Peña in End of Watch.

10. John Hawkes in The Sessions

Accolades have been a long time coming for character actor John Hawkes. Though he came close to scoring a little gold man for his chilling performance in Winter’s Bone (he was snubbed for Martha Marcy May Marlene) he may finally get an Oscar for portraying sensitive journalist Mark O’Brien in The Sessions. A polio survivor who spent much of his life in an iron lung, he decides at the age of 38 to procure the services of a sex therapist (Helen Hunt) to help him lose his virginity. Hawkes’ easy-going, amiable performance would be impressive enough if he wasn’t doing it entirely on his back, physically emaciated, and with an awkward curve in his spine.

9. Denis Lavant in Holy Motors

Who does Denis Lavant play in Leos Carax‘s Holy Motors? The credits say ‘Monsieur Oscar,’ yet it feels inaccurate to suggest he’s just one man. Over the course of 24 hours, Lavant’s Oscar moves around Paris and takes on a variety of guises – old homeless woman, CGI dragon, mobster, nude urchin, thoughtful father, murder victim – all for the entertainment of an unseen audience (… maybe the audience is us). If Holy Motors is about the bells and whistles required in filmmaking to make us forget that what we’re watching is fake, Lavant is freakishly adept at transforming into countless different forms, and convincing us in each one.

8. Jason Clarke in Zero Dark Thirty

Aussie Jason Clarke has been flirting with the fringes of stardom for some time, appearing ina few American TV shows and Hollywood features here and there. He well and truly arrives in Kathryn Bigelow‘s Zero Dark Thirty. As curly-haired Dan, the CIA’s pre-eminent torturer of questionable individuals, we are challenged to find him endearing and affable even after witnessing him lead a naked, sleep-deprived subject around in a dog collar. He is a frightening adversary, and we’re glad to not be on his bad side. When he’s not around, we miss him like crazy.

7. Jack Black in Bernie

Jack Black sheds his Jack Black-isms in Richard Linklater‘s Bernie, playing a real-life murderer so adorable that, even after confessing to the crime, the locals in his small town want to give him a free pass. As the titular mortician who becomes the lone confidant of embittered millionaire Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), Black spends the first half of the movie making us fall in love with him. In the second half, as his intentions and ethics are called into question, we struggle to forget the warm, sympathetic image already carved in our minds. Black is funny here, for sure. Still, this is a multi-faceted performance that reveals layers, reminding us just how talented this guy is when not mugging all the time.

6. Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe

Matthew McConaughey had one hell of a year (so much so, I’m retiring the nickname ‘McConaugheyhey’ out of respect). He got an honourable mention for Magic Mikeand was a great foil to Jack Black in Bernie. It was his work in William Friedkin‘s Killer Joe, however,that truly astounded. Maybe you’ve heard about all the depraved acts he commits in this dark little flick. I certainly won’t ruin those revelations for you (needless to say, it’s not stuff he covered in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past)As the detective/hired gun recruited by a family of white trash idiots, he takes advantage of their imbecilic ways and exerts his most deranged, sexually depraved, horrifically violent desires on each and every member. You won’t believe what you’re watching, and you won’t believe you’re watching McConaughey doing it. He’s an animal.

5. Dwight Henry in Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benh Zeitlin entrusted his local baker with the key role of Wink in Beasts of the Southern Wild, the hot-tempered, stubborn, terminally ill father of firebrand Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis). As if the New Orleans’ floods weren’t enough to threaten their livelihood, Wink’s time on this Earthly plane is limited, and he has to prepare his little girl for a hard life without him. He’s cruel, shouts a lot, and is perhaps harder on Hushpuppy than he should be. The genius of this performance – and the picture around it – is it never suggests Wink is imparting some kind of foolproof wisdom to the girl. He’s confused, and scared, and ill-equipped for the job, and that’s where much of the frustration comes. In the final scenes, when the shouting stops, we get to see the compassion between the two that we’ve long been waiting for. And the baker pulls it off.

4. Mark Duplass in Your Sister’s Sister

Mark and Jay Duplass are two of the most exciting new directors in the business, even if they’re yet to hit the heights of their debut The Puffy Chair. On screen, Mark is even more of a prodigious talent. The funniest male presence working in American cinema at the moment, he solidified his charisma, charm, and sheer quick, offbeat wit in Lynn Shelton‘s Your Sister’s Sister, a touching, twisted romantic comedy that greatly exceeded the limitations that come with the ‘mumblecore’ moniker.

3. Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables

Jackman should score his first Oscar nod for Les Miserables; a fact that seems shocking when you think about the success of Aussies in the industry over the past decade, as well as his near-iconic omnipresence. It’s less surprising when you consider his actual, non X-Men related filmography (SwordfishVan HelsingDeception). The memories of those abysmal endeavours, and even of Logan himself, are washed away in Tom Hooper‘s Les Mis, where Jackman is gifted the plum role of Jean Valjean and doesn’t waste it. The song-and-dance man gets his first big opportunity to sing on screen, and he murders. Mercifully, he doesn’t forget to occasionally play it small too.

2. Jean-Louis Trintignant in Amour

As Anne, the stroke-ridden octogenarian in Michael Haneke‘s AmourEmmanuelle Riva may have the more obviously difficult part to play. The legendary Jean-Louis Trintignant – abandoning retirement for this obviously special project – matches her as Georges, the devoted husband who must bear witness to his wife’s descent into dementia. It’s hard to fathom two performances as perfectly attuned to one another as Trintignant and Riva’s. The two also have a physical connection, such as when Georges must help carry Anne from wheelchair to bed. It looks as if the two are engaging in an careful, intimate waltz. When Anne’s mind goes, we are left only with Georges conscience, and share with him the difficult decision-making that comes at this stage of a loved one’s life. Amour is a beautiful picture, and Trintignant gives a beautiful performance.

1. Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Phoenix topped this list back in 2010 for his work in the self-immolating mockumentary I’m Still Here (trust me on this; it is raw). He returns to the summit in 2012 as Freddie Quell in Paul Thomas Anderson‘s The Master. A restless WW2 veteran with a penchant for homemade – and surely poisonous – alcohol, as well as sex with anatomically correct sand-women, he finds it difficult to settle back into life in post-war America. Taken under the wing of cult-leader Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), he’s given a purpose, and, even more tantalisingly, an opportunity to shed his skin, evolve into someone new, better, and escape the prison that is ‘Freddie Quell.’ Much has been made of Phoenix’s contorted posture, but you only need to look at his weather-beaten face (like a mound of clay ripe for the rebuilding) to see his anguish. Freddie Quell is a strange puzzle to whom we only glimpse a few of the pieces. Phoenix does a startling job of making him real and keeping him a mystery. The virtuoso moment: an unblinking interrogation in which his troubled past is revealed.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images