• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

What movie has the best acting?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm watching Network for the first time in another tab right now and it's pretty great. Not the best, sure, but fantastic from the whole cast.
 

MrS

Banned
Mulholland Dr.
Amour

Bobby's right about Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream. There are no words for how good that performance was.
 

Patrick S.

Banned
Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Denzel Washington in Training Day

Al Pacino in Heat

Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate

Robin Williams in The Fisher King

Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now

Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula



I think these films have some of the best acting of all times.
 
hqdefault.jpg
 

Bamboo

Member
Michael Haneke films, Ingmar Bergman films. You clearly see their experience with actors and actresses, and the rehearsals from theater that focus so intensively on the characters. And it's not only one or two great performances in each film, but almost always the whole ensemble that was casted perfectly.

Michael Haneke has pretty fantastic casting agents. He + them not only cast the perfect mix of professionals, well-known and unknown actors, but also make them work together as an ensemble that is one of a kind in today's cinema.
I was most impressed by The White Ribbon / Das weiße Band, with a cast full of children, playing along some of the most profilic german-speaking actors atm, even if they only have a tiny role. And I have to express my love for Susanne Lothar again.
Amour was also great for the superb two leads. If I ever want to point fingers about someone being snubbed at the Oscars, it's most definitely Jennifer Lawrence winning over Emanuelle Riva in 2013.

Bergman is very similar in this regard to me. He worked mostly with the people that he knew very well from his theater productions. And he wrote his characters with certain actors and actresses in mind. You see how they fill out the roles perfectly in every film. You also see a pattern in what type of characters are played by which of his actors. And the best is, you also see how he pushes them into new directions over all the different productions they star in. Winter Light and Cries and Whispers are prime examples for me.

Cotillard was phenomenal in that film. Been kind of disappointed in everything I've seen her in since.
She's really great in Deux jours, une nuit. It's a more subtle film and more subtle acting though.
 

RibMan

Member
Everyone in the greatest movie of all time/The Godfather. Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Marlon Brando, Abe Vigoda, James Caan, Robert Duvall, basically everyone who showed up on set.
 
Maybe not the cast as a whole, but Jim Carrey in Man on the Moon was phenomenal. I still don't understand how he didn't get an Oscar nom for it.
 

ghst

thanks for the laugh
face/off.

they quite literally become each other. the amount of study and prep would go into becoming either john travolta or nicolas cage is overwhelming to even consider, to have them both playing their reverse on screen in perfect synchronicity is probably one of the most astonishing feats of modern cinema.

John-Travolta.jpg


john-travolta_2539853b.jpg


Nicolas-Cage-headshot-150x150.jpeg
 

gamz

Member
Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs

Denzel Washington in Training Day

Al Pacino in Heat

Al Pacino in The Devil's Advocate

Robin Williams in The Fisher King

Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now

Gary Oldman in Bram Stoker's Dracula



I think these films have some of the best acting of all times.

Brando in On the Waterfront.
 

Camwi

Member
The two movies that always stood out to me as having the best overall acting are Requiem for a Dream and American History X.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Everyone is name dropping pretty obvious choices for great acting (and rightly so), so I'm going to nominate a movie that I think gets a little under appreciated in the acting department - the original RoboCop


Now, obviously, this isn't Academy Award winning acting in this movie but I think the actors in this movie do a solid job of disappearing into their roles and becoming their characters. Kurtwood Smith is perfect as Boddicker. Ronny Cox and Miguel Ferrer ace their roles as Dick Jones and Bob Morton. And Peter Weller is legitimately underrated as Alex Murphy / RoboCop - Weller does a lot of subtle shit that makes the character feel a lot more convincing (this becomes a lot more noticeable when he leaves the franchise after RoboCop 2). The weakest acting in the movie is probably Nancy Allen as Lewis.

Like I said, no Oscar tier shit going on here but I think the acting here is really solid given what was asked out of the actors.
 

UraMallas

Member
Holy shit. My original post was based on the false idea I thought the OP said 'casting' not 'acting'. Oh well, still a great acting job all around.
 
Everyone is name dropping pretty obvious choices for great acting (and rightly so), so I'm going to nominate a movie that I think gets a little under appreciated in the acting department - the original RoboCop



Now, obviously, this isn't Academy Award winning acting in this movie but I think the actors in this movie do a solid job of disappearing into their roles and becoming their characters. Kurtwood Smith is perfect as Boddicker. Ronny Cox and Miguel Ferrer ace their roles as Dick Jones and Bob Morton. And Peter Weller is legitimately underrated as Alex Murphy / RoboCop - Weller does a lot of subtle shit that makes the character feel a lot more convincing (this becomes a lot more noticeable when he leaves the franchise after RoboCop 2). The weakest acting in the movie is probably Nancy Allen as Lewis.

Like I said, no Oscar tier shit going on here but I think the acting here is really solid given what was asked out of the actors.


Verhoeven really gets people to commit to material that probably seems cheesy when they first read the script.
 

vern

Member
Ghost Dog of course. Every actor turned in legit performances but Forest Whitaker truly put out a hell of a performance. The role on paper sounds dumb as shit, but somehow Forest Whitaker makes it believable. Can't imagine any other actor pulling it off.
 

UncleMeat

Member
Was going to say Glengarry as well. Raging Bull and On the Waterfront are right there too. Oh, and Sean Penn in Fast Times!
 

amaretto

Member
Whoa I also just realized no one mentioned 1951 A Streetcar Name Desired. All 4 main characters Oscar nominated with 3 of them winning! Not to mention Leigh and Brando's performances are two of the most lauded and admired of all time.
 

SpaceWolf

Banned
I don't know that this is the best performance of all time, but I do believe it to be one of the single best examples of Academy robbery ever committed

requiem6.jpg


The way Ellen Burstyn brought Sarah Goldfarb to life was one of the single most heartbreaking things I've ever seen in a movie. And to lose that statue to Julia Roberts gol'darnin' her sweaty, cheezy ass underneath some powerlines for 90 minutes is fucking horseshit.

I would include Tilda Swinton's performance We Need To Talk About Kevin in that category.

It still irritates me she wasn't even nominated for an Oscar.
 
I own a copy of The African Queen and The Lion in Winter specifically because I just like to watch the performances.

Both are films where the plot almost melts away into the performances in a way which I can barely explain. Both are well written as well, but the acting makes nearly every scene feel like the story turns on a dime, and you end up feeling like you've watched 2-3 films at once yet somehow it worked.

This thread has reminded me of my shame in that I have yet to see Glengarry Glen Ross.
 

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
I mean... it's The Big Lebowski, right?

John Goodman


Steve Buscemi


John Turturro


Philip Seymore Hoffman


Tara Reid


Julianne Moore


Sam Elliott


Peter Stormare


Flea


David Huddleston


Jeff Bridges

4MmX4zh.gif


Performances in this don't get enough credit because it's a comedy, but everyone absolutely kills it in this.
 
Once Upon a Time In America.

James Woods in peak form as Max. De Niro as well, he really nailed in the role of a man tormented by his choices.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom