so the idea is you put down an actor and a poll of their top films and people can pick their favourite performances and maybe talk about them a little
think it could be quite a nice time if you don’t all fuck it up
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Leo DC - off the back of the chat in the OBAA thread
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
- Romeo + Juliet
- Titanic
- Gangs of New York
- Catch Me If You Can
- The Departed
- The Aviator
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- The Revenant
- Once Upon a Time In Hollywood
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- One Battle After Another
- OTHER (specify)
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voters
Probably Inception is his best film. Shutter Island was alright till the terrible reveal
Never really liked DiCaprio that much until he’s settled into this “fairly incompetent / malevolent goof” phase where I think he’s brilliant.
Catch Me If You Can is the height of his “beautiful movie star” phase which is just less interesting to me though. Others have done that better than he is able to.
As he’s moved out of “too pretty to be a real character” mode I look forward to his roles more
Shutter Island is probably my favourite film he’s in, although his best performance is probably in Django Unchained (which is quite an annoying film overall).
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(Really nice thread btw)
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It was all downhill after Growing Pains
I haven’t seen The Aviator yet but I’m keen to, and also to do a Departed rewatch since my flatmate has never seen it before. Also not sure I’ve ever seen Titanic through in one go …
Thought he was as lived-in in OBAA as a huge movistar can ever be, pleasingly rumpled and harried and always behind the plot, racing to catch up. Flipside to that is him playing off his movistar status in Once Upon a Time, which I think must be one of the best recent performances about being an actor. Not sure I want to go back to the film as a whole, but would be keen to revisit to see more from him in it - remember loving all the stuff about him forgetting his lines and losing his confidence in his own abilities
but the standout for me will always be Catch Me If You Can. Feels like a perfect balance of cashing in on his youthful charm and good looks but with more depth and feeling to it, a great (near) midpoint for his career and the type of roles he’d play. Helps that I love the film itself so much but just think it’s one of those times where I can’t see anyone else pulling that off half as well as he did, when plenty of his other great roles could be done (as well/differently) by other stars
I reckon he’s a 7.5-8/10 actor
he’s always looked so young, I’d assumed he was mid-teens for some of those but he was 19-21! damn son
haven’t seen any of those but if someone has some level of natural talent I think it makes sense to like their earlier stuff most, when it’s less self-conscious (as much as acting can ever be) and they’re still working out their style - everything later on will be much more considered
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anyone else who does this, feel free to make the poll as big as you like - I was just trying to stick to about 10 roles, but knowing I’d be missing off loads of fan-favs
think one battle and flower moon are his two best performances by a distance.
weird he became scorsese’s muse, he’s fine but he’s never really been capable of generating that electricity marty used to get from de niro (or keitel). like, him being overlooked for an oscar for so long felt pretty normal rather than “man, we really fucked up not recognising pacino for giving a handful of the greatest screen performances ever, we better chuck one at him now for any old piece of shit before it’s too late”
but yeah, agree with tone, his current incompetent fuck up phase is his best mode, hope he recognises that and keeps it going
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Tom Cruise
- Risky Business
- Top Gun + Top Gun Maverick
- Rain Man
- A Few Good Men
- Jerry Maguire
- Being Ethan Hunt in all of the Missions: Impossible
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Magnolia
- Vanilla Sky
- Collateral
- War of the Worlds
- Edge of Tomorrow
- Other (Please Specify)
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voters
I really, really go back and forth as to whether I’d have preferred Tom Cruise to have stuck with his “get me an Oscar!” era during that period at the turn of the millennium when he was desperate for one and worked with so many of the big auteurs to try and get one vs the “fuck it, I’ll just lean into full movie-star charisma and try to save big-screen action films”
Ultimately, I am delighted we have a bit of both tbf to the bloke
(let’s not dig too deep under the surface though, eh)
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Was wondering the other day if Collateral is the only film in which Tom Cruise definitively dies onscreen.
Edge of Tomorrow is about him doing it constantly!
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Other (please specifiy)
He is PERFECT as Gatsby in Baz Luhrman’s remake
Obv his consumate performance is Catch Me if You Can and I agree with @tilty that his most impressive performances are Gilbert Grape & Basketball Diaries
Different Leos for different moods innit
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See that word definitively up there, Tone? Do you see it? Do you? Well? That’s SPECIFICALLY there because of Edge of Tomorrow.
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TC playing against type is rare but always thrilling, so either collateral or magnolia for me.
do think his action star performances are underrated though, kinda gets a bit dismissed as “just running” or whatever, but he’s doing actual work in there too (the running is fucking good though tbf). like, mav and ethan are distinct performances imo
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Hard to separate a) ‘My favourite film where X plays the lead’ from b) ‘X’s best performance’
maybe we need double polls?
re: Cruise:
a) Risky Business
b) Probably Maguire or Rain Man or The Firm … maybe A Few Good Men