The summer film season is traditionally celebrated for its explosions, sequels and blockbusters, with actors demoted to the part of ants screaming and running away from giant transforming robots (see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) or giant imperialist robots (see Terminator Salvation). But an attentive filmgoer can unearth a handful of interesting, memorable performances that may have become lost amid the jumble and hype that typifies the Hollywood operandi this time of year. Landon Burris and Will Holston present ten (well, 11) performances worth remembering from this summer at the movies.
Will Holston
Marion Cotillard, (Public Enemies)– Michael Mann films have never been full of great female roles, and Public Enemies is no exception. A revolving series of whores and girlfriends that flit through the film-played by the likes of Leelee Sobieski and star-on-the-rise Carey Mulligan-aren’t given much to do and don’t make much of an impression with the little that they are handed. So it is especially remarkable that Marion Cotillard comes off as well as she does. Portraying Billie Frechette, troubled girlfriend of Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger, she is convincingly unphased by Dillinger’s chosen profession, a leap that requires a great deal of skill if she is to carry the audience with her. The film’s plot may not fully revolve around her, but the audience’s emotional connection to the story lives or dies with her performance.
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)– An actor whose face should be immediately recognizable even if his name is not, Renner breaks out of his years of doing yeoman’s work in the supporting player ghetto in director Kathryn Bigelow’s tense and intelligent Iraq-set action flick. Playing an explosive ordinance disposal expert leading a team against the backdrop of the war in Iraq in 2004, Renner fully embodies the character’s recklessness and swagger, betraying a thirst for thrill that has alienated him from most of the people in his life. If there’s any justice, Renner’s performance here should earn him a group of new fans and a sweep of leading roles worth his impressive talents.
Jessie Cave (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince)– The almost decade-long saga continued this month with the release of the sixth Harry Potter film, an impressive series of films that-by and large-has continually managed to capture the (ahem) magic of J.K. Rowling’s best selling books. Perhaps one of the biggest assets to the series has been the cast assembled, from a Who’s Who of British acting greats that fill out the supporting cast of teachers and villains all the way down to the younger actors playing students. Cave, playing love-crazed Hogwarts student Lavender Brown with all the spunk and vigor of a classic screwball heroine, is a perfect example of the careful casting that has made these films successful. With her hair frizzed out in all directions and her voice pitched to the heavens, Cave brings a light-hearted comedic edge that serves as a relief to an otherwise fairly dark affair. It’s a small role, but a memorable one nonetheless.
Rinko Kikuchi (The Brothers Bloom)– Though the entire cast is impressive in Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, it is Kikuchi who manages to steal the film out from under her more seasoned co-stars (Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz) as Bang Bang, the explosions expert for a pair of brothers working as con men. In a largely silent role-her only dialogue is a single word around the film’s midpoint-Kikuchi makes the most of every reaction shot and bit of physical comedy presented her, juicing laughs out of things as simple as the way she puffs away on a cigarette and grins as she blows away a mound of small figurines on a test run of the brothers’ con job. Already having proven her prowess for dramatic work with her Academy Award nomination in 2006 for her role as a sexually confused Japanese teen in Babel, Kikuchi proves she is just as adept with slapstick.
Sasha Grey (The Girlfriend Experience)– The thinking man’s adult film actress, Sasha Grey’s turn as a high class call girl in Steven Soderbergh’s polarizing digital experiment, The Girlfriend Experience, has already racked up a lot of coverage based around Grey’s intellectual knowledge of film and philosophy and her refusal to apologize for her chosen profession. Instead, she has maintained that her career as a porn star is a result of her sexual liberation. Though her acting techniques aren’t quite as invisible as one would hope, her on screen persona is a fascinating and captivating one, and the blankness of her face allows an audience to project onto her character. Grey’s performance, beloved by some and loathed by others, is indisputably a thought-provoking turn that makes the viewer question where the line between an actor and a character is drawn. If this doesn’t make it the best acting job of the summer, it certainly makes it one of the most noteworthy.
Landon Burris
Chris Pine (Star Trek) – With all due respect to William Shatner, Chris Pine’s performance as Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek is one of the most surprising and charismatic turns of 2009. The one time Lindsay Lohan co-star (2006’s Just My Luck) has made a name for himself by helping lead the new Trek to heights never seen before by the franchise, with the film grossing over $250 million at the domestic box office. His confidence and cool play well off of Zachary Quinto’s Mr. Spock (another good turn), and he proved that he is leading man material. Star Trek’s inevitable sequel will continue the reboot in an alternate reality, which means there will be a lot more of this new Kirk in the future.
Sacha Baron Cohen (Brüno) – Following up his surprise 2006 hit Borat, Mr. Cohen changed gears from a clueless anti-Semitic Kazakh to a flamboyant Austrian fashionista for Brüno. As the titular character, Cohen puts himself in many compromising situations, exposing the cluelessness and homophobia of Middle America in much the same fashion as he did in Borat. Cohen goes even further this time along, doing such outrageous stunts as adopting an African baby to raise as a homosexual to staging a fake Ultimate Fighting event in the South, ironically called “Straight Dave’s Manslam,” where he poses as a homophobic redneck only to end up having a romantic encounter with another man in a steel cage (much to the audience’s chagrin). Cohen will go to any length for a laugh, and his performance was one of the bravest and most shocking in years.
Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) – Though the biggest comedy hit since Wedding Crashers had a lot going for it, the thing that truly made the film one of the most hilarious in recent memory was a performance from comedian Zach Galifianakis in his first big role. Galifianakis plays Alan, who, along with (sort of) friends Stu and Phil (played by Ed Helms and Bradley Cooper, respectively), must find the groom who is getting married in two days after a wild night out. Galifianakis’ performance is gut busting, from a sequence in a casino that rings of Rain Man and 21 to his Baby Bjorn carrier. He often steals the show and his character’s simplicity makes him awkwardly funny.
Lorna Raver (Drag Me to Hell) – Sam Raimi’s latest horror film Drag Me to Hell was one of his best camp films this side of the Evil Dead movies, and the movie was elevated by the performance of older actress Lorna Raver, who plays Mrs. Ganush. After being denied a loan for her home, Ganush puts a curse on the promising young Christine Brown (Alison Lohman), giving her three days to live before she is (quite literally) dragged to Hell. Raver is perfectly cast as a creepy old gypsy woman, who claws (and gums) her way into horror fame.
John Krasinski & Maya Rudolph (Away We Go ) – Away We Go may come off as a pseudo-indie hipster film (it was written by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida), and, at times, it is just that, but the film also is full of heartfelt moments and laughs. This is predominately thanks to the great chemistry between the two leads, John Krasinski (TV’s “The Office”) and Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”), who shine as the leads in this offbeat movie about a couple trying to find a place to fit in. Krasinski is sincere and awkwardly charming as Burt Farlander, and Rudolph brings emotional weight as his long-time partner Verona De Tessant. Neither actor normally gets large parts in movies, but the pair proved more than able in this “romantic dramedy.”
Bonus- Landon’s worst performance of the summer:
Christian Bale (Terminator: Salvation ) – After the mediocre Terminator: Rise of the Machines one would think taking a new direction with the once great Terminator franchise could only make things better. However, one would be wrong in this case. Director McG succeeded in making the franchise worse with the abysmal Terminator: Salavation . Without franchise staple Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was up to white-hot Christian Bale and newcomer Sam Worthington to elevate the film, but only the latter seemed to do so. Bale’s performance as John Connor (the third actor to portray him) was over-acted, and was full of the yelling that was so infamous from The Dark Knight (along with certain leaked set footage from Terminator ). It’s hard to believe that the same man who was so brilliant in American Psycho and The Machinist sunk to such a new low, and not even a decent turn in Public Enemies can atone for his hamming it up in this film.
