top 5 really good movies with really good actors/actresses

1. Ladies in Lavender (Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith are amazing to watch!)

2. Silence of the Lambs (amazing to see Anthony Hopkins and his genius in creating Hannibal Lecter)

3. Crash (to familiarize yourself with universal themes)

4. 21 Grams (the story is brilliant, the actors are brilliant - they're so connected to their vulnerability)

5. Sophie's Choice (Meryl Streep is amazing, especially in the scene where she describes well, I don't want to give it away, but when she tells the young man her past. She clearly used her imagination and the sensory process to create her past. It's one of the most powerful scenes I've ever watched.)

and an extra: 80's John Hughes movies just for fun to remember that acting is fun!

Hmm, as far as "acting" goes.


The Godfather 1 & 2 - simply because there are many amazing performaces

Notes on a scandal - just really subtle performances

Little Children - again, everyone is just amazing in this.

This so called disaster - actually a documentary, it documents the first read through to stage production of a Sam Shepard play (Shepard also directs the play with, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson, Cheech marin, James gammon (sp?) and it's great to see these actors working and then performing.

and of course, Street car

Some of the BEST performances I have ever seen, by far

My Left foot ( the most method and becoming the character)
Gandhi ( the best transition)
On the water front (cliche I know but for good reason, the most simple and powerful choices)
The Big Lebowski ( for understated Character devlopment)
And any documentary ( to see what it looks like when people are not acting)

quote:

And any documentary ( to see what it looks like when people are not acting)

ME TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I study them all the time. That's why it's so hard for me to stomach Law and Order. There's nothing real about the fake whimpers and crocodile tears and hysterics.

Documentaries show you what people REALLY look and sound like when they discuss losing loved ones to a terrorist attack, murder, etc.

Documentaries and real interviews of prisoners on Dateline NBC or Primetime Live or 48 Hour Mysteries, these are all my favorite acting lessons!!!!

Hollywood always embellishes and pushes and forces. The best actors, though, resist and go the documentary style of acting. TRUTH is POWER.

Tell it to the abysmal Law and Order franchises. Can Chris Meloni flair his nostrils any more? How intense can anybody possibly look. That gimmick where he twitches his eyes to fein intensity? It's pathetic. And it's the style all over TV.

It really is a strange truth thet we study SO HARD to act the way everone does in their normal life.

Yes, you are so right!

Watch Stone Philips of Dateline NBC interview seriel killer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and his father.

It was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dahmer was so NICE. So respectful, polite, a very good listener. He sounded very bright.

This was somebody who RAPED and TORTURED and CUT UP and FREAKIN ATE sixteen people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And there was NOTHING in his demeanor that really suggested it.

The problem is that directors don't want you to be "real." They want you to be like people THINK you are. And that's why so much crap is on TV and in movies.

Another GREAT interview was Diane Sawyer with Leslie Van Houten of the Manson Family. She was so beautiful and polite and sweet.

She's not sick like Dahmer but an actress playing her probably would embellish and play out there, etc.

HOw sad is it that I use my study of human behavior for the purposes of acting to justify my occasional dip into relity tv land?

1. SIDEWAYS - For Paul Giamatti and his natural comedic, dramatic, brilliant take on the middle-aged American man.

2. FORREST GUMP - In my opinion, the performance of the decade (90's.) I've heard many times, "How hard is it to play a retard?" I would prefer 'mentally challenged' but I'm just quoting other people. Hanks puts so much depth into that character, he makes it seem like it would be harder to play a "normal person."

3. NOTES ON A SCANDAL - I agree with Shay Coleman. Solid performances from Judi, Cate, and Bill Nighy.

4. CAST AWAY - I used this movie in the top 5 scenes that make you cry list and I'm using it again here. Hanks carries about 2 thirds of that movie by himself playing off of a volleyball. I'd like to see the handful of actors that could pull that off.....believably.

5. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 - I know. Sounds ridiculous at first. But, for lack of being able to think of another film right away I'm going to use the opening sequence from this one. The back-and-forth acting between Tom Cruise and Phillip Seymor Hoffman is just amazing.

1) MAHOGANY

One film comes into mind:

NETWORK

The only movie I know with numerous great monologues from a top notch ensemble cast. Brilliant.

Glengary Glen Ross and Save the Tiger are other films that comes to mind as well.

OH YEAH....STAR TREK The Next Generation, Some of the BEST acing on TV!! I'm not kidding. Really I am not a trekie. It is simply VERY strong character devlopment. It just shows you how good a show can be when everyone is on the same page.

The movies I grew up with:

The Cannonball Run 1+2
Better Off Dead
One Crazy Summer
BeastMaster (oh yeah, great acting in that one! Check out the pain in the ferret's eyes when his brother dies in the fire...it gets me every time!)
Forest Gump (yeah, this is a timeless classic)
Zoolander (quite possibly one of the funniest movies ever?)
Dumb and Dumber (also, very very funny)
Savannah Smiles (wow, that one takes me back)
Ferris Bueller's Day off
Over the Top (I know you're all laughing at me)
Revenge of the Nerds
Eddie and the Cruisers
Wraith (okay, you're laughing is getting quite loud now)
All the National Lampoon Vacation movies
(Hell, lets get all the Chevy Chase movies out of the way)
Dog Day Afternoon
Lonewolf Mcquaid (You're laughing is turning to crying, isnt' it?)
The Lost Boys (if the line "death by stereo" isn't a part of the most well-developed script ever, may God strike me down now...just kidding big guy!)
Stand By Me (will always be a classic)
Saving Grace (great characters in that one)
eh, I've got more, but my brain is lazy today.

great topic! and i agree about watching documentaries/news interviews... but as far as "acted" movies go...

1) 84 Charing Cross Road- brilliant little film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins... actually any Anne Bancroft movie, but I especially love this one... so understated and touching.
2) To Kill a Mockingbird- just an amazing film all around.
3) About Schmidt- Nicholson. That's all.
4) Capote- I think Philip Seymour Hoffman has just about the most range of any film actor we've got out there right now. Watch Twister and this movie back to back and tell me you don't agree.
5) The Producers (the new 2005 musical film version)- I can't enough of watching Nathan Lane. He is such a peerless comedian and actor. He captivates me even when someone else onscreen is supposed to have focus (and sharing the screen with people like Matthew Broderick and Roger Bart, that's saying something). Plus, it fascinates me to watch the original version and then this one to see how Nathan Lane adapted Zero Mostel's iconic performance into something that honors the original but is still completely his own.

how did this soapbox get here...