Her weird, offputting, stillted mannerism came across well in Mad Men, where she was supposed to be kind of a withdrawn, sullen housewife.
But she apparently can’t turn it off, since she does the same thing in every role.
I think Gods and Monsters is as close as you’ll get. His work opposite Sir Ian McKellan was not bad at all, rather sweet.
I’d like to nominate Minnie Driver in Goodwill Hunting.
I’ll second Minnie Driver in damn near anything she’s been in.
Moving it to big-budget miniseries: Cuba Gooding, Jr., was a sour note in an often excellent People vs. OJ Simpson. I don’t know how much was the fact he was sorely miscast; being black and middle aged is about the only thing he has in common with 1990s OJ- but he brought down every scene he was in. The Juice needs an actor of great charisma and presence- doesn’t particularly matter if he looks like Simpson so long as he conveyed the same aura- and Gooding either didn’t or couldn’t.
I had no problems with her in Owning Mahoney.
Richard Doofus er I mean Dreyfuss in The Goodbye Girl. Rick Moranis does a better job than Dreyfuss at being Dreyfuss.
He did great at portraying a neurotic actor…probably not too much of a stretch, but whatever. His performance won the Oscar that year.
Dreyfuss was also excellent in Inserts http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073172/?ref_=nv_sr_1.
I thought Brendan Fraser was very good in The Quiet American.
'Course, I also liked John C. Reilly in Magnolia.
Agreed. I think it’s easily one of the film’s best performances. The film is a high-wire, over-the-top cavalcade of operatic emotions (not a bad thing), which encourages a lot of scenery chewing (in this case, also not necessarily a bad thing). But his is, along with PSH, perhaps the most grounded and compassionate performance–funny, real, completely authentic and believable. And a complete departure from the cliche-driven ways police are always portrayed in movies.
For Performance By The Worst Overall Actor/Actress In a Great Movie, Given Their Entire Body of Work, But In This Movie He/She Was Not As Terrible As They Usually Are I want to give an Honorable Mention to Tom Arnold in True Lies. Not for his performance in the movie but for the one scene where he confronts Arnold on why his wife is looking to fool around (Can’t search for the clip right now). Great job balancing setting his friend straight with empathy. In that one moment he was a phenomenal actor.
He wasn’t Bill in that movie, he was Ted.
His best work was in “Keanu.” He voiced the eponymous kitten.
Actually I thought Tom Arnold was good in the entire movie. He’s quite effective in every scene, whatever is asked of him.
“Boy, I remember the first time I was shot out of a cannon!”
John Belushi made a similar point on SNL when Drefuss hosted. *Miss Anthropic Principle, john-belushi: John & Gilda in “The Goodbye...
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May I put forth Rock Hudson in Giant. I know virtually no one that thinks this isn’t a great movie and while Hudson does the best acting of his career, he falls short of his costars, the secondary stars and even a couple of the bit players. When I watch it, I actually feel sorry for Hudson. He was just so out of his depth in this film.
I thought Brendan Fraser was good in a great movie, The Quiet American.
Andie MacDowell taking a shit all over Four Weddings and Funeral. /piling on
Check out her performance in An Invisible Sign. She actually can act.
I agree with your assessment of Shane, definitely one of the best westerns ever made, but Brandon did a good job IMO. It didn’t quite merit the Best Supporting Actor nomination he got for that film, which really should have gone to Elisha Cook Jr.