The Best Acting I've Ever Seen

it's okay if I take the front door okay best great acting is sometimes revealed in the tiniest of details recently I was struck by Tia swinton's acting while watching this scene from the souvenir part two just look at how much character she's bringing to the way she's watering these flowers even during what is a fairly inconsequential moment in the scope of the story she could have watered the flow in any number of ways that wouldn't have spoken to the specificity of character that Tilla switon brings to this moment it's so naturalistic that the moment feels almost documentarian you might be tempted to think that Tilla Swinton isn't even acting here that this is just how she Waters flowers herself but Swinton is a master of transformation she pulls out all the stops even for the tiniest of roles and what she's bringing to this moment and this character as a whole is incredibly intentional anyway while I was watching this this funny thought occurred to me is this some of the best acting I've ever seen obviously I don't think this moment is specifically although Tilda swinton's work as a whole might be some of the best acting that I've ever seen but the question stuck in my mind what is the best acting I've ever seen it's a question that immediately evokes big legendary performances like Daniel de Lewis and There Will Be Blood or Robert dairo and taxi driver or Raging Bull or Marlon Brando in on the waterfront or The Godfather and while I love all those movies find those performances to be incredible work the work that is the most iconic memorable popular and even influential while it has a lot going for it isn't automatically the best personally I find it's often performances that I least expect that end up striking me to my core lingering with me for months or even years after I've seen a film so to refresh my memory I looked back over my log of every movie I've ever watched and made a list of each performance that stood out to me in some significant way that that narrowed things down to about 45 different performances and honestly I think every performance on that list is amazing I mean remember the harrowing intensity of Michael fast Bender's work in hunger Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is still probably one of the greatest performances of all time in my opinion Tony Colette and hereditary makes me literally want to crawl out of my own skin but if I wanted to make a video about this I knew I would have to narrow this massive list down somehow which brought up a lot of fascinating challenges and question when it comes to judging the quality of performances for example how do you even begin to compare the incredible stunt acting that Jackie Chan is doing in a movie like police story to the hilarious yet grounded character acting someone like Francis McDormand is doing in Fargo there's a highpe Pursuit ends here and then this execution type deal yeah or the Nuance depiction of dementia that Sir Anthony Hopkins is doing in the father something wrong how do you judge the subtle mysterious power someone like Vicky kpes is bringing to Phantom thread against the explosive and magnetic power that Daniel Kya is bringing in Judas and the black Messiah you can murder a freedom fighter but you can't murder Freedom you know sometimes what's impressive about a performance is the physical dedication to a role Natalie Portman trained for six months for Black Swan Leonardo DiCaprio did this oh in the Revenant working through insane conditions the extensive training or physical difficulty on set can often be felt through the screen and behind the scenes stories about performances can lend a role and almost Mythic quality that goes beyond the film itself but again most effort doesn't automatically equal best and equally impressive to me are performances that feel completely effortless okay with me Ladi for example I love Elliot gold as a lazy washed up Marlo in the long goodbye I'm a private detective I have my own agency those girls are vicious a performance he pulls off with what feels like a shrug it's a character that seems to flow effortlessly out of Elliot Gold's Natural Energy as a person and I can't tell if he's acting or just being himself in a way that's perfect for this movie and I've already talked extensively about how impressed I am by small subtle performances some of those examples like Steven yuan in burning Florence Pew in midsummer rised and sound of metal are favorites of mine and this is of course only talking about film TV has some of the best performances I've ever seen as actors get to spend sometimes years in the world of a character getting to explore every Nuance of their psyche as the actor spends so much time fully immersed within the given circumstances of the character's life within the context of the story faced with all these questions I realized that trying to narrow this list down by some kind of objective standard of quality was going to be impossible that the only way forward was going to be for me to fully embrace my subjectivity here and narrow things down not based on what I think are the best performances but what I feel are the best performances I would have to go off of which performances most resonated with my gut and my heart and using that metric I was able to narrow down my list of course leaving off a ton of incredible performances that I hope you tell me about in the comments to give you 11 examples of the best acting I've ever [Music] seen I want to start with this performance from Oscar Isaac in inside Lu and Davis there's some technical difficulty here because he's performing musically and acting while doing it which is something few actors try and I think even fewer pull off but that isn't what impressed me for context in the film he's trying to make it as as a musician in a very harsh and uninviting environment and in this scene he's finally getting to play a song for a record label I'm Len Davis uhuh he performs his heart out we feel the character's sincerity through the performance of the [Music] song Stone and then we see in such starkly subtle detail how his sincerity dissolves into exhausted defeat I don't see a lot of money here okay a defeat that has touches of resentment and even grief all that in such minimal expression and on top of this okay the okay is so flatly apathetic that somehow it plays comedically for me I'm often drawn to moments like this in film where it feels like multiple emotions are competing within the character for space or against the character's attempt to repress them as an aside here Ben from Canada my editor for this video was a huge help on this script because he just so happened to have a ba and acting from the Royal Conservatory of Scotland and his input was massively helpful here in keeping me from going too far off the rails when it came to my technical commentary about acting technique and he tells me this moment from Oscar Isaac is an example of something called listening where instead of trying to portray something the actor is just taking in the information of the situation as the character would react to it and whatever the technique is that's being used that's honestly what it legitimately looks like to me to me as the viewer it looks like Oscar Isaac isn't producing something from within but is instead simply responding to something as it happens the important thing here though from I think the perspective of the film as a whole is that what I remember about this scene is not the Nuance of Oscar ISX acting what I remember about this scene is the emotion that I felt watching it I feel the defeat grief apathy and then it makes me laugh that's good advice thank you Mr Gman it's only on closer Examination for a video like this that the Nuance of The Craft really starts to stick out and I can begin to understand why it makes me feel that [Music] way what you doing in here little man huh this next performance is one that has such a warmth and a presence that I was so enamored with the first time I watched it that when I discovered that this character disappears a third of the way into the film it almost ruined an amazing movie for me Moonlight is great beyond mersel Ali's performance as one but for me he Stills the show what is it that makes this performance so magnetic how did Ali manage to grab a much deserved supporting actor Oscar with less than 20 minutes of screen time Ali brings the kind of death and subtlety of expression that I talked about with the last example but I think much of the warmth and Charisma that I feel here comes from how embodied and present the character is the detail and the way he moves the meticulously crafted walk the posturing of the actor's entire physical body is speaking to the character in this performance you can see it in little moments like this one just the way he shifts his weight and brushes his hands it also speaks to the character's awareness of himself the environment and chyon we can see just in the way Juan's moving that he's trying to make himself less threatening and shyon more comfortable to me the most impressive moments of performance are ones like this where the actor and the film itself disappear and it feels like you're just catching a glimpse of a real human oh it isn't just subtlety that I'm drawn to Big intense emotions can be impressive in a performance when the actor manages to pull it off in a way that feels grounded and real Brenda ban in secrets and lies brings a rawness of emotion to a performance that almost makes me squirm in my seat it's like catching a glimpse of something personal and private that I shouldn't be seeing the excerpt I want to highlight here is from a scene that plays out over an unbroken 7 Minute take while a significant plot reveal that I won't spoil here takes place I don't think a single uncut take necessarily makes for more impressive acting but when the acting is great within that take that locked in feeling can really increase the intensity of a performance the visual technique here also influences the process though when an actor is given the space to go through the Beats like this uninterrupted the arriving of thoughts and emotional Transformations can happen in real time which can absolutely help to produce the kind of naturalism we get to see here I think the scene ultimately works best within the context of the film but watch this moment where she transitions from laughing to crying have you got a boyfriend I'll give them all a wide birth they got me into enough trouble in the past I [Laughter] died it's the kind of move that can easily feel like overacting but which bin manages to pull off here creating a gut-wrenching unsettling effect hello Harry well well they seem giving you quite some busy time yes I want to talk to you talk to me of course come on as soon as I thought about my alltime favorite performances this performance from Orson wells in the 1949 film the third man came to mind oh the same old indigestion Hol these are the only things that help these tablets these are the last can't get them anywhere in Europe any you know what's happened to your girl H she's been arrested tough very tough but don't worry old man they won't hurt her a lot of the examples that I'm showing in this video are from recent Cinema and some of this is recency bias some of this is just that I've seen For Better or Worse more recent Cinema so I have a larger selection to draw from when it comes to choosing performances but there's also a change that happened in acting throughout film history a shift from a more theatrical Style towards naturalism and while I love that kind of Classic Hollywood theatricality at times naturalism and performance just tends to connect with me more on a an emotional gut level that shift and why it happened what caused it is a whole video I might do eventually but for now I'll just say that I think this performance from Orson Wells is one of the earliest examples we have of the more contemporary naturalistic style of acting that we're used to today and if you look at the rest of the performances in the movie you can see the type of acting that was typical at that time you're not going to close your files at a dead man's expense so you're going to find me the real criminal but then Wells comes in and it's like he's on an entirely different wavelength you ought to leave this thing alone have you ever seen any of your victims you know I never feel comfortable in these sort of things victims won be melodramatic it's immediately clear he's doing something else entirely the effect of this performance within the context of the film is that it kind of feels like everybody else is acting and playing a character and then Orson Wells walks in and he just kind of feels like a real person when you combine that with the fact that in the story this character is hyped up beyond belief before we even meet him and he has this weird combo of like Charisma and Sinister h what fools we are not talking to each other this way as though I do anything to you with barely any screen time Wells doesn't just steal the show here from me he takes it for all its worth in a daring and efficient Heist this is also an example of how the line between actor and writer can kind of blur Wells himself contributed one of the movie's most memorable lines that 500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce the cuckoo clock you'd be better off giving up yeah well I'm not going to give up because what am I what have I done this so far you know what I mean I've gone so far with this and why should I give up now I can't give up with patino one of my favorite actors the difficulty became choosing an example to highlight much of his work has the kind of subtlety that I love but he can also have this explosive intensity that sometimes almost trips into the comedic give me all you got give me all you got but which a lot of times is very entertaining and engaging to watch ultimately though the performance of his that has grabbed me the most is his performance as sunny and Dog Day Afternoon hello see no I just saw myself uh what why you why am I doing it yes doing what robbing a bank oh uh what I I don't know what you mean by that I'm robbing a bank cuz they got money here that's why I'm robbing it in the movie We're dropped into this chaotic mess of a bank robbery Sunny is not the straightforward Bandit we've seen countless times in movies in many ways the dramatic thrust of the film is the question why is this guy robbing a bank not while practically and materially but what in his life kind of pushed him to this place where he felt this was his best option hello David mammoth's writing slowly kind of unfolds those layers as we go along but we see and feel them kind of beneath the surface in Pacino's performance long before we start to find out those details in the script Pacino really toes this line between somebody who's lost his mind and someone who's kind of a sympathetic protagonist you can almost root for one of the things that I think makes this performance really engaging for me is that he's managed to craft a character that feels simultaneously mysterious and motivated oh oh I don't know you know life's so funny you set a math full sweetheart the performance feels grounded in a sense of reality but it's not immediately obvious to me what is going on with this character's internal landscape when I watch a moment like the big third act phone call I have a feeling that if I just studied his Expressions long enough I could figure out what's really going on with this guy there's a mystery there on his face that feels like it could be solved but importantly in order to maintain the dramatic tension he never plays it so simply or directly that we feel like we've solved the mystery while we're talking about depth and complexity of emotion I want to highlight Liv olan's performance in Bergman scenes from a marriage liman has done a lot of great work especially with Bergman but this is the one that stands out to me the most in this scene the character has just found out that her husband wants to leave her and what Bergman with his penetrating lingering gaze is most interested in is simply watching her navigate these emotions in real time while she has to try to maintain a sense of normaly I think it's an incredible depiction of shock as with the Oscar Isaac performance here it feels like we're watching her respond to the circumstances of this moment rather than produce emotion she's encountering and deciding what to do with each of the many intense emotions that are arising within her moment to moment and it's incredibly unsettling as you watch this internal mental and emotional struggle play across her face I like this because I think it speaks to something very real about our internal experience of emotions as humans our most emotionally intense moments aren't ones where we just have One Singular emotion intensely flowing through us just as intense can be these moments where we ourselves aren't quite sure what we're feeling that some actors can express this without the performance itself tipping into just an incoherent mess is incredible to me please don't move so much Elma I'm buttering my toes I'm not moving too much it's too much it's a distraction it's very distracting Daniel de Lewis is another one of those actors where it's difficult to choose a single example but I'm ultimately most drawn to his work as Reynolds Woodcock in Phantom thread a well rabbit with a poach stick on top please because to me this is another example of an almost completely impenetrable character one I barely understand but who still maintains a real sense of psychological realism it's not just actors who perform roles some of us in our day-to-day lives are inhabiting sometimes very very elaborate characters some of the best acting you'll ever see won't be on a screen or a stage but in real life the beauty of a role like Reynolds Woodcock is that you get the feeling this is the type of man whose entire life and being is a kind of elaborate performance he's obsessed with image and has a kind of dictatorial control over his environment and the people around him and D Lewis performs not just that surface performance that the character is doing but also the character underneath the character and with Incredible restraint only gives us occasional glimpses of the man underneath where many of the other performances I've mentioned resonate with me because of the emotional vulnerability of the character here it's a character who's desperately trying not to be vulnerable in any way and he's up against another character who desperately wants to see his vulnerabilities the result is amazing to watch if you leave here I don't ever want to see you again or you can stay everything I just said about D Lewis's performance of Woodcock I think also holds true for Philip Seymour Hoffman's own work with Paul Thomas Anderson as Lancaster DOD in the master this is another character whose life is a performance and perhaps what we think we know of this world is false information he's also a character that needs to have a believable kind of Charisma and warmth that makes his status as cult leader feel earned the other Twist on this performance that I think makes it unique is There's the Man underneath the character on top of that Philip seamour Hoffman is performing both of those simultaneously and we get the sense that the man believes the performance so he's kind of caught up in his own per performance I think pta's films are a great showcase for acting because he often lets the performances kind of supersede plot and dialogue want to get [Music] you on a slow boat to China out here we're beyond the world of rational understanding and into what just feels like two humans bearing their souls to each other Hoffman's work as a whole is one of my favorite bodies of work he's the late actor that I miss the most he brought so much presence and pathos to even small roles and comedic bit parts that he played uh you could see him if you want can we ever have lunch anyone else you and me yeah I don't have some kind of in-depth analysis for this next example from Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea sometimes it's not about the layer or complexity of a performance it's just about the raw experience of watching someone struggle with their emotions that cuts through the screen and into your core however my heart was broken it's always going to be broken but I know he is broken too this scene I think is honestly one of the most heartbreaking pieces of performance I've ever seen in my life just watching this clip completely out of context makes me choke up and tear up her tone of voice The Strain and pain carried in her throat we couldn't have lunch I'm really sorry I don't think so I thank you for saying everything that you said you can't just die I'm not I'm not I'm not I have such a visceral response to watching this that I like can't help but perceive it as real she can't see so good anymore where is it where's the V where's TR she got it no she ain't going to get it you live out here all along yeah I love if you're in a movie with Mersa Ali Ryan goling Bradley Cooper Dan danan Rose Burn and you still managed to give the most impressive performance in the film in one of its smallest roles then you're Ben Mendon in The Place Beyond the Pines there are two things in this performance that really speak to me first mendleson brings an incredible specificity of character like I talked about with mersel Ali's performance in Moonlight a lot of work is being done here in the way that mson embodies this character physically the walk the little movements deliberate adjustments in vocal quality all of this speaks to the character especially I think his poor posture this was the first Ben mendleson performance that I saw and I was immediately hooked by it but I came to appreciate it even more over time as I realized how much he had transformed for this role and for me personally the specificity that he's bringing here isn't just a random character it's one that I recognize having grown up in Rural America Ben mson wasn't just being a guy he was being a type of guy that I had seen out in the real world but who I've never seen represented with such Clarity in film this is also a case where I read the film's script after I had seen the movie and was amazed to discover just how far this character had come from what was on the page in the script Robin is almost the definition of a supporting role he's there mostly to facilitate the plot progression for the main character played by Ryan Gosling but what Mendelson ends up bringing is far from just a cog in the wheels of the story instead we find a character who has an immediate sense of Pathos and tragedy best yeah best never seen another one like best we're not told about his past but we can immediately see the conditions of this guy's life and see his desire for friendship and connection and Robin ends up being one of the most quietly heartbreaking characters in a movie full of heartbreaking characters this is so disappointing no no we don't need all that I've only got s minutes passengers this next performance isn't about emotional complexity realism or depth in fact it stands in stark contrast to most of the other examples I'm showing here but great acting for me isn't always about conveying heavy or layered emotion would you wear a shoe on your head sometimes it's fun to just watch an actor transform themselves again and again in original and creative ways this is one of the main reasons Tilla Swinton is my favorite actor her work borders on almost a kind of contortionism at times I can't tell you how many times I've been talking about how much I love her acting mention her role in snow piercer and the other person says that was Tilda Swinton this performance from Snowpiercer is a fun example of this aspect of her work but I wanted to begin and end this video with two examples of her work that are at opposite ends of the stylistic spectrum o yes can you get the dogs out daring I don't want them to hurt their feet it's all right it's all right it's all right come on because for me what makes her acting career one of the best I've seen is not any specific performance that she gives but but the scope of her work as a whole I honestly can't think of anyone who has performed a greater variety of characters with such a diversity in style of performance she brings an incredible dedication to every role I've never seen her phon it in Swinton will sometimes bring like Gary Oldman levels of transformation to the most off-the-wall bit part and then turn around and bring a startlingly subtle naturalism to another role in the same year it's clear she treats every role no matter the size as an opportunity for the kind of transformation that you generally only see from lead performances it's fun to watch her work because it looks like she just loves the craft and enjoys the process of creating new and original characters for the screen even when it wouldn't be demanded of her and it's work that feels genuine to me while simultaneously being fun and completely unpretentious acting is a beautiful and complex craft and like any art it's highly subjective when it comes to what resonates with specific people in the audience these are the performances that for me are like a great song you can come back to them repeatedly and immediately and reliably be transported to somewhere very specific watching that Ben mson performance for the first time in years to me didn't feel like revisiting a film it to me it felt almost like bumping into an old friend immediately all these memories from the first time I saw that film came flooding back because of this what actually makes up the best acting I'll ever see or you'll ever see is incredibly personal so I'd love if you shared in the comments the performances that occupy that space for you another one of the best performances I've ever seen comes from this razor the Hensen al13 this razor shaves better because of the way the design of the head here holds the blade it supports the blade along the entire length so there's no bending warping in the the blade and the blade only extends past the Shaving plane 131,000 of an inch Which is less than the width of a hair that brings a kind of subtlety of performance that I will honestly never be able to bring to this kind of gimmicky attempt to integrate the adre into the subject of the video fortunately though I don't have to act for this ad read I can just tell you that I love this razor and since Henson sent it to me over a year ago it's been the only one that use when I want a clean shave I feel really comfortable with this razor it shaves well it feels good doing it and Hensen is a company that I think has both the consumer and the environment in mind which is something that I really appreciate most Razer companies will sell you a really cheap handle and then gouge you over time on the cost of the replacement blades not only do you end up spending a lot in the long run on a very mediocre shave but it generates a lot of PL plastic waste that is unnecessary and just ends up in landfills Henson flips that whole model on its head you pay a little more up front for a very high quality well-designed razor head and you can get cheap replacement blades from literally anywhere it's only going to cost you $3 to5 a year for the replacement blades depending on how much you shave and the entire body and head of the razor here is really well manufactured it it looks and feels like it could last a lifetime going this route is cheaper than both electric razors and cartridge razors after just 2 years and it's a better shaving experience on top of that for me it's a no-brainer if you're like me and this reminds you of like a safety razor which you maybe already tried and gave up on because it's kind of finicky to work with and a little bit scary this is not that this uses the same type of replacement blades but it's a very different design in the head that holds the blade in a very precise way that like a classic safety razor does not classic safety Razer you have to be really careful with this razor I feel very safe shaving Against the Grain putting pressure on I've never gotten a Nick or a cut from it happily recommend this razor to anyone who shaves the shave feels great the razor itself is really well designed and it's better for the environment more sustainable they don't even use plastic in their packaging and if you go to Hensen shaving docomomo flight and use the code Thomas flight in the checkout you'll get 100 free replacement blades with your purchase thank you to Hensen shaving for sponsoring this [Music] video see now I just saw myself

Channel: Thomas Flight

Views: 1,333,238

Keywords: Video Essay, Thomas Flight

Id: n0mEHhkQRq8

Length: 33min 58sec (2038 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 26 2023