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Jack Attack Tuesday

Top 5 Unrecognizable Roles

Last week’s movie homework, the afore-reviewed Sling Blade, was a great revisit for me.  Sling Blade was a movie I had seen years ago and, frankly, forgot about.  I remember being intrigued by the character Billy Bob was playing but, ultimately, I had found the film to be too slow and boring.  Thankfully the revisit changed all of that, as I now have a great appreciation and respect for the movie.  Karl Childers is an incredible performance filled with nuance and subtlety.  Yes, the speech and cadence of the character is at times distracting but I think as the story evolves and you see where this man came from then you get a better sense of the person and why he is the way he is.  It got me thinking though about performances so good that through sheer force of will the performance completely overshadows the actor.  The upcoming Black Mass, off of the trailers alone, seems to be doing that in spades, so this article to me is as timely as ever.  Here are five other performances that, for me, totally do that.

5 – Matt Damon in Courage Under Fire

In a small supporting role, Matt Damon put up an impressive amount of weight loss to turn in a small but memorable performance.  I remember reading somewhere that Damon was actually prescribed medication to fix his body for over a year just to get himself in a healthy state again.  I think this is a great example of that transformative change actors sometimes go through because it was so extreme, and so early in Damon’s career, that it proves the guy is the real deal, despite what Team America may have to say about him.

4 – Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull

Probably the gold-standard for an actor transforming into a character, Jake LaMotta is without question one of the most complex and interesting characters ever put on screen.  DeNiro’s extreme weight gain/loss for this film is well documented and a part of the filmic landscape, so I won’t go into it here.  When you make a list like this, you have to add LaMotta in Raging Bull to the list or else all credibility is lost, so here it is.

3 – Rooney Mara in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Mara is largely untested in terms of longevity with her roles but there’s no denying that her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander is remarkable.  Losing the eyebrows, going for the full goth-hacker-punk look and pulling it off in a way different than what Noomi Rapace did in the original film, it’s easy to see her disappear behind a little eyeliner and some piercings.  Altogether a great performance and a good example of an actress truly disappearing into her character.

2 – Cameron Diaz/John Cusack in Being John Malkovich

I put these two characters on the list in tandem because, to me, both are equally incredible at absorbing their roles in this film.  While Diaz is going way against type in playing an “ugly” woman, Cusack is so pathologically pathetic in this film and such a massive failure that his performance, to me, completely transcends his typical schmucky sort of charm.

1 – Vincent D’Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket

Probably my favorite entry into this list, Kubrick did everything right in casting Vincent D’Onofrio as Pvt. Leonard ‘Gomer Pyle’ Lawrence.  While these days D’Onofrio has gotten on the doughier side, for a long time it was difficult to see the man through that character.  His performance, I maintain to this day, is one of the criminally underrated in film history.  The depth of his simplicity in that role and the ultimate doom he inflicts onto himself is as dark as it is, to me, realistic.  I always point to this performance as proof that D’Onofrio has the goods, and needs to use them more often.

That’s it Binge…rs (?).  What do you think?  Did I miss any that are so blatantly obvious I should be fired from this imaginary job forever?  What say you?  Check out the link below and, as always, Binge On!