Welcome to the next volume in my "Acting!!" series where I discuss some of my favorite performances from decades past...just to sort of change up the momentum from discussing films specifically.
I have already tackled the 1990s, so next up will be the 1980s.
Just to lay down the general ground rules again:
None of the 20 performances listed will be Oscar winning, BUT I will acknowledge some that may have received a nomination.
Prior to the list, I will select a few performances that did win a richly deserving Oscar as sort "de facto" honorable mentions.
The 1980s can be an uneven decade when it comes to film, but I found that it provided a truly eclectic mix of performances and I really feel excited to single some of these out...especially since some of these might often get singled out for being the best of the decade.
Let's begin with the Oscar winners before delving into the list proper:
SIX DESERVING OSCAR WINNING PERFORMANCES
Robert DeNiro, RAGING BULL (1980)
-You could argue that a performance like this is a key example of how voters would soon flock to similar instances where an actor does an extreme transformation to their body. DeNiro famously gained 50-60lbs for this role...but thankfully, the man put a lot of effort into it otherwise. While I may not be as big a fan of this film as seemingly most of filmdom is, I can't deny the brilliance of DeNiro here in what is not only the greatest performance of his career, but one of the best in cinema history.
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Timothy Hutton, ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)
-Major category fraud alert! In a way, I am grateful that category placement happened as it is nice that Hutton was able to win an Oscar for this performance. I cannot begin to express the kind of effect this film and his character had on me...and I think it is a shame that a lot of the film is cast in a shadow because it was the movie that beat
Raging Bull. --------------
Sissy Spacek, COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER (1980)
-The Academy really nailed it with 1980! Even the Supporting Actress winner Mary Steenburgen was a solid choice overall. Spacek falls into the musical biopic narrative which we have been sort of drowning amongst in recent years...but Spacek set the gold standard. Not only does she work well enough to convince as Loretta Lynn as a freaking 13-year-old, but she does her own singing and perfectly captures every about Lynn as a performing artist. This is a marvel of a performance.
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Meryl Streep, SOPHIE'S CHOICE (1982)
-I will say what I said when I ranked her as one of the five best Lead Actress winners in my ranking: "This performance is a legend for a reason".
Enough said.
But I do want to quickly shout out her work as Lindy Chamberlain in A Cry in the Dark; a truly dark performance of a character who was actually rather cold and distant, but she made it so deeply emotional in only the way she could.
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F. Murray Abraham, AMADEUS (1984)
-While I would've loved the chance to see what Ian McKellan did in this role in the original Broadway production...opposite Tim Curry no less...I feel like F. Murray Abraham was a very welcome alternative. This was one of those performances/characters that I saw at an age where I was truly developing a strong interest not just in wanting to perform but write/direct. I took in all the details of what made Salieri a delectable complex villain and wanted to do something like that when I got older.
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Daniel Day-Lewis, MY LEFT FOOT (1989)
-There did seem to be a strong chance that Day-Lewis would lose the Oscar to Tom Cruise, who certainly was giving one of his better performances in
Born on the Fourth of July, but I do think Day-Lewis gave one of his best performances here...maybe even his absolute best...and that is saying something.
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SOME SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THESE FILMS, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
AND NOW...THE LIST:
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Isabelle Adjani
POSSESSION (1981)
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about the true negative bias that horror films and performances have in the prestige film community.
Strictly going off of performances alone, we have had Toni Collette in Hereditary, Lupita Nyong'o in Us, and Elisabeth Moss in The Invisible Man as some recent examples of Oscar snubs that truly infuriated a lot of film buffs/critics.
Horror is a genre that is often quite deceptive in its artistic merit, which you could argue stems from such heinous efforts as most slasher films or torture porn...but even prior to the slasher boom of the 1980s, Horror was rarely acknowledged in a prestige way. In fact, The Exorcist was arguably the first true horror movie to even get a Best Picture nomination back in 1974. Only The Silence of the Lambs manages to be the closest example of a horror film winning (unless you want to count elements of 1940's Rebecca or 2019's Parasite).
At any rate, horror performances are often unfairly ignored...and none all the more insane than that of Isabelle Adjani, whose work in the psychological horror film Possession remains one of the most psychotic and no-holds-barred performances ever captured on film.
Adjani is easily one of the finest actresses to ever grace a film. Some of her amazing credits include The Story of Adele H., One Deadly Summer, Camille Claudel, and Queen Margot...but the crown jewel of her career is Possession.
Adjani has stated that after doing the film, she didn't want to put herself through this kind of physical anguish again, and it is not surprising to see why. It caused such a strain that she ended up in therapy for many years trying to cope with some of the thoughts that kept bubbling up following the process.
The film begins with Mark (Sam Neill) returning home from West Berlin where he was on an espionage mission and finds that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce.
She won't say why but Mark's first belief is that she has been having an affair.
Needless to say, it is...umm...a little more complicated than that.
If you haven't seen Possession, I would highly implore you to check it out. Adjani gives one of the greatest performances ever. That may seem obvious since I am including it on this list of greatest performances of a decade, but I would seriously consider this one of the best performances ever captured on film.
I don't want to say much else about the journey of the film, because I think it is worth discovering as soon as you can find it.
There are many scenes that are simply stellar, but there is a scene that takes place in a Berlin train station that has since become quite iconic in filmdom. Shot in almost one continuous take (with just one quick cut in the middle), Adjani has a breakdown that can be described in many ways, but at the moment, I would choose "animalistic".
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Babak Ahmadpour
WHERE IS THE FRIEND'S HOUSE? (1987)
Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is known for wanting his films to be naturalistic. He doesn't want any kind of flare or gimmicks. He simply wants his films to be laid bare and to be presented as straightforward as possible.
When discussing performances of the 90s, I had mentioned Homayoun Ershadi, who was the star of Kiarostami's 1997 film Taste of Cherry...and how did Kiarostami cast him? He found him sitting in Tehran traffic and felt he conveyed the right energy he wanted for the film. That gave Ershadi, an architect, a push that led to further success in films.
As is expected, Kiarostami's instincts were spot on 10 years prior when he needed a young boy for his film Where is the Friend's House? Babak Ahmadpour was spotted by Kiarostami in an Iranian village where he also managed to find other kids to fill out the cast.
Child actors are known for being too staged and performative in the final products. This was even apparent as far back as silent films when Hal Roach grew so sick of most child actors that he ended up developing the Our Gang shorts to try to bring real youthful exuberance (not to mention unity and acceptance of all races...despite some of the more problematic representation) to a mainstream crowd.
That natural quality of a non-actor makes this performance feel all too real...and with that, all of the emotions displayed...no matter how sweet or subtle...are all the more effective. This performance is a far cry from the volatile rage of Isabelle Adjani. We are watching a shy, sweet young boy who is perhaps far too polite for his own good. He barely will even raise his voice.
Ahmadpour did pop up in another of Kiarostami's films called Through the Olive Trees, but he never sought to be an actor again unlike Ershadi.
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Sandrine Bonnaire
VAGABOND (1985)
Ah, Agnes Varda...why must you be such a genius?
When Vagabond begins, we see a young woman named Mona dead in a ditch covered in frost. We don't know if she specifically died from hypothermia or something else entirely. We then proceed to flashback through her final weeks to see what led to her death.
So yeah...not exactly a lighthearted romp for the whole family, but I think by now, you may have noticed I tend to be drawn to these cynical moody pieces.
Vagabond plays out with us watching someone's life unraveling...sort of like The Lost Weekend or Leaving Las Vegas and yet, Vagabond is far more effective. The film is presented almost as if it were a documentary in style...not surprising considering it is Varda...and that gritty nature, along with the work of then 18-year-old Bonnaire, give the film such a tragic feel.
Years ago, I was discussing films with someone I knew mostly as an acquaintance, and they proceeded to bash this film because they felt that Mona was an insufferable character who brought all of this upon herself and that she was an immature brat.
Looking back on that discussion now, I mostly see a person who was giving off vibes of "Get off my lawn!" mixed with "Why don't you get a job?!".
For me, Mona was a truly captivating creation...and the layers with Bonnaire gave her were nothing short of astounding. She is certainly a young woman, but her drifting tendencies make her seem like she could be older...until she doesn't get her way and her more youthful pouty tendencies come to light.
Mona is expected to make something of herself, and is often taken advantage of by people she comes in contact with...but, who is to say she has to conform? This is a woman who isn't quite sure who she is, but she just wants to take everything one day at a time.
I oddly marvel at her ability to just take life as it comes...and it does sadden me that she never gets the chance to actually find something that could potentially make her want to experience more out of life.
And yet, WHO AM I to say that she should've experienced more?
Varda's message of the film is quite bleak, but oddly powerful in its blunt nature...and Sandrine Bonnaire, who has since gone on to have an absolutely wonderful career, moved me deeply in such a difficult role that could've come off as a total whine.
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Glenn Close
FATAL ATTRACTION and DANGEROUS LIAISONS
I decided to cheat for this one. Considering this was a great one-two punch that set off the legend of Glenn Close being an actress adept at villainous roles, I couldn't decide which performance I liked more. I have already mentioned three performances, so these will represent the fourth and fifth selections for my list.
As a film, Fatal Attraction is clearly the more problematic one in how it presents Close's character of Alex Forrest. Sure, she shouldn't be trying to kill Anne Archer before her bath, but there is a certain misogynistic streak to the film that is undeniable. Having said that, Close has been very vocal about how much work she did on trying to understand the psychology of Alex. From first glance, this is just a psychotic woman, but she is also a woman suffering from past trauma...potentially sexual abuse. Despite the problems with the film, Close should be highly commended for what she did to make this role a work of art.
It is a shame that she lost the Oscar to Cher that year for Moonstruck, who was certainly very good in that film but I think Close (and Holly Hunter in Broadcast News) were more worthy.
Then you have Dangerous Liaisons.
This was more of a sly and devilish role...not to mention far more regal.
But I do want to single out Close's final moments in this film. First, you get her absolutely unhinged breakdown which is quickly followed by her getting booed at the opera house. That leads to perhaps one of the most beloved and iconic endings of a film where Close quietly sits and wipes off her makeup alone. She is angry and truly devastated and ashamed and then we see the tears slowly starting to drop.
It is a shame to live in a world where Glenn Close can't even win a single Oscar.
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Issach de Bankole
CHOCOLAT (1988)
No relation to the bland fluff of a film starring Juliette Binoche, this Chocolat, by the legendary Claire Denis, is far more complex. In fact, you could even argue that this is one example of a film that could've flirted with a "white savior" trope and didn't. Before I delve more into that specifically, let me briefly set up the film for you.
Chocolat is set in French-Occupied Cameroon and focuses on a young girl named (oddly enough) France and her family who were part of the colonialization. One of their "houseboys" is Protee (Issach de Bankole) and young France has a friendship with him but there is an attraction forming between him and France's mother Aimee.
At first glance, you could find this film to be incredibly problematic, but I think a lot of what saves the film is how Denis approaches it. Denis actually LIVED with her family in occupied Cameroon as a child...and a lot of what she saw there in terms of interactions and behaviors inspired her to make the film. That particularly POV is what saves the film because it certainly doesn't try to sugarcoat the process...and through it all, you have de Bankole's Protee acting as the true heart and soul of the film. That is what I find so impressive; Denis gives the POV to the colonizers, but the agency she gives Protee makes it feel far more worthwhile than, say, The Blind Side.
Protee doesn't talk much, but this is easily one of the expressive and emotional performances I have seen from a film. For playing what could simply be considered a "slave" role, de Bankole feels so alive and vibrant. He seems to be able to put on a show for others but then he turns away from them to face the camera only to break down into tears...such as when Aimee and France laugh at the field that the servants must shower in, even though just moments before, Protee had to fill up a tank to allow Aimee a chance to take a shower in complete privacy.
Claire Denis walked a fine line with this one and managed to succeed, but the real masterstroke is how she handled the character of Protee and how brilliantly Issach de Bankole portrayed him.
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Shelley Duvall
THE SHINING (1980)
The journey of this performance has been a fascinating one...and one that most people tend to know about. When
The Shining was first released, it was considered the weakest film that Kubrick had made since his earliest efforts from the 50s.
It culminated in Kubrick getting nominated for Worst Director and Duvall getting nominated for Worst Actress at the 1st ever Razzie Awards. Even as a kid, I heard many people reference Duvall as being horrible in this movie and once I did see the film, I actually felt that people were wrong.
I will admit that maybe I found some of her moments to be a bit over-the-top or that her energy (particularly her anxious energy at the beginning of the film) did come off as annoying.
It is common knowledge that Kubrick basically put Duvall through an emotional ringer and would have her do take after take after take after take leaving her exasperated and truly distraught...and the results on the screen are basically where Kubrick drove her to.
I now view this performance as being a very brave and bold work and one that I am thrilled is receiving a resurgence in acclaim.
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Whoopi Goldberg
THE COLOR PURPLE (1985)
The career trajectory of Whoopi Goldberg is one she didn't necessarily expect for herself. She had considered herself a character actress and that was always her main goal: playing anything she wanted.
By happenstance, she managed to cross paths with the like Mike Nichols who wanted to take her small off-Broadway one-woman show to Broadway...and she was quickly established as a legit comedic character actress.
Almost at the exact moment, she was poached by writer Alice Walker and director Steven Spielberg to portray the pivotal role of Celie in the film adaptation of The Color Purple.
Now - I am of the belief that I don't think Spielberg was the right choice to adapt that novel into a film...but regardless of that, I do greatly admire the acting in it.
Nowadays, most people just seem to think of Whoopi as the moderator on The View but the woman can act...and she gave us one of the best debuts in cinema history with this performance.
She ended up losing the Oscar to the previous 7-time loser Geraldine Page for The Trip to Bountiful, which often gets selected as a truly weak choice...but honestly, it does a disservice to both actresses in this case as both of them were fantastic.
When I think about Goldberg, my mind does admittedly go to other films like Sister Act or Ghost, but there is no denying how affective she is in this film and how much we commit to Celie's journey. She is particularly effective in her big scene with Margaret Avery's Shug where she smiles at Shug's insistence...or at the end when she finally stands up to Danny Glover with a knife to his throat.
Despite my issues with the film, I think Goldberg (and the ensemble) more than make the film worth a watch.
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Richard E. Grant
WITHNAIL & I (1987)
Back in 2019, I was absolutely thrilled when Richard E. Grant was gaining traction for his truly exquisite work in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
It was one of those Oscar nominations that was certainly deserved but also a huge vindication after decades of working as a dependable character actor. Of course, he lost to Mahershala Ali for a category fraud performance in the mawkish mess that was Green Book.
The 1980s saw a bit of a solid resurgence for British cinema as it seemed to die down after its explosion in the 1960s. Withnail & I is certainly a strong highlight of the decade, but a lot of that power belongs to Richard E. Grant as Withnail.
Talk about a delicious performance. He is a flamboyant drunk who acts with such bravado and narcissism, but deep down, he is an absolute spineless coward. He is someone trapped in an era that he both doesn't want to leave and wishes someone could pull him away from and nothing seems to ever really happen from there.
Next to Grant the Teetotaler (aka "I", Paul McGann), Withnail is a reject who seems to want to drink away his sorrows after essentially being ignored by his wealthy family. There is a bizarre charm to him, but it is yet another example of watching an actor find so many layers within a complex character...including the fact that he is willing to leave Grant in a compromised position with his sexual predator Uncle Monty (played by the late Richard Griffiths).
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Dennis Hopper
BLUE VELVET (1986)
When you have an actor who had been on the down and out for many years, it can be truly glorious when they get to have a major comeback.
1986 was a banner year for Dennis Hopper, who had a stint in rehab and was eager to restart an acting career. While he did manage to net an Oscar nomination for Hoosiers along with receiving good notices for his work in River's Edge, there is no denying the legend of this comeback truly stemmed from his work as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet.
Hopper had said in interviews that he didn't care at the time about how little he was paid for Blue Velvet because he had faith in David Lynch who had already built up a name on movies like Eraserhead and his Oscar nominated work for The Elephant Man.
And keep in mind, Lynch was given many offers to direct mainstream films after that nomination...including to even direct Return of the Jedi and...I am not kidding...Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Needless to say, him taking on Dune wasn't the best decision but it was the failure of Dune that led to him being able to bring Blue Velvet to light.
As Frank Booth, Hopper is not exactly the deepest character. He is a frothing at the mouth villain who yells and abuses nearly every around him, particularly Isabella Rossellini and Kyle MacLachlan. His character falls madly in love with Rossellini's nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens and to cope with that, he kidnaps her husband and young son and begins to have a truly...umm...warped sexual relationship with her.
Although...there is one scene which shows Hopper watching Rossellini perform in the club and he watches with a wistful longing. It is actually a quick beautiful moment which shows that there IS something there that might be rather human...but in truth, this is a performance that is simply vile in the best way...and in true Lynchian fashion, his text manages to make Booth not just a terrifying figure but rather humorous at times. Some critics, famously Roger Ebert, DESPISED Lynch's tendency to put horrific actions onscreen and have them be sprinkled with dark humor about.
If you were to take what might be the perfect example of this practice, look no further than Hopper as Booth.
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Holly Hunter
BROADCAST NEWS (1987)
James L. Brooks helped nurture the careers of such actresses as Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper, Cloris Leachman, Tracey Ullman, and would eventually lead Shirley MacLaine to her overdue Oscar win for
Terms of Endearment along with another Oscar win for Helen Hunt in
As Good as it Gets.
Having said all that, I think his creation of Jane Craig, as played by Holly Hunter, might be his best...and it might still be HER best.
After primarily working as a theatre actress, Hunter got a HUGE breakthrough with Broadcast News and managed to be quite the critical darling of 1987 even though most of the mainstream acknowledged Cher in Moonstruck and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction.
I already talked about Close and Cher above, so I won't dwell on that here.
Needless to say, Jane Craig is a true marvel of a character. She is a neurotic mess at times, but she is also a very smart and capable news producer.
From the first moment we see her sitting on a bed and abruptly breaking into a sobbing fit to start her day, we realize this is a woman with intense feelings...but she is not a joke. Brooks writes her with great interest and dignity, and Hunter has the talent to make her truly captivating and not some kind of annoying victim.
I still stand by the claim that Broadcast News is the finest effort Brooks ever gave us (unless you want to count The Simpsons but we know that was more directly nurtured by Sam Simon in its earliest days), and that Holly Hunter's Jane Craig is one of the most fascinating characters I have ever seen in a movie, male or female.
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Jeremy Irons
DEAD RINGERS (1988)
In 1991, Jeremy Irons won a richly deserved Best Actor Oscar for Reversal of Fortune, where he played suspected attempted murderer Klaus von Bulow.
I would also like to think that the award was divine justice for having gained no real traction for the finest work of his career, which occurred just a couple of years prior in Dead Ringers.
I am of the belief that Dead Ringers is David Cronenberg's best film, and while a lot of that is due to the compelling plot, I think a big part of that is due to the dual work of Irons.
Irons plays twin brothers Beverly and Elliott Mantle, who happen to share a gynecology practice in Toronto. Elliott is more of a womanizer and uses his status to try to seduce his female patients. However, when he tires of them, he sends to the more reserved Beverly...and since they are twins, the patients are none the wiser.
Things take a turn when actress Claire Niveau (Genevieve Bujold) visits the clinic and the discovery is made that she is unable to conceive a child. In this process, Elliott seduces Claire but actually wants to give her to Beverly for him to sleep with. Soon after, Beverly becomes attached to Claire and ends up getting addicted to prescription drugs much like she is...which he is able to get by means of writing prescriptions out to her and himself.
Dead Ringers is a film that manages to be a tragic romance and a creepy psychological thriller...and I do feel without the kind of dual work provided by Irons, the film would've failed.
It bears repeating that I do think this is the finest work of his career.
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Nastassja Kinski
PARIS, TEXAS (1984)
Acting is fascinating. Sometimes, people watch a performance and find brilliance while others may watch it and think that the actor did nothing of note to warrant any kind of significant praise.
Then there are performances where the actor just has this energy about them that is almost trance-like...where they aren't exactly emoting at any kind of bombastic level, but their presence just compels you so strongly that you can't help but love what they are bringing to the table.
When I first saw Paris, Texas, I had only seen Kinski in one other film, which was Roman Polanski's Tess, a film that hasn't really remained in the pop culture lexicon and isn't as discussed as much as his other efforts (or his crimes) despite the fact it did get multiple Oscar nominations (which is proof how little those often matter).
Kinski's presence in the film is relatively minimal, but she somehow becomes one of the best things about it...which is saying something considering how much I love it.
Paris, Texas is one of my favorite films of the 1980s and also of all time. I absolutely love everything about it and think it is a masterful effort from Wim Wenders and quite possibly the crown jewel on the late Sam Shepard's resume.
I am about to give you the most basic setup to this film, but I still highly recommend you seek this one out.
The beginning of Paris, Texas revolves around Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) walking aimlessly in a desert with no recollection of who he is...and it turns out, he walked out on his wife Jane and young son.
Kinski plays Jane, and once Travis begins to regain his memory, he manages to track down Jane and discovers she works at a Peep Show Club. A bit stunned and disheartened, he decides to go see her in one of the rooms. Set up with a one-way mirror, Travis sees Jane enter the room wearing a pink sweater (which is from the image you see above).
Jane has no clue this is Travis on the other side of the mirror, speaking over an intercom...but she has a very genteel quality. She tries to give him what she thinks he wants by asking "Do you mind if I take off my sweater?" but when he objects to that...she seems so unsure of what is going on and how to help him.
These mirror scenes, between Stanton (who is honestly worthy of this list too) and Kinski, are so compelling that the first time I saw the film, I had goosebumps the whole time. Also, how Kinski uses her voice makes it seem like she came straight from a Kristin Linklater class...and would be rife for an ASMR video.
Kinski's Jane is a creation that is practically dreamlike. Even her aesthetic is iconic and sublime.
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Aleksei Kravchenko
COME & SEE (1985)
I don't think I can truly convey what an achievement this performance is.
It is brutal...it is relentless...and the pain that is inflicted upon him both mentally and physically is truly difficult to watch...as it should be considering this is a movie set during the Holocaust.
The true intensity of Kravchenko in this is nearly unparalleled...especially when you take into account that he was 15 when it was made.
The Belurusian film Come & See is one I had heard about years ago when I began studying and looking into film history...but it was pretty much impossible to find. In 2001, Kino Lorber released the film on DVD and my local public library managed to acquire it for its collection.
I have said it before but my local library growing curated an insanely extensive catalog of films and it was there that I managed to rent films that were too artsy/obscure/foreign as many of them were hard to get at local video stores such as Video World, Blockbuster, or Video Warehouse.
I finally rented Come & See in 2002. I was 14 years old...and I honestly didn't know what I was getting into. I honestly think I managed to block a lot of it out.
Even though I knew it would be tough, I wanted to revisit the film as an adult and did so during the 2020 quarantine. The feelings of discomfort and disgust washed over me, but there is no denying why this film has managed to gain a strong following in the film community these days. As of this writing in 2023, it is the #2 ranked film on Letterboxd's Top 250 with a 4.6 out of 5 rating. To put that into perspective, it is only one of 8 films to score that high.
Elem Klimov's work on this film is a marvel that should be studied in every single film class, but I think what he was able to get out of Aleksei Kravchenko also deserves a standing ovation to last for decades.
The sheer terror and devastation conveyed by him is, I think, unmatched by anyone in any film I have seen. I would even go as far to say that even talking about him and the film in such a way feels cheap. I would also be prepared to make the claim that he gives one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema...like maybe top 5 level.
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Carmen Maura
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (1988)
There is a fine line in being able to make the concept of chaos work on the screen.
The works of Pedro Alomodovar are masterclasses in the form, because he is somehow able to ground such insane stories in a very realistic but heightened world.
I think a lot of what makes Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown work is Carmen Maura...and that isn't to take away from Almodovar or anyone else. If anything, there was a clear reason why Almodovar loved working with Maura.
This is a movie of pure insanity...and through it all, there is Carmen Maura as Pepa.
Pepa is distraught because her lover left her and now all she wants to do is partake of her sleeping pill-laced gazpacho and end it all.
BUT...life won't let that happen. She keeps getting interrupted by various eccentric people in her life, but it leads her to try to seek answers as to why he left.
There is a strong resolve to Maura as Pepa...and it is that resolve that helps aid the film remaining grounded despite how absolutely bonkers this film and its characters are around her.
She manages to keep sort of keep all of her emotions at a reserve, but we can see every little bit of each one creeping in. There is a moment where she accidentally sets her bed ablaze...and when you watch it, you see her staring at this flame stunned...but it is more than that. You can see the delicate and intricate inner monologue from Maura; how she is coming to terms with her past and present and the uncertain feature. She is definitely shocked and upset, but there is almost a strange vindication behind it. Later on, she masterfully manages to do the truly difficult act of crying and laughing all at once but one not being born from the other.
In the flashy world of pinks and reds provided by Almodovar, Maura was...even if it may sound cheesy...a true rainbow.
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Mary Tyler Moore
ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)
Perhaps it is all in hindsight, but even as a young kid who saw reruns of her titular show on Nick at Nite, I did sense a certain cool nature to Mary Tyler Moore. There was no doubt that she had talent and could command the screen...and it was especially apparent to me when I saw her as Beth in Ordinary People.
I had a truly intense reaction to Moore in this film...much like to the whole film in general. I had such a passion for it that when I was in high school, I fought hard for our theatre teacher to mount a production as there was a stage version that had been licensed. As she was about to retire, she didn't really have much say on the future school year when I discovered the play version's existence but she said that while I maybe wouldn't get to act in it, maybe I should try to direct a scene from it for the upcoming Directing class I was going to be in my junior year.
When I pitched the show to fellow classmates who were going to audition, I was often very volatile in how I described the character of Beth because I did have an uncertainty at first of which scene I would direct. Looking back, I do feel like I missed the certain layers that Moore gave Beth...and with watching interviews she gave on the topic, it is clear that Moore didn't see her as a villain.
Don't get me wrong, I don't condone the cold nature which Moore casts upon her family...but it is a complex situation. This is a woman who lost her eldest son in a tragic accident (seemingly the son she bonded with most) and then soon after had to deal with the attempted suicide of her youngest son who was with his eldest brother at the time of his drowning (during a storm on Lake Michigan).
Moore's Beth has that sort of Stepford Wife quality where she cannot stand anything snapping from breaking the perfect façade, and that is something that her son Conrad (Timothy Hutton) keeps doing and she can't give him the love and support he needs.
There is a scene in which she and Donald Sutherland are having lunch, and she begins to berate him for how he has been handling the emotional outbursts of Conrad...but when the waitress approaches, she quickly dissolves into a happier façade that we know is fake and then the moment the waitress walks away, Moore continues her line as if she simply couldn't contain holding it in. She is simply on a very refined but vicious war path.
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Eddie Murphy
COMING TO AMERICA (1988)
This might end up being one of a couple of choices on this list that will raise a few eyebrows. When it comes to performances that are considered among the best ever, I still feel like some tend to scoff at certain kinds of genres such as horror and comedy.
While horror seems to be having a bit of a critical appraisal, I feel like some comedies aren't spoken of in the same kind of way. I also think the majority of Eddie Murphy's career in the last 30 years has turned a lot of people off...but in the 1980s, he was certainly on the Mount Rushmore of Comedy.
Halfway through his legendary 4-year stint on SNL, Murphy broke onto the film scene with 48 Hours, which made for a truly wonderful debut...he quickly followed those up with Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop. Those two films further cemented him as a charismatic comic genius.
And yet, I always come back to Coming to America.
One of the more familiar Eddie Murphy film tropes of the last 20-30 years has been him playing multiple characters within his films...which has led to some truly heinous results (Norbit).
This gimmick of sorts began in Coming to America, which he and co-star Arsenio Hall would take on multiple roles often aided with tons of prosthetics.
In Murphy's case, he plays the lead character Prince Akheem along with three others:
- the lead singer of a band named Sexual Chocolate who seems to have only one true fan.
-the owner of the barbershop that Akheem visits
-the Jewish man who seems to hang out in the barbershop
When it comes to comedies, I often find myself thinking about and quoting Coming to America...and that does have a lot to do with Eddie Murphy.
There are so many things I could reference, but let's go back to the one scene character of Randy Watson. The people in attendance are obviously not enthused with Randy as a performer but he seems completely oblivious to it; giving off the vibe of a very slimy and poor man's Little Richard.
When he breaks out into a truly laughable rendition of "The Greatest Love of All", you can't help but just smile at the lunacy...or the fact that his band is called "Sexual Chocolate".
OR -
When Akheem and Semmi (Hall) are awake for their first morning living in their squalor of a Queens apartment and Akheem yells out "Good morning my neighbors!" only to be told "Hey! Fuck you!" back in true New Yorker fashion.
But the naive and sweet Akheem is unaware of this diss and responds back with great joyful gusto: "Yes! YES! FUCK YOU TOO!!"
Forgive me, but yeah...I love this movie and Murphy in it.
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Fernando Ramos da Silva
PIXOTE (1980)
Much like Kiarostami discovered Babak Ahmadpour for
Where is the Friend's House, the Brazilian filmmaker Hector Babenco found Fernando Ramos da Silva and felt he was exactly who needed for his film. Although, while Ahmadpour played more of an innocent figure, da Silva was living a life that was, quite sadly, very similar to that of the character in the film
Pixote (which translates to "small child").
In real life, his mother only earned a pension that would translate to $10 a month and the family would sell lottery tickets to try to net an additional income. He did find solace in theatre programs at his school where he began acting in plays at the age of 8. This was where Babenco selected him out of 1300 applicants...and while you could say this is where the happy ending for da Silva and his family began, I am sorry to say that isn't the case.
Pixote is about a 10-year-old boy who is taken in at a local detention center and faces cruelty and abuse from the officers. While there, he witnesses others getting abused and even murdered by the officers, who then choose to frame the murders on 17-year-old Lilica, a trans female who has no means to go about a transition relying only wearing female clothing...which causes her to get misgendered and ruthlessly mocked. The young boy (whom we only know as "pixote") helps Lilica and three boys escape from the detention facility, but their freedom only ends them back into a life of crime in order to survive.
Much like Ahmadpour, but on a darker level, there is a realness to da Silva that is completely disarming. He is 10 years old (13 when filming), but his life seems to have made him wiser beyond his years, especially in how he acts and appears.
The sad truth is that da Silva was murdered by Brazilian police in 1987 at the age of 19 as the claimed he was resisting arrest, even though eyewitnesses said that it didn't seem as though he was...nor was he armed.
Pixote is a bleak and truly horrifying film, but one of great importance. It showcases the horrors of police corruption and police brutality, but how much that type of intense immersion can lead to attacks on those who are poor and just need some help.
I actually didn't know about da Silva's murder until after I had first seen the film about 20 years ago...and now, I find myself struggling with the idea of revisiting it. I thought about it a lot after the many senseless murders caused by the police in the last...umm...many decades...but particularly with the surge of protests following George Floyd in 2020. I do highly recommend the film, but it is no going to be an easy watch. I also feel like da Silva had amazing potential and it is a shame that his life was cut so short.
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Paul Reubens
PEE WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE (1985)
*Full disclosure - I began devising this post on July 30th, 2023...but then put it off for a while. Paul Reubens passed away the next day, and I had hoped to try to get this post up quickly to give him due credit for some underrated comedic work. I decided I want to watch a couple of films for a refresher and then time was my own worst enemy. Better late than never...*
The simple truth is that I find Paul Reubens to be a better actor than some may give him credit for.
There was a period from my childhood where the idea of Pee Wee Herman was engrained in my head that I didn't really know the extent of who Paul Reubens was as a person or actor.
I do remember finally seeing him in his small role in Matilda and also, more memorably, the truly bizarre poacher/exterminator in Dunston Checks In which were both very far removed from Pee Wee. Then you had his performance in the movie Blow which didn't exactly lead to other prospects.
When you look at what Paul Reubens achieved with Pee Wee, it was the true definition of commitment to a character.
This is a world where a manchild like Pee Wee can exist without any real questioning...and it is therefore a lot of fun to watch as the people surrounding him have to deal with Pee Wee manically trying to find out who stole his bike.
This could be trying to attack Francis, another manchild, while taking a bath in his swimming pool sized bathtub...or holding a meeting lasting for over 3 hours in his hot basement showcasing various pieces of evidence as to the whereabouts of his bike.
For example, exhibit D is a pen.
"I bought this pen one hour before my bike was stolen. Why? What's the significance? I DON'T KNOW!" only for the scene to dissolve to hours later with him, no shortage of bravado yelling "Exhibit Q, a scale model of the ENTIRE MALL!!"
I mentioned how I knew of Pee Wee as a child, but I should reiterate that I absolutely adored this character...which also included the iconic Saturday morning kids show Pee Wee's Playhouse and the less successful film Big Top Pee Wee. His work brought me so much joy and I still feel like his content holds up tremendously well. May he rest in peace.
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Sigourney Weaver
ALIENS (1986)
Once in a while, the Academy will nominate a performance that makes you applaud them for branching away from their comfort zone. As is expected, those performances don't often win and that is the case with Sigourney Weaver in
Aliens.
If you really think about it, this is a Sci-Fi/Action/Horror performance in a film sequel...how often does THAT happen?
I feel like I can't say much about Weaver's impact as Ellen Ripley that hasn't already been said. Sure, when the character been first devised for the predecessor Alien, it was said that Ripley (like all the characters) was written gender neutral and that the casting would be based off of the auditions.
The director for that film, Ridley Scott, knew that Weaver had something special...and she certainly has a unique quality that felt unlike many of her peers of the era such as Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, or Jessica Lange.
Ripley is such a well-rounded and emotional character that just so happens to be an action hero. In a way, it is sort of similar to that of how effective Bruce Willis was as John McClane in Die Hard...a hero who, at first glance, doesn't seem to be your typical action star and yet...they work perfectly.
Sigourney Weaver is an underrated actress, and she has deserved far more than she has gotten out of her career, which seemed to mostly stall after such a strong streak in the 80s. I find that to be an absolute shame, and I do hope that someone will allow her to have a comeback she so richly deserves.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
I will admit that I actually struggled with this list. I had maybe about 10 performances that I felt strongly about, and then I put in about 2-3 more and then kept swapping out the remaining seven until I decided to go with the list you see above.
As you can see, some of the options may be a little more obscure while some manage to bleed more into mainstream type fare.
To be honest, that doesn't seem as much of a surprise to me now that I really think about it. The 1980s were a decade for film that managed to take a dip in quality after a rather fruitful 1970s output that seemed to be rapturous on a worldwide scale.
I think that over the years, I have managed to find little diamonds amongst the films of the 80s, but what REALLY surprises me is how some of these performances aren't just among the best of the decade, but among the best of all time.
I would easily put Isabelle Adjani and Aleksei Kravchenko on a list of the top 10-20 greatest performances ever captured on film.
I suppose you didn't expect a list to include the likes of them along with Paul Reubens and Eddie Murphy so there you go! I am full of surprises and not just a snob in the end... ;-)
Thank you for checking out this installment and do intend to continue this series. However, considering it took me nearly 6 months to get his post up and running, I won't make any promises on when it'll be up.
I have begun drafts on the 2000s and 2010s, but I will also try to tackle the 1970s eventually.
If this still proves to get the readership over time, I may consider doing the 50s and 60s as well.
At any rate, let's hope it won't take me seventeen years for the next volume!
