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Audiences slept on all these career-best performances.
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00:00There are so many movies being released on a weekly basis these days that it's absolutely
00:05impossible to keep track of everything, such that great movies and great performances can
00:10easily end up falling through the cracks.
00:13The sheer wealth of options available on streaming platforms makes it incredibly easy for an
00:17actor's best work to be slept on, whereby only the most committed fans have a hope in
00:22hell of discovering it.
00:24So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture and here are 10 more actors who
00:29gave their best performances in movies nobody saw.
00:33Number 10.
00:34Vince Vaughn in Brawl in Cell Block 99.
00:37Vince Vaughn probably isn't who most people picture when they think of a great actor, but
00:41he's given a bevy of hilarious comedic performances in the likes of Swingers, Old School, Dodgeball
00:47and Wedding Crashers, and in the dramatic stakes has acquitted himself well in Hacksaw Ridge
00:52and True Detective's second season.
00:54But far and away, Vaughn's best work to date is in S. Craig Zahler's brutal 2017
01:00prison thriller, Brawl in Cell Block 99.
01:04As imprisoned drug runner Bradley Thomas, Vaughn is like you've never seen him before, a bald-headed,
01:09stone-faced pillar of granite who must fight to save his wife and unborn child on the outside
01:15before it's too late.
01:17Vaughn isn't an actor who cuts a naturally intimidating figure, yet director Zahler clearly saw something
01:23in him that nobody else did, because his mere physical presence throughout this ferocious
01:27graphically violent film is deeply imposing.
01:30Vaughn underplays the part perfectly, giving a richly internalised performance as a man stewing
01:36in his own rage while desperately trying to free his family from a helpless situation.
01:41Yet, despite Vaughn receiving rave reviews for his performance, Brawl grossed just $79,208
01:49on limited release at the box office before more or less fading into the abyss of streaming.
01:54Number 9. Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin
01:58Scarlett Johansson has amassed an impressive body of work over the last two or so decades,
02:03but her most impressive and truly transformative performance was in a much smaller niche project,
02:08which couldn't have seemed much more off-putting to both mainstream audiences and Oscar voters.
02:14Jonathan Glazer's sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin stars Johansson as an unnamed man-devouring
02:19alien creature inexplicably traipsing around Scotland while donning the guise of a beautiful
02:24human woman. Despite being produced for a svelte $13.3 million and the press constantly hyping up
02:32Johansson's nudity in the film, Under the Skin failed to make much of a dent with audiences,
02:36grossing just $7.3 million globally.
02:40Number 8. Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
02:43Michael Shannon is undeniably one of the greatest actors working to date, yet Shannon's finest work
02:48to date was in a film that many expected him to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination for,
02:53Jeff Nichols' dizzying psychological thriller Take Shelter.
02:57Shannon stars as Curtis LaForge, a man who begins experiencing apocalyptic visions and must decide
03:03whether to protect his family from the apparently incoming destruction or from himself.
03:08It's always deeply satisfying to see a card-carrying, supporting actor get their own hefty leading
03:13role, and Shannon grabs the part with both hands, delivering an astonishing performance that's
03:18alternately sympathetic and terrifying. There's a deep vein of aching humanity running through
03:24Shannon's work here, and that his performance somehow didn't receive Oscar recognition over
03:28some of the lesser turns in contention that year remains an utter travesty.
03:33Number 7. Michael Fassbender in Hunger
03:37Though his acting career hasn't been up to much the last five years, Michael Fassbender is
03:41nevertheless one of the finest performers of his generation, as evidenced by his strong work in
03:47Fish Tank, Inglourious Bastards, Shame, The X-Men and Alien films, yet Fassbender's best work to
03:53date occurred before any of these films were released, in Steve McQueen's expertly crafted 2008 historical
03:59drama Hunger. In the film, Fassbender plays IRA member Bobby Sands, who leads a hunger strike in
04:05prison which ultimately claims his life. In what would become the first of three collaborations
04:10between Fassbender and McQueen so far, Fassbender gives an astonishing physical and emotional
04:16performance, losing a concerning amount of weight while getting audiences firmly into Sands' mindset.
04:22Aided by wonderfully stripped back direction from McQueen, this is a singular examination of a devastating
04:28act of political defiance, and one surely best remembered for the jaw-dropping 17-minute single
04:33take in which a priest attempts to talk Sands out of his hunger strike. Though Hunger received rave
04:39reviews and snagged Fassbender the British Independent Film Award for Best Actor, it barely cracked $3 million
04:45worldwide, and so any Oscar buzz for Fassbender consequently went up in smoke.
04:51Number 6. Jennifer Aniston in Cake
04:54Jennifer Aniston will, of course, forever be remembered for playing Rachel Green on Friends,
04:58but she's also given many acclaimed performances on the big screen, whether in comedies like Office
05:04Space, Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, or dramas such as The Good Girl, Friends with Money,
05:09and Dumplin'. Yet Aniston's finest effort to date flew totally under the radar back in 2014,
05:15when she starred in Cake, playing Claire Bennett, a woman addicted to both alcohol and pain meds,
05:20following a car accident which claimed the life of her son. Though general critical response to
05:25the film was mixed, Aniston's performance received rave reviews from many outlets and even Best Actress
05:31nominations from both the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild. For many, it was so hugely refreshing to
05:37see Aniston commit this hard to such an unvarnished, unflattering role of a woman hobbled by guilt,
05:43anger and the throes of addiction. It's a performance like nothing Aniston has ever done prior or since,
05:49yet despite a ton of Oscar buzz for her work, which ultimately didn't pan out,
05:54Cake bombed at the box office, grossing less than $3 million worldwide against a $10 million budget.
06:00Number 5. Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass
06:04Poor Hayden Christensen. Appearing in the latter two Star Wars prequels might be both the best and
06:10worst thing that's ever happened to him, convincing an entire generation of fans that, to be blunt,
06:15he can't act. Though Christensen doesn't exactly have a bevy of quality roles to his name, there is
06:21one which confirms him to be a shockingly underappreciated performer when cast in the right
06:26role. In between the two Star Wars prequels, Christensen starred in Shattered Glass,
06:31a low-budget drama where he played disgraced journalist Stephen Glass,
06:34who while writing for The New Republic, falsified the majority of his news stories.
06:39Christensen's performance as the elusive, cagey journalist whose life and career slowly unravel
06:45is nothing short of terrific, and yet is largely unknown among those who freely dismiss him as a
06:51terrible actor. Number 4. Aubrey Plaza in Black Bear
06:56While undeniably being best known for her brilliant work as April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation,
07:01Aubrey Plaza has rather quietly built up an enviable filmography of quality roles in dramedies in more
07:07recent years. Plaza received vocal rave reviews for her sublime performance in the 2020 blackly comedic
07:13dramatic thriller Black Bear, a difficult to categorise but utterly mesmeric film built almost
07:19entirely around Plaza's incredible work. This is certainly a movie best watched without knowing
07:24the finer particulars, but Plaza stars as a filmmaker suffering from creative block who heads to a quiet,
07:30rural retreat in the hope of entangling her mind, only to do quite the opposite.
07:35It's tricky central conceit won't work for everyone, but even if Black Bear isn't fully for you,
07:41Plaza's sheer magnetism in the lead role, launching between poles of depression,
07:45sedonic humour and outright terror, is a treat that needs to be seen.
07:50Number 3. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Maggie
07:53Arnold Schwarzenegger is as larger than life as actors get, and though it's basically impossible to
07:58imagine anyone else playing the part of the Terminator, few would go so far as to call him a genuinely
08:03great actor. We've seen Arnie experiment around a little more in recent years as he's gotten up
08:09there in age and his action chops have unavoidably waned, leading to him starring in a most unexpected
08:15project in 2015. An Arnie-led zombie film doesn't sound like the most unnatural of moves for Schwarzenegger,
08:21but Maggie is no normal undead horror romp. This is more a post-apocalyptic drama than anything,
08:27with Arnie portraying Wade, a father who must come to terms with his daughter's transformation into a
08:33zombie. This is more than anything else, Arnie like you've never seen him before, a vulnerable,
08:38hurting man pulled between knowing what he needs to do and the love for his daughter.
08:43It's as subtle a performance as Arnie has ever given, and while the film itself isn't doing too
08:48much new for the genre, seeing the actor in this more dialed-down mode, lending shocking dramatic
08:53nuance to Wade is a sure sight to behold. It's a shame that Maggie didn't do much business either
08:59theatrically or on VOD though, as we've seen few similar attempts from Schwarzenegger in the years
09:04since. 2. Vin Diesel in Find Me Guilty
09:09Much like Arnold, Vin Diesel isn't an actor many would look to when casting a subtle or complex
09:14character. And though Diesel's filmography is almost entirely comprised of brutish action heroes,
09:20he quietly proved himself capable of much more in 2006's courtroom dramedy Find Me Guilty.
09:27Written and directed by the late legendary Sidney Lumet, the film is a biopic of New Jersey mobster
09:33Jackie DeNorcio, who while on trial for racketeering charges decides to defend himself and against
09:39Titanic odds successfully beats the rap. The idea of Carson Diesel in the role of a man who
09:44charmed the pants off a jury doesn't seem to fit, and yet he gives a genuinely believable
09:49performance as the infectiously likeable mobster without transforming him into a total caricature.
09:55Diesel certainly had everything working in his favour with Lumet in the director's chair and
10:00Peter Dinklage playing opposite him as the lead defence lawyer. But credit where it's due, Diesel
10:05completely defied expectations enough to make you wonder why he hasn't done more of this since.
10:11The answer may ultimately lie in the fact that Find Me Guilty was a colossal box office bomb,
10:15grossing just $2.6 million against a $13 million budget.
10:21Number 1. Elizabeth Moss in Shirley.
10:24Elizabeth Moss has near countless brilliant performances to her name, but the best of the lot?
10:29Moss' performance as eccentric novelist Shirley Jackson in Josephine Decker's hypnotic 2020 biopic
10:36Shirley. Focus on Jackson while she was writing her 1951 novel Hangs a Man. This may only be a mere
10:43snapshot of her life, but Moss provides such a tenacious window into the woman as both mentally
10:48ill and creative genius that we come to feel like we truly know her essence by film's end.
10:54More than any other film Moss has made, this gives her the freedom to swing and swing hard. Untethered by the
11:00expected bounds of a formal biopic, director Decker taking a step back and opting for a more surreal,
11:05dreamlike filmmaking style. At least unlike Diesel, Moss seems quite content working on these smaller,
11:11less restrictive indie projects, even if it will take some serious doing to top her work in this
11:16film. And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know
11:21in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that
11:24notification bell. Don't forget to head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found
11:28across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
11:33I hope you have a magical day and I'll see you real soon!
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