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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
00:23hell of discovering it.
00:25So 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 Vince Vaughn probably isn't who most people picture
00:40when they think of a great actor, but he's given a bevy of hilarious comedic performances
00:44in the likes of Swingers, Old School, Dodgeball and Wedding Crashers, and in the dramatic stakes
00:50has acquitted himself well in Hacksaw Ridge and True Detective's second season.
00:54But far and away, Vaughn's best work to date is in S. Craig Zahler's brutal 2017 prison
01:01thriller, Brawl in Cell Block 99.
01:04As imprisoned drug runner Bradley Thomas, Vaughn is like you've never seen him before, a bald-headed,
01:10stone-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
01:22saw something in him that nobody else did, because his mere physical presence throughout
01:26this ferocious, graphically violent film is deeply imposing.
01:31Vaughn underplays the part perfectly, giving a richly internalised performance as a man
01:36stewing in his own rage while desperately trying to free his family from a helpless situation.
01:42Yet despite Vaughn receiving rave reviews for his performance, Brawl grossed just $79,208
01:49limited release at the box office before more or less fading into the abyss of streaming.
01:549.
01:55Scarlett 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,
02:09which 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
02:20alien creature inexplicably traipsing around Scotland while donning the guise of a beautiful
02:24human woman.
02:26Despite being produced for a svelte $13.3 million and the press constantly hyping up Johansson's
02:32nudity in the film, Under the Skin failed to make much of a dent with audiences, grossing
02:37just $7.3 million globally.
02:408.
02:41Michael Shannon in Take Shelter
02:43Michael Shannon is undeniably one of the greatest actors working to date, yet Shannon's finest
02:48work to date was in a film that many expected him to receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination
02:52for, Jeff Nichols' dizzying psychological thriller Take Shelter.
02:57Shannon stars as Curtis LaForge, a man who begins experiencing apocalyptic visions and must
03:03decide whether 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
03:18that's alternately sympathetic and terrifying.
03:21There's a deep vein of aching humanity running through Shannon's work here, and that his performance
03:26somehow didn't receive Oscar recognition over some of the lesser turns in contention that
03:31year remains an utter travesty.
03:337.
03:34Michael Fassbender in Hunger
03:36Though his acting career hasn't been up to much the last five years, Michael Fassbender
03:41is nevertheless one of the finest performers of his generation, as evidenced by his strong
03:46work in Fish Tank, Inglourious Bastards, Shame, The X-Men and Alien films, yet Fassbender's
03:52best work to date occurred before any of these films were released, in Steve McQueen's expertly
03:57crafted 2008 historical drama Hunger.
04:00In the film, Fassbender plays IRA member Bobby Sands, who leads a hunger strike in prison
04:06which ultimately claims his life.
04:08In what would become the first of three collaborations between Fassbender and McQueen so far, Fassbender
04:13gives an astonishing physical and emotional performance, losing a concerning amount of weight
04:18while getting audiences firmly into Sands' mindset.
04:22Aided by wonderfully stripped back direction from McQueen, this is a singular examination
04:27of a devastating act of political defiance, and one surely best remembered for the jaw-dropping
04:3217-minute single take in which a priest attempts to talk Sands out of his hunger strike.
04:38Though Hunger received rave reviews and snagged Fassbender the British Independent Film Award
04:42for Best Actor, it barely cracked $3 million worldwide, and so any Oscar buzz for Fassbender consequently
04:49went up in smoke.
04:516.
04:52Jennifer Aniston in Cake
04:54Jennifer Aniston will, of course, forever be remembered for playing Rachel Green on
04:58Friends, but she's also given many acclaimed performances on the big screen, whether in
05:03comedies like Office Space, Horrible Bosses and We're the Millers, or dramas such as The
05:08Good Girl, Friends with Money and Dumplin'.
05:10Yet Aniston's finest effort to date flew totally under the radar back in 2014, when she starred
05:16in Cake playing Claire Bennett, a woman addicted to both alcohol and pain meds following a car
05:21accident which claimed the life of her son.
05:23Though general critical response to the film was mixed, Aniston's performance received rave
05:28reviews from many outlets and even Best Actress nominations from both the Golden Globes and
05:33Screen Actors Guild. For many it was so hugely refreshing to see Aniston commit this
05:38hard to such an unvarnished, unflattering role of a woman hobbled by guilt, anger and the
05:44throes of addiction. It's a performance like nothing Aniston has ever done prior or since.
05:50Yet despite a ton of Oscar buzz for her work, which ultimately didn't pan out, Cake bombed
05:55at the box office, grossing less than $3 million worldwide against a $10 million budget.
06:01Number 5. Hayden Christensen in Shattered Glass
06:05Poor Hayden Christensen. Appearing in the latter two Star Wars prequels might be both the best
06:10and worst thing that's ever happened to him, convincing an entire generation of fans that,
06:14to be blunt, he can't act. Though Christensen doesn't exactly have a bevy of quality roles
06:20to his name, there is one which confirms him to be a shockingly underappreciated performer,
06:25when cast in the right role. In between the two Star Wars prequels, Christensen starred
06:29in Shattered Glass, a low budget drama where he played disgraced journalist Stephen Glass,
06:35who while writing for The New Republic, falsified the majority of his news stories. Christensen's
06:40performance as the elusive, cagey journalist whose life and career slowly unravel is nothing
06:46short of terrific, and yet is largely unknown among those who freely dismiss him as a terrible
06:51actor.
06:52Number 4. Aubrey Plaza in Black Bear
06:55While 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
07:07in more recent years. Plaza received vocal rave reviews for her sublime performance in the
07:112020 blackly comedic dramatic thriller Black Bear, a difficult to categorise but utterly mesmeric film built almost entirely around
07:20Plaza's incredible work. This is certainly a movie best watched without knowing the finer particulars, but Plaza
07:26stars as a filmmaker suffering from creative block who heads to a quiet rural retreat in the hope of entangling her mind, only to do quite the opposite. Its tricky central conceit won't work for everyone, but even if Black Bear isn't fully for you,
07:27Plaza's sheer magnetism in the lead role launching between poles of depression, sedonic humour and outright terror is a treat that needs to be seen.
07:36Number 3. Arnold Schwarzenegger in Maggie
07:39Arnold Schwarzenegger is as larger than life as actors get, and though it's basically impossible to imagine anyone else playing the part of the Terminator, few would go so far as to call him a genuinely great actor.
07:49We've seen Arnie experiment around a little more in recent years as he's gotten up there in age, and his action chops have unavoidably waned, leading to him starring in a most unexpected project in 2015.
08:02An Arnie-led zombie film doesn't seem to be seen, but it's not quite a bit unusual for you to be a bit of a bit of an eye on the other side of the story.
08:06We've seen Arnie experiment around a little more in recent years as he's gotten up there in age and his action chops have unavoidably waned, leading to him starring in a most unexpected project in 2015.
08:17An 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,
08:28with Arnie portraying Wade, a father who must come to terms with his daughter's transformation
08:32into a zombie. This is, more than anything else, Arnie like you've never seen him before,
08:38a vulnerable, hurting 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
08:48too much new for the genre, seeing the actor in this more dialed-down mode, lending shocking
08:53dramatic nuance to Wade is a sure sight to behold. It's a shame that Maggie didn't do much business
08:58either theatrically or on VOD though, as we've seen few similar attempts from Schwarzenegger in the
09:04years since. 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 charmed
09:45the pants off a jury doesn't seem to fit and yet he gives a genuinely believable performance as the
09:50infectiously likable mobster without transforming him into a total caricature. Diesel certainly had
09:57everything working in his favour with Lumet in the director's chair and Peter Dinklage playing
10:01opposite him as the lead defence lawyer. But credit where it's due, Diesel completely defied
10:06expectations enough to make you wonder why he hasn't done more of this since. The answer may
10:11ultimately lie in the fact that Find Me Guilty was a colossal box office bomb, grossing just $2.6
10:17million against a $13 million budget. Number 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 ill
10:48and creative genius that we come to feel like we truly know her essence by film's end. More than any
10:55other film Moss has made, this gives her the freedom to swing and swing hard, untethered by the expected
11:00bounds of a formal biopic, director Decker taking a step back and opting for a more surreal, dreamlike
11:06filmmaking style. At least unlike Diesel, Moss seems quite content working on these smaller, less
11:11restrictive indie projects, even if it'll take some serious doing to top her work in this film.
11:17And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples then do let us know in the
11:21comments below and while you're there don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:26Don't forget to head over to Twitter and follow us there and I can be found across various social
11:29medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture, I hope you have a magical day
11:34and I'll see you real soon.
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