best film: It was the Coen brothers 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis (where Oscar Isaac plays the titular Llewyn) over Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive (2011) until Isaac’s big 2021 came along with both The Card Counter (by a rejuvenated Paul Schrader) and Dune (Denis Villeneuve). The Coen Brothers’ film remains one of their very best – and Isaac’s two (2) 2021 films both landed in the top five (5) of the 2020s thus far.
best performance: It is not his debut, but Oscar Isaac is a revelation in Inside Llewyn Davis. This is a young Al Pacino in the making (his work in A Most Violent Year the following year in 2014 solidified that comparison). Still, he could go on to be the best actor of his generation and never top his work here as the young Odysseus-like character trapped in a web (partially of his own making) in 1961 in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Isaac’s delivery of “Hang Me, Oh Hang Me” is poetically sad.
Isaac is magical here – the best performance of 2013 – heavy eyes – “I’m tired”… “I thought I needed a night’s sleep but it’s more than that”- tragic. He is quick to give up and brings an entire life’s worth of unseen baggage with him. Isaac is also one hell of a folk singer and musician – the film and performances do not work without both this level of a musician and actor.
stylistic innovations/traits: Oscar Isaac is just a year older than Ryan Gosling – the star of 2011’s Drive (featuring Isaac in support) making Isaac the second youngest actor on the list thus far. He has eleven (11) films in the archives in eleven (11) years spanning from 2011 to 2021. He capitalized on his big 2013 (giving the best performance of the year) with a rock solid 2014 with both A Most Violent Year and Ex Machina. The Star Wars films are fine additions to his resume, but it is his brilliant 2021 that finally landed him a spot (and a rather solid one at that) on this list. If narrative cinema is just over one hundred years old, it would stand to reason that the actor that gave the best male of performance of the year twice – would have an enviable position on this list (even if he seems to be in the middle of his career). Isaac’s Duke Leto is a genuine character – and his Nathan (from Ex Machina) is devilishly cunning. Both William Tell (The Card Counter) and Llewyn Davis are about as full and complex as a character gets.
Isaac in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter (the middle film in what is coming to be known as Schrader’s “Man in a Room” trilogy) – Oscar Isaac plays William Tell. Isaac is genius here. Isaac is in nearly every scene and never makes a false move. He is exacting – intense and damaged. The diner scene with Tye Sheridan’s Cirk where Isaac’s Tell talks about his torturing experience – describing the noise of it all – may be the best acting of the 2020s thus far.
directors worked with: J.C. Chandor (2), Alex Garland (2), J.J. Abrams (2), Nicolas Winding Refn (1), the Coen brothers (1), Rian Johnson (1), Paul Schrader (1), Denis Villeneuve (1)
Isaac excels here as Nathan in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. Nathan is an eccentric billionaire – and Isaac, Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson weave a beautiful little dance together in Garland’s chamber piece.
top five performances:
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- The Card Counter
- Dune
- Ex Machina
- A Most Violent Year
archiveable films
| 2011- Drive |
| 2013- Inside Llewyn Davis |
| 2014- A Most Violent Year |
| 2014- Ex Machina |
| 2015- Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
| 2017- Star Wars: The Last Jedi |
| 2018- Annihilation |
| 2019- Triple Frontier |
| 2019- Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker |
| 2021- The Card Counter |
| 2021- Dune |
Prediction #66-Timothee Chalamet
Hey, everybody! Do you guys think it is possible to have a favorite movie and still think that another movie is the best of all time? Or you think the best of all time is at the same time have to be your favorite movie?
@Tozoco – good question, this is something I’ve thought about before. I personally rank The Godfather (1972) as the # 1 film of all time when I made my top 100 list and it is certainly one of my favorites but I don’t think I have any one single favorite film.
As I watch more and more great films I have tried to focus on ranking films objectively but that is not to say I have any issue with someone making a distinction. I guess part of it depends on what you mean by favorite. Some people might associate favorites with rewatchability or other factors.
– rewatchability
– sentimental reasons
– preferences for genre, mood, visual style etc.
To give you a straight forward answer I would say that yes, it is possible to have a favorite movie and still think another movie is the best of all time.
@Tozoco – For sure, I think it’s common to have a film you think achieves the most and is the most impressive but that film won’t always be the one you want to watch the most or think about the most.
@Tozoco- Well said by @Harry and @James Trapp. If you are starting to ask your self why you are entertained (good start) or impressed (even better) by a movie – that is is the sign of a movie fan turning into a cinephile.
I think so too, maybe your favorite movie is not necessarily the best one. I am asking this because i was talking to a friend of mine, and she said she ranks art in general (music, movies…) depending on how that specific art makes her feel. And i am learning and what i want is to have enough knowledge to rank art, in general, objectively, i want my favorite movie to be the best of all time. What do you guys think is the best way to achive that?? Oh, and just for curiosity, when did you guys realize you were analyzing a movie and not just watching it?
@Tozoco – do you have a film or films in mind that fit this for you?
The best way to get there isn’t always sitting down and thinking over everything, its sitting down and watching more and more films. Drake said he got there following Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule.The reviews on this site are very helpful too for what to focus on.
my brother, you probably know him “Pedro” he always comments on this site. and he says the best way to learn movie is to watching them, i’m trying to watch as many as i can, a recently watched “The passion of joan of arc” and i really liked, and i feel that i have to love it to be a cinephile. but idk, what movies do you recommend whatching, like ozu movies? kurosawa?
@Tozoco If forced to pick one I’d probably have Ozu as my personal GOAT director and I think his style is a really important one to expose oneself to to better understand the power of the cinematic medium. I’d start with “Late Spring” personally, then branch out to whatever else by him looks interesting.
Other directors that have very particular (and historically important) styles that I’d recommend to anyone looking to expand their film knowledge are Renoir, Godard, Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, John Ford (Stagecoach and The Searchers are true essentials), De Sica… plus some like Truffaut or Herzog who I can’t really comment on since I haven’t really seen their work much at all.
thank you very much, i’ll check them out! do you think like even the film bros tarantino movie are essential too?
My favourite movie is The Godfather but I think that 2001 is the best movie.
So yes.
@Tozoco – Everyone has their own way of doing things but for me personally I think director studies are a great approach, basically I take an elite filmmaker and watch their films in chronological order. Of course you could choose a particular year, genre, etc. The advantage of this is that you have other films to use as a sort of reference point. For example, I completed a David Lynch Study a few months back and I was able to pick up on similarities throughout his work in regards to various visual, technical, and thematic elements. I write out notes with corresponding timestamps as I watch and afterwards will write out several small paragraphs with my thoughts on the film. If you check out the David Lynch page on this site or several other directors I have done Studies on you can see my postings. Again this is just my approach but you should try to find what works best for you.
It may sound corny and is indeed a cliché but it happens to be true which is that in regards to becoming a Cinephile “its the journey not the destination”. Again, a cliché but it is true. For example, if you made a top 10 list for 2022 films, why you ranked each of the films in your top 10 is more interesting than the actual list itself. And really you should think of this as an ongoing process, watch as many films as you can and you will build a knowledge base of Cinema.