Top 20 Favorite Male Characters/Performances in Film. Hybrid category because some of these guys are scumbags but damn, those performances are untouchable. For the most part, I love these men. And no one's saying "best." Just my personal faves.
EDIT: NO, Travis Bickle is not on my list. He is simply not one of my favorite male characters or performances, thank you. I love Taxi Driver, I love the book but no, he's not cutting it today. DeNiro is on this list twice anyway, deal with it.
1. Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler. The tenderness of a giant is what's so disarming. This is my favorite male character study. His interactions with the neighbor children turned my heart to mush.
2. Heath Ledger as Ennis Delmar in Brokeback Mountain. This scene right here.
3. Jim Carrey as Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He makes me cry every time. It's a bummer that Carrey doesn't get more roles like this- this is where he belongs. He needs to get like Bill Murray and head straight to the blue period, now.
4. Alan Arkin as Grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine. I really needed this laugh. Honestly, Grandpa is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. He's my favorite part of the movie and it kind of thrills me that he won the Oscar for this.
5. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. Speaking of offensive old men. One of my favorite moments that comes to mind is just the way he says "No shit?" when Pagoda (who is also a treasured character) informs him that "The black man asked her to be his wife."
6. Tom Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey in Magnolia. Cruise is really masterful in this one and his vignette is my favorite of the bunch. It's something to see his decline- how he begins as a total scumbag...chipping, chipping away...and then finally as he is entirely reduced by the end. Makes me cry. It's an amazing perofrmance.
7. Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Perhaps also speaking of really gorgeous, insane pricks...who better? I could watch the scenes where he unloads Blanche's trunk and "clears the table" for weeks on end. Every major acting category got an Oscar for this one except him. Crazy.
8. Ben Gazarra as Jimmy Brown in Buffalo '66. Yes, I choose him over Vincent Gallo, whom while I love in this, Gazarra is just hysterical. I love the film on the whole but he's my favorite part.
9. Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed. Tough film b/c all of the male characters were so great but I love Nicholson's wacky psycho so much. Just look at that beautiful robe.
10. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. This is instantly followed up by Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace and then John Travolta as Vincent Vega. If you all made a list like this, I'm sure these guys would pop up, so it all needs no explanation. But Jules is always my favorite.
11. Bill Murray as Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic. I love how deadpan he is. He pulls a gun on a pregnant journalist, saves the interns from sea pirates, plans to explode a rare shark with dynamite, pillages a rival sea vessel down to their espresso machine, I just don't know how else to tell you. I'm in love with this mild retard.
12. Clark Gregg as Hank/Henrietta Rossi in The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. Hank (right) is about to have a sex change while juggling the full time responsibilites of his crazy stepson, Sebastian. They share a very endearing relationship and in the end, it's Hank's story that brings about the crushing climax. He's one of my favorite on screen dads. The love between them was great.
13. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. It's all about the "You married into this?" scene. I want to watch that every day of my life. Gah!
14. Forest Whittaker as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Erm, this is obviously a favorite performance, not favorite character, lulz. He bursts on electric and I loved, loved his accent and the way he said things like "SOLD-EEE-AHH" (soldier)! ♥ Go Forest.
15. Daniel Day-Lewis as The Butcher in Gangs of New York. Why must he rank? Man, he scares the shit out of me. Obviously not a nice person but oh, that performance. So memorable.
16. Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles. "No more yankee my wankee! The Donger need food! " Le sigh.
17. Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite in Napoleon Dynamite, of course. You wouldn't believe how difficult is is to find decent stills of this film and this is the best I got after 16 Google pages. Anyway, I'm in love with Napoleon. I wanna dance with him.
18. Robert DeNiro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. Speaking of bizarre retards. It's been years since I've seen this but I remember just being love in with his trainwreck.
19. The ensemble cast of Goodfellas. Everybody, right down to the restaurant owner ("He treats me like I'm half a fag or something.") to Morty and his rug. This is my favorite scene, though b/c of how true it is. Wake my Nanny up at any damn hour and sleepwalking, she'll still try to make you eat a full plate of zeppolis.
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I'm leaving 20 blank for the obvious one that I'm forgetting, maybe you'll remind me. Your favorites?
EDIT: NO, Travis Bickle is not on my list. He is simply not one of my favorite male characters or performances, thank you. I love Taxi Driver, I love the book but no, he's not cutting it today. DeNiro is on this list twice anyway, deal with it.
1. Mickey Rourke as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler. The tenderness of a giant is what's so disarming. This is my favorite male character study. His interactions with the neighbor children turned my heart to mush.
2. Heath Ledger as Ennis Delmar in Brokeback Mountain. This scene right here.
3. Jim Carrey as Joel Barish in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. He makes me cry every time. It's a bummer that Carrey doesn't get more roles like this- this is where he belongs. He needs to get like Bill Murray and head straight to the blue period, now.
4. Alan Arkin as Grandpa in Little Miss Sunshine. I really needed this laugh. Honestly, Grandpa is one of the funniest characters I've ever seen. He's my favorite part of the movie and it kind of thrills me that he won the Oscar for this.
5. Gene Hackman as Royal Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. Speaking of offensive old men. One of my favorite moments that comes to mind is just the way he says "No shit?" when Pagoda (who is also a treasured character) informs him that "The black man asked her to be his wife."
6. Tom Cruise as Frank TJ Mackey in Magnolia. Cruise is really masterful in this one and his vignette is my favorite of the bunch. It's something to see his decline- how he begins as a total scumbag...chipping, chipping away...and then finally as he is entirely reduced by the end. Makes me cry. It's an amazing perofrmance.
7. Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Perhaps also speaking of really gorgeous, insane pricks...who better? I could watch the scenes where he unloads Blanche's trunk and "clears the table" for weeks on end. Every major acting category got an Oscar for this one except him. Crazy.
8. Ben Gazarra as Jimmy Brown in Buffalo '66. Yes, I choose him over Vincent Gallo, whom while I love in this, Gazarra is just hysterical. I love the film on the whole but he's my favorite part.
9. Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed. Tough film b/c all of the male characters were so great but I love Nicholson's wacky psycho so much. Just look at that beautiful robe.
10. Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. This is instantly followed up by Ving Rhames as Marsellus Wallace and then John Travolta as Vincent Vega. If you all made a list like this, I'm sure these guys would pop up, so it all needs no explanation. But Jules is always my favorite.
11. Bill Murray as Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic. I love how deadpan he is. He pulls a gun on a pregnant journalist, saves the interns from sea pirates, plans to explode a rare shark with dynamite, pillages a rival sea vessel down to their espresso machine, I just don't know how else to tell you. I'm in love with this mild retard.
12. Clark Gregg as Hank/Henrietta Rossi in The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. Hank (right) is about to have a sex change while juggling the full time responsibilites of his crazy stepson, Sebastian. They share a very endearing relationship and in the end, it's Hank's story that brings about the crushing climax. He's one of my favorite on screen dads. The love between them was great.
13. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men. It's all about the "You married into this?" scene. I want to watch that every day of my life. Gah!
14. Forest Whittaker as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Erm, this is obviously a favorite performance, not favorite character, lulz. He bursts on electric and I loved, loved his accent and the way he said things like "SOLD-EEE-AHH" (soldier)! ♥ Go Forest.
15. Daniel Day-Lewis as The Butcher in Gangs of New York. Why must he rank? Man, he scares the shit out of me. Obviously not a nice person but oh, that performance. So memorable.
16. Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles. "No more yankee my wankee! The Donger need food! " Le sigh.
17. Jon Heder as Napoleon Dynamite in Napoleon Dynamite, of course. You wouldn't believe how difficult is is to find decent stills of this film and this is the best I got after 16 Google pages. Anyway, I'm in love with Napoleon. I wanna dance with him.
18. Robert DeNiro as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy. Speaking of bizarre retards. It's been years since I've seen this but I remember just being love in with his trainwreck.
19. The ensemble cast of Goodfellas. Everybody, right down to the restaurant owner ("He treats me like I'm half a fag or something.") to Morty and his rug. This is my favorite scene, though b/c of how true it is. Wake my Nanny up at any damn hour and sleepwalking, she'll still try to make you eat a full plate of zeppolis.
*
I'm leaving 20 blank for the obvious one that I'm forgetting, maybe you'll remind me. Your favorites?
VIEW 25 of 62 COMMENTS
I did not ever check out Missbehave but I really ought to. To bad they are going digital- maybe there will be a subscription site?
Adam and I quote that scene to each other all the time.