Top 5 Performances: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska

Two of the most interesting young actors working today, unfortunately the latter has slightly tainted his reputation with 'Batman vs Superman' but that shouldn't take away from the fact he's a very good actor when placed in the right hands.

Eisenberg

5. Zombieland

Easily the least complex role on this list, and he's slightly overshadowed by his co-star Woody Harrelson, but Eisenberg does a fine job in this zombie comedy as the nebbish everyman who gradually finds enough confidence to be a hero, and more importantly has some very good chemistry with his co-stars. 

4. The Squid and the Whale

Again, perhaps slightly overshadowed in that the co-stars playing his onscreen parents, Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, have undoubtedly the meatier scenes and dialogue to tear into. Nevertheless, I really liked Eisenberg's work here as Walt, the older of two brothers dealing with the fallout of their parents' divorce, and could be seen as the semi-autobiographical avatar of director/writer Noah Baumbach within the story. The film is an intriguing study of the warring parents, and Eisenberg keeps his performance largely quite understated, with his outbursts at his mother and his admiration of his father portrayed very convincingly, and makes the character's gradual arc into seeing things clearly beyond the taint of his father's opinion quite moving. 

3. The End of the Tour

I've mentioned again and again my love for The End of the Tour, a film that just gets better and better the more I think about it. I simply am interested in any film about the process of writing, even more so one that provides insight into the brilliant mind of David Foster Wallace (note: still haven't started Infinite Jest, but I do consider the one thing I've read of his, a transcript of his speech 'This is Water' to be a must-read). Jason Segel, as I've mentioned before, is amazing as Wallace in a performance that also gets better and better the more I think about it, and I'm glad at all the critical love he got for his performance (which should have translated into an Oscar nomination). Unfortunately, it came somewhat at a cost to his co-star Eisenberg who is just as essential to the success of the film. Where the usually naturalistic and rather broad comedian Segel delivers a mannered, tic-filled (in a good way), transformative turn as Wallace, Eisenberg tones down his usual neurotic delivery and mannerisms into a very understated performance as David Lipsky, a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine who gets the opportunity to accompany and interview Wallace on a book tour. Eisenberg and Segel have a fascinating chemistry that's gradually developed from the awkwardness of two strangers, one very introverted and the other very nervous, into a friendship, though not without some considerable bumps along the way. Eisenberg in particular manages to play off both Segel's intellecutally provoking and fascinating statements, and the moments where he's just chatting about random things, very well by also adding so much flavour to his own reactions and input. Though he most certainly has the less 'showy' role so to speak, Eisenberg gives a great performance that never tries to steal the spotlight, but instead adds to it in a very modest fashion through a naturalistic, underplated performance and a great dynamic with Segel (also, do watch this film).

2. The Social Network

An amazing performance, and as much as I adored Jeff Bridges in True Grit and Javier Bardem in Biutiful, and quite liked Colin Firth and James Franco in The King's Speech and 127 Hours, I'm sure we all know who really deserved to win that Best Actor Oscar back for 2010. Eisenberg gives a spellbinding portrayal of what probably is not a real-life presentation of Mark Zuckerberg in a film that doesn't really claim to be the most factually spot-on biographical telling of the creation of Facebook, but frankly I don't give a damn. It's a brilliant film, bolstered by some fine editing, a unique soundtrack, a tremendous script, a strong ensemble (look out for Rooney Mara pre-breakout, fine an actress as ever), and of course David Fincher's brilliant and meticulous direction that makes such a potentially boring and workmanlike story so intriguing. Fincher's direction however, requires actors at their A-game, especially taking into account his Kubrick-esque perfectionism. Well if anyone seems like they'd be game for that, I'd say Eisenberg fits the bill perfectly. He's always struck me as a bit of a scholar in his acting techniques, an intellect in his craft who goes about his work like a chessmaster almost, which fits beautifully with his portrayal of Zuckerberg as an extremely calculating, pompous manipulator and genius. Eisenberg never plays Zuckerberg as a 'mad genius' or 'evil genius', he keeps it very realistic and naturalistic. Each snarky remark or spellbinding spouting of some intellectual comeback, every smug response to someone's attempts to topple him from his throne, are very much ingrained with the style of the film. The louder moments of his performance are extremely entertaining, but even more so are the quieter ones, and there's so much going on with his eyes in the performance that you can get a sense when he's actively looking through people and figuring out how to manipulate them, and when he's revealing a more human side to him, especially in his final scenes, or his scenes with Andrew Garfield's Eduardo Saverin (who's also great, I'm going to talk more about him come December I'm sure)

1. The Double

Firstly, can I just say that apart from being one of my favourite comedians, Richard Ayoade is a fantastic director. He has a very unique, distinctive vision that is never quirky for just quirkiness' sake. Submarine was a strong, if slightly flawed and perhaps too self-aware, debut, but it's with The Double where he truly showed to the world what an incredible talent he is behind the camera. The film is a delight on a visual and audio level, an eclectic soundtrack ranging from classical music to Japanese pop and a sort of juxtaposition between decrepit modernity and surreal futuristic touches, in this adaptation of sorts of Dostoevsky's short story of the same name. Eisenberg plays Simon James, a bland man and office drone who's worked for seven years at an office agency, yet no one knows who he is and what he's achieved since he's such a quiet, non-outspoken and insignificant figure. Eisenberg is great at playing out this introverted and painfully shy man that it's almost difficult to watch Simon James since he seems so uncomfortable around just about everything, especially the beautiful co-worker he admires (Mia Wasikowska).

Eisenberg makes Simon James so convincingly awkward and shy, and yet so sympathetic because of how somewhat endearing these qualities are, that it enhances the effect when a doppelgänger of his by the name of James Simon appears on the scene. James is the complete opposite of Simon in terms of personality, loud, outgoing, obnoxious, uncouth, and yet incredibly charismatic, and Eisenberg plays these two performances of himself incredibly well. He strikes up at first a chemistry, and then a gradual conflict between these two characters that's extremely interesting to watch, and it's really brilliant work by how he gradually peels away the facade of James to reveal the horrible human being underneath, and at the same time movingly portray the mental strain this double relationship is having on Simon. The last 15 minutes or so of the film feature the best acting of Eisenberg's career as he so vividly portrays what is effectively, a man coming to terms with himself. Eisenberg gives a mesmerizing portrayal of a double life of sorts, that fits perfectly with Ayoade's ambitious vision. 

Wasikowska (I need to see Tracks)

5. Maps to the Stars

The film is a bit of a mixed bag, and though I'm a bit of a David Cronenberg apologist for his 2010s work, I'll admit this is a misfire on several levels. As a satire on Hollywood it's perhaps a bit too obvious, particularly in its storyline about the washed up actress Havana Segrand (I liked Julianne Moore's performance first time round but on re-watch, I'm glad she won for Still Alice instead) and her personal demons, and the child movie star gone rogue. The cast, ranging from Robert Pattison to John Cusack to Olivia Williams, are uniformly decent, but the script throws hurdles at them from paper-thin characterizations to some very bizzare tonal inconsistencies. One unscathed good thing does come out of the film though, and that's Mia Wasikowska. Her performance as a mysterious pyromaniac daughter of a Hollywoood hotshot family is an intriguing subversion of the 'manic pixie girl' type, adding in the perfect blend of kookiness and instability to her endearing qualities. She strikes up some interesting chemistry with Pattison and Moore, and though the finale of the film requires her character to move too quickly from one point to the other, she manages to make it impactful enough. A good performance in a deeply flawed film.

4. The Double

I'll get the minor flaws of her performance out of the way in that her American accent is a bit inconsistent, though never in a distracting way. Having gotten that out of the way, Wasikowska gives a very interesting performance here that's deliberately quite different to the other performances in the film. In that she's stylized in her character's quirky idiosyncrasies, but unlike most of the other characters besides the titular double, she seems to be putting on an 'act' with them. Wasikowska depicts the distinction between the public and private self of her character Hannah with aplomb. She's luminous on the outside and troubled on the inside, and Wasikowska always makes it feel like two parts of the same character. I really admire this performance as a sort of balancing factor in the film, as she helps mend the humorous qualities and the darker, poignant aspects of it together, and also has great chemistry with both sides of Eisenberg. 

3. Crimson Peak

The film is tremendous on the technical front, with costuming, makeup, set design etc. all capturing the 19th Century New York and Gothic mansion setting in a style akin to Rebecca. As is to be expected by a Guillermo del Toro film, it's stunning to look at, unfortunately script-wise it leaves a little more to be desired, as it's perhaps a bit too derivative of other stories with similar plot lines, that of a young woman, this time round Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) being enraptured with a dashing older man (Tom Hiddleston), and is wed and brought into a stunning but creepy mansion where a vehement sister-in-law resides (Jessica Chastain). The atmosphere is realized well, unfortunately the writing and special effects to the ghoulish supernatural happenings aren't particularly good, and Chastain's performance isn't exactly the actress on top form to make a sufficient impact, though I liked her on my initial viewing. It's far from being Rebecca or The Innocents in telling a tale of Gothic mansion horror, but Wasikowska nevertheless delivers a very strong effort as the 'straight man' to the proceedings. She reminded me a bit of Joan Fontaine in Rebecca with her performance as a young, inexperienced maiden out of her element, giving the right sort of reactions in each moment of fear and horror even if the special effects didn't exactly earn it. She also has good chemistry with Hiddleston, and manages to add some humane weight to the film's overwrought finale. 

2. Stoker

A much stronger effort than Crimson Peak on the Gothic horror front, this time round set in the modern-day, this is effectively a 21st Century revision of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, down to the character of Uncle Charlie (here played by Matthew Goode), a well-travelled and sophisticated young man who comes to visit his recently deceased brother's widow (Nicole Kidman) and daughter (Wasikowska). It's not as strong a film, though that's nothing against Stoker which is a pretty good psychological thriller in its own right. It's directed with style and tension by Park Chan-wook of Oldboy fame. It has some fantastic imagery, a great sense of atmosphere, and if some of the supporitng characters are a bit underdeveloped and the plot ends on a somewhat unsatisfying note, that's not too big of an issue by how well the dark atmosphere is set up in the first place. The acting among the three leads is great. Kidman delivers a strong performance, a rarity in the 2010s, as a flawed mother figure, Goode is both very seductive and very creepy as the twisted uncle, and Wasikowska is downright brilliant as the moody and troubled young India Stoker who under Charlie's 'influence', begins turning into something far more disturbing. Her descent into a cold-blooded murderer is impeccably done, and I quite love this performance by Wasikwoska as it's a great exploration of an all-too well worn trope.

1. Jane Eyre

I cover the performance alongside other Jane Eyres here (http://actorvsactor.blogspot.hk/2015/07/head-to-head-jane-eyre-part-1-virginia.html), but just to reiterate: Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre is a solid adaptation of the famous source material, and Wasikowska's peformance here can be seen as a bit of a precursor to her turn in 'Stoker'. In both films she plays the enigmatic central character whose characteristics are developed by the sometimes louder, more overt work of actors around her.Jane Eyre is basically Wasikowska's role in 'Stoker' with a more melodramatic, romantic twist. This version of 'Jane Eyre' practically pulsates with passion in every frame, and it's up to the actors to try and keep up with Fukunaga's incredible vision, which Wasikowska asserts from the outset. We first see her running away from Thornfield Hall, much of the rest of the film to be delivered in flashback. It's a daring note to begin on, but Wasikowaska is incredibly effective in showing just how distraught and broken down Jane Eyre is, with and has a very unsettling impact. 

Even without the flashbacks, Wasikowska's performance so wonderfully evokes the history of her tenure at Thornfield Hall and beyond that they might not even have been necessary. The scenes in which she interacts with St John Rivers (a good Jamie Bell) and his sisters are particularly good; the use of a flashback structure works so well in that for once St. John Rivers is not just some stiff to be overcome as a means to an end (Rochester), but the relationship between Rivers and Eyre becomes something very special. Bell's cold yet not altogether unpleasant approach meshes perfectly with the broken down but not soulless quietude of Jane, making these 'present' scenes not superfluous but instead another fascinating stepping stone towards Jane's character development. For a central character Jane Eyre's always been a particularly reactive one, and Wasikowaska is very good in differentiating between her quiet hatred for Sally Field's genuinely disturbing Mrs Reed, and her quietly blossoming violent passion for Rochester (a strong performance by Michael Fassbender). 

Wasikowaska makes for a particularly young-looking Jane Eyre, and she knows how to play this to her advantage; deceptively innocent and scared, but there is a brimming intelligence, especially in the scene where she explains why she could not possibly be a witch to Rochester. She's never outrightly defiant but conveys it with her stylized, quiet style. With an especially childlike Adele she conveys a sort of motherly warmth with delicacy and strength; with Fassbender she facilitates his volatile portrayal brilliantly, as the two of them take on a very distinctive, classical style to the performances that nevertheless feels very fitting, particularly under Fukunaga's direction. Wasikowska gives a very strong performance that brings the right amount of realism to go with that particular style she takes on.