Top 10 Performances: Robert Pattinson

While his official 'breakout' has been pretty recent, former Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson has actually been delivering strong turns consistently over the last few years, with the whammy of 2017 - 2019 being just a particular highlight. Here's some of his best performances. 

HM: Bel Ami 

A period where I feel he was still in the process of transitioning between pretty boy star and serious respected actor, I wouldn't consider this one of Pattinson's most assured performances, with touches of inconsistency and he's a tad overshadowed by some of his co-stars, especially Christina Ricci, but does an admirable enough job as the infamous womaniser Georges Duroy in this flawed adaptation or the 19th century novel. Also there are hints of how he'll do as Bruce Wayne which is pretty cool.

10. Maps to the Stars 

Another weird David Cronenberg film that ends up being a bit too disconnected for its own good, Pattinson arguably gives the most grounded performance in the film as essentially the everyman looking into the madness of Hollywood. The role doesn't stress his talents too much but he's very charismatic and endearing, with just the right touch of naivety to his limo driver with big dreams and not much capability to achieve them.

9. Water for Elephants 

A surprisingly affecting film which again doesn't really stress Pattinson's talents too much, just requiring him to be the quietly charming doctor who goes to work at the circus, and have chemistry with his onscreen love interest Reese Witherspoon (a rather odd onscreen combination to be sure). Well he delivers on the charm, the chemistry is nice if not too notable, and it's a good performance that showed potential for his future work to come.

8. The Lost City of Z 

I only wish he were in the film more, which on the whole I did admire although like with most of James Gray's films, I did not love. Pattinson is a delight in a very different role to his usual sorts, a fairly quirky and offbeat fellow expedition-er to Charlie Hunnam's more classical adventure hero. He gives the film much needed energy in his scenes and is a highlight I wish was more frequently utilised within it.

7. The Childhood of a Leader

An interesting, if not altogether successful, cinematic experiment with some interesting performances across the board, with Pattinson's portrayal of perhaps the most significant direct influence on the titular child's life as this charming yet low-key insidious 'father figure'. I really like how Pattinson utilises his charismatic presence to create technically quite a 'bad' influence on the child while also making sense of how he could be so influential on the child's life.

6. Damsel  

With a very colourful accent fitting for a very colourful character in this offbeat Western, Pattinson is clearly having a ball here as the earnest pioneer Samuel Alabaster. Once again he works well with Mia Wasikowska, and once again he delivers a great energetic turn and brings a real uniqueness to a role that's been done before but never quite this way. I will say I don't like what the film does with his character eventually but that's hardly his fault.

5. Cosmopolis 

A weird yet weirdly compelling, if not flawless, thriller/satire features a perfectly cast Pattinson as a young billionaire moving through Manhattan in his cushy limousine and interacting with a long line of oddballs. Pattinson is consistently off-putting in his approach which is entirely the point here as he creates the unnervingly artificial style of his character's self-destructiveness so effectively, and makes the often unwieldy dialogue work for the most part. It's a very good performance I wish would have been in a better film.

4. High Life

An utterly bonkers weird sci-fi film about an expedition to a black hole with experiments and sex-fest galore en route. In a strong ensemble, Pattinson gives a captivating portrayal of a convict sent into depths completely out of his element. He anchors the film in the right way even as heads explode and masturbatory sessions are conducted and no matter how odd everything gets acts as the film's emotional core, reflecting each loss and odd circumstance so well in his terrific reactionary performance.

3. The Rover

This Australian dystopian flick is for the most part an acting showcase for Guy Pearce, but Pattinson is not to be forgotten for his equally compelling portrayal of the slow-witted Reynolds who Pearce's mysterious Eric takes as a hostage. Pattinson delivers an incredibly moving portrayal of a man for who has become numb to the harsh realities of the world which has passed him by, and is particularly great over the course of the film in showing how the burdens weigh upon him. It's a heartbreaking, sympathetic portrayal that adds so much to Pearce's grand performance.

2. The Lighthouse

I'll be discussing his performance more in detail alongside co-star Willem Dafoe in a few months' time but this is astonishing work that really delivers in creating his character's burgeoning madness.

1. Good Time

In many ways the antithesis to the usual 'rogue hero saves the day' crime thriller, Pattinson's Constantine 'Connie' Nikas, a bank robber on the run who gets his mentally disabled brother into a seriously messed up ordeal, is a real shitbag, to the extent that it really took me aback the first time I watched the film. Pattinson gives a fantastic performance as this completely amoral sort of criminal who thinks he's doing the 'right' thing and brings such a grungy, compelling energy to each of his character's manipulative actions. It's a star turn that really showed me what Pattinson has to offer as an actor beyond just being a charismatic leading man, as he is that in this but also so much more.