Christian Bale began at thirteen in Empire of the Sun, carrying a Spielberg film almost alone, and has spent the career since altering his body dramatically for parts.
The Machinist took him to about a hundred and twenty pounds, and he gained substantially for Batman Begins six months later, which doctors have described as extremely unwise.
He won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter, playing Dicky Eklund, a crack addict and former boxer, and it is the least vain performance in a career full of them.
American Psycho and The Big Short show the range, and the leaked on-set recording from Terminator Salvation followed him for years.
Amy AdamsVice (2018) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Christian Bale gained around forty-five pounds and disappeared into Dick Cheney, in a film whose formal tricks keep interrupting a genuinely serious subject. Bale lost Best Actor to Rami…
Anya Taylor-JoyAmsterdam (2022) rates 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. David O. Russell assembled one of the largest casts of the decade to tell a true story about a 1933 plot against the American government, and buried it under…
Ben Foster3:10 to Yuma (2007) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. James Mangold opens the story out, adds half an hour, gives the rancher a limp and a war record, and turns a chamber piece into a journey.…
Chloe SevignyAmerican Psycho (2000) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Mary Harron read a novel everybody called unfilmable and found the comedy in it. Made for seven million dollars, mostly in Toronto, and it is far funnier and…
Brian BlessedKenneth Branagh's 1989 directorial debut. Mud and blood Agincourt instead of Olivier's pageantry.
Christian Bale2006 Christopher Nolan period thriller with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival Victorian magicians destroying each other. The Prestige is Christopher Nolan's 2006 American period thriller.
Aaron EckhartThe film that proved comic book films could be major cinema. The Dark Knight is the Christopher Nolan-directed second entry in his Batman trilogy and the film that established the post-2008 standard for superhero cinema.
Chris HemsworthThe completion of Thor's degradation from Shakespearean prince to comedic buffoon. Mjolnir transfers to Jane Foster, Christian Bale's Gorr wasted.
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