Robert Downey Jr was nominated for Best Actor for Chaplin at twenty-seven and then spent a decade in and out of prison and rehabilitation, effectively uninsurable and unemployable in studio film.
Iron Man was made against studio resistance to his casting, and his improvisation on it set the conversational tone the entire Marvel series adopted. The final line of that film was not scripted.
Zodiac, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tropic Thunder show the range in the same period, the last earning a nomination for a performance that should have been career-ending and was not.
He won Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, playing a small resentful man, which is the furthest thing from the persona he built.
Juliette LewisNatural Born Killers (1994) rates 6 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Oliver Stone made a satire about media appetite for violence that is itself a two-hour delivery system for violence. Tarantino wrote the story, disowned it, and asked…
Ben KingsleyTony Stark hunts a terrorist called the Mandarin while battling PTSD from the Avengers, with Christmas as the season-long backdrop. Iron Man 3 is Shane Black's 2013 American superhero film depicting Tony Stark hunting an apparent terrorist called the Mandarin…
Corbin BernsenA small-time thief stumbles into an LA acting career and a noir investigation, with Robert Downey Jr. as narrator across the Christmas season. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is Shane Black's 2005 American neo-noir comedy depicting a small-time New York thief…
Alden EhrenreichChristopher Nolan's 2023 Manhattan Project biopic. Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer.
Chloe SevignyDavid Fincher's 2007 procedural on the SF Zodiac killer investigation. Three protagonists, no killer caught.
Robert Downey Jr.Tony Stark's death created an institutional vacuum. An essay on how Tony Stark's death in Avengers: Endgame created an institutional vacuum that the various young Avengers framework characters have failed to fill, and what the failure reveals about whether character…
Donald GloverTom Holland's age-appropriate Peter Parker, Michael Keaton's working-class Vulture, John Hughes-influenced high school direction. The 7 reflects honest evaluation of one of the better Phase Three MCU entries and the best Peter Parker since Tobey Maguire.
Robert Downey Jr.An essay on the systematic diminishment of established male characters across Phase Four and Phase Five of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This essay engages with a specific craft pattern in the post-Endgame Marvel Cinematic Universe: the systematic diminishment of established…
Anthony MackieThe most contrived blockbuster of the decade. The 4 reflects honest evaluation of one of the most commercially successful films in cinema history.
Benedict CumberbatchTwo billion dollars on the strength of accumulated franchise capital. Forty characters, the Snap that wasn't depicted, and structural failures.
Anthony MackieThe Phase 3 inflection point where moral clarity became moral confusion. Spider-Man and Black Panther's introductions as franchise expansion vehicles.
Clark GreggRobert Downey Jr.'s strongest moments buried under franchise machinery. Black Widow's intro, War Machine's recasting, and Whiplash wasted.
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