Small Roles… Big Performances Blogathon

Ruth from FlixChatter is hosting a wonderful blogathon titled Small Roles … Big Performances. The purpose is to choose memorable performances by supporting actors -- preferably lesser-known actors -- that may have gone unnoticed by many people.

MovieBuff25 hasn't blogged for a while, partly because she's been busy writing a screenplay, so I was glad we decided to participate in this event together. She and I tweaked the rules, choosing actors in leading roles rather than supporting actors. However, these are all performances and films we feel deserve more attention. Please see this post for the actual rules for this blogathon.

MovieBuff25's Picks:

Aidan Gillen as Aidan -- Treacle Jr. -- Aiden Gillen is better known for his roles in Queer as Folk and Game of Thrones, but he shines in this under-rated British indie film.

From MovieBuff's Review: No one does slice-of-life drama and acerbic humor like the Brits, and the curiously named Treacle Jr. showcases this, as well as some damned good acting from the cast, particularly Aidan Gillen ... Aidan's the kind of guy most people stay away from. He's earnest, hyper, and completely free of any social graces. Aidan's naive and enthusiastic to a fault, but Tom soon discovers he has problems too ...

Sandra Huller as Michaela -- Requiem -- I haven't seen much discussion of this actress or this award-winning German art house film.

From Movie Buff's Review:  When Michaela first begins to suffer seizures, blackouts, and hallucinations, she manages to cover up the incidents.  Her requests for help from a priest invoke less-than-helpful response. She begins going out with a boy who promises, when asked, to stand by her, foolishly ignoring the conditions.

When her parents do discover her degeneration, they make the tragic decision to involve the church in her rehabilitation. While her stretches of coherency become rarer, she becomes a spiritual guinea pig for exorcisms and is denied the psychiatric care she so desperately needs.

Noah Taylor as Nate -- Red, White & Blue -- Noah Taylor, who I will always remember best for his brilliant performance in Shine, played a chillingly convincing sociopath -- with just the right balance of subtlety and cruel determination, in Red, White and Blue. He did, in fact, win an award for his work in this movie, but we still feel this is a relatively little known role that deserves more attention.

This film is reviewed here, and I also discussed this character here (he's #12 on the list).

QuirkyBibliophile's Picks:

Dwight Yoakam as Doyle -- Sling Blade -- Yoakam has garnered plenty of attention as a successful country music singer and songwriter, actor and director, but I feel this role hasn't earned the attention it deserves.  

Sling Blade is one of my favorite films -- there is something so raw and real about it -- and I am a big admirer of Billy Bob Thornton as an actor and director, although -- granted -- he's wasted his time on some real cinematic dog shit.

Doyle is the controlling, abusive live-in boyfriend of a hard-working single mom and a truly horrible wanna-be musician. When he's over-the-top bat crap crazy, like in the scene below, he is frightening and darkly comedic. However when he's calm, trying to be a "nice guy," he's even scarier. Every moment he was on screen, I felt the fuse shortening.

Aidan Gillen -- Buddy Boy -- Gillen seems to have gained a lot of attention from television work, including his role as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish in Game of Thrones. However, I will always remember him best for his role as a mentally ill young man in this little known, rather bizarre Indie movie. 

I found myself being drawn into his dark world and his complex web of obsessions, delusions, and hallucinations. According to MovieBuff, in her review of this film, "Gillen ... plays his character sensitively and gently, as a fundamentally benevolent albeit strange outcast damaged by trauma and psychosis."

Requiem

     When it comes to rating movies, how should a film like Requiem be treated? Taken as entertainment, it is horrible. The viewer waits, sickened by the inevitable conclusion, but when it comes it is still like a poke in the gut. It is horrific, yet not horror, and shouldn't be advertised as "scary" in any conventional sense.

     But it strikes me as brave how directer Hans-Christian Schmid delivers his story -- sharp and gimmickless. His viewpoint is clear -- the girl was mentally sick. Nothing other than ignorance and her own mind conspired against her. Whether this notion would have helped anything remains distant.

     But the film doesn't need vomit or swiveling heads, shocks or hallucinations. It has Sandra Huller. Fully absorbed in her role, Sandra furiously portrays Michaela Klinglar, a character based, apparently, on a real German girl named Annalise Michaels, who lived in 1970's Germany.

    Michaela, as many young people would, hopes to leave her parents for college, and eventually, a career in teaching. She announces she will be leaving for university. She seems healthy and capable enough, but her mother speaks quietly and archaically of her illness and its eventual effect on her future.

     Michaela lives with three people, her parents and a younger sibling. Her mother coldly talks of her daughter's limitations in way that radiates cruelty, not care.  New clothes that show Michaela's figure are promptly thrown away in the night for being trampy. Even when her mother presents a gift, tension lies in the air.

     The girl's father secretly resents serving as his daughter's shield. But her mother relents, and she is given a chance to try a life of classes and socialization. The family is religious, as is Michaela, but at her school, belief in a higher power has gone out of style. Her mention of God is met by snickers. An at first aloof old classmate hangs around with her, as long as religion and self-help are not brought up, even with earnest intentions.

     When Michaela first begins to suffer seizures, black-outs, and hallucinations, she manages to cover up the incidents.  Her requests for help from a priest invoke less-than-helpful response. She begins going out with a boy who promises, when asked, to stand by her, foolishly ignoring the conditions.

     When her parents do discover her degeneration, they make the tragic decision to involve the church in her rehabilitation. While her stretches of coherency become rarer, she becomes a spiritual guinea pig for exorcisms and is denied the psychiatric care she so desperately needs.

     Two films have been made involving the case of Anneliese Michels, the other being a Hollywood courtroom thriller titled The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which concentrates on the supernatural aspects of the case.

      Schmid has no use for the superstition of the latter, but at times his stance becomes all-too-clear, involving overwrought scenes with a harsh priest and an earnest member of the church whose cure for insanity is a good round of bible study.

     Even as Requiem falters, Sandra Huller's intense performance, conveying the hope for normalcy and pain of rejection and illness, almost single-handedly keeps the viewer's interest. Some say the docu-style filming is boring, but I say it is a courageous attempt to strip Annalise's story to the basics, dropping the shocks and visualized nightmares that distract from the reality of the situation.

For more information on Anneliese Michels, check out this link (Spoilers!) here