My Top 5 Posthumous Performances

As I’m sure you’re aware, Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man has just been released in cinemas (check out my full review here). It’s a taut & intellectual thriller, which weaves a tightly woven narrative with wider observations on the interagency feuds that bubble beneath the surface of the War on Terror. Central to it all is Günther Bachmann, played with complete assurance by the recently passed Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s a superb swansong for the actor, a fitting epitaph to his talents, and a timely reminder of how commanding and versatile he could be on the screen.

Following the film, I began to wonder what other actors had given performances that so perfectly encapsulated their talents, only for the film to be released posthumously. Though the list below is in no way definitive, here are what I consider to be the best posthumous performances I have seen.

1: James Dean in Rebel Without A Cause

James Dean will forever be the epitome of adolescent cool. Though it was his performance as the troubled Cal Trask in East of Eden that caught everyone’s attention (and earned him a posthumous Oscar nomination for Best Actor), it was as the rebellious teenager Jim Stark that he truly cemented his image. His performance was magnificently multilayered; imbued with charm & charisma, but belied with deep-rooted pain. Sadly, Dean died in a car accident a month before the film’s release, and was tragically never able to see how much of a star he would become. 

2: Oliver Reed in Gladiator

Reed was still shooting Gladiator when he suffered a fatal heart attack. It was a colossally big loss to the acting world, and one that became all the more tragic when it was revealed just how superb his final performance was. As slave trader Proximo, Reed brought depth and humanity to what is a conventionally antagonistic role. Thankfully, director Ridley Scott was able to complete the film thanks to some exceptional CGI trickery, allowing us to bask once more in Reed’s incredible range.

3: James Gandolfini in Enough Said

Thanks to his extraordinary turn as Tony Soprano in the HBO’s televisual juggernaut The Sopranos, James Gandolfini will always be remembered as a quintessential screen mobster. Which is perhaps why his nuanced performance in the superbly subtle Enough Said felt so special to all those who were fans. Here Gandolfini exuded the charm of a gentle giant that bathed this subversive rom-com in eternal warmth. Though there is still one more gangster performance to be seen, in the soon to be released The Drop, it is here that Gandolfini proved his ability to surprise the audience and subvert his image.

4: Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

The shock left in the wake of Heath Ledger’s death reverberated around the world. Though you could never call him a real star, his talents were unprecedented. He oozed charm & sex appeal in A Knight’s Tale, and painted a poignant portrait of forbidden love in Brokeback Mountain. It is as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight that he will predominately be remembered for though, and justly so. He radiated an unending amount of menace as Batman’s greatest foe, forever defining the role in his own image.

5: Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon

Bruce Lee had already proven himself to be an enthralling screen presence in various martial arts films, but it is his starring role in Enter The Dragon that he is still remembered for. Sadly, Lee never got to see himself become a global sensation, having died shortly before the film’s release. On the screen he’s a magnetic presence, who constantly dazzles us with his incredible gymnastic abilities. The final mirror fight scene remains one of cinema’s finest fight scenes.

So there we have it, my top five posthumous performances. But which ones have I left out, which ones do you believe deserve to be on this list, and are there any I have included that you don’t agree with? As ever, leave your remarks in the comments section.

My (Belated) Mid-Year Review: What I Have Loved & Loathed So Far!

What with all those lucky people in Venice feverishly looking ahead to what cinematic delights are in store for us over the next 12 months, I have decided it was high time I looked back at the films that have impressed me & the ones that have repulsed me so far this year. I shall, of course, be posting my own official top & bottom 10 films at the end of the year. But for now, here's a taste of those that will be battling it out in my head for a place on a list that is coveted by no-one... except perhaps me.

What I've Loved
While those in Venice are lapping up some of the frontrunners for next year's academy awards, notably Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's highly anticipated Birdman, over here I'm still hung up on the winner of this year's Best Film, Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave. In an interview I watched with the director before seeing the film, he pointed out the startling travesty that more films had been made about Roman slavery than American, a wrong that he has certainly righted with this vividly haunting masterpiece that combines various extraordinary components to create one exceptional film.

Although I saw many sterling works after 12 Years - including Jonathan Glazer's beguilingly beautiful Under The Skin, John Michael McDonagh's poignantly powerful Calvary, and Wes Anderson's gloriously gratifying The Grand Budapest Hotel - I had convinced myself that no other film would affect me so strongly this year... until I sat down and watched Richard Linklater's ode to adolescence, Boyhood.

The indie director has long since been looked upon as an artist determined to push the boundaries of his art form, but even when set against those standards, Boyhood remains an astronomical  achievement. Shot over 12 years with the same cast, it's a captivating bildungsroman of one young boy's journey from childhood to adulthood. Though helmed by a superbly naturalistic performance by newcomer Ellar Coltrane, it's without doubt the writer/director who impresses most here for creating an extensive time capsule of youth and, by extension, life.

What I've Loathed
Mark Kermode once said during one of his eminently entertaining blogs that he believes one of the key traits of a good film critic is the willingness to watch anything. Something that I have always abided by, having long been of the opinion that you'll never know if something is good or bad until you see it for yourself. It is with that in mind that I traveled to one of my local cinemas on the day of its release to see if Grace of Monaco was really deserving of universal panning it received. It took little more than 2 minutes to come to the conclusion that it had all been entirely justified. A "true" story firmly based within the realms of fiction, this relentlessly frustrating tale of how Grace Kelly saved Monaco from ruin was perfectly summed by Kelly's real son, Prince Albert II, as a "farce".

Of course, this isn't the only film to get my blood boiling; with Seth MacFarlane's churlish cowboy comedy A Million Ways To Die In The West, turbulent Liam Neeson vehicle Non-Stop, and ghastly girls-doing-it-for-themselves comedy The Other Woman all leaving me in an all-consuming haze of hatred. But the one that really made its mark, that frustrated & angered me the most in the cinema so far this year, was David Ayer's blood-splattering, brain-frying binge of testosterone Sabotage.

It wasn't enough that the plot seemed determined to transport you to the darkest pits of hell, or that every character was so unnecessarily aggressive that not only did you find yourself disliking them, you wanted to leave the cinema just to avoid their company. No, Ayer had to go one further by taking a tongue-in-cheek actor I've always had a guilty soft-spot for and turn him in to nothing more than dull driver of needless exposition. We've all seen our share of bad Arnold Schwarzenegger films, but even in those low moments, he's cheeky personality & natural charisma won through. Here he's saddled with the task of simply looking perpetually forlorn throughout and leaving you to simply wish he'd leave and never come back!


Whether any film I see between now and the end of the year will be able to matched the brilliance of Boyhood or staleness of Sabotage remains to be seen. Looking ahead, the films that particularly leap out at me are The Drop, A Most Wanted Man, The Imitation Game, and Fury. All I know at the moment, is that I can't wait to see them all!

Below are select reviews by James of the films mentioned above:

- 12 Years A Slave

- Boyhood

- Calvary

- Grace of Monaco

- Non-Stop

- Sabotage