Suicide Squad (David Ayer, 2016) Movie • Page 55

Umm, Scott has made a few bad movies.

 

Ridley Scott isn't directing it

 

It's both their fault.

Acting isn't just "transforming". Michael Cera and Seth Rogen are acting, even if some of their physicality remains close to their natural personas. It is acting to heighten some of the aspects of yourself you might already have to lean into the ways in which you're similar to your character. Actors "playing themselves" is one of the most misguided criticisms of acting there is. This is why I think Jared Leto gets overrated a lot: he'll put on a ton of weight, or lose a ton of weight, and get these surface details of physicality down. And he's good at that. But acting is a lot more than that. Acting is achieving a sense of psyche through the physical work you're doing. Marlon Brando is my go-to for arguably the greatest screen actor of all time, and the things he does, the choices he makes with his physicality, they inform character. His Don Corleone isn't impressive because he nails every single detail of being an Italian crime patriarch realistically. He's playing like, twenty years older than he was, I think he gained some weight, but he wasn't insane about it. The character comes alive in actual things he does that inform the performance on a surface level and a subtextual level. His playing with the cat in the beginning of the film: it shows Don Corleone is a man who has empathy and care for living things. It also brings in mind a parallel between Corleone and the cat: the cat is a predator, domesticated by its surroundings, but still a hunter, with retractable claws he's able to utilize at will and hide when necessary. In On the Waterfront, the way Brando walks, light on his feet but like his arms are heavy and weigh him down, it doesn't just echo his former life as a boxer, it informs his character's psyche: he is a man of action, but that action weighs him down, from his regrets in boxing to the central choice he has to make later on: whether to inform on the mob and use his words (like his murdered brother always did), or physically fight to avenge him (the way he's always done). In On the Waterfront, Brando's makeup looks obvious. He isn't straying that far in terms of surface appearance and speech cadence from the Marlon Brando you might meet on the street. But Terry Malloy is one of the greatest film performances of all time. Nothing I've seen Jared Leto do has that same weight. Yes, he's good at being obviously physical, but with the exception of Requiem for a Dream and American Psycho, which I do remember liking Leto in, his physicality is not tied to character and thematics in the same transcendent way. Now maybe it's unfair to compare him to Brando, but even George Clooney, an actor often criticized for "just playing himself" is a better actor than Leto, who is so transformative. Clooney doesn't have that transformative range, he is always recognizable as George Clooney and often many George Clooney characters share the same habits and tics. But Solaris George Clooney and O Brother Where Art Thou George Clooney and the American George Clooney and Out of Sight George Clooney are actually a range of brilliant, diverse performances, even if most people only see George Clooney. They're vastly different sides of his acting ability that play to truth. Leto's performances, especially Dallas Buyers Club, are hollow. He's getting physicality technically right, and yes he put himself through physical exertion to look vastly different than Jared Leto normally does. But it's not in service of anything. His character in Dallas Buyers Club doesn't feel real, she feels like a setup for Matthew McConaughey's growth and arc whose only driving force, only examination, is her gender and performing that gender. Leto doesn't feel like an actual character in that role because there's nothing but that performance of gender.

Again, the fault lies with him and the director for his look and his many terrible lines. Again, I think Leto was an empty Joker. He sounded like the Joker in speech cadence. He looked like a Joker, laughing and lying sexually in a carefully arranged pile of knives. But what in that performance taps into anything besides "crazy villain"? The one moment he has where, after dropping Harley in a vat of acid, he shows one expression of regret and turns around to dive in after her, for no dramatized reason? There are things Leto does in this movie that are okay. But ultimately his Joker is built around these surface textures: tattoos, a crazy laugh, unsettling treatment of other characters, but nothing in the performance feels like there's a person there, someone who has deeper motivations and any outside influence on the events taking place within the runtime of the film. Same with Dallas Buyers Club. I think that works for Requiem for a Dream and American Psycho, where his characters are so consumed by one thing (addiction, capitalism) that it makes sense that Leto would feel hollow, that his only motivations and the only driving factors on his behavior would be heroin or capitalism. I like his performances in those films. But he's become too indulgent, often cast in roles that require a deeper tug mentally and emotionally, not just physically, and so far he's been unable to translate that into a worthwhile performance.

I am a big Nicolas Cage fan and will check the film out eventually, I'm sure.

 

Leto is a good actor and had been a part of some cult classics as well as new greats like DBC, which he was awarded an Academy for.

Media has always portrayed people however they want you to see them. I don't know the guy, so who knows what is and isn't true. But let's not try and diminish a good actor based on personal drama.

 

Leto is usually not in good movies, so it can be harder to recognize what he does to the films (he had very small roles in films while Bill Clinton was still President), but Dallas Buyers Club truly stands out for a baffling decision to portray a transgender person in such a stereotypical way. Granted, Dallas Buyers Club is an awful film and you can find fault in many areas, but the transgender character becomes very reminiscent of the way older films tried to be progressive with the gay or black character with the heart of gold. Leto struts and talks like he thinks a transgender person would, but it is all caricature. The excuse always used is that this is how the real person acted, but the film just made up the character in the first place. That means both the director and Leto had tremendous freedom to craft the character as they wanted, and this is what they came up with.

 

What if I don't care or know much about him as a person but think he is a bad actor and went in-depth as to why I think so?

 

Do it, please.

EDIT: Wait, you did. Nice, and thanks!

 

damn that is a thorough and well thought out critique on Jared Leto

 

That's one person's interpretation of DBC compared to the majority that I've seen.

 

Relevant.

Don't Applaud Jared Leto's Transgender 'Mammy' | TIME

Edit:

Furthermore

Oscar Winner Jared Leto Was Miscast in Dallas Buyers Club

 

I always thought NickI Minaj would make a good Harley Quinn.

 

After seeing how angry people got about Zendaya playing Mary Jane, I would really like to see the reaction to this announcement.

 

Doesn't Harley Quinn wear white make up most of the time anyway? Sorry, haha.

 

She just has a similar voice to Harley in the animated series, just imagine NickI saying "mista jay"

 

I remember liking one thing Leto did in the role. It was the scene where that dude kissed his ring and then he straddles him. I sort of that that was a nice touch.

 

I watched a movie with my wife a few months ago, it was some comedy, it had Minaj in it. She honestly didn't do a bad job if I remember correctly.

 

The other woman

 

Finally saw this today. It was okay, nowhere near as bad as the critics made it out to be. However, it wasn't exactly a great movie either. I'd probably rate it 6/10. I prefer BvS over this.

 

I know this is a weird post, but I saw Yoga Hosers last night and couldn't help thinking about how much more fun I had with that than this

 

I saw this last week and quite enjoyed it! Much better than Batman vs Superman

 

This passed Captain America: Winter Soldier in global take-in.

 

I haven't seen Suicide Squad so I don't even know what I'm doing here but I feel like I just took an acting class after reading this. This explains why I've always been impressed with Leto's work but I haven't ever felt emotionally attached to it.

I would put Jennifer Lawrence in a similar camp as George Clooney because I always recognize in her roles but she has a wide emotional range that resonates with me. She's probably my favorite actress working today because of how invested I get in her characters even though I know it's JLaw.

Anyway, off topic, but that was a fantastic post Nathan.

 

Thanks! That's nice of you to say.

 

This movie was almost a lot weirder.

New SUICIDE SQUAD Concept Art Shows Drastically Different Takes On Enchantress, Katana, And More

 

I love that Katana concept art!

Also, off-topic, Stephan Martiniere illustrated one of my favorite Ravnica islands.