A closer look at the Oscar-nominated actors body of work.
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Brad Pitt is undeniably a great movie star.
But is he a great actor?
Pitt instead has a tremendous understanding and use of his body.
He actually doesnt get enough credit for the way he uses his body as an extension of his face.
What has held him back has been his lack of consistency.
Given these performances, I think he still has so much more to say.
Its too slight a role to be memorable, and it doesnt ask much of Pitt either.
Sadly for Pitt, Dwight is a poorly sketched archetype rather than a living, breathing character.
Theres also a hesitancyto his performancethat lessens the impact of his charm.
Whatever it is, it doesnt work.
Its the kind of film that has to be seen to be believed.
His performance is ultimately stiff and unimaginative.
Pitt himself seems to agree.
In the August 1992 issue ofDetails, this is how he summed up hisCool Worldexperience: It was fun.
But I got into some bad habits because I did most of the film by myself.
Behind a blue screen, you know?
Actings magical when its fresh.
Someone throws something your way, and you catch it and you throw it back.
Its hard to be impulsive when youre working with a blue screen.
Pitt plays one of the friends, Michael, who as an adult has become an assistant district attorney.
Its far from his best work.
In the film, Pitt sports a rural Irish accent that renders him mush-mouthed.
But the accent is only part of the problem.The Devils Ownhad a difficult production.
Strange blankness in moments as if nothing is going on behind his eyes?
Harrer may have led an interesting life, but in Pitts hands, hes all surface-level characterization.
He seems more focused on the accent than imbuing his character with an interior life.
When it comes to portraying the reality of who that person is, he falls short.
But thats not the end of the story, its just the beginning.
Unfortunately, it leads to a calculated performance.
Pitt is clearly having fun playing Mickey, an Irish Traveller and bare-knuckle boxing one-punch champion.
But the films running joke about not understanding his accent wears thin, quickly.
Its just memorable for the wrong reasons.
Still, his efforts work well enough here in spite of a grating, uneven film.
But Pitt at least brings a kooky energy to the character.
The character is a caricature from the start.
In scene after scene, Pitt feels like hesmakinga performance; he never truly lives and breathes.
Pitt plays him as a collection of quirks, and the schtick wears out fast.
Chemistry between actors is a dance, and these two cant agree on the rhythm of this romance.
Pitts movements come across as stiff, particularly in exposition-filled scenes involving Christian Slater.
Its a muted and ultimately minor performance that gets lost in the films chaotically slick stylings.
Pitt plays Tom Bishop, a CIA asset mentored by Nathan Muir (Robert Redford).
Good, but not essential.
24.Thelma & Louise(1991)
What is the alchemy behind a star-making turn?
Charisma, of course.
But perhaps most importantly, a sense of contradiction that audiences are drawn to and want to solve.
Pitt is immediately magnetic.
His eyes glimmer in a conversation with his mother Thetis (Julie Christie) at the idea of immortality.
InLegends, Pitt plays the middle son and brooding romantic hero, Tristan.
In his hands, hes wild, golden, immensely magnetic.
Its a reminder that as Pitt became a star, he could rely on his power to enchant.
Pitt is tender and complex here.
Pitt complicates the moment by turning his sunny disposition into something darker and more hurtful.
That broad smile never leaves his face, and we learn how charisma can be a weapon.
Pitt is asked to play a few notes worn down, tender, frustrated which he does with grace.
Its a considerable portrait, with Pitts furrowed brows and tired eyes communicating a world of hurt.
18.Fury(2014)
Its spring of 1945.
A charred battlefield housing corpses and tanks lies still as a German officer on horseback surveys the wreckage.
Theres rough masculine intimacy and all the requisite war-drama shades of vulnerability.
The tension in his performance is quiet first before it consumes the entire scene, making it feel claustrophobic.
Pitt plays Benjamin Button with too light a touch for a character who should be brimming with deep feeling.
(He earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the role.)
Its an okay performance in an okay film that works in fits and starts.
Pitt makes these scenes magnetic simply by the way he surveys a room.
He isnt so much a cool operator as a cold figure who deploys violence with professional precision.
His voice, a slow, lackadaisical lilt, is hilarious in the few scenes hes in.
Its a master class in how to make a memorable turn with little material.
In the apocalyptic Terry Gillam picture, Pitt is supporting character Jeffrey Goines, a belligerent, manic motormouth.
His body is rangey andconstantlymoving.
Every decision is designed to keep the audience at a distance rather than draw them closer.
The performance earned Pitt a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Oscars and a win at the Golden Globes.
& Mrs. Smith(2005)
Mr. & Mrs. Smithis the perfect hangover movie.
The chemistry between him and Jolie is electric.
Its certainly not one of Pitts most layered performances, but what can I say?
Sometimes you just want to have fun at the movies.
But, of course, the movie takes a turn, and Pitt is ready for the moment.
His infamous exclamation at the end of the film (Whats in the box?)
has been endlessly parodied and joked about since, but forget all that and revisit it.
9.Kalifornia(1993)
Dominic Senas 1993 thrillerKalifornia, contains one of Pitts greatest physical performances.
Brian is seduced by Earlys outlook, and its no wonder: Pitt is mesmerizing.
His Early doesnt walk.
He stalks, lurches, stomps.
He grins like a dog baring its teeth.
Pitts voice is one of his most effective tools here.
Violence sparks easily in Early, and he gives into it with abandon, without regret or posturing.
His energy is wild and broad.
Its all foolish, of course.
An old friend of mine came up with a term for moments like Charles Lanes inSybil: Back-ting.
To this day, I am fascinated by moments when actors turn their backs on the camera.
It is actor as storyteller, actor as auteur.
Pitts mythic presence inFightClubis almost overbearing, hard to look away from but beckoning all the same.
But the plot isnt the point.
Pitts spikes his usual persona with an element of sloppiness.
Hes alcohol-soaked and full of yearning.
In one of the movies best moments, Pitt walks into the bathroom to talk to Jolie.
You look beautiful laying there.
Maybe I dont say that enough, he tells her, his eyes downcast, wounded.
This is evident inMoneyball,where he plays Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane.
As Beane, Pitt carries tension in his jaw and looseness in the rest of his body.
An air of regret hangs around him.
Pitt obliges with eloquent precision.
He has an immense understanding of the character.
The scenes between him and Jessica Chastain are sharp enough to draw blood.
Their bodies say what remains unspoken in the film.
It wouldnt be a surprise if he did.
He plays Cliff Booth, the stuntman and right-hand man to Leonardo DiCaprios failing actor Rick Dalton.
When Pitt isnt onscreen, you yearn to see him.
He revels in it.
This is true throughoutOnce Upon a Time, in which it seems he is bending the light toward him.
Pitt knows that Cliff is a complicated man.
I keep coming back to this performance, hoping to decipher what is so effective.
2.AdAstra(2019)
Every actor has a story.
Im not talking about the origin stories that bring them to our screens.
Pitt works primarily in three modes: chill, wacky and arch, and matinee idol.
In James GraysAd Astra,these approaches are synthesized into a career-best performance.
But there are cracks from the beginning.
His eyes grow a shade tenser, and the depth of his loss becomes unmistakable.
Pay attention to how his breathing moves from steady to ragged, unbalanced by the revelations concerning his father.
Watching Pitt, this still holds true.
What makes this role so fascinating is how it both plays with his movie-star aura and pushes against it.
He gives Jesse James a steady, even steely quality.
But he also consciously uses his beauty to enchant and ensnare us.
There are some stars you turn to to see life reflected at you.
