Alex writes about how Ryan Gosling and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have disappointed this fall, and how he probably wants to marry Don Cheadle.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed a weird thing happening in some of this fall\u2019s movies. I thought Ryan Gosling\u2019s performance in Drive was extremely weak*, and I didn\u2019t think Joseph Gordon-Levitt was anything special in 50\/50. Had you told me this would be the case even two years ago, however, I probably would have been shocked.<\/p>\n

*And he was mediocre in The Ides of March.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Acting is rarely the most interesting thing about a movie to me; Martha Marcy May Marlene had a pretty good Elizabeth Olsen performance and a stellar one from John Hawkes, but that movie didn\u2019t connect with me particularly strongly because I had issues with the other aspects of the film. Typically, I\u2019ll only notice a really good performance after the cinematography, music or writing in any given movie. The general emptiness of those aspects of Martha Macy May Marlene is the only reason I got around to noticing the acting; had half of the footage in that film not been so literally (and distractingly) dark, perhaps I never would have really noticed Olsen. Given that I have been known to discuss the positive aspects of movies like She\u2019s the Man, I always find it odd that I\u2019m such a tough critic when it comes to acting. I generally look at a performance like people look at editing: if I notice it at all, you\u2019re probably doing it wrong. When I see a good performance inside a movie that I find great on the other levels mentioned \u2013 one that I really enjoy but don\u2019t realize until after the film is over – I tend to get really excited about it. Since I\u2019m always looking for something where an actor takes me out of a movie, I\u2019m always happy when that moment never comes. Like with Ryan Gosling in Half Nelson, or Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Brick. Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon perhaps, or Gene Hackman in The Conversation.<\/p>\n

My interest in the latter two actors goes back too far to really explain why I started liking them in the first place, but Gosling and Gordon-Levitt are interesting cases because I remember exactly when they went from being people on my television while I read Sports Illustrated to people I actually found interesting. I became interested in both actors at the same time: in 2004, I saw Gordon-Levitt\u2019s psych ward drama Manic and Gosling\u2019s performance in The United States of Leland. I didn\u2019t particularly love either movie, but I watched them both multiple times because that\u2019s just what I did with movies I watched in 2004. Manic was missing something that stopped it from being good, and The United States of Leland was simply too corny to be enjoyable. I did generally like the male leads in each movie, though. I might not have rushed out to see Mysterious Skin and The Notebook, but I wasn\u2019t going to be surprised if they ended up giving good performances in either movie. Basically, I wasn\u2019t surprised when I enjoyed Gordon-Levitt\u2019s performance as Brendan the teenage gumshoe in Brick, nor was I shocked that Gosling made drug-addicted schoolteacher Dan Dunne more interesting than he was clich\u00e9d. I was, however, shocked by just how good each of them was in Brick and Half Nelson when I saw them both in 2006: Gordon-Levitt does so many interesting, subtle things* that he makes the (admittedly absurd) premise of Brick wholly acceptable. And Gosling never does anything in Half Nelson that doesn\u2019t feel right; in a film that would be so easy to get really shitty really quickly, his character somehow never stops feeling real. Walking home from the theatre in the snow after seeing Half Nelson, I couldn\u2019t put my finger on what it was about the movie I really loved, but I knew there was something there that was far, far better than average.<\/p>\n

*A key to his amazingness in this film: watching Gordon-Levitt\u2019s goddamn feet is often interesting. It\u2019s insane.<\/em><\/p>\n

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From that point, I began earnestly following each actor\u2019s career. I didn\u2019t go back and watch everything I missed from their early career*, but I was interested in what each would do next. I saw The Lookout because of Gordon-Levitt, and I\u2019m happy I did because that movie is fucking awesome; I saw Stay because of Gosling, which is unfortunate because that movie is fucking awful. I wasn\u2019t surprised by Gordon-Levitt\u2019s performance in 500 Days of Summer, and I was equally unsurprised by Gosling\u2019s entertaining performance in Lars and the Real Girl. This fall, however, things started to change.<\/p>\n

*I have not seen the complete series run of Young Hercules, and I do not lose sleep over this fact.<\/em><\/p>\n

I probably should have seen this coming: Gordon-Levitt\u2019s performance in Inception did nothing for me, but I assumed that was because Arthur was an extremely simple character. I enjoyed Blue Valentine (inasmuch as one can enjoy that exceptionally depressing film), but even though it was basically an actor\u2019s showcase, I didn\u2019t exactly pray at the Church of Gosling as I left the theatre this winter. I didn\u2019t love this movie like I loved Half Nelson, and the problem was that, this time, I instantly knew why.<\/p>\n

As we follow the careers of artists we love, the way we appreciate them tends to change. We can only be surprised by how good somebody can be so many times. After Brick and Half Nelson, I knew what these actors were capable of and I was actively looking for more of it. It\u2019s likely that, had Blue Valentine been made in 2006 and Half Nelson in 2010, I would have been disappointed by Half Nelson and gotten comically overexcited about Blue Valentine. As we get used to actors\u2019 methods, we start to know what\u2019s coming, and the lack of surprise makes us appreciate them less. This applies to other artists as well: I will probably never be as impressed by a Wes Anderson movie as I was by The Royal Tenenbaums, even though over time I have realized I actually like Rushmore a lot more. When I saw Rushmore, I knew what Anderson\u2019s general aesthetic was, not unlike I knew Gosling tends to like to sport a fake, whispery Brooklyn accent*.<\/p>\n

*This is probably in order to seem more Brando-esque or something. See also: Kobe Bryant\u2019s fake Michael Jordan voice.<\/em><\/p>\n

Musicians are the same way: my favourite record is DJ Shadow\u2019s Endtroducing, a 1996 album that is critically beloved. But since his albums are now considered disappointing, I didn\u2019t even realize he was working on a new album until I saw that it had already been released last month. The Roots\u2019 are probably my favourite band, but I\u2019m not exactly trembling with excitement over their December release Undun like I was with Phrenology a decade ago, despite the fact that Undun sounds like it will be an extremely interesting record. I actually really like most of DJ Shadow\u2019s latest album The Less You Know, the Better, and I\u2019ll probably like Undun quite a bit as well. But it is this lack of surprise that ensures I can never love anything these artists do more than I loved the work they did before I was familiar with how they think, record, and operate.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, there are the actors and artists you have cared about for a long time, and don\u2019t see any drop off in your interest over the horizon. I was introduced to Gordon-Levitt and Gosling through Manic and The United States of Leland, but the only reason I ever watched those movies in the first place was because they were co-starring with Don Cheadle. I have been a fan of Cheadle since Traffic, and in the time since that movie\u2019s release, I refuse to accept that there has been a time where he isn\u2019t Hollywood\u2019s best working actor. He has been great in comedies, dramas, and action movies, and there is simply never a point when he\u2019s any less than perfect. The movies he is in certainly aren\u2019t flawless*, but he always is. That I continue to think this every time I see him in a new movie only makes me happier because I know what his tendencies are, and he still manages to surprise me. This is rare: Benicio Del Toro is in the same boat, but he just isn\u2019t in enough movies that I find interesting to get me to follow everything he does. Cheadle, however, is in movies I don\u2019t always love, but movies in which I still find him incredible. It\u2019s kind of unfortunate that I don\u2019t feel the same way about Gordon-Levitt and Gosling today as I did a few years ago, but I suppose that\u2019s just a natural progression.<\/p>\n

*Crash is terrible, Traitor was only any better than bad because of an interesting twist, and I hated Hotel Rwanda.<\/em><\/p>\n

These actors, or artists, often don\u2019t actually get any worse as time goes on. Sure, it\u2019s inarguable that this does happen (Al Pacino clearly gives a better performance in Dog Day Afternoon than he does in the truly awful Righteous Kill), but not as often as people seem to think. Any connection with a popular art happens when your tastes align with what is happening onscreen, or in your headphones. What happens is as time goes on, it\u2019s possible that your tastes will change, as will Ryan Gosling\u2019s and Joseph Gordon-Levitt\u2019s (something that is shown by their recent attempts to show up in more blockbusters). We might not know these people, but we get used to them. And sometimes they start to suck, and we just want to make fun of them. We grow apart, and their fake Brooklyn accent starts to wear on us. We might hope they get everything they want out of life, or we might hate them for how we feel they wronged us (which people seem to do with my beloved Pacino). But this is a totally natural occurrence; it\u2019s so rare that some sort of everlasting friendship will happen in our lives that it\u2019s ridiculous to ever expect the same out of the people we follow in their fake lives.<\/p>\n

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