Ben Mendelsohn’s 10 Finest Performances, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes
Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn grew to become an enormous presence within the leisure business all through the 2010s. Following a scene-stealing supporting flip in 2012’s The Darkish Knight Rises, Mendelsohn rose to mainstream prominence along with his Emmy-winning position within the Netflix authentic Bloodline.
Mendelsohn is again on the small display and the MCU because of Secret Invasion, the place he’ll reprise his position because the Skrull Talos. The actor thus provides one other critically acclaimed undertaking to his already robust resumé, stuffed with lauded efforts on the massive and small screens with excessive rankings on the overview aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
10 ‘Darkest Hour’ (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84%
Gary Oldman received the Oscar for his efficiency in Joe Wright‘s historic drama Darkest Hour. The revered actor performs Winston Churchill, with the plot addressing the 1940 struggle cupboard disaster the place he refused to make phrases with the Nazis within the early days of World Conflict II. Mendelsohn performs King George VI, who supplies invaluable and essential help to Churchill’s choice to proceed the hostilities.
Darkest Hour exists as a showcase for Oldman’s scenery-chewing efficiency as Churchill. Mendelsohn and the supporting solid do admirable work complementing his portrayal, however the movie lives and dies with Oldman, who single-handedly elevates it, even when the plot turns into spinoff.
9 ‘Stunning Kate’ (2009)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84%
Mendelsohn stars within the 2009 psychosexual drama Stunning Kate reverse Rachel Griffiths and Sophie Lowe. The plot follows Ned, a author who returns house to spend time along with his dying father. Nevertheless, issues get sophisticated by the presence of his seductive and manipulative twin sister, Kate.
Stunning Kate works because of a difficult and compelling narrative powered by a trio of spectacular performances from Mendelsohn, Griffiths, and Lowe. The movie could be a robust watch, particularly for its taboo themes, but it surely stays a considerate, if discomforting, tackle the Southern Gothic sub-genre.
8 ‘Cyrano’ (2021)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 85%
Peter Dinklage stars in Joe Wright’s 2021 musical romantic drama Cyrano. Primarily based on the 2018 stage model of the seminal play Cyrano de Bergerac, the movie follows the titular character, who makes use of his talent and wit to assist a younger man in incomes the love of the attractive Roxanne, with whom he’s desperately in love. Mendelsohn performs De Guiche, a useless and ruthless Duke relentlessly pursuing Roxanne’s affections.
Teaming with Wright once more, Mendelsohn does a remarkably good job of portraying the detestable and pompous De Guiche, offering Dinklage with a worthy foe. Nevertheless, Cyrano is Dinklage’s present, with the acclaimed actor delivering a career-best efficiency because the hopeless romantic within the criminally underrated musical.
7 ‘I Am Heath Ledger’ (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
The 2017 documentary I Am Heath Ledger is a tribute to the late Heath Ledger, celebrating his legacy and life. It options interviews with a number of key figures in Ledger’s life, together with his household, Naomi Watts, Djimon Hounsou, Emile Hirsch, Ang Lee, and Mendelsohn, an in depth good friend of the actor’s.
I Am Heath Ledger is among the many greatest documentaries of the 2010s, an intimate, considerate, and loving portrayal of a promising younger actor who tragically handed too quickly. Mendelsohn and the opposite visitors communicate with heat and palpable affection about Ledger, portray a mild and revealing picture of the late actor.
6 ‘Mississippi Grind’ (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Ryan Reynolds and Mendelsohn star within the 2015 dramedy Mississippi Grind. Mendelsohn performs Gerry, a person with a playing dependancy satisfied that his new good friend, the charming Curtis, is an effective luck appeal. The 2 journey to New Orleans to take part in a high-stakes poker recreation.
Seamlessly mixing the very best out of the street journey and buddy comedy genres, Mississippi Grind is a modern and humorous journey that makes essentially the most out of the extreme chemistry between Reynolds and Mendelsohn. The actors are relaxed with one another, anchoring the movie and producing one of many twenty first century’s greatest dramedies.
5 ‘The Outsider’ (2020)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 91%
Mendelsohn acquired essential approval for his beautiful work within the HBO miniseries The Outsider. Primarily based on the eponymous 2018 novel by Stephen King, The Outsider follows a supernatural pressure disrupting the investigation into the grotesque homicide of a younger boy. Cynthia Erivo, Paddy Considine, and Jason Bateman additionally star.
Tense, gripping, and genuinely terrifying, The Outsider is a slow-burn thriller that may frustrate some with its deliberately-restrained strategy. Nevertheless, stellar performances from Mendelsohn and Erivo, and an efficient and engrossing environment, make this a Stephen King adaptation destined to change into a basic.
4 ‘Gradual West’ (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
John Maclean’s Gradual West is among the many twenty first century’s greatest Revisionist Westerns. Kodi Smit-McPhee stars as a younger Scotsman who ventures into the American West looking for his long-lost love, joined by bounty hunter Silas Selleck, performed by Michael Fassbender. Mendelsohn performs Payne, the ruthless chief of SIlas’ previous gang and the movie’s major antagonist.
Visceral and refreshing, Gradual West is a intelligent replace of the basic Western, Smit-McPhee makes for an impressed hero, aided by Fassbender’s stern and dependable presence. Mendelsohn does what he does greatest, delivering a scene-stealing, despicable efficiency that ranks among the many movie’s strongest belongings.
3 ‘Babyteeth’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 94%
The 2019 coming-of-age dramedy Babyteeth stars Mendelsohn and Eliza Scanlen in her characteristic movie debut. Primarily based on the eponymous stage play, the plot issues a teen with most cancers who develops a brand new lust for all times after she falls in love with a small-town drug vendor.
Babyteeth is a delicate and intense coming-of-age story that breaks freed from the style’s conventions, delivering a strong and chaotic story that’s no much less rewarding. Mendelsohn and Scanlen shine as a father-daughter duo confronted with an unbearably painful state of affairs, bringing delicacy and nuance to a strong story about ache, sacrifice, and loss.
2 ‘Animal Kingdom’ (2010)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 95%
The 2010 Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom options an ensemble, together with Joel Edgerton, Man Pearce, Jacki Weaver, and Mendelsohn. The plot facilities on J, a younger man recruited into an notorious crime household following his mom’s dying. Nevertheless, when a cop provides him an opportunity at a brand new life, J should make a troublesome alternative. Mendelsohn performs Baz, the household’s psychopathic chief who commits most of their crimes.
Animal Kingdom is among the many most underrated crime motion pictures of the 2010s. Elevated by a stellar solid, the movie is a uncooked and unforgiving exploration of household and legacy, that includes a tour de pressure efficiency from Jacki Weaver that resulted in a richly-earned Oscar nomination.
1 ‘Starred Up’ (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 99%
David Mackenzie‘s 2013 jail crime drama Starred Up stars Mendelsohn reverse Jack O’Connell and Rupert Good friend. The plot facilities on a father-son duo who reunite in jail, resulting in an intense and risky relationship because of their explosive personalities.
Anchored by Mendelsohn’s sensible efficiency, Starred Up is a searing and hyper-realistic have a look at jail life. The movie finds surprising and delicate energy within the central father-son dynamic, with Mendelsohn and O’Connell portraying the troubled relationship with outstanding and earnest empathy.
