The Richness of Twenty-First Century Performances

Abstract

This chapter considers indiewood-era acting in terms of its continuity and contrast with earlier eras, as it analyzes the interplay among casting, performance details, filmic strategies, narrative design, and aesthetic traditions. Linking Happiness (Solondz, 1998) to avant-garde productions in the 1970s and Magnolia (P.T. Anderson, 1999) to Hollywood Renaissance approaches, it shows that analysis of performance can sharpen insights into smart cinema and films that feature both ironic distance and sincerity. The chapter also considers films released while indiewood dominated American independent cinema, but do not fit the indiewood model and align instead with earlier modes of independent and indie cinema. Analyzing Elephant (Van Sant, 2003), Man Push Cart (Bahrani, 2005), and Old Joy (Reichardt, 2006), it explores the continuing influence of neo-naturalism and independent films’ use of first-time actors. It considers the sustained influence of multicultural perspectives in Skins (Eyre, 2002) and Never Forever (Kim, 2009), and the indiewood productions with Hollywood stars that reveal the evolving legacy of New Queer Cinema in the acclaimed performances of Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid in Far From Heaven (Haynes, 2002) and Charlize Theron in Monster (Jenkins, 2003).