Interestingly enough Adrien Brody was one of those kids whose parents wanted to keep him away from the wrong element and therefore enrolled him in acting classes. Obviously one could say that it worked since he took to acting quite well and started walking a path that would eventually see him win Academy gold for one of the greatest stories ever told in the opinion of many people. In some ways he’s been kind of a controversial character in the past, but he’s also been someone that you can look at with a healthy amount of respect and awe since he tends to take his roles rather seriously when stepping into them. He can get extremely aggressive in playing a role or he can play it to a tee when he has to be the timid, unassuming character that you don’t think much about. That’s part of his genius though, he’s simply unexpected and can surprise you when you least expect it.
Here are some of his best movies.
5. Summer of Sam
Based roughly on the true story of the Son of Sam this movie didn’t really skimp when it decided to go raw and remind people of the terror that was experienced back in these days. People were losing their minds left and right trying to figure out who the Son of Sam killer was and were actively attempting to piece together the man’s identity on their own. The unfortunate part of this movie is that Richie, Brody’s character, started hanging around his old friends again only to be reviled and ridiculed for his new, awkward behavior. This of course wasn’t all that wise in a city already gripped by paranoia, and eventually Richie got the living hell beat out of him as his old buddies thought, incorrectly, that he was the Son of Sam killer.
4. The Village
Noah was not a smart man. But being simpleminded was not a great excuse when it was revealed that despite his childlike mentality, he still harbored the same desires that a grown man would have. He wanted the same woman as a man in his village, and unbeknownst to anyone else he was willing to do what he felt was needed to eliminate the competition. When he committed a deadly assault he was locked away, but perhaps the most disturbing part of this movie is that Noah knew the secret of the cloaked and hooded monsters that existed beyond the borders of the village. That would eventually prove to his undoing however.
3. Predators
This one makes the list despite the claims of many that the movie wasn’t that great. One thing that people tend to forget about the Predator movies however is that they’re not meant to be Oscar-worthy films. They’re the down and dirty movies that are meant to be action-packed and inspire terror and a sense of urgency that keeps the movie rolling along at a steady if not breakneck pace. These movies are great since they essentially pit the deadliest warriors that can be found against one of the greatest hunters that’s ever existed in cinema, and like it or not people need to admit that the chase and the ultimate battle at the end is something that sets their nerves on fire with every pulse-tingling moment.
2. The Pianist
War can disrupt and shatter the lives of anyone it touches whether they’re directly involved or not. Szpilman, a renowned pianist, finds that once the war comes to his home that things only get worse as he is eventually separated from his family and force to flee more than once to stay alive. When his health begins to decline he relies on the kindness of strangers and even one German officer that sees the beauty in what he does and helps to hide and keep him safe. Once the war is over he goes back to doing what he is so very good at, but the trials that he’s gone through stay with him the rest of his life, as one might expect.
1. The Jacket
Time travel is always an engaging subject since it brings up the question of morality and the what-if factor that so many people seem to enjoy. When Jack Starks, a veteran suffering from amnesia, meets a woman and her daughter while walking down the road he helps them out, not knowing that he’ll be destined to meet them later on in life. After he’s committed to a psychiatric ward following the death of a police officer that he supposedly killed he’s put into a strait jacket and placed in a closed environment for sensory deprivation therapy. Somehow this gives him the ability to travel forward through time, to where he meets the girl, now grown, and does his best to change her life for the better.
Adrien is a surprise, just when you haven’t seen him in a while he reminds you that he’s still there.
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