#film-performances

#film-performances

Pacino plays the idealistic coach of the fictional Miami Sharks, who sees the game as a test of character. On any given Sunday, you're gonna win or you're gonna lose, he says. The point is can you win or lose like a man?

Among the bold choices in Luca Guadagnino's feverish film of William S Burroughs' novel are the late 20th-century pop and alternative soundtrack (Nirvana, Prince, New Order) for a 1950s story, and the casting of an unrecognisable, orc-like Manville in a trumped-up cameo as the shaman Dr Cotter, who was male in the original book.

Russell Crowe's hair-raising performance as Hermann Goring in Nuremberg is the latest example of the veteran actor's high-risk, high-reward approach. He has a knack for taking on difficult, baggage-laden roles that could have gone spectacularly badly only to deliver the goods and make you want to stand up and yell bravo! You'll struggle to find many other actors working today with an oeuvre as eclectic, varied and downright impressive as the Wellington-born star's. Here are his 20 greatest performances.