Following the brightest For the female roles of the outgoing year, we recall the most daring male film characters that we have seen in films over the past 12 months. Michael Douglas in feathers, Jared Leto in a skirt, James Franco as James Franco the nerd and other prominent roles that changed the banal notions of masculinity and expanded the boundaries of everything that men can and should allow themselves in life and on the screen.
Behind the candelabra
Producer: Stephen Soderbergh
Cast: Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd, Scott Bakula, Debbie Reynolds, Boyd Holbrook, Nicky Cutt, Shayenne Jackson, Eddie Jameson, Bruce Ramsey
The biopic of the eccentric pianist Liberace, who furnished piano concerts with Eltonjon's pomp, gathered thousands of halls in the 70s and also preferred feathers and gilding outside the stage. Both Michael Douglas and Matt Damon are doing something indescribable
starring a young artist and his lover, not to mention the bed scenes.
End of the World 2013: Hollywood Style Apocalypse
Directed by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen
Cast: James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson, Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Paul Rudd
Of the two standout films that James Franco has played this year, Razor Holidays proved that he is a great actor, and The End of the World - that he still has a huge reserve of self-irony. In this killer comedy, like the best friends' get-together, everyone plays themselves. And for some reason, just after this film, I want to believe that in fact Franco is not at all such a pompous idiot as he appears in the frame.
The Passion of Don Juan
Producer: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Glenn Headley, Brie Larson, Rob Brown, Jeremy Luke, Italy Ricci, Lindsay Broad, Amanda Perez
In the past year, Gordon-Levitt made his directing debut, starring himself in the controversial role of a narcissistic jerk, obsessed with porn and preferring his own hand to Scarlett Johansson. True, the film leaves a dubious aftertaste: it seems to be very funny, but still arrogant, and like Gordon-Levitt sneers at his image of a sex symbol, but doesn't he often show the press in the frame then?
Surrogate
Producer: Ben Levin
Cast: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks, Adam Arkin, Rea Perlman, W. Earl Brown, Robin Weigert, Blake Lindsley, Ming Lo, Rusty Schwimmer
An almost unnoticed film in Russia about real events - about a bedridden man who, by the age of 38, decided to lose his innocence. In a way, this is a dramatic response to The Forty-Year-Old Virgin, thanks primarily to American independent film star John Hawkes (we recently saw him play the role of sect leader in Martha, Marcy May, Marlene).
Kill your loved ones
Producer: John Crocidas
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Michael S. Hall, Daniel Radcliffe, Ben Foster, Dane DeHaan, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Cross, Jack Houston, Kira Sedgwick, David Rasche
Perhaps the most daring (or shocking - here to each his own) role in Radcliffe's biography will forever remain his image from the play Equus. There, the actor plays a young man obsessed with horses and walks around the stage completely naked. In 2013, he definitely earned praise for Kill Your Loved Ones. In the film based on true events, Radcliffe transforms into a young poet, beatnik and homosexual Allen Ginsberg, who is torn between creativity and attempts to remain a good friend to his comrade in love.
Dallas Buyers Club
Producer: Jean-Marc Vallee
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Denis O'Hare, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts, Kevin Rankin, Juliet Reeves, Griffin Dunn
A film in which you can not take your eyes off the two main characters, and both are men. The first, a homophobic cowboy with an unexpected AIDS diagnosis, is played by Matthew McConaughey. It is not the first year (and quite successfully) that he has been trying to demonstrate to the world all facets of his acting talent, and this role makes him one step closer to his cherished goal. The second hero, the transsexual Rayon, is played by Jared Leto, a man who should be given an Oscar for his skillful transformation into the strangest characters.
She is
Producer: Spike Jonze
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Amy Adams, Olivia Wilde, Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chris Pratt, Portia Doubleday, Cassandra Starr, Sam Jager
How strongly we are all attached to our iPhones, iPads and other devices today can be called a full-fledged relationship. It is not surprising that one of the most sensitive films of the year was Spike Jonze's "She" about the romance of man and technology, and the most touching role was the image of the mustachioed Joaquin Phoenix, madly in love with the operating system with a beautiful female voice.
Thaw
Producer: Valery Todorovsky
Cast: Evgeny Tsyganov, Alexander Yatsenko, Anna Chipovskaya, Victoria Isakova, Mikhail Efremov, Svetlana Kolpakova, Yana Sexte, Nina Dvorzhetskaya, Pavel Derevyanko
Despite the fact that we all call "The Thaw" a TV series, in the credits it is called an old-fashioned TV movie. This is a story about Soviet filmmakers and two types of men - a hysterical idealist and a principled asshole. The latter was brilliantly played by Evgeny Tsyganov, proving that some assholes are far from being as hopeless as they seem at first glance.