Tilda Swinton
After an actor wins an Academy Award, the story goes that they start choosing less challenging, more subpar content. (Just ask Halle Berry, Adrien Brody or Julia Roberts.) Tilda Swinton is one of the clear exceptions to that Oscar-related stigma, receiving a wide variety of film options since her win for Michael Clayton in 2008 and choosing a remarkable set of titles. She chose to work with the Coen Brothers (twice), Wes Anderson (twice), Jim Jarmusch (twice since her win, three altogether) and give highly touted performances in art-house hits I Am Love and We Need to Talk About Kevin.
She has no shame in playing ugly women caught in contemptible situations, as shown in films like Snowpiercer, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Michael Clayton. She slips so easily into thick disguises that one hardly realizes who is on the screen at all. The androgynous star can also play mean people with a depth and sophistication that few other actors can match. The odds are good that if she is present in the opening credits, she will not be playing an ordinary woman; sometimes, in films like Orlando, she does not even play a woman. Few women Swinton’s age get roles written for them, unless their name is Cate Blanchett or Meryl Streep. Unlike those other two actors, Swinton is more selective with her choices, but the results are perhaps even more amazing.
Certified Fresh Films: The Deep End, Adaptation, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Broken Flowers, Stephanie Daley, Michael Clayton, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Julia, I Am Love, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Moonrise Kingdom, Snowpiercer, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Only Lovers Left Alive
A Spot of Bother: The Limits of Control, Constantine, Vanilla Sky, The Beach
Up Next: A Bigger Splash, a mystery with Ralph Fiennes and Dakota Johnson; Trainwreck, the new film from Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer; Hail, Caesar!, a Hollywood comedy for the Coen Brothers
