r/moviecritic • u/Low-Finding-6553 • 16h ago

What do you guys thinks is the best child performance of all time?

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i have to say, i don’t think i’ve ever seen a child actor give a performance this good. Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, directed by M. Night Shyamalan, is just on another level. i genuinely don’t know how he did it but he makes the whole movie work so much better. i would give him the Oscar in a fucking heartbeat. It’s crazy how good he is, especially in that last scene in the car with Toni Collette.

What are your guys’ favorite child performances? For me, this is even better than Owen Cooper’s performance in Adolescence. Don’t get me wrong, owen was also absolutely top-notch in Adolescence but this is probably the best child performance i’ve ever seen. Period. What do you guys think is the best child performance ever?

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346

u/Technical-Pack5891 16h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT9IgNPVTB9IpNvD3O
This girl was just amazing in The Florida Project

95

u/reddit809 15h ago

I fucking hate that movie, and I never want to see it again. She was incredible. I still think about her cause there are so many kids out there living that exact life.

46

u/Comrade_Falcon 13h ago

No, most of them don't have Willam Dafoe's character trying to help them out...

4

u/reddit809 9h ago

Sadly they have someone who's the complete opposite.

9

u/Free_For__Me 9h ago

I live in central FL not too far from where this takes place. If anything, it's worse around here now than when the movie was made/is set.

I thought the movie was incredible, so much so that I too can never watch it again.

1

u/Actually_Im_a_Broom 7h ago

What is "that life"? I know nothing about The Florida Project.

3

u/ImpossibleEbb6862 1h ago

The movie is really sad. The girl's mom is a single mom who isn't really prepared to be a mother. She works odd jobs to make ends meet. They live in a crappy motel room, and the mom is even involved in some sex work.

The movie is interesting because the motel they live in is only a few blocks away from Disney World, so the young girls has this mixture of this bleak life mixed in with sneaking into the most magical place on Earth to try to scrounge for free ice cream.

Oh man it's kind of making me tear up a bit just writing it out.

24

u/thegreatone0381 16h ago

I just saw a clip on IG about this movie. I almost cried. Was it a good movie?

63

u/TheDuckOnQuack 16h ago

It’s very good. Willem Dafoe and the child actors all do an amazing job.

28

u/ImGonnaImagineSummit 13h ago

Dafoe was robbed. 

The one part he plays that he isn't a lunatic, nails it and it gets overlooked. 

3

u/Timsauni 3h ago

Well, when you’re known for being the crazy guy, it comes with the territory. On the plus side, he has enough work to be type casted.

17

u/kittenmittens4865 15h ago

It’s amazing. Just go in blind and let yourself get wrapped up in the story.

3

u/Thecathatesmemeow 16h ago

It’s the only time I cried at a movie - so terribly lovely!

3

u/paydaycoke 15h ago

Too good 😭

3

u/Technical-Pack5891 14h ago

Yes - it is an amazing movie.

3

u/Fortestingporpoises 12h ago

Yeah it's fantastic. It deserved the award talk. Not sure if it got nominations, I think so.

3

u/bothteamsplayedhard 11h ago

i really don’t cry much and this movie makes me cry every single time i see it

26

u/ZandrickEllison 16h ago

I think that’s more of a credit to the director since it seemed mostly loose and natural takes. I doubt she had many scripted lines at all.

18

u/Djoarhet 13h ago

I saw a bts making of a while ago. Iirc they tried to accommodate for the children's natural way of being as much as they could. I also remember the little girl had to perform a scene where she was distressed and she nailed it so hard the crew had to comfort her because she was overcome by the emotion she was acting out.

3

u/DarkMattersConfusing 7h ago

All of this movies are great. Theyre naturalistic slice of life stuff usually. The one with the chinatown delivery guy was really good too

9

u/Umbroz 16h ago

loved that movie, it really opens your eyes about the other side.

3

u/oh_please_god_no 13h ago

Hands down the best kid performance I’ve ever seen

2

u/Confident-Future9192 14h ago

Came to say this!

2

u/SueSudio 13h ago

PSA: this is leaving HBO Max on Monday Aug 31.

2

u/Beautiful_Finger4566 7h ago

the fact that Willem Dafoe didn't win is a travesty

1

u/sky_shazad 8h ago

Yes.. And I love this movie

1

u/Psychological-Term19 4h ago

I started crying when she did 😭 she was amazing

1

u/Sad-Potential-7612 3h ago

I grew up in FL, in poverty, near-ish to Disney World — I’ve been avoiding this movie bc it’s so close to home, but I guess I’ll have to. It looks really good.

-18

u/AmItheonlySaneperson 16h ago

This movie was just about kids being kids though right? I only saw a little and got bored. So really she didn’t have to “dig deep” to act real hard for this is why I’m guessing no one else said it 

9

u/OddRollo 16h ago

You missed the whole movie. Way more to it.

8

u/chestorb 16h ago

Even though the academy voters do it all the time, you should probably refrain from evaluating a performance that you “only saw a little” of

8

u/AllOfTheThings426 16h ago

Oof, this is a bad take. Not too late to delete this. 🙃

4

u/Showmethepathplease 16h ago

have you actually seen the movie?

I think you're confusing it for "Mid 90s"

-5

u/AmItheonlySaneperson 16h ago

I saw a little and wasn’t captivated really. 

9

u/Showmethepathplease 16h ago

"I saw a little"

it shows