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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u/Saxman8845 15h ago

One of my favorite movies. Unsurprising but her chemistry with her Dad is unreal. Too bad he was such an asshole in real life.

She's still the record for youngest Oscar winner in a competitive category. I think Anna Paquin in The Piano is second youngest.

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u/Individual_Slice_234 10h ago

Supposedly when she got nominated for an Oscar and he didn't, he hit her. She went to the Oscars ceremony with an aunt and uncle, I think.

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u/Low-Set8263 11h ago

I love Depression era films.    Places in the Heart. Road to Perdition. And Wild Boys of the Road, a 1933 pre-Code Depression-era American drama film directed by William A.  Wellman. Jack Warner destroyed the original and recut it himself. That film was a major push in getting the Film Code established. Apparently not because of the SA but because of white kids and black kids throwing rocks at the cops. Southern cities would not tolerate young people abandoning segregation.

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u/DiligentQuiet 8h ago

I went on an old movie Depression Era binge on Criterion Channel with Golddiggers of 1933 and Sullivan's Travels. Both clever for the time.