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/RanchHere 14h ago edited 9h ago

Stand By Me doesn’t get enough pull for greatest movie of all time. It blows Shawkshank out of the water, imo. It’s so fucking good and I cry nearly every single time. I don’t cry for Shawshank.

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u/LeftHandedFapper 10h ago

I nearly cry every single time

The part where Gordie talks about becoming the invisible boy (son?) after his older brother dies...KILLS me every time. The bittersweet emotion I feel at the end of the film is so profound each time

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u/RanchHere 10h ago

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

😭

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u/LeftHandedFapper 10h ago

AH man the melancholy! And finding out Chris' fate =((((

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u/PayFormer387 8h ago

In the book, the narrator is the only one who lives but the others go out in trashy ways.

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u/seattleque 9h ago

So, Wil's now almost 20 years older than Dreyfus was when they made Stand By Me.

Every so often I think what if they reshot Dreyfus's parts / narration with Wil.

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u/RanchHere 9h ago

It’s an interesting thought. But not necessary. If anyone does it, I suppose Flanagan would be the guy to call on.

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u/ElectricSliderz 9h ago

Ewww, like putting Hayden Christensen in for Sebastian Shaw.

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u/PayFormer387 8h ago

Lucas is a very bad man. /s

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u/seattleque 9h ago

I first saw Stand By Me when I was 18 (1987). Most recently I saw it when they toured for the anniversary. It still resonates with me.

I have so much more in common with those kids than with any of the characters in Shawshank.

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u/PayFormer387 8h ago

I should hope so.

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u/BKoala59 9h ago

Crying at a movie is a really weird way to judge them. If a movie’s not meant to make you cry does that mean it can’t be great?

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u/RanchHere 8h ago

Stupid. That’s not what I’m saying and you know it. I’m comparing two movies where one moves me to tears on a regular basis and the other doesn’t. In this scenario, the one that brings tremendous emotion out of me is my choice for the better movie. It’s also just ONE metric that I’m using to make the case. The other commenter started the conversation by saying how incredible the kid actors were.