When breaking into Hollywood, many actors dream of the opportunity to secure a major franchise role that will not only offer job security but eventually propel them to great heights and more roles later on in their careers. Robert Pattinson is one of those fortunate actors, as he won the role of Edward in the film adaptation of the Twilight series.
And job security certainly came from those films, as there were five movies in the series, which grossed over one billion dollars. The one negative side effect of this is that many fans may have had trouble seeing him outside the role of Edward or taking him seriously in other roles. But these fans have missed out on a multitude of fantastic performances from the actor who has been tapped to be the next iteration of the caped crusader in Matt Reeves' The Batman.
The King
There are several films out there that take the works of the great William Shakespeare and give a new spin to the stories and the 2019 Netflix film, The King, fits this bill as well. The story of King Henry V is an interesting one and Timothée Chalamet's portrayal of his rise through the ranks is both stoic and emotional.
Most of the actors take a serious approach to their characters, but the major exception here is Robert Pattinson, who plays Henry's adversary, Louis The Dauphin of France. Pattinson plays him like a bumbling fool and delivers a comedic tone that is missing everywhere else in the movie, delivering memorable one-liners and showcasing some physical comedy skills in the film's big battle scene.
The Devil All The Time
One of Pattinson's great qualities as an actor is that he is not afraid to take on a role of a character fully engulfed in darkness and is as villainous as they come. The Devil All The Time is a film of dark tones throughout, and Pattinson's Reverend Preston Teagarden is a standout performance amongst the strong cast.
When he rolls into town, he comes across as a Southern charmer, but it is slowly revealed that he is anything but. Pattinson's smarmy performance was a realization for his fans that he can also nail a performance draped in evil and with no redeeming qualities.
Tenet
Tenet is one of the most discussed films in recent memory and one of the few films to release in theaters during the Covid-19 pandemic. Pattinson's Neil may not have been the main focus of this film, but he makes himself known right away, even at times where the audience didn't even know it was him in the scene.
Neil plays off of John David Washington's protagonist character in a way that he seems to be comfortable around him, even when the two first properly meet. Neil is the driving force behind the main plot advancing the story, and Pattinson's performance is so well done and crucial to the film that it requires a second watching to fully appreciate his performance after what is revealed at the end.
The Lost City Of Z
Sometimes a performance is so captivating and well done, that the actor is almost disguised in the role and the viewer doesn't even recognize them. Pattinson accomplishes this in The Lost City of Z with his portrayal of Corporal Henry Costin, the man with vast knowledge of the terrain he and Charlie Hunnam's Percy Fawcett go on to search for.
Costin is a crucial character in this adaptation of a true story, as Fawcett doesn't get as close to discovery as he did without Costin there to guide him and be his right-hand man. For a character of such importance to be so difficult for fans to notice as the man from Twilight is a credit to how well Pattinson embraced the role.
The Lighthouse
When a film is centralized on a singular location and around a minute cast, the importance of the lead actor's performance increases tenfold. Pattinson is no stranger to starring roles from his time on Twilight, but to carry an entire film on your shoulders from start to finish is another undertaking on its own.
However, Pattinson is successful at this in his starring role in the dark thriller, The Lighthouse. With just Willem Dafoe's lighthouse keeper character to play off of, Pattinson's Ephraim Winslow is an incredibly memorable performance in one of the more strangely artistic films to come out in recent years.
High Life
As actors become more experienced, they may reach a point in their careers where their involvement in a project has the power to bring an obscure film idea to the public forefront. High Life is an independent sci-fi space film, a genre that is very popular but has much darker undertones than the average space adventure.
Pattinson and his cast play a group of prisoners that, instead of being put to death, are sent up to space to see if they can extract energy from a black hole while being experimented on in the journey. A premise that most people would normally pay no attention to is instantly elevated to critical acclaim due to the gravitas that Pattinson's performance brings to the film.
Good Time
When looking through an actor's catalog of films, fans hope to lock onto that one film where the actor delivers a performance so powerful that it gets attention during the major awards season. Unfortunately for Pattinson, that film has not come yet, but it probably should have happened already with the film Good Time, a movie that many fans also feel deserves a sequel.
The portrayal of Connie Nikas, a bank robber on a mission to rescue his brother from police custody, is probably Pattinson's strongest performance, and yet it is highly underrated. He was overly praised for his work, but not enough, as many fans believe he was deserving of an Academy Award for Best Actor, or at the very least, a nomination.