2005: The year of Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Sunday, August 16, 2020 at 8:11AM 
Some years can define an actor's career. That may happen because of the quality of their work or the cultural impact of the movies they starred in. Sometimes this can be obvious right as the year's unfolding, while, in other instances, the period gains importance in retrospect. Think of Grace Kelly's 1954 or Jessica Chastain's 2011. For Joseph Gordon-Levitt that seminal year might have been 2005…
Since a young age, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has lived and worked in front of cameras. He was only six when he got his first credited role in a TV movie and, by the early 90s, he was well on his way to becoming a child star. Movies like Disney's Angels in the Outfield and the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun ensured that, and appearances in teen movie classics like 10 Things I Hate About You laid the groundwork for continuing his success into adolescence. However, on the cusp of adulthood, JGL went to college, became a Francophile, and swore to be in good movies upon returning full-time to the job of acting.
This transitional period coincided with the early aughts, and it was by 2005 that the fruits of his newfound ambition started to appear. After all, any doubts about his talent or dedication to cinema would be squelched once Mysterious Skin was released. Greg Araki's coming-of-age tale about repressed memories, underage prostitution, pedophilia, and alien abductions may, at a first glance, appear like the sort of shocking project a former child actor chooses in an attempt to kill lingering impressions of juvenile innocence. However, Mysterious Skin is no shallow provocation.
The film's a bifurcated story about two teenage boys who, when they were little kids, found themselves molested by their baseball coach. Araki uses bits of whimsy and outwardly stylized filmmaking to depict how the two characters deal with their trauma in destructive ways. Both end up defining themselves by the pain they suffered, though Brady Corbet's UFO-obsessed teen takes the path of denial and far-fetched fantasy. In contrast, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Neil willingly reduces himself to a sex object, teetering on the cliff of annihilation as some kind of self-punishment.
Faced with such a complicated role, Joseph Gordon-Levitt finds the aching humanity inside. He makes Neil's internal struggles visible without betraying the pent-up nature of the character's psychology. It's a part that asks for a certain kind of anti-charisma that this particular actor excels at, a mask of clumsy sensuality that is visibly cracked, that beckons and repudiates with the same look. The last scenes of the film, when the protagonists finally meet and old demons are exorcised through remembrance is the most haunting thing either actor ever did, a tender stabbing of the audience's heart.
Mysterious Skin made the festival rounds in late 2004, but its commercial release happened only in the summer of the next year. Looking at reviews of the time, the critical admiration for Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance is quite profuse and the actor even got a Gotham Award nomination for Best Breakthrough. That same year, a couple of other films hit the festivals, confirming that Gordon-Levitt's tour de force in Araki's picture wasn't a flash in the pan or a one-time deal.
First up, there's Rian Johnson's feature debut, Brick. The film that started the long collaboration between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the director is a bizarre sort of dramatic premise – a film noir set in contemporaneous high school – one that requires actors able to handle a deliberately anti-naturalistic script. Leading an exceptional cast, Gordon-Levitt is impeccable, delivering ludicrously hard-boiled lines like he was born speaking in pulpy parlance. Without him, this cold pristine movie wouldn't work half as well as it does.
Lee Daniels' Shadowboxer, on the other hand, is as chaotic as Johnson's Brick is disciplined, exploding in every direction with crazy ideas and atonal twists and turns. Playing a mobster's private doctor, Gordon-Levitt represents a rather peculiar casting choice, seeming way too young for the position he's put in, especially after the narrative jumps seven years into the future. Still, whether miscast or not, the actor's take on the supporting role is memorable, especially when it comes to his odd chemistry with onscreen girlfriend Mo'Nique (playing a character named Precious!). It's easy to do good work in a good picture, but to shine from within a trashy disaster is all the more impressive.
So yes, 2005 was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's year, and revisiting his movies makes us wish the actor would return to the spotlight. Maybe he has another Mysterious Skin in him.
Are you a fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's 2005 output?
Reader Comments (25)
2020: The year of Cláudio Alves.
Brick is my favorite film of 2005 and Mysterious Skin is amazing, so, yeah - haven't seen Shadowboxer but from what I've seen, I'm a big, big fan of his 2005 work.
I miss JG-L!
His romantic pairing with Mo’Nique was inspirational.
Claudio your writing is beautiful! I look forward to reading your articles e everytime I see your name pop up.
When I watched BRICK for the first time, I couldn't stand it for the opening 30 minutes. I was about to write it off as a bad film, but then it morphed into something great after that initial mediocrity. It actually gets better and better as it goes along. In the end, I graded it a B+ when I was going to give it a C.
Is Claudio this site’s most prolific writer at this point? Sure seems so. He’s the reason I keep coming back. Nathaniel’s voice feels very MIA these days. I’m sure he’s dealing more as a content and creative editor for the site. Either way, Claudio is the best writer this site has ever had. Nathaniel made a very smart choice bringing him on board.
JGL is such a brilliant actor. I’m disappointed his career has kinda diminished in recent years. Hopefully Rian Johnson will write him something meaty in an upcoming project. Mysterious Skin remain’s my favorite JGL performance by far.
It's a bit odd he just sort of dropped off my radar so suddenly, but yes his 2005 output is an all-timer. He's still quite young though. All he needs is a really good project. I actually thought this article was timed to celebrate his latest Netflix film (Project Power) that came out this weekend. Haven't seen it yet.
I remember reviewers calling his performance in Mysterious Skin as Heath Ledger-esque. He's not afraid to take in challenging parts. Now he is moving on to producing and directing. If he is taking a break from movie making for a while I'd say he earned it. He has been working for 20 years.
I have seen all of his earlier movies and have always been disappointed he never became a bigger star.
I am looking forward to rewatching Inception when it comes on
Netfix this month. He is excellent in the supporting role.
What went wrong? Part of it is definitely the sort of smug persona he took on (or appeared to) around the 500 Days of Summer mark. He was in successful movies like Lincoln, Inception and Looper but I don't think anyone really thinks of him as the driving force of any of these films. And when he was front and centre, either with his HitRecord stuff or Don Jon, or his big flops Snowden and The Walk, he seemed sort of insufferable. I hope he bounces back, since he's clearly super talented but the star persona he's managed to form, fairly or not, isn't very appealing.
I will never stop cheering for JGL to become a bigger star!
Claudio's great. Absolutely no doubt about it, but the cult that's starting to emerge around him, with people almost gushing on more about his writing than engaging with the actual content of his articles, is something else....
Daniella Isaacs -- Unfortunately, I have to agree with what you say. I don't want to sound ungrateful for the praise, but some of the gushing comments leave me a bit uncomfortable. That's especially true when they make it seem like my work is so superior to that of the other TFE writers.
I think Nathaniel has created a great team here, and all deserve praise. Starting with Nathaniel, I wouldn't be writing about cinema or be the cinephile I am without his inspiring work over the years. Then there's Jason's writing which always delights and enchants, a more poetic approach to film criticism that I wish I could emulate.
The Emmy coverage of Juan Carlos and Abe manages to make me care about those awards almost as much as I do about Oscars. When writers can make their readers share in their passions, that's stupendous work on their part. Glenn's writing about documentaries is always brilliant too, and whenever he praises a movie I mentally add it to my watchlist. If someone ever doubts the merit of documentary filmmaking, just point them to Glenn's writing to show them the light.
Then there's Nick Taylor, whose articles before every Smackdown are something I eagerly await sometimes more than the smackdown itself. It's that good! While I sometimes disagree with some of Eric's opinions, he articulates them so well I can see works of art through a different perspective. That's a big part of what critical writing is all about for me. As for Baby Clyde, his love for Oscar trivia is endlessly fun. Michael's New Classics series is also sublime, especially for the way it manages to pinpoint a movie's strengths and legacy to a single scene. His writing is intelligent beyond belief - wonderful.
Regarding Daniel Walber's masterful analysis of set design, I don't even have words to describe my admiration. Same thing about Lynn Lee, whose work is always wonderfully articulated, full of feeling and great observations. I can say the same for Tony Ruggio's witty reviews, Murtada's podcast marvelousness, Sean Donovan's Swinton love, Camila's actress-y passions, Chris Feil's perfect overviews of film music, Deborah Lipp's writing on the movies of old, Spencer Collie's TV writing, etc., etc., etc...
To be part of a team with so many great writers is something I'm eternally grateful for. Please, don't make it seem like I'm the only contributor of TFE that deserves this sort of effusive praise. It simply isn't true.
As always, thanks for the feedback and I always like to see new comments. However, try to extend your love to the other writers too.
Okay, so this is not 2005 Gordon-Levitt, but I've been thinking recently about Joe in relation to Luhrmann's Great Gatsby movie, and I have THOUGHTS, so here it goes:
In 2013, I wish Luhrmann had chosen Gordon-Levitt for either of the principal male roles in Gatsby. To my mind, he would have been the ideal Nick Carraway. For that role, you need an actor who can project hidden depths, since, without narrating the entirety of the action, as Nick does in the novel, it becomes quite clear that Nick doesn't actually DO much to move the story forward. In other words, for Nick you need an actor who can not only fill out a suit, but who can fill in a cipher. (It's telling that, seven years on, the most vivid performance in that film is Elizabeth Debicki's, since her character is, at most, the fifth most important to the story.) I'm sure, had Gordon-Levitt been given a chance, that he could have blown Tobey Maguire's performance out of the water. Also, he would have been six years closer than Maguire to the 29/30-year-old Nick is supposed to be.
Putting Nick aside, I'm not sure Gordon-Levitt would have been THE BEST choice for Jay Gatsby, but he would have been a lot better than DiCaprio. Again, it's Joe's ability to suggest interiority that would have made him better able to play a character who is more myth than man, which is a particular challenge when translating Gatsby to the screen, where Jay actually has to occupy physical space. In the novel, Fitzgerald is quite clear about how the character supersedes human limits: "He was a son of God--a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that--and he must be about His Father's business, the service of a vast, vulgar and meretricious beauty." (Talk about something for an actor to live up to!) Had he still been alive, I think Heath Ledger would have been the perfect Gatsby. Can you imagine him as Jay and Gordon-Levitt as Nick? What bliss! (And a 10 Things I Hate About You reunion!) So much better than the great shoulder-shrug that is the pairing of Maguire and DiCaprio. In fact, whenever Debicki's not on screen, I'm more likely to be looking at Catherine Martin's sets than I am at the actors. Does anyone have any ideas of what living actor should have been cast as Gatsby, rather than DiCaprio?
Thus endeth my rant. Does anyone have thoughts about Gordon-Levitt in Gatsby? Agree? Disagree? His absence from the cast has bothered me ever since the movie came out.
So, I don’t comment here often, but I chose to this time because I was both engaging with the content (avid lover of JGL) and wanted to compliment the main reason I’ve stuck around. Claudio deserves the praise. That doesn’t take away from the other writer’s work, I just find his stuff the most thoughtful, engaging, and (most importantly) varied in subject matter. I’m sure there are plenty of people who come here specifically for some of the other writers. If they want to sound off in the comments, they should!
@ben1283
I can't speak to Snowden because I haven't see it, but it's impossible to play Philippe Petit without coming off as a complete dick. If you thought JGL was insufferable in The Walk, listen to any interview with Petit himself. He is INSUFFERABLE.
Shadowboxer wasn't a very good film at all. It tried to be a lot of things and failed though JGL was pretty good in it.
Mysterious Skin is a great film and needs to be talked more as for me, it's Gregg Araki's best film as it felt like the culmination of everything he had done prior and just chose to do something really different. What really shocked me was that there was an art house theater (now just a theater that caters to a Bollywood audience) 15 minutes from where I lived that played that film for more than 6 months which was shocking. Brick was the film I think showed that JGL is for real and it marked the beginning of a new phase in his career as I'm glad he's doing movies again.
Thanks for your classy response, Cláudio. You ARE great, but the praise often comes across like indirect (and sometimes not so indirect) disrespect to the other fine writers on this site. I can't think of a single writer who I don't enjoy reading here, which isn't to say some articles don't interest me more than others or that all writers don't have their ups and downs. Anyway, carry on, Team Film Experience!
@Claudio
Thank you for the shout out there. That was unexpected and I'm flattered. Your writing always catches my eye, as does everyone who writes for this site. Let's keep inspiring one another.
About JGL though...between Project Power and the Amazon original 7500 earlier this summer he's enjoying a bit of a comeback. I like to think his hiatus from acting was intentional and not the result of scripts no longer coming his way. His performance in 7500 is quite good and rather impressive given that it's essentially a one-man show.
Daniella - It's as if you had Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind (Claudio) and Kate Winslet in The Reader (Nathaniel and often others). The monumental achievement, especially so consistently, is going to get deserved gushing praise while the very good achievement is going to get deserved praise in proportion to the achievement. It's a bit disingenuous to have to give the same honest feedback and praise to A+ work and B+ work. It's only taken personally if Nathaniel and co. get envious and resentful of Claudio's great batting average, which I doubt they are the sort to indulge in those thoughts and behavior. Nathaniel has found a shining star and is utilizing him fantastically. Claudio shines, the blog shines, simple as that Daniella.
"You ARE great, but the praise often comes across like indirect (and sometimes not so indirect) disrespect to the other fine writers on this site."
I do concede that maybe 1/10, or even 1/20 fit that bill, but otherwise it's asking others to temper their opinions and enthusiasm towards the writing and artistic expression of the writers of the blog. It's a passive aggressive way to censor honest discourse among adults who don't need to be coddled. I understand you impulse to jump defensively against the (ignored by most with a lot of social media/comment section experience and contextualizing skills) very occasional passive aggressive slight, but you blowing a 1/10 or 1/20 occurrence like it's everyone praising Claudio doing it is quite childish. We respected your opinion on enjoying practically all the writers here, please return the courtesy and use context and proportion in your analyzing and reading of the comments.
Hope you are safe and well during these strange and fearful times. xo
"Monumental achievement"? "Shining star"? Never mind. Nobody ever said love was, er, what's the word? Oh, yeah. Logical.
One more comment, and then I'm done, but I can't help it, the more I think about it: You yourself, "Logic," are as bad as anyone with praise of Claudio that comes across as disrespect for the other writers. You compare Claudio to Vivian Leigh in GWTW (arguably the greatest female performance in Hollywood history!) to Kate Winslet in THE READER (almost universailly considered another Weinstein "shove it down the voters' throats" campaign). Ugh. When Winslet won for THE READER, most people, including most people on this site, were aghast. It was one of Winslet's absolutely least praiseworthy performances, some even called it bad (especially. her German accent.) The conventional wisdom is she won because a) she was way overdue, b) she had TWO big movies out that year (the other being REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, in which she was, in fact, excellent), and c) Harvey Weinstein at his most ferociously powerful just made it happen. So why don't you stop insulting the rest of the writers here with your frankly insulting comparisons? Nobody comes on a site like this to gush at the writers. I mean is Claudio super hot? I haven't seen a picture.
I was *just* wondering where he'd disappeared to! His career vanished, and right after he was at a high.
Mysterious Skin was one of my favs as a teen ... JGL is so talented. I remembered I wanted him nom'd for 50/50. As someone who identifies as an actressexual, he is easily one of my fav actors.
Brick is one of my favorite movies. Very special, very captivating. JGL is essential to it.