1. Bryan Cranston - Detachment (2011)
Bryan Cranston had been on TV for years before landing the role of a lifetime, playing high school chemistry teacher turned drug lord Walter White on Breaking Bad. Prior to Breaking Bad, Cranston played the Catholic-turned-Jewish Dentist, Tim Whatley, on Seinfeld. He secured his fame playing the patriarch, Hal, on the Fox sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. After scoring three Emmy awards (and two more nominations) for playing White, Cranston has done a few movies, mostly in supporting roles, one of which was Detachment. Detachment, which starred big-hitters like Adrien Brody, Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Lucy Liu and William Petersen, never became a mainstream hit. The film, directed by Tony Kay (who directed American History X) follows Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), a substitute teacher who drifts from place to place until he ends up at an unnamed but extremely troubled high school. He begins to examine his life when a prostitute, a teacher and a student begin to impact his decisions. Cranston has a secondary role in the film, playing Mr. Dearden, who is the scummy husband of the school's Principal. While Cranston has a minor part, he is great and shines whenever he's on screen. Cranston has this ability to play someone with evil tendencies bubbling just below the surface and this character suits him down to the ground. Detachment is quite an intense look at the current state of American teenagers, the American school system and American society as a whole. That being said, this movie is actually bleaker than Rabbit Hole (and that movie is about moving on after a 4-year-old dies). Still, it's worth your time - I promise!
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