Jeff Goldblum: 5 Awesome Performances & 5 That Sucked

3. Michael Gold - The Big Chill (1983)

Lawrence Kasdan's love letter to the baby boomer generation deserves to be considered a 1980s classic. It is soaked in its contemporary time, spirit and important themes, dazed by regrets over missed opportunities, lost dreams and disintegrating friendships. It's a different kind of St Elmo's Fire (or for younger, less subtle audiences - a variation of Grown Ups), that lives and dies on its characters and performances.

The film is presented as a melting pot of chemistry and the remnants of old relationships and the boundaries of new ones. Into that pot goes Goldblum's socially awkward nerd (a triumphant trademark setter for the actor), who has embraced his sexual awakening and wants to get it on (as well as wanting to buy a nightclub).

This performance - a more confident blossoming of an attractive, sexually voracious nerd set the trend for later movie roles, but it's still one of his finest.