Favorite Kevin Spacey Performance

Kevin put down the bourbon and go to bed.

That Las Vegas movie, 21.

My favorite has always been his Mel Proffitt character from "Wiseguy."

"Dianne, thank you for teaching me about caring about the right things, and I love you."

Horrible human being but great actor.

Maybe this is a little unpopular but I don't get what was so earth shattering about his work in American Beauty. I thought Chris Cooper and Allison Janney were better than Spacey and Bening. I just don't get why they were in such a rush to award him a second time considering he'd just won four years earlier and he was only 40 at the time.

Bbbbut… WHAT ABOUT PAY IT FORWARD????

He went full ugly burn victim!!!!

R6 Janney spoke like two sentences in that movie.

I like "The Negotiator".

Also "Margin Call" was terrific.

I always liked him best in The Ref.

Working Girl.

I like a lot of his work. Glengarry Glen Ross - he's SUCH a great asshole (among a lot of assholes) and the way he sticks it to Jack Lemon in the end is just sublime.

Usual Suspects, 21, LA Confidential are other top candidates. And the Ref - where the bickering between him and Judy Davis and her family is pretty funny.

House of Cards could have been great, but his accent was hilariously bad.

Margin Call

God, I totally forgot that one, R15. I LOVE Margin Call. I honestly think nearly every actor - and it's a pretty stacked cast - gives a performance among their career bests - and most of the roles are rather small in terms of screen time (particularly Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore). That is one of Spacey's best roles. Manages to be human as the weathered veteran with the dying dog. His speech getting all the troops on board to torpedo their careers and reputations by selling shit stock is fantastic.

I also didn't like American Beauty. It was trying to hard to be meaningful.

I don't remember him in Glengarry Glen Ross, which is a good thing. That movie was just about perfect.

LA Confidential is one of my favorite movies, but IMO, he was not believable as a cop.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

I recently rewatched Margin Call. He is cast somewhat against type as the moral authority of the film.