The Best and Worst of Michael Fassbender

The "Best and Worst" series profiles the best and worst work of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week I take a look at the filmography of "X-Men: Apocalypse" star Michael Fassbender.

Film starring Michael Fassbender that I've seen:
300
Inglorious Basterds
Jonah Hex
X-Men: First Class
Shame
Haywire
Prometheus 
12 Years a Slave
The Counselor 
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Slow West
Steve Jobs

Best Performance: Steve Jobs (2015)
HOT TAKE ALERT: I firmly believe that Fassbender should've taken home this year's Best Actor Oscar over Leonardo DiCaprio. Fassbender portrays the late Apple co-founder/CEO with relentless ferocity and a level of fearlessness that puts every aspect of his personality on display, no matter grim those traits may be. It's a truly mesmerizing performance and hopefully one day it'll get the mass recognition it deserves.     

Worst Performance: 12 Years a Slave (2013)
Keeping with the theme of the Academy Awards, I think Fassbender's turn in 12 Years a Slave as   ruthless plantation owner Edwin Epps is easily one of the worst nominated performance of my lifetime to-date. Fassbender's turns a character that should be menacing and disgusting into a god damn caricature thanks to his absurd overacting. Fassbender's cartoonish performance derailed the third act of 12 Years a Slave and is the number one reason why the film failed to be the powerful, no-holds-barred look at slavery that director Steve McQueen intended it to be.  

Best Film: Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino is one of the most fearless directors to ever come out of Hollywood and there's arguably no stronger evidence of just how depraved and creative he is than Inglorious Basterds. Using the backdrop of World War II, Tarantino is able to make a brutal, complex and often hilarious revenge story about a group of Jewish-American soldiers (led by Brad Pitt and Eli Roth) who specialize in brutally killing Nazis all over Europe. It doesn't quite reach the soaring heights of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained, but Inglorious Basterds is still one of Tarantino's most satisfying and audacious efforts to-date.  

Worst Film: Haywire (2012)
Recently-retired director Steven Soderbergh was a filmmaker that you could never really get a good read on. Whenever you started to gain trust in his creative abilities, he would release a monumental dud that crushed any of the faith you had in him. It was a vicious cycle that never stopped at any point of his 20-plus year career in Hollywood. 2012's Haywire was the last film Soderbergh made that made me scratch my head and wonder what the hell he was trying to accomplish. Haywire is part-action movie, part slow-burning espionage drama and 100% excruciating to sit through. Even the acting from its impressive ensemble cast featuring the likes of Fassbender, Ewan McGregor and Michael Douglas manages to be unholy awful. There's a special place in cinematic hell for this dull, moronic turd of a movie.    

Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week, I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows" and "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping" star Will Arnett.