For Film Comment, Shonni Enelow discusses the restrained acting style present in many mainstream American films and the anxieties it reveals about emotional expression:
We can see the same kind of emotional retrenchment and wariness in a number of performances by the most popular young actors of the last several years. We could look to Rooney Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Oscar Isaac, for example, all of whom have crossed from independent films to big-budget franchises and back again largely without varying their performance styles. These actors have each been lauded for performances that are understated and even remote; if Method actors were neurotic and bipolar, they are anxious and depressive.
