Claire Danes as Temple Grandin
Temple Grandin (2010)
Autism and its milder cousin, Asperger's syndrome, have propelled more than a few plots in recent years, but this one is different. Temple Grandin is a real person who has been able to describe to others what it's like to be autistic and to cope with sensory overload. Beyond that, her empathy with animals enabled her to design a more humane method for slaughtering cattle. Claire Danes is terrific as Grandin, a sentiment echoed in a commentary (shared with director Mick Jackson) by Grandin herself. "The way Claire Danes became me was just really uncanny."
Me and Orson Welles (2008)
Rehearsals are under way for Orson Welles's 1937 stage production of Julius Caesar, and a brash young gofer (Zac Efron) is smitten with Welles's assistant and girlfriend (Claire Danes again). But the reason to see the film is Christian McKay, whose capturing of Welles's look and voice is so good it's spooky. In the extras, he says Welles had a "particular way of speaking Shakespeare" that went against what McKay learned at the Royal Shakespeare Company, "but this is Orson, so I had to use his rhythms and intonations. I did speed them up a little bit."