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"The Lookout" (2007): Not a lot of people saw the directing debut from longtime screenwriter Scott Frank, and that is a shame. It's a character drama tucked inside a heist caper, with building tension and beautifully drawn characters. Gordon-Levitt stars as a once-promising high school athlete who suffers a head injury in a serious car crash that leaves him with short-term memory loss. Several years later, he makes some dangerous new friends at a bar who eventually ask him to help them rob the bank where he works as a night janitor
-- to serve as the lookout. Gordon-Levitt's everyman accessibility puts us right there in the middle of the crime, and his sense of loneliness makes us understand why he'd want to be buddies with these people who are using him. "Mysterious Skin" (2005): This was the first film that signaled the kind of risky roles Gordon-Levitt was interested in playing
-- an indication of the intriguing career he'd go on to carve out for himself. In writer-director Gregg Araki's low-budget drama, Gordon-Levitt co-stars as a small-town teenage hustler named Neil: a young man whose repeated molestation at the hands of his little-league coach starting at age 8 set him on a wayward path of danger and self-destruction. He's a narcissistic, blasé character whose bravado hides years of damage, and Gordon-Levitt portrays him with both bravery and sympathy. Clearly, this was no longer the cute kid from the TV sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun." ___ What's your favorite Joseph Gordon-Levitt performance? Tell AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire through Twitter: http://twitter.com/christylemire.
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