Fans of actor Keanu Reeves are eagerly awaiting the release of John Wick: Chapter 4, which is scheduled to be released on May 21, 2021. The first John Wick movie was a surprise hit in 2014 and helped to give a boost to Reeves’ then-faltering career. Indeed, the actor who was born in Lebanon but raised in Canada has had many career highs and lows over the years – taking risks with his movie roles that have sometimes paid off (Speed, The Matrix) and other times not (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 47 Ronin). Here we dwell on the positive and take a look at Reeves’ best movies and performances, not including the aforementioned role of John Wick (which is also great).
In celebration of Keanu Reeves’ 55th birthday, join us as we countdown the actor’s 10 greatest performances.
10. River’s Edge (1986)
The 1986 movie River’s Edge is a dark movie and one of the first to showcase Keanu Reeves in a dramatic role. The movie is about a group of high school students who discover that one of their friends murdered his girlfriend, and their apathetic reaction to the crime, which is so ambiguous and strange that it’s shocking. Co-starring Crispin Glover and Ione Skye, River’s Edge caused a stir when it was released for its depiction of teenagers who have become so desensitized to violence that they are indifferent to a murder. Reeves gives a good performance as the one member of the group who seems to have a conscience and wants to go to the police. River’s Edge was also the first film in which Reeves played a Gen-X slacker, a role he would repeat in many other films in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Source: Screenshot via Island Pictures