Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#20122
of 909177 performers
Top 5%
Joe Lisi works on versatility rather than volume, and the catalogue keeps proving that the quieter choice was the correct one.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Joe Lisi appears in 9 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Joe. Synecdoche, New York is the clearest case: a film rated 7.5 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for action, fantasy, adventure. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Jon Turteltaub, Charlie Kaufman, Tim Story and others, Joe Lisi helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
Synecdoche, New York (2008) as Maurice · Quiz Show (1994) as Reporter · Marvin's Room (1996) as Bruno
Career snapshot
Ranked #20122 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
9
1994–2010
Career length
16 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.5
Synecdoche, New York
Average Nutevio score
6.4
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
Synecdoche, New York
Most frequent director
Jon Turteltaub
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Jon Turteltaub
Most common genre
Drama
6 titles
Average runtime
2h 0m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.3
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
6.7 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. For Love of the Game, Summer of Sam, Marvin's Room — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
6.7
Across 4 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
6.7
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. For Love of the Game, Summer of Sam, Marvin's Room.
Most productive era
1990s
4 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.74 films | 6.82 films | — |
| Action | — | 5.82 films | 6.21 film |
| Thriller | 6.51 film | 5.93 films | — |
| Comedy | — | 5.61 film | — |
| Crime | 6.51 film | 5.93 films | — |
| Romance | 6.41 film | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1994Quiz Show
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Reporter.
Highest rated performance · Career peak
7.5 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
The current state of the argument, as Police Captain.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
9 of 9 films
as Reporter
Directed by Robert Redford
as Police Captain
Directed by Jon Turteltaub
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Maurice
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Performance score7.3
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Maurice gives Joe Lisi a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Reporter
Quiz Show (1994)
Performance score6.9
Quiz Show asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Reporter is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Bruno
Marvin's Room (1996)
Performance score6.6
Marvin's Room asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Bruno is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Police Captain
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Performance score6.5
The Sorcerer's Apprentice asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Police Captain is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Maurice
Start here. Synecdoche, New York is the clearest statement of what Joe Lisi does — accessible, 124 minutes, and rated 7.5 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Joe at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Quiz Show (1994)
Keeps the drama register of Synecdoche, New York but asks for a colder reading of it.
Marvin's Room (1996)
Keeps the drama register of Quiz Show but asks for a colder reading of it.
Taxi (2004)
A deliberate change of key after Marvin's Room — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Keeps the action register of Taxi but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Robert Redford
Director
1 film together
Notably Quiz Show
Jerry Zaks
Director
1 film together
Notably Marvin's Room
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Summer of Sam
Sam Raimi
Director
1 film together
Notably For Love of the Game
John Herzfeld
Director
1 film together
Notably 15 Minutes
Tim Story
Director
1 film together
Notably Taxi
Charlie Kaufman
Director
1 film together
Notably Synecdoche, New York
Jon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together
Notably The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Charlie Kaufman
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Synecdoche, New YorkRobert Redford
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Quiz ShowJerry Zaks
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Marvin's RoomSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Summer of SamSam Raimi
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
For Love of the GameJon Turteltaub
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Sorcerer's ApprenticeJohn Herzfeld
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
15 MinutesTim Story
Director
1 film together · 5.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
TaxiSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
Synecdoche, New York
as Maurice
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
For Love of the Game
as Pete (Detroit Tigers)
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
Synecdoche, New York
as Maurice
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Quiz Show
as Reporter
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Synecdoche, New York
as Maurice
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Joe Lisi has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
6 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
Synecdoche, New York
as Maurice
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Summer of Sam
as Tony Olives
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
For Love of the Game
as Pete (Detroit Tigers)
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Yards
as Elliot Gorwitz
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
as Police Captain
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
as Police Captain
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
The Yards
as Elliot Gorwitz
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
as Police Captain
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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