Welcome to Oscar season. Between now and the end of the year, Hollywood will roll out the pictures and performances it feels are best-suited to take home Oscars, Golden Globes or any other gleaming trinket presented in a nationally televised broadcast. That means we are going to see a lot of two types of film performances. The first is nuanced and understated, the sort of performance met with a thoughtful hmmm by critics and other self-proclaimed deep thinkers. The other is the polar opposite, the unhinged and over-the-top type that, although shameless in their theatricality, can't help but attract attention.

I love those.

The thing is, when an actor swings for the fences like that, there's often a very real chance that the performance will overshadow the narrative, becoming less about making a movie and more about massaging a superstar ego. That's always a bummer. However, when these broad performances work, they can be spectacular, the acting equivalent of a fireworks finale. Here are five of my favorites.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975): Here's the thing: Jack Nicholson, to some extent, often plays Jack Nicholson. But when that works, it's magical. In Cuckoo's nest, he was really allowed to free up both his manic energy and his cynical sense of humor. The result is a powerful performance that never seems dated.

TO BE AVOIDED: Jack Nicholson in Anger Management . Too much, Jack. Too much.

ALL ABOUT EVE (1950): Bette Davis' performance as an aging Broadway star locked in bitter, back-stabbing battle with a rival is everything interesting about Davis as a performer amplified. Every tic and quirk is played up, making her powerful performance as much a portrait of Bette Davis the actress as it is the fictional Margo Channing.

TO BE AVOIDED: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? I know people love this campy classic, but it just makes me feel uncomfortable.

SCARFACE (1983): Al Pacino spends nearly the entire film raving in the unlikeliest of Cuban accents, and is riveting. Leaving the subtlety of the Godfather films behind, his Tony Montana is a new-model crime lord built for the excessive '80s.

TO BE AVOIDED: There just isn't much to love about Scent of a Woman . Characteristics take the place of character, leaving little worth watching.

BLUE VELVET (1986): A monster of a man, Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth devours scenery in every frame of this film, even the ones he isn't in. A towering performance by one of America's more misunderstood actors, it's a courageous portrayal of a near-perfect sociopath that is at one horrifying and compelling.

TO BE AVOIDED: Waterworld and Super Mario Bros . -- take your pick. One is as unwatchable as the other.

REQUIEM FOR A DREAM (2000): There's a vast and gripping freedom in Ellen Burstyn's performance as a woman suffering from addictions. It's as though she understands that the toll of the character's disease offers her tacit permission to go as long gone as she chooses. The result is one of the more gripping addiction-inspired performances captured on film.

TO BE AVOIDED: The Wicker Man , although, to be fair, it's such a terrible movie that picking on a single performance seems cruel.