On the passing of Andre Braugher

When people talk about meeting celebrities I only have one experience to share. I was staying at a suburban Cleveland hotel. It was a Doubletree, which is relevant to the story. This was 2011 so it was after Men of a Certain Age had been canceled, but before Brooklyn 99 even started casting. I never watched Men of a Certain Age, and I bet nobody reading this did either. It was a sitcom starring the impressive lineup of Ray Romano, Scott Bakula, and Andre Braugher. I had driven out to meet up with my ex-girlfriend from law school, Emily, before she moved to Alaska. We went to checkin and there was a man speaking with the clerk. People who were certainly his wife and children were off to the side doing whatever family members do when someone else is checking in. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear his voice. I recognized him, I thought. But I doubted it, because this was suburban Cleveland and he was asking about hours at the zoo, or something really normal. He turned around and walked off with his family. I didn’t stare or watch where he went, but I went forward to the clerk and asked, “Oh my g-d, was that Andre Braugher?” Amusingly the clerk blinked and replied in a confused voice, “Yeah.” I turned to Emily and triumphantly said something like, “I knew it was him.”

Now both Emily and the clerk wanted to know who Andre Braugher was. Before Brooklyn 99 I think a decent amount of people knew him, and liked him, from various things. For me it was Homicide: Life on the Street. That was my favorite police show. Despite being on NBC for 7 seasons, it seemed like almost nobody watched the show. It was 70% of The Wire. Literally, it was David Simon’s show about homicide police (don’t call them cops) in Baltimore. I think in season 5 they even do a story arc for a proto-Avon Barksdale. It was…fine. But back in season 1, it was the best police show ever made. And Braugher’s Detective Frank Pembleton was my favorite. He was the standout in an all-star cast. So I told Emily and the clerk, “He was Detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide.” And I got blank stares. I added, “he was also in the most recent Fantastic Four movie.” At least that was something famous at the time, which is relevant to the story.

Later that evening I wanted another warm chocolate chip cookie, because this is a Doubletree and their checkin counter has a drawer that during certain times of the day has cookies. I found the above photo on Google Maps and it shows the lobby, counter, and the little room straight back. When I came to ask for a cookie Andre Braugher is sitting and talking with his wife while his kids played. So I look at him and leave him the heck alone because he is with his family at a hotel in suburban Cleveland. I then ask the clerk, a different one, for a cookie. With my cookie in its little bag, I turn to head back left, which will take me past that little room again. His wife and children have gone, but he has a newspaper. I won’t bother him. But then he gets up and he is walking right next to me, so I turn to him and speak.

Me: “Hi, I didn’t want to interrupt your family time or anything, but I just wanted to say, that I’m a really big fan.”
Him, starting to smile: “Oh, thanks.”
Me: “I loved Homicide. Pembleton was my favorite.”
Him: Nodding and doing a half-smile.
Me: “And I also wanted to say that you were the best part of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.”
Him: “Thanks.” But his body language said, “Is this guy fucking with me?”
Me, speaking quicker now: “Okay, thanks have a great time.”

Mercifully our rooms were down different corridors and that was that. I told Emily how it had gone. I think she asked why I had brought up the Fantastic Four. She definitely did not say Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, as I had. The reason I did it was because I remembered my dad talking about meeting Wallace Shawn on an Amtrak train and telling him how much he loved The Princess Bride.* I figured people always say they loved someone in their most famous work. So, having claimed to be a “big fan,” I couldn’t just say his most famous work. I hadn’t seen his recently canceled Men of a Certain Age. But I had downloaded, and watched, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I gave it Three Stars. I truly had chosen to watch it because he was in it. I hadn’t even seen the first Fantastic Four movie. When he got into an argument with Reed Richards I thought he made some good points and briefly rooted against the Fantastic Four.

And that was it. Would I remember it as strongly if I hadn’t induced an actor I really liked and appreciated to look at me as if to say, “Is this guy fucking with me?” I doubt it. I hoped that he would continue to get work, but didn’t expect Brooklyn 99 and Captain Holt to happen. His casting, in light of how he’d played Det. Pembleton, felt even more special. He brought so much emotion to that role and Holt was the opposite. He played a stubborn, fallible genius. On Homicide, Pembleton was the master of “the Box.” “The Box” being the room where detectives interrogated suspects. The highest rated episode of Brooklyn 99 is called “The Box” and it’s Holt and Peralta (Andy Samberg) trying to get a confession out of a suspect. Brooklyn 99 got him the attention and appreciation that I felt he’d been unfairly denied for so long. Now I wonder about those kids I saw 13 years ago at the Doubletree. I feel bad for them and his wife, whom I did not recognize or would have had my mind blown because she played Mary Pembleton (the wife) on Homicide too. So that was my story and a chance to process feeling sad about his passing.

*NB – My dad met Wallace Shawn a second time and was by then equipped with a different film, a much less popular one, Vanya on 42nd Street, to say he had enjoyed Shawn in. For the record, Vanya on 42nd Street is a better film than Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

On the passing of Sean Connery

He was not my James Bond. That said, I loved Sean Connery the actor, and acknowledge that Sean Connery was a flawed man. When you type in “sean connery sexist” Bing wants to correct it to “sean connery sexiest man alive”. That is funny in a dark way.

And all of that is who James Bond was supposed to be. James Bond was not written as a hero or a role model, but Sean Connery made him so easy to root for. Still, his character’s sexism wasn’t okay in 1964, but it was more socially acceptable.

Sean Connery was more than James Bond, so I would like to take a look at the other roles that he did. IMDb hilariously puts in parentheses the role which most people are likely to know an actor from, and for Sean Connery this was The Untouchables. This is also darkly funny because the part of his performance that I remember best is his over the top death scene. Of his ~54 movies, I’ve seen him in 32 movies, and I wouldn’t put that in the top 5 that come to mind. Nor the top 10. Without looking, here are the movies that come to mind for Sean Connery in his amazing career.

1. Dr. No – Not the Best Bond, but the one that comes to mind first.
2. From Russia with Love – The Best Bond according to my Grandfather.
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade – I love this movie and vaguely remember seeing this with my parents in a movie theater.
4. Goldfinger – Now do you see how absurd 1987’s The Untouchables was?
5. Finding Forrester – “You’re the man now, dog.” If they wanted a modern hit, why not go with that one?
6. The Hunt for Red October – Or if they wanted a movie from the late 80s/early 90s, why not choose John McTiernan’s masterpiece?
7. The Rock – Or if you wanted to make people think of Bond without saying Bond…
8. Murder on the Orient Express – the 1974 one.
9. The Man Who Would Be King – He had several big post-Bond movies in the 1970s.
10. A Bridge Too Far – Like this one.
11. Never Say Never Again – The Bond movie that feels like a fever dream because you watched it as a kid, but then after rewatching every Bond movie you didn’t see it and wonder if you just imagined that this film existed.
12. Still not the Untouchables. For me I think of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, First Knight, that dragon movie he did after First Knight, the Lion in Winter, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, Zardoz (which is only so late because I’ve tried to suppress it from my memory) and then, along with Entrapment, we have the Untouchables as “oh yeah….he was in that movie!”

He was in more movies than that, and he was generally good in them. He had the career that everyone wanted Bruce Willis to have. How many actors, real stars, not just Stephen Tobolowsky character actors who have been in over 200 movies, have you see 30+ movies of? Excluding Marvel movies, I’ve seen more of Connery than even of Samuel L. Jackson.

I think that Connery’s retirement makes this an easier death for me, than had he still been working. And now I should make a joke about Bond villains finally getting their wish. Instead of choosing one of his dry one-liners upon the demise of some villain, I will quote him from another movie, The Hunt for Red October.

Ну пора, пора.
Nu pora, pora.
Indeed it’s time. It’s time.

Ranked – Arnold Schwarzenegger Performances

Before I start, let me brag by saying that I can spelled Schwarzenegger without looking it up. If you want to know how, it’s easy! His name is 2 different German ways of saying Black. Black-and-Racial Slur Black. And now you cannot unsee that.

Arnold has 62 credits—including his uncredited credits, video games, TV—but I have only seen him in 22 movies. Five of those movies I do not remember him in, or he was in so little it should not even count—The Expendables, Around the World in 80 Days, The Rundown, Dave, & The Long Goodbye. As for the other 17, I am going to rank them from worst to best.

T2 3-D: The Battle Across Time – For his performance he gets a D-, for just showing up. For his checkbook and 20+ years of Universal Studios royalties he probably gets an A+.

Conan the Destroyer – Was he that much worse here than in Barbarian, or was the movie just much worse? Maybe the movie was much worse because his character seemed too self-confident and the rest of the movie sucked too? Regardless this movie was very bad and he was very bad in it. D

Commando – Despite pages of one liners, very few of them hit. He was so cheesy in this one. D+

Eraser – Who can forget the tracer bullets? I remember him running to avoid them and thinking that he does not run well. But he was built like a wall, and walls do not run. C-

Twins – Arnold played this one innocently, but not great. Probably would’ve worked better as a Saturday Night Live skit, than 90 minute movie. C-

Junior – This movie was so stupid, but he tried hard. I saw this the same year that I watched, and loved, Ace Ventura and still thought this was a dumb movie. C

Last Action Hero – This should have been his greatest role. A satire of the kind of characters he had made millions playing. Something that doesn’t quite work and with him at the center it’s hard to not think it’s him. C

Red Heat – Arnold with a Russian accent. His face does a good job of acting Russian, in the mold of fellow non-Russian Dolph Lundgren. C+

Terminator 2: Judgment Day – I know that for a lot of people, this is one of the greatest action films of all-time. That Arnold is considered peak level cool at this point. But mostly he was non-expressive and rode a motorcycle. He did everything he needed to do in order to help this movie become a major hit, but it’s not a special performance. B-

The Running Man – I forgot to review this movie, so hopefully I will get around to that soon. From my memory, the physicality involved played well with Schwarzenegger’s strengths. And yes, that is a play on words. B-

The Last Stand – Old man Arnold. The people who made Logan should have watched this for guidance. Or perhaps they did and that’s why Logan wasn’t better. Arnold showed that he still had something left in the tank, as they say in sports clichés, or, cars. B

Kindergarten Cop – What a fun movie. What a collection of great quotes. What an early 1990s comedy. Is his performance secretly an A? Is it really a D? All I know, is that it’s not a tumor. B

Predator – Arnold did something that he rarely did, in this movie. He seemed cool, but then showed a bit of fear. Here he provided the opposite of what his performance did in Commando. I wish I could do a similar list for Jesse Ventura’s career, but really, I just want an excuse to type out “ain’t got time to bleed,” which I have just done. Mission accomplished and I don’t have to watch any awful Jesse Ventura movies. B+

Conan the Barbarian – Unlike in the sequel, Arnold showed how his character could develop and think. His look was the best of his career. Even the way he delivered his lines was pretty good. If only he could’ve laugh more convincingly. B+

True Lies – Best movie of his career. James Cameron used Schwarzenegger’s strongest abilities here: playing the straight man and the man who has had enough. I don’t think that Tom Arnold or Bill Paxton would have registered such good performances without him next to them. His laughing was slightly more convincing here. A-

The Terminator – His cool factor and menace were higher in this low budget original, than in T2. Anyone who could convincingly pull off time travel in the buff deserves credit. And he did so with his first try. The ensuing bar scene where he beat up some guys and took their clothes was top notch. The ability to act without a shred of irony really was a strength in this movie. A-

Total Recall – The most well-rounded performance of his career. He made you care, laugh, and fear him. I went into this movie thinking he would be a joke, but he nailed it. If I could criticize one thing, it would be suffocating and having his head grow larger in the vacuum of space, that could have been slightly more convincing.  A

So there you have it. Is he a great actor? No. Was he a major bankable star? Absolutely. For someone whose acting I have made fun of for years, I sure watched a lot of his movies. Spending time watching a movie is the greatest compliment I can give to an actor, or a director, and I spent a lot of time watching his.

The Best Batman

Everybody loves Batman. If asked, most people would probably not trust an ultra-wealthy vigilante with sadistic tendencies who spies on people. But if Batman asked you help him, you know you would. Herein I will address the cinematic Batmen only. This means that Frank Miller’s Batman versus Scott Snyder’s Batman and Kelley Jones’ Batman¹ versus Neal Adams’ Batman will not be addressed here. Someone else probably made those lists and once I finish writing this I will probably try to find them.

 

BRUCE WAYNE/BATMAN
(l) Adam West in Batman: The Movie; Michael Keaton in Batman; Val Kilmer in Batman Forever; George Clooney in Batman & Robin; Christian Bale in The Dark Knight.

Chronologically:

Adam West (1966-1968) – This was my first Batman so it is hard to be overly critical of the version of a character that made me fall in love with said character. As an actor, West’s performances were amazing. He never let the absurdity of the scripts crack the crucial veneer of the caped crusader’s crime-fighting career. By playing it so seriously and so whole-heartedly, children bought in and parents loved to watch it with them. Still, as far as Batmen go, he was extremely lame, like a more physical Jeff Goldblum character from the 90s.

Michael Keaton (1989-1992) – Michael Keaton’s Batman sometimes felt less like Batman than Adam West’s did. Revisiting the movies his Bruce Wayne was a very good character, but his Batman was kind of a schmuck. Planes with machine guns mowing down a crowded Gotham street seems like something people trying to kill Indiana Jones might have second thoughts about. And they were nazis. Plus, Batman gets upstaged by his villains in both movies. He lacked the detective skills that help make Batman a well rounded borderline sadistic sociopath.

Joker and Batman fighting in Batman: Mask of The Phantasm, © WB 1993.

Kevin Conroy (1992-present) – The voice actor behind the Batman from “Batman: The Animated Series” and the resulting movies, such as Mask of the Phantasm. After Adam West got me to fall in love with the character, Conroy shaped my conception of the ‘true’ Batman. Thus I am biased towards Conroy and want to put him at #1. His Batman looked amazing. He looked tough, yet human. Solved crimes as well as used violence. He had the style of Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne and Tim Burton’s Gotham, but with good storytelling, character development, and a fully formed reality. This Batman taught lessons like Adam West’s, but in a less ridiculous fashion.

Val Kilmer (1995) – Physically he was the first to fit the description of a Batman. His fighting skills were good and he improved the deep Keaton voice. His Bruce Wayne was less convincing, but almost no points deducted for that. He did lack some of the brutality helpful to the role of Batman. Also, Robin stole his batmobile. Maybe he should get credit for hiring a 25 year-old instead of a young teen, though. It may fly in the face of tradition, but seems much more reasonable than a 13 year-old fighting crime.

George Clooney (1997) – Bat nipples + Joel Schumacher = the incorrect assumption that Batman & Robin had killed comic book movies stone cold dead.²

Christian Bale (2005–2010) – Oh Dark Knight Rises…how many points does Bale lose for quitting his crusade against crime? Even with that flawed premise, he does make a great Batman. His Batman had the right balance of fun and rage. While he is not the darkest Dark Knight, he does show the most fascism (in Dark Knight). He also cracks some jokes, which show how his Batman is not really as far from Val Kilmer’s, as it might have seemed. Lastly, I liked the Batman voice,³ despite the parodies it engendered.

THE LEGO MOVIE. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. © 2014.

Will Arnett (2014) – I love Will Arnett and I love Batman. I do not love Will Arnett as Batman. He has a low voice which helps, but he mostly sucks in The Lego Movie. But the movie was pretty good, unlike Batman & Robin.

Ben Affleck (2016) – I know that if I pick Affleck as my number one Batman that it will elicit an angry response from most readers. My biggest complaint with Affleck’s older Batman is that I do not have enough Batman to work with, since he has not had an entire film’s worth of Batman-ing under his belt. Still, he convincingly plays a Batman who has been through years and years of a crusade. He beats Superman down. Like, more so than even in The Dark Knight Returns. The difference is that Dark Knight, in that graphic novel, has an endgame more elegant than killing Superman.⁴  Some people do not like how Batman could kill or be tricked, but he has done both in his long history—including in Dark Knight Rises.

Ben Affleck as Batman, calling out Superman in the aptly titled Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, © WB 2016.

Rankings:

8. George Clooney
7. Will Arnett
6. Michael Keaton
5. Adam West
4. Val Kilmer
3. Ben Affleck
2. Kevin Conroy
1. Christian Bale

 

¹ I wrote Kelley Moench first, which is amusing because the writer/artist team was Dave Moench and Kelley Jones. ↩
² June 20, 1997 Batman & Robin is released. August 21, 1998 Blade is released. So assuming Blade took only 8 months to make, give or take 3 months, comic book movies were “dead” for at most 9 months. ↩
³ I also loved Tom Hardy’s Bane voice. Although not casting a Latino for the role was close-minded of Christopher Nolan, since the character is South American and the only Latino/a I can recall from the trilogy was Det. Ramirez. ↩
⁴ People generally use the term “graphic novel” to mean respected comic books. It has been wildly overused. Comic books are light and thin. Trade paperbacks are softcover collections of comic books. Hardcovers are trade paperbacks, but with a hardcover. Graphic novels initially meant a hardcover/trade paperback that contained new material, thus skipping the comic book phase. It has been expanded to include works that are initially released as comic books, but meant to be read together. Thus a mini-series can qualify, but a story arch in an on-going series would be less likely to meet that criterion. Anything more than that, would be uncivilized. ↩

Under Appreciated Supporting Actors III

What qualifies an actor as underrated? I hope this explains it—Paul Giamatti. There was a time, at around Almost Famous, when he was underrated, but now he is considered one of the best character actors ever, right? So that’s not underrated! And he went from being a supporting actor to a leading actor in 2004 with American Splendor. So he ditched both qualifications of being an under appreciated supporting actor.¹

Kelly Macdonald as Mary Maceachran, stuck in the rain outside of Lady Constance Trentham’s car in Gosford Park, © 2001 Universal Studios.

Sometimes an actor or actress comes along who the world knows will be great. In The Princess Bride they “introduc[ed]” Robin Wright, and they were right to have done so. The same came be said for Kelly Macdonald. She gets the “introducing” credit in Trainspotting. The way she played what in American slang is known as “jailbait” was riveting. You could not blame Ewan McGregor’s Renton for being overpowered by her young alpha female Diane. She immediately showed acting range by then portraying–four years later–Mary, the best maid Dame Maggie Smith ever had—no offense, Downton denizens. Macdonald’s great Scottish accent continued to come in handy, particularly when voicing Princess Merida in Brave. But she can do a fine American accent too, just watch her play Josh Brolin’s wife in the Academy Award winning No Country for Old Men. Her amazing credits continue from Anna Karenina, Harry Potter², through Tristram Shandy, Finding Neverland, Elizabeth and the BBC’s State of Play. But this is not intended as an essay solely about how wonderful Macdonald is.

Captain Dudley’s men in L.A. Confidential (Michael McCleery & Arana), © 1997 Warner Bros.

Macdonald had a wonderfully expressive, yet subtle face. Our next actor, Tomas Arana, has mostly been called upon to express stoicism throughout his roles. Under that stoicism burns something. It can be indignation, fear, or hatred. He has probably been cast so many times, that when you spot him, you know his character is a man who will do whatever it takes to get the job done. He elicits fear that his slender 6′ frame should not generate. Yet he has stood up to a Roman Emperor (Quintus, Chief Praetorian – Gladiator), sabotaged a nuclear submarine in a suicide mission (cook’s assistant/KGB agent Loginov – The Hunt for Red October), tried to reason with the mad, violent Ronan the Accuser (Kree Ambassador – Guardians of the Galaxy), fought the Nazis (Ben Zion Gulkowitz – Defiance), tried to have Jason Bourne captured (Deputy Director Marshall – Bourne Supremacy), fought against good acting (the JVCD Derailed, not the Jennifer Aniston one), enforced corrupt LA police plans (Det. Bruening – LA Confidential), tried to kill Wyatt Earp (Frank Stillwell – Tombstone), valiantly tried to save a later season episode of Miami Vice as a hitman, and firstly rose from the dead as Lazarus in The Last Temptation of Christ.

Seaman Jones (Courtney B. Vance) and his captain, Bart Mancuso (Scott Glenn) on board the US Dallas, The Hunt For Red October, © 1990 Paramount.

Keeping in the realm of cool supporting performances in The Hunt for Red October, Scott Glenn’s Captain Bart Mancuso has to do everything, fortunately, he is Scott Glenn. He plays the serious submarine captain, he plays the annoyed you made us stop following the target you want us to find to come pick you up type, he gets in a few deadpan jokes, and he eventually learns to trust his lifelong foes. His most recent role was appearing as “Stick” on “Daredevil.” I recognized him by his hands and his voice…and he was speaking a Chinese language at the time! That said, his worst performance/roll was in the underseen and underappreciated Sucker Punch. He shows up to spout fortune cookie wisdom in the fantasy sequences, and again as the bus driver who takes Baby Doll to freedom. If he could not make those lines sound good, then no one could have, not even Irrfan Khan, not even Benedict Cumberbatch. For a good movie in which he is given a good role, check out Training Day. As Roger, he has an easy rapport with Denzel Washington, and manages to have dignity as he tries to weasel his way out of a death he is mostly incredulous of.

Crowe & Zurer as Superman’s birth parents in Warner Bros. Man of Steel, © 2013.

Glenn only has one appearance so far on “Daredevil”, whereas our next actress, Ayelet Zurer, has nine. Does that mean she is nine times the actor that Scott Glenn is? I do not think so, but she has certainly kept a lower profile than Glenn has—in my view at least. I was surprised to recognize her while rewatching Man of Steel as Jor-El’s (Russell Crowe’s) wife Lara Lor-Van. She has a nobility in that role, a nobility that also appears in Vanessa on “Daredevil”. As an Israeli she did an excellent job of seeming like an Israeli in Munich, as Eric Bana’s wife. Her realism lent credibility to his. Munich is a great movie, while Angels and Demons is not, however, she did every bit as good of a job as Audrey Tautou did in the female lead next to Robert Landgon–Tom Hanks–in this European mystery adventure role.

Lindsay Duncan as Servilia on Rome.

Angels and Demons took place in Vatican City, inside Rome. Another work set in Rome was HBO’s appropriately named show “Rome”. On “Rome” Lindsay Duncan’s Servilia manages to make you, at times, pity her, loathe her, be wary of her³, and fearful for her. She has several career highlights on TV, “Rome” being just one of them. She was on an episode of “Sherlock” where she solicits Sherlock’s aid in the return of compromising documents. She gets to be fun, and light, and potentially a murderer on “Poirot” with the “Murder on the Blue Train”. Her husband is 20 years her junior, but they seem evenly matched because of her vitality. In a much more dour role, she plays Lady Elizabeth Longford on the excellent made for TV movie Longford. If you long to see her in something on the big screen she certainly provides gold in Birdman as The Critic. She pours all of her bitterness and bile into one character—an imperfectly conceived straw man who gets Michael Keaton’s and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s fury unleashed upon her. If her performance had been only fractionally less excellent then the most important scene falls flat. González Iñárritu receives at least one fewer Oscar. Or maybe he receives none at all. All of that resting on the shoulders of the eighth billed actor!

Inara Serra (Baccarin) in Serenity, © 2005 Universal.

As infrequently as I have thought of the above two actresses, I have frequently thought of Morena Baccarin. She was enchanting as Inara on “Firefly”, and wonderful again reprising that role in the film adaptation, Serenity. I felt bad not watching shows like “V” when she played a short-haired alien leader. In the trifecta of Spy, Deadpool, and “Homeland”, she plays the wife of a traitorous soldier, the girlfriend of an assassin, and a traitorous CIA Agent. Someone get this woman a role playing a nice woman who spends time with nice people!

Bill Murray & Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson, in Groundhog Day, © 1993 Sony Pics.

Stephen Tobolowsky has had a 40 year career without ever getting a leading role. He has 243 acting credits on IMDb! To pick and choose from that long of a career is challenging, so instead I will list his performances that instantly come to mind: Groundhog Day, “Deadwood”, and Sneakers. He uses his eyeglasses in a way that makes it seem impossible for anyone else to have tackled these parts. Every time he touches them out of frustration, fear, arousal, etc…he conveys so much about who his character is, even when given only a scene or two in a movie.

Olga (Maria Bonnevie) tends to Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan (Antonio Banderas), in The 13th Warrior, © 1999 Touchstone.

Now I am going off the board with an actress whom I have never recognized, but who has impressed me in the three things I have seen her in. This past year I went to Seattle’s International Film Festival (SIFF) and the first movie I saw was A Second Chance. Therein Maria Bonnevie stole the show as a mother whose baby dies one night, and whose detective husband replaces said baby. There is something off about her and I could not take my eyes off her in any scene. Also, back in her twenties she had two good performances in 13th Warrior, and Insomnia.⁴

The Nihilists in The Big Lebowski (Torsten Voges, Stormare & Flea). © Universal Studios, 1998.

As I mention below, Bonnevie’s films have been unfairly criticized. On the other hand, Peter Stormare’s films have been criticized on an amazingly accurate level. Think about his crappy films: Bad Boys II, Armageddon, and Mercury Rising. All correctly mocked. Now think about his okay films: Minority Report, The Last Stand, The Brothers Grimm, and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. They elicit mixed feelings, yet each has at least one undeniably positive attribute. And lastly think about his great films: The Big Lebowski and Fargo. Those two are justifiably ranked in the pantheon of great films. I have mentioned before how I doubted that I had ever heard Stormare’s actual accent since every five people who read this probably conjure him using a different accent. Today I hear his Russian accent from on the Mir⁵ space station in Armageddon.

Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite) threatened by McManus (Stephen Baldwin) & Keaton (Gabriel Byrne) in The Usual Suspects, 1995.

Another supporting actor with a variety of accents who was in The Lost World is Pete Postlethwaite. He is our last actor in this installment of Under Appreciated Supporting Actors. His passing shortly after the release of The Town made our loss the more poignant for having seen that he still had his acting chops. It is impressive how many films of his I had forgotten him from: Inception, The Constant Gardener, Amistad, Romeo + Juliet, and Dragonheart. As the only Englishman on this list he has done his nation justice by upholding the tradition of the versatile English character actor. Our collective corpus of communal culture would be less colorful if it lacked the corps of classically trained English actors, like Pete Postlethwaite.⁶

I hope you have enjoyed my most recent list and give one/some/all of these actors a chance. And try keep an eye on the supporting actors who may lack Daniel Craig’s stare and stature, but are crucial to their Bonds nonetheless.

 

¹ According to me.↩
² She plays the Grey Lady. Seriously, I had to look this up.↩
³ I tried to find an appropriate verb for parallel sentence structure, but failed. If you have one, let me know, so I can edit this post to make glorious benefit (to paraphrase Borat).↩
⁴ Since she is Swedish she was in the 1997 Swedish original version of Insomnia. It appears that A Second Chance and 13th Warrior are victims of unfairly harsh criticism. Regardless, she is great.↩
⁵ Mir, or Мир in cyrillic, means “world” and “peace”, which is a wonderful dual meaning, much better than Aloha/Shalom.↩
⁶ I’m sorry, but once it started I couldn’t stop myself.↩

On the passing of Robin Williams

Robin Williams reminds me of my family. At Thanksgiving and Christmas our family tends to gather together. At these times we like to watch movies. But it can be difficult to find movies that two to three generations at a time want to watch the same thing. Or consent to seeing the same thing, even. Robin Williams helped by being in five of the finest family movies of the early 1990s: Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, Hook, Jumanji, and The Birdcage. He was also in one of the worst “family” movies of that era, Toys. So before he blew me away as a young adult with Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting, before I knew he used a ton of cocaine, and before he redeemed my impression of him as an actor with Insomnia and A.I., he was someone who signified laughter and family to me.

His death, which has been described as an apparent suicide, did not come as a shock. Sadly, for him that seemed as likely a cause for an early death as an accident, and more likely than a murder. I believe these things because Robin Williams made his extroversion clear. His high energy could be connected to his drug use, but I think that only heightened his frantic self. He wanted and needed the eyes, ears, and laughs of his audience. And the world was his audience, seemingly all the time. As his comedic genius became less relevant he turned to more dramatic roles, or perhaps he just wanted to be loved for a different side of himself. He suffered from depression and spent years feeding off of the laughter and adulation, but that clearly was not enough. Drugs, both cocaine and anti-depressants, did what they could for years, but were not enough. The recognition of he who was once Mork as an Academy Award winning actor wasn’t enough either. Depression can take your successes and turn them on you, it just might take a little longer to do it than if your life objectively sucks. Instead of mourning our loss, this has helped remind me of the great body of work he produced, of his legacy. We should not be sad that we have lost him, but thankful that we ever had Robin Williams in the first place.

On the passing of Bob Hoskins

I loved Bob Hoskins before I knew who Bob Hoskins was. That was due to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And due to Hook.

Smee (Bob Hoskins) in Hook, © 1991 Amblin Ent.

Last week at trivia one question was, “Of all the films Steven Spielberg directed, this one, from 1991, has the lowest rating on Rotten Tomatoes.” Hook was the answer and no one from my generation has guessed that, or has even been able to accept that. I was nine when I saw Hook in theaters and bought the comic book after that. Hoskins was great as Smee, but back then he was just Smee. Just as in Who Framed Roger Rabbit he was just the private eye. Eventually I learned who Bob Hoskins was.

I had also seen him in Mermaids and Spice World but I don’t really remember those movies very well. Which is probably for the best, although there were some very popular singers in those movies. As an adult I watched Hollywoodland and was blown away. The simplicity of his character and how it transcended good and evil was one of the rawest displays of power that a soft spoken, short older man has even shown. Here is a scene where he faces down the accusations of a private eye played by Adrien Brody. Thence I moved on to Brazil and Mrs Henderson Presents. He was cruelly funny in the one and oafishly funny in the other. And I have gone back to Roger Rabbit and Hollywoodland several times. I was saddened to learn that he had cancer, both because of his impending suffering and for the selfish reason that I wanted him to keep acting. Instead of the traditional “rest in peace,” I hope he rests with a smile on his face and laughter in his voice. He deserves that.

National Treasure 2 or The Rock

Was National Treasure: Book of Secrets trying to make a sequel to the original, or recreate the magic of their action classic The Rock.

**½

Oh look. My tax dollars at work, coming to arrest me.

In The Rock Nicolas Cage plays nerd who needs to solve some riddles to get into an impregnable American landmark, while Ed Harris plays the villain with armed men to help him. National Treasure had a more traditional villain than that with Sean Bean’s Ian Howe. Harris seems to pick up the “Ian Howe” role with Mitch Wilkinson. But instead of a motivation of greed, Harris just wants to give value to his family’s name by finding El Dorado, so he needs Nicolas Cage’s help. In The Rock, Harris held San Francisco for ransom with some stolen poisonous gas and a few rockets, which he had stationed on Alcatraz. He wanted money for himself, his comrades, and his deceased soldiers’ families. He was a general who oversaw classified missions, after which those who did not make it back, but died for their country, were disavowed. When push came to shove, Harris was no murderer. Wilkinson seemed to have no compunctions against taking human life, but then later he did. He was a much less internally consistent character.

Ed Harris, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger and Nick Cage in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, © Disney 2007.

Nicolas Cage gets all worked up and yells in both of these movies. He worries about a woman in them. Needs the help of an old man. Learns a national security secret from a hiding place known only by a few living people. Gets to be with that woman from earlier, who was briefly really mad at him. Wears a wet suit. And acts like an insufferable know-it-all.

Bartha as Riley Poole, © 2007 Disney

The major difference between these two movies, is the wonderful Justin Bartha. While his material was not as good in this movie, he still brought the “Barth,” as I like to call it.* If only the side story of his financial troubles had been excluded he could have had, well, a more interesting side story. On the bright side, at least he did not get “Terrence Howard-ed.”**

*Okay, I just made that up now, but going forward I might use it again if a) Justin Bartha acts in another thing I see, and b) I remember the word “Barth.”

** I did not just make up that term. There is absolutely one legitimate hit on Google for “Terrence Howarded”. Unfortunately, if you search for “Terrence Howard-ed” you get a lot of sentences that say “Terrence Howard, Ed Norton.” I guess I should explain it then, Terrence Howard played Rhodey in Iron Man, but then Marvel replaced him with Don Cheadle without even making an insulting low offer to continue to play his character in Iron Man 2. The same thing happened to Ed Norton, except Marvel smeared Norton’s name in order to justify going cheaper with Mark Ruffalo as Dr. Bruce Banner in Marvel’s The Avengers.

Funniest Actresses of the Past Ten Years

Recently IMDb posted an editorial called “Funniest actresses of the past 10 years.”  Typically actresses receive far less attention for their comedic prowess than actors do, so this intrigued me. While a majority of the choices seemed fine to me, my gut told me that some people had been overlooked. I only retained two of the ten, but I still think that Melissa McCarthy, Amy Poehler, Anna Faris, and Emma Stone are extremely funny. They just did not make my top ten.

1. Jane Lynch – Over the past ten years, there has been no woman as funny as Jane Lynch. To say she keeps busy is to say LA traffic gets congested on the I-5! Probably not the best reference to make from Albany, NY, but I do hear that it gets quite gridlocked. Amongst her traditionally humorous performances, like on “Glee,” she has placed herself into a class of her own. I do not know how anyone can choose his favorite Jane Lynch character, but her roles in 40 Year Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, “Party Down,” and Role Models all made me laugh out loud repeatedly. She says things in a way that no other actress, or comedienne/comedian, has over more than the past decade. My favorite speech of hers is the cocaine one from Role Models.

Tina Fey & Jane Lynch at the 2012 Golden Globes, Photo by Handout – © 2012 NBC.

2. Tina Fey – Remember when Tina Fey was underappreciated? This was about ten years ago, until Mean Girls came out. Since then I believe that people began to take Tina Fey for granted, since she anchored the consistently clever “30 Rock” for year after year, since she failed to deliver another humorous film. But once I considered her Weekend Update appearances and Sarah Palin impression I believe that she leads the second tier of funniest women in the past decade.

3. Kristen Wiig – She is almost as funny as Tina Fey, and she has had a meteoric rise—Kristen Wiig. She anchored the funniest movie in the past 5 years, Bridesmaids, but she also provided good laughs in Paul and Adventureland, while she excelled on “Saturday Night Live” before her characters took off.

Nasim Pedrad looks on as Kristen Wiig “motorboats” Helen Mirren. © 2011 NBC.

4. Helen Mirren – Helen Mirren has had a fascinating career. She began as a sex symbol. Then she moved to the level of esteemed actress of the highest level. The one aspect that has not been as fully lauded is her sense of humor. Clearly, casting directors, directors, and screenwriters know that she is hilarious, although the roles she takes have rarely been openly comedic.  While Red and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, plus the piece of crap Arthur, were comedies, The Queen, Hitchock, The Last Station, and State of Play are serious fare. But Mirren elicited laughs and smiles with each of these roles.

5. Zooey Deschanel – A few years ago I could not have fairly evaluated a “dream girl” like Deschanel. I had low expectations for Elf and she turned that into an amusing holiday classic. Seeing that she would be in Hitchhiker’s Guide excited me more than seeing that Martin Freeman–The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey–would star in it. I know that she has been in piles of garbage like Yes Man and The Happening, but I doubt that she was unfunny in those, just as I doubt that she is unfunny in “New Girl.” She also showed a sly sense of humor in (500) Days of Summer.

Christine Taylor in leather gear for the Average Joe’s in Dodgeball, © 2004 20th Cent. Fox.

6. Christine Taylor – I felt like Zoolander was about ten years old, but it turns out that I was mistaken. Fortunately, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story was. And she is great in that. She makes Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller seem hilarious with her great facial expressions and perky exhaustion with their shenanigans. Solidifying her position in this second tier of funniest actresses are her other highlights, as Sally Sitwell on “Arrested Development,” the winner of season -1 of “Burning Love,” and as a rich suburbanite in Kabluey.

7. Ellen Page – Finishing up the second tier is Ellen Page. She is more than just Juno. She was amusing in Inception. She was cute in Super. And she was almost foregettable as Kitty Pryde in X-Men: Last Stand.

Isla Fisher as Gloria Cleary in New Line Cinema’s Wedding Crashers.

8. Isla Fisher – To think of Isla Fisher as only in the third tier of funniest actresses implies something that I do not wish to imply—that she is anything other than hilarious. I first realized that she was hilarious as the sexy younger sister in Wedding Crashers. Unfortunately nothing has let her reach that level again. It was nice to see her as Rebel Alley in the 4th season of “Arrested Development.” And she brought some color to her character in Great Gatsby. She is also my favorite Omanian actress alive, nay, perhaps ever!

Judi Dench (© 2012 Eon Prods.)

9. Judi Dench – Strikingly different from the past few humorous women is Dame Judi Dench. I do not know why Americans love sir this and lady that, when, by law, such titles cannot be awarded in the US. Dench’s career reminds me of Alec Guinness’s. Guinness had been a star, but then became famous for a smaller role in a blockbuster series—Star Wars. For Dench that is playing “M” in the James Bond series. Her sharp wit sets the standard for ladylike quips. For a slightly softer side, but only slightly, see Mrs. Henderson Presents and Ladies in Lavender. In those period piece comedies she stars and gets laughs with more than just snark.

10. Amy Adams – IMDb listed Meryl Streep as one of the funniest women of the past ten years, but I think that they chose the wrong star of Julie & Julia. While Streep may have been funnier in that hit, Adams solidifies her position a top ten funniest actress with Enchanted, The Muppets, and even in Talladega Nights. She managed to crack the top ten, even though she co-starred in Trouble with the Curve. If I do this for actors, do not hold your breath for Clint Eastwood.

Please let me know if I have omitted anyone, or if you disagree. Just kidding, feel free to laud me with kudos for getting this list 100% correct.

Under Appreciated Supporting Actors II

It feels like just yesterday I provided ten excellent actors to pay attention to. But I have so many more that I could tell people about, so the list continues.

Catherine Keener and Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin. © Universal Pictures.

Let’s start off with the wonderful Catherine Keener, who managed to master every genre from 1999 to the present. She burst onto the screen with sweet comedy, as in 40 Year Old Virgin and Cyrus, even dumber comedy in Hamlet 2, serious drama—Capote, trusted best friend work in a thriller with The Interpreter, “children’s” movies for adults Where the Wild Things Are, and even stranger than the last one—Being John Malkovich. She seems to be up for whatever and G-d bless her for it.

Fred Willard as Mike LaFontaine, A Mighty Wind © Castle Rock?

Next up a couple of accused perverts: Fred Willard and Jeffrey Jones. Both have seen better days—both physically and legally—but they also provided some wonderful performances. This is not a list of my favorite human beings, but just supporting actors who hid their demons in order to deliver good performances. I love Fred Willard in the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, from This is Spinal Tap, to Best in Show, then A Mighty Wind, and finally For Your Consideration. He was also great in Wall-E. Jeffrey Jones, on the other hand, was in none of those. He was in Amadeus, The Hunt for Red October, and “Deadwood.” To steal a line from the emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, well…there it is.

Michael Lonsdale as Hugo Drax, © MGM 1979

Michael Lonsdale is probably the least famous actor I have mentioned hither to. But I bet his movies are famous: Munich, Moonraker, Ronin, and The Name of The Rose. Well perhaps they are not super famous, but that is Spielberg, Bond, De Niro and Connery we are talking about and Monsieur Lonsdale held his ground with his soft, yet steely, visage amongst that esteemed company. And he has a great French accent.

Jonah Hill and Brie Larson in 21 Jump Street, © Columbia

Not all great supporting actors are not hot women. For instance, Brie Larson is both a beautiful woman and a promising actress whose career so far has been great. I loved her characters in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, 21 Jump Street, and Greenberg. I despised her character, the au pair, in “The League.” It is hard to make me hate a character when I enjoy the actor portraying that person, so kudos to Brie Larson.

Andrew Robinson as Garak, © Paramount.

Andrew Robinson only has two great credits on his résumé: Dirty Harry and “Star Trek: Deep Space 9.” He was also in Cobra and Hellraiser, and I doubt he made them worse. He was so good as the Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry that people treated him with similar contempt as they might have shown as the real Zodiac. It ruined his career. Thankfully he put on the Cardassian make-up and played the morally ambiguous Garak for all seven seasons on DS9.

Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman in Blazing Saddles, © WB 1974.

Madeline Kahn was a comedian before my time, but I still loved her in Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Eventually I watched Clue and she was good in that as well. She was probably the funniest woman of the 1970’s. Ever.

James Cromwell as Capt. Dudley Smith with Guy Pearce as Sgt. Edmund Exley, LA Confidential, © 1997 WB.

Have ye’ a valediction, boyo? I loved James Cromwell in LA Confidential. I loved everybody in that, to be honest, that is why it is a great movie. My second favorite performance of his was in Star Trek: First Contact, which is a great Star Trek movie, but I do not know if regular people would love it. Regardless, his performance is great in it. He was even good without saying a word in The Artist.

John C. McGinley as Dr. Cox on ABC’s “Scrubs.”

I do not remember when I first saw John C. McGinley, probably in The Rock.  However, it turns out that he had already showcased his military chops in Platoon. He always brings his crazy A game, whether it is as the memorable Dr. Cox in “Scrubs”, yelling even louder in Point Break, loving Michael Bolton in Office Space, or being droll as the announcer in 42. Also check him out in Stealing Harvard and Any Given Sunday.

Bob Balaban in Catch-22, © 1970 Paramount.

I last saw Bob Balaban in Best in Show. He played Dr. Theodore W. Millbank, III, the subdued president of the Mayflower Kennel Club. It seems like he has spent his career playing subdued, slightly exasperated characters with dry wit. For examples, see Moonrise Kingdom, and A Mighty Wind. For a slightly sexualized variation, see his Morris Weissman in Gosford Park. He does America more proud as one of only two Americans—and the non-rapy one too boot—than in his eerily young performance in Catch-22, as Capt. Orr.