Almost as if our laughs at the film or the characters indicate our own guilt. Celebrity has taken over, this film has no problem saying it’s ‘you that did this – you jerk’. Sandra’s seduction of Jerry Langford evokes huge belly laughs – She plays it so truthfully and committed, (watch the scene where she dresses him up in a homemade orange sweater while her other crazy comrade has to get to the studio), you root for this unusual looking creature in a sick way. It’s love, its just twisted love. Then later, the second he wants the tape free of his hands – you know she’s not going to be held by her secret lover, the uber famous talk show host, Jerry, (Brilliantly played by Jerry Lewis). My only tiny criticism in this wild, wild ride is she anticipated the slap - no biggie. Scorsese doesn’t shy way from taking advantage of Sandra’s lanky weird body – that last shot of her running down the street in her underwear feels like a great, watch through your fingers, horror film. Sandra is haunting, hysterical and riveting as Masha. This is one is the neck and neck along with TAXI DRIVER as my favorite Scorsese film. I love it. No movie disturbed me more, made me feel more uncomfortable – in a good way. Showed me something I had never seen before. What can I say, I have a soft spot for those deluded crazies – love em’.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
SANDRA BERNHARD as Masha in THE KING OF COMEDY
Almost as if our laughs at the film or the characters indicate our own guilt. Celebrity has taken over, this film has no problem saying it’s ‘you that did this – you jerk’. Sandra’s seduction of Jerry Langford evokes huge belly laughs – She plays it so truthfully and committed, (watch the scene where she dresses him up in a homemade orange sweater while her other crazy comrade has to get to the studio), you root for this unusual looking creature in a sick way. It’s love, its just twisted love. Then later, the second he wants the tape free of his hands – you know she’s not going to be held by her secret lover, the uber famous talk show host, Jerry, (Brilliantly played by Jerry Lewis). My only tiny criticism in this wild, wild ride is she anticipated the slap - no biggie. Scorsese doesn’t shy way from taking advantage of Sandra’s lanky weird body – that last shot of her running down the street in her underwear feels like a great, watch through your fingers, horror film. Sandra is haunting, hysterical and riveting as Masha. This is one is the neck and neck along with TAXI DRIVER as my favorite Scorsese film. I love it. No movie disturbed me more, made me feel more uncomfortable – in a good way. Showed me something I had never seen before. What can I say, I have a soft spot for those deluded crazies – love em’.
MAGGIE SMITH as DIANA BARRIE in CALIFORNIA SUITE
MAGGIE SMITH
"Dying is easy Comedy is hard"
Maggie Smith as Diana Barrie in CALIFORNIA SUITE is serious comedic joy at its best. Maggie Smith proves here she's a master of both drama and comedy. Maggie Smith relishes her sassy, sarcastic quips and she does them with great ease. Her banter with the genius Michael Caine, in a classic Hepburn and Tracy like style, is joyous viewing. There is a tremendous sense of love and togetherness behind every jolt and zap. They balance each other perfectly, giving to the other - never stealing. Watching her pursue, cajole and corner him into bed and to make love to 'her' is both hysterical and heartbreaking. Of course there's that Oscar she wanted, but beyond that little gold man, what she really wants is her husband - who happens to be more gay than straight. She plays a dramatic character prone to big emotional folly, yet with Maggie Smith she's able to make difficult lines like "let it be me tonight" so tender, loving and truthful. Perfect.
Monday, March 28, 2011
ELIZABETH SHUE as Sera in LEAVING LAS VEGAS
ELIZABETH SHUE
Thursday, March 24, 2011
JUDY DAVIS as SALLY in HUSBANDS & WIVES
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in WHO's AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
Elizabeth Taylor
How many 33 year old actresses today would take on a mid-forties ball-chopping drunk? Not many. Even in a Pulitzer Prize winning play. No, no, no, they'd be to concerned how it would affect future roles. Female Actors today the first thing they look for is age. 'Can't we make her a little younger?' They all wanna go younger. Can't really blame them, right? Vicious business... kept your children out. The business has changed a lot since Liz Taylor's stunning, Oscar winning role Edward Albee's / Mike Nichols film version of WHO's AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. I said in the beginning of writing my lil SIGNATURE ROLES Blog that I'd only write about Female Actors since 1970, but I'm making a special amendment to my rule the day of Elizabeth Taylor's death. Her performance was and is still one of the best pieces of film acting ever. Her Martha is a ruthless, fierce, a thunderbolt of rage and unacknowledged grief. She enters hard, like a wheel barrel of bricks being dumped on your front porch, and never let's up - until the last moment. Her hard thrust and power is an equal match to the amazing film-making.
As mother would often say when a legend past away, "They don't make em like that anyone."
Monday, March 21, 2011
AMY ADAMS as Ashley in JUNEBUG
AMY ADAMS
Saturday, March 12, 2011
MARSHA MASON as Georgia Hines in ONLY WHEN I LAUGH
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
MERYL STREEP as Sister Aloysius in DOUBT
I first saw Linda Hunt do the play at the Pasadena Playhouse and then twice with Cherry Jones. They both were incredible. I thought Linda Hunt was a pint size little bullet, but I think I was so overwhelmed with the play on the my first impression - I couldn't see anyone else in the role after her. Her size gave her room to be comedic in a few moments that were really perfect. But then I heard about Cherry Jones and how incredible she was. Cherry Jones was very serious, rough, had that voice down but believe it or not - actually called for 'line' a couple of times and that ruined that second viewing. I gave her another chance and thought she was amazing as well. Streep in DOUBT did something very interesting with this character that is nothing without her convictions. She gives of a hint of a woman that had a complete past way before she ever took on the habit. There is a line that indicates her past marriage but Streep drops little feeling hints of her past throughout the films journey. A character that had once suffered, felt joy, passion and once lived in uncertainty. A lessor actor would just played the latter - what she's become. Even though I heard that she didn't always know all her lines - she created a complete history for her character. A previous life. Something actors say they do in junkets, and are told to do in their training as young actors but never actually do it in a way that is felt in the performance. With Meryl you feel it.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
JOAN CUSACK as JODY in MEN DON'T LEAVE
JOAN CUSACK
JOAN CUSACK as 'JODY' in MEN DON'T LEAVE (1990)
“The smallest of roles can be the greatest opportunities,” I tell this to young actors all the time. Joan Cusack created wonderful niche for herself in the 90’s after her turn as ‘Jody’ in the terrific MEN DON’T LEAVE. Unfortunately, when Hollywood finds something this good, (Zooey Deschanel did the same sort of thing in the 2000’s with her offbeat, un-enthused approach), they usually beat it into the ground and pigeonhole careers. Joan did it first and she could have done it over and over again - but she didn't. She stole scenes in SIXTEEN CANDLES and BROADCAST NEWS. Creating this type of quirky, rogue, self-deprecating, supercilious (very tall), playing deliberately kooky to amuse herself and others around her yet more human than anyone else on screen with her. Her nick-name during this period of time was the "scene-stealer". It was in the 1988 film she got the Oscar nomination for WORKING GIRL but it was a smaller role in this 1990’s delightful human comedy/drama that she created an unforgettable eccentric character that was true signature work. Who else could have pulled this off with such little screen time? No one but Ms. Cusack.
Joan Cusack plays Jody, a late twenties nurse, (lab technician),who lives in the same building as Jessica Lange and her two boys. She is very strange, and atypical in everything she does. Her manner, her voice, her listening. Cusack provides a comic freshness that hasn't been captured on film before. A mocking subtle undertone that seems utterly real. Like someone everyone knows in real life, but haven't meet at the movies. Well, we have now. The moment you first see her, 'Jody', in the elevator with Chris O’Donnell, you know the movie has just found its heart and its clarity. She is the movie. Offbeat yet strong, insane but stable. “Why do you care about what I think?”
In the beginning we're amused by the way the nurse's bossy, take-charge competence bowls over the her new younger boyfriend and then mystifies Lange. Later Jody literally and figuratively awakes Lange from her depression and brings together the family. It’s a riveting character and a commanding performance. Savagely funny and then could get drop dead serious on a dime. When the level of awareness rises and you open up other brain receptors while watching a performance – you have something very special going on. Paul Brickman, the director and writer, seems to have accidentally stumbled upon a good thing with Joan Cusack. I’m surprised he didn’t use her more and create a vehicle for her after this film. They seem to be a match made in movie heaven – like DeNiro had with Scorsese and currently like Nicole Holofcener uses Catherine Keener. It's rare for a director to find that actor that matches their interior thematic voice. She embodies the unique way he gets from point A to point B - genre wise / theme wise – It’s all about what Joan brings to the table. Her perfect blend of comedy and drama in the same exact moment. Which is what Brickman's films were all about - that delicate balance. Something Lisa Cholodenko just did very successfully with this past year's THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT. He, Paul Brickman, was smart to make Joan the focus at the end of the film. No dialogue, the camera’s on Joan and she motions to Jessica Lange’s Beth to turn her life-vest around and put it on correctly. That’s the movie, right ? Genius! It’s all you need, camera on her face, her unique / one of a kind expression to help Jessica Lange’s character find her way.
AMC – American Movie Classics I just discovered out listed her as one of the 100 most interesting / remarkable characters in the last hundred years – Wow! Number 52. "Jody (Joan Cusack), Men Don't Leave (1990)
Serenely eccentric, winningly bossy and unstoppably blithe, Jody steals teenaged Chris O'Donnell out of his unhappy, fatherless home and takes him into her own home and bed, then cures his grieving, widowed mom. One of film's inexplicable, inimitable good souls."
Not bad for a cameo role. Thanks to Cusack's comedic fullness, complexities and choosing to keep her chin up no matter what is thrown at her...is not only memorable but also decent and inspiring.
When friends ask ‘What do I mean by Signature Roles’? Joan Cuscack – as Jody in MEN DON’T LEAVE. Watch it if you haven’t already. Then watch it again. It's a great film and Joan Cusack 'steals' it.