10 Actors You Didn’t Realise Were in The Sopranos

The Sopranos will forever be instilled in the fabric of culture. Its success and game-changing format was intrinsic to the success of HBO and revitalised televisual drama forever. Without The Sopranos HBO would not have experienced the success it enjoys today and we would not have shows like Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire and True Blood. This successful model was adopted by other networks like AMC, FX and Showtime who have given us Dexter, Mad Men, and Breaking Bad. The Sopranos was the game changer and revolutionalised television forever. Televisual drama is now considered a valued art form akin to film thanks to the success of The Sopranos.

The series’ rich and compelling storylines captivated audiences for 8 years and won a host of Emmys over its six seasons. Tony Soprano is still one of the most fascinating characters in television history but he was helped by a phenomenal supporting cast and smorgasbord of scintillating guest stars. David Chase, the show’s creator and executive producer recruited a multitude of familiar gangster actors over the series, including David Proval (from Mean Streets), Robert Loggia (from Scarface), Burt Young (from Rocky and Once Upon a Time in America), Frank Vincent (Goodfellas, Casino) and Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs), to name but a few.

In this article we’ll look at host of character actors and famous faces who guest starred on the show – some of which before they became household names.

1. Will Arnett

Episodes: ‘For All Debts Public and Private’ & ‘No Show’, Season 4

  

That’s right – G.O.B. Bluth guest-starred on The Sopranos. During Season 4, Arnett appeared in two episodes as FBI agent Mike Waldrup. He was the husband of Deborah – the FBI agent who befriends Adrianna as an undercover informant. This of course is the beginning of an arc that has devastating consequences for several characters. Arnett’s character has very little screen time and would be completely forgettable was it not for his future success. Arnett was in the early phase of his career where he had one off appearances on many television dramas including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Sex & the City - despite being celebrated as a comedic actor. However, he would become a household name the next year with the arrival of Arrested Development in 2003. The cult classic gave us one of television’s most enduring doofuses – aspiring magician George Oscar ‘G.O.B.’ Bluth. Imagine the comedic possibilities of a G.O.B. interaction with Christopher or Paulie Walnuts. Something tells me the Mafiosi wouldn’t have much time for one of the world’s worst magicians. Arrested Development was cancelled in 2006 by FOX in a hail of controversy as the show was a cult classic and one of the most critically acclaimed sitcoms of all time. FOX was not enamoured with this cult following and cancelled the show due to poor ratings. Arrested Development will miraculously and rapturously return on May 26 on Netflix.

2. Michael K. Williams

Season Three, ‘Army of One’

One of the stars of the other HBO masterpiece The Wire briefly appears in an episode towards the end of Season Three. When Jackie Aprile, Jr. foolishly attempts to rob one of the executive card games, things go horribly wrong and Jackie Jr. must take shelter with Williams’s character and his young daughter. The appearance was hardly a career breakthrough mainly due to Williams’s miniscule screen time but Wire fans could not mistake the actor’s formidable presence mainly due to the actor’s real facial scars. Like Arnett, Williams also appeared in a number of US television dramas in the early stage of his career such as Law & Order and Alias. Similar again to Arnett, he would not have to wait long for a recurring starring role. The following year Williams was cast as Omar Little in The Wire. Omar is one of the most iconic characters in the series and was a series regular throughout the show’s five season run. The character who is a daring thief and who is also gay was even the personal favourite of US President Barack Obama despite his violent criminal behaviour. Williams now stars on Boardwalk Empire as Albert ‘Chalky’ White which is developed by former Sopranos writer/producer Terrence Winter.

3. Tobin Bell

Season Three: ‘Army of One’

‘Hello Mr. Soprano, I’d like to play a game’. The infamous ‘Jigsaw Killer’ featured in the same episode as Williams during season three. Tobin Bell, the man behind cinema’s most successful serial killers of recent years shared a scene with Tony and Carmella Soprano. He plays Major Zwingli, the dean of a military school that the Sopranos are contemplating sending the troubled AJ to when he gets expelled from high school. In fact the incident in question that spells this trouble for AJ features another famous face (seen at the end of this list). Bell had previously featured in small television roles in the likes of 24, Stargate SG-1 and The West Wing. Bell found his career defining role when James Wan cast him as the deviously demented Jigsaw Killer in Saw and its six sequels. To date, the Saw franchise has grossed over $800 million at box offices worldwide and Bell has been the franchise’s star. The genre revitalised by Saw in the earlier 00’s was lampooned in The Sopranos when Christopher decides to cash in on the torture porn craze with his violent fantasy Cleaver. Although he doesn’t snare Tony and Carmella in a vicious death trap – Bell retains his intimidating presence and his raspy husky voice that made the Jigsaw Killer so endearing to horror fans.

4. Nancy Sinatra & Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Final Season: ‘Chasing It’, Season Two: ‘The Happy Wanderer’

Among the principal cast of The Sopranos is Steven Van Zandt the guitarist with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. Van Zandt was cast on David Chase’s love of music despite a limited acting background. Keeping with the tradition of musicians on the show – these appearances are much more interesting. The children of Ol’ Blue Eyes himself – Frank Sinatra appeared at separate times as themselves over the series. Frank, Jr. features in Season Two as a card player of the Soprano-run ‘Executive Game’. This is also the game where Robert Patrick (the T-1000 of Terminator 2) bets his entire fortune and loses it all. Nancy Sinatra, the singer of such hits as ‘Bang, Bang’ and ‘These Boots Are Made for Walking’ appears in the final season at a party for the newly crowned boss of New York Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent). She even interrupts a heated discussion between Tony and Phil brazenly asking: ‘you two going home with each other?’ What is confounding is that the children of Sinatra would continue to perpetuate their family’s connection to the Mafia. Sinatra’s Mob connections allegedly coerced a Hollywood producer to cast the singer in an Oscar winning role in From Here to Eternity. This would serve as inspiration in The Godfather.

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6. Frankie Valli

Seasons Five & Six

Another musician on the list, Frankie Valli is one of the biggest music stars of all time. With hits like ‘Big GirlsDon’t Cry’, ‘Sherry’ and ‘I Can’t Tale My Eyes Off of You’, Valli and his band the Four Seasons had a career to rival The Beatles. So this is all the more amusing that a pop singer like Valli should be playing a feared New York gangster. Frankie Valli’s music appeared (the song ‘Dawn (Go Away)’ features in season four) in the show long before the Four Seasons leader himself was cast. He is even referred to by Tony and Silvio in an earlier episode where Silvio must use his connections to get Valli booked in a Native American casino as a favour. Valli as Rusty Millio appeared many times over series five and six as an ally of Carmine Lupertazzi, Jr. during the war with Johnny Sack’s outfit. Rusty met an unfortunate demise in a hit ordered by Johnny Sack. Valli a proud Italian-American and New Jersey native seemed like an odd choice to appear on a show that has a somewhat stereotypical view of Italians. Still, Valli could’ve done worse and appeared on Jersey Shore.

6. Hal Holbrook

Season Six: ‘The Fleshy Part of the Thigh’

  

The Academy Award nominated actor features in one episode of the sixth season. When Tony suffers a near-fatal gunshot from Junior, he spends several weeks in hospital. When Tony comes out of his existentialist coma he meets the Lincoln star. Holbrook plays a physicist who clues Tony into the interconnectivity of all life, telling him how no event or entity can be understood independent from the rest of the world – how ‘everything is connected’. Holbrook’s musings on quantum physics are lost on Paulie Walnuts who during a bad signalled boxing match on satellite TV abruptly challenges: ‘you’re so f***in’ smart, fix the TV!’ This is all taken in by Tony who is going through an existential and spiritual awakening which is welcomed after hearing a pastor’s creationist ideas. Holbrook went on to star in Sean Penn’s Into the Wild the following year as Ron, the lonely leather worker who passes his trade onto Alexander Supertramp (Emile Hirsch) and offers to adopt him as his grandchild. Holbrook’s touching performance earned an Academy Award nomination the in 2007 but lost out to Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men.

7. Sydney Pollack

Final Season: ‘Stage Five’

The Academy Award winning director of Out of Africa made a cameo appearance in the final season. He plays Dr. Warren Feldman, a formerly reputed surgeon who is serving time for the murder of his wife. He later befriends Johnny Sack while advising him on his cancer treatment in prison hospital. Another prolific director Peter Bogdanovich also had a recurring role as psychiatrist to Lorraine Bracco’s Dr Melfi, who is titillated by the gossip of Mafia life. Dr Feldman, despite his own transgressions, is another character who is fascinated by Mafia figures. He is seen gushing over Johnny Sack’s Mafia stories and descriptions of New York boss Carmine Lupertazzi. As well as directing such films as Three Days in the Condor and Tootsie, Pollack is also known from starring roles in Michael Clayton and in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. Pollack always had a welcome naturalistic presence onscreen and this appearance was his third last ever screen performance. This episode is also the last appearance of Johnny Sack who dies of cancer. This unfortunately is mirrored by the actor’s fate as Pollack died in 2008 after his own long battle with cancer.

8. Annette Bening

Season Five: ‘The Test Dream’

  

Keeping with the Oscar nominees, this four-time Academy Award nominee is the sole entry on this list that is playing herself - albeit in a dream. Bening appears in ‘The Test Dream’ in Season 5. This episode is where Tony spends a night in the Plaza in New York and sleeps uneasy worrying about his livewire cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi). Bening plays the (imagined) mother of Tony’s future son in law, Finn who is recently engaged to Tony’s daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler). Tony’s imagination is always fervid and creative and even calls her out on her fame asking: ‘You’re Annette Bening, ain’t you?’ Bening is no stranger to the gangster genre as she starred in Warren Beatty’s Bugsy (to whom she later married). The episode is one of the most notoriously trippy as it is almost entirely set in Tony’s subconscious. Bening is not the only Hollywood actor to play themselves on the show. Ben Kingsley and Lauren Bacall also appeared as snooty versions of themselves in the final season. Kingsley was courted for the antagonist role in ‘Cleaver’ by Christopher and Little Carmine while Bacall was violently mugged by Christopher. Cleaver’s lead role eventually went to Daniel Baldwin who channelled his inner Tony Soprano for the part.

9. Paul Dano

Season Four: ‘Everybody Hurts’ & Season Five: ‘All Due Respect’

The Ruby Sparks star featured in two episodes during the fourth season as a friend to AJ Soprano (Robert Iler). Dano didn’t display any of his intensity that would later become evident in There Will be Blood and Looper – but was a geeky and spoiled rich pal of AJ’s whose friendship is based on Dano’s obsession with The Godfather. He is fascinated by the Sopranos’ various legitimate businesses which he assumes are a front to the shady Mafia dealings. He even likens Tony’s base of operations, the Satriale’s Pork Store, to Genco’s Olive Oil (where Vito Corleone operated from in The Godfather). Dano had already made a memorable debut performance alongside Brain Cox at aged 15 in Michael Cuesta’s superb 2001 film L.I.E. Here, Dano is barely recognisable from his powerful turn in L.I.E. and instead uses a geeky persona that would become a staple of his career (see The Girl Next Door, Gigantic). Three years later, Dano would break through to the mainstream with his role in Little Miss Sunshine as troubled Nietzsche loving mute Dwayne. The film was a commercial and critical smash and went on to win two Oscars in 2006.

10. Lady Gaga

Season Three: ‘The Telltale Moozadell’

This one is a tricky find. But it is true. Lady Gaga – the ‘Born this Way’ singer was in The Sopranos. The then 15 year old - billed by her real name Stefani Germanotta - plays a friend of AJ’s. In this episode the gang of friends vandalise the school swimming pool and trophy cabinet which leads to AJ’s expulsion from school. AJ is ultimately found out by his pizza being left at the scene of the crime and giving the episode it’s title: ‘The Telltale Moozadell’. Interestingly, Michael Imperioli who plays Christopher Moltissanti on the show wrote the now infamous episode. Germanotta would break through with the smash hit ‘Just Dance’ 7 years later, followed by the behemoth album The Fame. She is today, of course, one of the biggest pop stars on the planet. Germanotta is barely recognisable here as a 15 year old high school student. One of Gaga’s most famous fashion statements - a dress made up of slabs of meat worn at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards would not look out of place at Satriale’s.

A Late Quartet - Review

Extra-marital affairs, jealousy, betrayal, resentment – all set in the world of classical music. A Late Quartet has relationships and emotional punch ups as tumultuous as the Beethoven the four-piece quartet perform. The frenetic pace of Beethoven is certainly represented in the film but so too is the heart-rendering beauty and tenderness.

The plot is limited but packed with character and emotion. ‘The Fugue’ is a four piece string quartet comprised of cellist Peter (Christopher Walken), violist Juliette and first and second violinist Daniel (Mark Ivanir) and Robert (Philip Seymour Hoffmen). The group are approaching their 25^th anniversary but are faced with difficult and potentially devastating decisions when Peter announces he must leave the group after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The rest of the group must decide whether to continue or go their separate ways while dealing with pent up feelings of resentment, longing and jealousy. The married couple of the group Robert and Juliette also face a crisis in their marriage as well as dealing with a rebellious daughter (Imogen Poots) who has embarked upon an affair with Daniel.

The screenplay is packed with dramatic conflict and leads to wonderful performances from all the actors. This is the type of movie you would expect to be a forgotten gem from the 70’s as its simple and understated plot. Christopher Walken gives the performance that he is capable of but seems to shy away from as of late. There is no self mockery or flippancy with his portrayal of a career musician faced with the prospect of hanging up the string bow – for good. Walken’s latest performances (like in Seven Psychopaths) are centred around the almost mythical cult following The Deer Hunter actor has amassed over the years. His performance as Peter has no traces of quirk or irreverent self-awareness but is the stuff Oscar nominations are made of. His quiet yet shattered acceptance of his disease and the plight of retiring is all expressed through limited dialogue and quiet expression – and is utterly poignant.

Philip Seymour Hoffman also gives a riveting performance. Robert is a character at an impasse in his career and in life. He sees the dissolution of the quartet as a chance to break free from the background and realise his potential. His scenes with Keener are electric and have such a brutal honesty that show ‘this is really forty’. One in scene in the back of a taxi cab shows Hoffman’s incredible internal processing of a devastating revelation from his wife. The couple must face the resentments and harboured emotions while dealing with their rebellious young daughter who also has sequestered feelings towards her parents.

A Late Quartet is a masterful blend of great performances and quiet intensity. The issues amongst the characters feel very real despite being set in the very socially exclusive world of classical musicians.  First time director Yaron Zilberman (who also co-wrote the script) carefully balances melodrama with honest and touching familial dysfunction. The relationship between Juliette’s and Robert’s daughter Alexandra and Daniel does feel more akin to soap opera plot but is saved from ridicule by the thoughtful and charming performances of Ivanir and Imogen Poots. Ivanir’s Daniel, despite being 20 years older than Alex, is imbued with a professional and artistic intensity that aspiring violinist Alexandra is helplessly allured to. Poots also shines in scenes with Keener where issues of abandonment lead to bitter arguments.

The film has such wonderful and compelling performances there is a risk that the talent of Zilberman will be over looked. A Late Quartet is such a triumph because of the characters drawn by the screenplay and the thoughtful execution of the performances. Zilberman allows his superb cast to give superb portrayals and gives us one of the most touching and endearing films of the year.

4/5

Arbitrage Review: Scintillating Character Study & Moral Bankruptcy in the Finance World

Arbitrage Review: Scintillating Character Study & Moral Bankruptcy in the Finance World

Perhaps the most flustering thing about writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s scintillating debut is that this could be a ‘based on a true story’. The story is fiction but the characters, situations, moral ambiguities, and toxic world of Wall Street and Corporate America seem very bluntly true. It also features the best performance to date from Richard Gere.

Robert Miller is the CEO of a multi billion capital company. On the surface his life is the epitome of the American dream: a respected billionaire, a positive philanthropist and beloved father and husband. His company even employs his son and daughter (Brit Marling) in high executive positions. Miller however has many plates spinning that threaten to bring his world to a devastating crash. He is desperately trying to sell off his company to hide his fraudulent activities and prevent a car accident involving his mistress from sending him to jail and even worse - financial ruin.

The rest of the cast is superb. Susan Sarandon is reliable as ever as Miller’s wife who is not just a passive billionaire’s spouse. Brit Marling gives a breakout performance as Miller’s daughter who suspects her father’s fraudulent dealing. Tim Roth also gives a superb supporting turn (by seemingly channelling Robert De Niro) as a beat cop who badly wants to pin Miller’s scalp to the wall and win one for the little guy.

Arbitrage is set in a post-crash Wall Street. Miller is a man insulated from the higher echelons of society. He calls on a young black man, Jimmy (Nate Parker) to bail him out of a jam which highlights the still existing racial and social divides in modern post-Obama America. Jarecki is certainly a talent to watch. His debut is a fascinating character study of a man with the perception of wielding incredible power yet tangibly owning none of it. Jarecki also does not judge his central character. He makes the audience route for the ‘hero’ to escape from the jaws of destruction despite his moral bankruptcy. This hero, in his most honest exchange, describes money as ‘God’. He worships at the altar of capitalism – and his God has no plans on smiting him just yet.

4/5

Argo Review

Argo is that rare example of a story being so odd, so fantastical, so gripping; you won’t believe it’s true. It is. Produced, directed and starring Ben Affleck and set against the backdrop of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979, the film is is part CIA-thriller, part self referential Hollywood satire and it is easily one of the year’s best films.

During a violent protest at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, demonstrators and paramilitaries alike storm the building and take its inhabitants hostage. Six embassy workers simply walk out the back door and take refuge from the Canadian embassy. The CIA begin a clandestine operation to “exfiltrate” the hostages. Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck), who is a specialist in extraction, exhausts all possibilities finally landing on the plan to pose as a Canadian film crew looking at exotic desert locations for a Star Wars rip off. He enlists the aid of John Chambers (the real life Oscar-winning makeup designer for The Planet of the Apes, played by John Goodman) and Hollywood producer Lester Siegel (played with gleefully acerbic wit by Alan Arkin) to produce a fake movie titled ‘Argo’. Mendez travels to the belly of the beast, i.e. Iran to escort the hostages out of the country where getting caught means certain torture and public execution.

The real tension lies with Mendez and his attachment to the hostages. Scoot McNairy (seen earlier this year in Killing them Softly) is the standout actor amongst the hostages as the confrontational Joe Stafford. He quite understandably is unwilling to put his life in the hands of a complete stranger. Affleck too gives one of the better performances of his career who has essentially carved a Phoenix-like career resurrection from tabloid fodder (from his relationship with Jennifer Lopez) to A-list auteur. Affleck, like George Clooney, Robert Redford, etc. has essentially written his own ticket by developing his own stories and roles and knocking them out of the park.

Affleck does try to avoid political commentary and focus more on the plot and characters. The film cleverly gives a whirlwind historical lesson of Iran’s complicated history – and the US’s and Britain’s devastating interference - in comic book animation. The prologue essentially condenses nearly 50 years of politics and history into a 3 minute segment but the sequence surprisingly works. Affleck does not portray the Iranians as savage mindless murderers – but an oppressed people demanding justice and vengeance for the US’s involvement in their country.

 

Argo has one of the best casts of the year. The film is ripe with familiar faces and also familiar faces hidden by makeup and gnarly 70s facial hair. Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Titus Welliver all give superb but small roles an invaluable vibrancy and colour.

Argo is a true story that has gone through many treatments and is the kind of true story that really should’ve been told by now. Clooney himself (who serves as co-producer) was tinkering with the material for some time before Affleck took the reigns. A pedantic critic might see the material as something any half-competent director could make electric, but Affleck injects Argo with terrific performances, a nerve shredding tension and a sharp emotional payoff which is surely destined for Oscar glory.

4/5

10 Great Movies That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Sight and Sound’s recent list of the greatest movies of all time was basically a re-jigging of the same old classics which critics and audiences always cite as ‘the greatest’. There’s nothing wrong with those lists. Just how many times do we need to hear that Vertigo, Citizen Kane and The Godfather are pretty great and you should check them out? Here is a list – in no particular order – of my favourite movies that don’t get all the attention – some that a lot of people have never even heard of.

Hopefully you will hear and see these ‘10 Great Movies That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of’.

• Shattered Glass (Dir.: Billy Ray, 2003) 

Billy Ray’s astonishing true-story drama centred on a journalist writing fictitious stories may not seem like seem like a particularly riveting experience but terrific performances and Ray’s assured direction make this a compelling film.

Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) is a young twenty-something reporter for prestigious American magazine The New Republic. Glass is affable, funny and beloved by his co-workers. When Glass writes a too-good-to-be-true article about a teenage hacker, online reporters (Steve Zahn and Rosario Dawson) reveal that it really is.

Hayden Christensen gives the performance of his career in this film. Those who wrote the young Canadian Darth Vader off on the basis of his performances in the Star Wars prequels and in Jumper, need to simply watch this performance to be convinced of his talent. Christensen’s Glass is a manipulative Machiavelli – the movie nearly goes as far as portraying Glass as a sociopath. Glass is conniving, dedicated and fascinating. His crimes are essentially victimless but the fascination lies with a character who convincingly manipulates everyone around him. Peter Sarsgaard gives a wonderful counter-performance as the young editor who exposes the truth despite his vilification from his staff, particularly Caitlin (Chloë Sevigny).

Ray’s real achievement is his refusal to sensationalise the real-life events or delve into Glass’s background. His actions are presented and the consequences are dealt with. This is effectively a two character piece between Christensen and Sarsgaard where the latter must see past Glass’s manipulations to uncover the truth and maintain the integrity of his magazine.

Shattered Glass may not seem like particularly thrilling stuff but Ray delivers a fascinating look into the world of journalism and into the machinations of a manipulative sociopath.

• Your Friends & Neighbours (Dir. Neil LaBute, 1998)

Neil LaBute’s follow up to the acerbic In the Company of Men is a similarly vicious look at relationship politics and the murky depravity of misogynistic ineffective men. There is also great dialogue delivered by a great cast giving sublime performances.

The plot is essentially revolved around three friends: Barry (Aaron Eckhart), Jerry (Ben Stiller) and Cary (Jason Patric). They meet for drinks and workout together and share their warped experiences and expectations of sexual politics. Barry and Jerry are in relationships where the spark has been long extinguished and Cary drifts between vapid one night stand after the other. The trio’s friendship (more acquaintance as the men are completely emotionally bankrupt) comes under strain when Jerry begins an affair with Barry’s wife Mary (Amy Brenneman) while Jerry’s girlfriend Terri (Catherine Keener) starts a relationship with an attractive art gallery worker (Nastassja Kinski).

Your Friends & Neighbors has six actors who are all giving sterling work. From the female angle, Keener and Brenneman give emotive intelligent performances as women who cannot find satisfaction or depth with the men in their lives. Brenneman gives a melancholy performance where she repeatedly asks “to be held” and not to be seen as a “giant vagina” to Eckhart’s “giant penis”. Keener quite literally gives up on men and embarks a lesbian relationship with Kinski. But the film is all about the men and their nefariousness. Eckhart is almost unrecognisable as the affable but self-involved and dim-witted Barry. Ben Stiller, in an unusually straight dramatic role, also gives a great turn. The film however, belongs to Jason Patric - in one of his finest roles – plays one of cinema’s greatest assholes. He is an extremely shallow misogynist who admits, amongst other things, to having “revenge” sex with a co-worker who undermined him at work and concocting a fictitious HIV report for a former lover. He is slimy, narcissistic and completely engrossing. It’s a performance of fearlessness particularly in a scene where Cary recounts his best sexual encounter – a jaw dropper that is worth the price of admission alone.

 

LaBute is less interested in the soap opera relationship squabbles and more interested in the motivations and behaviours of the six morally questionable characters. Cary’s and Jerry’s actions and behaviour is entirely depraved and morally bankrupt but they are not snarling villains. These are very real people doing nasty things that happen every day. LaBute reminds us these warped characters are among us in everyday life. They are indeed our friends and neighbours.

• The Trigger Effect (Dir.: David Koepp, 1993)

David Koepp, the screenwriter of Jurassic Park and War of the Worlds, has made a handful of features as a director (including this month’s Premium Rush). In 1993, Koepp wrote and directed a fascinating take on the disaster/apocalypse genre with The Trigger Effect.

Starring Kyle MacLachlan, Elizabeth Shue, Dermot Mulroney and Michael Rooker, the plot is centred on a massive blackout that causes havoc, paranoia and isolation in Los Angeles. Matthew and Annie are a married couple with many problems. Annie sees her husband as weak and cowardly – established at the beginning of the movie when Annie is verbally berated by a rude cinema patron while her husband watches on. Mulroney’s Joe is a friend of the couple and former lover of Annie’s who comes to stay after a massive blackout leaves the city (and possibly the entire country – it is never fully revealed) in darkness and without any electricity.

 

Koepp later explores the same themes and highlights the dangers of a society thrown into uncertainty and chaos in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds but this is not invading hostile Martians – this is thrusting an over dependent society into the primitive ages.

The film has outstanding performances particularly from MacLachlan and Mulroney. In the case of the former, the Blue Velvet star is presented as an effeminate passive husband to Elizabeth Shue – who has little or no respect for her spouse. His slow progression as a rational thoughtful man applying logic and calm to a pandemic situation is a strong anchor for the film. MacLachlan’s Matthew doesn’t display traditional leading man characteristics in this type of movie. There are no sweeping gestures of violence or heroics – he is simply keeping his nerve and his guile in an impossible time. Mulroney’s Joe too is presented as a counterpoint to Matthew – he is Stanley Kowalski-like in his masculinity. He has brawn and potent sexuality that creates a love triangle between the three lead actors.

Like War of the Worlds, Koepp harrowingly demonstrates the real fears of society is not invading Martians or in this case, a massive blackout, but how people can turn into Darwinian primitives when the layers of civilisation begin to unravel. A terrific thriller!

• Rodger Dodger (Dir.: Dylan Kidd, 2002)

Campbell Scott plays an acerbic misogynistic yuppie ad man (before it was cool). He has a reputation as a ladies man but the only action we see him get is with his boss who is dumping him for the next, younger office toy boy. Roger spends his time attempting to seduce women by pithy analysis and draconian observation.

Roger is caught off guard when his 15 year old nephew Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) arrives in Manhattan to learn how to pick up women. Roger leads his unsuspecting nephew on an odyssey of predatorily chauvinism which includes: an attempt to seduce the sophisticated Andrea and Sophie (Jennifer Beals and Elizabeth Berkley), taking advantage of Roger’s drunken co-worker, and using the “fail-safe” – reserved for when Nick is desperate to lose his virginity.

Writer-Director Dylan Kidd presents an attractive New York with a seedy and tawdry underbelly. The dialogue is acidic and punchy and is delivered with charm and gusto by its impressively talented cast. Jesse Eisenberg in his first leading role, shows the awkward charm and engaging presence that has led him to Oscar nominated success (for his role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network). Rossellini, Berkley, and Beals all deliver fine supporting performances and give their characters weight and depth. The real standout performance is Campbell Scott. The son of legendary Oscar winner George C. Scott, Campbell’s Roger is a man facing extinction as his chain smoking, hard-drinking chauvinism is confronted with a world of women in charge. His electrifying monologues tutoring Nick about the world of sex are wonderfully reigned in by his slow realisation that he is completely alone in the world.

Roger Dodger is a fine example of small American independent cinema that deserved a wide audience. It has laughs, charm and a real emotional core beneath its tough, cool and calm surface – much like its title character.

• Buffalo Soldiers (Dir.: Gregor Jordan, 2003)

Nietzsche: “Where there is peace, the war-like man attacks himself.”

Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix): “War is hell. But peace is fucking boring”

Gregor Jordan’s scintillating black comedy shows how a war movie without a war can be just as nihilist and exhilarating than the storming of Normandy beaches. Buffalo Soldiers is a rapid fire roller coaster ride of a movie with action, thrills, romance and black comedy.

Ray Elwood is a constant grafter. Much like Morgan Freeman’s character in The Shawshank Redemption, Ray runs his military camp in Germany in everything but title. He rip’s off his own military’s weapons to sell on the black market and engineers a massive drug deal to nefarious locals. His ease to swindle and conduct his business is mainly appropriated to the ineptitude of commanding officer Colonel Berman (a loveable but incompetent Ed Harris). However, Elwood’s illegitimate dealings come under threat when a new commander Robert E. Lee (a fierce Scott Glenn) is put in charge determined to clear up the camp.

Phoenix, who has always been the under-appreciated actor of his generation, is simply wonderful in the film. His moral bankruptcy is countered by his wonderful charm and rebellious streak. When he embarks upon courting Lee’s daughter (an enchanting Anna Paquin) – the audience is complicit in a romantic relationship founded upon getting back at your boss. Paquin too has an axe to grind with her father and doesn’t care about being used. The romantic subplot is wonderfully balanced against Elwood’s dodgy dealings.

Despite this being peacetime, Jordan relishes in showing the futility of war. The soldiers with the camp turn on each other over the control of the heroin trade. One scene has two soldiers repeatedly stabbing each other over and over – cementing Jordan’s Nietzschean view of the “war-like man”. A hilarious movie from start to finish, Buffalo Soldiers shows how war (or lack thereof) can be an awful lot of fun.

• Thief (Dir.: Michael Mann, 1981)

Michael Mann’s directorial debut is a stylish engrossing crime thriller. James Caan gives a wonderful performance as a career criminal who tries to turn straight but is inevitably drawn back into the underworld. The premise is nothing new but Mann delivers an ultra-violent neo-noir that has certainly influenced Mann’s own Miami Vice and most recently, Drive.

Frank (Caan) and his partner (James Belushi) agree to do a heist for the Chicago mafia which is head up by Leo (Robert Prosky). Frank is eager to do one last score and settle down with his girlfriend (Tuesday Weld) and start a family. The caper is a $4 million diamond heist which Frank wishes to be his last and walk away from the underworld for good. However Leo and the Outfit have other ideas.

The cast of Thief is excellent – a blend of movie stars giving career best work and wonderful character actors. Robert Prosky, for instance is a character actor known mainly for his mentor roles plays the sadistic villain who at first is a father figure to Frank. Prosky’s warmth and charm is plausibly magnetic which makes his metamorphosis into malevolence all the more electrifying. Speaking of “against type”, Willie Nelson (yes that Willie Nelson) gives a scintillating cameo as an old friend of Frank’s languishing in prison who gives a moving performance in his limited screen time. Caan too gives one of the performances of his career. Frank is a not an invincible tough guy or a character that relishes violence (like Caan’s most famous role in The Godfather) but a man grown weary of crime. He wants to reject his illegitimate skills and make it as an honest citizen. Mann propagates the idea that the violent world is impossible to escape and that the American Dream is not open to everyone.

Mann along with his producer Jerry Bruckheimer (also an earlier film for the mega mogul) creates a stylish neon lit world where the American Dream is flashed on every corner. Frank’s eagerness to settle into a normal crime-free life is ultimately what draws him deeper into the world of violence. The violence is swift and shocking particularly in an exhilarating climactic showdown that is among Mann’s finest action scenes.

• You Can Count on Me (Dir.: Kenneth Lonergan, 2000)

You Can Count on Me is a simple movie with a simple story but is acted beautifully and has such charm and warmth that normalcy is welcomed with embracing arms.

Samantha (Laura Linney in an Oscar nominated role) is a single mother to her ten year old son Rudy (Rory Culkin). Her life becomes complicated when she gets a new boss at her bank (played with slimy glee by Matthew Broderick) and her wayward drifter brother Terry (Mark Ruffalo) arrives in town. Sammy has a boyfriend who is a decent man but she refuses to marry him just because he’s there. She also ends up having a dysfunctional affair with her married boss Brian (Broderick) despite the obvious self-destruction involved.

Terry is drifting aimlessly through life. He’s a handy man and an odd-jobber who has no plans or no dreams. The dichotomy set up between the siblings is wonderful. Sammy chastises terry for his aimlessness and for his lack of faith when her behaviour is far from rebuke.

The Oscar nominated script is full of such wonderful and realistic dialogue that simply hanging out with the characters is a joy. When Terry takes Rudy to a bar to play a high stakes pool game, you’ll find yourself jumping for joy which is indicative of Lonergan’s writing which has made you completely fall in love with the characters.

The title of the film is actually never spoken. It is hinted as “something [they] used to say to each other as kids” but this is the overall message of the movie. Having loved ones – family and friends – in one’s life is of paramount importance. The bonds that are shared are unbreakable and no matter how much Terry and Sammy squabble with each other their love and trust in each other carries them through. It almost seems like an insult labelling this movie a “feel-good” movie but in essence that’s exactly what it does. The message is so pure and positive it will simply leave the audience feeling just that.

• The Crossing Guard (Dir.: Sean Penn, 1995)

Written and directed by Sean Penn, this emotional gut-wrencher explores the notions of grief and vengeance which features superb performances.

After spending five years in jail for the drunk hit and run of a young girl John Booth (David Morse) is released from prison. He is still racked and tormented with guilt and tries to get on with his life. He meets JoJo (Robin Wright, Penn’s wife at the time) and begins a romance with her but is still haunted by the girl’s death. Freddy (Jack Nicholson), the girl’s father hears Booth is released and vows to murder him in revenge.

Morse a wonderful character actor who has appeared in the likes of The Rock and The Negotiator gets a rare lead role where he demonstrates what an undervalued actor he is. Morse’s Booth is a man so broken with guilt and remorse he waits patiently and acceptingly for Freddy to kill him. His scenes with Robin Wright are heartfelt and pure. The relationship between Nicholson’s and Angelica Huston’s characters is so intense and their shared history is palpable (helped no doubt by their real-life relationship of nearly 15 years). A scene where the estranged couple attempt to reconcile is an acting master class that perfectly encapsulates their relationship – tenderness and love that shattered by rage and tragedy.

The film is really shepherded by an acting tour de force from Nicholson. Like, The King of Marvin Gardens, or The Pledge (another under-appreciated collaboration with Sean Penn), or About Schmidt, Nicholson is most effective when he is not playing Jack Nicholson. The arched eyebrows, cheeky grin and maniacal laugh are nowhere to be found. Nicholson’s Freddy is on a path of self destruction caused by the grief of his daughter’s death. Nicholson is tragic, volatile, repugnant and heart-breaking. It is repeatedly over-looked in the legendary actor’s body of work which is near criminal.

Penn alludes to capital punishment (as does his performance in Dead Man Walking which was released the same year). Freddy’s vengeful quest is almost as destructive as the grief he feels. He knows the killing of Booth will give him no release or peace – yet it is consumed by it. However The Crossing Guard is not a message movie. The film is about very real human beings dealing with very real emotions and tragedies that exist in everyday life. Penn’s willingness to let the actors tell the story with truth and heart is what ultimately makes this film utterly gripping.

• American Movie (Dir.: Chris Smith, 1998)

As seen with Lost in La Mancha and Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, the making of movies is as engrossing and enthralling as the finished product. In this case, this documentary is the making of a movie that is never realised and a desperately amateur horror short that makes The Evil Dead look like Avatar. Instead, we are given a touching portrait of a film fanatic who refuses to relinquish his dreams which is completely charming.

Mark Borchardt is a struggling film maker. The documentary begins with Borchardt desperately trying to get through pre-production of his debut feature film Northwestern. Interestingly, the film is a supposed look at Middle America and the inhabitants who are excluded from the American Dream and left in a decadent, indigent post-industrial wasteland. The film shows how the movie never progresses past a second pre-production meeting (where no one shows up) and Borchardt, undeterred decides to finish his three year in the making horror short entitled Coven.

The film could easily be a study of self-destructive hubris, yet director Chris Smith presents Borchardt as a down-on-his-luck dreamer who has never gotten a break. The would-be director and his cast and crew have delusions of grandeur and a lack of common sense which is awkwardly humorous. However we are given time to spend with the characters and effectively drink the ‘Kool-Aid’ and desperately root for them to finish the movie and accomplish their dreams.

Borchardt is by no means an infallible protagonist. He drinks too much, he takes advantage of his ailing uncle to procure funds for the film and constantly fights with his mother and the mother of his children. The documentary could easily verge into social realist drama territory but Borchardt really comes alive when he is plunged head first into making his warped masterpiece. In many ways American Movie embodies the ethos of Hollywood and America. Borchardt is a dreamer and despite his alack of experience, skill, funding and support he is relentless in the ‘pursuit of happiness’.

• The Wanderers (Dir.: Philip Kaufman, 1979)

Unfairly beaten to theatres by Walter Hill’s cult classic The Warriors, this second “gangs of New York” drama is more of a coming of age drama than an action thriller. Director Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) and writer Richard Price (adapted from his novel) assemble an impressive young cast, a terrific rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and stylish flare to make The Wanderers a bittersweet masterpiece.

‘The Wanderers’ are a gang among many in New York’s Bronx there’s also: ‘the Baldies’ (a bunch of violent skin heads), ‘the Wongs’ (Chinese martial-artists who all have the surname Wong), ‘the del Bombers’ (the Italian hating black group who are the Wanderers football rivals) and the psychotic ‘Ducky boys’. Led by Richie, the Wanderers are all about singing doo-wop music (their anthem and name is inspired by Dion’s song The Wanderer), combing their greasy pompadours and chasing ‘dames’. Richie however has his problems – he’s knocked up his girlfriend who is the daughter of local mob boss, he’s involved with snobby society girl (Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Karen Allen), he’s the captain of the football who are up against the Del Bombers in a championship match, and he faces brutality from any one of his gang rivals.

Kaufman has a wonderful blend of realist drama with surrealistic farce. The Wanderers are teenage boys on the verge of manhood with very traditional adolescent problems in an almost cartoonish world of gangs.

The toe-curling-ly 60’s soundtrack features The Shirelles, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Ben E. King and Dion who all add to the sense of abandon and joy of youth. The film is less about plot and more about sequences and spending time with the characters. There is certainly plenty of style on display but that does not detract away from the substance. The Wanderers is a charming and frank tale about the end of innocence which will have you reaching for the hair gel and change for the local juke box.

Have I missed a little known classic or your favourite under-appreciated gem? Please feel free to add comments and share.

Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life

 For a documentary about capital punishment, Into the Abyss seems to be much more preoccupied with existential and poignant issues than political debate. Such is to be expected form Werner Herzog who never gets bogged down in a “message” movie but instead, strives to unearth the delicacy and transience of life. He says from the opening scene that he doesn't think anyone should be executed as if to get it out of the way. The director seems more interested in the nature of death and how it affects those surrounded by it and how life is so fleeting that the wrong decision can lead down a path of formidable consequence.

The documentary examines Michael Perry, 27, on death row. When Herzog and his crew meet him, he is 10 days away from execution. The death penalty and a life sentence for his accomplice Jason Burkett was the punishment handed out for a triple homicide in 2001. The murders stemmed from the two young men’s desire for the victims’ red Camaro sports car. Herzog interviews family members of the victims and the perpetrators and others affected by the murder – even the staff who help administer the lethal injection.

Herzog remains unseen in this film. He is only present in his questions from behind the camera offering great insights, empathy and irreverent humour. The main focus is on the subjects of the film. Herzog remains objective, sympathetic and occasionally amused by his interviewees.

A recurring mantra for many of the people presented in this film is that they: “just don’t think about it”. Apathy, even ignorance is bliss in this society. Also, there is a perverse preoccupation with cars and guns amongst some of the characters which indicts American culture. The nature of violence, too, is so casual, so transient, its perpetrators and victims barely give pause to the consequences and circumstances surrounding it.

The presence of belief is another recurring trait amongst the subjects. This is by all means God fearing country. Where the belief in a spirituality is mirrored by the belief in the American Dream - the possession of cars, guns, money can lead to some sort of fulfilment. This is a world where the many characters have been broken –by violence, by a lack of education, by a lack of opportunity. These broken and lost souls have nowhere to be except in the lines outside of societal conventions where chaos and crime exist. This is a film of overwhelming sadness – there is much pain, loss, regret, and little hope.

The film’s glint of redemption, perhaps, comes from Fred Allen the captain of the so-called “Death houses” who administered somewhere around 125 executions. A professional, even a tradesman, one day inexplicably broke down at one of the executions (one no different than any other) and decided then and there that he could not continue in this role – despite losing his pension. It’s as if the casual and ambivalent attitude to violence and death cannot be sheathed nor ignored – it will always overcome us. He is more interested in the “dash” (the punctuation between the dates of birth and death on a tombstone) and how one lives it, and how fleetingly precious it is.

Killer Joe

Kentucky fried noir. That’s one of way of describing this frankly, bat-shit crazy adaptation of Tracey Lett’s play. This movie from Oscar-winning director William Friedkin certainly has noir-ish elements, i.e. hapless anti-heroes, a femme fatale, double cross, betrayal, etc., but it is firmly rooted in Southern American literature. Think William Faulkner or Tennessee Williams that has been beaten to a pulp by Jim Thompson and you’re nearly there. The film is dark, twisted, often hilarious, frequently repulsive, and features superb performances, one of which by Matthew “is it time to take off my shirt yet?” McConaughey. One thing is certain about this film though: you never quite know where it’s going and it is certainly never dull.

The plot revolves around a dysfunctional (putting it mildly) lower class family. Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) is married to his second wife (Gina Gershon) and has two children: Chris (Emile Hirsch and) Dottie (Juno Temple). Chris is in deep trouble with drug dealers to whom he owes a substantial amount of money - money he most certainly can’t come up with that is until he learns of his biological mother’s life insurance policy worth $50,000. Chris has no trouble convincing his father and sister to go along with the plan and hires a Texas police detective (moonlighting as a contract killer), nick-named Killer Joe (McConaughey) to carry out the murder. The only problem is, neither Chris nor Ansel has a retainer and Joe insists on taking some sort of collateral in order to carry out the contract…

William Friedkin, who has given us such memorable classics such as The French Connection and The Exoricst, shows no signs of slowing down in his fourth decade as director (he’s 76!). Tracey Lett’s (who previously wrote Friedkin’s 2006 bizarre thriller Bug) screenplay obviously has no problem with alienating its audience with giving us not one honourable character to root for. Newcomer Juno Temple is one to watch as the hapless Dottie conveys a child-like innocence in a world where innocence seems to be long, long gone. McConaughey, however, is the real revelation. After languishing in a decade of emetic romantic comedy, McConaughey has taken a role that is the antithesis of romantic leading man and imbues Joe with a deep coldness and icy violence.

The Smith family are literal embodiments of the American Dream turned horribly nightmare-ish where the land of opportunity has turned them into murderous cads. This is an ensemble family picture about a particularly nasty family in a particularly nasty world. Joe acts in many ways as some sort of moral crusader and strives to assume a patriarchal role where there previously was none. Joe’s “seduction” of Dottie is so murkily ambiguous that the audience doesn't know whether to be scintillated or repulsed. And speaking of repulsion, the last 20mins of this picture have to be seen to be believed. 

4/5