Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The revolution will be supervised.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

I really should read my own blog.

Let there be snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

This fight is for everything.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

This really is a full service blog.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Movies / Keep your electric eye on me, babe

Keep your electric eye on me, babe

by | 148 Comments

This post is in: 

Thought we could use a fun post as we may be nearing the constitutional abyss….

I just read there’s a one-man show about Lester Bangs playing in New York and I wished that I could go! It got me thinking about “Almost Famous”. I thought the movie was fun but a bit of a snooze when Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn’t on screen killing it as Lester Bangs (F-Mac was good too, but that was really comic relief). Billy Crudup is a wonderful actor (“Jesus’ Son” is great), Kate Hudson is charming in her own way, and the kid was fine but…they’re all a bit boring. When PSH comes on screen, you suddenly wake up and pay attention. The content of his speech about being uncool was stupid — come on, if good-looking people’s art doesn’t last, then why do people still watch Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman movies, why do they still listen to Marvin Gaye and early Sinatra, why do they still love early Hemingway and Welles? But the delivery…

I felt a bit the same way about PSH, and also Jude Law in Mr. Ripley. When they were both dead, I wanted to leave. Do I really want to spend an hour with Matt Damon and Gwyenth? No.

I was thinking, what are other examples where one particular actor blows everyone else off the screen? Could be more than one actor but has to be a supporting role, no Mommy Dearest or There Will Be Blood.

For me, the first time I was ever struck by this was Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider. Another more recent example was Holly Hunter in Big Sick. I liked the movie but the two kids aren’t engaging screen presences, the movie only took off when Holly Hunter came in. Though it’s a larger role, I also think of Denzel Washington in Philadelphia as opposed to Tom Hanks. The stuff with Denzel coming to grips with not being homophobic draws you in, then you have to watch Tom Hanks pretend to love opera and musical theater for ten minutes. I guess this one’s twofer: Denzel is infinitely more charismatic than Tom Hanks and he also has a more interesting role.

Another good one is Daniel Day Lewis in “Room With A View”. That character he plays is a prig, but he’s just got an intensity and presence the others don’t have.

What are some other good examples?

Reader Interactions

148Comments

  3. 3.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Arclite: I was thinking precisely the same thing. Tom Hanks is so busy playing Tom Hanks that Rylance steals the whole damn movie.

  7. 7.

    Arclite

    Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom. The entire movie is great, but Ben’s scenes are next level terrifyingly electric.

  9. 9.

    Manyakitty

    @Dr. Fungus: Yes to Ian McShane.

    Remember Robert Downey Jr in Ally McNeal? He outclassed everyone there in every scene. Glad he got his act together.

  10. 10.

    JGabriel

    Doug! @ Top:

    I was thinking, what are other examples where one particular actor blows everyone else off the screen?

    Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton and Broken Flowers.

    Setsuko Hara in Tokyo Story.

  13. 13.

    frosty

    @JR: How can it be a supporting role when the character’s name is the title of the movie? But yeah, Keaton in Beetlejuice.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    Brad Pitt in Thelma and Louise.

    PSH when he was “the guy in the RV” in Twister

    Claude Rains in any number of movies

  15. 15.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Dr. Fungus: McShane is a force of nature. I don’t remember if Milch has said so, but they really changed the character, maybe the whole series, to fit him. I would only argue with this as an example since I don’t think the show drags when he’s not on screen.

    a counter-example, when one actor stands out as the weak link, is Christopher Reeve in The Remains of the Day. Sorry to speak ill of the dead and he was apparently a good guy, but he really doesn’t fit in that movie.

  16. 16.

    oatler.

    Al Pacino as John Milton. He chewed the Hell out of the scenery. Also he would have made a great Mr Wednesday.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    Memorable performances
    Lee Marvin Cat Ballou
    Jane Fonda In they shoot horse don’t they.
    Audrey Hepburn Wait until Dark
    Jack Lemmon The Apartment

  20. 20.

    Thoughtful David

    Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King. She won a best supporting actress Oscar for it. Usually, well maybe nearly always, when I come out of a movie I’m thinking about the movie–plot, theme, etc.–and not the acting. I remember walking out of that movie and thinking, “Gee that actress did a great job!,” and I’m not one who is usually a good judge of acting or even thinks about it much. Maybe that was because it wasn’t a great movie.

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Kathleen Turner blew Michael Douglas off the screen in The War of the Roses. Not the movie’s only problem, but…

  23. 23.

    Barney

    Cheating by looking at the Oscar ‘supporting’ lists, Louis Gossett Jr. in An Officer and a Gentleman, and Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost.

  24. 24.

    Miss Bianca

    Which I mistakenly put this in the calendar thread, so, repeating here:

    David Bowie as Andy Warhol in “Basquiat”. Not that the rest of the movie is bad, it’s just that he walks away with it whenever he’s on-screen.

  25. 25.

    Annie

    Mark Rylance in Dunkirk. (Mark Rylance in anything, really.)

    And I concur with “Claude Rains in anything.”

    Asia Kate Dillon in Billions, though I’m not sure if the impact is from the performer or the role.

  26. 26.

    bruins01

    If you are talking about amazing, relatively minor performances that elevate their otherwise forgettable films, then there are a few examples I can think of.

    -Robin Williams in “Good Will Hunting”
    -Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
    -Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” but that might be both too big a role and too good a movie for this list
    -Albert Brooks in “Drive” — one of the more egregious modern Oscar nomination snubs
    -Jack Nicholson has had so many it’s almost unfair to include him. Easy Rider, A Few Good Men, Reds, Terms of Endearment

  27. 27.

    phantomist

    Frances McDormand in Fargo. She’s listed 20th in cast credits on imdb?

    Will Geer in Jeremiah Johnson.

  28. 28.

    The Thin Black Duke

    In every movie that he appears in, Don Cheadle should be arrested for Grand Larceny.

  29. 29.

    bruins01

    -Amy Adams in “Catch Me if You Can” (Christopher Walken, too)
    -Meryl Street in about a thousand films
    -Julianne Moore also in a bunch of films

    My list accidentally split itself by gender and now I’m feeling self-conscious about it.

  30. 30.

    patrick II

    I am going to repeat a name, but a different movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Mission Impossible 3. When he was bloodied and tied to a chair he just owned the scene — being so threatening when ostensibly helpless.
    Also, Hoffman in Charlie Wilson’s War. The everyman but smartest man in the room character was terrific.
    Actally Hoffman in about anything.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    Lilly Tomiln picks up “I (Heart) Huckabees” and simply walks off the set with it.

  38. 38.

    JR

    @Barney: lou gossett’s film credits are amazing to behold

    Oscar followed by endless stream of B movie dreck, excepting Enemy Mine.

  40. 40.

    crshark

    Disagree about DD-L in “Room with a View.” Maggie Smith is every bit his equal and Denholm Elliot tops them all.

    I know nobody likes the Harry Potter movies for the acting, but Alan Rickman is the master if every scene he’s in.

    Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein: “I was going to make espresso!”

  41. 41.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @bruins01: Really? I loved the scene when after the alarms go off in the bank vault, Cheadle says to his gang, “You had one job to do!”

  42. 42.

    Peter

    @patrick II: You beat me to it. I’ve never seen a supporting actor own an entire movie the way he did in Charlie Wilson’s War. He didn’t just masticate scenery, he downright destroyed it.

    Phil Hoffman optioned my friend’s book for a TV show. They were all set to shoot, and then he died. The ensuing scramble to replace him ended up sapping all the character (literally) out of the show, and it only ran for one season.

  43. 43.

    NotMax

    Too many to list, so a brief and incomplete sampling.

    Peter Dinklage in “Death at a Funeral”
    Maximillian Schell in “Judgment at Nuremberg”
    Gertrude Hoffman in “Before Dawn” and “Caged”
    Frank Faylen in “The Lost Weekend”
    Akim Tamiroff in “Touch of Evil”
    May Robson in “Bringing Up Baby”
    William Demarest in “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek
    Elsa Lanchester in “the Big Clock”
    Oskar Homolka in “I Remember Mama”
    Robert Morley in “Topkapi”
    Nina Foch in “Executive Suite”

    In, well, anything:
    “Rags” Ragland
    Edna May Oliver
    Mads Mikkelsen
    Eve Arden
    Burgess Meredith
    Billie Burke
    Charles Coburn
    S. Z. Sakall
    Edward Everett Horton

  45. 45.

    Amaranthine RBG

    Devin Ratray in Mosaic.

    I watched it a second time and just fast forwarded through all the scenes that did not have him in it.

  46. 46.

    raven

    @patrick II: It took years to get a decent version and they finally did a BluRay. All the other TV and DVD’s have really washed out colors and they just suck. The bonus on the Blu Ray is the commentary by Redford, Pollack and Milius. How they filmed it on a really low budget, the sparse dialogue written by Miius, how they had to go to Kubrick two figure out how to dub and subtitle and how they found Johnson’s grave in the Vets cemetery in Santa Monica and dug him up and reinterred him in Cody (Milius shot the drunken goodbye scene in Big Wednesday at the grave before they dug him up.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    Trevante Rhodes in Moonlight. He had so few lines but had me gasping for air as a closeted black man finally touching a chance at love. Still brings me to tears.

    Giulietta Massini in La Strada. I remember almost no one else in that movie.

  50. 50.

    Redshift

    Another reverse example is the Leonardo DiCaprio “Man in the Iron Mask.” It was before he learned how to act, so much of it is four great actors desperately trying to act around him, and it’s much better any time he’s not onscreen.

  53. 53.

    Joeg

    @Arclite: agree Christopher Walz is great in anything.

    Sessuye Hawakowa in Bridge on River Kwai
    Charles Durning in lots of pics — fab is as Pappy ODaniel in O Brother, Where Art Thou
    Stephen Root in O Brother… and in Boardwalk Empire
    Holly Hunter in everything
    Hedy LaMarr in everything
    Barbara Stanwyck in her early B/w movies. Memorizing.

  54. 54.

    schrodingers_cat

    Agreed about Daniel Day Lewis, in The Room with a View. That’s one of my favorite movies.
    You guys don’t know them, but Nilu Phule and Mohan Agashe in almost anything.
    Jabbar Patel’s 1974 Samna (Confrontation) has both of them
    Irrfan Khan in Life in a Metro, the movie was a mess but Irrfan Khan’s comic turn was awesome.
    Mohan Agashe had a small role as the racist uncle in Meera Nair’s Mississippi Masala.
    Not a movie, but Andrew Robinson as Garak in DS9. Alison Wright as Martha in The Americans.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    And one more which I meant to include and spaced out on completely..

    Pete Postlethwaite in “Romeo + Juliet” and “The Usual Suspects”

    @Dan B

    Some guy name of Quinn…

    ;)

  59. 59.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @NotMax:

    Burgess Meredith

    The 1939 version of “Of Mice and Men” was awesome. Burgess Meredith was George, Lon Chaney Jr was Lenny. Both of those guys from the original Broadway cast.

    There were so many great silent moments in that film, just actors looking, thinking, acting, reacting. I don’t think too many directors have the courage for that much silence.

    @Just One More Canuck: Oh man, every Alan Rickman moment in “Galaxy Quest”. “By Grapthar’s Hammer, what a savings”. The self-hatred just dripping off that line cracks me up every time.

    When I read the original post, two things came to mind that were more theatrical than movie, so I don’t know if they count.

    One was Frank Langella as Molieri in “Amadeus”. He has a moment where he is all alone on the huge stage. And he fills it, end to end. Just riveting stuff.

    Another was Orson Welles on an old episode of Johnny Carson (yeah, that’s how old I am). Carson asked him if he wanted to do some Shakespeare, and he just launches into a Shylock speech from “Merchant of Venice”. As the set gets very, very quiet, and the camera zooms in. When he was done, the silence just continued forever.

  60. 60.

    Amir Khalid

    Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables. Part of it is the character; Fantine is after all the representative face of human suffering in Victor Hugo’s novel. But the four and a half minutes of I Dreamed A Dream, when all you see is her face in tears and all you feel is Fantines’s grief and suffering, elevates a movie musical to great drama.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    I just saw that for the first time on the big screen a couple of weeks ago! (Had seen it once, 40-some years ago, on TV, greatly disfigured by frequent commercial breaks.)

    Terrific movie. Sorry it took me so long, glad I finally saw it.

  66. 66.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Pat Hingle doesn’t blow the other actors off the screen in The Grifters, because the whole cast is so damn good, but his few minutes as Bobo Justice is terrifyingly memorable. Not least because amiable character actor Pat Hingle is suddenly so fucking scary. Anjelica Huston was robbed at the Oscars that year.

  71. 71.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Joe Pesci in Casino and Goodfellows. Samuel L. Jackson in Django Unchained. Rodney Dangerfield and Robert Downey Jr in Natural Born Killers.

  74. 74.

    Felanius Kootea

    Viola Davis in Doubt, Audrey Tatou in Dirty Pretty Things, Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensibility, Thandie Newton in Beloved, Ademola Adedoyin in October 1. Okay now I’m going to change the rules a little: Idris Elba in Long Walk to Freedom, Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda, Venus Seye in Faat Kine.

  77. 77.

    Mnemosyne

    @MomSense:

    The first thing I remember seeing Viola Davis in was Out of Sight. She stole that movie from George Clooney, Jennifer Lopez, AND Don Cheadle.

  84. 84.

    Mary G

    Robert Duvall, in lots of stuff, but in particular Apocalypse Now. “I love the smell of napalm in the morning!”

    Robert Shaw also in lots of stuff, but in particular in Jaws.

  85. 85.

    hueyplong

    Maybe a little obscure, but J E Freeman (the Dane) in Miller’s Crossing.

    Michael Stuhlbarg holds his own in a variety of roles.

  86. 86.

    Elmo

    Basil Rathbone in anything. Robin Hood with Errol Flynn. If I Were King with Ronald Colman. Anything.

  88. 88.

    Redshift

    @Arclite: Yeah, yeah, I know, I almost mentioned that as an aside. But after that, he was in a bunch of things where he basically just seemed to play himself, which sometimes was fine (Romeo+Juliet) and sometimes dreadful (the aforementioned.) I avoided him after that, and the next thing I saw him in was The Aviator, where he was amazing.

  89. 89.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JR:

    Robert Carlisle in trainspotting

    And that goes double for “once upon a time”, if you’re unfortunate enough to have someone in your household who watches that.

  91. 91.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elmo:

    Yes to Basil Rathbone. I always admire actors who can shift between playing heroes and villains. Ray Milland was another actor who did that really well.

  93. 93.

    Tokyokie

    @cope: I was going to mention Boone, but not just Hombre, but pretty much anything he did. Chief Dan George stole pretty much every scene he was ever in because the cadence of his language was always a bit askew, and I loved him for it. Also, Raymond Burr in films noirs. I’ll also throw in a different British Ian other than MacShane, Ian Bannen. And not such list would be complete without the delightful Robert Morley. I heartily recommend Theatre of Blood, which boasts some of the greatest British scene-stealers of all time — Morley, Michael Hordern, Arthur Lowe, Harry Andrews — all of whom basically have one big scene, which is getting killed by Vincent Price re-enacting a scene from Shakespeare.

  94. 94.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Dennis Hopper in True Romance. R LEE Emeryville as the drill seargean in Full Metal Jacket.

  97. 97.

    Mnemosyne

    Also, I will reiterate the first time I remember sitting up and saying, “Wait, who is that?” when an actor stole an entire movie with just one or two lines: Colin Firth in the 1987 TV movie version of The Secret Garden.

    He has, like, three lines in the last 5 minutes of the movie and it’s the only thing I remember about it. ?

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    @Mr Stagger Lee: And Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet.

    I once sat sipping a Bellini in Venice at a table next to Dennis Hopper and his stunningly beautiful date. He was gracious and also not very tall.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    Warren Oates in Two-Lane Blacktop.

    Though a very young Harry Dean Stanton nearly wrests it away from him with a single scene as a hitchhiker.

  100. 100.

    Felanius Kootea

    @MomSense: I thought the same thing when I wrote that because Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams were incredible but Viola was amazing.

    @MomSense: We definitely should – come on down to SoCal – it’s too cold in the mid west for me :-).

  101. 101.

    Ksmiami

    My faves: Michael Keaton (all), bill Murray, Emily blunt in young Victoria and Sicario. Javier bardem

  102. 102.

    Ksmiami

    And lastly Gary Oldman in everything from Sid and Nancy to The Professional and tinker tailor…

  103. 103.

    The Golux

    Jack Warden in Heaven Can Wait. He didn’t exactly steal the movie, but I loved the scene where it dawns on him that Joe Pendleton now inhabits the body of Leo Farnsworth.

  105. 105.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I think I have mentioned before that I was incredibly lucky to meet and spend several minutes chatting with Basil Rathbone in 1961-62 when I was a student at Northwestern. Charming man. I never mentioned Sherlock Holmes, but talked instead about my introduction to him in the 1940s in a 78 rpm record album of the opera Hansel and Gretel. He was both the narrator and the Witch (a very young Jane Powell sang Gretel). I like to think he was impressed that someone remembered that otherwise forgotten enterprise.

  106. 106.

    Tokyokie

    @Waratah: In the Magnificent Seven, in the scene in which he and Bryner drive the hearse to the cemetery, McQueen totally winged the bit of business in which he shakes the shotgun shells next to his ear to check whether they’re good, and that diverts the audience’s attention to McQueen. Bryner was furious with him for doing that, but John Sturges left it in.

  110. 110.

    zmulls

    I pretty much agree that Almost Famous was a big snoozefest when PSH was not on screen. Except that Frances McDormand is *also* fabulous and *also* wakes the movie up, and blows everyone else away. But yes, when those two actors are not on screen, nothing to see here, move along.

    (Appreciated Fairuza Baulk and Anna Paquin as the groupies)

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ksmiami: taking the thread completely off the rails, to underrated movies with big stars: Bill Murray’s Quick Change.

    @Ksmiami: Twitter Nixon started a thread a few weeks back over who was the better Smiley. My heart says Guiness, but as Nixon said, Oldman’s Smiley has done some terrible, but necessary, things in the service of his country, and you see that in his face.
    On the third hand, the way Guiness’s Smiley treats Connie Sachs, in both series, is pretty ruthless.

  112. 112.

    Immanentize

    @Felanius Kootea: I love Firth in that. My wife and I decided, however, that he should NEVER show his teeth when he smiles. He just looks goofy and spoils the allure.

  114. 114.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Elmo:

    I wasn’t smart enough at the time. In retrospect, of course, I go all weak in the knees when I think of it.

  115. 115.

    piratedan

    well, for me, if you’re bad guy isn’t believable then you got nothin’… so I’ll cite someone like Bob Guinton in The Shawshank Redemption, other actors who simply seem to own the screen, I always go old school and think of someone like Sidney Poitier, he had a run in the 60’s like no other.

  116. 116.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Immanentize: My wife wore out her VHS copy of that, and if it’s possible to wear out a dvd, she’ll do that too. It’s her go-to show for relaxing before going to sleep.

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Not in the same league but would willingly travel back and kick my twenty-something self squarely in the behind when I think of the things could have asked Jim Backus about when we found ourselves at the same table, both nursing drinks, off in a corner away from the crowds at a record company shindig.

  118. 118.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Shana:

    I agree! I love stories about unplanned/unexpected celebrity encounters.

    My husband (as he then was) and I once sat next to Soupy Sales in the ever-so-trendy basement bar at Black Rock (CBS HQ) in NYC. Would have been around 1967-68.

    Around the same time, I accidentally came across Mitch Miller at the (I think) Americana in NYC. I ended up buying him a slice of cantaloupe, don’t ask me why.

    #hangingwiththestars
    #rubbingshoulderswithgreatness
    #eatyourheartsoutyoujealouslosers

  119. 119.

    Immanentize

    @Just One More Canuck: it was one of our comfort shows too. We loved the scene we call “floating Darcy head” when Elizabeth is recalling some of his words in the carriage…. And everything Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

  120. 120.

    hugely

    gotta go with DD Lewis as Bill the Butcher in Five Points or whatever it was called. That fucker peeled the paint off the walls in the theater. Also Don Cheadle in Devil in a Blue Dress

  121. 121.

    Immanentize

    @Shana: It was so cool. It was at Harry’s bar in the late afternoon. We were in the bar area. Dennis wanted some food, but the restaurant part was not yet open…. We said hello, I told him how I have seen everything he was in since the boy with the green hair. He laughed at that and thanked me for caring and then my wife and I headed back out into the streets. Probably looking for ice cream.

  125. 125.

    MomSense

    @Felanius Kootea:

    She was only on screen for about 7-8 minutes. Tour De Force.

    Here’s a random one. Kevin Kline in Princess Caraboo if only for the absolutely perfect accent. It was a long time ago but I remember being pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the movie was.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Well, sure, but I thought we were supposed to be talking about scene-stealers, not co-stars. ? Mr. Darcy can’t steal Pride & Prejudice from himself!

  134. 134.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    I loved Jim Backus, long before the Gilligan’s Island days. How cool that you got to spend a bit of time with him!

  135. 135.

    Jamey

    PSH would be my go-to, mostly on the back of his perfs as “Freddy” in “…Ripley” and “Scotty” in “Boogie Nights.”

    But it almost always goes back to Agnes Moorhead in “The Magnificent Ambersons,” and/or John Cazale in “Godfather” and “Godfather II.” Guess I can’t look away from pathos…

    Here’s a dark-horse candidate: Charles Napier in a lotta comedic roles (“Dad” in “Married to the Mob”; “Tucker McElroy” in “The Blues Brothers.”

  138. 138.

    Heidi Mom

    OK, if anyone’s still here: Jamie Foxx in “Ali.” Wes Studi in “The Last of the Mohicans.” Kerry Washington in “Last King of Scotland.” Naomie Harris in “Miami Vice.” And as mentioned above, PSH in “Twister.”

  139. 139.

    cosima

    Daniel Day Lewis in ‘My Left Foot’ was so astonishing — that movie was amazing, he inhabited that role so deeply. He’s a beautiful man, and much as I like to look at him in other movies where he’s dolled up, My Left Foot is his best by far.

    And I know it’s not movie/big screen, but William Macy in Shameless is so amazing. His character is completely OTT, and Joan Cusack’s Sheila is great. I don’t think we made it past season 5, so perhaps it went downhill after that, but I love that show, and it is those two that make it.

  140. 140.

    cosima

    @Dr. Fungus: We just binge-watched Deadwood over the xmas holidays. I’d forgotten how much I loved that show, and why, and most of it was down to Ian McShane’s acting & character, the depths of both. And when the series was over I really didn’t like Bullock, not the actor or his acting, but the character, selfish & self-righteous — I’d not really got that when we last watched the series (about 10 years ago).

  142. 142.

    swiftfox

    @Immanentize: Scrolling through the comments looking for a Blazing Saddles reference – Wilder, Little, Korman, and Pickens are great – But Madeline Kahn is the reason to watch it in reruns.

  143. 143.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @swiftfox: Totally agree but everyone was pretty fantastic in that movie. Speaking of which, Harvey Kormann.

    Hasn’t Morgan Freeman built an entire career on this phenomenon? Surprised no one has mentioned him yet.

    Allison Janey and J.K Simmons in Juno. Anne Bancroft and Eli Wallach in Keeping the Faith. Also another middling rom com, Eli Wallach in The Holiday.

    Alan Rickman in his most famous role in Die Hard. Also much more recently in Bottle Shock.

  144. 144.

    cosima

    @Manyakitty: No need to pine for Deadwood — the dvd cost(s) are now quite reasonable. When we wanted to watch over the xmas hols we searched but couldn’t find our copies. So, I look online, and I think I got all 3 seasons for less than £15 (turned out we’d loaned them to friends), so now we have one set to watch, another to loan out. Little C watched it with us (she is immune to violence & bad language thanks to anime), and she & I ended up having some great conversations about the grey areas of personalities/actions/etc., with Swearingen as our case study.

  145. 145.

    cope

    @SiubhanDuinne: My stepdad’s uncle was a character actor in Hollywood, he did some Three Stooges films (jailer in the beer one) and was the mailman on the TV show “Hazel”. He and Jim Bacus were best buds and when he visited us, he told us kids a bunch of stories about paling around with Bacus. Being kids at the time, we were mostly familiar with Jim Bacus as the voice of Mr. Magoo.

  146. 146.

    Heidi Mom

    Glad to see this thread is still alive, as I went to sleep thinking of who else to add: Barry Pepper in “Saving Private Ryan,” Courtney B. Vance in “The Hunt for Red October,” Matt Damon in “Courage Under Fire,” Geoffrey Rush and Daniel Craig in “Elizabeth,” and — maybe the greatest performance in a supporting role ever — Michael K. Williams as Omar in “The Wire.”

  147. 147.

    mere mortal

    Christopher Guest, Wally Shawn, and Billy Crystal in Princess Bride.

    Just about everybody in Sneakers. No, really, watch it again. Redford, Poitier, Aykroyd, Strathairn. Gods, that movie.

    Spader in Blacklist.

    For me, it’s pretty much about seeing actors who are way, way bigger than not just the role, but the movie.

  148. 148.

    Miss Bianca

    @Heidi Mom: “Omar’s comin’! Omar’s comin’!”

    Time for another binge-watch of “Deadwood” and “The Wire” both – love those shows.

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