Films/DVD Asylum

LOL! I listed Hirsch because I thought....

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In Reply to: RE: Your list, except for Cooper, is filled with personalities which I find posted by tinear on December 16, 2009 at 12:57:07

...he was one of your favorites. You did praise him in Into The Wild, after all.

What do "personalities" have to do with acting? Isn't acting a transcendence of "personality?

Do you really say that there has been no "greatness" from Wright. Dillahunt, Hoffman, Allen, Linney, McDormand, et al? And that was my 30 second list.

If you now further qualify your statement to try to force me to find American plug-ins for the roles in Brothers then I'll have to dig deeper, I guess, but that wasn't the way you couched it originally. It's so outrageous I won't even repeat it. ;-)

There are many fine American actors. Male and female. Boyish men and otherwise. What's missing is the fine roles.

"If they were boxers.........". That's hilarious. OK, Ruffalo v. Kaas, how about that manly comparison? Jeremy Renner?

Watching all that football has your blood running high.

Gravitas is a contextual thing. Can a man or woman carry a movie? Inhabit a role? That's gravitas. Not who has more hair on his chest.

Jeez, this is like arguing about who played the world's greatest guitar solo, ever in history, dude.

The problem is that Hollywood "got small". The problem is the larger American film industry trying to read and Pablum-feed several (movie-going) generations of lowest common denominator taste, on the cheap. It is a bad(ish) time for American film; not necessarily American actors.

I saw Brothers about a year ago. Compared to 50 better films - including some American ones - I saw on either side of it, I still consider it "adequate". About 3.0 out of 5. There's really very little that elevates it as a stand alone movie. I doubt you'd have the same feeling absent it's association to After The Wedding. Would you now list it among your "Best of The Decade", replacing one you've already chosen?

That's an interesting question. Which one of your "Best of The Naughties" would you replace with Brothers?

I like Ulrich Thomsen. He's somewhat formulaic and one-noteish to me. I liked him better in both The Inheritance and in The Celebration, for example. Still, in all his roles I've seen, he comes across the big brother, elder son, brave and loyal husband type. Little character or versatility beyond the typical, classical leading man persona. A tad milquetoasty. The cool, strong but slightly reticent Scandinavian. He was not convincing as the combat officer or in the rage of a betrayed husband. Actorly, little more.

You establish "greatness" for Kaas on the basis of this one role yet you poo-poo Gosling for your single mention of his "greatness". Compare further their bodies of work, notwithstanding their "manliness". Or Kaas against any of the others I mention.

If Thomsen and Kaas and Connie Nielson were world-class actors the world would better know them. I know them and I still disagree that each is better than ALL OTHER American actors. Nor are they in the pantheon of countless, great non-American actors well-known here.

Could any of the three carry a good American film? I seriously question so.

I say good film is good film. Who cares where it comes from? Or who is in it? Good(ness) in one case doesn't necessarily remind me of its absence in another.

Bier, as good as she has shown so far, has to branch out a little as far as I'm concerned before she can be considered in the company of the best from America, Japan, Korea, China, France, Italy, Australia, etc. When she does a manly film I'll think more of her. LOL.

As always, your taste and comments are more good than not. ;-)

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