|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
In Reply to: Re: Benicio del Toro, Ralph Fiennes, Sean Penn posted by Troy on January 15, 2004 at 09:07:54:
I kind of agree about Sean Penn, although I think it's interesting to contrast his role in Mystic River with the one in 21 Grams, because they're different characters, but a similar tone, and I think the quality of his role has everything to do with the ability of the director. Which I think is what makes him an excellent actor, because you can see how he responds to different styles of direction. Bill Murray, on the other hand, it doesn't matter what he's in. If you like him--and I do--you'll like the movie, probably. I can't think of a Bill Murray movie/role I haven't liked. And I think that LiT is knowingly 'about' him, in a way, but that again underlines my feeling that he's not really doing much in the way of acting.Didn't see Red Dragon, but I can't imagine that the role in Spider is really in the same mien. Actually I viscerally disliked Spider, minute-by-minute, while I was watching it. And it's only been in the many several months since that I've sort of reconstructed it from memory and come to respect it, and Fiennes's performance in particular. Has that ever happened to you? Weird feeling.
I thought Bad Santa was unnecessarily, demonstratively mean-spirited. But it had its moments. Billy Bob was good in it, and his moments with the kid seemed to belong to some ideal version of the film, that didn't get made.
Anyway the Oscars suck. When Shrek beat Monsters Inc. I wanted to sue. I thought I didn't care, then that happened, and now, to the extent that I care at all, they make me very angry.
_____________________________
Follow Ups:
Glad you see the same kinda thing about Penn. We can agree to disagree on whether Murray is different with each director. His character for Wes Anderson in "Rushmore" is most similar to his character for Sofa Copola in LIT, yet the performances are strikingly different. I think the fact that it could be taken as being sorta about him really panders to what the public perception of Bill Murray is rather than the real guy. You don't know him anymore than I do. He manipulates that perception into the role perfectly. It's very sublime.There have been some godawful Murray movies, usually broad youth market comedies. Crap like "The Man Who Knew too Little" or "Larger than Life". Another reason for me as to why LIT was such a Bill Murray revelation. For me, the LIT character was a complete break of type.
Billy Bob was really great in Bad Santa. It's hard for most people to get past the evil and grotesque content of the movie to see this complex character. He was brutally deadpan and mean and yet he made this scumbag strangely sympathetic. He transformed what would have been a one-note role for most actors into something of massive tragi-comic proportions.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: