In honor of the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman, I’ve listed my favorite PSH (or at least memorable?) performances (big and small) over the years. I’ve arranged them in chronological order. If a performance is not on this list, it is more likely that I have not yet seen it than I didn’t actually like it. Contrary to popular perception, I don’t actually watch 5 movies a day. George Willis, Jr. in Scent of a Woman (at the time, was there any other male actor his age who could have acted more slimy, conniving, weak-minded, no-integrity rich, daddy’s boy than PSH? Because of this movie, I didn’t like him AS A PERSON for several years; his performance seemed so natural that I thought it was him) Dustin Davis in Twister (this was the time period when PSH and Jack Black were heavily competing against each other for the comical fat guy’s roles; it wasn’t a great performance, but he gets to act pretty goofy in this role; this is the same type of role that Jack Black plays in Enemy of the State; a fattie technician to round out an ensemble) Brandt in The Big Lebowski (imagine George Willis, Jr. all grown up, and that is Brandt) Phil Parma in Magnolia (nice understated performance; lots of acting with his face) Lester Bangs in Almost Famous (I imagine that this role is closest to how PSH might have been as a person; endlessly calling bullshit on all of the bullshit in life) Dean Trumbell in Punch-Drunk Love (not enough people saw this money, but PSH was in it for a few minutes and those few minutes were glorious) Jacob Elinsky in 25th Hour (pound for pound, one of the best movies of the last 20 years; to me, it captures the spirit of America AND what New York was going through post-9/11 all at the same time; PSH is damned good in it) Sandy Lyle in Along Came Polly (I imagine PSH had a lot of fun making this movie) Jon Savage in The Savages (not enough people saw this movie either; his performance was pretty good here alongside Laura Linney) Andy in Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (ditto for this movie; given it had PSH, Ethan Hawke, Albert Finney, Marisa Tomei, etc., AND was direct by Sidney Lumet, I’m not sure why more people didn’t find this movie) Gust Avrakotos in Charlie Wilson’s War (think about this: PSH delivering lines written by Aaron Sorkin; as Frank Catton would say, “’Nuff Said!”) Caden Cotard in Synecdoche, New York (take some ‘ludes and just enjoy this movie) Father Brendan Flynn in Doubt (not too many men could stand up to Meryl Streep; he comes pretty darned close) Paul Zara in The Ides of March (yeah)
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 20:28:26 +0000
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