Willem Dafoe: A Notable List

The LAMB is running the Acting School 101 on Willem Dafoe this month, an actor I've long admired and as my last list on Angelina Jolie raised some interest, including mine, I thought I'd give Willem the blahblahblahgay treatment.

Refreshing my memory of his resume on imdb was pretty revealing, a huge catalogue of films to choose from and at least 3 on my To Watch list, his choices are wildly diverse both in film content and roles. A serious actor who doesn't want to get typecast yet he always seems to add a little bit of creepy to his work.

I'm not going to discuss Antichrist here, I haven't seen it and not even Lars von Trier can make this one sound appealling to my delicate sensibilities.

He's worked a lot with Paul Schrader, himself a man who tends to bring a bit of creepy to his work, check him out with Nick Nolte starring in the incredibly good Affliction, The Walker and the insanely dark biopic/sexual oddyssey of Bob Crane in Auto Focus but my favourite of his work with Schrader has to be

1. Light Sleeper (1992)

A film noir, as most of Schrader's work is, this movie is pretty much all Dafoe. His character is lost in the Manahattan of the early 90's; this is the time of American Psycho and Bright Lights, Big City, a time when it was easy to get lost and never resurface and Dafoe really carries it off well. As a direct descendent of Schrader's own Taxi Driver this film offered a great opportunity to a talented actor and Willem Dafoe took it with both hands. One of my absolute favourite performances from him.



David Cronenberg for me can be hit and miss but he does have a habit of casting very well indeed, Ralph Fiennes in Spider for example or Viggo in the very recent and still-blowing-me-away Eastern Promises, and then of course every single choice for...

2. eXistenZ (1999)

...seemed spot on. This was a very weird movie. There was a time when all Cronenberg movies were categorised as such and in comparison eXistenZ is pretty tame but I really enjoyed it at the time and is still enjoyabe on repeat viewings. Willem Dafoe has a pretty small role but his ingame character of Gas is, I think as Jennifer Jason Leigh puts it, really creepy (a recurring theme me thinks) and with the denouement (or is it?) he becomes a really nice but awkward geek.



Wes Anderson, another fine director in modern cinema has used Dafoe twice, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou was quite underwhelming both times I watched it despite top quality performances but his recent Roald Dahl adaptation...

3. Fantastic Mr Fox (2009)

...was enjoyable on so many levels. As always with Anderson he chooses only the finest talent to work with. My particular favourite was Pulp frontman and style icon Jarvis Cocker singing a bad campfire song but Dafoe's turn as Rat was decliciously creepy for a "kids" film. If I'm honest I would suggest that this isn't really for kids! He has provided voice talent for animation previously, most notably as the scarred Gill in Finding Nemo. As widescreenworld pointed out "maybe it's his chin, his eyes, that grin of his - that is particularly unsettling" and for me it is a testament to his acting skills that he can add his own creepy signature to an animated rat. Or fish.



As testament to his wide body of work and as an example that even though he is a fine actor, sometimes great actors make bad films and Willem Dafoe made...

4. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

...a movie I saw twice at the cinema. Ouch. I can't believe I admitted that on this blog! An appalling movie that not even Willem Dafoe could save. Highlight for me is Sandra Bullock in a bikni. From a Dafoe POV we've already discussed his ability to be creepy, here he is a computer geek with a bug up his ass over something or other nonsensical and it doesn't really work, perhaps a touch of the overacting to compensate for a terrible idea of a film?



And that takes us on to our last pick, I've chosen to ignore such well trodden ground as his appearance as The Green Goblin, which was very good and his small but well formed role in Platoon and even Christian Bale's nemesis in American Psycho to share my love of...

5. The Boondock Saints (1999)

I know it isn't everybody's cup of tea, in fact most reviewers hate the film but everyone I've watched it with has felt the same as me: a thoroughly enjoyable film most notably for the performance of Willem Dafoe. This is my "go to" movie when I think of him as an actor. He steals the show, his class shines from amongst a bunch of average to amateur performances and the acting choices he makes with his character are instrumental in the watchability of the film (see Boondock Saints 2 for an example of how this works.) So yes I am aware that there are some average performances, that there are holes galore in the plot and the director is a self-obsessed crazy man (see the documentary Overnight for reasons why) but it just works. If I ever get asked why I like this movie I invariably mention that it's so funny and the action is cool, the story is fun and Willem Dafoe is excellent.



So that's my 5 notable Dafoe flicks, I was unable to assess on his entire catalogue as he's made quite a few films that I am yet to see. On my "To Watch" list are Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel, Paul Auster's Lulu On The Bridge, William Friedkin's To Live and Die in L.A. (it's on the noir list for the upcoming Noirathon) and eventually I might get around to watching Paris, je t'aime.

Down Terrace (2009)

Recently Custard over at Frontroomcinema listed the 5 best films set in Brighton and in the discussion this movie came up. Then a few days later Bonjour Tristesse actually reviewed the film. Now I had never heard of it, as i'm sure most people haven't, but i'm partial to a bit of British gangster movie now and then - Gangster No. 1, Sexy Beast, Anything with Ray Winstone calling people slags that kind of thing - and thought it would be crazy not to watch it.

Written and directed by newcomer Ben Wheatley, Down Terrace is a different kind of British Gangster Movie. Featuring a cast of unknowns and Spaced favourites Julia Deakin and Michael Smiley.



I love all of these images for different reasons. Whoever designed the art for this movie deserves to get paid more than a tiny indie flick can afford. They all play to different genres and all feel like good representations of the film. Top left will probably only make sense after you've seen the film but when I found it during my research I couldn't help but laugh. Top right, this half imitation of Warhol in yellow, possibly the worst of the 4 but I like the feeling it gives about the characters, everyone looks a bit confused and fed up. Bottom right, a slick almost 60's era poster, similar in part to the fad they had in the late 90's of breaking up the images (see The Limey) and then bottom left, I feel like it has to be for an international audience, using the Union Jack in that way and then the tagline "it's all about to kick off" reminiscent of the football thug movies that have had a resurgance of late, guaranteed to hook a certain audience to the point that they may as well have advertised it using Danny Dyer.



It's a great trailer that really doesn't emphasise the humour enough I think. It's arty, concentrating on the verite and kitchen sink drama aspect of the production as opposed to the gangster storyline. This is interesting to me as based on the international poster I thought there would've been a different trailer, one filled with violence. Still you can't complain when a distribution company doesn't lie about the content of a film.

Synopsis? I thought you'd never ask. Bill and Karl are father and son, gangsters who narrowly escape jail after a court appearance and the film centres on the paranoia of their investigation in to who the grass is amongst their associates.

Pretty standard stuff for a criminal underworld plot but this film is different in many ways. Down Terrace focuses on the internal workings of the central characters as they go about their daily lives with this burden hanging over them. It's filled with great comedy moments from the very start and it's scarily believable.

The comedy may not be to everyone's liking. I'm a recent emmigrant from England so these characters are the kind of people I know, people I saw everyday and a lot of the humour is related to the realism for me and could easily go over people's heads. For those of you not from England who watch this, I assure you people really do behave this way.

The hitman who takes his toddler to a hit because he couldn't find a babysitter at short notice however is a slice of comedy gold that may never have come up in everyday life in the UK. Said hitman, Pringle, is extremely funny to watch and his facial expressions alone are priceless.

Not to say that this movie makes light of it's dark material, killing for these characters carries a huge amount of baggage, both before and after. The verite style of direction adds some real gravity to proceedings, the ensemble cast performance is reminiscent of the great work of Mike Leigh and whilst Poor Cow by Ken Loach springs to mind i'm unsure whether that is because of the gangster singalong in the breakfast room complete with double bass and violin or simply because he pioneered the kitchen sink realism that this movie uses to excellent effect.

The performances are all round pitch perfect, you instinctively warm to Julia Deakin's matriarch, Maggie, in a role that might draw comparisons to Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom, but it is the performance of film debutant Robert Hill that characterises everything this movie is about; thoughtful, melancholy, rejecting of modern society (or in the films case modern attitudes towards cinema) with a tension and violence bubbling under the surface at all times. This is no Ray Winstone style performance but it works just as powerfully and not once does anyone utter the word slag. I have just finished reading Patricia Highsmith's Talented Mr Ripley and she expertly created a simmering tension and expectation of violence yet when the violence actually happens it is dealt with quickly and matter of factly and Down Terrace is very similar in this respect.

It's funny, it's violent, it moves at a rate of knots unknown for a kitchen sink verite piece and it's very very well made. I instantly wanted to tell everyone just how good this movie was and then watch it with them. Watch it.

I can't let this review finish without a mention for David Schaal, recently seen as the extremely funny father of Jay in The Inbetweeners and putting in another great performance here.

If you like the sound of the movie from my review and actually watch it, let me know. If you don't agree with me, let me know. Film is an art form and art is open to interpretation in any number of ways. The discussion of art and individual interpretation is encouraged around here. And if you enjoy the movie head down to your local independent movie store and buy it, it's only through us actually paying for films that these film makers will get to work again. At least in an ideal world that will be the case. I'm looking at you Uwe Boll.

Down Terrace (2009) DivX - icefilms.info

Top 5: Angelina Jolie Goes To Acting School

I'm in the mood to post again today but my house is cold like an ice box and i can't concentrate on telling you how good Down Terrace is right now so I thought i'd back down on my original statement that i wouldn't write lists of movies, Top 5 films starring Dustin Hoffman that doesn't feature an excellent performance from a toothbrush type stuff. Is there even one?

We've been discussing Will Smith recently and sat through Independence Day for the first time in forever last night and the conversation drifted around to just why some people become stars. Will Smith was still making The Fresh Prince when he was cast in Bad Boys and Independence Day but in these films he owns every scene he is in, to the point where you really can't comprehend that he wasn't already the biggest movie star in the world at that point. But why is Angelina Jolie a star?

So here is my list. Top 5 Angelina Jolie movies and an attempt to discover why she is famous.

1. Hackers (1995)

A movie made so well that you can switch it on half way through without realising and still know everything there is to know about the film. Whilst the 'star' was Johnny Lee Miller for me Angelina made me pay most attention, the hacker who liked to wear the oddest clothes imaginable incluing a neon blue tight fitting cycling top that pre-empted Tomb Raider by a long way.

2. Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

She's only the love interest of Nic Cage in a supremely enjoyable yet silly car chase movie yet when you think about the flick you remember that she had won an Oscar for Girl, Interrupted that same year and wonder why she felt the need to look like an albino rastafarian. You never even think of the stellar ensemble cast which included Araki favourite James Duvall and post Scream 2 pre Deadwood/Hitman/Die Hard 4/Justified megastar Timothy Olyphant.

3. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

This movie was shot entirely in front of a blue screen, it's remarkably similar in theme to an Indiana Jones movie and Angelina was fresh off of the 'success' of the Tomb raider Movies. Paired with Jude Law this movie won my vote for must miss film of the year based on that casting alone but as a forerunner to the current trend for steampunk literature it was ctually quite enjoyable.

4. Playing God (1997)

A David Duchovny vehicle? If it was it didn't take him further than straight to the VHS bargain bin. He was still doing The X Files when this movie was being ignored by everybody. His character feels like the basis for Hank in Californication at times, there's some fun dialogue, some cheesey British accents and Ms. Jolie plays the refreshingly ordinarily named Clare, a gangsters wife who is a half assed version of the femme fatale. Made the same year as Gia in which she gets naked. I know which film of 1997 helped push her towards stardom.

5. Changeling (2008)

Clint Eastwood is getting better and better it seems. In one year he made the superb, yet simple Gran Torino and this fine melodrama. Ange shows she can actually act, for the first time since Girl, Interrupted in 1999 perhaps, and the costumes are really pretty.




So this proves what? A talented actress can get famous by taking her clothes off and putting in one decent performance every 10 years? That being born in to a Hollywood family and taking your clothes off equals mega money? Hollywood is so devoid of ideas that putting a masculine woman into action films instead of a man means they can make more money and Juliet Lewis and Hillary Swank have no interest in taking the roles so every single terrible idea for a female centred action movie gets offered to the female half of Brangelina? I dunno. But I really struggled to pick 5 and keep myself away from being overly sarcastic.