The current cinema, "More cowbell" edition

No Comments

• Stephen Bowie says:

  January 8, 2012 at 3:44 pm

  Those are two of the dullest TV act­ors I can think of, and yet they just will not go away. And Jill Hennessey, too. I’d love to know exactly how many dozens of act­ors turn down a script before it gets to that lot.

• David Ehrenstein says:

  January 8, 2012 at 3:50 pm

  OMG – LOIS SMITH!!!!!

• Glenn Kenny says:

  January 8, 2012 at 3:53 pm

  Cannavale is suf­fi­ciently excel­lent in “Win/Win” that I’m inclined to cut him some slack; I’ve also heard good things about his stage work. However, he has spread him­self a bit thin with the TV stuff, and in this par­tic­u­lar film he plays so aggress­ively to type it’s, as the say­ing goes, not even funny.

• lipranzer says:

  January 8, 2012 at 5:19 pm

  Reminds me I should track down Alan Rudolph’s film of the same name one of these days.
  I’ve not seen Cannavale on TV (or stage, for that mat­ter), but though he does get typecast play­ing bad guys or scum­bags (as much as I liked THE MERRY GENTLEMAN, Michael Keaton’s sole film as dir­ect­or, it def­in­itely would have been more inter­est­ing had Cannavale played the detect­ive instead of the abus­ive hus­band), but when he’s allowed to step out­side of that box, I think he can be quite good; not just WIN WIN, but also THE STATION AGENT, which he stole from every­body else, and also in a small role in ROMANCE & CIGARETTES.

• Robert Cashill says:

  January 8, 2012 at 7:07 pm

  Cannavale is a fine stage act­or, superb in THE MOTHERFUCKER WITH THE HAT last sea­son, and in MAURITIUS in 2007. He tends to be in movies and TV shows I skip but he (and every­one else) made me laugh in THE OTHER GUYS.

• Stephen Bowie says:

  January 8, 2012 at 7:56 pm

  I’ll take your word for it on the stage work, but in every single TV or film per­form­ance I’ve seen Cannavale has sunk into the stock per­matanned Italian-American lounge liz­ard ste­reo­type and remained mired there. (See image above.) He has a preening-for-the-camera qual­ity that con­stantly makes me want to kick him in his arrog­ant nads. Never thought I’d say “bring back Chazz Palminteri,” but here we are.
  Now don’t get me star­ted on that sad­sack Ron Eldard or I’ll morph into John Simon right here at my key­board, god help me.

• Jack Laughing says:

  January 8, 2012 at 11:57 pm

  I really enjoyed Cannavale’s comed­ic work in both The Station Agent and Win Win. In fact, I’d rate The Station Agent as one of my favor­ite films of the last dec­ade. I’m not sure what per­form­ances you’re refer­ring to, but if its in either of those two films then rest assured that I won’t be shar­ing a drink with you any­time soon. Geez, loosen up a bit.

• Tom Block says:

  January 9, 2012 at 1:28 pm

  The Station Agent My Ass 

• Tom Block says:

  January 9, 2012 at 2:23 pm

  Sorry, I’d like to apo­lo­gize for that post. I don’t like McCarthy’s stuff but that does­n’t give me license to be an ass.

• frankbooth says:

  January 11, 2012 at 1:39 am

  Has no one here heard of SAXONDALE?

• Oliver_C says:

  January 11, 2012 at 4:36 am

  The Steve Coogan series? Personally I much pre­ferred it to Alan Partridge or Tony Ferrino.

• Gordon Cameron says:

  January 11, 2012 at 12:35 pm

  I’ve had a crush on Jill Hennessy for ages.