Dear loyal readers, Due to my impossibly heavy work load I have not been keeping up with this blog. I'm announcing here that a I am taking a hiatus from writing film reviews until the end of May. Once I get reviewing again, the reviews will flow all summer and hopefully beyond. Plus, there have not been any great thriller or sci-fi films released recently. I watched Divergent, and although the idea of the film was kind of cool, it's similarity in pitch to Twilight was not. 5/10 Can't wait for Transcendence. See you in a few months. - Mote
This post is a more personal than my usual because Philip Seymour Hoffman’s shocking death has caused me more sadness, just of any other performer, but any public figure I can think of. It’s not just that I was a fan of his work. I was, I am, but I haven’t even seen everything he
has appeared in (yet).It’s more than just his
absence as actor.It’s the fact that there
was a real truth to him, an essence of genuine veracity that made him so
compelling, and that he this used as part of his technique. I’m sad that Philip
Seymour Hoffman the actor is gone, but for some reason I am also very sad about
the departure of Hoffman the person.
I cannot think of an actor that exerts so much
of their natural selves in their roles, yet because of such talent, remains
totally immersed in the characters they play. Playing ever role flawlessly, and
so many different types of roles, yet each with a certain kind of signature
loneliness, a imperfection, a subtle flaw in the character that made them seem
more real and that much more worthy of our sympathy.
This led me to go on a watching spree. Going
through the various countries’ catalogues of Netflix, I found a good many of
Hoffman’s films. It has taken me until now to compile some sort of
retrospective of what I think are some of his greatest roles.
Never really good looking enough to be a leading
man, the majority of his roles were supporting. His tremendous ability as a
character actor led him to be cast in a very diverse array of roles, the best
of which are mostly small and in the middle of films. MoneyBall, Talented Mr. Ripley, Lebowski, The Ides of March….and
one such role I really enjoy is in Punch-Drunk
Love (2002). He plays the small-time hustler and mattress salesman
Dean Trumbell.
The role is brief and he appears just long enough to curse up a
storm. The phone conversation scene between Sandler and Hoffman is one of the
film’s highlights. Hoffman is in fine form as Sander tells Hoffman to go Fuck
himself.
“Shut up, shut the fuck up!...Did you just say
go fuck myself?...That wasn’t good, you’re dead.” There is this weird
cartoonish music in the background. It’s a very nice edition to the scene.
Anderson even made this ridiculous video feature Dean Trumbell-
As far as screen time goes, Jack goes Boating (2010) is much
more fulfilling, and with this film Hoffman makes his directing debut.Hoffman’s Jack is a lovable
introvert limo driver, who loves reggae. The plot is revolves around Jack, his
best friends Clyde and Lucy, and Connie, Jack’s potential love interest. The
dysfunction of Clyde and Lucy eventually reflects positively on Jack and
Connie’s courtship as they vie never to go down the road they see their friends
on. Mostly a sweet, quirky film, near the end a major catastrophe occurs, not
only in the plot, but also in the filmmaking. This scene mostly derails the
film, taking the overall quality down substantially, but still, a worthwhile
watch for Hoffman fans.
Obviously Capote (2005) was Hoffman’s piece de resistance, and the work
that made him a star, but having given it its second viewing, I’m not as
convinced that it’s really as great a performance as some of his others. It’s
just the drastic amount of skill he shows playing a character so truly unlike
himself that gets people so excited.
Of course there are scenes in Capote, particularly when Capote is
entertaining party-goers, friends, and fans, while they hang on his every word
that Hoffman’s Capote is truly at in his element, but in some of the subtler
scenes, where Capote describes his own difficulties of being different, these
scenes now come across as less convincing. After having watched most of
Hoffman’s catalogue I can’t help but contrast these scenes with others where he
perhaps does a better job of creating a real aura of sympathy for the “unusual
individual.” He is totally convincing in this role as Jack, and Jack is too an
unusual individual, but maybe that's just because Jack seems closer
characteristically to Hoffman himself.
Capote’s demeanor as a gentle intellectual, and
especially his voice, at times can be borderline unrealistic. However, what
does come across is the villain underneath the soft, outer veneer. Director
Bennet Millers’ vision of Capote. The exploitation, the façade, the doing-whatever-needs-to-be-done
to complete the book that brings Truman Capote worldwide acclaim. Promises
broken, truths twisted, relationship faked, and all witnesses executed.
After reading in Rolling Stone that Hoffman himself considered his performance
in A Late Quartet (2012) to
be his best, I had to check it out. I had been avoided it until then because I
just couldn’t imagine the actors getting the portrayals of professional string
players anywhere near accurate. Director Yaron Zilberman does a great job of
shifting the focus away from the actual playing of the instruments, focusing
much more on the psychology of being a professional classical musician, a New
Yorker, a parent; however when the actors do play, they play with very
convincing technique, and the pitfall of their faking badly is mostly avoided.
After watching A Late Quartet my initial reaction was one of nonchalance, but
like most good films, it took two days for it to set in. After sinking in, a
great film’s characters become real to me, and I think about them as if they
truly exist. This not something I do on purpose, rather it is the effect of
very affective filmmaking. The only other film that has blurred the lines
between fiction and reality so seamlessly is Soderbergh’s Side Effects (2012), which is one
of my favorite films. Sadly, the blurring of Hoffman’s character into
non-existence now hits too close to home.
The Hoffman film that I am most thankful for
is The Master (2012).
Working again with P.T. Anderson of Punch-Drunk
Love, the title of the film refers to the character Hoffman plays, but in
fact is really just an apt description to Hoffman’s performance itself.
The
plot itself is interesting, and the film very well made, yet it is the
performances by Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix that are the highlights. They steal
the glory from everywhere else. The chemistry is incredible and P.T. Anderson
produces some immaculate scenes where the two actors are simply sitting across
from each other, talking. The intensity makes the viewer uncomfortable. The
takes are perfect. Great scenes captured and now immortalized. This film truly
gave Hoffman the opportunity to play the role of the respected elder, a role he
deserved to play. But the Doctor is not a hero. He creates a movement that influences
thousands of people into believing in a doctrine of nonsense. Just as the
doctor is inherently flawed and crazy, he is also incredibly convincing. There
is no better actor who could have played this role than Hoffman.
In the same interview in Rolling Stone friends
of Hoffman’s claim that playing Willie Loman on Broadway in 2012 changed him.
The act of breaking down and crying night after night rewired his brain, some
said. Actor Ethan Hawke who was recalls meeting with Hoffman a short time after
the run ended noticing that Hoffman seemed different, more troubled, and that
he had started drinking again. As sad as this sounds, it is this kind of
investment in a role that makes watching Hoffman’s performances worth every
minute of time we spend watching them. I remember standing in line, trying to
get tickets to Death of a Salesman.They were sold out that day
and I never tried again. I a missed the opportunity to watch the role that may
have led to his death. In so many ways, another piece of sadness.
