MVPs of the Month: Ty Burrell and Juliette Lewis

Posted on November 8, 2010 at 3:59 pm

Ty Burrell is everywhere these days. He is Phil on the beloved television series “Modern Family,” brilliantly updating the classic “Honey, I’m Home!” sitcom dad as a guy who may be clueless and corny and overly sensitive but who adores his family and whose deep connection to his wife (oh, that re-wedding and those anniversary gifts!) and to technology (the iPad episode!) are always endearing. He’s in two huge studio films this month as well. In “Morning Glory” he plays the host of the country’s worst morning show, superficially wholesome but under the surface kind of twisted. And look for him in an important scene in “Fair Game,” at a dinner party taking on Sean Penn as Joe Wilson. Both are far from his genial Phil Dunphy character and show you that Burrell has a lot more to show us.
Juliette Lewis was a child actress whose assured but vulnerable performance as a teenager in the remake of “Cape Fear” got her nominated for an Oscar. She has raised some eyebrows on-screen (“Kalifornia,” “Natural Born Killers”) and off-screen (high school drop-out who legally emancipated from her parents at age 14, drug rehab). More recently, she has been pursing a singing career, but she is back this fall with two performances as damaged but very different women (another good example is her small role in “Catch and Release”). In “Conviction” we see her in two pivotal scenes separated by 18 years as a witness who changes her story. In “Due Date,” she provides one of the film’s few highlights as a blissful pot dealer. In both she takes small parts and shows such specificity and such understanding of and affection for her characters that we cannot help but be drawn to them. She’s next scheduled for “Hangover 2.” Can’t wait.

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Great Movie Dads for Father’s Day

Posted on June 19, 2010 at 3:44 pm

Happy Father’s Day!

1. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) in “To Kill a Mockingbird” The last line of the movie says it all: “He turned out the light and went into Jem’s room. He would be there all night and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.”

2. Jason “Furious” Styles (Laurence Fishburne) in “Boyz N the Hood” This well-named father is a fierce defender of his son, protecting him but also teaching him to believe in himself.

3. Marlin (Albert Brooks) in “Finding Nemo” A loving if over-protective little clownfish must search the entire ocean to find his lost son in this beloved Pixar classic.

4. Stanley Banks (Spencer Tracy) in “Father of the Bride” Watch Tracy’s face when his daughter (Elizabeth Taylor) explains why she has (thankfully temporarily) called off her engagement in this story of a loving father who gets caught up in pre-Bridezilla wedding drama (and trauma). See also the remake with Steve Martin.

5. Gil Buckman (Steve Martin) in “Parenthood” No film better shows the challenges, terrors, wrenching choices, and satisfactions of fatherhood than this extended family story inspired by the lives of the three men who made it and the 14 children in their lives.

6. Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) in “Kramer vs. Kramer” A father who is not even sure what class his child is in discovers what it means to be a father after his wife leaves them. And then he discovers how much it matters to him when she returns and he has to fight for custody.

7. Tom Winters (Cary Grant) in “Houseboat” In one of his few roles as a father, Grant plays a man who only discovers how much he needs his children after the death of their mother — and Sophia Loren arrives as their new nanny.

8. Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) in “Sleepless in Seattle” — Though devastated by the loss of his wife, Sam is committed to being a positive and caring father.

9. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) in “The Pursuit of Happyness” — Smith and his real-life son shine in this story about a devoted single father who went from homelessness to a career as a stock-broker.

10. Gou-ichi Takata (Ken Takakura) in “Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles” — A Japanese father shows his love for his estranged son by completing the son’s final project, a filmed version of a Chinese opera, even though he knows nothing about filming, China, or opera.

Great Dads on Film and TV

Posted on June 15, 2010 at 3:58 pm

My gallery of great movie dads and list of daddy-daughter movies include wonderful films for families to watch together and talk about the great fathers in their own families.

Some of the best dads on film appear on television, which allows us to see families in a variety of circumstances over many years. Some of them even start to feel like members of our own families. These dads are not perfect but they always seem to know the right thing to say, whether comforting, guiding, or providing support. And they inspire even more through their own examples of trustworthiness and wisdom. My favorites include:

1. Tom Bosley on “Happy Days”
2. John Goodman on “Roseanne.”
3. Andy Griffith on “The Andy Griffith Show”
4. Danny Thomas on “Make Room for Daddy”
5. Bil Cosby on “The Cosby Show”
6. Bill Bixby on “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father”

7. John Amos on “Good Times”
8. Michael Landon on “Little House on the Prairie”
9. Robert Young on “Father Knows Best”
10. Peter Gallagher in “The OC”

Beth Grant

Posted on September 7, 2009 at 3:51 pm

Two awful movies released last week, “Extract” and “All About Steve,” give me an opportunity to discuss one of my favorite topics, character actors. One of the best appears in both of them, the wonderful Beth Grant. Character actors are those people who seem vaguely familiar, but don’t often get mentioned in reviews or photographed on red carpets. They play the family members, best friends, thorns in the side, co-workers, explainers, or, often, the fiances/fiancees who get dumped so that the big romantic arc of the movie can reach a successful conclusion.

Beth Grant works steadily and often plays high-strung, picky types, as in “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Donny Darko.” Her appearances in these two most recent films provide some of the very few bright spots. I especially liked seeing her in “All About Steve” in a less straight-laced role.

Here is one of her most famous scenes, from “Donnie Darko:”

I was lucky enough to meet her at the Critic’s Choice awards in January of 2007. I made a short video of her dancing at the party afterward. She was gracious and completely charming.

So, cheers, Beth Grant! I hope you’re in a better movie next time, but know whether it is as good as “Donnie Darko” or as awful as “All About Steve,” you will never let me down.

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Actors Great Characters

Actors with Character, Part 1

Posted on July 8, 2009 at 10:11 am

You know them. That is, they look familiar, but you might not be sure if that is because you saw them in a movie or because you saw them on a train. These are character actors, the indispensible performers who are there for the leading men and ladies to talk to, fight with, run from, almost marry, rescue, punch, shoot, chase, or watch die so they can learn an important lesson. They provide comic relief and when it is necessary they die onscreen to give the main character a growth experience. And while they get paid a small fraction of those 7-figure salaries that go to the stars, their contribution to the movie’s power to entertain and inspire is often as great or greater.
I’m going to share some of my favorites in this and upcoming posts and you can learn more about them in Hey! It’s That Guy!.

The films of the 1930’s had some classic character actors who appeared over and over. Here we can see two of the best, Edward Everett Horton (specialty: silly upper class types) and Eric Blore (specialty: looking down on silly upper class types). Do their voices sound familiar? They both provided voice talent for the Rocky and Bullwinkle series.

“Ball of Fire” is one of my all-time favorites, in part because of its wonderful collection of character actors playing Gary Cooper’s professor colleagues. You can see some of them here including Oscar Homolka, Henry Travers (the angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life”) and the hilariously nasal Richard Hayden.

More character actors in future posts, and of course I’d love to hear about your favorites.