Ten Actors Who Should Be A-List Stars

10. Rosemarie DeWitt - Costarring with Rosemarie DeWitt is a surefire way for an actor to get some awards attention. Anne Hathaway got career-best reviews acting against Rosemarie's Rachel in Rachel Getting Married. Jon Hamm got to show off Don Draper's complexity playing off DeWitt's beatnik in some of Mad Men's most dynamic scenes. Now Toni Collette is racking up the Emmy's opposite her in The United States of Tara. Could it be that everybody looks better performing with such a graceful, engaging actress. Yes. Yes it could. A-List Prototype: Jodie Foster

9. Ken Leung - It's not easy to jump into a long running show as a new character, especially a show with fans as demanding and unforgiving as LOST, but Ken Leung did exactly that, quickly becoming a fan favorite with his ghost whispering character, Miles. Anyone familiar with his stunning one episode stint as a mental patient on The Sopranos was not surprised. Leung has a mesmerizing presence and a sharp sardonic wit. His big screen work has been limited to walk ons in stuff like X-Men 3. I doubt it will be too long before Leung has some deeper material to work with. A-List: Prototype: Kevin Spacey


8. Kristen Schaal - Anybody can steal scenes when they have all the best lines. On HBO's Flight of the Conchords, Schaal walked away with scene after scene just off the crazy energy with which she tackles the material. There was no line she couldn't put a spin on to make you bust a gut. Nowadays the best friend roles are mostly going to lead actresses in waiting (think Zooey Deschanel) and the really original actors are lucky to get more than a few lines. The first director that gets the idea to hire this comedian extraordinaire is going to look awfully smart. A-List Prototype: Joan Cusack

7. Lance Reddick - Seeing as The Wire is already enshrined by critics as basically the pinnacle achievement in the history of humans doing things, Reddick will always have a secure place in pop culture history. He deserves a shot at some meaty film roles so he can utilize his knack for dominating his every minute of screen time with a low-burning intensity. He increases the credibility of any scene just by appearing in it. A-List Prototype: Gene Hackman

6. Anna Chlumsky - Anna Chlumsky achieved fame early in life as star of My Girl with Macauley Culkin, then disappeared from her late teens until recently. She first recaptured attention with a appearance on 30 Rock and followed it up with a winning performance in In the Loop displaying both a mature humor and an unconventional beauty that sets her apart from cookie cutter bombshells like Megan Fox. Chlumsky has held her own with some of the sharpest comedic talent in the business. Now all she needs is a chance to break out of the ensemble. A-List Prototype: Diane Keaton


5. David Morse - Morse has no shortage of impressive work on his resume, including major roles in films such as The Green Mile, Dancer in the Dark, John Adams, and his recent electrifying one minute cameo in The Hurt Locker. He manages to exude a depth and a decency no matter what the material. Despite this, Morse has never found the part to help him break out of "that guy" status. People who pay attention know: Morse is as capable as any actor working in Hollywood. A-List Prototype: Henry Fonda


4. Stephen Merchant - Merchant has already reached the top of his field as half of the writer/director team that created The Office and Extras. While Ricky Gervais has gone on to leading man status, Merchant is still paying his dues playing second fiddle to The Rock in fluff like The Tooth Fairy. He's already demonstrated what a gifted comic performer he is with his impeccable comic work in Extras, and on his priceless contributions to his hugely popular podcast. All he needs is a role as smart as he is. A-List Prototype: John Cleese

3. Peter Dinklage - There was always going to be limited roles for Dinklage, but his talent cannot be contained in one-dimensional little person roles. He was probably this close to an Oscar nomination for his beautiful work in The Station Agent and has a habit of showing up in films like Elf and Living in Oblivion to absolutely blow everyone else off the screen for a few minutes. Broadway has already given this powerhouse actor the opportunity to play Richard III. Is Hollywood going to catch on? A-List Prototype : Richard Burton

2. Nathan Fillion - Of all the actors on this list, Fillion's lack of leading Hollywood roles is the most baffling. He is already a superstar within the cult of Joss Whedon fanatics. Fillion's gifts for heroics and screwball comedy make him an obvious choice for casting directors as he combines the most marketable parts of Russell Crowe and George Clooney in one bag of awesome. Hollywood has a full roster of humorless action heroes but the charming rogue department is severly understaffed. A-List Prototype: Clark Gable

1. Regina King - Hollywood has been missing the boat on Regina King for over two decades now. Oh sure, she's been working steadily since the Eighties starting in sitcom 227 up until her current leading role in Southland Tales , but she's never been giving the substantial leading roles her talent warrants. King brushed up against stardom with strong supporting work in films like Ray and Jerry Maguire but A-List status has eluded her. I guess if there are limited quality roles for women, then there are even fewer good roles for black women, and even less roles for black women who don't look like Zoe Saldana. Whatever. No more excuses, casting directors! The next time you can't get one of the same four actresses that everyone in town is trying to get, take a risk, why don't ya? King has shown herself to be the MVP supporting player when she gets her hands on a worthy script. Let her show what she can do with a lead role. My guess is she would soon have all the serious directors in town beating a path to her doorstep so she can lend their projects some of her power. A-List Prototype: Sigourney Weaver

Review: In the Loop

It is a rare thing to see political satire done well. Dr. Strangelove is still the gold standard. The Nineties had Wag the Dog and the Seventies had The Candidate. Preston Sturge's The Great McGinty deserves a mention as does Duck Soup, but we're already back to the Thirties. These days you have to go to places like The Daily Show or The Onion to find political comedy with some bite, but they have the luxury of a direct frontal assault. For fiction, limp duds like Man of the Year are what pass for parody. This is all by way of explaining why I became almost giddy watching In the Loop. It is a crackling, uproarious film that sinks its teeth into the subject like a Rottweiler and never loosens its grip.

In the Loop's razor sharp, profanity-laden script, written by director Armando Iannucci and three collaborators uses language the way Bruce Lee movies use martial arts. Words are twisted and pulled in all directions to suit the speaker, carelessly tossing meaning aside whenever convenient. "Unofficially we can call anything whatever we want, " a character declares at one point. "I mean, unofficially, this is a shoe," he says, holding up a glass of water. It is the perfect film for a time when spin is reported as news, and the media is more interested in covering people yelling at each other about current events than actually reporting on the events themselves.

The film takes place in America and England during a run up to war in an unnamed Middle Eastern country. The story is set in motion when British Foreign Minister Simon Foster blunders with one poorly chosen word during a radio interview. He calls the war "unforeseeable." Damage control is immediately launched. "He did not say that!" The British Communications Director berates the press. "You may have heard him say that, but he did not say it!" Foster, for his part, is mystified when scolded that the war is neither "unforeseeable" nor is it "foreseeable," which would be even worse. He cannot master the political art of seeming to answer a question while saying nothing at all, and his attempts to clarify his statement to the media stack gaffes on top of each other like trucks in a fifty car pile up.

And on it goes, with the effects of Foster's slip of the tongue rippling through the political landscape. Watching In the Loop you are hit with the disturbing realization that the movie is much more accurate than anybody would care to imagine. The plot follows a group of midlevel politicos ranging from the Assistant Secretaries of Defense and State down to the twenty-something staffers scurrying through the halls of power working twenty hour days. We note with increasing alarm that little to none of their time is spent on discussion of policy or factual research. Rather, their days are absorbed in back-biting, professional jealousy, subterfuge, ego, spin, and general skullduggery. It is hard not to shudder when two characters casually rewrite the minutes from an important meeting, explaining that they are not a record of what was said, but should instead reflect, "a full record of what was intended to have been said."

I should be careful not to make In the Loop sound like some angry political screed - the screenplay never mentions any political leaders by name. It is first and foremost a comedy, one of the funniest of the last decade, and the most quotable since The Big Lewbowski. Like Dr. Strangelove it starts with the material of tragedy twists it a few degrees to show the humor in its absurdity. You can't help but think of Kubrick's film when Foster, in an attempt to be tough without actually doing anything as drastic as taking a position, says that he is not taking a stand, but is on the verge of taking a stand. There on the verge, he insists, he is standing his ground.

The cast is pitch-perfect down to the smallest speaking roles. Credit to director Iannucci for keeping everyone on the same tone. It is the definition of an ensemble performance, creating a series of three dimensional characters in a few brief strokes as the film zips along at its screwball pace. In the Loop is positively packed with performance any of which would be that standout in most other films, including James Gandolfini as a US general barely containing his temper as he pushes against the war, Anna Chlumsky as a staffer horrified to find that a memo she's written is the biggest political hot potato in Washington, and Tom Hollander, very funny as a man just smart enough to get into situations where he is the dumbest person in the room.

Even among this cast of heavy hitters mention must be made of Peter Capaldi's brilliant work as British Communications Director Malcolm Tucker. His live-wire performance belongs on a list with Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast and Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glenn Ross, characters who dominate everyone on screen with their crazed force of personality and the vivid creativity of their profanity. There is a show-stopping scene where Capaldi goes toe-to-toe with James Gandolfini and come out on top. It is no easy feat to convince an audience that anybody could prevail against such a commanding presence as Gandolfini, but Capaldi does it here. It is an iconic comic creation.

I think it is easy to miss the level of achievement here. A bullseye like this comes along once every ten years. In the Loop so accurately captures the mood of its time that future generations of moviegoers will be able to look back and feel what is was like to through the Bush years the same way todays movies moviegoers can watch Wag the dog to see what it was like at the end of the Clinton administration or Dr. Strangelove to feel what is was like at the height of Cold War hysteria.

Verdict: In the Loop is a must-see movie with a script that earns comparisons with Joseph Heller's Catch 22. It would make a great double feature with The Hurt Locker since the full impact of the film comes when you realize that this collection of nitwits, bureaucrats, and lunatics have started an honest-to-God war. You'll never watch the news the same way again. 10 out of 10.

Oscar Reactions

In no particular order:

• It wouldn't be the Oscars if there wasn't one moment of shockingly bad taste and the interpretive dance numbers to the Best Score nominees certainly delivered. There was extended popping and locking to The Hurt Locker score, giant Dali-esque structures used as slides, and a dance sequence that suggested the choreographer was under the impression Up was about a robot that comes to life. God awful in that way only the Oscars can deliver. At least the right person won - Michael Giacchino for Up.
• Jeff Bridges, Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz were all totally worthy winners. Kudos to the Academy there. Having not seen The Blind Side I will refrain from criticism over Sandra Bullock's win, except to say that I would be stunned if I found her performance to be within a country mile of Carey Mulligan or Gabourey Sidibe. Nice speech from Sandra, though.
• Waltz was the first actor to win for a Tarantino film. He was also the third villain in a row to win Supporting Actor after Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight and Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.
• Adjusted for inflation The Hurt Locker is probably the lowest grosser ever to win, topping off under 13 million over the Summer. That's roughly one 48th of what Avatar made.
• WTF was Sean Penn talking about? Anybody?
• If I may speak for all the heterosexual men watching I would just like to state that Kathryn Bigelow is damn foxy for an older lady.
• The Hurt Locker was also the first war film to win Best Picture since Platoon in 1986. (I don't count wars that include orcs)
• God, Barbara Streisand was unbearable. First she manages to make the Best Director prize all about herself, fawning over the potential first female winner - the unspoken implication being, "Thank God, Babs was there to pave the way." Then she goes on about the possibility of the first black winner, what was Tarantino supposed to do if he won? Spend his whole speech apologizing for being a white guy?
• The orchestra didn't do Bigelow any favors either, playing her out to "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar." Yeesh. Memo to everybody: Bigelow didn't win as some kind of gender affirmative action. She won for directing the living hell out of The Hurt Locker.
• As long as I'm firing off the missives - Memo to the Academy: If your going to be so utterly classless as to deny the Lifetime Achievement winner a chance to speak, then you don't get to turn around and waste seven minutes on a random tribute to horror films that looks lifted from the Spike TV awards. "Sorry Lauren Bacall. Sit down and shut up. We've got clips of Leprechaun to get through." My friend also pointed out you would surely save a few minutes by not having musical numbers to introduce hosts to introduce presenters to introduce clip packages.
• On the other hand I agree with the cutting of the Best Song performances. A ten second clip of each is plenty to get the flavor of each, and we are gratefully spared eight minutes of Princess and the Frog production numbers.
• Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey were by far the most intentionally entertaining thing of the night. Tim Robbin's Shawshank humor wasn't too shabby either.
• I haven't yet read why those two winners were wrestling each other for the microphone, suffice to say, in a show light on laughs it was welcome entertainment
• Unlike a lot of the reviews, I don't think Martin and Baldwin bombed . Adequate is the word I would use. I chuckled here and there. Although, the "movie charades" commercial for Modern Family was funnier than anything the hosts came up with.
• Costume winner Sandy Powell quickly endeared herself to me by using her speech time to point out to the Academy they don't automatically have to give the costume award to whichever film is about royalty from centuries past. Amen.
• I'm gratified Avatar was limited to three technical wins, but I would begrudge it even those wins. I was constantly aware I was looking at CGI during Avatar. Do you know how many times I thought of special effects during District 9? Zero.
• Up in the Air went from being the frontrunner to getting shut out completely, including an upset loss to Precious in the Adapted Screenplay category. Lots of Monday morning quarterbacking about how the Up in the Air boys screwed the pooch on this one. My analysis: The Academy just really liked Precious.
• Once again the Academy failed to get together on respectfully holding applause until the end and turned the in memoriam tribute into a ghoulish, post-mortem popularity contest complete with the rising and falling applause.
• I can't be the only one Tom Hanks caught off guard when he just whipped that envelope open, no drumroll or anything.
• Personal highlight: ten second clip from In the Loop. God I love that movie.
• Nitpicking aside, I think this roster of winners is one the Academy is going to be able to look back on with pride in years to come. Picking The Hurt Locker over Avatar showed particularly good taste on their part, favoring quality over popularity. Oscar voters have now redeemed themselves for choosing Titanic over LA Confidential.

Review: Shutter Island

Shutter Island is set at an institution for the criminally insane located on an island off the coast of Massachusetts in 1954. Only the most violent, dangerous offenders in the country are sent here we are told early on. It is such a fantastically atmospheric location you almost expect the characters to pause from the action, look around their gothic surroundings as thunder booms and lightning flashes through the windows, and say, "Wow. Is this a great setting for a movie, or what?" The look and feel of Shutter Island are enough to recommend the trip to the movies alone.



It's clear what drew Scorsese to this material wasn't the depth of its story, but the chance it afforded him throw into a blender all his favorite influences, most notably Hitchcock but also Korean horror, Val Newton, Sam Fuller, and more. Marty doesn't hold back - grabbing a trowel in each hand he lays it on thick. I was half-expecting each new plot development to be greeted with a dramatic blast of old-timey, radio drama pipe organ. There are evil scientists itching to perform unnecessary surgery, a hurricane beating against the windows, single matches lit against the gloom, rickety iron spiral staircases, and, of course, deformed lunatics lurking in the shadows waiting to lunge at you. I imagine more than once Scorsese lamented that Vincent Price was no longer available, but Max Von Sydow will more than do in a pinch.



The story concerns the disappearance of a patient, played by Emily Mortimer, banished to Shutter Island for drowning her children. One night she seemingly vanishes from her cell leaving no evidence behind and with no one seeing or hearing anything. To paraphrase The Shawshank Redemption, "She was in her cell at lights out. Stands to reason she'd still be there in the morning." Leonardo DiCaprio is Teddy Daniels, who along with Mark Ruffalo are US Marshals called into investigate. Ben Kinglsey is the head psychiatrist with progressive ideas about treating the violent offenders under his care as patients instead of criminals.


And that's really all the set-up any review need get into. Suffice it to say there is more to the story than the marshals are being told, so much so that we in the audience wonder why they were sent for at all since they are met with immediate stonewalling and the entire hospital staff has the habit of responding to queries with vague non-answers. Not that it matters much, as we in the audience quickly gather that the narrative is on shaky ground when reality and visions of Teddy's tortured past begin bleeding into each other.




Hitchcock's Vertigo is one of the most obvious influences on Shutter Island and Scorsese would have been wise to note that past the brilliant style Hitch gave the viewer a place to safely stake their emotions. No matter what mysteries unraveled over the course of Vertigo, Jimmy Stewart's tragic love for Kim Novak's Madeleine was constant from beginning to end. Even when the plot twisted and turned on itself it only revealed new dimensions to the central love story. Shutter Island never lets the audience get their footing long enough for such a connection. Rather than emotionally investing in the story the audience is led to immediately start anticipating the rug being pulled out from under them. As a result, for all the operatic drama going on we can hear the plot gimmicks creaking away below the surface.


Mention must be made that the one completely successful part of Shutter Island is Leonardo DiCaprio's lead performance as Teddy. The all-star supporting cast is fine as expected, but Leo digs deep, adding layers and shadings not found on the page. DiCaprio went from being dismissed as a Tiger Beat pretty boy after Titanic to being panned for getting blasted off the screen by Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York. Now, after this, his fourth collaboration with Scorsese, I would like to get at the head of those lining up to apologize for ever doubting his abilities. Between this performance and this high-tension jangled nerve work in The Departed, DiCaprio has earned the mantel of successor to De Niro, a worthy collaborator for Scorsese. He is among the top actors working today.


Somewhere after the release of Goodfellas, Scorsese went crossed from being one of the most respected cinematic artists in the world into bona fide living legend status. He's even become something of a box office draw in his old age as Shutter Island looks to be his third picture in a row to cross one hundred million in ticket sales. And while I'm not suggesting Scorsese has gone soft or that his work is no longer vital, I do confess to missing the hungrier Scorsese of the Seventies and Eighties before he had unlimited budgets. I'd be fascinated to see what Marty would come up with if he had to scrabble for his financing like Orson Welles had to do at this point in his career. For all the brilliant technicolor glory of Leo's dream sequences in Shutter Island, they are not nearly as effective at placing us in the protagonist's state of mind as one shot of Travis Bickle getting lost in the fizzing of his Alka Seltzer in Taxi Driver.

And that ability to put you inside the skin of his characters is one of the things that has always set Scorsese apart as a director. You watch Taxi Driver and you feel your grip on sanity loosening along with Travis Bickle. You watch Goodfellas and you tense up as the walls are closing in on Henry Hill. Even in his documentaries assembled out of old footage he gets you into the head of his subjects. Bob Dylan has always seemed an impenetrable enigma to me. It wasn't until I saw Marty's doc No Direction Home when I finally saw Dylan simply as the incredibly gifted musician overwhelmed by the impossible demands of his fans. The thing that keeps Shutter Island from breaking into the top tier of Scorsese's work is that he never manages to involve us this way with Teddy Daniels. For all the directorial flourishes the audience watches him as they would a rat in a maze.

Verdict: For all its myriad influences, the film Shutter Island reminds me strongest of is Christopher Nolan's The Prestige - another example of the top talent in cinema today creating a film of striking texture and intriguing story that nevertheless fails to connect emotionally. 7 out of 10

Most Anticipated : Update

With Shutter Island abandoning the top spot on the list of Most Anticipated New Releases (and providing the first mild disappointment of the year) a spot has opened up at the bottom of the list to be filled by Michel Gondry's Green Hornet co-written by and starring a slimmed down Seth Rogen. It also marks the first script from Rogen and Goldberg after their instantly classic Superbad. Gondry has earned something of a lifetime pass for directing the perfect Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but he stumbled in follow-up projects without a strong script to work from. Let's hope Seth and Evan supply one.

Bonus Interest: Green Hornet nabbed Christoph Waltz for the first role after his triumphant turn in Inglourious Basterds.