Paul Thomas Anderson Tribute Month: Actor Profiles (John C. Reilly)

***Wow, it's so strange to go back and read this. This little piece on John C. Reilly was one of the very first I wrote for Moon in the Gutter, way back in December of 2006. While it was long before I had any real readers, this article did garner me my first email from someone I had wrote on, which was really freaking cool! In the nearly four years since I wrote this little article Reilly has continued his reign as one of our great actors, although now he can also claim to be one of our great comedians with side-splitting roles in films like Walk Hard, Talladega Nights and Step-Brothers all showing him as one of the funniest men on the planet. He also got nominated for his first Oscar and recently appeared in one of the real bright spots (so I am told, as I still haven't been able to see it) of 2010, Cyrus. I was tempted to really update this article but I thought I would let it stand as it is. Let me just say that John C. Reilly remains a major cinematic treasure and there are very few actors that I like seeing more in modern American films.***


The roles for John C. Reilly leading up to playing John Finnegan in Paul Thomas Anderson's debut Sydney (Hard Eight) were mostly just bit parts in films such as Brian DePalma's Causalities Of War and Woody Allen's Shadows and Fog. The great opening shot of Reilly in Anderson's film feels like a debut though, a major debut. Reilly's amazing performance, as the lonely Finnegan looking to win enough money in Vegas to bury his mother, is one of the great performances of the 90s. While Phillip Baker Hall's work as the mentor Sydney was rightly acclaimed, Reilly seemed to drift so far into the character that you forget it's a performance that needs praising.
The obvious comparison in looking at John C. Reilly is Gene Hackman. Reilly has that same everyman quality but more importantly, like Hackman, he is able to invest his characters with a real soul. There is never a moment watching Reilly where we aren't watching someone who is internally questioning and searching. While he hasn't yet found a leading role the equal of Hackman's Popeye Doyle or Harry Moseby one hopes the wait won't be long.
His most iconic work has been with Anderson, like in Boogie Nights where he gave Reed Rothchild a sincerity that anyone else would have missed and in Magnolia's lonely police officer Jim Kurring, a man so desperate for someone to accept the love he wants so much to give. Magnolia's final moments with Reilly telling Melora Walters Claudia how special she is is one of the most moving things I've ever seen in a film. Anderson's decision to drown out Reilly's wonderful dialogue with Aimee Mann's incredible score ranks with Scorsese's famous pan away from Travis on the phone in Taxi Driver as an example of a rare scene that is too personal to film straight on.
Reilly has continued in film after film to prove his dramatic, comedic and even musical chops. His performance as the simple well meaning husband in The Good Girl is a personal favorite, and his singing cowboy was a major highlight in Robert Altman's final film A Prairie Home Companion. A greatly underrated performance in an equally underrated film, Walter Salles' Dark Water, shows just how much Reilly can give what could have been a very flat character. Jennifer Connelly would talk of being floored by just how inventive Reilly was, and he had no problem stealing every scene he was in from heavyweights like Connelly and Tim Roth.
Whether or not Reilly ever gets his French Connection or Night Moves remains to be seen but I highly doubt that Anderson is done with him. In the meantime he stands as the finest character actor of his generation and someone we can look at as truly being one of us.

John Carpenter Q and A Day One: Argento, Laura Mars and Elvis

Before I write on John Carpenter's first Question and Answer session that was held this afternoon I need to rant a bit. You would think that a visit from one of the most famous and influential American film directors of the past thirty years would at least get a mention in our school paper or perhaps at the very least some flyer's advertising it, but for whatever reason though this first of two sessions was hardly mentioned at all. It made for a very intimate session with only 50 or so people in attendance but I must say that I feel for the many that would have come had they known about it.
It was a really entertaining, informative and fun hour with one of our most iconic filmmakers. The rather informal talk was made up of mostly answering questions but Carpenter was very open and riffed a lot thankfully, which led him into a lot of far reaching areas from his career.
He described his early days in Bowling Green, Ky and his two years here at Western Kentucky University before going to film school at U.S.C. He credited a showing of FORBIDDEN PLANET at a local Bowling Green theater as the film that really first sparked his interest in cinema. Coincidentally I picked up the new Video Watchdog after seeing him this afternoon and none other than FORBIDDEN PLANET is on the cover.
Speaking warmly of his time at U.S.C and his early work as a Writer's Guild member, Carpenter admitted that the most important things to keep with you were 'drive and dreams.' He then went on to say that among the best modern day film studies for younger people were dvd audio commentaries and documentaries. He advised the crowd to listen to as many commentaries as possible and watch as many films as they could.
Carpenter through all of it was extremely laid back and low key and talked about how much he loved to 'fuck off' and 'smoke a joint' in preparing for a film, in which he described the long and grueling hours of directing as being like a 'coal miner'. He admitted that he was tired and didn't have the same push that he had when he was younger.
He spoke of his early career and the disappointment over the film version of his EYES OF LAURA MARS script and the difficulties in editing a particular scene in ASSAULT ON PRECINCT THIRTEEN. When asked about different roles he admitted writing was the easiest, composing the hardest and directing the most fun.
The talk turned especially interesting when someone in the audience criticised his recent PRO LIFE episode from MASTERS OF HORROR. Carpenter admitted that he preferred it over CIGARETTE BURNS and I thought it was a little harsh to criticize something in front of him that he had just recently worked on. The mood continued to change as another audience member questioned the overt use of gore in modern horror films like HOSTEL (apparently this guy hasn't seen too many Italian films from the seventies or even Carpenter's own GHOSTS OF MARS). Carpenter was quick to defend Eli Roth and his film and pointed out that horror filmmakers often were representing the current climate and culture in their films. Throughout the talk Carpenter was very supportive of the younger crop of filmmakers, although he admitted that many were 'shooters as opposed to directors' and said that it was important to know past films but to not be afraid to branch out with ideas that might go against them.
Carpenter then talked at length about the modern studio system and how overwhelmingly corporate it was. He mentioned admiring Sam Raimi but seemed baffled by SPIDERMAN THREE's 250 million dollar budget. A question about current directors had him saying that he loved Paul Thomas Anderson, admired Scorsese but grudgingly said that everyone regarded Spielberg as still the 'most powerful'.
The inevitable topic of remakes came up and Carpenter made it clear that his only involvement in them was getting a check. I found his attitude on the matter to be refreshingly honest. Of course one wishes that they weren't happening but it does all come down to money and Carpenter was very open about it. He did go out of his way to say that he liked Rob Zombie very much and he did give him one piece of advice and that was, 'to do his own thing with it.' He said he hadn't seen the trailer for new HALLOWEEN and he honestly he didn't seem that interested. No mention was made of the upcoming ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK or the more recent FOG or ASSAULT ON PRECINCT THIRTEEN remakes.
I did get a couple of questions in. I asked about the status of ELVIS and he said it was his understanding that they were 'working on it' but he admitted he had turned down an audio commentary due to it's length. I told him how much I loved STARMAN and he really perked up at its mention saying how much he also loved the film and the cast, especially Jeff Bridges.

Upon my mentioning of Dario Argento a couple of audience members actually smirked but Carpenter quickly cut them off by saying, "I love Dario, I love and admire his films. He's not afraid to hit it hard." I must say that they didn't smirk after that and I felt a rush of vindication. It was great to hear Carpenter say that about Argento, whose early giallos and DEEP RED did so much to influence HALLOWEEN.
Other brief topics included Carpenter's love of Morricone and how proud he was of his own son's composing skills.


It was a really incredible experience seeing this man in person whose films have meant so much to me since I was a child. If all goes according to plan I will see him speak again tomorrow and will share some thoughts on that as well.