Fra i più grandi attori della Storia…, c’è sicuramente Willem Dafoe, volto ambiguo-bifronte spaziosa, diabolico nel “serpenteggiarla” con l'”acume” delle sue labbra, forse acme-acne recitativa per com’è pus che scoppia e c’inietta sempre di baci un po’ stronzi.
“Rotten Tomatoes”, ha stilato, in occasione della sua nuova prova in John Carter, la consueta classifica sui “migliori” film secondo la Critica statunitense.
1)
Finding Nemo
Before he worked for him in John Carter, Dafoe teamed up with director Andrew Stanton for Finding Nemo, Pixar’s 2003 hit about a neurotic clownfish (Albert Brooks) and his panicked efforts to find his son, who has been tossed into a dentist’s office fish tank with a motley school of aquatic creatures — including Dafoe’s character, a grizzled aquarium vet named Gill who helps Nemo bust out of the joint. Though it was strictly a voice acting gig, it gave Dafoe a rare opportunity to play a hero — and it ended up becoming one of the year’s biggest critical and commercial successes. Calling it a “seamless blending of technical brilliance and storytelling verve,” Entertainment Weekly’s Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote, “the Pixar team has made something as marvelously soulful and innately, fluidly American as jazz.”
98%
2)
Fantastic Mr. Fox
These days, it’s a rare animated film that doesn’t boast a star-studded cast, but most of them don’t attract the sort of award-hoarding talent that Wes Anderson lined up for Fantastic Mr. Fox, his stop-motion adaptation of the Roald Dahl book about a rascally fox (George Clooney) whose devotion to his wife (Streep) is tested by his need to have the last laugh against a trio of bloodthirsty farmers. Rounded out by an eclectic list of co-stars that included Dafoe, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson, Fox thrilled critics like Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News, who called it “A visual treasure that successfully blends deadpan quirkiness with a wry realism rarely seen in any film, let alone one for children.”
93%
3)
To Live and Die in L.A.
After making a name for himself with The French Connection and The Exorcist, director William Friedkin suffered through some uneven outings in the late 1970s and early 1980s, enduring mixed reviews and lackluster box office for films like Cruising and Deal of the Century before rebounding with To Live and Die in L.A.. Cool and atmospheric, Die starred Dafoe as a ruthless counterfeiter being pursued by a pair of unscrupulous cops (William Petersen and John Pankow); while it wasn’t a smash hit, it easily earned back its $6 million budget, along with raves from critics like Wesley Morris of the San Francisco Examiner, who wrote, “The only problem is that Friedkin would never get any better than this.”
93%
4)
Light Sleeper
A pained elegy for the survivors of the drug culture of the 1980s — albeit one told with writer/director Paul Schrader’s customary emotional distance — Light Sleeper sent Dafoe prowling through the New York City nightscape as John LeTour, a courier for an upscale dealer (Susan Sarandon) whose plans to leave the business, coupled with what he views as the growing bleakness of his clients’ lives, leave him searching for a way out. Dark and deliberate, the film alienated impatient viewers — as well as critics who felt Schrader was tilling old creative ground — but for most, it represented a high point for the filmmaker as well as his stars. Argued Roger Ebert, “In film after film, for year after year, Paul Schrader has been telling this story in one way or another, but never with more humanity than this time.”
91%
5)
Spider-Man
He was considered for the role of the Joker in Tim Burton’s Batman, but Dafoe didn’t get to play a supervillain until he won the part of Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, in Spider-Man. It was worth the wait: Even though he spent much of the film acting behind a cumbersome 580-piece suit, Dafoe effortlessly oozed menace as Osborn as well as the Goblin, lending the film a suitably heavy antagonist and helping raise the dramatic stakes for a movie that ended up taking FX-fueled superhero drama to the next level. It was, as Michael Dequina argued for Film Threat, “Just about the truest and most satisfying screen adaptation most anyone could have ever hoped for.”
89%
6)
Born on the Fourth of July
Three years after he plunged filmgoers into the hell of the Vietnam War with Platoon, Oliver Stone took a look at the war’s legacy from another perspective with Born on the Fourth of July. An adaptation of Ron Kovic’s book about his experiences as a soldier and a veteran, Fourth provided a showcase for Tom Cruise, who earned a Best Actor nomination for his portrayal of Kovic, and it reunited Stone with one of his Platoon stars in the bargain: Dafoe appears here as Charlie, a fellow vet who shares a strange, somewhat violent interlude with Kovic in a small Mexican town. “Whether or not you agree with its politics, and it’s sure to spark some debate, there’s no denying the film’s power,” argued Chris Hicks of the Deseret News.
89%
7)
Mississippi Burning
Loosely based on the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers, Alan Parker’s Mississippi Burning highlighted ongoing American racial tensions with an engrossing drama that, while it angered some viewers with the way it played fast and loose with certain facts of the incident, still proved a modest box office hit and a seven-time Oscar nominee. Dafoe starred alongside Gene Hackman, the duo portraying a mismatched pair of FBI agents leading the investigation in the backwater Mississippi town where the murders took place — and although their differing approach to solving a racial hate crime probably raised more questions than it answered, that was more than enough for critics like Rita Kempley of the Washington Post, who wrote, “Mississippi Burning surveys the geography of racism, sheds light on the dark night of the soul.”
89%
8-otto-mani?)
The Loveless
After having his part cut from Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate the previous year, Dafoe had to wait until 1982 to make his big-screen debut — in The Loveless, an indie biker movie written and directed by first-time filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow. A somewhat campy homage to the biker flicks of the 1950s, it didn’t achieve much in the way of commercial impact, but Dafoe’s role as the ringleader of a group of small-town hoods presaged some of his later work as a charismatic villain, and the movie impressed a number of critics, including Time Out, which admitted, “At times the perversely slow beat of each scene can irritate, but that’s a reasonable price for the film’s super-saturated atmosphere.”
89%
9)
Affliction
Dafoe reunited with his Light Sleeper director Paul Schrader for this searing 1997 drama, which earned James Coburn an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Nick Nolte a Best Actor nomination, and gave Dafoe the rare opportunity to play a sane, stable, rather noble character — the brother of a small-town policeman (Nolte) whose investigation of a potential murder parallels his mother’s death and his re-involvement with his violent, alcoholic father (Coburn). “Schrader seems to understand these characters implicitly,” observed the San Francisco Chronicle’s Edward Guthmann, “and the result is probably the best film he has directed.”
87%
10)
Inside Man
On paper, Inside Man didn’t look like it’d end up being a critical comeback for director Spike Lee — a cops ‘n’ robbers action thriller? Please, those are a dime a dozen — but thanks to a sharp Russell Gewirtz script and an impressive cast that included Jodie Foster, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Christopher Plummer, and (of course) Willem Dafoe, it ended up walking away with $88 million at the box office and a healthy 86 percent on the Tomatometer. “As unexpected as some of its plot twists is the fact that this unapologetic genre movie was directed by Spike Lee, who has never sold himself as Mr. Entertainment,” admired an appreciative David Ansen of Newsweek. “But here it is, a Spike Lee joint that’s downright fun.”
86%
Magnificent
Willem, un “cerbiatto” vampirello di “dente” aguzzo fra gli aguzzini
Ah, “scarabocchio” la mente, che “impiastro” che sono, meglio che abitare nel quartiere Pilastro di Bologna. Lì, vedrei i “sorci verdi”, dunque meglio il “sorbetto, sorbirsi dei film, ed esser “sorcetto” fra i porconi(spini).
Perché, qui a Bologna, sotto i portici, fa meno “freddo”, e io indosso sempre il mio impermeabile da “L.A. Noire” per Elena, come ben c’insegnerà, poco “videogiocalizzandolo”, Frank Darabont, maestro di trasposizioni kinghiane, ora alle prese con un movie di origine console.
Che cos’è in fondo la console, se non un insieme di input ed output per non “imputtanirci” nel borghesismo di massa e, “monitorizzandoci” senza “motorizzarle” troppo di “baiocchi”, baloccarsi nell'”isolamento pop“, forse per consolarci?
Sì, tornando al Pilastro, se abiti in quel posto “maledetto” da Dio (ma poi, esiste?), devi augurare la buonanotte anche alla vicina paraplegica, potrebbe “impiastricciar” la tua faccia d’un gore omicida con un “cannone” nelle mutande. Ah, altro che militari e marine(s), in mezzo alla “nonna” c’è il “mitragliatore”, che un Tempo, solo sessulmente, se “lo sparava”, urlando “Ti fotto!”.
L’ho presa larga, infatti stavo investendo un pedone. Come mai gironzolò da queste parti? Ah, e cammina anche sulle strisce con lo striscione “zebrato” juventino. Dico io, son co(s)ce che si “stirano?”. No, infatti frenai bruscamente, e rischiai di cappottare addosso al marciapiede col “cappotto”.
Sì, anche Lui soffre le intemperie della nebbia pungente felsinea, e, prudentemente, si protegge con del cashmere da Flavio Briatore, Uomo che, di “Monopoli”, monopolizzò i “segnali stradali” affinché, dall’arretratezza coi trattori, “evolvessimo” in macchinone velocissime per “raschiare” Elisabette Gregoraci.
Ma, tornando sui nostri passi, quando viaggio a briglia sciolta, lo so, perdo la bussola, m'”imbusso”, e sono un tornado.
Anche fra i tornanti, o nel “tonno” pinocchiesco che “marina“, un po’, ma con ac(u)me.
Facciamo i seri, suvvia, “avviamoci”, non svoltiamo, anzi, volgiamoci al volto di Willem Dafoe.
Attualmente in John Carter. Ma è Lui o non è Lui, così “conciato?”. Certo… che è Lui…
Un’occasione quanto mai valida per “convalidarlo” ancora, se mai ce ne fosse bisogno.
Ha lavorato con quasi tutti i maestri contemporanei, una filmografia da far invidia a un “bisonte”.
Anzi, da Dracula, il Conte…
– Come, il conto è così salato? Ma se non ordinato neppure l’insalata! Vuoi vedere che Vlad non vuole impalarmi, ma “spelarmi?”. Non m’ha neppure offerto un “collo al sangue”.
Ah…
Applauso!
Firmato il Genius
(Stefano Falotico)
- L’ultima tentazione di Cristo (1988) L’agnello di Dio, “bela”, ma ha anche Lui il pelo sullo stomaco…
Maddalena, intanto, s'”allena” con chi “inzuppa” d'”altalene”.
E, Cristo piange, ma fa miracoli… - Vivere e morire a Los Angeles (1985) Fra i poliziotto & il criminale, se “la” svigna lo “scemo”.
Nel “vino” d’un Donnone.
Alla faccia dei fessi. - Affliction (1997) Le antiche colpe dei padri ricadono sui figli.
Lotta immortale fra i ghiacci, fra due matti che s’azzannano.
Fra i due litiganti, il fratellino “perfettino” osserva, (dis)incantato. - New Rose Hotel (1998) Un amico “specialissimo”, Fox, per rovinarsi la vita con Asia Argento.
Un “piano” coi “controfiocchi”. Almeno, la “scaloppina” di Willem, in piscina, fu bollenti “bollicine”.
Ma, “durò” un attimo… - L’ombra del vampiro (2000) Nosferatu, chi meglio di Willem poteva (re)incarnarti?
Il film non è né spaventoso, né drammatico né tantomeno horror.
È, diciamocela, orribile!
Ma Lui viene candidato all’Oscar, perché l’hanno “struccato”.
Andava benissimo senza “imbruttirlo”. - Inside Man (2005) Trailer potente come Spike Lee.
Ma Willem Dafoe non viene citato.
Perché assomiglia, alle volte, vagamente a Cheeta? - The Aviator (2004) Scusate, ma quanto compare?
Ah, per campare e, soprattutto, per (ri)omaggiare Scorsese, bastano pochi “spiccioli” d’un cameissimo.
Un’apparizione che gli fruttò, comunque, più “frutta” (leggi “soldi”) di quasi tutti noi, gente comune.
