John Cusack has drawn comparisons to great classic actors including--but not limited to--Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum, yet his own brand of natural coolness is wholly original. Introduced into film by way of The Brat Pack in the late 80s, Cusack found a way to successfully mature into an adult starting with the great neo-noir The Grifters in 1990. Although his choice in film roles hasn't always rivaled Daniel Day-Lewis and for a while there in the 2000s he seemed to choose the same romantic comedy script simply copied and pasted all over again, his down-to-earthness, his indisputable charm, and his way of simply looking at something with a deadpan face and inflicting laughter from the audience (or, at least, me) is incandescent.
Plus he's a damn sexy man, which never hurts.
So, in honor of his 44 candles blown yesterday a month ago (hey, it's been a busy last month. Cut me some slack, Jack), I'm here to loudly proclaim my Top 5 Favorite John Cusack films.
5. The Thin Red Line (1998, Terence Malick)
I think it was Jean-Luc Godard who said that there is no way to make an anti-war movie, because no matter how many different angles or ways you shoot warfare, you always end up glamorizing it in some way, that there will always be a part of the audience dying to really feel the action portrayed on-screen. Terence Malick ended a 20-year hiatus to make the most visually and aesthetically poetic war film since Apocalypse Now, a vignette of soldiers stationed in the Pacific islands during WWII who all suffer, in some way or another, the loss of the soul as a consequence of war, which he did it in such a way that one never questions the horrors of war even as John Toll's camera lushly captures the beauty of the Pacific islands and its inhabitants. Done with less plot (and as a result, far more moving) than that other 1998 WWII film by Spielberg, The Thin Red Line might not have the "completeness" of Malick's first two films, but his return to filmmaking was a welcome one, and anything he makes is always far more absorbing than most of what is on the marquee today.
4. 1408 (2007, Mikael Hafstrom)
In 2007, the notorious Harvey Weinstein publicly stated he would build up the never-nominated Cusack a huge Oscar campaign for his work as a war widower in Grace is Gone, but Cusack's turn in a similar role as a grieving father in Hafstrom's thriller is what should've been his meal ticket to warrant an Oscar nomination. It would've been impossible, as horror films are today judged negatively before they are even viewed, but Cusack had the challenge of creating essentially a one-man show in a house room of horrors (it's based on a Stephen King short story), and the range he expressed, including an unexpectedly deep sadness, resulted in his strongest dramatic work to date. And Hafstrom's Sartre-esque vision of what happens when a man is left alone with his demons warrants a viewing as well.
3. The Grifters (1990, Stephen Frears)
After a successful run of Brat Pack hits, Cusack wanted a change, and Frears' Freudian neo-noir was the beginning of a brilliant new turn as an adult actor. Cusack's con artist Roy is the tip of a triangle which includes his mother (played to icy perfection by Angelica Houston) who wants him to go straight and his sexy girlfriend (Annette Bening, clearly having a ball channeling femme fatale icon Gloria Grahame). Cusack hits all the right notes, equally convincing as a smooth con artist and the conflicted young man trying unsuccessfully to release himself from his mother's shadow. Naturally, he was overlooked for an Oscar; Bening and Huston were deservingly recognized for their compelling work as sexy, independent women.
1. Say Anything... (1989, Cameron Crowe)
Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've seen the image. The one of John Cusack (as passionate optimist Lloyd Dobler) in the trenchcoat, hoisting a boombox into the evening air, blasting Peter Gabriel's classic "In Your Eyes," outside the house of his beloved girlfriend who dumped him for reasons only the audience knows. In any other director, actor and era, this iconic moment would warrant laughs and a restraining order. In the hands of writer Cameron Crowe making his directorial debut, the paen to young love is as achingly sweet and honest as the best John Hughes movie of that period, but is elevated by the stellar presence of John Cusack. This is the role he was born to play, and he infuses it with such incredible passion, he makes every seemingly overdone romantic gesture soar with belief and conviction, it's no surprise that Lloyd Dobler has become the cultural touchstone of great cinematic boyfriends--and, given the dubious obsession over Edward Cullen, I can safely say that Lloyd still has no competition even 20 years after the film's release.
2. High Fidelity (2000, Stephen Frears)
You read this in writing: John Cusack should have won an Oscar for his portrayal of Chicago-based, music-obsessed, romantically challenged, semi-failing record store owner Rob Gordon. It's not just because the Best Actor competition that year was duller than yesterday's Pepsi (this included but was not limited to Russell Crowe running a gamut of emotions from A to B in Gladiator); Cusack is brilliant walking a thin tightrope between a sensitive man coming of age and self-obsessed jerk. In many moments, he is both extremes at the same time; breaking the third wall certainly adds a unique view into Rob's life, and Cusack holds our attention with a charm and dexterity which can only be attributed to the talent of a great actor.
1. Say Anything... (1989, Cameron Crowe)
Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've seen the image. The one of John Cusack (as passionate optimist Lloyd Dobler) in the trenchcoat, hoisting a boombox into the evening air, blasting Peter Gabriel's classic "In Your Eyes," outside the house of his beloved girlfriend who dumped him for reasons only the audience knows. In any other director, actor and era, this iconic moment would warrant laughs and a restraining order. In the hands of writer Cameron Crowe making his directorial debut, the paen to young love is as achingly sweet and honest as the best John Hughes movie of that period, but is elevated by the stellar presence of John Cusack. This is the role he was born to play, and he infuses it with such incredible passion, he makes every seemingly overdone romantic gesture soar with belief and conviction, it's no surprise that Lloyd Dobler has become the cultural touchstone of great cinematic boyfriends--and, given the dubious obsession over Edward Cullen, I can safely say that Lloyd still has no competition even 20 years after the film's release.
