Any John Cusack fans out there? What is your favorite John Cusack film?
I'd say that Gross Pointe Blank is the best "John Cusack Movie," because he wrote, produced and starred in it, and Martin Blank is one of his most memorable and engaging characters. The movie has all the hallmarks of a classic, good characters, snappy dialogue, quotable lines, several bumps per minute, unforgettable scenes and a great soundtrack/use of music.
But it's not his best role or even the best film he's ever been in.
I'm something of a connoisseur of JC films. I own every movie he's ever been in on tape or dvd, even the really shitty ones and cameo roles. The Sure Thing's Gib Gibson was the first role I ever saw him play, and the one that made me fall for him as a 14 year old girl. He's said that it and High Fidelity's Rob Gordon are the characters most like him and the roles that required the least "acting."
In terms of filmic quality I'd rank his career as follows:
1. Bob Roberts
2. Grifters, The
3. Better Off Dead
4. Say Anything
5. The Player
6. Grosse Pointe Blank
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
8. Being John Malkovich
9. Adaptation
10. Stand by Me
11. High Fidelity
12. Eight Men Out
13. The Thin Red Line
14. Broadcast News
15. Bullets Over Broadway
16. Sure Thing, The
17. Max
18. Cradle Will Rock
19. Journey of Natty Gann
20. Money for Nothing
21. Never Get Outta the Boat (executive producer)
22. Shadows and Fog
23. Identity
24. The Jack Bull
25. Sixteen Candles
26. Class
27. This Is My Father
28. Tapeheads
29. Elvis Stories
30. Floundering
31. Serendipity
32. Chicago Cab
33. Breakfast with Hunter
34. Runaway Jury
35. City Hall
36. True Colors
37. Anastasia
38. Roadside Prophets
39. Map of the Human Heart
40. Hot Pursuit
41. One Crazy Summer
42. Fat Man and Little Boy
43. Road to Wellville
44. Pushing Tin
45. Grandview, U.S.A.
46. Con Air
47. America's Sweethearts
In my opinion, his best character is either Lloyd Dobler, Roy Dillion, Martin Blank or Lane Myer. My favorite is Lloyd Dobler.
Lloyd Dobler is just a great character--he's a guy's guy, a good guy, he's the kind of guy that falls in love in high school when all anyone else is looking for is sex and a good time. He is honest, sincere and intense and totaly devoid of bullshit. The kind of guy that demands you be the best woman you can be, and sees you as you could be if you left all the bullshit behind and stood before him naked and vulnerable, totally open to love, without pride, without mind games without ego. Who wouldn't love Lloyd Dobler?
He's the kind of guy you'd secretly regret leaving for the rest of your life, and then in your 30's when you're married and working in your "career" and feeling smugly satisfied and financially stable, you'd run into him randomly somewhere and he'd be doing something mundanely heroic. And suddenly you'd realize what an idiot you were not to have taken that path. Not to choose someone who loved you for you and all that you could be. Someone that had been that real and sincere and solid. You'd just be sitting in a downtown restaurant with a client "doing lunch" and glance out the window to see him giving his jacket to a cold homeless person, or you'd be in a hurry to get home after a long day of mind numblingly meaningless work and while driving out of a shopping center parking lot you'd suddenly see him running along, riding his rolling shopping cart as he returns it to the racks--the lone person to do so in a parking lot cluttered with unreturned shopping carts left by people who were "too busy" to return their carts. That's Lloyd Dobler.
He's the man you let get away. He's the man you hurt. He's the good guy you can't find now, and didn't want or weren't ready for then. Sort of a male version of Tom Waits "Martha." If Lloyd Dobler were a song, he'd be the protaganist in Social Distortion's Story of my Life:
"High school seemed like such a blur, I didn't have much interest in sports or school elections. And in class I dreamed all day, about a rock 'n' roll weekend. And the girl in the front of the room, so close yet so far y'know she never seemed to notice that this silly school-boy crush wasn't just pretend. Life goes by so fast, you only want to do what you think is right. Close your eyes and then it's past; (It's the) Story of my life."
I met my own Lloyd in high school and I destroyed everything that was great between us. I treated him like shit. He treated me like an angel. He understood me. I hated him for that. I can still remember fighting with him and saying horrible cruel things, doing ridiculous things to hurt him. Why? Because he wanted to love me and I was afraid I'd fail him, that his expectations of me were too high. He had no expectations to speak of though, he pretty much just wanted to spend time with me and be the best person he could be, and that really terrified me. I said I dumped him because he wanted more than I wanted to give at that stage. But he just wanted me to be me. A sincere and real me instead of the fake, affected, vain, malicious cunt I was. When he looked at me he didn't see a fucked up girl flailing out of control. He saw perfection. He saw all my potential as if it were actual. That's a lot to live up to.
I thought I just wanted to drink and screw and listen to music and do something "important" with my life. He knew already what was actually important, what actually mattered in life, I was deluded. He saw with clairity. He wanted to love me and I really fucked him over for it. I took everything he loved about me and tried to destroy those things in myself. I tried to hurt him for seeing me that way, as a good person and a real person as someone who could do something with her life that really mattered that really made a difference. I couldn't see me as he did. I couldn't be good then. I'd like to try now. If only the woman I am now could go back and be the girl I was then.
I'd say that Gross Pointe Blank is the best "John Cusack Movie," because he wrote, produced and starred in it, and Martin Blank is one of his most memorable and engaging characters. The movie has all the hallmarks of a classic, good characters, snappy dialogue, quotable lines, several bumps per minute, unforgettable scenes and a great soundtrack/use of music.
But it's not his best role or even the best film he's ever been in.
I'm something of a connoisseur of JC films. I own every movie he's ever been in on tape or dvd, even the really shitty ones and cameo roles. The Sure Thing's Gib Gibson was the first role I ever saw him play, and the one that made me fall for him as a 14 year old girl. He's said that it and High Fidelity's Rob Gordon are the characters most like him and the roles that required the least "acting."
In terms of filmic quality I'd rank his career as follows:
1. Bob Roberts
2. Grifters, The
3. Better Off Dead
4. Say Anything
5. The Player
6. Grosse Pointe Blank
7. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
8. Being John Malkovich
9. Adaptation
10. Stand by Me
11. High Fidelity
12. Eight Men Out
13. The Thin Red Line
14. Broadcast News
15. Bullets Over Broadway
16. Sure Thing, The
17. Max
18. Cradle Will Rock
19. Journey of Natty Gann
20. Money for Nothing
21. Never Get Outta the Boat (executive producer)
22. Shadows and Fog
23. Identity
24. The Jack Bull
25. Sixteen Candles
26. Class
27. This Is My Father
28. Tapeheads
29. Elvis Stories
30. Floundering
31. Serendipity
32. Chicago Cab
33. Breakfast with Hunter
34. Runaway Jury
35. City Hall
36. True Colors
37. Anastasia
38. Roadside Prophets
39. Map of the Human Heart
40. Hot Pursuit
41. One Crazy Summer
42. Fat Man and Little Boy
43. Road to Wellville
44. Pushing Tin
45. Grandview, U.S.A.
46. Con Air
47. America's Sweethearts
In my opinion, his best character is either Lloyd Dobler, Roy Dillion, Martin Blank or Lane Myer. My favorite is Lloyd Dobler.
Lloyd Dobler is just a great character--he's a guy's guy, a good guy, he's the kind of guy that falls in love in high school when all anyone else is looking for is sex and a good time. He is honest, sincere and intense and totaly devoid of bullshit. The kind of guy that demands you be the best woman you can be, and sees you as you could be if you left all the bullshit behind and stood before him naked and vulnerable, totally open to love, without pride, without mind games without ego. Who wouldn't love Lloyd Dobler?
He's the kind of guy you'd secretly regret leaving for the rest of your life, and then in your 30's when you're married and working in your "career" and feeling smugly satisfied and financially stable, you'd run into him randomly somewhere and he'd be doing something mundanely heroic. And suddenly you'd realize what an idiot you were not to have taken that path. Not to choose someone who loved you for you and all that you could be. Someone that had been that real and sincere and solid. You'd just be sitting in a downtown restaurant with a client "doing lunch" and glance out the window to see him giving his jacket to a cold homeless person, or you'd be in a hurry to get home after a long day of mind numblingly meaningless work and while driving out of a shopping center parking lot you'd suddenly see him running along, riding his rolling shopping cart as he returns it to the racks--the lone person to do so in a parking lot cluttered with unreturned shopping carts left by people who were "too busy" to return their carts. That's Lloyd Dobler.
He's the man you let get away. He's the man you hurt. He's the good guy you can't find now, and didn't want or weren't ready for then. Sort of a male version of Tom Waits "Martha." If Lloyd Dobler were a song, he'd be the protaganist in Social Distortion's Story of my Life:
"High school seemed like such a blur, I didn't have much interest in sports or school elections. And in class I dreamed all day, about a rock 'n' roll weekend. And the girl in the front of the room, so close yet so far y'know she never seemed to notice that this silly school-boy crush wasn't just pretend. Life goes by so fast, you only want to do what you think is right. Close your eyes and then it's past; (It's the) Story of my life."
I met my own Lloyd in high school and I destroyed everything that was great between us. I treated him like shit. He treated me like an angel. He understood me. I hated him for that. I can still remember fighting with him and saying horrible cruel things, doing ridiculous things to hurt him. Why? Because he wanted to love me and I was afraid I'd fail him, that his expectations of me were too high. He had no expectations to speak of though, he pretty much just wanted to spend time with me and be the best person he could be, and that really terrified me. I said I dumped him because he wanted more than I wanted to give at that stage. But he just wanted me to be me. A sincere and real me instead of the fake, affected, vain, malicious cunt I was. When he looked at me he didn't see a fucked up girl flailing out of control. He saw perfection. He saw all my potential as if it were actual. That's a lot to live up to.
I thought I just wanted to drink and screw and listen to music and do something "important" with my life. He knew already what was actually important, what actually mattered in life, I was deluded. He saw with clairity. He wanted to love me and I really fucked him over for it. I took everything he loved about me and tried to destroy those things in myself. I tried to hurt him for seeing me that way, as a good person and a real person as someone who could do something with her life that really mattered that really made a difference. I couldn't see me as he did. I couldn't be good then. I'd like to try now. If only the woman I am now could go back and be the girl I was then.
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
Yeah, gotta admit, John's the man. Have you heard anything on his attachment to a Bill Hicks biopic? He's been lobbying for it for a while, I hear. And he's the only one around to do it, methinks.