Iconic scenes from Pusher, Elegy, and Jose Chung’s From Outer Space. Featuring Robert Wisden, Nancy Fish, and Charles Nelson Reilly.
Tag: videos
Trek {Star}: Vol. 3.
The serial predator and killer Martin Vanger appears in both the American and Swedish iterations of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. He is equally disquieting in both. Peter Haber portrays Vanger in the 2009 Swedish release, and Stellan SkarsgΓ₯rd does the honors for the 2011 American film. Both performances are brilliant, and chilling. Haber’s portrayal is earnest and volatile, while SkarsgΓ₯rd is more haughty, detached, dispassionate. Both work perfectly.
The remarkable Patrick Mahomes seems to perform well-nigh impossible feats almost routinely. At age 24, he already is poised to become one of the all-time greats. As brilliant as he is on a consistent basis, he’s even better when it matters most. If it has to happen, it happens. A magician, a poet, a winner.
In Barry’s prime, he was simply impossible to pitch to, as his almost absurd walk totals indicate. 232 bases on balls in one season. When he did on the rare occasion get a ball to hit, he very rarely missed it.
Bonds really had no weaknesses as a batter. He is certainly the top hitter I’ve ever witnessed, with a compact, lethal swing that had no holes. He actually slugged .863 one season, a record that will never even be approached, in all likelihood. Only Ted Williams and Babe Ruth compare.
The brilliant actor Brad Dourif gives a mind-boggling portrayal of convicted—and soon to be executed—serial killer Luther Lee Boggs. In this story, there’s a catch—a quite big one—in that the murderer claims to have acquired psychic powers, and might be able to help capture a predator who has abducted two people, and has killed ritualistically in the past. Mulder (David Duchovny), for one, is less than convinced.
In these two subsequent scenes, firstly… although Agent Scully would dearly love to converse with her recently deceased father, it’s quite possible that Luther Lee Boggs’ (Brad Dourif loses his mind, in the best possible way) intense aversion to the electric chair has even greater motivational potency. Lastly, in the poignant, haunting final scene (the final scene *we’re* going to present…), the correct warning Boggs had given to Scully ended up saving her life, and convinces her that he’s been telling the truth. He’s only willing to convey her father’s message if she is his witness when he’s strapped to the chair in a few hours. Is this one last trick, one potential last act of cruelty? Or does he truly value the agent whose life he saved? This ambiguity is part of what makes him such an intriguing character…and Dourif’s masterful performance makes Boggs truly indelible.
Amen. Simply one of the greatest performances I’ve seen, ever.
These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins…
Hieronymo’s Mad Againe…
Paul Bettany displays simply towering talent in his portrayal here of serial killer Ted Kaczynski. Such examples of the following phenomenon are not without precedent, but they are rare fowl indeed. The Phenomenon: Bettany manages to be more Unabomber-esque than the Unabomber himself. Sure, itβs not possible; but this seems to pose little hindrance. Like G. Oldman as Stansfield, Olivier as Christian Szell, and Brando as Lee Clayton, Bettany simply has that much power to spare. It is rare indeed that a performance can truly be categorized as iconic…but the word applies fully in this situation. Incredible mastery. I find it haunting, in any number of ways, to this day. Indelible.