Philip Seymour Hoffman turned 41 today, and I’m sure you’ve all bought him something nice and age-appropriate. I don’t know what the 41st birthday signifies – it’s not like anniversaries, so we can’t say this is Hoffman’s paper birthday, or something. Anyway, perhaps he’d like a few coupons to Subway. Eat fresh, Phillip!
Let’s take the opportunity to not only honor him for surviving another year by taking a gander at some of the Oscar winner’s most relevant and interesting movies.
1. Scent of a Woman (***, 1992). Hoffman has a small role here, but it’s sort of important; he plays compadre to Chris O’Donnell’s character. I mention it here only because it shows the kind of blowhard-bully roles Hoffman took during his salad years.
2. Twister (***1/2, 1996). Hoffman was one of Bill Paxton’s old stormchasing buddies; while Paxton’s moved on and is about to marry Jamie Gertz, Hoffman’s still on the team, crackin’ wise and such. Memorable line: “We crave sustenance!” Hoffman’s Dusty spends much of the movie TOTALLY STOKED about running smack into a freaking tornado. Already, you can see the larger-than-life attitude of Hoffman, an attitude he was to temper a bit when chasing Oscar.
3. Boogie Nights (***, 1997). In another memorable turn, Hoffman plays Scotty J, a crew member on a porno shoot who tries to put the moves on Dirk Diggler. One problem, Diggler’s not gay. Or is he? Anyway, Hoffman turns what might have seemed pathetic into a soulful, empathic performance.
4. Happiness (***1/2, 1998). Todd Solondz’s movie isn’t for everyone. It’s for people who like weird movies and aren’t easily offended, that’s for sure. Here, Hoffman’s a sexually repressed man who can’t approach women, particularly his neighbor, so he makes obscene calls. Again, a pathetic individual is somehow given stature and legitimacy in Hoffman’s capable hands.
5. The Talented Mr. Ripley (***, 1999). Bunch of actors in this whose visibility has increased substantially in the ensuing years. Hoffman is Freddie Miles, pal to Jude Law’s Dickie Greenleaf. His performance is a little lost next to Law’s, or Matt Damon’s, or Cate Blanchett’s, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s… but it’s still outstanding.
6. State and Main (***, 2000). Hoffman is the innocent screenwriter for William H. Macy’s film-within-a-film, The Old Mill. Of course, he improbably gets the girl here, played by Rebecca Pidgeon (director David Mamet’s wife). This is quintessential Hoffman – bumbling, stumbling, awesome.
7. Almost Famous (***1/2, 2000). Hoffman is Rolling Stone writer Lester Bangs (immortalized in REM’s “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)”), who mentors young Patrick Fugit in his quest to write the hell out of everything and eventually bed Penny Lane (Kate Hudson).
8. Capote (**, 2005): Hoffman won a Best Actor Oscar in the title role. Some might be put off by his mannerisms, but rest assured that’s how the real Capote was (just check out Capote in 1976’s Murder by Death, playing a character not unlike himself). Not my cup a tea, but good for him anyway.
9. Mission: Impossible III (**1/2, 2006): Finally, a slick, overproduced comic-book-violence movie. Hoffman is the Evil Mastermind out to rule the world, and only Tom Cruise stands in his way! Not a demanding role for Hoffman, but he’s better than your average despotic movie villain.
10. The Savages (**, 2007): The longtime girlfriend of the father of the grown-up Savage kids (Hoffman and Laura Linney) dies, and turns out Dad (Philip Bosco) has already begun sliding down the slope of dementia. This is a two-character study, and Hoffman’s egotistic, overbearing brother is…. well, he’s a bastard. A spiteful, bullying bastard who’s taken advantage of decades of being the BMoC in the family. His sister ain’t nothing, he thinks, and he believes he knows all. Heh. But it’s a dark, ultimately depressing movie.
11. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (***1/2, 2007). Hoffman’s another brother, this time to Ethan Hawke, while being married to Marisa Tomei (!). This caper-gone-wrong story is told Rashomon style, with flashbacks interspersed with the present to create a comingled tale of desperation, ego, and decadence. As with many of Hoffman’s characters, Andy is unsympathetic in the extreme, a canker on the butt of his family; as in The Savages, his younger sib looks up to him and follows his lead (albeit not without some jealousy).
12. Charlie Wilson’s War (**1/2, 2007). Hoffman plays a freewheeling, pissy CIA agent who tries to buck the system’s legendary red tape and get what he wants, so he’s a perfect match with Tom Hanks’ freewheeling Congressman Wilson. It’s yet another role that looks insubstantive at first but that explodes into some awesomeness and complexity, thanks to Hoffman’s nuanced performance, which was Oscar nominated.
