Tuesday, February 07, 2023

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Crash (1996)

James Ballard: You should've gone to the funeral.
Catherine Ballard: I wish I had. They bury the dead
so quickly. They should leave them lying around for months.

A happy 63rd birthday to James Spader today! Amid birthday wishes it's admittedly a shitty place to cop to such things but I'm going to go ahead and say that I've never been much of a James Spader fan -- when he leans into his creepiness (as he does with this film) I can tolerate him, but there's something that keeps me from loving him...

... and I've never really been able to figure it out what that is. He admittedly leans into that creepiness a lot, and if there's one thing I love it's a creep! Maybe it's that it's most of the time a very hetero brand of creep, and that bores me. Sex, Lies and Videotape? Boring! I have given that movie a dozen chances and it never sticks. But you have him and Elias Koteas blowing each other and I'm yours!

So what are your favorite James Spader performances?

6 comments:

NealB said...

Enjoying him a lot in Blacklist. Took years to get interested in it but up to season 3 now and he's very funny in it.

Anonymous said...

Both James Spader and Paul Dano creep me out. I recognize that Dano is a great actor, but something about him makes me dislike watching him.

joel65913 said...

He's exceptionally good at being a slimeball. Or at least he was in his youth, I haven't seen him much lately.

The first role that came to mind even if it is a supporting one is his turn as a backstabbing louse in Baby Boom (LOVE that film though more for Diane Keaton's expert comic skill than any contribution Spader made) which he sort of held a patent on at that point. He did on occasion have a break as in Stargate where he was the good guy (and was appealing as such) but there is some quality about him that lends itself to the opportunistic jerks that are often his lot.

Pierce said...

I rather liked him in Boston Legal, but only after Candice Bergen joined the cast.

dre said...

They do...in Atlanta.

Anonymous said...


Secretary hands down!