Five Years

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How have things gone for Adrien Brody since he won the Best Actor Oscar for his work in The Pianist in March '03? He was the gifted 30ish actor with the striking honker who'd rebounded from career problems and had the macho swagger to soul-kiss Halle Berry on the Oscar stage, but since then...I dunno, you tell me. I greatly admire Brody and have no case against him, but I think it's fair to use the term "treading water" to describe the last five years. If that.

In '04 he costarred in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, and then he costarred in Peter Jackson's bloated, half-effective King Kong in '05 -- neither film did anything for him. Then came Hollywoodland in '06 -- a mild problem performance for Brody (playing a low-rent, not-brilliant shamus with family relationship issues) in a film that quickly deflated with the public. Then along came The Darjeeling Limited, which was aceptable in some people's eyes but pretty much a "meh" as far as Brody's Standard & Poors rating was concerned.

He's got Sundance-y movies -- Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom, Vincenzo Natali's Splice and Darnell Martin's Cadillac Records -- set to appear over the next several months, and now he's about to make a Dario Argento thriller called Giallo (an Italian term that refers to a genre of film and literature that is rooted in pulp, horror and erotica) with Emmanuelle Seigner and Elsa Pataky costarring.

Argento is highly regarded in dweeby, hipper-than-thou, Dave Kehr-like circles, but Average Joes regard him as an exploitation hound with style, if they regard him at all. What does it say about Brody that he's now in bed with Argento? I think Argento is probably benefitting more than Brody from this association, or has Brody been downshifted to a level that makes it an even-steven thing? Put it this way -- would the Adrien Brody who'd just won an Oscar five years ago agree to make Giallo?

comment #1

adorian says ...

Does this mean that Manolete is not going to be released?

comment #2

btwnproductions says ...

Once you've got an Oscar, what other mountain is there to climb as a film actor? He's at most a character lead (not an A-list star who sells a jillion tickets), one drawn to off-the-mainstream pictures. Admittedly Argento is farther out of the mainstream than I thought he'd go, but if the part is good I can see why it would have more appeal than, say, a CGI-crammed superhero picture if that's what the choice is. And if he's unwlilling to play the Hollywood game, he's not going to get the Hollywood parts, Oscar or not.

comment #3

The Winchester says ...

I've heard nothing but great things about Brothers Bloom. And Splice sounds like a fun project but it will probably do nothing for his career.

comment #4

Aladdin Sane says ...

Let's not forget his almost yearly mentioned shock at not being the main character in Thin Red Line...
I am not as taken with him as an actor as some are, but the only things I've enjoyed of his since The Pianist were King Kong and Darjeeling Ltd. Otherwise he's been pretty fuggedaboudit to me.

comment #5

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

He was great in Darjeeling Limited. Really, subtle enjoyable performance.

Wells didn't mention The Jacket ('05) which Brody gave another solid performance in but the script and directing just weren't there.

That said, I'd take Adrian Brody over other struggling actors recently brought up b Wells (Josh Hartnett/Keanu Reeves/Chris Evans/Ryan Reynolds) any day of the mo-fucking week.

comment #6

corey3rd says ...

Argento hasn't had any major action since....1987's Opera which marked the end of his better years. Brody would be better off working with the corpse of Hal Ashby.

comment #7

nemo says ...

Maybe he should work with Tinto Brass next.

comment #8

silver says ...

After his terrible performance in the terrible (on so many levels) The Village, Brody has left a bad taste with me that hasn't gone away yet.

I loved writer-director Rian Johnson's Brick, and looked forward to his sophomore effort.
When he signed up actors Rachel Weisz & Mark Ruffalo, it sounded great. Even casting Rinko Kikuchi (just off of her Babel fame) sounded interesting.
But then casting Brody to star... I just remember thinking "Oh crap"
Maybe with The Brothers Bloom, Adrien Brody will win me over this time.

comment #9

filmradar.com says ...

Didn't Brody make a film about Manolete, the famous Spanish bullfighter? I recall hearing about it, but I have never seen anything about it getting a release.

comment #10

GlassFamily says ...

Thought he was utterly great in "Darjeeling"... really nice to see him alongside the usual stable of Anderson actors. He is light years better than any of them.

Can't wait for "Brothers Bloom." Just watched "Brick" again the other night and I love the film to death, so, you know, can't wait. I'll watch just about anything that Brody is in.

comment #11

LYT says ...

In theory, following an Oscar win by working with Peter Jackson, M. Night Shyamalan, and Wes Anderson sounds pretty good.

Is it bad luck, or partially his fault, when each of those movies is regarded as the most disappointing of their respective directors' works in quite a while?

comment #12

Dellamorte says ...

Brody might just be a fan, happy to work with Argento. I tend to think Argento is considered the best of the Italian gore guys of the 60's and 70's, and the coolest Italian Exploitation director after Mario Bava. Brody's never going to be a leading man like Matt Damon, but he's worked with a number of the strongest directors in the business, and he's been very smart about that. I think he's going to keep working, but he's also got the Oscar to fall back on. Doing Argento isn't a blight against, nor would working with any of the 70's horror directors, like John Carpenter or George Romero as long as the money was there.

comment #13

caslab says ...

Considering his first announced project after that Oscar win was a hip-hop album that never materialized, I don't think the Argento deal is so off-course.

I can't watch this dude the same way again after that terrible Diet Coke commercial he made after his win. Whenever he walks onscreen, the voice of the woman from the advert squealing, "Heeeeyyyy Broooodyyyyy" just rings in my ears

comment #14

D.Z. says ...

Brody may have had the Oscar glory, but he couldn't compete with Depp and Bloom in the "leading man with looks" category at the box office. His paycheck roles also barely had anything to do with him. Darjeeling might have worked out for him, though, if Owen Wilson's addiction problems didn't make headlines.

comment #15

Chicago48 says ...

He's forgettable just like Colin Farrell.

comment #16

lipranzer says ...

"He's at most a character lead (not an A-list star who sells a jillion tickets), one drawn to off-the-mainstream pictures."

And this is one of the reasons why I like him. Although he's done a couple of mainstream, big-budget movies like THE VILLAGE (which I still haven't seen) and KING KONG (which I didn't think he was bad in, but he was wrong for the part), he's mostly gone for the offbeat roles, and I'd rather have that than actors winning the Oscar and going the Nicolas Cage route. And it's not like this is a new thing for Brody - before he won the Oscar, for example, he was in one of Ken Loach's most underrated films, BREAD AND ROSES, and was quite good.

I'm also looking forward to BROTHERS BLOOM and CADILLAC RECORDS (though both as much for the directors as for Brody), and hope he continues to travel the road less taken.

comment #17

LucretiaMyReflection says ...

Adrian Brody is unfortunately too ethnic-looking to get any "good" roles in Hollywood. If he were to get his nose fixed, he'd be devastatingly handsome ... like most of the rest of Hollywood. His nose is what makes him interesting-looking, it's what prevents him from being a leading man, and it keeps him stuck in oddball parts, dammit. Were his nose bobbed, he could do both the leading man parts as well as the small, arthouse things he seems to enjoy doing, instead of being forced to do JUST the arthouse roles because he's never offered the leading man roles.

It doesn't help any, though, that his agent and manager suck ass. His resume since THE PIANIST has been something to be ashamed of.

comment #18

Mr. Blood Vessel says ...

I loved him in Angels in the outfield.

comment #19

Craptastic says ...

Lip, don't bother seeing The Village. You're a better person because of it. I spent the first hour or so of that film thinking it was the best spook-fest since Wise's "The Haunting" and then everything just goes to shit...

As for Brody, my favorite role of his was in Summer Of Sam. The last solid film Lee has made, in my opinion. Any film with the line, "I can smell her pussy juice on you!" being said by an Oscar winner is a-okay in my book.

From what I've heard, he's more interested in his record label than anything else...

Oh... and he gives E. Wood a run for his money by looking "frightened" in Thin Red Line. They should have a "frightened-off" sometime. Could be interesting.

comment #20

Spacelamb says ...

Maybe he has an absorbing life away from the camera and doesn't need to work that hard because he's already got an oscar. Just saying...

comment #21

Rob says ...

Cadillac Records has a cool subject and a cast (Beyonce, Columbus Short) that will draw the kids to the mall. Brody has been a victim of good-on-paper, lousy-in-execution projects for awhile. He's still in the game, though, and something will click sooner or later.

The fact that the Argento is called Giallo makes it sound like a self-referential genre sendup a la Scream.

comment #22

Ju-osh says ...

Spike Lee said that he, Polanski and Malick all agree on one thing: that they're never going to work with Brody again. Apparently, he was a bit of a prima dona.

comment #23

insidah says ...

Brody should have been cast as Harvey Milk. He looks more like Milk than Penn, and we certainly know he could have acted the part.

comment #24

Bob Violence says ...

Hey, a borderline-non-sequitur Dave Kehr dig (is he "hipper-than-thou" when he praises '50s melodramas, or is his John Ford love the culprit here?). Has it been a week already?

comment #25

Arizona Joe says ...

If he could bottle chutzpah, he'd be a zillionaire.

Harvey Milk was an excellent suggestion. Oft times people on this blog have more insight than those making the movies.

comment #26

GLee2112 says ...

He's overrated and his beak is a major distraction.

comment #27

Dave Polands Gut says ...

He wasnt even good in The Pianist

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