If you happen to be in NY this weekend, this is your last chance to see the latest free Shakespeare in the Park production, Euripides' The Bacchae. (Common wisdom says these free shows are always sold out but I had no trouble getting in so try it, especially if it's wet outside) The greek tragedy plays like a slightly gender-fucked avant garde musical in this particular production. I had seen it once before 13 years ago and the only thing I remembered about it was the absolutely sick gory finale. It's still disgustingly bloody.Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakening) goes for a smeared lipstick rock god style Dionysys. His nonbeliever victim is none other than familiar screen actor Anthony Mackie.
One could argue that both actors are having a great summer. See also: Taking Woodstock (Groff) and The Hurt Locker (Mackie).
I know I haven't given The Hurt Locker enough play this summer at the blog. I guess I figured it would still be around and still in the discussion mix come Oscar season. At the very least, if one is feeling cynical, it'll keep popping up as a shoulda coulda woulda type film. Who knows how the larger voting bodies will respond. Time will tell but surely easier, softer and more nakedly awards-hungry pictures will challenge it for dominance within a month or two.
tick tock tick tock tick tock
The clock hands seems to be weirdly stuck when it comes to Mackie's career. The lack of media attention is bewildering. He turns 3o next month and while he can't complain about the amount of work he gets, shouldn't he be a bigger name by now? The Hurt Locker, in which he plays an increasingly bothered soldier who's worried that his commanding officer is too fond of risk-taking, is his meatiest role since the little seen gay artist film Brother to Brother (2003) but will it open the floodgates to better and/or bigger roles?
Mackie (clockwise from top left) as gay author in Brother to Brother,bullying boxer in Million Dollar Baby, drug dealer in Half Nelson,
exhausted soldier in The Hurt Locker and angry royal in The Bacchae.
Reading the program notes to The Bacchae reminded me how limited the roles can be for a black actor in Hollywood. Mackie's film roles seem to break down to the physical: military men (Eagle Eye, The Hurt Locker), tough athletes (We Are Marshall, Million Dollar Baby) lowlife criminals (Half Nelson, The Man) and sexual objects (Freedomland, Brother to Brother, She Hate Me) ... but he's actually a Julliard trained actor. Come to think of it Mackie has even played against this dichotomy as "Papa Doc" in 8 Mile, wherein he was only posing as a thug. Eminem defeats him in battle merely by rapping about Doc's education and upper class privilege.
We're familiar with his face but how many moviegoers know his name?The Hurt Locker can only help his career. He already won an Independent Spirit Nomination for it last year. But with co-star Jeremy Renner and director Kathryn Bigelow sucking up all the oxygen in Locker's Oscar-buzz room, is his breakout role still to come?
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