Signatures: Patricia Clarkson

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Patricia Clarkson is one the best supporting actresses alive. But the truth is, she's not always that supportive. While she's busy outshining whoever's in the lead spotlight, Patricia's characters are playing on the sidelines to their own cinematic agendas. She drifts into the background, glowing of warmth, wit and maturity. Much like a cinematic confidant, Patricia Clarkson's reliably brilliant even in her most minuscule moments. But to rely on Patricia Clarkson is to fall into the same trusting trap as her on-screen counterparts. She builds you up, holds you close and then pulls the rug out from under you.


Take Far From Heaven's vivacious socialite, Eleanor Fine, who teases the conflicted Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) about her reputation for "kindness to negroes." They share plenty of tawdry laughs and idle gossip, but when Cathy finds herself at its center and falling in love with her gardener, Eleanor is the first to show how quickly a warm shoulder goes cold. Patricia works her way into the film as Cathy's one common voice -- a woman seemingly open to progress. As the film progresses, its clear it was all vicious set up for some judgmental glares and the juiciest gossip yet.


Building on that twist is Patricia's turn as Vera in Dogville. Vera's character is the first to admit, "I cry too easily." She comes across as a woman timid and reserved, who's married to a cold lout but who passionately loves her children and isolating small town. She soon warms to the mysterious Grace Mulligan (Nicole Kidman) once she's cared for her children and taught them lessons of Ovid. Soon they're laughing together, sharing favorite prose, and Grace is welcome in Vera's home anytime... for the next hour or so. Just as quickly as rumors of a philandering tryst spread back to Vera, we see this woman once prone to sadness become relentless in her pursuit of pain. She takes Grace's hard-earned collectibles and shatters them one by one, urging Grace's stoicism while begging for her tears. Patricia Clarkson again undermines her own sweet stoicism with a sour mistrust that goes far beyond the film's calculations. She'll smash your spirits and your Hummel figurines.


Of course Patricia's characters aren't all so savagely constructed. Often enough her characters are genuinely of good will, with reasonable motivations. Take her scant role Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a part that would probably have gone unnoticed in the hands of most actresses. Patricia manages to use her few scenes to work her way right into Vicky's trust and somehow gain pull on her relationships. In mere moments her character, Judy, begrudging of her own vapid vows, pushes Vicky into a radical and unlikely affair. Even when Patricia means well, in the end somebody still winds up getting shot.


Patricia Clarkson's career is High Art. In terms of screentime it probably adds up to so much less than the effect her scenes eventually have. Even if we should never depend on her characters, we can always depend on Patricia's one-of-a-kind radiance and sly "supporting" touch.

So what's your favorite Patricia Clarkson performance? More importantly: which stellar actress should she compliment and undermine next?

Signatures: Catherine Keener

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

"I think I want to end therapy. I don't know, I feel like it's time, y'know. I feel like I want to go at it alone for awhile. I mean here I am completely single and I'm not SO depressed about it. (Pause.) It's hard with Laura being so grotesquely in love... but I'm still okay. (Pause.) And its been forever since I've been obsessed with someone, so I think I'm doing a lot better in that area..."

-Amelia, Walking and Talking (1996)

If misery loves company, it has exchanged vows with Catherine Keener. She's made a career of trudging through the wreckage of characters' neuroses and judgment -- still somehow offsetting their scalding words with a cool, collective charm. A sharp acidic wit underlies even her most sentimental supporting parts. If strong, funny and flawed female roles are a rarity, it's simply because they're all currently occupied by Catherine Keener.


Menial day to day tasks like Walking and Talking become means for Catherine to brilliantly devour and dissect everyday perils -- such as the dating world; one small step for single woman kind, one giant leap for Nicole Holofcener's career. Obviously Catherine is Friends with Money to writer/director Holofcener, and their frequent collaborations have marked some of the most richly textured but stripped-bare arcs for women in modern comedy. In Catherine's care these characters flounder, they curse, they belittle, and yet somehow remain undeniably genuine. They never fully overcome their weaknesses, but it's their sardonic perception of themselves and their surroundings that ring so painfully (hysterically) true, and possibly lead them in the the right direction by the films' end. For as much as they struggle to find their path, wade through dismantling marriages (see also: Your Friends & Neighbors and Full Frontal) and begrudge the happiness of others, at least their mothers still think they're Lovely & Amazing. If Catherine's characters teach us anything it's that even if you're miserable inside, you still have to be able to sell yourself to others.

"Listen, Mister... This s**t is pretty!"

-Michelle, Lovely & Amazing (2001)

"I am dubious, but I don't welsh."

-Maxine, Being John Malkovich (1999)

Catherine's cinematic trials occasionally peak into darker territory -- even (quite literally) branding Ellen Page a "prostitute" -- but by and large she finds her trademark scathing charisma through her characters more everyday pains. Be it de-virginizing a forty-year-old man or an underage Jake Gyllenhaal (misery only in the legal repercussions), Catherine's career has spanned a wealth of women whose age and experience has molded them perfectly to dismantle any and all despairing matters of social construct. With biting, understated ease, Catherine Keener has shown that it's simpler just to say "f**k off," but doing so ignores the wonderful art in insult and disregard. And because a bit of dry, insensitive wit takes longer for others to process.

Signatures: Uma Thurman

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

[Note: Adam and I arrived at our Uma fixation independently this week so I saved his post a couple of days. That was probably unnecessary because is there such a thing as too much UMA? -Nathaniel]


Revenge might be a dish best served cold, but Uma Thurman manages to give it plenty of warmth -- even as she spends her comas and college years cleverly biding her time. Often she plays women whose traumatic experiences have forced her to inflict some trauma, but there's always a vulnerability to her vigilante justice. Even a Black Mamba can suffer hysterical blindness.

Her dynamite showcase in Kill Bill trails her from badass Bride to Beatrix Kiddo, and none of that hard-fought bloodshed would be worth it without Uma's sentimental side. It both softens and strengthens the blow -- like a kick to the throat while you're choking on emotion. It's no wonder Quentin Tarantino designed this epic specifically for Uma from head to (wiggle your) big toe. Uma's strength isn't just in her physicality but in the aches she exudes elsewhere. It's one thing to cheer on her carnage-laden comeuppance, but Uma's ass kickings pick up where so many exploitation films leave off. Her vengeance is gained by the loss she demonstrates so clearly and feels so believably. An avenging mother, a confidant betrayed; the film compares her fittingly to a lioness and her cub. Tender yet savage. Uma roars and rampages, and we get bloody satisfaction.


Uma's a powerhouse even without a sword and a list of names. Take her turn as Amy in the underseen Tape, in which an alleged rape in her high school past is verified on tape and brings about her powerplay and chance for resolve ten years later. Mind games and verbal manipulation are as potent as poison. It's the perfect means for revenge... and less messy. As Amy states in the film, "...If you're truly repentant, you should be willing to pay the price." It could just as easily be a quote from Kill Bill, and similarly so, Amy reasserts herself as a force to be reckoned with.

Her softer-sided characters are just as well rounded, but they too contain some hard edges. In fact they're just about square...


Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction) and Debby Miller (Hysterical Blindness) are two of her most charismatic, sultry and endearing performances. Both characters desperately need a shot of adrenaline -- one more literally than the other. Heroin and hairspray are the drugs of choice to stave off the tedium involved in being a rich housewife or single girl in New Jersey. In their own way they are the outlaws of their respective worlds and just as vulnerable. Mia gets to play while the (psychotic) hubby's away, and Debby is used to going it alone in the down and dirty world of dating in the eighties. Even without a vengeance, these characters showcase Uma's ability to pull all the pain from a bad situation with plenty of external strength. Hunting for a dream man or a five dollar milkshake; neither seems worth the effort without Uma on hand to tap into all the misery and eventual sweetness.

Uma's gift is like the "Five Pointed Palm Exploding Heart Technique." Use subtlety, just the right amount of force, and head straight to the heart.

Signatures: Lisa Kudrow

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Dede: God. How does a woman get so bitter?

Lucia: Observation.

--The Opposite of Sex (1998)

My own bitter observation: "TV actresses" never get the love they deserve until they make that stealthy transition to the silver screen. Some may never get their due respect; like a Sarah Michelle Gellar - whose physical, comic and crushing turn as Buffy would ascend the cinematic heights of... magic crustaceans and dead Japanese kids baring the grudge of a Hollywood remake. (That was Bitter Observation #2.) For every damning P.S. I Love You, there's still Lisa Kudrow's savory sense of humor underlying all that manufactured bliss - and Hilary Swank being "girly and fun" (no one's buying it Warner Brothers.) Kudrow's characters balance well between TV and film. Either they're so confidently clueless that they couldn't care less, or they're so hyper aware they'll do just about anything to alter their situation. Kudrow's best moments come when placed at that delicate cusp of self awareness. Even her ditsiest selves have dreams wherein they know the formula for glue.

Lisa's sardonic strengths hit so masterfully under the radar and always for maximum effect. There's an understated intellect and biting wit even in her most deluded variations. Cherish is the word I'd use to describe her sublime performance on The Comeback. Valerie Cherish is a divinely humble creation; a washed-up sitcom star making her prestigious (but only to herself) return to the dregs of network TV. She even has her own reality show, but in her strict attempt to avoid any reality, it eventually hits her much like a cupcake shooting a low blow to the stomach. Sweet, painful... satisfying.

"A cupcake's never funny the second time. Never."

Hers is the subtly sweet, knockout punch that will give you "the rare double vomit." Valerie may not have her dignity, but maybe just enough fame to forego that worry for one more TV season -- exactly when this series was canceled (Bitter Observation #3). Behind Kudrow's every gesture is a pointed but understated truth, and it probably helps that Kudrow had a hand in the astute writing. Any attempt by Valerie to hide something becomes her greatest exposure. It's so befitting (and ironic) then that her catchphrase is, "I don't want to SEE that!"

Likewise her hysterical collaborations with writer/director Don Roos continually tap into that same inner judgment, and translates her talents so well to the big screen. If her characters are now too bitter or jaded to be bound by network standards, at least they get their cinematic happy endings. Like Lucia of The Opposite of Sex, who so desperately wants to meet someone who'll love and shampoo her, but would never utter the word "love" without a shudder down the spine and convulsive snide remark. Or Mamie of Happy Endings whose job at an abortion clinic is more or less therapy for giving away her stepbrother's baby; that bitterness is undercut with some real soul and sympathy. She gives these characters their world-weary backbone.

"Back Brace Girls"

left: Michele Weinberger, right: Valerie Cherish

Web Therapy, Kudrow and Don Roos' latest collaboration, is another painfully bracing comedy about yet another woman on that path of excruciating self-discovery. Meet Fiona Wallace, a therapist bored with anything beyond three-minute sessions, who needs patients who can launch her pitiful online career. The slow burn of the web series is an evolving character comedy of a person so selfish, so disparaging, that her act of observing others becomes all about her own reveal. Secrets and truths are exposed, wounds are opened and salted, and we haven't even gotten to her patients.


Whenever moments are almost too painful to watch, Lisa Kudrow ensures it's Must See TV.

[editors note: Web Therapy is also now available on iTunes]

Signatures: Laura Dern

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

I had a dream. In fact, it was the night I met you. In the dream there was our world, and the world was dark because there weren't any robins... and the robins represented love. And for the longest time there was just this darkness. And all of a sudden, thousands of robins were set free and they flew down and brought this blinding light of love! And it seemed like that love would be the only thing that would make any difference... And it did. So I guess it means there is trouble till the robins come.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Laura Dern; civil rights or robins of love. Both valid dreams from inspirational dreamers. Laura Dern is one of our most bright, inspiring and expressive actresses -- an angelic beauty with an edge. Expressive not only because she's lovingly referred to as "The Face" 'round these parts, but because she has the rare ability to capture the internal conflicts in some of cinema's most ambiguous dilemmas.

She's always drawn to characters in the midst of significant grey areas: the abortion argument, the peak of adolescent sexuality and nosedive of innocence, the perils of monogamy, and cloning prehistoric species on remote islands for tourism. Her characters always seem to hold the crux between right and wrong, naivete and danger, hope and tragedy. As good with smooth talk as she is a rambling rose, Laura's greatest gift is playing to both sides of the spectrum and finding a harmonious balance.


Sweetly asking, "When will the robins come?" or theorizing that "the whole world's wild at heart and weird and top," Laura's characters ground her films with an enchanting idealism that undercuts much of the darkness surrounding them. "It's a strange world," indeed. Take it from David Lynch, her frequent collaborator who uses this dual dynamic best. In describing some of her essential roles he says, "'If you wanted to buy a bottle of innocence as a shampoo, you'd buy Sandy in Blue Velvet.' Lula, I guess, is a bottle of passion-flavored bubble gum." Laura always walks this idyllic fine line with an elegance that often dips into dangerous territory as her films progress. Whether she's snapping bubble gum in Wild at Heart, or snapping her fingers to the tune of prostitution in Inland Empire, Laura's beauty and grace can easily transform in situations of devastating circumstance.

...Whether a movie part comes to me or I seek it out, there's always this journey to darkness through light, or vice versa; that element has been in almost everything I've done.

Laura often acts as the guiding light through her film's bleakest depths. Even as Ruth Stoops, a hopeless huffer and propaganda-piece in Citizen Ruth, she manages to highlight the moral divide while giving birth to the sixth or seventh child she can't support. With a character seemingly devoid of conscience or concern, Laura manages to shed light on the controversy and still give this woman a purpose as potent as paint fumes. So many of her films (We Don't Live Here Anymore, Rambling Rose, Smooth Talk) paint her as this glowing figure whose inner light dims, flickers and fades (and seizure strobes in the case of Inland Empire) as the films progress, but usually in the end Laura's light is back and burning brighter than ever.

It's a strange world, wild at heart and weird on top, but we can depend on Laura to light the way. As we hold out for the robins, let us bask in our ever blinding love for Laura Dern.

Signatures: Julie Delpy

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Julie Delpy is like an exquisite tour guide. A radiant vision in white and a warm companion on a train to Vienna. It's hard not to imagine falling in love with her instantly while shopping for records, spending strolls through cemeteries and gardens lost in her pondering splendor, tingling with anticipation for impending reunions, and melting to her mesmerizing "Waltz for a Night." For all that extensive walking and talking with this unique Parisian beauty, somehow she never gets lost in translation. Julie's gifts are fluent to acting, writing, directing, music and European tourism. She teaches the sights, the sounds, and surely by the end, "Baby, you are gonna miss that plane." But we wouldn't have it any other way.


Her turn as Celine in Richard Linklater's ode to passions and idealized encounters is a trip worth taking not once, not twice, but thrice. So enthralled by her ability to be knowledgeable, funny, noble and neurotic, Linklater gave Julie the showcase she deserves, and by Before Sunset, he couldn't resist letting Julie put words into Celine's mouth; a character she lives and breathes so flawlessly even in the smoke of small Paris cafés. Writing her part, acting her part, singing her part... as we take this nine year reunion tour with Jesse and Celine, it's a veritable sightseeing of Julie's own passions. She better make it a rule from now on: never fall in love with your tour guide.


But so impressive it was that we decided to stay for another 2 Days in Paris. And while this trip went less smoothly than last, Julie's tour was just as thoughtful, and this time she was in complete control. Taking the directorial reigns, writing once again, composing an offbeat score - she continues to venture out on her own and see things in a new way. So much so she's in the midst of a trip back to 17th-century Hungary. There's no doubt her travelogue will be vivid and rich with detail, beautifully constructed and told with her own unique voice. There's something worth seeing on all sides of the camera - and they're all named Julie Delpy.

Signatures: Kathy Bates

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

I'm probably not Kathy Bates number one fan, but I'd certainly be club treasurer. As much as I love her, I just don't have the follow through to keep her bed-ridden and hobble her legs. Even so Kathy's worth any and all fan-frenzy devotion. Not only does she consistently turn potentially mocking roles into comedy and drama gold, she's a director in her own right and an inspirational cancer survivor. It's not just her characters that are unsinkable, it's Kathy Bates.


Many of Kathy's most mesmerizing turns play on that fact that she's an atypical starlet, and she always seems to revel in that - capturing the misery, humor and strength in unglamorous roles. Her Oscar-winning character Annie Wilkes surely never crossed the paths of Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts, but Kathy takes on this frumpy and fanatical Colorado native as if she'd been listening to Liberace and abducting authors her entire life. Acting shouldn't always pretty, and Kathy manages to make even the most unappealing part a thing of beauty. Few could give an overweight character named Evelyn Couch her due decency, but Kathy never flounders.

Towanda will go on a rampage! I'll slip tiny bombs into Penthouse and Playboys so they explode when you open them. I'll ban all fashion models who weigh under 130 pounds! And I'll give half the military budget to people over 65 and declare wrinkles sexually desirable.

She tackles roles without reservation, without vanity, and that's what really plumbs the depths of her characters. Likewise, real depth exists when you're trying to dump your deadbeat husband's body in a well...


One of Kathy's most stirring and complex portraits comes in Dolores Claiborne, about a woman whose life has been centered on abuse: verbal abuse from her boss, physical abuse from her husband, and emotional bruises that still exist with her distant daughter. The film takes us through the years of Dolores' headstrong life to find the power in a woman painted as victim, bitch and bully. Kathy's own strength is what translates and gives this woman her second chance at redemption.

Here's to Kathy Bates. An atypical starlet as strong, beautiful and bold as ever. Truly unsinkable.

Signatures: Catherine O'Hara

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.


Who can blame Catherine O'Hara for leaving Macaulay Culkin home alone... twice... on Christmas... in major metropolitan cities. Artists have other priorities. And as an artist who's consistently playing other artists, Catherine O' Hara certainly knows the bittersweet sides to success. It's all for her art.


From SCTV to her ensemble comedies with Christopher Guest, Catherine O'Hara's donned many different and hilarious characteristic quirks. For me the most beloved is watching her catch the creative bug. Regional theatre, folk music, film production and sculpture - all the more opportunities for Catherine to find her greatest inspiration and internal expression. Somehow, amidst all the neurotic pursuit of fame and and shallow self-service that comes with being an artist, Catherine's always understood that less is more.

"Less is More" Method Acting:

When you're talking to someone you close your eyes - and then you look at them when you're not talking to the person. I mean you open your eyes when you're looking away, but then when you talk to the person you go like that - and you open your eyes - and then you look back at the person, but you never open your eyes when you're talking to them.

Perhaps "less is more" can also be applied to the way that Catherine provides even her most hysterical and horrifying characters with the subtlest shades of heart and humanity. It's a shame that we've only heard the "for your consideration" buzz and never the award win she wholly deserves. But then Catherine's not the type do just anything to win an Oscar, even if her characters are.

I do have trouble doing jobs that I don't really believe in. After Home Alone, another actor might have jumped on that and said, 'I am the reason this is such a big movie.' But I guess I've always been only half-ambitious -- kind of resentfully, after-the-fact ambitious. I'll see something and say, 'How did she get that? I could have done better.' Maybe it's an Irish thing... to hold back from putting yourself on the line and then say, 'That should have been me.'

At this point she's a comedy veteran with the refreshing ability to laugh at the business and take pot-shots at her botoxed peers. Her humor is a craft in itself. Catherine O'Hara is the rare and glimmering artist who's always avoided becoming trapped in her art... Almost always.

This is my art, and it is dangerous! Do you think I want to die like this?!

Signatures: Jamie Lee Curtis

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Jamie Lee Curtis leads a multitude of magnificent lives. Hollywood Royalty holder, children's author, wife to Christopher Guest, AARP covergirl and staunch advocate for Activia yogurt. But then that's what she's shown to be so splendid at throughout her revealing and revitalizing career: balancing these many separate lives. It's enough to make anyone scream, but then Jamie Lee Curtis is also the queen of that.

Halloween (1978) / The Fog (1980)

The virginal high school babysitter with the homicidal, immortal brother; the hitchhiker with a past who's sure to put out. Jamie Lee Curtis is like an onion. As she progressed through the 80's we saw her shed layers... and eventually her layers.

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) / Blue Steel (1989)

A street-tough cop and undercover thief are both hard earned women's roles that transcend just just being topless. It's all about range, and Jamie's sensual and oft-victimized self takes some harder-edged turns. Not only is she playing the independent brains behind the operations, Jamie Lee proves she's a horror heroine, comedian and an action star! Maybe someone will have the sick humor to pair her with Arnold Schwarzenegger...

My Girl (1991)

But first come see the softer of side of Jamie Lee... Although it's easy to understand this little girl's suspicions. There's definitely some backstory there - especially obvious when Jamie Lee shows up at a funeral home in her camper trailer asking for a cosmetology job. Is she telling the truth? Lies?

True Lies (1994)

You don't marry Arnold Schwarzenegger in a movie and think all you're getting is a joint checking account. The jig is up: hubby's a secret agent and that mousy wife of his (Jamie Lee wears glasses!) has been sleeping with her own 007 on the side. But then we can understand why, given Jamie Lee's past. For one thing this new guy also lives in a trailer. Just peeling back the layers with Jamie Lee...

Freaky Friday (2003)

And I bet Jamie Lee Curtis's body is looking pretty good to Lindsay Lohan right about now... (Take that as you will.) Even if she needs to swap bodies with her daughter to gain perspective, Jamie Lee's found perfect balance when it comes to her body of work. She's managed to stay fearless and funny, taut and terrified. Her sparse appearances always remind me of why I loved her in the first place.


Few have managed to hold a horror film AND the sheer terror of the Disney summer movie. As organically as her career has unfolded, she's somehow kept that Hollywood legacy fresh. Either she's constantly swapping bodies with teenage girls or that Activia yogurt really does work wonders.

Signatures: "Career Counseling" Edition

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Fans of my "Signatures" series (crickets) should know I've made quite the non-career of summing up my favorite actresses in broad, minimizing strokes here at Film Experience. Well it didn't start here, folks! Pre-"Signatures" I made a couple posts that all but summed up the "Signature" splendors of stars Jodie Foster and Jennifer Connelly. It struck me that these were relevant now to the series since Jodie's consistently found whispering in quiet, enclosed areas, while Jennifer's usually found on the edge of a pier. You have to love career consistency.


So follow these main links for some early "Signatures" from these stunning but somber starlets. Think something like A&E's Biography meets... A&E's Intervention? All that history with a hefty dose of concern.

Signatures: Jodie Foster

The star of Inside Man is an indoor woman. Normally I'd call Jodie a brave one... if she wasn't agoraphobic or locked in her panic room. Jodie has a history of being holed up in confined spaces -- be it prison cells, basements, airplanes, tunnels, and spacecrafts specially designed to contact her own subconscious. Lately much of this is due to her being repeatedly (and sparsely) drawn to tight-knit thrillers that play on claustrophobic conflict. On-screen Jodie's presence is a breath of fresh air, but she's also desperately in need of one.

Signatures: Jennifer Connelly

Even when they're on uppers, Jennifer Connelly's characters can be total downers. Who can blame them with all that career drama? She started her talented but tragic filmography with her only friend a fruit fly, then onto college overrun by white supremacists, ass-to-ass with a heroin habit, several children nearly drowned, a messy marriage to a schizo mathematician... Then to find out he's just not that into you! Poor, poor, pier-bound Jennifer.


Let's have an intervention for Jodie and Jennifer in the comments. Remember, it's all said with love.

Signatures: Chloë Sevigny

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

Many actresses say the secret to an interesting career is working with great directors who know how to use their strengths. Chloë Sevigny's career has been dominated by work with some of filmmaking's finest, but even they don't always know quite what to do with her. Take the envious line-up of collaborators like Lars von Trier, Woody Allen, Harmony Korine, Jim Jarmusch, Olivier Assayas, and (still to come) Werner Herzog, and you understand why Chloë's a cinema-lover's darling. But then you also have to wonder why she's often relegated to the table scraps of screen time, and why her best role to date is only available once you contact your local cable provider.

Chloë Sevigny truly knows the weight of a secret.


Her Oscar-nominated breakthrough as Lana in Boys Don't Cry remains Chloë's most rewarding cinematic role to date; a sensitive Midwest beauty with her share of sensuality and secrets. Lana's dreams of being a karaoke superstar having mellowed in the local dive bars of drunk, deadbeat friends, until an even more secretive stranger, Brandon, stirs her passions once again. Lana carries the load of star-crossed first love and stifled small town idealism, with the added burden of Brandon's gender identity being tragically taboo in her one-note town. All that horror, heart, and eventual hope is captured in Chloë's quiet concern.

As if we weren't concerned enough after her disturbing debut as Jenny in Kids; traipsing across town, traumatized with the negative news that she's HIV-positive and that her infector's still on the prowl. Even by the film's scarring finale, Chloë's kept her inner turmoil to herself.

But I'll let you in on something... Chloë's haunting turn as Daisy in The Brown Bunny IS the film's secret -- the reason we've been watching Vincent Gallo drive around depressed for seventy minutes meeting girls named after flowers. His character's crux and (literal) climax all come back to Chloë. Her presence alone gives the film its momentary warmth, momentary bit of hardcore, and a final painful blow that justifies and replenishes all the lingered longing that's come before.


Which seems to have all been leading up to her tightly wound turn as Nikki Grant on HBO's Big Love -- Chloë's finest hour. Secrets are being ripped open left and right; the very least of which is her following the whole "married to one man and two (sometimes three) women" thing. Somewhere buried deep inside Chloë are so many untapped layers and mysteries just waiting to be unleashed -- if her filmmaking friends would just find the time to delve. Can't you just imagine reading that diary?!


Even if Chloë's keeping mum, you can still spill your own sociopathic secrets in the comments!

Signatures: Mia Farrow

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

I'm the wife, you know. I take care of the kids, I host the dinner parties, arrange the social schedule... Try to look pretty so your friends can admire your taste. I've become one of those women who shops all day and gets pedicures, but I want to be more. There's more to me.

-Alice

Mia Farrow really is extraordinary. A special talent who's almost always the exception in her films. Check your calendar - it's not every day you're selected to carry Satan's child. Mia's characters are often everyday women faced with great dilemmas and grandiose choices; not because she's equipped to handle them, but because she's really just better than us.

Rosemary Woodhouse is a perfect example. It's the singular role that would define much of Mia's early career... and a kicky new hairstyle. Born and bred a Catholic schoolgirl in Omaha, Rosemary couldn't be more enchanting and fresh-faced, so it's no wonder Satan took a second glance.


Scattered amongst Woody Allen's best works are some of Mia's finest and most exceptional women. It helps that her performances are cast with such a loving, graceful glow... at least for heft of their lengthy collaboration. Mia's often our sympathetic outsider, who's often the fixation of everyone outside her. Even when her characters are behaving badly, everyone's still drawn to her like a hyper-articulate and well-balanced magnet. Maybe it was Woody's feelings for her at the time, and maybe it's that Mia's strength lies in that everyday mystery.

Take for example her inoculated introspection via Chinese herbs in Alice that sends us through the looking glass of her mundane upper-crust existence. Only Mia could turn a bad trip into a total transformation from metropolitan mom into Mother Teresa. Mia should probably stop taking strange herbs from her on-screen counterparts, but we can rest assured something extraordinary will happen.


Her presence alone is magic. She's served as a mystical and revelatory alter-ego in Another Woman, the fourth wall in female form in The Purple Rose of Cairo... and being emotionally and financially stable was outstanding enough for Hannah and Her Sisters. Jon Cusack offered up $700 for just an hour alone with her! The woman's got powers.

Signatures: Edith Massey

Adam of Club Silencio here with another look at my favorite actresses and their distinguishing claims to fame.

She did know what she was doing. People thought she didn't. I remember when the Newsweek review came out of Polyester, it said that she either deserved the Oscar or a 24-hour nurse.

-John Waters

Unlike other actresses I've featured in "Signatures," Edith Massey's gifts were never based on her nuance or complexity. All the same she had a purity that was considerable to the impurity of her characters. In the hands of John Waters, performance is something else entirely, yet irrefutably perfect for his brand of cult comedy. Subversion is his specialty, and Edith never was a go-to glamour girl or bankable supporting lady. Snaggletoothed and eccentric, Edith was the most unassuming of comic geniuses. But give her a debutante gown, or a bra and crib, and she's happy to let her degradation deliver.

In fact Edith's delivery was always a bit like... delivery. Waters hired her as a local woman he'd known from a bar and thrift shop in Baltimore, and Edith never really strayed from that humble origin. She didn't necessarily deconstruct her dialogue by character motivation or dramatic beats, but by exaggerating her volume and experiencing memory lapse. Somehow the comedy was never lost or muddled, it was magnified - catapulted into classic status.


Waters' collaborations with Edith were very much collaborations, as he's often reminded of her unique take on life:

And Edie and I used to do this kind of date together, but we'd drive by car, and she would drive me crazy because she would say out loud every single thing she saw. We'd be driving along and she'd say, "Car, house, lawn, pretty lady, red car, telephone pole, lawn, lawn, lawn..." I said, "Edith!!" It was just... internalization was a concept she was very unfamiliar with.

For as often as Waters had her throw acid in people's faces, get married in eggs and a wheelbarrow, or gang rape then infect her family with rabies, I'm convinced we never lost sight of Edith's heart amidst the humiliation. She was more lovable for her flaws, and for her innocence in roles that were anything but. Edith has remained an unforgettable icon to outsiders and singular personalities; an unwitting movie star of the most deserving kind. She was the sort of legend befitting of cult cinema: big, bawdy and bewildering, but brilliant nonetheless.


By royal proclamation I claim today Backwards Day in honor of Edith Massey's signature splendor. She's learned to rule with dignity and remains for me a Queen of cult cinema. I love her like she loves eggs, and I miss her still.