In honor of Anderson’s recent Oscar wins, Moviefone is counting down every film Paul Thomas Anderson has ever directed from worst to best, including his latest.
(L to R) Emily Watson and Adam Sandler in ‘Punch-Drunk Love’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
A socially awkward and volatile small business owner (Adam Sandler) meets the love of his life (Emily Watson) after being threatened by a gang of scammers.
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘Phantom Thread’. Photo: Focus Features.
In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker’s (Daniel Day Lewis) meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse (Vickey Kreps) intensifies.
Philip Seymour Hoffman in ‘The Master’. Photo: The Weinstein Company.
Freddie (Joaquin Phoenix), a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), the charismatic leader of a new “religion” he forms after World War II.
(L to R) Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in ‘Licorice Pizza’. Photo: United Artists Releasing.
The story of Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana Kane (Alana Haim) growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father (Jason Robards), a young wife (Julianne Moore), a male caretaker (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), a famous lost son (Tom Cruise), a police officer (John C. Reilly) in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius (William H. Macy), a game show host (Phillip Baker Hall) and an estranged daughter (Melora Walters) will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.
Joaquin Phoenix in ‘Inherent Vice.’ Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterson).
The cast of ‘Boogie Nights’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams’ rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, “Dirk Diggler”. Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams’ dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.
Leonardo Di Caprio as Bob Ferguson in ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own. (Leonardo Di Caprio)
Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood’. Photo: Paramount Vantage.
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day Lewis), moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) suspects Plainview’s motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.
The (possibly) final chapter of his ‘Mission: Impossible’ series, entitled ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘, opens in theaters on May 23rd and in honor of the new release, Moviefone is counting down the 35 best movies of Tom Cruise’s career, including his latest!
(L to R) Tom Cruise and Bryan Brown in ‘Cocktail’. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.
After being discharged from the Army, Brian Flanagan (Cruise) moves back to Queens and takes a job in a bar run by Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), who teaches Brian the fine art of bar-tending. Brian quickly becomes a patron favorite with his flashy drink-mixing style, and Brian adopts his mentor’s cynical philosophy on life and goes for the money.
In ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,’ Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’s past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
Military cadets (Timothy Hutton, Sean Penn, Cruise) take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers.
Nathan Algren (Cruise) is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai’s way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
Tom Cruise in ‘Vanilla Sky.’ Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
David Aames (Cruise) has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia (Penélope Cruz), his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That’s just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
When two poor Greasers, Johnny (Ralph Macchio) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell), are assaulted by a vicious gang, the Socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.
A young man (Cruise) leaves Ireland with his landlord’s daughter (Nicole Kidman) after some trouble with her father (Robert Prosky), and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple’s money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman’s parents find out where she has gone and have come to America to find her and take her back.
A fugitive (Cruise and Cameron Diaz) couple goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.
(L to R) Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity — which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe — with the world’s governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan’s past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
After Dr. Bill Harford’s wife, Alice (Nicole Kidman), admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill (Cruise) becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings — and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.
Former pool hustler “Fast Eddie” Felson (Paul Newman) decides he wants to return to the game by taking a pupil. He meets talented but green Vincent Lauria (Cruise) and proposes a partnership. As they tour pool halls, Eddie teaches Vincent the tricks of scamming, but he eventually grows frustrated with Vincent’s showboat antics, leading to an argument and a falling-out. Eddie takes up playing again and soon crosses paths with Vincent as an opponent.
When Ethan Hunt (Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he’s surprised to learn that he’s the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
Tom Cruise in ‘Jack Reacher.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: “Get Jack Reacher!” So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher (Cruise) against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.
Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend while working with his new team to complete the mission.
Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by ‘The Firm’ and made an offer he doesn’t refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice – work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan…
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States. An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.
The biography of Ron Kovic (Cruise). Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.
Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle (Cruise) gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall) turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer (Michael Rooker) that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor (Nicole Kidman), Cole just might overcome his injuries– and his fear.
Ethan (Cruise) and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating ‘The Syndicate’, an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.
Meet Joel Goodson (Cruise), an industrious, college-bound 17-year-old and a responsible, trustworthy son. However, when his parents go away and leave him home alone in the wealthy Chicago suburbs with the Porsche at his disposal he quickly decides he has been good for too long and it is time to enjoy himself. After an unfortunate incident with the Porsche Joel must raise some cash, in a risky way.
Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.” Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father’s money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers’ cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
Jerry Maguire (Cruise) used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he’s really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), an egomaniacal football player.
Cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) picks up a man (Cruise) who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. lead an ensemble cast in ‘Tropic Thunder,’ an action comedy about a group of self-absorbed actors who set out to make the most expensive war film. After ballooning costs force the studio to cancel the movie, the frustrated director refuses to stop shooting, leading his cast into the jungles of Southeast Asia, where they encounter real bad guys.
Tom Cruise in ‘Minority Report.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
John Anderton (Cruise) is a top ‘Precrime’ cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they’re committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator (Colin Farrell) targets him for a murder charge.
Major Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again… and again – as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.
When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Cruise) and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore), are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson).
Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.
(L to R) Sylvester Stallone and Julianne Moore in ‘Assassins’. Photo: Warner Bros.
Assassin Robert Rath (Sylvester Stallone) arrives at a funeral to kill a prominent mobster, only to witness a rival hired gun (Antonio Banderas) complete the job for him — with grisly results. Horrified by the murder of innocent bystanders, Rath decides to take one last job and then return to civilian life. But finding his way out of the world of contract killing grows ever more dangerous as Rath falls for his female target (Moore) and becomes a marked man himself.
A young female embezzler (Anne Heche) arrives at the Bates Motel, which has terrible secrets of its own. Although this version is in color, features a different cast, and is set in 1998, it is closer to a shot-for-shot remake than most remakes, Gus Van Sant often copying Alfred Hitchcock‘s camera movements and editing, and Joseph Stefano‘s script is mostly carried over. Bernard Herrmann‘s musical score is reused as well, though with a new arrangement by Danny Elfman and recorded in stereo.
A comedy that follows the chaos that ensues when a meteor hits the Earth carrying alien life forms that give new meaning to the term “survival of the fittest.” David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott, and Julianne Moore are the only people standing between the aliens and world domination… which could be bad news for the Earth.
When he finds out his longtime girlfriend (Moore) is pregnant, a commitment-phobe (Hugh Grant) realizes he might have to change his lifestyle for better or much, much worse.
Las Vegas showroom magician Cris Johnson (Nicolas Cage) has a secret which torments him: he can see a few minutes into the future. Sick of the examinations he underwent as a child and the interest of the government and medical establishment in his power, he lies low under an assumed name in Vegas, performing cheap tricks and living off small-time gambling “winnings.” But when a terrorist group threatens to detonate a nuclear device in Los Angeles, government agent Callie Ferris (Moore) must use all her wiles to capture Cris and convince him to help her stop the cataclysm.
(L to R) Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore in 2013’s ‘Carrie’. Photo: Sony Pictures Releasing.
A reimagining of the classic horror tale about Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz), a shy girl outcast by her peers and sheltered by her deeply religious mother (Moore), who unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.
A suburban family chooses seemingly sweet Peyton Flanders (Rebecca De Mornay) as their newborn’s nanny. Only much later does the infant’s mother, Claire Bartel (Annabella Sciorra), realize Peyton’s true intentions — to destroy Claire and replace her in the family. The nail-biting suspense builds quickly in this chilling psychological thriller about deception and bitter revenge.
Bill Marks (Liam Neeson) is a burned-out veteran of the Air Marshals service. He views the assignment not as a life-saving duty, but as a desk job in the sky. However, today’s flight will be no routine trip. Shortly into the transatlantic journey from New York to London, he receives a series of mysterious text messages ordering him to have the government transfer $150 million into a secret account, or a passenger will die every 20 minutes.
The life of George Falconer (Colin Firth), a British college professor, is reeling with the recent and sudden loss of his longtime partner. This traumatic event makes George challenge his own will to live as he seeks the console of his close girl friend Charley (Moore), who is struggling with her own questions about life.
Julianne Moore in ‘Maps to the Stars’. Photo: Entertainment One Films.
Driven by an intense need for fame and validation, members of a dysfunctional Hollywood family are chasing celebrity, one another and the relentless ghosts of their pasts.
With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) confronts President Snow (Donald Sutherland) in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends – including Gale (Liam Hemsworth), Finnick (Sam Claflin), and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) – Katniss goes off on a mission with the unit from District 13 as they risk their lives to stage an assassination attempt on President Snow who has become increasingly obsessed with destroying her. The mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games.
Four years after Jurassic Park’s genetically bred dinosaurs ran amok, multimillionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) shocks chaos theorist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) by revealing that he has been breeding more beasties at a secret location. Malcolm, his paleontologist ladylove (Moore) and a wildlife videographer (Vince Vaughn) join an expedition to document the lethal lizards’ natural behavior in this action-packed thriller.
Wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife (Sela Ward) and sentenced to death, Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) escapes from the law in an attempt to find the real killer and clear his name.
(L to R) Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore in ‘Hannibal’. Photo: MGM Distribution Co.
After having successfully eluded the authorities for years, Hannibal (Anthony Hopkins) peacefully lives in Italy in disguise as an art scholar. Trouble strikes again when he’s discovered leaving a deserving few dead in the process. He returns to America to make contact with now disgraced Agent Clarice Starling (Moore), who is suffering the wrath of a malicious FBI rival as well as the media.
When an attack on the Kingsman headquarters takes place and a new villain rises, Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) are forced to work together with the American agency known as the Statesman to save the world.
Carol (Moore), a typical upper middle-class housewife, begins to complain of vague symptoms of illness. She “doesn’t feel right,” has unexplained headaches, congestion, a dry cough, nosebleeds, vomiting, and trouble breathing. Her family doctor treats her concerns dismissively and suggests a psychiatrist. Eventually, an allergist tells her that she has Environmental Illness.
Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot (Lily Tomlin) accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy’s grandfather tells his son, Howard (Bruce Davidson), about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy’s birthday cake.
(L to R) Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in ‘The Room Next Door’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) were close friends in their youth, when they worked together at the same magazine. Ingrid went on to become an autofiction novelist while Martha became a war reporter, and they were separated by the circumstances of life. After years of being out of touch, they meet again in an extreme but strangely sweet situation.
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple (Moore and Charles Melton) buckles under pressure when an actress (Natalie Portman) arrives to do research for a film about their past.
“The Hours” is the story of three women (Nicole Kidman, Moore, and Meryl Streep) searching for more potent, meaningful lives. Each is alive at a different time and place, all are linked by their yearnings and their fears. Their stories intertwine, and finally come together in a surprising, transcendent moment of shared recognition.
Alice Howland (Moore), happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
(L to R) Clive Owen and Julianne Moore in ‘Children of Men’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist (Clive Owen) agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman (Clare-Hope Ashitey) to a sanctuary at sea, where her child’s birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Two women, Nic (Annette Bening) and Jules (Moore), brought a son and daughter into the world through artificial insemination. When one of their children reaches age, both kids (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) go behind their mothers’ backs to meet with the donor (Mark Ruffalo). Life becomes so much more interesting when the father, two mothers and children start to become attached to each other.
Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) is living the American dream. He has a good job, a beautiful house, great children and a beautiful wife, named Emily (Moore). Cal’s seemingly perfect life unravels, however, when he learns that Emily has been unfaithful and wants a divorce. Over 40 and suddenly single, Cal is adrift in the fickle world of dating. Enter, Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), a self-styled player who takes Cal under his wing and teaches him how to be a hit with the ladies.
Jeffrey ‘The Dude’ Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston), a wheelchair-bound millionaire, and finds himself dragged into a strange series of events involving nihilists, adult film producers, ferrets, errant toes, and large sums of money.
Julianne Moore in ‘Boogie Nights’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
Set in 1977, back when sex was safe, pleasure was a business and business was booming, idealistic porn producer Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds) aspires to elevate his craft to an art form. Horner discovers Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a hot young talent working as a busboy in a nightclub, and welcomes him into the extended family of movie-makers, misfits and hangers-on that are always around. Adams’ rise from nobody to a celebrity adult entertainer is meteoric, and soon the whole world seems to know his porn alter ego, “Dirk Diggler”. Now, when disco and drugs are in vogue, fashion is in flux and the party never seems to stop, Adams’ dreams of turning sex into stardom are about to collide with cold, hard reality.
Philip Baker Hall, an actor for his hangdog expressions, gruff-but-kind demeanor, and undaunted acting ability, has died. He was 90.
Hall was born in Toledo, Ohio on September 30, 1931, served as a U.S. Army translator in Germany and worked as a high school teacher before trying his hand at acting. He didn’t in fact, give performing a shot until he was 30 years old.
After building a career on the New York stage, he relocated to Los Angeles and made his big-screen debut with an uncredited role in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1970 film ‘Zabriskie Point.’
He also spent years as a guest star on shows such as ‘Good Times’ and ‘M*A*S*H,’ Hall but drew widespread notice on the stage for his performance as disgraced former President Nixon in the 1983 one-man play ‘Secret Honor’ at the Los Angeles Actors’ Theatre. He reprised the role on stage in Boston, Washington and off-Broadway, where he earned a Drama Desk nomination, and on the big screen in Robert Altman’s 1984 feature film adaptation.
His work continued steadily through the 1908s, as Hall had supporting roles in ‘Ghostbusters II,’ ‘Say Anything’ and ‘Midnight Run,’ on the big screen and ‘Miami Vice,’ ‘Benson’ and ‘Family Ties’ on TV.
(L to R) Philip Baker Hall and Larry David on HBO’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’
Hall proved equally adept at drama and comedy, appearing in nearly 200 film and television projects, as well as more than 100 roles in the theater throughout his six-decade career. Continuing to work late into his life, even as he required an oxygen tank at times due to his health issues, he made memorable appearances in a variety of movies films including several for Paul Thomas Anderson: ‘Hard Eight’, ‘Boogie Nights’ and ‘Magnolia’, plus the likes of ‘Bruce Almighty,’ ‘Zodiac’, as a CIA director in ‘Argo’ and as a cranky neighbor Walt Kleezak on the ABC sitcom ‘Modern Family’.
He famously showed up on ‘Seinfeld’ as a hard-boiled detective pursuing a 20-year-overdue library book, lambasting Jerry, and drawing new fans to his work. It was such a success that he returned for the series finale. And he went on to appear on ‘Seinfeld’ co-creator Larry David’s ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
“So sad to hear that we’ve lost the great Philip Baker Hall,” director Greg Mottola said on Twitter. “I had the sublime pleasure of working with him twice. A fantastic actor, a lovely man, and nobody made Larry David break on camera as much as Phil. RIP”
Holly Wolfle Hall, the actor’s wife of nearly 40 years, on Monday said Hall died Sunday surrounded by loved ones in Glendale, California. Hall had apparently been well until a few weeks earlier, and spent his final days in warm spirits, reflecting on his life.
“His voice at the end was still just as powerful,” said Wolfle Hall, remarking that he’d never retired from acting.
He’s a huge loss to the community and to the world in general, and he’ll be sorely missed.
Say it ain’t so, Chip and Jo! Home improvement superstars Chip and Fixer Upper” will be ending after its upcoming fifth season.
The couple made the announcement on their blog on Tuesday, where they wrote that the decision to wrap the series was theirs alone. They explained that they ultimately decided to pull the plug because they wanted to devote more time to their kids and to their many businesses, from their hometown base of Waco, Texas. In a video message, the couple called “Fixer Upper” “the opportunity of a lifetime,” and said they were “honored” that so many viewers had “invited us into your living rooms.”
“Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for letting our family become a part of your family,” Chip said in the video. “The experience has been like nothing we could have ever predicted, never would have imagined in a million years.”
The Gaineses — along with their four kids — shot to fame thanks to the popularity of the HGTV series, which features the couple renovating houses for other growing families. According to People, “Fixer Upper” was an immediate success when it debuted in May 2013, and is the highest-rated show in HGTV’s history.
Despite that success, the couple explained on their blog that this was the best time to walk away.
“While we are confident that this is the right choice for us, it has for sure not been an easy one to come to terms with,” they wrote. “Our family has grown up alongside yours, and we have felt you rooting us on from the other side of the screen. How bittersweet to say goodbye to the very thing that introduced us all in the first place.”
The couple added that season five was “the perfect finale to this amazing journey we’ve been on.” It’s set to debut on HGTV sometime in November.
When Epix was planning a fresh, episodic take on “Get Shorty,” novelist Elmore Leonard’s classic collision of the mob and Hollywood, that takes a somewhat darker, grittier turn than the famous 1995 film starring John Travolta, the show needed a leading man who handle both the serious and the sillier aspects.
Best known for his winning turns in films like “Girls” and the Irish sitcom “Moone Boy,” which he created, wrote, produced, directed and starred in, O’Dowd has deftly straddled comedy and drama before. But his role as Miles Daly, a low-level mob enforcer with a lyrical love of cinema who finds himself pursuing his Hollywood dreams with a script penned by one of his bosses’ debtors, taps all of his inherent likability and his potentially dangerous side at once.
O’Dowd joined Moviefone to reflect on his own adventures navigating the sometimes perilous pathways of the showbiz world, as well as revealing the unlikely way he recently found himself — and his dog — going Hollywood.
Moviefone: I love this project for you because it’s the light and the dark, and I think that you do both very well. Is that something that you were looking for? Something that you still got to be funny but that gave you a little bit more of a dramatic bite?
Chris O’Dowd: I think that’s probably right, for a long-term thing. I could happily go into something that was pure dark or pure comedy if it were a movie. I just couldn’t have gone and done a sitcom, or I couldn’t really have gone on to a dark show forever.
I’ve always been intimidated by doing American TV because it’s such a long commitment, so it has to be something that I feel like it can use all your little skills, but also it’s something that people haven’t seen you do before. So it took a lot of moxie — it did!
I didn’t ever think that that combination of things would come in a “hard man” character, because that’s not something I’ve ever been drawn to or that people see me as. But it’s kind of interesting doing it. It’s tricky to be still. And not always looking for the funniest version of a line is actually something that I’ve had to learn.
Now that you’re getting your handle on it, are your instincts telling you to go for the funny, but for this it’s like, “No — dial it back. Dial it back.”
It’s fun to watch it back. While I’m doing it at the moment, while in the scene, it feels … it’s hard. It’s like being at the buffet table and not taking anything.
You’re working with Ray Romano, another guy who has done that exact same balancing act lately. What have you been able to pick up from seeing somebody who can be as funny as Ray is but also knows when to veer away from it and into the dramatic?
Genuinely, I think that Ray is a probably much more naturally funny guy than I am anyway. He’s got a lovely quality to him. He picks his moments and he can afford, in his role, to be the guy to also do the button on the scene and it plays a lot better than if I were to do it. But you can see him pick his moments and he’s very present in all the moments.
I’ve always found that working with comedy people anyway, because they’re always looking for the funniest version of a line, they’re very much there all the time because they’re hoping to get a cue for a gag. But it means that they’re always very available emotionally in the scene, and he’s great at that. He never switches off.
I love the “Get Shorty” philosophy of how, for some people, Hollywood is an easy thing to crack, because they see it as a scam they can play. Whereas more than half the people that come to Hollywood tell you, “It’s so hard. It’s such a struggle.” What was your experience like when you first got here? Did it feel hard or did you feel like, “I think I understand this system”?
I thought it was fairly straightforward when I got here. One of the things that drew me to the character was “Oh, bluntness works well here.” Not entirely bullsh*tting people all the time is actually quite an attractive commodity.
You go on an awful lot of general meetings, and I never tried to behave like a slick operator, really. I generally told stories about dates I’ve been going on and it seemed to work well. And I didn’t come here looking for work. I came here because I got a job for the first time. I had auditioned for a pilot for the BBC and learned, when I got called for it in L.A., that it was actually for NBC, so I came here by accident, and to work. So I didn’t need anything off anybody, which is a great way to come to LA. And then when you’re suddenly in that position, people want things from you, which changes the power dynamic entirely.
But I’ve always found L.A. can be quite brutal but it’s interesting and straightforward. Honesty actually goes further than people would imagine it does, because it’s so unusual.
Tell me a little bit about culture shock: the Hollywood/L.A. way of doing things that truly mystified you when you got here, and then the things that you now catch yourself doing, going, “That’s so L.A. And I’m so L.A.”
Oh, f*ck! Yeah. I left my dog in to get his a** squeezed the other day. You know this thing that they do? I’d never heard about it in my life. But, apparently, dogs have to get their glands … and my wife’s like, “The dog needs to get his glands done, his a** glands done at the parlor,” or whatever. That’s the most f*cking L.A. thing I’ve ever heard!
Other culture shock stuff I’m always surprised by: all the party stuff is always kind of weird to me. It’s never a thing that I’ve gotten into. Goodie bags that cost more than my first car, all of that — or even my last car.
I don’t find it as odd a place as a lot of people, I think. Even though it’s very different from where I grew up, people are people. There’s a lot more lawyers here so there’s a lot more sh*t talk. And there’s way too many lawyers making creative decisions, which is how you end up with the movie business in the toilet. So there’s a lot of people creating jobs for themselves because they want to live here, and so there is some of that. Once you see that, then it’s kind of like you’re in “The Matrix.”
Have you bumped up against any of the shady figures in Los Angeles? The guys that your character would be associated with?
Well, a lot of the studio execs who would do anything for success, [but] not so much. I’ve been fairly well sheltered. But I’ve certainly encountered my very fair share of bullsh*tters.
And I guess Miles works as a character because he’s able to cut through and to recognize it because he’s used to being lied to in his own profession by people who always owe his boss money and will have it next week.
Say it ain’t so, Chip and Jo! Home improvement superstars Chip and Fixer Upper” will be ending after its upcoming fifth season.
When Epix was planning a fresh, episodic take on “Get Shorty,” novelist Elmore Leonard’s classic collision of the mob and Hollywood, that takes a somewhat darker, grittier turn than the famous