Marisa has added her funny and interesting answers to the movie questionnaire. Like John Cusack says in High Fidelity – often you can find out all you need to know about a person based on their taste in movies, books, and music.
Also – anybody who references Happy Texas as one of the funniest movies ever made is okay by me. I can’t believe I forgot to put that one on my list! LOVE that movie and the first time I saw it I laughed so hard I had to stop the tape and get myself together.
I can’t even talk about Steve Zahn in Happy Texas. I’m just not ready yet. Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. I think that will be the name of my firstborn. Even if it’s a girl.
I’m not ready yet!
hahahaha I KNOW, right? It’s one of the funniest performances I have ever seen. hands down.
I think Happy Texas is the film equivalent of “The Perfect Storm”. William H. Macy. Steve Zahn. Illena Douglas. Ron Perlman. Little girls in a beauty pageant in a small Texas town. Mistaken Identity gags. A gay small-town sheriff in a movie that is completely gay-friendly and not using it as a crappy homophobic joke. And Jeremy Northam is really cute and earnest. And William H. Macy is beautiful and brilliant.
I mean, Steve Zahn plays a convict named Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. who poses as a gay man and trains little girls to compete in a pageant AND how to throw a punch. There is nothing better in the world than watching Steve Zahn play Wayne. It’s like heaven in your living room.
I’m such a comic actor groupie. I’m in love with Steve Zahn because he makes me laugh. sigh. SO watching that movie this weekend.
Totally right about the gay-friendly nature of it. I was afraid to see it because it sounded homophobic – but it never went down that path.
how about Jeremy Northam pretending to be gay and going on a date with “Chappy” – I swear, I am laughing out loud just typing that.
“I had to tell him I didn’t kiss on the first date – that I’m not that kind of boy …”
as Steve Zahn suffers like a martyr over the sewing machine.
Brilliant movie.
And yes. jeremy Northam is totally hot. I even love his on-again off-again American accent. It’s awesome. You can so tell he’s not American but it doesn’t matter because he’s funny and also hot.
Him two-stepping with William Macy – GENIUS!
wayne wayne wayne jr. hahahahahaha
How about his first attempt at a dance routine – totally off the cuff – flinging himself about – as Iliana and the little girls look on, horrified?
Oh God, he’s so good. I need to see that movie NOW.
“Look, gay may be easy for you, Rock Hudson, but I’ve got heter…hetero…er, ‘not gay’ written all over me.”
And Macy’s face when Northam finally snaps and calls him “bug eyes” … Oh, it’s a heart-crack moment. It’s not played for laughs – it’s quite horrible. member that?
When he was so heartbroken…oh my GOD. Yes. And Harry just feels terrible. You can see it. But it’s okay. He finds love with Ron Perlman in the end.
Genius. “That’s one big-dicked sheriff.”
With Steve Zahn thrown in the back of the cop car – still calling out instructions to the little girls as he’s carted off to jail.
Wow, she loves Vincent D’Onofrio, too! All hail the Blurby Man!
Seriously, that dude is just sex on a stick — a big lumpy half-crazy stick.
Hahaha. Or when Northam and Zahn end up being like a married couple. Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. is lecturing him about always being gone while he’s trying to sew sparkles on little hearts…worrying that the girl doing the flaming baton act was going to go up in flames like a Buddhist monk.
I’m dying!! Yes, he’s like this aggrieved harried housewife …
How about his “prayer” before one of their rehearsals? Doesn’t he swear?
I can’t remember now. I am so watching this when I get home.
I love that moment with one of the little girls when she gets in a fight and he starts to lecture her. At first you think he’s going to preach about the perils of fighting, but he winds up giving her lessons on her right hook or whatever. Then he offers her a cigarette. “Don’t smoke. Thanks.”
I love how he just LOVES the girls, eventually. Like he’s this hardened criminal and yet at first – he has never seen anything more frightening than 15 little girls staring at him, waiting for him to teach them. And eventually, he is just in love with all of them.
But it never feels inappropriate – imagine how weird that could have been.
I also love how he awakens poor Ileana Douglas’ sexuality. hahahahahaha
Yeah, I thought he played that transition perfectly, too. It wasn’t forced or anything. And that utterly clueless look he gets on his face all the time. It’s kind of hard to make a character that’s a violent moron likeable, but he totally did.
Wayne Wayne Wayne Jr. Prayer:
“Okay, God, just… want you to look down on these girls here. They’re like little flowers, and the rain you send ’em gutta be gentle and sweet. We come to you today, and we ask you to just… help ’em – help us grab this pageant by the balls and rip ’em off! I mean, if those judges don’t like us, then screw ’em. These girls here – they’re talented, they’re pretty, and if those judges say anything different, then I hope that on Judgement Day you put their asses through a meat grinder!… Amen.”
He loves those little girls. And I love him for it.
And yes, I ADORE Vincent D’Onofrio. KING of the blurby men. He is pretty much the sexiest man alive and I genuinely also love him for his brain. And his sweet, manly face. and he’s like 6’4″. And he has a history of throwing himself into projects and producing things that would never get made without him. And he’s always different, “The Human Chameleon”. hmm. I need to write something about this.
Marisa – his prayer! I am shaking with laughter. Grab it by the balls?? hahahaha But yes – he loves them and the thought of them not getting a prize makes him MAD.
I loved Vincent in Household Saints, and also Mystic River.
Anyone see Ed Wood? I LOVE that movie – and he has a cameo as Orson Welles. He’s great.
Oops – Mystic PIZZA, I mean. I loved him – also, it’s such a Mystic type. I grew up close to Mystic and guys like that are everywhere. He got it so perfectly.
Love him in Mystic Pizza. Mad about Lili Taylor, too. I remember I was just aching for him to get a clue and them to work things out because sure his character’s a doofus but he’s a big sweet palooka of a doofus.
After I watch Happy Texas again, THEN I’m having a Vincent D’Onofrio film festival weekend.
And where does “Blurby” come from? Because I had never heard it before you used it, Sheila, and of course you see that and KNOW exactly what it means. And it’s spot on. But is that a you thing? Or does it have other origins?
Actually – the correct term is blurpy. Not blurby. hahahaha “Blurpy” is actually from my friend Ann Marie – who was describing a guy she was totally into to me and she said, searching for the right words, “His body is kind of ….” (searching, searching) … “blurpy?” Then immediately she was like, “He would be so bummed out if he knew I had said that – but I love his body!”
So BLURPY it was. Forevermore.
And yes – Vincent is a perfect example of a blurpy guy. Yum!!
Big, meaty, NOT fat, but with a bit of pudge.
Liev Schrieber too is blurpy (and don’t even get me started on the smokin’ hotness of that guy. I was at a party a while ago and he was there and I couldn’t even talk to him because I have been in lust with him for EVER. I could not deal with him.) He’s not classically good-looking but he’s confident and sexy – and funny and smart … he’s KILLER. He’s starring in Bogosian’s Talk Radio right now in New York – and I really want to go see it.
BLURPY GUYS RULE.
Oops! Well Blurpy – with the correct spelling – is now permanently in my personal lexicon.
It’s the blurpy thing combined with the smart / confident and not hot but good looking in that way that has massive character kind of thing… that whole package just gets me. Liev Schrieber is an excellent example. Vince Vaughn seems to fit the bill. Hmm…
I will take the recommendation to see it not only b/c of what everybody’s saying here but also b/c anyone who has seen “Strictly Ballroom” more than 10x (Marisa) has to know what she’s talking about. I love that movie and the end always makes me scream/cheer! :)
Oh Kate it is so so funny and has a really good heart, too.
And YES about Strictly Ballroom!!!
Haha! I never thought I would get whatever the film buff equivalent of street cred is for my obsession with Strictly Ballroom. I DO love that movie, though.
I just found out that Tara Morice (Fran) is the woman singing on the cover of “Time After Time” that they play during the absolutely wonderful dancing on the roof scene. I love that. I don’t know how or why that ended up being the case but I was tickled to find that out. One of my all-time favorite films.