Two Sheets to the Wind: Top Five John Cusack Movies

Next weekend sees the release of John Cusack’s latest movie, the Roland Emmerich epic actioner 2012. I’ve already heard some bad things about it. And here lies the problem with this week’s top five. John Cusack is one of my favourite actors of all time. He’s quirky, personable and can carry great dramatic weight without being overly sentimental. And then he goes and makes the abysmal America’s Sweethearts, War, Inc. or Must Love Dogs. His choice of roles is very inconsistent. So, we’ve decided to dip into the mire to pull out the best of John Cusack.

There’s a few films I’m going to leave out and with reason. Stand By Me is an incredible film, but it’s not a John Cusack movie. His role was supporting at best. The same goes for the excellent Broadcast News. Similarly, I hummed and hawed over leaving Con Air off my list. It’s a brilliant action film and Cusack’s small role actually adds both humour and heart to the movie, but it is a small role, too small for it to be considered a Cusack film. I’m open to debate on these points.

Darren’s Top Five John Cusack Movies

5. High Fidelity (2000)

“John Dillinger was killed behind that theater in a hale of FBI gunfire. And do you know who tipped them off? His fucking girlfriend. All he wanted to do was go to the movies.”

Cusack was a staple of 80′s teen movies. Highlights being The Sure Thing, Better Off Dead, Sixteen Candles and Say Anything, but it was only when he grew up a bit that I really started to appreciate his acting prowess. I think the world first really took notice of him when he played the role of Rob Gordon in Stephen Frear’s High Fidelity, based on Nick Hornby’s book. He’s passionate and funny playing a music enthusiast who looks back over his previous failed relationships in order to discover what went wrong. It’s a rom-com for blokes. 

4. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

“Yes, but that’s because you’re a genius. And the proof is that both common people and intellectuals find your work completely incoherent. Means you’re a genius.”

Woody Allen’s comedy crime drama is Allen at his best and most innovative. Cusack’s role as the initially idealistic young playwright, David Shayne, is pitch perfect. With an incredible supporting cast including Jennifer Tilly and Chazz Palminteri (who were both Oscar nominated for their roles) and Dianne Wiest (who won the Oscar), Allen’s script is sharp and quick and Cusack is given the opportunity to shine.

3. Max (2002)

“You’re an awfully hard man to like, Hitler, but I’m gonna try. Because if I’ve learned anything over the past four years, it’s that we all shit the same, scream the same, and die the same.”

Max is a fictional drama about the friendship between a Jewish art dealer, Max Rothman, played by Cusack, and a young German painter, Adolf Hitler, played by Noah Taylor. The film explores Hitler’s views which began to take shape after World War I, while also studying the artistic and design implications of the Third Reich and how their visual appeal helped hypnotize the German people. Cusack is cocky, flamboyant and morally questionable throughout. I may have two films ahead of Max on this list, but I think this is John Cusack’s best performance.

2. Being John Malkovich (1999)

“There’s a tiny door in my office, Maxine. It’s a portal and it takes you inside John Malkovich. You see the world through John Malkovich’s eyes… and then after about 15 minutes, you’re spit out… into a ditch on the side of The New Jersey Turnpike.”

Well, that quote pretty much sums up the film. Crazy doesn’t come close to describing this movie that was probably the most original and surprising pieces of film I had ever seen when I first watched it 10 years ago. Cusack is a nervous oddball as the main protagonist, Craig, while Cameron Diaz gives the finest acting performance of her career. It’s an incredible and unique film – if you’ve not seen it, go get it now.

1. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

“You’re a handsome devil. What’s your name?”

“Some people say forgive and forget. Nah, I don’t know. I say forget about forgiving and just accept. And… get the hell out of town.”

“It’s not me.”

Yeah, there’s never been an easier choice for the number one spot for me. Grosse Pointe is my all tie favourite movie. I love it and I have watched it multiple times every year since its 1997 release. The offbeat comedy about a hitman going to his high school reunion is a ‘perfect film’. By this, I mean there is not a single second I would alter in any way. Every character, every line, every song (in the incredible soundtrack) and every tiny nuance is perfectly judged and timed to create a film that I cannot find flaw with.

Honourable Mentions: The Road to Wellville, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Pushing Tin, Identity, Runaway Jury, 1408.

Lottie’s Top Five John Cusack Movies

I sometimes get the impression that Cusack falls into a lot of roles because he was too kind to say no and thus has been in some unfortunate titles in recent years. However , he has a certain je ne sais quoi that sets his apart from his more generic counterparts. I’m dubious about 2012 because I do not believe that his strength is as a action hero character. Having said that, my number 5 is…

5. Con Air (1997)

“Where are you going with my plane, Cyrus?”

Yes, a small role but a memorable one all the same.  He adds that dash of sarcasm and normality to what is otherwise an OTT cast of Cage’s “Streetcar-esque” Cameron Poe and Malkovich’s oh-so-evil evil genius Cyrus ‘The Virus’ Grissom.

4. Serendipity (2001)

Jonathan Trager, prominent television producer for ESPN, died last night from complications of losing his soul mate and his fiancee. He was 35 years old. Soft-spoken and obsessive, Trager never looked the part of a hopeless romantic. But, in the final days of his life, he revealed an unknown side of his psyche. This hidden quasi-Jungian persona surfaced during the Agatha Christie-like pursuit of his long reputed soul mate, a woman whom he only spent a few precious hours with. Sadly, the protracted search ended late Saturday night in complete and utter failure. Yet even in certain defeat, the courageous Trager secretly clung to the belief that life is not merely a series of meaningless accidents or coincidences. Uh-uh. But rather, its a tapestry of events that culminate in an exquisite, sublime plan. Asked about the loss of his dear friend, Dean Kansky, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and executive editor of the New York Times, described Jonathan as a changed man in the last days of his life. “Things were clearer for him,” Kansky noted. Ultimately Jonathan concluded that if we are to live life in harmony with the universe, we must all possess a powerful faith in what the ancients used to call “fatum”, what we currently refer to as destiny.”

You can’t have a John Cusack top-movies list without having at least one Romantic Comedy in there and Serendipity is a very sweet lovely romance, leagues better than anything the Anistons or Vaughans of the world have lashed out in the past years. The above quote says it all really.

3. Identity (2003)

“When I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, I wish, I wish he’d go away.”

Inspired by my favourite Agatha Christie novel, And Then There Were None, Identity is the tale of ten strangers who, due to a storm are stuck at a motel in the middle of Nevada. Soon they realize they may be at the motel for another reason when one by one, people start getting killed off. Cusack is at his best in this type of role in which his character may not be all that it seems (1408 and Grosse Pointe Blank.)

2. High Fidelity (2000)

“Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”

The ultimate Rom-Com for boys, High Fidelity is a male-perspective confessional about being an adult-but not acting like one.

Rob Gordon (Cusack) is a thirty-something music fanatic in the throes of a difficult breakup with his girlfriend. In an effort to discover himself and find out where he has gone wrong in the world of love, Rob creates a list of the ex-girlfriends who qualify as his Top Five Worst Breakups, then tracks them down one by one…hilarity and awkward moments ensue. If you come away with anything from this Hornby adaptation, is how to make a great mix-tape.

1. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

“I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How;ve you been?”

It’s only partly true that I was forced to put GPB in #1 position or face being exiled by Darren…only partly.

This 1997 80′s tribute is simply a movie like no other and is indeed a contender in any “Best Movies List” not merely a countdown of Cusack movies. Witty, hilarious and rambunctious and just the right amount of dark. It’s also the only Minnie Driver movie I like. GPB is a film you will want to watch over and over again.

Honourable Mentions: Pushing Tin (1999) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), Sixteen Candles (1984), 1408 (2007), Being John Malkovich (1999)

**Being John Malkovich isn’t on my list, not because I don’t think that it is a spectacular movie (clearly it is) but it’s not one that I have watched over and over (and over) again**