Adrien Brody, Posterized

Oscar winner Adrien Brody is back in theaters with Predators (i.e. Predators 5: A Reboot??? I don't know. I don't follow these things) and it arrives so shortly after his last sci-fi effort Splice... why not feature him? We never discuss him and isn't there plenty to discuss. As in WTF with his career? I can't include all 35 movies so I thought we'd pick up just where things got interesting.

Though he's had his share of straight to DVD or barely released indies over the years, he actually started off with quite a few classy projects with the likes of Steven Soderbergh (King of the Hill) and Francis Ford Coppola (New York Stories). He reportedly expected Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line (1998) to be his film-carrying breakthrough but Malick's film was so fluid in the telling that many famous actors were entirely deleted in the final cut and Brody's part was drastically reduced. The film ended up being a breakthrough showcase for Jim Caviezel instead. Though really, let's be honest, the star of all of Malick's movies is Malick himself.

But Brody's reputation as a quality actor was growing all the time and acclaimed directors like Spike Lee, Barry Levinson and Ken Loach were next...

Summer of Sam (99) | Liberty Heights (99) | Bread and Roses (00)

Love the Hard Way (01) | Affair of the Necklace (01) | Dummy (02)

The Pianist (02) | The Singing Detective (03) | The Village (04)

The Jacket (05) | King Kong (05) | Hollywoodland (06)

Darjeeling Limited (07) | Brothers Bloom (08) | Cadillac Records (08)

Giallo (09) | Splice (10) | Predators (10)

Summer of Sam (1999), an undervalued Spike Lee joint, was a minor turning point, wasn't it? It was impossible not to notice him, his fine performance being all tautly tangled up in spikey punk hair and lanky sex worker physique (Why was everyone surprised by the muscles in King Kong and then again in Predators? Collective amnesia.) His mainstream peak was obviously mashing on Halle Berry when he won the Oscar for The Pianist in spring 2003.

But since then...

Dire choices? Lack of support from the right people in Hollywood? Bad luck? The stars not lining up correctly? Drifting interest (I'm sure all the modelling pays well)? Or are things going just fine... no cause for alarm?

How many have you seen? And, aside from The Pianist, what's your favorite in from his Brody of work?

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P.S. Because it's so funny, let's end with BRODYQUEST [thanks, Nick]


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