Top Ten: Great Jennifer Jason Leigh Movie Moments

Craig here. I've been given free reign on this week's Tuesday Top Ten. So, to keep it Actressexual I thought I'd offer up Ten Great Jennifer Jason Leigh moments. Here are some choice (short) cuts from the career of Ms. Leigh. They're in no order (chronological or preferential) and I've referred to Jennifer as JJL because, well, it saves time. Where's Margot at the Wedding? Where's The Anniversary Party? Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Synechdoche, New York, A Thousand Acres or The Machinist? Well, Nathaniel spoke about these and more in his interview with JJL a few years back. We're keen on avoiding any overlap.

1. Amy Archer, by Proxy: Goooooooo Eagles!!! JJL trying to avoid letting on that she's not really a Muncie girl at heart in The Hudsucker Proxy. She takes parodic period comedy to a higher level - not counting the Mezzanine.

2. The Mansfield Method: I'm sure we'd all shudder if I were to mention the words Tramps + Tralala + Back of a Car. But it's not that scene - although it was horrifically memorable for the sheer force of willpower with which JJL played it. In my view, just a tiny amount of genius was excreted when JJL played Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn. She's known to be Method on occasion - and some folk often balk at the Method Actor's over-rehearsal routine - but Tralala is exemplary evidence of how well Method can be harnessed in service of a role in an integral way. JJL didn't want to merely walk in the way she thought a 1950's hooker would - she supposed that Tralala would've walked the way Jayne Mansfield walked, since it was likely that someone in Talala's position would've wanted to emulate a then-screen icon to colour-up her own sense of self. So Tralala strutted thusly. Any time she sashays in or out of a scene you can see the results of her research bawdily trotted on the screen.

She, Jayne: JJL leads the Brooklyn charge

3. CSI: Crime Scene Intercourse: After reading Backdraft's script, JJL apparently had a word in director Ron Howard's shell-like that she 'wished she'd played the fire because it has the best part'. Girl's got a point. Who didn't go to see Backdraft to witness the spectacular immolation of a multitude of buildings? (Well, they did make a theme park attraction out of it.) JJL has claimed that she always trys to avoid straight-up wife/girlfriend roles for the sake of it, and if I'm not mistaken it was said pretty much after she starred in this. Maybe getting to grips with William Baldwin's fireman's pole atop a fire engine didn't quite cut it. But that scene was as memorable as it was dafter than a bag of cats.

4. "Sister" Act: Sinister act, more like. Lonely White Nutjob Hedy Carlson makes creative use of her spiked high heel in Single White Female. Footwear-based murdering aside, I was fully behind JJL in the film. She was much more fun to root for than Bridget Fonda's dull heroine. The film's like a style make-over lesson for psychos.

I doubt Hedy's track record at pet ownership is too reliable

5. Sister Act 2: Back on the Habit:"Take me back, take me back, take me back, take me back, take me back, take me back, take me BACK!" For the love of God, someone take her back. JJL's uninterrupted 8½-minute version of Van Morrison's 'Take Me Back' in 1995's Georgia was an audio endurance test/sublime depiction of raw vocal emotion [delete as appropriate]: those that love her (I count myself in this number) may well have liked to sit through another 8½-minutes (hang on, I don't love her that much); those that don't may have wanted to issue a fatwa upon Georgia's editor's head. This moment is unavailable to view outside of the film itself (due to some daft Van-instigated copyright business) but here - and just as memorable - is soulful sister Sadie Flood telling us she's gonna have no more Hard Times

6. The Ballad of Dorothy Parker: Of course I love me some JJL. But I've always been a fervent Dorothy Parker devotee, too. Imagine my joy, back in '94, on hearing that the former was to play the latter. (If you can't imagine that, and why would you, I'll simply say that I almost imploded with favourite female icon overload.) Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, or What Does One Have to Do to Exactly to Get an Oscar Nod Around Here?, was full to the brim of acidic put-downs and delightful quips, as was DP's MO. And here we get two of Parker's delicious bon mots, delivered in true derisory fashion, for the price of one: one being a barbed recitation of her eight-line poem Résumé, the other... well just watch the clip. Ouch, catty.

Drugs cause cramp? But sitting awkwardly will give you terrible posture Dotty.

7. Just a small hitch...: I'll bet that JJL's waitress Nash regretted downing the dishcloths and ditching diner life for a jaunt on the open road with C. Thomas Howell's lanky drifter in The Hitcher. Should she have gone? Should she have stayed? Oh, these decisions just tear you apart, don't they?

8. gAmeZ-R-uZ: Death to Videodrome! Long live The New flesh!... Oops, I mean, Death to the demoness Allegra Geller! Yes that. And long live eXistenZ! Hurrah. I think of this film every time I have to remove the giblets from a chicken at Sunday lunch (though I stop short of attempting to make a bone-gun out of its innards - I don't think my other half would appreciate a wishbone to the face). And I also think of this film every time I think about JJL and David Cronenberg. Which is a lot. If you haven't seen it, go and see Inception for a quick reminder; better still - watch the film itself. Two moments here: when Allegra gets out of the game ("Have I won? Have I won the game?"); and when we're not quite sure whether she has or whether she hasn't. ("Hey, tell me the truth... are we still in the game?")

Game playerZ Law and JJL

9. Cutting the call short: When most stay-at-home moms are cradling a phone receiver in one hand and a baby in the other they're probably having a much-needed chinwag with a friend. Short Cuts' Lois Kaiser, on the other hand, is a staunch multi-tasker. Verbally assisting a stranger to get his rocks off is as much part of her day as changing nappies. Chris Penn wasn't so keen, mind you.

For once, JJL hangs up so she can hang out.

10. After Birth of a Notion: JJL plays performance artist Lydia Johnson in Christopher Guest's movie-making spoof The Big Picture. In the film Guest and Leigh cheekily extract the urine out of performance art, turning it into a daft mockery of the strained seriousness that can all too often be found in the fine art world. Those who didn't think JJL had an aptitude for comedy should watch this clip. Mad and, indeed, cap.

* The main picture up top is a bonus moment, #11. JJL as Pauline in In the Cut: wandering around a garden in the morning, filling her head with beautiful thoughts - before she went and lost it.

Are there any moments I've missed that y'all like? Or are these enough for one day thankyouplease?

Beauty Break: Nicole Kidman

I've never been one to collect memorabilia, stills or autographs. But if I did I'd surely have a stash to represent my Kidmania. So happy 43rd to the Oscar winner.

all photos from this great website

In addition to that Trespass picture which sounds like a disaster, Kidman will soon be doing an HBO picture called Hemingway & Gellhorn. I smell Emmy nomination.

Here are arguably my six favorite pictures of Nicole from the past six years. Arguably because I argue with myself, don't you? Argue with yourself, not me, I mean.

random photo shoot, 2007

promoting Margot at the Wedding with Jennifer Jason Leigh in 2007

With Baz, her best iconographer, in 2008

random photo shoots from 2005 & 2007

<--- a 2006 photoshoot. I wish I knew the photographer's name.

Fansites like the great Nicole's Magic are a godsend. Visit them! I wish all actresses had fansites this devoted. It's easy to find similarly strong sites for other mega-stars like Pfeiffer or Streep. But sadly many of the great actresses have almost nothing online or scattershot, out of date sites. I've found that the name actresses from 70s through the early 90s are the biggest problem area. Once you hit the mid 90s, the internet had begun to take over and the stars from the 1950s and earlier will always have the "classic hollywood/nostalgia" factors going for them in terms of archiving. But inbetween those eras it's tough going if you want to see great photoshoots and whatnot.

Just about my only gripe with the best fansites of moviestars is that they tend to not list the photographers when they're sharing photoshoots from the years. Usually if you're scanning from a magazine the photographers name is right there and they definitely deserve the credit.

In chronological order, my six favorite Kidman performances: To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! (2001), The Others (2001), Birth (2004), Dogville (2004) and Margot at the Wedding (2007) with apologies to a handful of others. Here's hoping Rabbit Hole (2010) disrupts this list. Not that that will be easy to do because that list feels pretty untouchable. I didn't even have room for her 'violent jolt' in The Hours (2002).
*

Streep Nom #10: The Bridges of Madison County

We've been looking at each Meryl Streep Oscar nod and its competitive field. Previously: 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 87, 88 and 90.

When The Bridges of Madison County premiered in summer (a rare Eastwood berth, indeed) it seemed like Streep might finally win her 3rd Oscar the following Spring. She'd been away from the awards race in what seemed like forever. Hilariously, that "forever" absence had only been four consecutive years (1991-1994) but for Meryl, that's an eternity. In fact, a four year absence had never happened before and has never happened since all these years later. By the end of the 1995 film year, a really actressy one, the story was a lot different and the race was suddenly all but sewn up for Sarandon with only Streep and Stone as dark horse possibilities.

1995 the nominees were

• Susan Sarandon, Dead Man Walking
• Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas *Nathaniel's pick. This performance kills me.*
  
• Sharon Stone, Casino
  
• Meryl Streep, The Bridges of Madison County
• Emma Thompson, Sense & Sensibility
  

Trivia note: With this 10th honor, Streep tied Bette Davis & Jack Nicholson's overall nomination records (at the time -- Jack wasn't done giving Streep a run for #1) making them the collective #2 Oscar favored actor after Katharine Hepburn.

Back to the actual competition. How many times have we heard this almost-win story now? Meryl is flouncing along giddily in the general direction of the podium for her third triumph when suddenly...

But let us not bemoan that elusive third Oscar and instead marvel at how many valid choices Oscar made for 1995 and how good their roster might have been even if it had looked a lot different.

---> Meryl with Tom Cruise at the Oscars in March '96. (Note frosty snubbed Nicole, not yet ascendant, by his side)

Other 1995 women for context: Oscar chose the entire Globe Drama slate which meant that the comedic nominees were snubbed: Nicole Kidman (To Die For), Vanessa Redgrave (A Month by the Lake), Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding), Annette Bening (The American President) and my fav Sandra Bullock perf (While You Were Sleeping). Two critical darlings Julianne Moore [safe] and the eternally snubbed Jennifer Jason Leigh (Georgia) were ignored due to being ahead of their time and upstaged by their co-star, respectively, though Leigh did win the coveted NYFCC prize. Box office queens Alicia Silverstone (Clueless) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Dangerous Minds) failed to scare up awards attention outside of MTV.

Other female leads that year included: Angela Bassett (Waiting to Exhale), Julie Delpy (Before Sunrise), Lori Petty (Tank Girl), Winona Ryder (How to Make an American Quilt), Elizabeth Berkely (Showgirls) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Miami Rhapsody) getting her first taste of romantic comedy lead stardom to come.

Bassett had a fiery 95 (Strange Days & Waiting to Exhale)

Finally, the year included a few leads who were previous Oscar winners Jessica Lange (Rob Roy), Geena Davis (Cutthroat Island), Holly Hunter (Home for the Holidays) and Kathy Bates (Dolores Claiborne) none of whom were received as warmly as had often previously been the case.

See what I mean about the year being actressy? And so many fine examples of different flavors of it, too.

Nathaniel's List: It's a tasty Oscar vintage for sure -- they done good -- but I'd have to remove Stone's effortful hot mess and Thompson's sensible sister to make room for two redheads who staked their first unmistakable claims to genius: Moore & Kidman. And though I'll always love "Cher" in Clueless, I can't make room for her in such an abundant year. That said, it's utterly shameful that the Globe Comedy nominations excluded her.

AS IF!

Your thoughts on the year, please. It's so rich, don'cha think?
*