Expats in Hollywood:the best and the rest part I

Hollywood is swarming with expat actors these days.Movies,television,they are everywhere,they are hot,they are talented,they win many awards,so what is their secret?

Honestly, I don't know but I like the American generosity.They are good hosts even when they lose to their guests.So here are my favourite expats in Hollywood in random order,without the ones I already admired in my blogs.

1.Hugh Jackman,not only great actor and a nice man,he was also one of the best Oscar hosts ever

2.Mads Mikkelsen,powerful actor,especially in his Danish movies

3.Guy Pearce,brilliant but seriously underrated

4.Aaron Taylor Johnson,one of the best young actors in the world,with a few regrettable career choices

5.Demian Bichir,everyone should see him in "A Better Life"

6.Tom Hardy,another must-see in "Warrior",relentless

7.Idris Elba,grand in every one of his roles but needs to choose them more wisely

8.Ben Whishaw,excellent actor, underrated

9.Benicio Del Toro,great career

10.Jean Dujardin,even though I don't like any of his French movies,he was flawless in "The Artist"

11.Joel Edgerton,excellent in "Warrior" and surprising in "The Great Gatsby"

12.Colin Farrell -  magnificent performances in "Tigerland" and "In Bruges"

Gwyneth Paltrow:the road to perdition

How to arrive from being an Oscar winner to discussing your pelvic muscles and body odour on talk shows?Well,obviously the road is long and bumpy but it is possible as Gwyneth Paltrow so boldly showed us.

Once upon a time she was a beautiful,talented,lovely girl with decent career. Her parents were serious professionals in the same business and she started very young,with a dreamy role,young Wendy in the "Hook".

A few tv movies later she was already in company of Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin in "Malice" or Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan in "Flesh and bone".

Her all American good looks and decent acting took her to co-starring very soon with Nick Nolte in "Jefferson in Paris" but the movie that brought fame and publicity was a gem by David Fincher,"Seven".

In this cruel movie Gwyneth was perfect,ethereal and victimized and her off screen romance with Brad Pitt put her in the spotlight.

Her appeal was undeniable,she was the new Grace Kelly,elegant,beautiful but more passionate and funnier.

She continued with some good choices like working with Paul Thomas Anderson but unfortunately really debatable roles prevailed.

Still,she managed to stay decent even in the bad movies she made. Public adored her in "Emma" but what really confirmed her talent and skill was of course "Shakespeare in love". It was a wonderfully amusing movie,a breath of fresh air and Paltrow was excellent along with all the cast.She won the Oscar for her role and she deserved it.

Her acceptance speech got notorious but she has the same problem as Anne Hathaway,she simply tries to hard in serious occasions.However,it has nothing to do with her acting skills.She is good and versatile,she can play different characters with the same ease and has a real comic talent.

Her post Oscar choices continued to be eclectic,to say the least. It seems that she doesn't really think a bout choosing   her roles or how else can You starring in "View from the top" and in "Sylvia" or "The royal Tenenbaums"?I know the actors also have to earn their living, but seriously?

Her career became even more divergent  in the last few years,I really liked her in "Country strong" and "Glee" because she proved she could also dance and sing.
The "Iron Man" franchise brought her back in the spotlight and unfortunately that same spotlight caused some really bizarre episodes.

How can a decent actress become topic of every gossip magazine or site? How on earth can she blabber about her tits or her pelvic muscles?
Doesn't she know the difference between wannabes who need to entertain the world with tasteless stories about their private lives since they have nothing substantial to show us and herself?

She can stay funny and down to earth or whatever the hell she is trying to do without following the road to perdition,the road to the covers of trashy papers.She has no excuse for her public disgrace since she is or maybe was a smart woman with real and acknowledged talent.She has already made to many mistakes with her choice of roles but now she is topping it with idiotic statements.

Doesn't she have any self esteem? Does she know how many actresses would kill for her position and her talent?I get livid when I see such squandering of something so rare and precious as talent is.In my eyes nothing can justify such a waste,even more because we all know she is paying an entourage of people who take care of her public appearance and her career.I really wonder what are they all doing?

Instead of concentrating on her career choices or maybe making a difference by producing some meaningful movies herself,she is becoming a laughing stock for people who couldn't even dream to compare themselves with her in normal circumstances.

And to make the things worse the gossip community openly dislikes and ridicules her??????????What kind of PR tactic is this?Do her own people want to destroy her?

So a very LOUD whisper/scream:

-Please Mrs Paltrow,just stop talking,immediately.Disappear for a while and when You come back don't talk.For a long time.
- Fire everyone who works for You since they are all responsible for not stopping You on time.Start over.
  And again,don't talk.Till Your next Oscar speech if possible.

The most underrated actresses and actors in Hollywood

Certainly not for the lack of award nominations,hard work and great roles, but these people seem always to find themselves under the thin line that separates the true Hollywood royalty and all the rest.They are all brilliant actors,some of them deserving those coveted roles far more than the actors who get them,some of them cheated of their Oscars.My very personal list of the underrated,in random order.

1.Laura Linney,excellent actress with a great career

2.Toni Collette,one of the best but had to turn to tv for motivating roles

3.Viggo Mortensen,great actor,good choices,not enough appreciation for his gift

4.Chloe Sevigny,smart eccentric girl,without a decent acknowledgement of her extraordinary talent,turned to tv

5.Tim Robbins,where are great roles for this fine actor?

6.Kevin Kline,one of the best,what is he doing with his choices?

7.Ed Harris,exceptional actor,could do so much more

8.Don Cheadle,fantastic actor,enlightens every role he plays,at a loss of proper challenges

9.Kirsten Dunst,another smart girl with eclectic career choices and lack of real praise

10.Garet Hedlund,very interesting young actor,not just another handsome guy, deserving far more attention

The most overrated actors and actresses in Hollywood

1.Tom Cruise, for all the obvious reasons

2. Jennifer Aniston,once and for all,she was excellent in "Friends",decent in "Breakup" and that's it! Nothing more!

3. George Clooney, far more interesting as director and producer than actor

4. Salma Hayek,also far more interesting as producer,activist or anything else than actress

5. Robert Pattinson,very nice guy but he really really is an average actor

6. Kristen Stewart,of course, but for a different reason than Pattinson,the girl has some raw talent but her public and private persona got the best of her and her talent drowned in her irritating self

7. Jessica Biel,again,for all the obvious reasons

8. Orlando Bloom,also a great guy,great career but simply not talented enough to justify the really good roles he gets

9. Diane Kruger,I sincerely don't understand what got her so far

10. Kerry Washington,she simply lacks talent and depth and she tries to make it up with perseverance

The not so great Leonardo Di Caprio becomes great once again

Such an impressive biography,so many smartly chosen roles,so many great directors on his path,so much luck,incredible wisdom and perseverance.....and yet I wish he stopped doing films after "Catch me if You can".

I loved Di Caprio when he was a child.His looks,his spunk,the fierce childish energy,constant rebellion and loads of rough talent were impressive.His debut with Robert De Niro in "This boy's life" was brave and strong,his extremely childish appearance suited the role and he was poignant.It is very encouraging to see a young actor who seems at ease in such a serious cast.

Di Caprio continued daringly,with "What's eating Gilbert Grape", his absolute best role ever.
He was a force of nature in his early years, his still childish looks in complete opposition with his courage,he lived and breathed his roles and the audience believed him completely,enraptured by this prodigy.He never halted,he was never shy of his famous partners.He broke your hearth and made you laugh and there was never a moment of doubt that yes,he was that boy,Arnie Grape.A great talent was born and it just kept getting better.

"The quick and the dead" brought a somehow different actor. Bold,gritty,seductive, funny and once again he was at ease with serious stars like Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone.And "The Basketball diaries",another brilliant depiction of young troubled hero,masterful.This was Di Caprio in his early twenties,when his extremely boyish looks suited the characters he played,when he was still a young boy who played young boys.

I didn't like him in "Total eclipse", his portrayal of Rimbaud was a total miss since Di Caprio had none of the decadence and perversion essential for Rimbaud but since he was excellent in "Marvin's room" and fantastic in "Romeo + Juliet" I quickly forgot it.Once again,this kid was thrown among serious professionals in "Marvin's room" and once again he thrived, repeating all the qualities that made him great in his previous work.

"Romeo+Juliet" was his first collaboration with controversial Australian genius Baz Luhrman.It is a sumptuous movie,an exaggerated amusement park full of secret pleasures and the first glimpse of all great skills Luhrman has. Music,costumes,camera,set design ,all magnificent but never overwhelming the actors.It was a love story, pure and simple and Di Caprio and Claire Danes found each other in this brave movie.They were sincere and powerful and their emotions raw and pure.

And then came the world wide fame,the one and only "Titanic". Nothing would ever be the same again for Di Caprio,in best and worst sense.He became a megastar and he bore the burden well.He was decent in the movie even though he and Kate Winslet were,and remain, a really gauche couple.Jack Dawson was a good role for him,he was funny and vivacious and  seemed unfazed by the grandiosity of the project.

He continued with a few very good roles.I loved "Celebrity" and he was excellent in "The beach".Those were still the roles that suited him best,young rebel,experimenting with adult life,risking a lot, never lacking the audacity.

But the moment he was supposed to play adult men,something went very wrong."Gangs of New York" was en epic disaster and the only comfort for the Di Caprio could be the fact that a genius like Daniel Day Lewis was his partner in shame.

The last Di Caprio role I liked was "Catch me if you can",an amusing comedy where he used his spunk once again.From there on,everything was just a a variation on the theme:

- a wunderkind, growing up painfully,trying to find his place under the sun,coping unsuccessfully with adult characters

There were some excellent movies,there were some glimpses of what he could be if he only grew up but never again did Di Caprio manage to bring back the pure talent and force he showed in his first movies.

You simply couldn't believe him, he was a  tabula rasa,an empty canvas without motivation,passion,appeal or strength.We expected a lot maybe but rightfully so, he was brilliant in some of his early movies so we just waited patiently for him to finally come back.There were glimpses of possibilities,like "Departed" or brushes with his former self,like "Django Unchained", to keep us alert.

One couldn't but admire his flair for good roles,his tenacity and perseverance but the magic was gone.He was just a good looking aging Peter Pan,nothing more.It's a pity but it's a fact.In spite of his rich and admirable biography,he never again touched the sky he held in the palm of his hand when he started.And since he was so smart and cautious in choosing his roles,he should have known that something was missing from each and every  interpretation he gave his audiences.

His looks are definitely a problem since he still looks like a child,but it's far more than that.And the sublimation of all his failures arrived in "The great Gatsby".

Once again,he worked with Luhrmann.But unlike before,this time Luhrmann simply sank his complete cast in the opulence of effects,tricks,beauty and fantasy of his movie.They exist merely as puppets of this cruel master,without a chance to do anything but serve as decoration,tableaux vivants. And among them Di Caprio is by far the worst.Gatsby is a wonderful role but better men have already failed where Di Caprio wanted to shine.Redford had the ideal looks but his Gatsby was simply Redford all over again,not Gatsby.

And Di Caprio took the worst approach,his Gatsby is also Redford but without the looks.He took many of Redford's tics,he moves like a puppet,he has no passion,no sexual appeal or emotional substance,nothing.Of course,he is undermined by artificiality Luhrmann expected from his actors but so was Carey Mulligan and yet she gave a glimpse of humanity while Di Caprio was simply grotesque.It was sad to watch him dissolve but maybe it was all for good.

Maybe finally he will discover what is wrong and have a serious long talk with his former self. Maybe he will take a break and come back as a man who feels once again  right in his skin,maybe we will benefit from a new and improved Leonardo Di Caprio.

Because it can hardly get any worse than Gatsby.

And I can't be happier to say that he is back,with a vengeance.

In that brilliant scary epic that is "The Wolf of Wall street", Di Caprio has finally gone back to his source,he took a big gulp from the magical fountain of his original talent and took us all on an unforgettable ride.

His Jordan Belfort will remain one of the best performances ever seen in the movies,the idiotic addict who managed  to con all,the psychotic product of the specific moment in human history.

He has everything,the brute force,the skill, the magic,the audacity,the discipline,the magnificent span of that devastating talent he showed us when he was just a boy.

He is genuine and disgusting,he is a genius and a retard,and there is not a moment of respite from the human disaster called Jordan Belfort.

The unbelievable becomes believable with Di Caprio's magic and there is nothing left but to admire his brilliance.He has proven to all of us who doubted that he is still that same sparkling boy from Gilbert Grape,that he can still,when given the right role,create miracles.

The questions were rised about the morality of such a tale.In my mind,there is no doubt about the depths of sordidness of the Belfort's character,not a single moment when I didn't think how did that ridiculous disgusting criminal managed to pull it off.
Nothing in the movie suggested that the director or any of the creators wanted to glorify those despicable idiots.They were simply put in front of us,and the frenzy,extravagance and obscenity of it all is unfortunately very real.

In the sublimation of excess,Di Caprio never lost his balance,he managed to give us all the hysterical eccentricities of Belfort's character without becoming a caricature.

As absurdly as this may sound,he was balanced even in the most extravagant actions,he was calculated but still passionate and even when he let go completely, he stayed in control.

It was a very difficult role,perfect but difficult.There was the trap of covering the lack of conviction with noise and effects but he didn't fall into it.He stayed focused,he stayed precise and most admiringly,he was a perfect partner for all the amazing actors who worked with him.

It was the role of his life,his "Citizen Cocaine",as the journalist Rachel Syme smartly wrote.

Once again,I have seen and re-confirmed my opinion of the greatness of acting talent.Even when it gets lost for many years,the pure talent is always capable of re-inventing itself,of shining once again so brightly that, for a moment, it just hurts to look.

Christoph Waltz or the incredible chance of meeting a great director

 I remember Waltz from a very successful Austrian tv series "Kommissar Rex". He was a killer that the German shepherd Rex and his detective chased in one of the episodes. Honestly,I can't say why I remembered him, but I did and I recognized him many years later him when "Inglourious basterds" came.

And he was really brilliant as Hans Landa, he has a sort of  calm, mean energy,his  face and voice transform easily, making him a credible psychopath.He is a bit theatrical but not exaggerated and it was exactly the right approach for the role.The camera likes him,he is a frail man but somehow he gets threateningly big with sheer force of camera movement and good acting.

He is a disciplined master of his body and his gestures are always measured and poised.
Even though he is not a strikingly handsome man,he is sexy and somehow darkly so.

Waltz had all  these qualities during his long tv career in Austria and Germany but the chance of meeting a great director who knew exactly how to use his best features is what propelled Waltz and made him an internationally acclaimed actor, winner of two Academy awards and almost 50 different acting awards.

There are many actors in Europe and elsewhere in the world who are as good as Waltz and probably a few who are better.

Majority of them is also happy and content with success in their own countries and wouldn't dream of trying somewhere else.But for those who are not and who are eager to launch a serious international career,the most important step is meeting a great director who knows how to present their assets and who is genuinely interested in their acting skills.

Everything starts and ends with directors.Great scripts can be ruined by awful amateurs,wonderful actors massacred by ego maniacs,and every detail in movies depends eventually from the director.He is the one who knows how to choose his crew and most importantly his actors.
The best casting director in the world cannot convince a bad director to take a talented actor instead of a hyped hack.And the best cast can't help the movie if that one person who is responsible for them doesn't know what to do.

Waltz was a lucky guy,and it is best seen if we watch the movies he did without Tarantino,"Water for elephants","Green hornet","Carnage".

He is always good, sometimes  far better than his co-stars but if those were his first movies in Hollywood he would never had the career he has now.

And his second Oscar in Tarantino's "Django unchained" proves my point.

So a loud "bravo" and "good luck" for Waltz and a whisper for all the actors around the world who would like to take one step further:

- yes,agents are important but Taylor Kitsch also had a decent agent who took him to the slaughterhouse called "John Carter" so please please try and start Your career with a great  talented director who is genuinely interested in You and everything will come easily after that

I miss Hilary Swank

Dear Hilary,

for so many years You have entranced the public with your talent.

Ever since we saw You in "Boys don't cry" we knew that there will probably be no one like You in a long long time.It was a daring path,from various tv roles to an Oscar win and You did it,bravely and perfectly.
Brandon Teena was one of the most heartbreaking characters in movies and You managed to portray  it without ever going over the top.The movie is a feast for every  afficionado, a small,unpretentious story about very serious issues.And it was an excellent chance to show what true acting talent really meant,what brave and curious actress could do with a great script.

A star was born then and You continued fiercely,landing interesting roles that did You credit and bursting very soon in another  dreamlike role ," Million dollar baby".
There was a slight  danger of overdoing it,we thought Eastwood dumped to much grief  and pain on Your shoulders but once again You proved that modesty and finesse can go a very long way,straight to Your second Oscar.

 You have everything, looks,character,charisma,talent and knowledge of how to use that great talent sparingly and wisely.You have skill,You have heart and You captivate  every scene so completely that you need very strong partners. Still,even with weaker ones,you are a generous co-star who helps them.You are unpretentious and very very courageous and basically You can play everything to perfection.

But what I love about You is the fact that You never give up,You put the same effort in every role You play, however uninspiring it may appear.Everything You have done was brilliantly played but it's a pity that there were so little adequate challenges for Your talent.

One of my favourites is definitely "Amelia", I love Mira Nair so I am impatient to see whatever she does.And in Amelia there was also a benefit of watching my favourite actress so the pleasure was complete.It is a beautiful movie,opulent and moving and it was a great role for You.Another fearless and unconventional character that so obviously suited You.

So dear Hilary,please listen to a true fan's tiny whisper:

- even though I have nothing but enormous respect for the seriousness of Your efforts in really questionable movies,I think it's time to become more selective about Your projects since we are all impatient to congratulate You on Your third Oscar!