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It’s Disney’s Great Depression where a tomboy, Natty, rides the rails in search of her lumberjack father. This was the first time I saw Cusack, looking good as a young genius, although it was not the first time I saw Natty’s dog friend: it’s Jed, the drunk dog from The Thing!
19. Tapeheads (1988)
Mike Nesmith of the Monkees created a 1980s-tastic slapstick comedy with a cult-like backing band and top-notch music. Cusack (sporting a sleazy tache) and Tim Robbins play losers whose rock video company prospers in the wake of a Skylab-related tragedy.
Cusack is returning to the film as a teenager, but he is too cool to prove as the child writer of the book series of Nick Hornby, which was adapted to Chicago. If you don’t care about women being portrayed as victims of non-musical music, the display of devotion-soft masculinity is a way of managing pop culture with breezy, shallow fun.
17. Max (2002)
In 1918 Munich, Cusack plays a Jewish landlord who pursues the ambitions of a veteran (Noah Taylor) who has a talent for outspokenness. This Hitler origin story required a Ken Russell-style swagger, though some advanced art as a gun-wielding Cusack drowns naked in a meat grinder.
dating-with-a-boombox scene, and great turns from Lili Taylor and Cusack’s sister Joan.
Amidst the intense tension from John Malkovich and Ving Rhames as the convicts who hijack the plane, Cusack is doing a great job watching as a sweaty US leader. Nicolas Cage plays a violent inmate on parole who must thwart psychos in a dopey-but-disturbing race.
Paul Newman stars as General Groves (played by Matt Damon in Oppenheimer), appointed to oversee the development of the first atomic bomb. But it’s Cusack who haunts the memory as the (fictional) scientist who suffers the consequences lab problem. “Everyone should pass,” he says after doing the math, “except me.”
Like Woody Allen in one of Woodster’s post-Farrow thrillers, set in 1920s New York, Cusack is a screenwriter who earns his living by shooting gangsters – he just happens to have a gangster boss who’s a better writer than him. Oscar-winning Dianne Wiest is a hoot as an alcoholic actress. “Don’t talk!”
Before filling a small role in Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me, Cusack starred in the same director’s smashing teen variation on It Happened One Night. “Gib” Gibson is a slob-swilling slob whose quest to hook up with a California hottie goes awry when he shares a cross-country road trip with a buttoned-up fellow student.
11. Eight Men Out (1988)
John Sayles’ professional play is the first installment in the Chicago Black Sox franchise, which is widely referenced in American folklore. A clutch of baseball players, aggrieved by management’s refusal to award a deserved bonus, agreed to throw the 1919 World Series. In a stacked ensemble cast, Cusack tackles one of his first adult roles as the luckless shortstop, Buck Weaver.
10. 2012 (2009)
This slice of southern gothic is best known for Nicole Kidman squinting at Zac Efron’s jellyfish stings, but Cusack lets it all run its course in swamp, bear hunting and Nic Cage’s sadistic style. You’ve never lived until you’ve seen Kidman bring her to orgasm
impressive. Eugenio Mira apparently can’t manage a single Damien Chazelle poster without doing something fun with it.
7. Knowledge (2003)
In his villainous role, Cusack is chilling as a famous genius whose karma revolves around him as his pyromaniac daughter, in Los Angeles to face his family and his dark secrets. David Cronenberg
4. 1408 (2007)
A writer looks into a deserted hotel room, where he has to deal with ghosts and his past traumas in Stephen King’s story. Despite Samuel L Jackson’s best performance, it’s Cusack’s one-man show, who rises to the occasion and displays a sense of doubt that could turn into paranoia and screams at the fridge.
Cusack made a splash in teen movies with her performance as the charming but troubled character in the disturbing adaptation (by Donald E Westlake) of Jim Thompson’s hard-boiled 1963 novel about three small-time crooks. The radiant Anjelica Huston plays his mother, Annette Bening his best friend. It’s a Greek tragedy with great acting and an unforgettable ending.
Cusack asked his agent for the “craziest, most unproducible script you can find”, and the result was Spike Jonze’s feature-directing debut. Cusack, who has a tragic haircut, has a ball exploring her dark side as a street doll who finds a hidden place in the mind of actor John Malkovich. This is just the beginning of Charlie Kaufman’s endless series of events that raise questions about identity, sexuality and control in a surreal space, inspired by a mise en scène story that avoids special effects.
