Welcome to 5 Favorites. Each week, I will put together a list of my 5 favorites (films, performances, whatever strikes my fancy) along with commentary on a given topic each week, usually in relation to a specific film releasing that week.
This week, Sam Mendes’ newest film, Empire of Light, opens and while Mendes and star Olivia Colman don’t quite have enough films I would want to include in a 5 favorite article, supporting actor Toby Jones does. A versatile character actor who’s appeared in blockbusters and microbudget indie films alike, Jones has done tremendous work in his seemingly short Hollywood career. Let’s get down to my favorites.
Infamous (2006)
In production at the same time as Oscar-winning Capote, Infamous tackles the same subject matter, Truman Capote’s attempts to turn the sensational murders in a small Kansas town into a novel. That celebrated work has fascinated generations, including young readers who may have been introduced to it in high school. In Cold Blood was one of Capote’s major works and remains a fascinating exploration of depravity and horror in the Midwest. The film was ultimately delayed allowing Capote to steal the spotlight even though Infamous was a far better film.
The major reason it was a better film was Jones’ note-perfect performance as the celebrated raconteur. Capote was witty and refined, but his queerness often meant opinion of him varied wildly. In New York City, where he was well renowned and even beloved, things were easy, but getting small town folks who weren’t used to his brash, vibrant personality to work with him was a feat and Jones makes that struggle fresh and humane, something that could not have been said of the brash, excessive Capote. Sandra Bullock delivers strong support as Capote’s companion Nelle Harper Lee (the author of To Kill a Mockingbird), who helps ground his more outlandish impulses. Daniel Craig, Lee Pace, Jeff Daniels, Peter Bogdanovich, and Hope Davis are also superb in their roles, further elevating this film above the uninspired Capote.
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Based on his play of the same name, Peter Morgan explored the combative, yet fascinating relationship between journalist David Frost (Michael Sheen) and president Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella) as the pair engage in a tête-a-tête during a live series of interviews held in 1977 in the wake of Nixon’s resignation and condemnation following the Watergate scandal. Sheen and Langella are in top form as the dueling figures of the piece. Directed by Ron Howard, the film is easily one of his best.
Although brief in scope, Jones’ performance as “Swifty” Lazar, Nixon’s literary agent, provides strong support, but the film really belongs to Langella whose fiery performance is among his absolute best. Sheen, no slouch in the performance department, allows Langella plenty of room to maneuver, challenging him with fierce determination and standing ground against a formidable screen presence. The film co-stars Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Clint Howard, and Patty McCormack. It’s a well acted piece that hinges on the success of its co-leads and Howard gratefully keeps his directorial efforts grounded. While he can’t quite remove the stage-bound nature of the source material, the audience doesn’t need excessive flourishes to appreciate the contents of the film.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
One of history’s best writers of spy fiction, John Le Carré crafted numerous books that have been adapted for the big screen. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and The Constant Gardener are among the most acclaimed adaptations. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was his fifth tome featuring British spy George Smiley. Embodied in this film by Gary Oldman, Smiley is a detail-oriented, long-term thinking agent brought in from retirement to look into a case that is roiling the secret service. The film follows his attempts to uncover how deep and how high up the double agents have gone, attempting to prevent further detriment to the agency.
Oldman is terrific in his subtle interpretation of Smiley, relying on intuition and deductive reasoning to unravel the mystery at the heart of the film. Jones has a brief, but pivotal role in the film as the eponymous “Tinker,” one of four suspected double agents in the service. The film co-stars a who’s who of talented British thespians including Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong, Ciarán Hinds, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Simon McBurney, and John Hurt. Unlike a lot of espionage-related films of the last several decades, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy doesn’t engage the audience with incessant action set pieces or excessive flair. It’s a slow, meticulous film that provides a labyrinthine plot that unspools efficiently and with plenty of tension. Director Tomas Alfredson had something to prove after the tremendous success of Let the Right One In and he certainly proved it.
The Hunger Games (2012)
Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson star in this adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ popular young adult novel The Hunger Games. Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen a 16-year-old girl who volunteers to represent her district at the 74th Hunger Games, a Battle Royale that pits other teens against one another in a competition to the death, the lone survivor of which will gain fame and safety for the rest of their life. Hutcherson plays the male tribute from Katniss’ district, a baker’s son with whom she’s had a passing familiarity. Liam Hemsworth plays her paramour while Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, and Lenny Kravitz play people who help Katniss prepare for the ordeal ahead of her.
Jones played a broadcast announcer covering the Hunger Games, calling balls and strikes with grim satisfaction and alarming positivity. Donald Sutherland played President Coriolanus Snow, the leader of the government overseeing the use of the Hunger Games as a control tool to keep outlying districts under the government’s thumb and to protect the denizens of the Capital and their outlandish and outrageously lavish lifestyles. For a film (and book) directed at young adult audiences, The Hunger Games managed to resonate beyond and appealed to adults of all ages who saw within the story a harsh futuristic warning against support of a fascistic government. The actors took the film seriously and elevated it beyond the genre restrictions audiences had become accustomed to.
Berberian Sound Studio (2013)
The final film on this list is a small independent film from Peter Strickland. Jones takes the lead in this one as a sound engineer who travels to a the Berberian Sound Studio in Italy to work on what he thinks is a film about horses, but which turns out to be an Italian giallo horror film. Set in the 1970s at the height of the influence of Italian giallo cinema, Jones’ Gilderoy must cope with doing his own Foley work, separation from his mother back home, and the increasingly disturbing effects he’s asked to create by a director who insists his film isn’t horror. Other events cause Gilderoy to question his continued work on the project and his growing dissatisfaction begins exhibiting itself in increasingly bizarre and untenable ways.
Jones is electric in the role, allowing the stiff-upper-lipped British persona to slowly slip as he becomes increasingly horrified and tortured by the film and the process of creating sounds and recording dialogue for it. The film is also a love letter to the giallo horror subgenre with events eerily reminiscent of work by Dario Argento, specifically Suspiria, and that helps pull familiar viewers into the macabre and twisted narrative that unfolds. The use of sound design perfectly fits in with the theme and necessities of the film, creating a sometimes unnerving environment in which we dwell. Gripping and fascinating in equal measure, Berberian Sound Studio is one of those great, underappreciated small films that stay at the fringe of the viewer’s awareness long after the film’s conclusion.
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