OSCAR NOMINATIONS DOMINATED BY…IRELAND, GERMANY AND HOT DOG FINGERS.

The life-affirming adventures of a dry-cleaning matriarch who discovers her inner multi-dimensional warrior has been smiled upon by Oscar. Everything Everywhere All at Once has topped the 2023 nominations with 11, including a history-making Best Actress nod for Michelle Yeoh - the first Asian-identifying nominee in this key category.

The Malaysian-born actress staked her claim as an international star with an A-list career in Hong Kong before landing her first Hollywood lead role in Everything… and is the sentimental favourite in the category by some measure. All eyes will be on whether she can ride that goodwill to a win and buck the trend to give the trophy to Cate Blanchett for Todd Field’s Tár; the Australian actress has swept all before her in the lead-up to today’s nomination announcement.  

Also front-and-centre of the American film industry’s night-of-nights are two nations who only occasionally get AMPAS attention. Germany has a serious award-season contender in All Quiet on the Western Front (pictured, right), which has scored nine nominations, including Film, Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay. And Ireland’s small but vibrant film sector is triple-repped, with nine nominations befalling writer/director Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, a Best International Feature nod for Colm Bairéad’s arthouse darling The Quiet Girl, and a Best Live Action Short mention for An Irish Goodbye, from co-directors Tom Berkeley and Ross White.

Multiple nominations for box office blockbusters Top Gun: Maverick (9), Elvis (8) and Avatar: The Way of Water (4) suggest The Academy listened to complaints that popular opinion carries as much weight as critical plaudits come Oscar time (while detracting nothing from those film’s artistic credentials). In total, the 10 best picture nominees have grossed a collective $1.57billion in domestic ticket sales, ahead of the $1.52billion grossed by the previous record-holder, 2010 (a group that included the original Avatar).

Leading the notable snubbings in 2023 is Maverick himself, Tom Cruise for a Best Actor shot (though he earned a nomination as producer of the Best Picture contender); Margot Robbie for the much-maligned Babylon (which did earn three below-the-line noms); the department heads on Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, which surely figured in thinking for Costume, Cinematography and Art Direction at some point; pop songstress Taylor Swift, for her original composition on the Where the Crawdads Sing soundtrack; and, African-American representation, with The Woman King, Nope and Till all shut-out. 

Also falling out of favour this year were the streaming platforms. One year after AppleTV’s CODA took Best Picture honours, only one film in that category is a streamer’s title - Netflix’s All Quiet on The Western Front. There’s a smattering of small-screen representation - Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for Animated Film; Ana de Armas’ Best Actress mention for Blonde; an Adapted Screenplay nod for Glass Onion; and, Bryan Tyree Henry’s Supporting Actor shout-out for Causeway. But there was no love for Will Smith’s slave drama Emancipation; the Selena Gomez mental-health doc, My Mind & Me; or, Cooper Raiff’s charming rom-com Cha Cha Real Smooth.

The full list of 2023 Oscar nominations looks like this:  

BEST PICTURE: All Quiet on the Western Front; Avatar: The Way of Water; The Banshees of Inisherin; Elvis; Everything Everywhere All at Once; The Fabelmans; Tár; Top Gun: Maverick; Triangle of Sadness; Women Talking.

BEST DIRECTOR: Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness; Todd Field, Tár; Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin; Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans.

BEST ACTOR: Austin Butler, Elvis; Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Brendan Fraser, The Whale; Paul Mescal, Aftersun; Bill Nighy, Living

BEST ACTRESS: Cate Blanchett, Tár; Ana de Armas, Blonde; Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie; Michelle Williams, The Fabelmans; Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin; Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway; Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans; Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin; Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Hong Chau, The Whale; Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin; Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Todd Field, Tár; Tony Kushner & Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans; Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin; Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Edward Berger, Ian Stokell & Lesley Paterson, All Quiet on the Western Front; Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery; Kazuo Ishiguro, Living; Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie, Peter Craig & Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick; Sarah Polley, Women Talking

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany); Argentina, 1985 (Argentina); Close (Belgium); EO (Poland); The Quiet Girl (Ireland)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio; Marcel the Shell With Shoes On; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; The Sea Beast; Turning Red

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; All That Breathes; Fire of Love; A House Made of Splinters; Navalny

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front; Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin; Justin Hurwitz, Babylon; Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once; John Williams, The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna & Tems, “Lift Me Up,” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Lady Gaga & BloodPop, “Hold My Hand,” from Top Gun: Maverick; M.M. Keeravaani & Chandrabose, “Naatu Naatu,” from RRR; Diane Warren, “Applause,” from Tell It Like a Woman; Ryan Lott, David Byrne & Mitski, “This Is a Life,” from Everything Everywhere All at Once 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: James Friend, All Quiet on the Western Front; Roger Deakins, Empire of Light; Darius Khondji, Bardo; Mandy Walker, Elvis; Florian Hoffmeister, Tár

BEST EDITING: Eddie Hamilton, Top Gun: Maverick; Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, The Banshees of Inisherin; Paul Rogers, Everything Everywhere All at Once; Jonathan Redmond & Matt Villa, Elvis; Monika Willi, Tár

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Christian M. Goldbeck & Ernestine Hipper, All Quiet on the Western Front; Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy & Bev Dunn, Elvis ; Florencia Martin & Anthony Carlino, Babylon ; Dylan Cole, Ben Procter & Vanessa Cole, Avatar: The Way of Water; Rick Carter & Karen O’Hara, The Fabelmans

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Jenny Beavan, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris; Ruth Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Catherine Martin, Elvis; Mary Zophres, Babylon; Shirley Kurata, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING: All Quiet on the Western Front; The Batman; Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Elvis; The Whale

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: All Quiet on the Western Front; Avatar: The Way of Water; The Batman; Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; Top Gun: Maverick

BEST SOUND: All Quiet on the Western Front; Avatar: The Way of Water; The Batman; Elvis; Top Gun: Maverick

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: An Irish Goodbye; Ivalu; Le Pupille; Night Ride; The Red Suitcase

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse; The Flying Sailor; Ice Merchants; My Year of Dicks; An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: The Elephant Whisperers; Haulout; How Do You Measure a Year?; The Martha Mitchell Effect; Stranger at the Gate.

The 95th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide. 

THE SCREEN-SPACE BEST FILMS OF 2022

As I read through the final draft of this 2022 wrap-up, the year’s most anticipated film has just hit cinemas. Avatar: The Way of Water needs to land with a big splash, and not just for the Disney/Fox merger, who have billions riding on James Cameron’s eco-epic. The entire industry is desperate for a four-quadrant global hit.

Mid-budgeted horror has helped keep theatre doors open this year - Scream, Smile, Barbarian, Halloween Ends, The Black Phone, X and Pearl all performed to or above projections. But adult-skewing prestige pics underperformed (Don’t Worry Darling; The Fabelmans; Tar) or outright bombed (Bros; She Said; Amsterdam). Cash-cow properties stiffed (Pixar’s pricey Lightyear) or petered out (D.C.’s Black Adam; M.C.’s Black Panther Wakanda Forever); niche audiences grew increasingly tough to impress (festival faves EO, Aftersun and Neptune Frost found little traction). So, Avatar: The Way of Water could not arrive at a better time (yes, I have seen it; no, it’s not amongst my year’s best; yes, it’ll be huge).

My Top 10 suggests great movies are still being made for theatres; three were streaming premieres, though came to home viewing platforms via festival acquisitions or reworked distribution agendas. As long as global filmmakers strive for originality of vision, there is hope that big screen audiences (thought to have become overly attuned to home viewing through the pandemic) will return. Let's count 'em down... 

10. DON’T WORRY DARLING (Dir: Olivia Wilde | Stars: Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, Harry Styles | U.S. | 123 mins) The most daring studio-backed feature of the year, Olivia Wilde’s sophomore directorial effort offered a confounding, compelling mix of metaphorical fantasy, gender conflict and dazzling starpower. Some critics called it ‘overly ambitious’, which sounds like a compliment to me; Pugh is being ignored as the award season fires up, which I find bewildering.

9. SHE SAID (Dir: Maria Schrader | Stars: Zoe Kazan, Carey Mulligan, Patricia Clarkson | U.S. | 129 mins) An instant entry into the list of great films about the integrity and drive of investigative journalism, German director Maria Schrader, making her U.S. feature debut, and stars Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan capture the incrementally small but sociologically seismic emergence of the Weinstein abuse and subsequent #MeToo movement.

8. CHA CHA REAL SMOOTH (Dir: Cooper Raiff | Stars Cooper Raif, Dakota Johnson, Evan Assante | U.S. | 107 mins) In the wake of 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine came a wave of ‘feelgood Sundance’ films that gave the sub-genre a bad name. Thanks to multi-hyphenate Cooper Raiff’s deceptively rich and adorably cheerful Cha Cha Real Smooth, the ‘meaningful friendship’ comedy/drama is back; the chemistry he shares with Dakota Johnson makes for 2022’s sweetest cinematic confection.

7. THE NIGHT OF THE 12th (La nuit du 12 | Dir: Dominik Moll | Stars: Bastien Bouillon, Bouli Lanners, Lula Cotton-Frapier | France | 115 mins) Based on a shocking thrill-kill that remains unsolved, Dominik Moll’s drama hides a study in alpha-male dynamics and the fragility of self-belief within a traditional police procedural. As the head investigator whose inability to crack the case becomes a soulful burden, Bastien Bouillon provides a great study in anxiety and fractured ego.

6. LYNCH/OZ (Dir: Alexandre O. Philippe | Stars: Rodney Ascher, Karyn Kusama, Justin Benson | U.S. | 108 mins) The latest in his series of deconstructionist deep-dives into  filmmaking, Alexandre O. Philippe (Doc of The Dead; 78/52; Leap of Faith) explores the influence of The Wizard of Oz on the work of David Lynch. Doesn’t skimp of the strangeness of Lynch’s interpretation and reworking of the fantasy classic, but also acknowledges how the sweetness and base values have inspired cinema’s oddest auteur.

5. EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (Dir: Daniel Kwan, Daniel Schienert | Stars: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Jamie Lee Curtis | U.S. | 139 mins) This year’s little-film-that-could, The Daniel’s dazzling multidimensional flight of fantasy proved a revelation for audiences timidly venturing back into cinemas after 18 months on their couches. A mash-up of Matrix-style visionary inventiveness, a Rubiks Cube-like narrative unpacked with clarity and conviction and performances from a trio of mature-age performers who know they may have been handed the roles of their careers.

4. TOP GUN: MAVERICK (Dir: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly | U.S. | 130 mins) Already dubbed ‘The Film That Saved 2022’, the sequel none of us knew we needed emerged as the pop-culture film event of the year. As the last true movie star on the planet, Tom Cruise played the ‘ageing hero’ card to perfection, his mere presence providing the perfect bridge between the nostalgic bravado of the late Tony Scott’s 1986 original with the clean-cut, chiselled millennial ambitions of Joseph Kosinski’s squadron of new top guns. Most importantly, it demanded to be seen on the big screen; those fully immersive flying sequences brought the patrons back in droves. 

3. HELLO DANKNESS (Dir: Soda Jerk | Australia) The Adelaide Film Festival, in conjunction with the Samstag Museum gallery space, commissioned a new work from those maestros of montage, Soda Jerk, whose Terror Nullius rocked everyone’s world in 2018. The result is the mini-feature Hello Dankness, a satirically savage recutting of hundreds of film, TV and multimedia sources to reflect upon the madness that was American politics, 2016-2021. Take your pick of its virtues - an enormously ambitious art installation; a surreal perception of U.S. democracy in downfall; the laugh-out-loud funniest film comedy of the year. The Germans get it; Hello Dankness is Berlinale bound in 2023.

2. BLONDE (Dir: Andrew Dominik | Stars: Ana de Armas, Bobby Carnavale, Adrien Brody | U.S. | 167 mins) I get that those who adore what Marilyn Monroe has come to represent in our culture don’t want to see her as a victim of systemic and cyclical abuse; that Andrew Dominik’s adaptation of Joyce Carroll Oates’ fictionalized account of Monroe’s journey was, in some eyes, exploitative and unnecessarily brutal. But if any figure in pop culture can, even should, embody the misogynistic horrors of a Hollywood that grinds young, spirited artists into the ground, ought it not be the most famous starlet ever? Dominik’s direction is artistically fearless and technically profound; as Marilyn, Ana de Armas enters the upper-tier of film acting talent.

1. PREY (Dir: Dan Trachtenberg | Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro | U.S. | 100 mins) “Seriously?”, I hear you ask. The umpteenth reboot of action cinema’s most defiantly troublesome franchise is your best film of the year? Dan Trachtenberg tears all the rotten residual meat off the Predator series bones and pares it back to the smashing survival thriller/monster movie premise that made John McTiernan’s 1987 original a brawny classic. That he also launched the best action heroine since Ripley in Amber Midthunder’s Naru and provided a Comanche language version of the film on the Hulu/Disney+ platforms only makes this commitment to the spirit of the source material every bit as breathtaking as Arnie’s original.   

THE NEXT TEN: 

SISSY (Dir: Hannah Barlow, Kane Senes | Stars: Aisha Dee, Hannah Barlow, Emily De Margheriti | Australia | 102 mins)

SMILE (Dir: Parker Finn | Stars: Sosie Bacon, Jesse T. Usher, Kyle Gallner | U.S. | 115 mins)

HATCHING (Pahanhautoja | Dir:  Hanna Bergholm | Stars: Siiri Solalinna, Sophia Heikkilä, Jani Volanen | Finland, Sweden | 91 mins)

SELENA GOMEZ MY MIND & ME (Dir: Alek Keshishian | Stars: Selena Gomez | U.S. | 95 mins)

X (Dir: Ti West | Stars: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson | U.S. | 105 mins)

YOU WON’T BE ALONE (Dir: Goran Stolevski | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta | Australia, United Kingdom, Serbia | 108 mins)

THE BATMAN (Dir: Matt Reeves | Stars: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Colin Farrell | U.S. | 176 mins)

MILLIE LIES LOW (Dir: Michelle Savill | Stars: Ana Scotney, JIllian Nguyen, Chris Alosio | New Zealand | 100 mins)

BARBARIAN (Dir: Zach Cregger | Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long | U.S. | 102 mins)

DISTANT THUNDER (Dir: Takayuki Ohashi | Stars: Tomomi Fukikoshi, Akari Takaishi, Miharu Tanaka | Japan | 151 mins)

NOW CHECK OUT OUR WORST FILMS OF 2022 HERE.

PREVIEW: 2022 VETERANS FILM FESTIVAL

The 7th Veterans Film Festival (VFF) relocates to Sydney from Canberra for the first-time next month, with the prestigious event unfolding at the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter and neighbouring Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS). The expansive program will present more than 20 new and retrospective films and an engaging program of art, master classes and script readings.

Running from November 3-6, VFF will open with the Australian Premiere of Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway, starring Jennifer Lawrence (pictured, above) as an Afghanistan War veteran with traumatic brain injury who struggles to adjust to life back home. It will be the only theatrical screening of the critically-acclaimed film ahead of its international premiere on AppleTV on November 4.

Other feature film highlights include the documentary The Skin of Others, profiling the life of Aboriginal soldier and journalist Douglas Grant; the Stan Original film Transfusion, directed by Matt Nable and starring Sam Worthington (pictured, right) as a former Special Forces operative; and, the Ari Folman-directed animation feature Where is Anne Frank?, a reworking of her iconic wartime story, told through her imaginary friend in modern day Amsterdam.

Two strands of short films bring works from countries such as The Netherlands (Niels Bourgonje’s Barrier); Belgium (Donald Merten’s War Games); Norway (Hans Melbye’s Masters of Conflict); the United Kingdom (Olivia Martin McGuire’s Freedom Swimmer); Italy (Stefano Monti’s Terzo Tempo); New Zealand (Isaac Lee’s The Haka); and, the United States (including Justin Koehler’s Ride Away).

Two stunning animation works from Iran are booked - Farnoosh Abedi’s The Sprayer, recently voted Best Animation short at the 2022 Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival, and Balance, from director Barzan. And from the nation of Ukraine comes Rainer Ludwig’s The Veteran’s Dramedy, a co-production with Germany, and the powerful animated short Life and death, from the Volunteer Animation of Ukraine anonymous collective.

Two-time Oscar nominee Bruce Beresford will preside over a jury that includes actors Jenni Baird and Alan Dukes, who will adjudicate on the prestigious Red Poppy Awards, awarded to the best feature and short films. Beresford will also present a retrospective of his wartime films, including a 25th anniversary screening of  Paradise Road (1997), starring Cate Blanchett, Glenn Close and Frances McDormand; Breaker Morant (1980), for which Jack Thompson earned Supporting Actor honours at the Cannes Film Festival; and, the box office hit Ladies in Black (2018), starring Angourie Rice. 

Also getting a rare big screen showing is Bill Bennett’s A Street to Die (1985; pictured, below) featuring Chris Haywood as the Vietnam veteran fighting for legal recognition of the damage done to him by the defoliant Agent Orange. In a special event, producer David Elfick’s new World War II feature Kamarada, set to be shot with Phillip Noyce in Timor-Leste, will receive a live script-reading presentation.

The relocation of the festival to Sydney is intended to expand the close association with AFTRS who are partnering with VFF to deliver the new Screen Warriors program. This groundbreaking initiative provides support for veterans who want to partake in industry training and employment in the film sector.

The three-day, four-night festival includes an exhibition of artwork from veteran artists and photographers, including a selection of Mike Armstrong’s work from his recent Voices of Veterans exhibition and the Persona exhibition opening soon at the Australian National Veterans Art Museum (ANVAM). 

TICKETS are now on sale for the 2022 VETERANS FILM FESTIVAL here.

LUKAS DHONT’S CLOSE EARNS SYDNEY FILM FEST TOP HONOUR

The 69th Sydney Film Festival tonight awarded Close by Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont, a stunningly beautiful examination of boyhood friendship, the prestigious Sydney Film Prize. The winner of the $60,000 cash prize for ‘audacious, cutting-edge and courageous' film was selected by a prestigious international jury headed by David Wenham.

The announcement was made at the State Theatre ahead of the Closing Night film, the Australian Premiere screening of the 2022 Cannes-award winning South Korean drama Broker.

Dhont said, “Thank you to the festival for expressing its love for the film, the jury for choosing it among all these outstanding pieces, and its first Australian audience for opening hearts and spirits to a film that comes from deep within. We wanted to make a film about friendship and connection after a moment in time where we all understood its necessity and power. I decided to use cinema as my way to connect to the world. And tonight I feel incredibly close and connected to all of you.” (Pictured, top; Close stars Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele).

In addition to Wenham, the Festival Jury was comprised of Australian BAFTA-nominated writer and director Jennifer Peedom (Mountain, SFF 2018); Bangladeshi writer-director-producer Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (No Land’s Man, SFF 2022); Golden Berlin Bear winning Turkish writer-director-producer Semih Kaplanoğlu (Commitment Hasan, SFF 2022); and Executive Director at the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, Tokyo, Yuka Sakano. (Pictured, right; The Jury deliberates)

Wenham said, “[Close] displayed a mastery of restraint, subtle handling of story, astute observations and delicate attention to finer details. A film whose power was felt in things unsaid, the moments between the lines of dialogue. A film with inspired cinematography and flawless performances. A tender, moving, powerful film. A mature film about innocence.”

Australian filmmaker Luke Cornish was presented with the Documentary Australia Award’s $10,000 cash prize for Keep Stepping, about two remarkable female performers training for Australia’s biggest street dance competition. (Pictured, left; Director Luke Cornish, sitting, with street dancers Gabi Quinsacara, left, and Patricia Crasmaruc, from Keep Stepping. Photo:Louie Douvis)

The Dendy Awards for Australian Short Films saw the inaugural AFTRS Craft Award (a $7,000 cash prize) presented to the character artists behind Donkey; Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM; Carolyn Kenta; Imuna Kenta; Elizabeth Dunn; Stacia Yvonne Lewis; Atipalku Intjalki; Lynette Lewis; and Cynthia Burke.

The $5,000 Yoram Gross Animation Award was also awarded to Donkey, directed by Jonathan Daw and Tjunkaya Tapaya OAM. Both the $7,000 Dendy Live Action Short Award and $7,000 Rouben Mamoulian Award for Best Director were presented to Luisa Martiri and Tanya Modini for The Moths Will Eat Them Up (pictured, right).

The 2022 recipient of the $10,000 Sustainable Future Award, made possible by a syndicate of passionate climate activists led by Award sponsor Amanda Maple-Brown, is Australian documentary Delikado directed by Karl Malakunas, which reveals the tribulations of environmental crusaders on the Filipino island of Palawan.

R.I.P. RAY LIOTTA: FIVE OF HIS GREATEST PERFORMANCES

As with all sudden passings, the death of Ray Liotta, aged 67, puts a melancholy focus on his career. What one finds is a catalogue of characters that, borne of the right material and guided by a director who could grasp the actor’s unique physicality and energy, is unlike any in Hollywood’s history.

He was never not working, frankly, with dozens of television roles, from early work in soaps like Another World to guesting on hits like E.R. (for which he won an  Emmy) and Hannah Montana (pictured, below) to hardman roles in hits like Shades of Blue, with Jennifer Lopez; as an in-demand voice actor and narrator, notably the landmark 2015 docu-series, The Making of the Mob; and, in a testament to his stature in the industry, seven credits in which he plays ‘Ray Liotta’.

It is inconceivable that any ‘listicle’ could encompass a film career like Liotta’s. He was great in films you won’t see below, like Ted Demme’s Blow (2001), with Johnny Depp; the thriller Identity (2003), starring John Cusack; Narc (2002), for director Joe Carnahan; and, perhaps most adored of all, his ‘Shoeless Joe Jackson’ in the American classic, Field of Dreams (1989). “You want to do as many different genres as you can,” he told Long Island Weekly in 2018. “I’ve done movies with The Muppets. I did good guys and bad guys. I did a movie with an elephant. I decided that I was here to try different parts and do different things. That’s what a career should be.” 

The five selected are the ones that defined for us who Ray Liotta was so good at being on-screen - a riveting presence, whether as a tightly-coiled force of dangerous energy or as a gentle character of values and strength.

GOODFELLAS (1990) | Director: Martin Scorsese | Also starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesce, Lorraine Bracco | The film roared into the public consciousness as soon as it hit theatres; a work that felt like Martin Scorsese had been building towards his whole career, that Joe Pesci was born to dominate, that De Niro had in him from Day 1. And out front of it all was Ray Liotta, going scene-for-scene with the greatest actors of his generation, as made-man turned stool pigeon, ‘Henry Hill’. He was high on Scorsese’s list of leads, but Warner Bros weren’t convinced; at the Venice Film Festival spruiking The Last Temptation of Christ, Liotta fronted a heavily-bodyguarded Scorsese about the role. Scorsese told GQ in 2010, ““Ray approached me in the lobby and the bodyguards moved toward him. And [Liotta] had an interesting way of reacting. He held his ground, but made them understand he was no threat. I liked his behaviour at that moment. I thought,’Oh, he understands that kind of situation.’”

SOMETHING WILD (1986) | Director: Jonathan Demme | Also starring: Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels | Scorsese wanted Liotta for his gangster epic because he had seen the actor’s electrically terrifying turn as obsessive ex-con husband ‘Ray Sinclair’ in Jonathan Demme’s pitch-black comedy-thriller. Melanie Griffith pushed hard for her friend to be cast in the role that would define his on-screen persona for the next two decades. “I had offers for every crazy guy around,” Liotta told The Los Angeles Times in 1990. His performance earned Supporting Actor nominations from the Golden Globes, New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics, and won him the Boston Film Critics trophy.

DOMINICK & EUGENE (1988) | Director: Robert M. Young | Also starring: Tom Hulce, Jamie Lee Curtis | Liotta was determined not to be typecast as Hollywood’s short-fuse psychopath and took on the role of brother and caregiver Eugene to Tom Hulce’s intellectually disabled Dominick in veteran director Robert M. Young’s tearjerker. “The two leading actors do a superb job of bringing these characters to life,” Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times. “Mr. Liotta makes Gino a touchingly devoted figure, a man willing to sacrifice almost anything for his brother’s welfare.” Liotta’s sweeter side was sorely underutilised throughout his career; apart from Field of Dreams, also check out Article 99 (1992), opposite Kiefer Sutherland; Corinna, Corinna (1994), with Whoopi Goldberg; and the Disney romp, Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), for Australian director Simon Wincer. 

TURBULENCE (1997) | Director: Robert Butler | Also starring: Lauren Holly, Brendan Gleeson | Of course, no one could bring the crazy like Liotta, as his role as ‘Ryan Weaver’ in Turbulence displayed. This ‘slasher on an airplane’ slice of B-movie giddiness was a critical and commercial dud upon release, but went on to find an appreciative home video audience; it would be one of the most rented VHS releases of the late ‘90s and spawn two direct-to-video sequels. Liotta goes all in on Weaver’s villainy, putting co-star Lauren Holly through the emotional and physical wringer in their scenes together. He did psycho-stalker like few actors ever have - see also Unlawful Entry (1992), opposite Kurt Russell; the barely-released Control (2004), with Willem Dafoe; and, in Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (2012), alongside Brad Pitt. 

THE RAT PACK (2002) | Director: Rob Cohen | Also starring: Joe Mantegna, Don Cheadle | This made-for-TV period epic was commissioned in the early days of HBO, a bold statement from the cabler that they were going to be front-and-centre of a new type of prestige television. Liotta delivered a now iconic performance as Frank Sinatra; despite some critics noting he neither looks nor sounds like ‘The Chairman of The Board’, Liotta imbues one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures with the gravitas needed to convey the vastness of the entertainer’s impact on 1950’s America. His scenes opposite William Petersen, playing the charismatic young President John F. Kennedy, are some of the best in either actor’s career.