Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Arts & Entertainment

Movie Review
"Sleepy Hollow"
This Ichabod is a tortured, if not terribly bright, goth dreamboat.
By Stephanie Zacharek
[11/19/99]

Movie Review
"Felicia's Journey"
Atom Egoyan's follow-up to "The Sweet Hereafter" is a dank and claustrophobic thriller.
By Andrew O'Hehir
[11/19/99]

Movie Review
"The World Is Not Enough"
God save James Bond.
By Charles Taylor
[11/19/99]

Music Review
Sharps & Flats
Nuzzle's plaintive rock comes on as unexpectedly soft as a full-count change-up.
By Mac Montandon
[11/19/99]

Movie Review
"All About My Mother"
Passionate and florid, Almodóvar's valentine to motherhood breathes with vibrant, chaotic Barcelona life.
By Stephanie Zacharek
[11/19/99]

Complete archives for Arts & Entertainment

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

It might not have been much different from any other unrequited love scene, but something about the way Hoffman's red pleather jacket stretched taut over his gut utterly undid me. Though Hoffman had appeared in a dozen films before "Boogie Nights," this was the moment he first sprang from the screen and lodged in my mind. He's been creeping me out ever since.

There's a "Seinfeld" episode where George resolves to become the "bad boy," and Jerry counters, "Why not? You've been the bad friend, the bad son, the bad employee ..." So it is with Hoffman: He's been the creepy neighbor ("Happiness"), the creepy ex-boyfriend ("Next Stop, Wonderland"), the creepy assistant ("The Big Lebowski"), the creepy preppy ("Patch Adams"), even the creepy meteorologist ("Twister"). After "Boogie Nights," I began noticing him everywhere. His appearances evoked a peculiar thrill particular to movie-going, the almost physical rush you experience when you recognize a character actor: "Right! He was the guy in 'Scent of a Woman!'" Everyone loves to be an insider.

After that, I found myself counting the minutes he was on-screen. His presence was bracing, in the manner of a pine tree, or a pile of garbage. Like any really fine character actor, Hoffman gives off a strong whiff of reality. Hollywood's idea of a loser is Ethan Hawke with chin whiskers. But Hoffman's not a rebel loser, he's a loser loser, the guy at the next table who keeps trying to tell you about his operation. In "Next Stop, Wonderland" (on-screen: 4 minutes), he was every pinko I ever mercy-dated who then turned around and told me how middle-class white girls like me were ruining the planet.

A clutch of new movies threatens to smooth his edges. Hoffman makes the leap from below the title to above in three big films this holiday season: as the drag queen next-door to Robert DeNiro in Joel Schumacher's "Flawless"; as the expat Freddie in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," the latest effort from "English Patient" taste-monger Anthony Minghella; and as the male nurse, Phil, in "Magnolia," a new film from "Boogie Nights" director Paul Thomas Anderson. Next year, he'll schlump his way into the romantic lead in David Mamet's "State and Main." Will Hoffman's acidic realism be denatured into something more palatable?

I've got a funny feeling I'm about to be cheated, like every kid whose favorite top-secret alternative band gets snapped up by a major label. All of a sudden you're no longer an insider. You're one of many.

I want to kiss my movie stars, kiss them so hard I meld with them and become them. That's why they exist. Its also why Hoffman is so vexing: He's a riveting star, but for God's sake keep those lips off me. And I don't think I'm alone here. If any other up-and-coming actor had three major films coming out in a single season, he'd be Gretchen Mol-ing all over the cover of Vanity Fair. But it's impossible to imagine a fawning Bob Colacello feature on Hoffman driving around L.A. darkly smoking cigars, or an InStyle spread on Hoffman's velvet sofa'd Greenwich Village bachelor pad. What would Hoffman coyly divulge? How he uses Crisco to paste his bangs across his forehead? Where he buys his sixers of Pabst? Hoffman isn't someone we want to be. He's someone we want to be better than.

Next page | The ultimate butt boy