Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
I think this prize is more shortsighted, more insensitive, and more appalling than any Oscars snub.
To put it bluntly, the Razzies are dead to me.
This should have been the happiest professional year of Reillys life.
It was certainly an artistic peak.
Reilly took the second lead, the older brother, Eli, of Joaquin Phoenixs spasmodically violent Charlie.
Theres usually one visionary, he said, and one who follows along.
He thought his mission as an actor was to explore the psyches of the followers, the also-rans.
Such as Oliver Hardy.
Line for line, beat for beat, scene for scene, its an exquisite piece of acting.
Under layers of flab, Reilly seems naked.
Reilly conveys that helplessness, but the performance transcends self-pity.
His Hardy comes alive as he and Coogan reenact the duos old stage routines.
The years and the weight fall away.
His Hardy is buoyant beyond reason, beyond reality.
The performance is a testament to the joy of clowning.
That Reilly voiced the title character in the Oscar-nominated smashRalph Breaks the Internetwent largely unremarked upon.
Im on record as saying that the film isvery, very bad:
Holmes & Watson… is camp.
Worse: rhythmless camp.
As a director, Coen commits comedys most cardinal sin: He gets between us and the performers.
The fix, in any case, was in.
Dont go in expectingStep Brothers, he said.
The movie might have worked.
Cruise helped makeThe Mummythe atrocity that it was, reshaping and editing the project to suit his whims.
That said, he was phenomenal the same year in the under-seenAmerican Made, using his megalomania for good.
Setting aside his connection to Scientology, hes not such a villain.
Most of Hollywoods villains are behind the camera, safe from the Razzies mockery.
I wish Razzie voters were confident enough to go after movies that some people love.
Let me say with some urgency: SeeThe Sisters Brothers.
Hes one of the treasures of American movies and the best reason I know to razz the razzers.
