TTT – Johnny Depp Movies

Greetings, Glancers! Ladies keep your pants on as today we look at my favourite 10 Johnny Depp movies. I’ve been a big Depp fan since as long as I can remember. I’m not sure what the first movie of his I saw was, but I’m farily positive it is something from this list. Depp has been a megastar since the early 90s and a star long before then, and he was my personal pick for that wonderful hetero-male schoolyard question – ‘if you had to shag one man, who would it be’. Kids these days.

Johnny Depp is known (increasingly so in recent years) for picking offbeat characters to portray, usually those on the fringes of society, or quirky, or with romantic burdens. These are the roles which he seems to enjoy, but he has also featured as more serious, straight types – most performances though he gives himself entirely over and even though you know it’s Johnny Depp you can feel the character rather than the actor. Below are my top ten Johnny Depp films – a mixture of performances that I think are his best while also thinking of my enjoyment of the whole film, with a greater focus on the performance. This top ten is actually fairly interchangeable – Number 1 is the only 1 that remains fixed, while the others are all essentially the same ranking, and quite a few other films not included are roughly similar in quality in my eyes.

10. A Nightmare On Elm Street

Depp’s first major appearance was in my favourite horror movie of all time. A Nightmare On Elm Street sees the young star playing a typical teen boyfriend and his role doesn’t go much further than the tropes and expectations of the genre. This is Nancy’s and Freddy’s movie, but everyone remember’s Depp for his failure to stay awake and his gloriously bloody demise. He doesn’t quite have the look yet, or the star power, but the film is so good and he is an integral part, so it has to make my top ten.

9. The Libertine

Has anyone even seen this movie? I feel like nobody has because nobody ever talks about it. Sure, it isn’t the best movie in the world, and is probably in the lower half of Depp’s filmography if we’re talking about good movies, but Depp’s performance is excellent – dirty, horrific, and with the venomous charm of a street addict looking for a final fix. Depp stars as the Earl Of Rochester, The Libertine of the title, a notorious pleasure seeker and dandy. As the film progresses, the hedonism comes back to bite the character in the body, if not the soul, and he begins to wither to an emaciated husk. Even as he falls to bodily corruption, he flies his singular flag, acting like a 17th Century punk hero who burned brightly for a few moments, then was snuffed out – except here he portrays the character as mostly unlikable and dastardly. It’s one of his bravest, most visceral performances.

8. Donnie Brasco

I’ve spoken about this movie before, covering it in my favourite Al Pacino performances. Depp and Pacino work well together, and while Pacino’s weary, fading performance grabs the eye, it is Depp who goes through the changes – the loving cop husband seduced by the darkside. People never gave Depp’s ‘serious’ performances the credit they deserved at the time, and now moan about how every film now is some bizarro freakshow. You can’t have it both ways! Or more accurately where Depp is concerned – of course you can. Depp can play any sort of role, and here it is one of his finest straight shots. He gets to play a normal human, flawed and wretched like the rest of us, but without the need for grandiosity or make-up, and with all of that stripped away he still knocks it out of the park.

7. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl

As everyone knows, the sequels drastically went downhill while becoming increasingly convoluted, but the original Pirates Of The Caribbean Movie is as perfect a popcorn movie you’re ever likely to see. A fun adventure filled with larger than life scoundrels, daring escapades, laughs, romances, and good performances all around. Depp steals the show entirely in what may now be regarded his most famous role. Jack Sparrow is more of a Pirate to the public conscience now that Blackbeard or Long John Silver or Old No-Eyed Skip Stumpy Stump. His maniacal performance deservedly got an Oscar nomination, probably should have got the win, and is brimmed with swaggering confidence and anxious ticks.

6. Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

After some time away from bestie Tim Burton, Depp joined forces with his sullen goth pal once more to bring this musical to stinking life. I was genuinely shocked at how dark and depressing the film actually was, and that was after me already knowing the story since childhood. It’s one of the few instances where I felt kind of shaken leaving the Cinema, and that is as much down to Depp as it is the denouement and the gorgeous look and feel of the thing. Depp channels and then exorcises his Ichabod Crane and merges it with some malevolent, swamp monstrosity. The Demon in the title is key – this is a man, and a performance, possessed by something unspoken and arch, a foul parasite that destroys whatever it comes into contact with – and yet you still somehow manage to feel sorry for him.

5. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas

Going full Depp, is that a thing? It is now. Yes, Depp goes full Depp in Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, chewing the scenery as much as his own face, and making merry with Del Toro and go as they ravage Vegas to pieces in their quest for half-assed gonzo reporting and the finest highs the world can offer. It’s well documented that Depp and Hunter S Thompson were pals, and Depp takes his look, mannerisms, and speech, mangles them in a stoned haze, and tosses them through the looking glass to craft another colourful character and performance that can never be forgotten once seen.

4. Benny And Joon

This was pretty much ignored at release and beyond, except for a few years after the turn of the century when everyone remembered it existed. Since then it has vanished from people’s minds once more. Or so it seems to me. It’s a gentle comedy, a quiet romance, and features Depp being just off centre enough to still be adorable but not off-putting. The film is never laugh out loud funny, or heartbreaking, or anything extreme – it is light and airy, without becoming preachy or sentimental. It’s simply a sweet story, with Depp showing us a different side to what he was known to at the time, recalling the physical comedians of the past.

3. What’s Eating Gilbert Grape

It’s Johnny at his most hearthrobby, whatever that means. DiCaprio rightly gets the plaudits for his performance, but Depp, Lewis,and all the rest all give it a damn good go to complete a touching portrayal of daily struggles. Depp is able to carry a lot of the film as the ostensible lead, and he doesn’t have the suit of armour or make-up to hide behind as in his previous hit. There is nothing inherently quirky about his character, name aside, but it is the situation he finds himself in which borders on the unusual. Depp is a strange mixture of passive, accepting, and keen – willing to be the father figure and brother, yet accepting of his lot even as he hopes for more.

2. Ed Wood

Depp’s other film of 1993 allowed him to unleash his more madcap and exuberant side as he plays the title character in the cult biography. Teaming up with Burton after their earlier success, Ed Wood was a much smaller movie and for many years remained that Tim Burton or Johnny Depp movie that no-one had seen. Even with the critical acclaim which was given to the film and its stars, it was a commercial failure which has luckily found a cult audience in the years since. What is key to the success of the film is that it does not outright mock or laud its titular figure – it simply presents a captivating story of people with a dream and a will – people who will never succeed, people who have already succeeded but been spat out, and people who remain enamored by an industry that doesn’t care about them. Depp’s Wood is stellar, ably backed by a terrific Martin Landau – another instance of the supporting performer getting the plaudits over Depp when both performers deserve all the praise. Depp’s character is child-like in both enthusiasm and despair, a most human Peter Pan, and is just out of place and time enough to be noticeable – he is someone for the powerful to swat away and the needy to cuddle and protect.

1. Edward Scissorhands

Once again my Number 1 should not surprise anyone – Edward Scissorhands is in my mind a flawless film and one of my all time favourites. The only criticism I have ever been able to lay at its feet is that it just isn’t long enough. This is a star-making performance by Depp, creating an emphatic 90s outsider and anti-hero, and showcasing his ability as a physically expressive actor and someone who is able to play the audience for laughs and tears in equal measure. Much of the credit of the film goes of course to Burton – the ideas of isolation, the frivolous horrors of suburban America, and the bizarre realities and feelings of the outcast are his – but all of these are portrayed through the script, the colours, and the performances, with Depp at his best as Edward.

Ten great films and ten great performances – 10 films every film fan should see. I think seven of these performances are worthy of Oscar nominations/wins, so once I get to the 90s in my Oscars rundown, you’ll see most of these popping up. Let us know in the comments what your favourite Johnny Depp films and performances are!

Top Ten Tuesdays – Al Pacino

  Greetings, Glancers! It’s Tuesday again, and that means it’s time to publish another Top Ten list. Today we look at one of the best actors of all time, one whose performances and films are always ranked right at the top of any critic’s lists – Al Pacino. I can’t remember what the first Pacino film I ever saw was, but I believe I came to start watching his movies quite late – at some point in my early teens. The first films I guess I would have seen him in would have been Dick Tracy or Scent Of A Woman – neither of which are featured in my list. The ten films I’ve selected will be fairly generic in that I imagine most other people would pick almost a similar list. That’s not to say of course that he has only had ten stand out performances – there’s quite a few other films, both from his 1970s peak, and more recently that could have made the cut. Lets do this.

10. The Devil’s Advocate

Pacino is known for being… passionate.. in his performances, with sudden, fierce outbursts of emotion a release of untapped aggression. In The Devils Advocate he gives one of his most bravado, shouting, performances, usurping the smooth Gordon Gecko and creating an unholy union of Patrick Bateman, Rupert Murdoch, Holland Manners, and The Devil Itself. The film is an interesting mix of religious scares, post modern paranoia, and one percenter ambition and revelry, but Pacino steals the show and looks like he’s having impish fun throughout.

9. Serpico

Riding high on the success of The Godfather, Pacino set his sights on a more heroic figure, that of NY Cop Frank Serpico, who wants to avoid being pulled into Police corruption and expose the many cops and officials who are abusing their powers. What could have just been another drama about dirty cops becomes one of the most impactful and hopeful versions of the trope, and Pacino creates his second iconic character. Along with Scarecrow and Needle Park, Pacino had already proven with his opening handful of films that he was a force to be reckoned with, bringing a vulnerability, power, and wild array of talents to the table.

8. Glengarry Glen Ross

As good a satire on the pointlessness of working for a living as Office Space, this one features a powerhouse cast delivering quotable dialogue and memorable performances – Pacino, Lemmon, Baldwin, Spacey. Taking all of the wit and cynicism from Mamet’s great lines, each cast member seems to enjoy chomping on each word with ferocity, Pacino delivering monologues and devising underhanded schemes with relish.

7. Carlito’s Way

I’ve always seen this one, perhaps unfairly, as a mishmash of a few of Pacino’s more successful films. It has the temperate flavor of earlier gangster hits and the cool of his more noirish 90s thrillers, but it does have a life of its own with De Palma creating his trademark dread, and with Penn and Leguizamo backing up a brilliantly tired, reluctant Pacino. It’s a more thrilling tale than most mainstream gangster dramas, with less of an artistic nuance but who needs that when you have violence, action and plenty of one-liners?

6. Heat

Michael Mann’s best film pairs (finally) Pacino with De Niro as the pair embark in a game of cops and robbers. We only see the two greats together for a couple of scenes, but both scenes are vital and electric. Brilliantly though, Mann packs the rest of the cast with some of the best actors of their generation, producing possibly the finest cast of the decade – with Voight, Kilmer, Judd, Portman, Sizemore, Noonan, Azaria and many many others each leaving an impact. Mann completely masters the film, giving each character space to breathe and we get a true sense of each person’s life – their desperation and fears. We don’t even notice that the story is a fairly unoriginal piece with Pacino’s world-weary cop trying to track down De Niro’s ‘one-final heist’ criminal. Beautifully shot and littered with iconic moments from the opening shoot-out to the diner scene, Heat is a ‘modern’ classic.

5. Donnie Brasco.

Continuing the world-weary themes, Pacino again delivers a performance where we feel a jug full of sympathy for him. This time he is paired with undercover Johnny Depp. While Pacino wants out of the criminal life, Depp becomes more embroiled in its seductive ways blurring the line cleverly between good guy, bad guy, and circumstance. Much of the film shows Pacino’s Lefty introducing Depp’s Brasco to the mafia, its rules, its key players, and eventually its crimes – it is in these scenes that we can’t fail but fall a little for Pacino – a man who kept just missing his chance at the big time, only to be pushed around by younger thugs. Depp is also very good in one of the increasingly smaller straight roles of his career, and like Heat we get more than glimpses into the home life of each character, meaning the neatly wrapped-up ending has a double ache for the viewer.

4. The Godfather

The one that started it all. An epic in every sense of the word, I can’t say much more about this classic so I’ll just say that it contains some of the finest performances you’d ever hope to see, and prime among them is Pacino’s as Michael Corleone. We witness him change from a humble war hero who has sought to distance himself from the family business, his romantic tendencies, his growing anger at attacks on his family, and his eventual first kill in the name of vengeance. From there it is a dark descent into becoming what he never wanted to be, closing out the outside world in the interest of maintaining the family, and wiping out anyone who dares interfere. Once we see the struggle within during the cop assassination scene, and once he watches Apollonia’s murder he gives one of the cruelest, coldest, commanding performances ever.

3. The Godfather II

I can’t say whether the sequel is the stronger film – they are both exquisite. Pacino is once again superb, now an established household name, and a much more ruthless figure than in Part One, though balanced with his attempts at being a father and husband. The film juxtaposes the breakdown of the Corleone family and Business with its inception decades earlier – De Niro playing a younger Vito, and Pacino struggling to maintain both facets of his life. It’s an incredibly intricate, tragic, violent tale with no winners.

2. Dog Day Afternoon

While much of The Godfather trilogy sees Pacino in a relatively restrained fashion, Dog Day Afternoon allows him to give masterclass in energy, with the actor frantic, visceral, and always veering between total breakdown and the convincing sting of a politician. Ably backed-up by the always flawless John Cazale, Pacino is like a tornado, twirling and blasting his way through the bank, making all the wrong decisions, stirring up a media frenzy and getting the public on his side even as he holds numerous hostages at gunpoint. As the film progresses we are forced to sympathize or empathize with him, and more and more excellent side performances are given. By the time the tragic ending passes by, we are breathless and in awe.

1. Scarface

The film which fully let Pacino off the reins; one of the most ludicrous, audacious, and entirely brilliant performances in movie history. Inexplicably despised upon release by most critics, the film is now rightly viewed as a classic, one which doesn’t shy away from the extreme violence and debauchery which is prevalent in the drug running business. Pacino again gives a wonderful portrayal of a man changing over time – from his early almost harmless ambition, to his violent, ruthless, power-hungry newcomer, and finally to his cocaine soaked, invincibility cloak wielding boss. Filled with memorable, quotable dialogue and timeless moments, Scarface is one that I’ll continue to watch and love till I’m facedown in a pool riddled with bullet-holes.

Let us know in the comments section what your favourite Al Pacino performances and/or films are!

Donnie Brasco

Donnie Brasco

At times more like Heat in style rather than Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco is a mix of many gangster films that have gone before, drawing parallels between mob life, and the real family life of each character, and showing the blurring of boundaries which can often occur. The style, the dialogue, the wit, the violence, everything we would expect to see is here, but there are enough good moments to keep the movie unique, and there are some good performances from typically very good actors. The film does not dwell on the scenes of murder, but rather focuses on characterisation, and the relationship between Donnie Brasco, the undercover agent who succumbs to the mafia way, and Lefty, an aging mobster who, in spite of his dedication and respected work has little to show for it, and never seems to rise through the ranks.

Johnny Depp plays Joe, an FBI agent, married with kids. He goes undercover as Donnie Brasco, an orphan from Florida to try and infiltrate the New York mafia. When Lefty, a member of the mob takes interest in him, Donnie becomes part of the gang. Lefty teaches him everything and acts like a father, and they become close as Donnie sees how Lefty wishes he could get away with his family, and hates the fact that he is always ‘passed over’. Madsen plays Sonny Black, a member who is rising ahead of Lefty even though he is younger and has done less. They move to Florida as Black tries to set up on his own, but the FBI raid his new club. They believe there is a rat, and kill one of their own thinking it was him. Lefty and Donnie know he was not a rat though. Black decides to kill Sonny Red and the other bosses so that he can have New York, and by this time Donnie is respected in the group and may one day become a ‘made man’. His family have been deserted, and the FBI do not know what he is doing. Brasco says he is trying to get Lefty out of the group before he is killed, as when Brasco is uncovered, Lefty will undoubtedly die. Brasco is becoming just like the men he was supposed to be putting away, and getting deeper into trouble with each day.

Overall it is the acting which keeps the film running at a steady, watchable pace. Depp is very good as Brasco, convincing in his dual roles and in his portrayal of how easy it can be to be seduced by power. Pacino is on familiar territory, and again is intense and thoughtful when he needs to be, giving another strong performance. Madsen is also good as the short-fused Sonny Black, and everyone else does what they have to do. The script is nothing we haven’t seen before, and although it sometimes seems like it is trying to too easily explain the ways and words of the mob, it still has a few refreshing moments. The life seems less glitzy than in other gangster films, and there are few shows of extravagance. These men seem to be low on the ladder, and not as good at what they do as other characters from other movies. We are left feeling great sympathy towards Lefty, even though he has been in the game for so long, he seems naive and in need of a real son or someone to connect with. He never gets a break, and is always the man given the smaller jobs. He has been in the business for so long that he knows little else though, and we sense from the start that he will never get away. Even though Joe completes his job, he knows blood will be forever on his hands and after having a taste of the high life, it will be difficult for him to return to normality.

The DVD has a short making of and trailer. The skant extras should not sway you from picking up this great film.

As always, feel free to leave any comments on the movie- how does this rank against the other Mafia/mob movies? Would you like to see Depp take on more ‘serious’ roles like he does here?