Every week at SiftPop.com, we challenge our writers to come up with their favorite answer to a movie-related prompt tied to a recent release. This week, with the release of Twisters, since its predecessor costarred the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, we’re discussing some of our favorite Hoffman performances! Let us know your favorites @SiftPop!
I’m a quotes guy. Some of my favorite movie moments of all time are when I hear a quote that resonates with me emotionally. In Almost Famous, that quote is, “The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with other people when you’re uncool.” Philip Seymour Hoffman delivers this line with such pathos, because he knows how lonely of a job being a journalist can be. As Hoffman’s Lester mentors William (Patrick Fugit) about what to do for his article about Stillwater, this quote helps put into perspective what we all long for: to share our experiences and gifts with the world. I use this quote anytime I leave a job as a way to say thank you to people around me. In the hands of another performer, it would have come out as cliché. However, Seymour knows when to restrain himself and deliver a line with subtlety and passion. It’s moments like this that make me miss Hoffman, who was taken from us far too soon. (Mike Hilty)
It really seemed like Philip Seymour Hoffman enjoyed being a goofball in movies, didn’t it? Along Came Polly was a great opportunity for such a talented performer, and he decided to put all of that energy into being the slacker and cocky best friend of Ben Stiller’s protagonist. Hoffman goes so hard in this completely silly film. Hoffman was always ready to throw himself around like a human pinball, and could easily ham things up. His character, Sandy, is the most memorable character in this rock-solid comedy. Sandy playing basketball just might be one of the funniest things in modern comedy. He certainly doesn’t “make it rain,” but he will yell it at everyone as he aggressively fails. He’s that friend who will pretend to be you for a big meeting and completely BS his way through it. Hoffman has enough confidence to make that feel genuine yet still hilarious. This man was one of the best actors of his generation, but it is often forgotten that he was funny as well. (Shane Conto)
Sidney Lumet had incredible longevity, making some of the best movies of three different decades. 12 Angry Men, Network, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and morehave all stood the test of time. But the last film Lumet made before he died, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, is quietly one of his best, and that’s thanks in large part due to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance. He plays Andy, the older brother of Ethan Hawke’s Hank, as they plan to rob their parents’ jewelry store to achieve a quick, big payday. Hoffman brings his trademarked intensity to the role, and it’s perfectly balanced with a Hawke performance that’s more along the lines of his work in Training Day than any Richard Linklater movie. So it’s always nice to see a legend like Lumet go out on a high note, and that’s largely thanks to Hoffman. (Robert Bouffard)
By the time Boogie Nights was released, Philip Seymour Hoffman had been around Hollywood for some time. Poached from the Broadway boards to make a name for himself on the West Coast, he had been in quite a few films, but rarely as anything other than a reliable character actor who put in solid work. It wasn’t until Boogie Nights that I first noticed Hoffman, and it wouldn’t be until many years later when I finally began to appreciate how truly superb and versatile he was. As Scotty in Paul Thomas Anderson’s attention-grabbing homage to the porn industry, Hoffman grabs an equal measure of attention playing a shy, nervous, and awkward (but commanding) bit part. He steals a large part of a film where he should be overshadowed by his relatively short screen time and those higher on the call sheet. A scene in which he tries to seduce the star of the film and the films within this film, Dirk Digler (Mark Wahlberg), but fails, lives rent free in my head. Scolding and cursing himself over and over as he breaks into a million pieces because of his ill-timed and mismanaged come-on — it’s equally heartbreaking and dumbfounding, seeing how seemingly easy this scene came to him. How he owns the screen without the advantages of leading man looks or physique. The impression he made on me forced me to delve into his back catalog and keep my eye out for any film he was in. I truly believe Hoffman deserves to be in the Mount Rushmore conversation of male actors. He really was that good, and as a cinephile, I miss him every day. (Adam Ritchie)
“Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” I still remember my first and only watch of Doubt when it came out. I remember it well, because that was the moment I remembered the name Philip Seymour Hoffman moving forward, as he (alongside Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Viola Davis) rules this movie full of ambiguity, truths, half-truths and… doubts. You never know whether his character, Father Flynn, behaved inappropriately, but that seeping level of doubt either way won’t leave you. Doubt is purposefully structured in that it gives you just enough information and never too much either way, so it is up to you to decide where you stand when the credits roll. Ultimately, this movie isn’t about whether he did it or not; it’s about how, no matter what, you can never see that person in a different light. Thematically, it’s similar to a great Danish movie, The Hunt, which touches on the same topic, although, with that movie, you know for certain where we stand. Doubt takes it one step further; it leaves it open for you to ponder and for all the actors involved to flex those acting muscles and give us something memorable. (Luke Burian)
In the filmography of Paul Thomas Anderson, few actors have made a more meaningful contribution than the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Starting with the director’s feature debut, Hard Eight, Hoffman illustrated the unique ability to become almost anyone he wanted in a role; the shy, awkward Scotty in Boogie Nights feels like an entirely different soul than someone like the crass and manipulative mattress man from Punch-Drunk Love, or even the unassuming yet compassionate nurse, Phil Parma, in Magnolia. But all of these performances pale in comparison to his lead performance in Anderson’s The Master as Lancaster Dodd, a mysterious and charismatic leader of a newly formed religion — essentially Anderson’s take on L. Ron Hubbard and his founding of Scientology. Hoffman loses himself completely in this role, to great effect. Working in complete harmony, and sometimes dissonance, opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Freddie Quell, a misguided war veteran who ends up joining Lancaster, both are doing incredible work and truly help each other succeed in their roles. This film is brilliant, and has a lot of interesting things to say, but it wouldn’t work without Hoffman’s stunning performance anchoring the movie and giving everyone else someone to orbit around. (Jacob Kinman)
Although it may not be the most popular opinion, I firmly believe that Mission: Impossible III is one of the best films in the franchise, and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance as international arms dealer, Owen Davian, is excellent. I find that the franchise sometimes struggles to find its footing with its villains, some being formidable foes to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and others being completely forgettable, but Davian is the absolute cream of the crop. In order to ramp up the stakes, Davian stalks Hunt’s personal life and threatens his loved ones, adding more tension to the story than any death-defying stunt ever could. Hoffman gives some killer monologues and his performance is so menacing and intimidating, a far cry from a lot of the goofier roles I had seen him in before this, and Davian is a villain who, in my opinion, the Mission: Impossible series has spent the last 18 years trying to and coming short to match. (Jake Hjort)
Although a lot of the players, and Art Howe himself, disagree with how Howe was portrayed in Moneyball, while he may be a nice, friendly guy in real life, it seems as though the stubbornness with which he was portrayed in the film was accurate. And our guy Philip Seymour Hoffman does a great job of bringing that stubbornness to life. As someone whose two main loves in life are baseball and movies, my BS detector is always on high alert when watching a movie about baseball — I can tell who actually does or doesn’t know what they’re doing or talking about. So that’s even more credit to Hoffman for easily passing the smell test and being a great antagonist to Brad Pitt’s Billy Beane. (Robert Bouffard)
Red Dragon sees Sir Anthony Hopkins return for a third time in the iconic role of Hannibal Lecter, and finishes off his trilogy of Lecter films by circling back the first novel (previously adapted as 1986’s Manhunter). Like in The Silence of the Lambs, he plays advisor to the FBI, this time to Edward Norton as Will Graham, the agent who caught him, while Graham is on the trail of the Tooth Fairy (Ralph Fiennes). It’s a tense thriller heightened by some great performances — including Philip Seymour Hoffman as tabloid reporter, Freddy Lounds. It’s part of a collection of Hoffman performances where he manages to scene steal as an absolute slimeball. Here, he’s a reporter aggressively pursuing lurid details of the case. He’s a character you love to hate, with a closure to his arc that’s memorable, to say the least. (Jake Bourgeois)