Jeff Daniels: Five Films for Newcomers
Today is the birthday of the great Jeff Daniels: a once-underrated star who has seemingly gotten his dues in recent years. Thank goodness for that. In all honesty, Daniels is a highly talented performer that is capable of taking on the most dramatic parts, only to leap towards even the silliest roles (Dumb and Dumber comes to mind, which, spoiler alert, won’t be on this list despite its hilarity). Picking his greatest works is tough enough, but trying to pin point five works that showcase the breadth of his capabilities at various points in his career is even harder. Nonetheless, if you know nothing about Jeff Daniels, or want to learn more about him (perhaps if you only know him for his television work, or the occasional supporting role in recent memory), then this is hopefully a good place to start. Here are five films for newcomers of the performances of Jeff Daniels.
5. Terms of Endearment
Daniels plays a husband-to-be who evolves into the arguable antagonist of this years-gone-by dramedy. We fall in love with Flap, because we are shown his good side early on. As he ages and starts to follow his own selfish desires, the film turns on him much like we do. A great actor like Daniels is capable of rendering Flap forgivable, especially towards the end of Terms of Endearment, since we understand him more as a flawed human being than a two dimensional character in a film.
4. Good Night, and Good Luck
A very small part as CBS News director Sig Mickelson, Daniels showcases early signs of the next wave of his career in this performance which bookends George Clooney’s directorial masterwork. There are few lines, but they are delivered impeccably; plus Daniels clearly can toss around career and political lingo with oomph. It’s no wonder that he was the right man for the job when it came to television’s The Newsroom, and similarly meaty roles (Steve Jobs and The Martian come to mind).
3. Pleasantville
What a film like Pleasantville needed was a satirical take on the yesteryears of America without being too smarmy. Luckily, Daniels knows how to be charming enough to pull off his subtle jabs at the overly sincere people of the world. As a soda fountain operator who has a new lease on life (falling in love with art and a woman), Daniels is corny enough to make a statement on the earlier days of television (and the Old Hollywood era), but magnetic enough to keep you invested the entire time.
2. The Squid and the Whale
In Noah Baumbach’s first considerable opus The Squid and the Whale, Daniels plays the father in a dissolving marriage, who is stuck up and miserable enough to be pitiful. However, Daniels brings a bit of an intriguing mystery to this writer character named Bernard, despite the self pitying that goes on throughout the film. Maybe it’s meant to show that there was something that ex-wife Joan saw in him, and what Lili currently sees in him. Either way, Bernard could have been completely unlikeable, and yet we fight to see what sincerity Daniels is hiding underneath a disinterested, pessimistic exterior.
1. The Purple Rose of Cairo
For me, no performance of Daniels’ will ever come close to this dual job found in Woody Allen’s underrated gem The Purple Rose of Cairo. On screen, Daniels is character Tom Baxter, who falls in love with a repetitive viewer of his film (Cecelia). Thus, he leaves his film and renders his narrative incomplete, so he can join the real world and be with his one true love (oddly enough, this isn’t the only film of Daniels’ where his black-and-white world turns into one full of colour: see Pleasantville). Daniels also plays actor Gil Shepherd, who is responsible for portraying Baxter on screen. Shepherd is snobbish and arrogant. Baxter is buffoonish, naive, and sincere, with his heart on his sleeve; in all honesty, Daniels’ Baxter is one of the funniest characters in film for me. Seeing Daniels take on both halves — at the same time in some instances — was an early indication of just how brilliant of an actor he is. It’s easily the best starting point if you want to see him at his greatest.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.