Monday 9 September 2013

I'm not using this blog anymore!

All the content from here, plus newer That One Guys and other fascinating content is now to be found at
http://thatoneguywhowasinthatotherthing.tumblr.com/
<3 <3 <3

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Nicky Katt.

b. May 11th, 1970

Nicky Katt! His official website claims that he is "a kohl-eyed actor who has oozed a steady stream of low-key testosterone through a series of films..." Gross!
Nicky Katt! A career of playing police officers, SWAT officers, detectives, businessmen, bullies, thugs and other manly roles! Including Hitler, in Full Frontal! And also an "ill fated, racist child rapist, in A Time To Kill", according to wikipedia, which is a film I'm pretty sure I've seen but don't remember anything about!
Nicky Katt! I first noticed your angry shirtless antics in Dazed and Confused, where you beat up Adam Goldberg! And then in SubUrbia where you wore a sexy muscle t-shirt and were really mean to Giovanni Ribisi! And then in Insomnia, where you told that "What has two thumbs and likes blowjobs? THIS guy" joke, and I had never heard it before and thought it was so meatheadedly stupid that I laughed more than the joke warranted! And then in The Burbs, where you are only a child but were even then playing hulking bullies!
Nicky Katt! Internet fans who love you say that you ride around LA on a Harley in a WW2 helmet! They also miss seeing you in more film roles, writing things on Myspace like "We all carry around baggage and wounds and weaknesses, but you know what, we keep going. We don't give up. Even if it means we can only be a day player, we do it." You are so manly your website is illustrated with bald eagles! Nicky Katt! You are pretty great.

Monday 21 January 2013

Raven Goodwin.

b. June 24th, 1992

Raven Goodwin was such a lovely child actor - well, lovely is perhaps the wrong word, because she often played children who were prickly or had difficult problems to deal with, or both. She did this most impressively in Lovely and Amazing, playing Brenda Blethyn's daughter. It's a really good film, if you want an evening dealing with some pretty stressful characters and situations (Goodwin is a ten-year-old who likes to pretend she's drowned when at the pool. And that's sorta one of the lighter aspects.)

Actually, a lot of Goodwin's most memorable roles involve lending a serious emotional centre to the films and TV shows she appears in. ABC's  Huge, for my money one of the best teen shows since Freaks and Geeks, is this great series which takes place in a fat camp. Goodwin plays the shy, thoughtful moral conscience of the show, (in contrast with Nikki Blonsky's impulsive whirlwind of a lead). The episode where she organises a camp-wide LARP is a particular highlight. It's a sin and a shame this only lasted one season.

Goodwin's adorable role as a "perky little teen" in an episode of 30 Rock, and her regular appearances on TV shows like the Disney channel's Good Luck Charlie, which seem to be the bread and butter of her career, show that she's a great comedic actress too, even in indifferent material. Her list of roles is depressingly small though. Is it because she's big? Because she's a woman of colour? Because she's doing other things than acting? I hope it's the last one, because she's too good to not be in more.