John Cusack makes charm feel slightly unreliable, which is why his vulnerable outsiders hold our attention. We also value his work as a comic straight man, though some of the later commercial choices give us less to enjoy.
Fi1m perspective
John Cusack's David Shayne in Bullets Over Broadway (1994) is an idealistic playwright in a comedy with little patience for artistic vanity. Cusack gives the ensemble a useful straight man: someone whose seriousness allows the absurdity around him to register. We rate him most when charm has some anxiety behind it, or when he lets other performers supply the bigger comic effects. He need not be the funniest person present to make a comedy work.
The early leads in The Sure Thing (1985) and Say Anything... (1989) established him as a leading man; The Grifters (1990) made that appeal more complicated. As con man Roy Dillon, alongside Anjelica Huston and Annette Bening, he could put charm and vulnerability into the same part. The move into adult roles suited an actor who could make an apparently approachable man seem less reassuring the longer we watched. That uncertainty gives us more to consider than the familiar description of him as an everyman.
His interest in unconventional material has sometimes extended beyond acting. He co-wrote and developed Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), as well as starring in it, while Being John Malkovich (1999) put him in surreal territory as Craig Schwartz. Neither choice suggests someone content to keep repeating his early leading-man appeal. These are useful titles to explore beyond the youthful roles, though our clearest recommendation comes from his work in an ensemble.
Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway makes particularly good use of his ability to support a comedy without dominating it. Dianne Wiest and Chazz Palminteri supply much of the bite, with Cusack providing a serious-minded contrast as the playwright. We laughed at the film's treatment of artistic vanity because David's idealism gives its unkindness a recognisable target. The staging can be stiff and the theatrical clichés remain, but his anchoring performance helps the comedy hold together.
Some later commercial choices are less distinctive, and they are not where we would start. We want him in parts that give his charm something awkward to contend with, rather than merely relying on it. Try Bullets Over Broadway if a few theatrical clichés will not spoil the evening.
Biography
John Cusack is an American actor. Born on 28 June 1966 in Evanston, Illinois, he is the son of filmmaker Dick Cusack and the brother of actors Joan, Ann and Bill Cusack.
He began acting in films in the 1980s, appearing in coming-of-age comedies such as Sixteen Candles (1984), Better Off Dead (1985) and Stand by Me (1986). He took leading roles in independent films including The Grifters (1990) as Roy Dillon and Bullets Over Broadway (1994) as David Shayne.
Cusack has worked across genres in films such as Being John Malkovich (1999), High Fidelity (2000) and Con Air (1997). He received a Golden Globe nomination for High Fidelity and was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.
