Take Three: Season 1 Wrap

Craig here with a quick pre-Xmas wrap-up of season #1 of Take Three. If you have a very short memory, that'd be the Sunday Film Experience series which looked at three notable performances from a supporting or character actor's work. The Big Cs: Considine, Cartwright, CheadleLast week’s actor Paddy Considine was the last Take Three for a spell (it's seasonal shenanigans, then everything Oscar

Take Three: Paddy Considine

Craig here with the last in the current series of Take Three. Today: Paddy ConsidineTake One: Dead-end England, twice "Phil" in My Summer...Colin Firth, Daniel Craig, Colin Farrell, Clive Owen. And so on. When I think of an actor who encapsulates exactly what is crucial, surprising and truly versatile about British male acting right now, none of the above quite pass muster, for me. Paddy

Take Three: Emily Watson

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Emily WatsonTake One: Upstairs 0 - Downstairs 1The Academy often doubles up with their supporting ladies – i.e. Weaver and Cusack for Working Girl, Farmiga and Kendrick for Up in the Air, and so on. It was true also for 2001’s Gosford Park's Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. I always thought a third should’ve been added. Watson delivered five-star service and, for

Take Three: Terence Stamp

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Terence StampTerence Stamp photographed by Terence Donovan, 1967Take One: A family of Stamp collectorsAnnounced only as "The Stranger", Stamp waltzed into the home and lives of Teorema’s (Theorem/1968) wealthy Italian family like a bolt from the blue: in turn he sexed them all up good and proper, irrespective of gender, or even order, then left them reeling

Take Three: Melissa George

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Melissa George Take One: This is the GirlShe was indeed the girl. But which girl? Camilla Rhodes? Just another nameless blond wannabe actress lip-syncing for her life? A slinky id to further lead Betty down Hollywood’s hellish rabbit hole - or take Diane for a five-dollar fool? She embodied what Betty/Diane always wanted; she represented what killed Betty/

Take Three: Harry Dean Stanton

Craig here with this week's Take Three. Today: Harry Dean StantonTake One: One of the Lynch mobStanton has been on regular staff rotation for four David Lynch flicks. (Four-and-a-half, if you include TV oddity Hotel Room.) From 1990 to 2006 Stanton provided characteristic screen goodness for a quartet of Lynch's most enduring works. Chronologically he’s contributed to: Wild at Heart (1990),

Take Three: Kim Basinger

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Kim BasingerBay•sing•erI think it’s time again to give Kim Basinger (remember, it's Bay-singer, not Bah-sinjahr, folks) some major credit. The lady's due. She’s gone from supporting eighties female through a love-hate (but Oscar-nabbing) nineties to her current career bloom as a character actress of some depth. Ms Basinger has always quietly impressed me.

Take Three: David Warner

Craig here with Take Three.Today: David WarnerHeads, brains and faces, skewed or distorted, are the prominent concerns with today’s Take Three supporting actor David Warner: the lopping off, the removal of, and the obsessively creepy staring, respectively, are what it's all about. In The Omen, From Beyond the Grave and The Man with Two Brains Warner thrilled us in a delightful and devious manner.

Take Three: Anna Faris

Craig here with Take Three. Today: Anna FarisTake One: Even cowgirls get the bluesI’m always up for a spot of Brokeback love. I know there's been plenty of attention around these parts in the past but let’s divert the love that-a-way. Let’s ride sidesaddle and gallop slightly away from Jake ‘n’ Heath. And Michelle 'n' Anne. And Ang. Hey, look, it’s Anna Faris as Lashawn Malone in Brokeback

Take Three: Deborah Kara Unger

Craig with this week's Take Three Today: Deborah Kara UngerTake One: (Fear) X marks the...Game ‘A lone man searching for answers to a troubling mystery – assisted by a mysterious and wilfully tricksy woman – whilst on the run from a seemingly shadowy organisation’. This could well describe, in loose terms, the basic plot of two higher profile Unger films: The Game (1997) and, to a lesser

Take Three: Laurence Fishburne

Craig here with Take ThreeToday: Laurence FishburneTake One: Security vans and alien landsIt’s a cheeky sidestep this week. More of a Take Six – although still in three bite-size chunks. For starters, there’s two roles in a couple of nifty, no-fuss genre hits that he contributed supporting turns to recently: Armored (2009) and Predators (2010), both directed by Nimród Antal. In the former he

Take Three: Paul Schneider

Craig here with this week's Take Three.Today: Paul SchneiderTake One: Shining bright in the backgroundSchneider is the epitome of faded rakishness as Charles Armitage Brown, the somewhat disarmingly oily, though tender, poet pal and occasional gooseberry orbiting around both Ben Whishaw’s Keats and Abbie Cornish’s Fanny in Jane Campion's excellent Bright Star (2009). He is the film's third,

Take Three: Amanda Plummer

Craig back with a new Take Three. Today: Amanda Plummer Amanda Plummer photograph from Jeannick Gravelines PhotographeTake One: No film without herThere are certain characters who, when they appear on screen and begin adding their particular slant, I know I'll want to see more of. Sometimes the filmmakers oblige with this. Sometimes they don't. Personally, I'm thinking Radha Mitchell in

Take Three: Steve Buscemi

Craig here with Take Three. Today, one of cinema's the most recognisable, ubiquitous and hard-working character actors: Steve Buscemi Steve Buscemi (seen here in Sally Potter's Rage)Take One: Every dog has his dayBuscemi was the one who gave Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue much of its snap and vigour in Reservoir Dogs (1992). It’s not so much the opening Madonna chatter I recall first, rather Mr